One of the largest bank in the world HSBC, has put up their Vietnam Insurance Unit for Sale. This is expected to fetch the bank US$400 million which is a large sum of money for anyone but peanuts for this Europe largest bank.
The sale was because the bank was trying to exit from non core businesses. Baoviet Holdings, the Vietnam Insurance Unit was 18% owned by HSBC with a market value of US$250 million. But the analysts expect a far higher premium given the market position and advantages of this unit.
Insurance has evolved too much until basically the typical Man in the Street will not know what he is insured for as there are too many types and variations of insurance. Therefore it is very likely that a person may under or over insured himself or buy policies that are of no real benefits to himself. Nowadays insurance are crafted as much as possible in standard English rather than any technical or domain jargon. The insurance agencies had understand this the hard ways when judges ruled against them when they themselves do not understand what they are reading.
Insurance A is not the same as Insurance B and agent A is not the same as agent B. How good the Insurance agent is in his or her job can really determine if you profit from your insurance policy or not. Taking for instance, life insurance, you paid for tens of years and expect that at the end of it, you will be wealthy. This is extremely far away from the fact. In reality, insurance is one of those financial products with the worse financial returns. So, do not just buy an insurance recommended by a friend or relative, do check the fine prints carefully to ensure that you really get what you think you will get.
What is Third Party Insurance? Well the one that is purchasing the insurance, You for example is the First Person. The second Person is the Insurance company and the Third Person is the one seeking for damages. So why do you have third party insurance? For example, if you have a customer coming to your office and accidentally slip and hurt himself or herself seriously? Who is to pay? No one can guarantee that such things do not happen. This is where Third Party Insurance comes in. The Second Party - the Insurance company will pay so that the First Party is insured and secured. Of course the Second Party needs to get something so as to make it worthwhile to protect the first Party and this is known as the Insurance Premium.
For most individuals, they want to live their lives normally. A sudden disruption caused by illness, accidents etc that can result in drastic changes of their lifestyles are normally feared. That is why they are willing to pay a premium to ensure that should such things happen, they can be protected and live as per normal. For insurance companies, what do they get out of insuring you? Well, not all incidents will happen to everyone. They insured a large number of individuals and typically only a small percentage realized their insurance or make use of their insurance. The insurance company can pocket the rest of the premiums as profits.
