With the global economy brings a growth in international trade to emerging markets and the issue of marine insurance takes on a new importance.

Many elements impact availability, cost and scope of marine insurance coverage including the nature of your shipment, its final destination and the political environment of the countries involved.

Here, we will try to touch on some of the highlights of this unique form of coverage and invite you to peruse the on-line Open Marine Cargo Application as an illustration of the type of information a potential insurance company requires in order to provide a quotation. If you have any specific questions or wish to review any portion of the coverage in more depth, please feel free to e-mail us!

Q. Under the basic principles of Marine Insurance, what perils are covered? What perils are excluded?
A. The perils covered and excluded depend on which type of policy wording you have. There are three basic forms of coverage known as Institute Clauses A, B and C.

Q. Are losses caused by war and strikes covered?
A. Marine cargo policies contain a FC&S (Free of Capture & Seizure) clause, which excludes war risks and strikes, riots and civil commotion's and similar risks.

Q. Are duties on lost or damaged goods covered?
A. Duties are levied at point of entry, therefore no duty will be payable if goods are lost prior to arrival. Damaged goods, however, are still subject to duty.

Q. What are the responsibilities of the buyer and seller with respect to insurance?
A. Only the owner of the goods can insure them, an agent can be appointed to deal with this on the owner's behalf. Any other party, which might include a potential owner, may arrange insurance, but at the time of an incident they must be able to establish legal insurable interest.

Q. What is "General Average"
A. General Average is separate from the insurance. It is a system of claims settlement, founded on the principle of 'fairness to all', addressing ocean marine losses voluntarily for the safety of the entire venture, ship, freight and cargo.

What this means is that, during the voyage, the property of one party may be sacrificed to save the rest. For example, a container on the vessels deck might have to be dumped overboard to stabilize the ship. Following such a sacrifice, when the ship safely reaches port, the fortunate party whose cargo was untouched should contribute to the loss of the party whose property was sacrificed. The contribution is levied on arrived values of the ship, cargo and freight.

Statistics show, and you know how us insurance types love statistics, that 83% of all cargo losses are preventable. A carefully implemented loss prevention strategy reduces the time and expense of tracing, locating and making adjustments on lost, damaged or stolen merchandise.

With the onset of digital cameras, scanning capabilities and e-mail, the crucial Risk Management step of proper recording of items shipped is very easy to perform. It helps to eliminate much of the negotiation and speculation following a loss thus making the claims process much more smooth!

If you have any questions about your business insurance, please feel free to email us;
John, Dick or Carol.