A large number of home insurance policy holders are unsure of exactly what they are covered for, a survey has found.
Only 57 per cent were said to be confident they knew exactly what was in their policies, the Newspoll survey found.
“Many people don’t know exactly what they are covered for because they are too busy to read through complicated policies,” Allianz managing director Terry Towell said.
“Yet insurance companies continue to produce lengthy policy statements that are littered with complex wording and jargon. All insurance companies have a responsibility to make it as easy as possible for consumers to understand their policies so they know exactly what they are covered for.”
Allianz recently introduced a life insurance product disclosure statement (PDS) of seven pages, compared with some other life insurers’ PDS’ of up to 70 pages.
“In my experience, at least one-third of people whose claims are denied didn’t realise the particular circumstances of their loss were not covered by their insurance policy,” Towell said.
Conducted nationally in April 2008, the survey asked 1205 policy holders whether they knew what they were covered for under their home contents or building insurance policies.
