If you’ve read our previous article on business insurance according to AAMI, GIO or Vero, you may have noticed that AAMI includes “Theft” cover whereas GIO includes “Burglary”. In short, the title itself refers to the same type of cover – insurance if your property is stolen or damaged as a result of burglary or theft. No doubt if you are considering getting a business insurance quote from either company however, it would be nice to be able to go to the one spot in order to find out what the differences are.  So here it is!

Ok, so it’s an excerpt but we hope that it will help you line up “apples with apples” and indeed, save you some time – you will still need to check the respective policy documents for definitions (these usually show up as italicised or bold text).

In a nutshell, regardless of the product which you are looking at, there are six main things to look out based on based on the insurers exact wording:

1. What we cover/Your insurance

2. Additional benefits/Extra benefits

3. What we exclude/Exclusions

4. Other conditions/Conditions

5. Optional Insurance

6. Excess

This reflects the general structure of an insurance policy and is generally applied to each specific section on an insurance policy – in this instance theft (or burglary!). Of course, if you’re unsure of which one is better for you, speak to a professional (often free!).

AAMI & GIO Theft & Burglary Comparison

So you’ve decided to go it alone in your search for business insurance. Presumably you meet all the relevant qualifications and if not, are willing to take the chance. Wouldn’t it be nice to know who you’re dealing with?

Did you know that AAMI, GIO, Suncorp and Vero are all insurance companies owned by Suncorp? Did you hear the recent news that Suncorp is moving into a single ‘pricing engine’ across their insurance business? Well then, please, feel free to read on..

As you may know, AAMI, GIO, Suncorp and Vero all provide small business insurance – most notably the Business Insurance Package. A business insurance package consists of several covers such as public liability, fire, machinery breakdown, burglary and business interruption. To be fair, Suncorp itself has now moved all of its business insurance across to the AAMI brand – so this narrows it down to three ‘options’…

It could be argued however, that this may be reduced further as the Vero brand does not deal direct with the public – essentially, you would need to get it through a broker. However, it’s probably not such a bad idea to keep it in!

If you happen to read each of the respective policy wordings detailing the terms and conditions of your insurance, you might notice in amongst the fine print some similarities. Firstly, each policy is structured in the same way:

- the AAMI contents for example includes 16 sections across 108 pages

- the GIO contents page reveals 13 sections across 104 pages

- the Vero contents page shows 15 sections over 112 pages

Of course, just because its written in the policy wording doesn’t mean it applies to you – you should check your policy schedule for specific coverage and limitations that alter the wording.

In fact, when you compare them side by side you will notice that the AAMI and Vero wording structures are identical. This is not surprising given that both brands previously belonged to the Promina Group, which was purchased by Suncorp. Let’s compare the two:

AAMI & Vero Table – Theft

So apart from the obvious $500 limit difference there does not appear to be much of a difference in coverage – although AAMI appears to make a meal of clause 1. Now lets compare that to GIO:

GIO Burglary Table

Ok, so some different terms used but it would appear to mean the same thing to us – check with a professional if you’re unsure. Of course, this article isn’t intended to compare the wordings but simply to point out that you should know who you are dealing with and to consider whether it is worthwhile paying your broker 20%-25% commission for the same product wording.

Let’s take another section and compare AAMI and Vero for example:

AAMI & Vero Glass example

So again, some slight variations but we would suspect that they are intended to cover the same type of risk. Why is the writing in bold? It’s the insurer’s way of saying that there’s even more fine-print, in this case a definition for that word. Of course, your business conditions, risks and financial needs will differ so it may well be that one policy wording will suit you better – if you’re unsure seek a professional or at least try and figure out who it is that your dealing with and ask them what benefits one brand provides over the other.

Perhaps easier said than done – we’re not sure that Suncorp uses the same call centre and staff for each of their brands although you can be sure that soon enough they will be using the same pricing models to determine your premium!

Next up: the IAG brands – CGU, Swann Insurance and NRMA Insurance.

You can get insurance any time of year – sometimes even on weekends, depending on the type of insurance that you are after! Of course, it helps if you know what type of insurance you need.

Assuming that you know what type or types of insurance you need for your business, there’s a handful of ways to get insurance:

1. Through an insurance broker
2. Directly with an insurance company
3. Through a bank
4. Online

For business or ‘commercial’ insurance, getting insurance through a broker is perhaps the most widely used. This is because they can advise you of what type of insurance to get and when to get it, and because its their business to be able to access a wide variety of options. Although, as we have previously reported variety may just come in the form of a different logo or corporate identity. So you should ask your broker to explain clearly what the differences are between different products.

It so happens that by law an insurance broker cannot advise you to purchase an insurance product if it does not cover your needs. In addition, a broker can help ease the burden of dealing directly with a large insurance company if you do have a claim – particularly if the insurance company intends to deny your claim!

Getting insurance directly with an insurance company or through a bank is generally the same process – speak to a ‘sales representative’ in their call centre, let them walk you through the cover and in some instances even get some (relatively) impartial advice. Of course, going direct means that you potentially save the 10% -15% commission that the insurer will pay the broker.

Getting a business insurance quote online is relatively difficult, as insurance companies in Australia simply do not provide many options. In most instances, online quotes are provided by insurance brokers or other distributors acting as agents of the insurance company. For example, Newsagents can be covered through a broker in Queensland who distributes business insurance on his website on behalf of an insurance company. In this instance, the broker still receives commission without the obligatory advice. So in short, a direct online business insurance company does not exist in Australia.

Next: Types of insurance

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