Japanese Life Insurance Industry s Response

Transcription

1 2011 HLS Japan-U.S. Symposium Japanese Life Insurance Industry s Response to the Great East Japan Earthquake Shizuharu KUBONO The Life Insurance Association of Japan

2 1. Concept of Our Response to the Disaster At 14: 46 on March 11, a massive M9 earthquake struck the Sanriku Coast and the resulting tsunami caused severe damage along 500 km of the Pacific coast of Tohoku. The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants were also hit by the tsunami, causing a serious release of radioactive materials. In response, the Life Insurance Association of Japan (LIAJ) immediately set up a disaster response headquarters and decided the fundamental policy of taking actions giving utmost consideration to affected people to provide them peace of mind as soon as possible. The whole life insurance industry is now working to recover from the disaster in consideration of the priorities and situation of each policyholder. Fundamental Policy of LIAJ Taking actions giving utmost consideration to affected people to provide them peace of mind as soon as possible Establishment of Disaster Response Headquarter (Normal Situation) Board Meeting Disaster Response General Committees Other Related Committees Other Related Working Teams (Emergency Situation) Board Meeting of Disaster Response Headquarter (Board Meeting +Secretariat) Member Liaison Working Team (Assisting decision-making of the board meeting) 1

3 2. Actions according to each policyholder's situation Immediately after the disaster, affected people needed safety and livelihood support because lifelines were cut and supplies were short. We assumed that many people would be concerned about insurance payouts and many would have difficulties in paying insurance premiums. To provide livelihood support, LIAJ and member companies made monetary contributions and donations and took the following measures for life insurance contracts to assist the affected people. Full payment of insurance money and benefits All life insurers will fully pay accident-related insurance money and benefits to beneficiaries affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake without applying the exemption clause for earthquakes. Extension of the grace period for paying premiums Life insurers will extend the grace period for paying premiums to nine months (until the end of December 2011) upon the request of the customer. Provided P d the policyholder ld continues to pay the premiums from January 2012, the period for paying the premiums of the grace period can be extended until the end of October 2012 if it is difficult to pay the full amount of premiums at once. The number of contracts in the grace period is 132,472 as of October 6. Simple and quick payment of insurance money and benefits Customers can claim for payment of insurance money and benefits without submitting the documents normally required, such as residence certificates and certification of unforeseen accidents. Life insurers will allow special treatment to consider the insured as being hospitalized from the day of the disaster even if they first received medical treatment in a temporary facility and were later hospitalized due to the state of hospitals after the disaster. 2

4 2. Actions according to each policyholder's situation Center for Searching for Life Insurance Contracts in Disaster Areas The Center requests that all member companies investigate any relevant insurance contracts for people who have dead or missing family members or relatives due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and do not have any evidence of their insurance contracts because their housing was either washed away or burned down. The victims can search for their unknown contracts by this system. Notice of claim procedures Inquirer Inquiry Center for Searching for Life Insurance Contracts in Disaster Areas (LIAJ) Search request Found Member Companies Not found Response (No contracts were found Reply that no relevant in any life insurers.) contracts were found 3

5 2. Actions according to each policyholder's situation Figures on Center for Searching for Life Insurance Contracts in Disaster Areas (as of October 7, 2011) Number of applications accepted: 3,489 Number of people subject to the inquiry system: 6,178 Figures on Inquiry Results (As of October 7, 2011) Persons subject to the inquiry system (Research was done by member companies) Found Not Found No. 6,129 3,947 2,182 Ratio 100.0% 64.4% 35.6% Life insurance consultation at an evacuation center *Simple aggregation of registration data Publicity Activities Displaying posters and distributing leaflets in evacuation centers Cooperation with administrative bodies Ads in national and local newspapers Radio ads Ads on the internet Information on websites Poster in an evacuation center 4

6 3. Actions to Ensure Insurance Payouts Establishment of Industry-Shared Database Member companies search their contracts from the fatalities list disclosed by the police, and if there are any relevant contracts, they notify the claim procedures to beneficiaries even before the beneficiaries make a payment claim. In this way, insurance companies actively ensure insurance payouts to beneficiaries. The LIAJ set up an industry-shared shared database to assist its member companies. Under this system, life insurers can share information throughout the industry, with the LIAJ acting as an information platform. LIAJ Information disclosed by police Information acquired by member companies on people killed by the earthquake Information provided to the Center for Searching Life Insurance Contracts in Disaster Areas Industry-shared database (identification of claimable contracts) Information on family registration and residence certificates Member Companies Confirmation of safety of customers, confirmation of their contract details and claim notification procedures (number of safety confirmations: almost 3 million people) Confirmation of each customer's situation - by an outbound call (approx million calls) - by sending direct mail (approx million mailings) Confirmation of each customer s situation through temporary consultation and claim notification procedures 5

7 3. Actions to Ensure Insurance Payouts Actions to make quick payment of insurance money and benefits <Request for disclosing family registration and residence certificates> The life insurers need to identify the person who has the right to receive insurance benefits (generally, the legal successor). To identify legal successors promptly, the LIAJ requested the relevant ministries to disclose family registration and residence certificates if insurers requested local government offices. By working with the ministries, we succeeded in getting local governments to disclose registrations and certificates upon the request of insurers. <Request and response for death notifications of missing people> A great number of people went missing due to the disaster, and we cannot pay insurance money and benefits to beneficiaries until the missing have been confirmed to be dead. Therefore, the LIAJ requested the relevant ministries to make the process of confirming a missing person's s death quick and easy. (Simple treatment of death notification based on the Family Registration Law (Simplifying the documentation that witnesses the fact of death)) LIAJ s Actions Considering practice of insurance payouts based on the decision of the Ministry of Justice Establishment of Special Working Group on Missing People Confirmation of the practice of local government offices on acceptance of death notifications Data of National Police Agency (As of October 7) Number of death 15,822 Number of missing 3,926 (Amount: billion) Payment of insurance money and benefits (As of October 6) No.17,592 Y ($1.70) missing No. 2,366 Y18.28 ($0.22) *$1=Y80 6

8 3. Actions to Ensure Insurance Payouts Establishment of the Life Insurance Support Network for Orphaned Minors A great number of children lost both their parents or guardians due to the disaster. The life insurance industry desires that their insurance money be appropriately used for those children through their guardians or administrators. However, it is impossible for the life insurance industry to solve this issue alone because it is necessary to determine the situation of the disaster orphans and to develop an appropriate legal system to manage their assets. Therefore, with the cooperation of administrative bodies and local bar associations, we decided to establish a network to enhance information-sharing among the parties concerned (the Life Insurance Support Network for Orphaned Minors), with the aim of paying insurance money and benefits properly to the disaster orphans. Bar associations LIAJ Disaster Orphans Administrative bodies Member companies Statistics about the Network (As of September 9, 2011) Item No. Number of cases that were introduced to bar associations and administrative bodies through this 31 network (in order to appoint a guardian) Number of contracts whose beneficiary is a minor 181 Number of payments 84 Number and Amounts of Insurance Payouts (As of October 6, 2011) *Available on LIAJ s website. Updated every Friday. (Amount : billion) Number Amount (death benefits) Accident-related insurance benefits 17,592 Y ($1.70) Y42.52 ($0.53) *We estimate the total amount will be about Y200 billion. ** $1 = Y80 7