In Kazakhstan, the main share – over 60 percent of insurance premiums is voluntary property insurance, in particular property insurance. This means that more and more citizens and entrepreneurs voluntarily insure their buildings, various premises, technical equipment and even interior items, furniture. In an unstable economy, this is a rather deliberate decision. But it is also important to take care of your life and health by developing and improving the culture of insurance.

What is insurance?

Insurance today is, first of all, a culture of people's relations to themselves, their family and property. In a word, to everything that is dear and valuable to us.

Insurance will help protect you and your property from various unforeseen situations that may occur, for example, as a result of a fire or flood, theft of a motor vehicle or sudden illness and temporary disability. Of course, its presence does not mean complete security, but it will help cover losses and give confidence that risks are minimized. It is not for nothing that insurance in English is represented as the word "insurance", meaning "confidence".

None of us is insured against accidental accidents, and when an insured event occurs, no one will compensate us for the damage. You may have to cover all expenses out of your own pocket. But if you have the appropriate insurance, you can get an insurance payout without putting your wallet and family budget at risk.

The insurance payout is the amount of money paid by the insurer to the policyholder (beneficiary) within the insured amount upon the occurrence of an insured event or upon the occurrence of the period specified in the accumulative insurance contract.

To understand the principle of insurance, let's give an analogy with the weather forecast. If forecasters promise partly cloudy weather without precipitation, the probability of rain is still present. Therefore, an umbrella will not be superfluous. If you are going to an important meeting, then you definitely do not want the vagaries of nature to disrupt your plans. This is the principle by which insurance works, that is, if you have not used an insurance policy, consider yourself lucky. But imagine for a second that it suddenly started pouring rain, and you have an umbrella with you, which you took care of in advance. As a result, you get to the meeting place comfortably. Insurance is an umbrella that will protect you and your property from various risks.

What is insurance like?

Insurance is divided into two types: mandatory, carried out by virtue of the requirements of the law, and voluntary, that is, carried out at the will of the parties to the insurance contract.

To date, insurance companies provide services for 9 mandatory and 24 voluntary insurance classes.

Types of insurance, including mandatory types of insurance, can be found on the Internet resource of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market of the Republic of Kazakhstan www.gov.kz in the section "Statistics" → "Insurance sector".

Voluntary insurance for the object of insurance is divided into personal and property.

The main types of voluntary insurance: property insurance, cumulative life insurance, sickness insurance, accident insurance, CASCO, civil liability insurance.

Real-life examples: you bought a new car, but a few days later you found scratches on it. It's good that you took out a CASCO insurance policy at the dealership, it will help cover your losses related to damage to the car. If you were limited only to the GPO of the Military technical Cooperation, then you would have to restore everything on your own. Or your neighbor-athlete decided to insure himself against accidents, he purchased a voluntary insurance policy. And for good reason – once, having slipped unsuccessfully, he broke his leg, and the insurance company paid him the insurance amount stipulated in the contract.

There are also clear recommendations on determining the need for a particular insurance: identify risks, choose the right insurance company. It is worth noting that there are many different classifications of risks. Usually they are separated:

- by type of danger, for example, technogenic risks associated with human activities: industrial accidents, environmental pollution, etc

- natural risks in the form of natural disasters: earthquakes, hurricanes, lightning strikes, etc

- by spheres of activity: financial, commercial, political, professional, transport.

- by objects: risks of damage to the life and health of citizens, property risks.

Is it possible to get insurance services remotely?

Insurance culture is becoming more and more a part of our daily life, and if the average European resident, as a rule, has 2-3 insurance policies on which he spends a significant part of his salary, then the average Kazakhstani is only on the way to this.

Insurance, as a large segment of the financial market of Kazakhstan, does not stand still. The main focus is on digitalization, as a result of which IT technologies are adapted to insurance services. As a result, it is remotely possible to conclude a contract with an insurer for almost all types of compulsory and voluntary insurance.

Today, the most standardized products, such as car and real estate insurance policies, are being transferred to the online format. For example, since 2019, car owners have the opportunity to conclude a compulsory car insurance contract online, and currently 100% of contracts are concluded in electronic form under the GPO MTC. A nice bonus for car owners – you do not need to carry paper documents with you. The essence of an electronic policy is to conclude a contract through a Single Insurance Database (ESDB) and provides for assigning a unique number to it. The data of the ESBD allows you to automatically calculate the tariff for payment of insurance premiums.

The next stage of digitalization is the introduction of online settlement of an insured event, the issue of which is being worked out by the financial regulator within the framework of legislative initiatives. The regulator plans to transfer the process of receiving insurance payments to an electronic format. Following the results of the implementation, the client, in the event of an insurance event, will be able to apply for payment on the insurance company's website without visiting the office. All stages of the insured event settlement process, starting with the formation of a package of documents and ending with the payment or appeal of the insurer's decision, will be recorded in the ESBD.

It is noteworthy that since 2022, the database of the ESBD is being updated with data on voluntary insurance classes, which in the future will allow to obtain complete and accurate statistics on all insurance policies, will ensure transparency of the entire process of interaction of insurers with customers.

EBSD is a unified insurance database, the functioning of which is provided by the State Credit Bureau. It is an information technology platform for collecting data on the entire insurance sector; it provides the organization of the conclusion of compulsory insurance contracts, interaction with government databases, accumulation of statistics necessary for analytics and calculations, and other functions.

What should I pay attention to when choosing an insurance company?

Availability of a financial regulator license

An insurance company has the right to work only if it has a license from the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the right to carry out insurance activities. To check it, go to the Agency's Internet resource www.gov.kz to the section "Registry of permissions and notifications" (you can download the registry table, find a specific company and check for a license).

Company rates

Pay attention to the rates. So, for mandatory types of insurance, tariffs are set at the legislative level.

For voluntary types of insurance, you can calculate the approximate cost of the policy online on the insurance company's website. For full confidence in choosing an insurance company, we recommend comparing the rates they offer and the cost of insurance policies.

Company reputation

Choose companies with a good reputation. It is also important to study the reviews of companies on the site, ask your friends who have had experience in obtaining insurance services.

Terms of the insurance contract (insurance policy)

Attention! Never sign a contract without reading its terms! Carefully study this important document that regulates your relationship with the insurer, especially the point where the signs of an insured event are indicated. You must clearly understand which cases the insurance covers and which cases are not recognized as insured.

Before signing the contract, check with the representative of the company the procedure for compensation of damages in various situations, ask about the terms, the availability of a franchise and other important nuances.

Be vigilant when applying for insurance online

Registration of an insurance policy online has a number of significant advantages. Firstly, convenience, and secondly, saving time. But there are also some disadvantages, the main one of which is the risk of encountering cybercriminals. For example, you can get to a phishing page that duplicates the website of a real insurance company. Therefore, before you apply for and buy a policy online, carefully study the site. Pay attention to the address bar and the secure connection icon, it is best to manually type the web address, and not follow the links sent by email or SMS message.

Also, the official websites of insurance companies are listed on the Agency's Internet resource www.gov.kz in the section "Financial markets" → "Insurance sector" → "Insurance market participants".

By choosing the right form of insurance consciously, you can protect yourself and your loved ones from any twists of fate, as well as save your finances in the event of an unforeseen situation.

Postfactum.kz from Fingramota.kz