True to life
I LOVE it when our great insurance com- panies run true to form. This is the time of year when the life offices declare their bonuses, and General Accident, followed by the Norwich Union, has responded to a year of gains for British stocks and shares by paying less. Its policyholders are being advised to get used to this, and to count on GA to make it up to them when their poli- cies mature. This is a splendid way to keep the customers on leading-strings. Just keep those premiums coming, GA tells them. Don't think of cashing your policy in or switching to another company, because if you do, we'll cut you a meagre slice of cake and keep the rest, or eat it. Hang on for 20 or 25 years and wait for that terminal bonus. You won't be disappointed, or if you are you'll have to grin and bear it, for the one thing you can't do is to roll back the years and start again. That's life, or rather, that's life assurance. By coincidence, this is also the time of year when the weather is quite wet and cold and even windy. Tiles come off roofs and trees fall on greenhous- es. So it is the time when the Association of British Insurers warns us all that premiums may have to rise. It would be an ill wind that blew the ABI's member firms no good — or as Sir Paul Chambers, who was chair- man of the Royal, once put it: 'If there weren't any hurricanes, there wouldn't be any insurance companies.'
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