Insurers
INSURANCE
Insurers own most of the equipment which is stolen in the UK. As 95% of stolen equipment is never recovered, insurers own a considerbale quantity of equipment which is in circulation in the UK market, and some which has been exported from the UK post theft. Most insurers register their equipment thefts with TER, either directly or via their loss adjusters.
The equipment theft issue for insurers
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Insurance companies generally only require their clients’ own valuation of an equipment fleet as the basis of their premium. They do not know what they are insuring, or if it is stolen, or even if they have already paid a claim on an item for which they are now providing insurance
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Insurance companies pay equipment theft claims and become the legitimate titleholder’s to the equipment, but only 5% of stolen equipment is ever recovered
The Solutions
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Insist, as a warranted policy condition, that clients’ equipment fleets are registered with TER. TER Registration is very low cost and highly effective risk management which allows the client’s data to be:
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Checked against the £200M of stolen equipment registered, mainly by insurers, with TER
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Valued for the insurer by TER
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Seen by the insurer
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Made available to the police and law enforcement
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Insurers should, and do in many cases, offer incentives for security improvements, especially for an approved immobilisation system, which are taken by their clients. Premium or excess penalties could be imposed on clients that do not adopt recommended security improvements
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As arson is a significant fraud, ensure that fire claims are fully investigated to determine the cause, and register total write-offs with TER as for theft
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Have an equipment recovery agreement in place with TER
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Ensure that thefts are reported promptly and accurately to TER by clients, claims departments and loss adjusters
TER’s services for insurers
Theft registration. Insurers inform TER of plant and equipment thefts so that this data can be made available for the police and law enforcement agencies to access 24/7 in order to improve the opportunities for recovering their stolen equipment. TER also utlises the data in due diligence checks for other parties which have led to the recovery of further stolen equipment items on behalf of insurers, reducing the opportunities for criminals to dispose of stolen equipment. Click here to register a theft
Equipment registration. Insurers require cost-effective risk management tools, which can be incentivised, for their clients to use in order to mitigate the risks of equipment theft. By requiring or recommending their clients to register their equipment schedules with TER, not only will the data be washed against 100,000 recorded thefts, but the data will also be available to the police and the insurer, but TER could also value the equipment schedule so that the insurer and their client could have an agreed fleet valuation. Click here for further information on Equipment registration
Stolen equipment recovery. TER assists the police and law enforcement agencies with the identification and recovery of stolen plant and equipment, as well as making independent recoveries, particularly overseas. These recovered stolen items are usually sold by TER on behalf of the insurer. Click here for further information on the recovery of stolen equipment
TER Check. Prior to accepting a risk an insurer can utilise TER’s TER Check service in order to determine whether the client has stolen equipment in their fleet which, if they did, could lead the insurer to not accepting the risk or to identifying the client as a moral hazard. Click here for further information on TER Check's
Crime reduction advice. TER has produced a concise pamphlet of practical, low cost crime reduction advice which could be incorporated into their client’s risk management strategy. Click here for further information on crime reduction advice and our free loss prevention guide.