With gold hovering around $1700 an oz., a client recently had some jewellery reappraised.  To his surprise, the gold bracelet purchased some years ago for $1,000 was now valued at $5800. To many of us, that is good news: a luxury buy that appreciates in value!  But of course petty thieves and break-and-enter types know  more...

The policyholder Hubert Thomas was described by the court as an “an elderly gentleman with very limited formal education”.  Shortly after Christmas 2007, Thomas’ home sustained fire damage resulting from a wood-burning stove. What made a bad situation much worse is this: although he had purchased an insurance policy, the insurer refused to pay the  more...

Everybody buys an insurance policy for protection – the right to recovery when the unforeseen happens. However, insurance policies also extend entitlements to the insurer.  When insuring property against physical damage, the insurer has the right of subrogation. In its most common usage, subrogation refers to a situation where an insurance company attempts to recover  more...

Canada’s most frequent re-occurring natural hazard is one to which other parts of the world are now encountering with greater frequency. Flooding. As referenced previously in TheRiskFactor, flooding is particularly painful in Canada because overland flooding is not covered by Canadian homeowners’ insurance policies. Coverage can be purchased for plumbing overflow and sewer-back, and many  more...

AirBNB, the website that allows people to list their homes for “rent” like hotel rooms, has been in the news lately – for one, because of its monetary valuation of billions of dollars, and second because of what is being called a vacation rental horror story where an AirBNB user’s apartment was ransacked by her  more...

Elaborately planned heists to steal valuable works of art are the stuff of Hollywood movies (think Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair). But sometimes the theft is so simplistic as to be almost comical. Last year’s break-in at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris is a perfect example.   more...

As the costs mount from the Fukushima nuclear accident, more observers are wondering if we can afford the potential for economic fallout from the production of nuclear power. Our globe is now home to over 400 nuclear power plants – many of which have little or no insurance coverage against accidental damage. Why is nuclear  more...

In the insurance world, every incident of damage is followed by a restoration and repair process.  Japan’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami – and subsequent nuclear malfunction – while on a massive scale, is essentially no different. But 2 colossal hurdles are impeding progress: 1)     the first is financial: who is going  more...

Most of us think of mould resulting from over-exposure to water combined with poor housekeeping. But moulds are ubiquitous in nature, and already exist in your home and mine.  And they are dormant, at least until spores – residing in household and workplace dust – result.  The spores (reproductive structure adapted for dispersal) can cause  more...

It is now the single largest cause of property damage to Canadian homes. Water damage now accounts for more claims dollars spent on any other single risk to property. The following link will take you to a short article explaining the financial dimensions of the problem, according to AVIVA Canada. http://www.ilstv.com/average-water-damage-claim-rose-160-in-ten-years-aviva-canada/ AVIVA Canada also offers the  more...