Financial Times

More awareness needed on insurance issues
The Insurance Ombudsman of Sri Lanka has expressed the need for a greater awareness among Sri Lankans on insurance issues and the various types of policies.

Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria, Insurance Ombudsman appointed in February this year in his first report on the work of the ombudsman for the past six months, says many people are unaware about insurance clauses and that insurance is a special type of contract requiring, for example, special duties such as good faith in disclosure to the insurer etc. “Some of the complaints I received showed that policy holders have no clue as to these conditions and even some of the agents who fill up forms for policy holders – are more anxious to get the business – rather than explain the importance of disclosing “the entire truth,” he said in a report.

In a comprehensive report on the work done in the past six months, Dr Weerasooria, a former senior government official and law teacher at an Australian university, said he had given several talks – apart from workshops organized by the IBSL and the Institute of Insurance -- to the media to create greater awareness on insurance.

A website has also been developed for this purpose. He said the Insurance Ombudsman initiative is proving to be a success and serving a useful purpose in the context of the minimal costs involved. “Ombudsman schemes are gaining in popularity. By all accounts, the Financial Ombudsman scheme is a success. The current trend is to have such schemes in other,” his report said.

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