It also wants the Government to ban the misuse of car immobilisers, which some finance companies require borrowers to pay to install, allowing them to immobilise vehicles if borrowers miss repayments.

Christians Against Poverty (CAP) says the use of immobilisers by lenders can put people in danger, citing the case of a woman stranded after her car was immobilised, at night and in winter. Read more

But RNZ's Samoa corespondent Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia says families are more inclined to be traditional when it comes to funeral costs.

"When you talk about a funeral in Samoa, every Samoan living overseas knows exactly what they're going to prepare to bring to Samoa."

"Lots of money, lots of fine mats and lots of food because Samoan funerals are very expensive, I tell you."

"I believe Samoa is very very very different how they feel about their loved ones when they prepare a funeral, whether they are a low income family because in Samoa everyone contributes, everyone shows their love of the person."

He says it'll take a few years for Samoans to catch on and consider insurance.

The two focus group sessions were organised by the Regional Disaster Resilience in the Pacific Small Island Developing States (RESPAC) and the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP).

Separate focus groups of employees and employers looked at the concept of funeral expenses insurance.

Participants agreed the insurance would be an attractive option. They said they would be willing to take up as it would help them deal with the high cost of funerals.

Affordability and trust in the organisation providing the insurance were the two main priorities highlighted as being important to them when deciding to purchase funeral expenses insurance.

Source

• RNZ
• Scoop
• PFIP
• Image: Travelling with matches

The Sunday Age reported that a warning was issued by a church insurer to the nation's bishops as early as 1988.

This was more than seven years before the Melbourne Response and Towards Healing protocols for victims were set up.

The Sunday Age investigation was based on internal Church documents.

A proposal for a dedicated abuse victim compensation scheme was made by Catholic Church Insurance Limited in 1990.

CCI set some money aside itself as Australia's bishops debated a course of action.

The bishops ultimately approved the creation of a "special issues" insurance policy and compensation pool in 1991.

The allowed for cover increased from A$5million to $A15million in two years after that.

CCI then issued the Church with a special one year policy that increased coverage to $A25 million, but excluded payments for abuse prior to 1976.

The Church would have to pay directly for claims from before this date.

CCI was experiencing problems in the early 1990s having its insurance exposure to sexual abuse claims underwritten by reinsurance operators.

According to The Sunday Age, the move also came despite the Church's hierarchy continuing to publicly downplay allegations in the early 1990s that the Church was facing a massive sexual abuse scandal.

An internal Church document noted that a "significant number" of claims for damages for sexual abuse had already been received in the early 1990s.

Last year, Cardinal George Pell testified before a royal commission that he was aware of "dozens of complaints" when the Melbourne Response was created in 1996.

Catholic Church authorities have paid more than A$43 million to victims in total since 1997, it is estimated.

The Sunday Age understands CCI has earmarked up to another A$150 million to potentially settle all outstanding and anticipated sexual abuse claims.

Sources

• The Sunday Age
• 9 News
• Image: News.com.au

That's according to the company's latest financial results, for the year to December 2012, published yesterday.

Ansvar was inundated with claims after the Canterbury earthquakes and withdrew from the New Zealand insurance market at the end of 2011, leaving policyholders wondering if their claims would be met. Continue reading

Dunedin diocese's general manager Stuart Young said parishioners were ultimately the ones who would bear the costs of increased insurance premiums, brought about by the Christchurch earthquakes.

"It is a tsunami about to hit us. We face a renewal of our policy at the end of the month... we are also in a position where our broker is negotiating with a new [insurance provider]," Mr Young said.

The diocese has about seven heritage churches in the city including St Joseph's Cathedral in city rise, and churches at Port Chalmers and Northeast Valley, with another eight spread around the region.

"We need to be sensible about what risk we take and look at a diocese-wide perspective. In the event of an earthquake we might not have insurance which will allow us to totally rebuild any [damaged] heritage churches," Mr Young said

Source

• Otago Daily Times
• Image: Wikimedia commons

In September 2011, Ansvar Insurance has revealed that it would cease writing earthquake cover in New Zealand. Now it has announced that the existing customers' policies will be cancelled on 31 December 2011, but they will be able to get interim cover through Ansvar Australia while they find a new insurer.

The chairman of the Anglican Insurance Board, Don Baskerville, describes today's announcement as "most inconvenient."

"Times are trying. But not desperate."

He says Ansvar Australia will partially fill the gap.

Source

• IRB
• The Anglican Church in Aotearoa
• Image: DomPost

Dean Peter Beck and Catholic diocesan financial administrator Paddy Beban said they would not comment because they did not have enough information.

However, local Church of England media officer PhilipBaldwin said the decision to stop providing earthquake coverage was not a surprise

Asked if it would mean church closures, Mr Baldwin said decisions had yet to be made and it was going to be a long ongoing process.