The Summerland complex was opened 40 years ago in May 1971 in Douglas on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.
The 3.5 acre resort was cut into the cliff on the promenade and claimed to be the biggest and most innovative indoor entertainment centre in the World, providing artificial sunshine all year round for the holiday resort. 

The aim was to attract British holidaymakers to the Island to compete with the threat posed by the rapid development of package holidays to Spain, that were becoming ever popular with the public.

The Summerland Resort was a spectacular success…..until it’s destruction by fire.

The Resort which was built in modern materials of concrete, steel and plastics, boasted continuous live entertainment, a plethora of restaurants and bars, an Olympic sized indoor heated swimming pool, saunas, massages and Turkish baths, artificial sunshine, a children’s entertainment and theatre,  cascading waterfalls and……..an underground disco and nightclub.

The fire is believed to have been started outside by some smokers next to a plastic kiosk adjoining the main complex building which housed the nightclub. The building was packed with holidaymakers relaxing at the time and the disco was full.

The melting plastic kiosk collapsed against the side of the main complex and rapidly ignited the building that was covered in a damp proofing bitumous material called Galbestos. The fire spread extremely rapidly through the wall cavities which contained flammable materials and quickly engulfed the flammable acrylic see through roof, which came crashing down on the 3000 people inside who were trying to escape the flames.
Many were crushed to death in the ensuing panic or injured by falling flammable debris, however the biggest amount of casualties were in the underground nightclub where the majority of bodies dead through asphixiation were piled against locked security doors.

Following the tragedy Business Insurance Companies tightened up their cover offerings for nightclub insurance, specialist insurance providers emerged and many new building regulations were put into law. Specifically, building materials of flammable quality were forbidden in construction and many health and safety regulations for nightclubs were introduced. The industry is now very well regulated and the covers offered under a nightclub insurance policy sit well with the establishments legal responsibilities of risk management.
Fortunately the measures have worked in the UK to date which has avoided such a similar nightclub disaster although that cannot be said for other places around the world……

* Rhythm Nightclub fire 23 April 1940; Natchez, Mississippi; 209 dead
* Cocoanut Grove fire 28 November 1942; Boston, Massachusetts; 492 dead
* Club Cinq-Sept fire 1 November 1970; Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France; 146 dead
* Beverly Hills Supper Club fire 28 May 1977; Southgate, Kentucky; 165 dead
* Stardust fire 14 February 1981; Dublin, Ireland; 48 dead
* Alcalá 20 Nightclub fire 17 December 1983; Madrid, Spain; 82 dead
* HappyLand fire 25 March 1990; New York City, New York; 87 dead
* Kheyvis Nightclub fire 20 December 1993; Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 17 dead
* Ozone Disco Club fire 18 March 1996; Quezon City, Philippines; 162 dead
* Gothenburg Nightclub fire 29 October 1998; Gothenburg, Sweden; 63 dead
* Luoyang Christmas fire 25 December 2000; Luoyang, People’s Republic of China; 309 dead
* E2 Nightclub stampede 17 February 2003; Chicago, Illinois; 21 dead
* The Station Nightclub fire 20 February 2003; West Warwick, Rhode Island; 100 dead
* Cro-magnon Republic Nightclub fire 30 December 2004; Buenos Aires, Argentina; 194 dead
* Wuwang Club fire 21 September 2008; Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 43 dead
* Bangkok Nightclub fire 1 January 2009; Watthana, Bangkok, Thailand; 61 dead
* Lame Horse club fire 5 December 2009; Perm, Russian Federation; 149 dead

Insurance Blog thinks it is rather ironic that the Summerland fire was started by smokers outside the building, when the current policy of most nightclubs is to force smokers to outside areas.

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1. Commercial Insurance Risks Explained

Whilst the potential rewards of running a successful business drive them onwards, there are many challenges faced by small business owners, especially during the initial outset of the business when methods and procedures are being put in place. None more so when trying to navigate through the vagaries of business insurance risks and covers, which vary widely depending upon the type of business you engage in.

So where do you start to try to understand the risks that your business might face and the types of insurance that are available to protect your business from these risks?

Fortunately this has been recognised by specialist small business insurer, Hiscox who understands that business owners want to focus on what they do best – running their business.

So they have created a Business Insurance Decision Tree in the form of an infographic to help steer small business owners through the different types of insurance available to them.

The Hiscox Business Insurance Decision Tree looks at variables such as whether you work from home or in an office, how many employees you have and what type of property you own, suggesting applicable cover which best suits an SME’s (Small to Medium Sized Enterprises) needs.

So whether it is office contents insurance for damage to property, employers’ liability for those with employees, professional indemnity insurance when offering advice, or public liability insurance, the Business Insurance Decision Tree can help clarify which insurance is suitable.

Hiscox SME Underwriting Manager, Deepak Soni, comments: “SMEs are experts in their area, but we don’t expect them to be experts in insurance, that’s what we are here for. No two businesses are the same, so the Business Insurance Decision Tree is a useful tool to help SMEs understand the risks they face and get the right cover in place.”

The Decision Tree is available for all business owners to use freely to evaluate their potential risks on the Hiscox website at http://www.hiscox.co.uk/business-insurance/tips-and-information/which-business-insurance-is-right/

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If there’s blame there’s a claim. The epitome of the nanny state. They exist at the heart of compensation culture. In fact they are the wholly accountable for the whole bloody system. Professional parasites feeding off us all.

As you may have guessed I’m not a fan.

Yet somehow they defiantly remain a part of the industry and worryingly it seems some brokers are leaning towards the easy ‘quick fix’ solution they can offer. Lets be honest times are tough and the majority of us are having to work that little bit harder for a hell of a lot less. With the  ridiculous increases in the FSCS being the latest over the top fee handed out to the broker community by the ever incompetent FSA, a little extra revenue from those damn ambulance chasers could prove highly tempting right now, but what is the real cost of this short term financial injection?

Trevor Cutts, business development director at independent broker network 1 Answer Network recently commented that the practice of claims farming threatened to undermine not only the claims process but also the very ‘integrity of the industry’ itself. For an industry dependant upon consumer trust, anything that can damage the broker/client relationship is of course inherently dangerous.

Of course as Mr. Cutts is quick to address there is a massive difference between a broker operating a legal expense policy, working in tandem with a reputable claims management company and the more ‘questionable approaches’  made to claimants years after their claim, looking to seek unmerited awards retrospectively.

Often one will find that a law firm will have a surge in claims, and when this is the case there often tends to be generally one particular insurer involved. Whether the lists are generated by an insurer or a broker, the suggestion would certainly be that someone in the chain is selling on these claims for a quick buck. Neglecting the clients needs entirely – how quickly will it take that client to lose faith in both their broker, insurer and even the industry itself?

Commenting on the subject, Mike Keating, Head of Personal lines intermediary at Axa, actually went as far as labelling any company who make money from the practice of claims farming as ‘immoral’.

Describing what he sees as an ‘alarming feature of the market’ he acknowledged that the rise in claims farmers is a  ‘disturbing trend’. In fact Axa are now one of a number of insurers who are introducing clearly differentiated pricing, aiming to penalise those brokers that claim farm and benefit those that don’t.

The good news is that the public are slowly starting to turn away from these parasites also. Whether it is the numerous horror stories of people being out of pocket even after having won their case, or perhaps just the sheer mindless, monotony of those bloody adverts, the reputations of many claims farmers are now in tatters.

Hopefully with the industry seemingly united on ensuring that the claims farmers are driven out of town the reputations of brokers and insurers will escape relatively unscathed.

Mr. Keating states that he ‘doesn’t think brokers believe that any model reliant on claims farming is sustainable.’

For the sake of the industry lets hope he’s right.

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Insurance Blog reports on the risks and covers available and the large premiums paid to ensure that this years Tournament currently going on in South Africa, went without a hitch…

The prior concerns and fears that had been raised over the insurance cover for the 2010 World Cup failed to materialise as the tournament passed off without a major incident or claim.

FIFA had been forced to build a R6.3 billion contingency fund (around a billion US dollars) to cater for the possible collapse of the 2010 event -  a lot of money when you consider that the winners Spain only receive £40 million pounds ($60 million) in prize money.  FIFA have taken out cover  for any kind of interruption, delay or abandonment of the World Cup and the consequent loss of revenues.

Individual players and their respective Football Association’s had to make their own arrangements for sports disability and sports accident  insurance , with the number of top players appearing at the tournament making it the most injury exposed in the history of the sport.

Fortunately for FIFA and the Insurance companies involved, the Tournament passed off without any major player injuries, which was fortunate as many National Football Associations, particularly those in Africa, would have struggled to meet the cost of covering the wages of the likes of Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Soloman Kalou and Kolo & YaYa Toure, nevermind the liabilities to the individual Clubs.

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Despite the recession there are many small business start-ups hasppening at the moment so we reprint on of Insurance bloggers articles here that explains to small and large businesses the wide and varied range of commercial risks that need to be assessed on an individual company level and purchased appropriately.

Understanding Commercial Insurance Risks and Business Insurance Covers
By Dave Healey

If you own or manage a business, either large or small, you will require some type of insurance to protect your company against the various risks and potential multitude of claims, that your business will face.

Commercial insurance or Business insurance as it is commonly known, is a complicated area of underwriting and because all businesses are different, and face different risks depending upon the nature of the company, various packages and combined policy covers have been introduced by insurance companies and commercial broker schemes, to make the process easier.

An example of a small business insurance package which is commonly sold online is the Tradesman’s insurance package, which includes all elements of cover required by a small business or self employed trader such as basic liability covers and theft of tools.

Other small business insurance packages that are trade specific and can often be obtained online are available for shopkeepers, offices, surgeries, hotels and guest houses, restaurants, public houses and builders.

Large companies will be offered what is known as a commercial combined policy which has many different elements of cover which can be combined to make a bespoke policy for the enterprise. Most large companies will require some degree of risk assessment before the policy is underwritten, which may often include a visit to the business premises or site, and for this reason these types of larger business usually employ the services of specialist commercial insurance brokers.

Business Insurance Risks

The largest risk that a business faces is from liability to others, and the potential costs and damages a company could face if a claim was made against it.

All companies are required by law to have in place liability cover, called Employers liability insurance or EL, to protect their staff against all potential risks and accidents while in the workplace.

Business liability insurance is usually sold as a package and will always include Public Liability, often just known as PL, which protects the company against claims from the public whilst on the business premises.

A further type of liability insurance called Product liability is also available to companies under a commercial liability policy which protects the company against claims made for design or manufacturing faults in the product.

Company directors can also protect themselves against liabilities with Directors and Officers insurance (D&O) cover.

Property Damage

Most business large and small will have premises that need protection against buildings perils such as fire and flood and commercial property insurance is available to cover all buildings insurance risks. Similarly commercial contents insurance for business premises is available which covers office and business equipment including files and data processing against the common perils. For companies that carry stock, this type of business contents insurance can be extended to cover risk such as deterioration and damage.

For the small businessman who works from home these covers are often available with strict limits of indemnity, as a bolt on to a standard home buildings and contents policy. This type of cover is often effective for self employed people with just a computer and a home office.

Business Contingency Cover

One of the largest problems faced by a business is that of how to continue in business should the worst occur, for example a fire that destroys the premises. In order to deal with this Insurance companies have devised a cover called ‘Business Interruption Insurance’. Based on your previous years annual turnover, this protection insurance covers your company against all losses caused by interruption to trading due to any of the perils mentioned on the policy and will pay out on a indemnified basis for the period of cover agreed in the policy. Most policies will also offer some type of alternative trading accommodation to enable you business to continue whilst the premises are being repaired.

Additional Commercial Insurance Risks

Because commercial insurance is designed to cover all classes of business, there are many various trade or business specific covers available which can be added to a combined policy. Examples of these covers include loss of licence to trade, glass cover, goods in transit cover, book debts, commercial vehicle insurance, hauliers cover, warehouse cover, engineering insurance and plant inspection services, and theft by employees.

Outside of most commercial combined policies are additional risks, more often sold under separate policy covers, that should be considered to protect your business against all eventualities.

Examples of these are, Commercial Legal Expenses insurance cover which protects the company against claims made by employees for unfair dismissal and allows you to bring cases against suppliers.

Various protection policies are also available for businesses including Keyman insurance which provides cover against the loss of key people within your organisation. Business mortgage protection provides a monthly payment for business premises should you suffer and accident or sickness. Group ASU policies are also available to protect your staff and employees.

Purchasing Business Cover

Purchasing commercial risks insurance can be a daunting experience for the uninitiated small business owner and unless the risks are straightforward and can be underwritten online, it is advisable for all companies to approach the services of a local or regional commercial insurance broker. Insurance Brokers will not only be able to assess the complete range of risks that your business is exposed to, and provide the correct levels of cover, they will more often than not have a unique local knowledge of the risks involved and will be able to negotiate premiums that reflect the nature of the risks. Furthermore, in the event of a claim, and as most businesses will be faced with claims at some point in their trading life-cycle, the broker will handle all the settlement negotiations with the insuring company and allow you to continue what you do best – running your business.

Commercial insurance and tradesman risks covers for small business insurance are widely available online today. For larger commercial enterprises it is strongly advisable to visit commercial insurance brokers for a detailed assessment of the risks your particular business is exposed to.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Healey
http://EzineArticles.com/?Understanding-Commercial-Insurance-Risks-and-Business-Insurance-Covers&id=2601731

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