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08/05/06

1. Check on any physical damage that’s occurred on your property. Call in professionals to fix damaged pipes and remove large toppled trees.

2. Don’t think you have to leave everything until it’s been seen by an assessor. We’ll take your word on it, but if you have time to take photos, it could speed things up. Preserve your property first, it won’t affect your claim.

3. Try to start cleaning up as much as you can as soon as possible to minimise damage. The sooner you get items out of the water and cleaned, the less the damage will be. Spoiled food, flooded cosmetics and medicines are health hazards. When in doubt, throw them out.

4. Concentrate on those special things like photographs, kids’ paintings and letters. Get them out to dry as soon as you can and wash photographs with water - they should remain intact.

5. Contact your local council for advice about cleaning up debris.

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09/02/2006
Apex on the move
We are moving from our Newmarket premises to Honeywell House which is 264 Mount Eden Road. This move will take place on friday 17th feb 2006 and we hope to have full services up and running on monday 20th Feb 2006.

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05/12/2005
Good Returns
Three quarters of New Zealanders are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt and underinsurance leaving their families exposed to the risks of financial hardship if a wage-earner dies or is too ill to work, according to an internet poll carried out on behalf of American International Assurance New Zealand (AIA).

The survey shows that 40 percent of Kiwis would not be able to cope for more than three months if anything happened to their ability to earn a living.

The AIA research shows that almost half of all New Zealanders have absolutely no cover on their lives or their health and only a quarter are confident that their level of cover would be sufficient to look after their family in the event of death or serious illness.

"We know from actuarial studies that around 880 people with dependent children will die in New Zealand each year," AIA chief executive Nick Scarlett says. "Our new research found that three quarters of Kiwis worry that their families would be exposed to financial hardship because of inadequate insurance; they claim they cannot afford to pay the premiums even though their unearned expenditure funded through borrowings has risen by 16% over the past year to an historic high."

"The average family has $125,000 of borrowings in mortgages, personal loans and credit cards and many of them have no idea how they will be able to pay that off if anything untoward happens."

The research found that of those that do have insurance just over 37 percent have basic life insurance, 33% have medical insurance, and 13 percent have income protection insurance, while only 9 percent have critical illness cover.

In the short term just over half of those surveyed thought they would be able to muddle through in the event of illness or loss by drawing on savings and investments, borrowing from family members, selling assets or property and borrowing from friends.

But 20 percent of respondents believed they would not be able to manage for a month on their own resources; a similar number would be able to manage for between one and three months, with slightly less feeling they could manage for up to six months.

Significantly, less than a quarter felt they could manage for a year or more.

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