The Regulation of Life Insurance Contracts - Essay Example

The regulation of life insurance contracts Introduction This essay is on the regulation of insurance contracts in Australia. The plan of the essay is to first give an introduction to contract law in Australia in general and life insurance contract regulation in Australia in particular and then go into the details life insurance policies and policy regime and developments in regulation of life insurance contract. Contract law in Australia, an introduction Contract law in Australia was basically inherited from the English common law. It was only since 1960s that specific statutes have been added to the common law mainly to supplement rather than to replace, as prompted by consumerism in the world to which Australia was not an exception. In spite of statutes since legislated, contract existence is mainly determined by application of common law tests. Remedies under common law still continue to apply except where specific statutes are applicable. Contract law is guided by the principles of civil law wherein objective approach is applied to decide the state of mind of the parties to the dispute in accordance with what a reasonable person would have assumed rather than what he actually intended which being the subjective approach. To remove uncertainties and to accommodate consumer activism, special statues like Sale of Goods Act, Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth), Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth), Contracts Review Act 1980 (NSW), Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) etc, all dealing with some form of contract or other are being enacted from time to time as supplemental to common law. Though contracts should be free from outside interference as part of laissez-faire, courts and legislatures have to intervene to achieve social amelioration.1 Life insurance contract regulation in Australia, an introduction. The earliest enactment on life insurance of the British that also applied to colonies was the Life Assurance Act 1774 and the law developed ever since during the 18th and 19th centuries mainly with the interests of the insurer in focus with a comparable bargaining power.2 Law of insurance is also of a creation of common law. Basically a contract law, it has been developed by numerous principles pronounced by the courts over time. In addition several legislations have come into being in Australia as in other common law countries, specific to the contract of insurance. Some of the statutes are those passed by Commonwealth Government by virtue of its non-exclusive legislative power granted by the constitution. Major legislations on insurance are Marine Insurance Act 1909, Life Insurance Act 1995, Insurance Act 1973, Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) and Insurance (Agents and Brokers Act) 1984 and regulations under some of them. Insurance contracts Act 1984 (Cth) is of special relevance as a reform instrument applicable to insurance contracts entered into after the date its coming into force. Section 9 of the Act provides for exemption of certain types of insurance most of which are directly under the purview of the Government.3 Reforms in financial sector in Australia through Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (Cth) that formed part of chapter 7 of the Corporation Act 2001 (Cth) covered financial services of all kinds including insurance sector.4 Regulation of Life Insurance in Australia has been on “ring fence basis’ so that in times of crisis, an insurance company can survive. Though merits of the ring fence approach are debated, practitioners believe that it is best suited for Australian conditions. This would enable the regulatory authority to exercise control over the companies and their directors. The following methods are adopted as part of regulation in order to achieve the goals and objectives.5 These are the powers conferred upon Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) and Australian Securities Investments commission (ASIC) under the Life Insurance Act 1995. Originally, legislation applicable to insurance in Australia was the act of 1945 which was substantially amended by the Life Insurance Act of 1995 which sets regulatory framework particularly covering the following matters. (a) Registration and deregistration of life insurance companies, (b) Operating statutory funds to protect interests of policyholders, (c) Prescribing capital adequacy and solvency statutory funds from time to time and capital requirements, (d) Giving guidelines for obligations on directors of companies for according priority to the interests of the policyholders, (e) providing standards of corporate governance, (f) Requirements regarding auditors and actuaries, (g) Prescribing nature of allocation of expenses to statutory funds and treatment assets, dividend payments, capital from statutory funds etc.,(h) mechanism for transfer of groups of policies from one company to another, (i) statistical and financial reporting and (j) monitoring and inspecting of companies and documents besides calling for information and developing standards, rules and investigations and making appointment of judicial managers and regulations for winding up of companies independent of provisions in Corporations Act.6 Duties of the regulators APRA and ASIC provided under the Life Insurance Act 1995 are (a) processing applications for registration as life insurance companies, (b) verification of registered companies’ statutory returns, (c) monitoring of performance of the registered companies in terms of their statutory funds, (d) examination of financial position of the companies to ensure that they maintain solvency and capital adequacy standards and to conduct investigations if necessary, (e) attending to complaints and enquiries of policy holders, (f) facilitating public inspection of records as permitted in the act and rules, (g) examining policy documents, promotional literature of the registered insurers, (h) provision of statistical, financial and actuarial information to Government Departments and other competent authorities and eligible persons, (i) making of rules under the Life Insurance Act 1995 , (j) issue of circulars and directives to insurers and intermediaries and (k) publishing of statistical and financial bulletins.7 Policy of life insurance contract-cases that realised the regulation and policy establishment in Australia Some of the early decisions of the court serve to distinguish a life insurance contract from a general insurance contract though it may appear to be a life one. Windeyer J, in National Mutual Life case held that life insurance could only be in three forms either singly or in combination of term policies, whole life polices or endowment policies. In that case since the whole life polices had additional benefits of continuous disability insurance or accidental death cover, it was held that they could not be treated as life policies even for the purpose of claiming tax exemption. But the modern investment oriented life insurance contracts called “life bonds” were considered as life insurance contracts as held in Marac Life Assurance Ltd v Commissioner of Inland Revenue (New Zealand) since life insurance content was substantial and not merely incidental to the investment and were eligible for tax exemption disregarding the Inland Revenue Commissioner’s contention that they were mainly investment contracts. The appeal court also upheld the decision as the policies were consistent with Bunyon’s definition. On the other hand In 1986, a South Australian case Cutten and Harvey v Sun Alliance Life Assurance Ltd & Nicholson held a similar bond to be not a life insurance contract since insurance element was small and ancillary to the investment.8 Another decision by the full court of South Australian Supreme Court in Independent Order of Odd Fellows v Commissioner of Stamps 9 held the disputed policy as a life policy since contribution in a lump sum to the “Flexible Assurance Fund” contemplated payment of a benefit along with pro rata bonuses in the event of contributor’s death within the expiry of ten year period. This explanation is necessary because the Life Insurance Contract 1995 provides for pure investment contracts as life policies. But they being investment contracts, questions were raised as to whether Commonwealth Government had the power under the constitution to regulate contracts with no insurance element. It was clarified that by virtue of Government’s incidental power, such investment based contracts could come under its purview.10 Further, more recent cases also were decided with less restrictive interpretations and even went to extent of contemplating whether a life insurance contract should necessarily have a risk element.11 A recent decision in MetLife Insurance Limited 12 considered whether contractual terms in the policy could be rectified during the post-contract period and held that it depended on the pre-contractual conduct of the parties. This case involved the insurer seeking to rectify the benefit period from 67 years to 65 years. Even though this was opposed by 22 defendants on the ground of their reliance otherwise, Justice Brenton of the Supreme Court of NSW allowed rectification as there was no evidence to show the defendants had read the policy schedule. The principles to allow rectification is that there should have been a common intention between the parties in negotiations at the time of agreement and that there must be a proof that written contract did not reflect the parties’ final intention and that the omission must be compatible with the proof. In an yet another case of Williamson v Suncorp Metway Insurance Ltd (2008)13 decided by the Supreme Court of Queensland, question arose whether the plaintiff was a worker of the company when he got injured and whether he could be deemed to be a worker under Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 at the time of his sustaining the injuries. The plaintiff was actually the employer and not a worker who alone could claim benefit under the defendant’s policy. Hence unless there was an intention to create a legal relationship, there was no question of any claim subsisting. In the case of Zurich Australian Insurance Ltd v Regal Pearl Pty Ltd14, the defendant claimed from the insurance company which had issued policy to the defendant’s vendor for the reason that vendor’s claim for product liability was rejected by the plaintiff. The defendant had relied on section 6(1) of the NSW Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946 and succeeded and hence the appeal by the plaintiff. The court held that although there was no privity of contract and the plaintiff claimed that claim was not for injury directly incurred and which alone was covered, the claim was in respect of injury which should be deemed to have been covered by the policy and dismissed the appeal. The above three cases would that insurance contract law has been ever revolving with the sole object of not denying a genuine claim and the courts tendencies show that insurers can take shelter under technical faults and can not circumvent fact to the detriment of a genuine loss incurred by the insured. Thus under the Life Insurance Contract, the following are considered as life policies, the relative controversies having been set at rest. They are, (a) a contract that provides for payment of money on the death of the insured is life insurance except when the contract is for only one year or less providing for payment for accidental death or death due to sickness. (b) a contract that stipulates payment of an agreed sum either on termination or continuation of human life within a pre-determined period. (c) a contract under which premiums are payable until termination of a period or termination of life. Note that no amount is payable to the insured or his nominee on termination or on death but to the financial institution. This is typical of policies tagged to the loan and assigned to the financial institution. (d) A contract of insurance providing for payment of annuities for a term dependent on continuation of human life. (e) A contract of insurance for payment of annuities not dependent on continuation of human life but exceeding a certain term as per regulations which at present have prescribed a term of ten years.(f) A contract of insurance for continuous disability, (g) A contract for investment contract whether it is a insurance contract or not. And (h) A contract whether an insurance one or not, covering an investment linked contract. The following businesses do not come under the purview of life insurance business. They are (1) benefits provided by friendly societies, (2) benefits provided to the members or their dependants by a federally registered trade union (3) provision of superannuation benefits, pensions or payments etc payable by employer through an organisation established for the purpose (4) Policies issued by employer to employees. And (5) provision of funeral, burial or cremation or payment of money to meet these expenses.15 Prior to 1980, life insurance consisted of whole life, endowment (for a certain duration) term insurance and annuities known as traditional policies. It was only since 1980s insurance companies started issuing investment linked and investment account policies with some term insurance tagged to them.16 Trace of developments of life insurance contract regulation Life Insurance business is one of the sources of long term finance for both public as well as private sectors of Australia. The industry has undergone irrevocable changes after deregulation.17 Insurance is essentially a risk management solution for numerous risks with newer risks constantly coming up unceasingly over time. This has become a field of scientific research results of which form the basis of law regulation as a row model for profession for practice as in any other profession. Insurance industry has been driven by its clear mission of achieving maximum possible level of spiritual and material safety of the insured. Two inseparable components of this sector are financial and social. Financial because it is an invaluable source of finance for both the government as well as private and social because it is a means of social security to people. Therefore, in both the developed and developing nations, insurance sector is an important segment of financial market. 18 There is an economic rationale for regulation of insurance business and the role of the regulator is to enforce the contracts which might be breached or broken in its absence. 19 Incidentally, a Norwegian study says that although Government’s intention is to regulate the insurance industry mainly to secure the interests of the insured, the current legal frame work has been found to be not in the best interests of the insurance holders.20 Galli21 says transparency is important to governance and business ethics and more so in insurance industry for the sake of trust and long term relationships that are the two cornerstones for this industry. For example, Polborn et al 22 state that regulatory mechanism facilitates “regulatory adverse selection” against insurance industry’s possible adverse selection 23 by the use of genetic information which many governments have banned to be used against the interests of the insured. They say that individuals in the early stages of their lives do not know their level of required insurance and mortality risk until they come to know later in life. They conclude that legislation against use of genetic tests for the purpose of fixing premium rates may increase welfare of the society. As already seen, life insurance contracts in Australia are governed by the Life Insurance Act of 1995 24 of that country. As per section 3, main object of the act is protection of the interests of the life insurance policy holders by ensuring development of a viable insurance industry in Australia. In addition, the act also aims to safeguard the interests of persons to whom benefits accrue as a result of insurance business carried on by the companies. In order to achieve these objectives, the act aims to restrict the life insurance business to companies which can meet prescribed requirements besides imposing requirements such as capital adequacy, solvency requirements so as to ensure that the companies are prudent enough to run their insurance business safely. Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have been authorised to supervise the functioning of life insurance companies among others. The act also provides for judicial management of the life insurance companies so as to ensure against their unsatisfactory management or unsatisfactory financial position thus protecting the interests of policy holders and ensuring a stable financial system in the country. In case of winding up of the companies, there are provisions to protect the interests of the policy holders. Lastly, the act also makes provisions for proper supervision of transfers and amalgamations of life insurance companies undertaken at the instance of the Court. Life Policies The Life Insurance Act stipulates insurance contracts to be based on (1) the condition of payment of an assured sum upon the death of human life or contingent upon continuation or death of human life.(2) on the condition of payment of premiums for a given period until death or continuation of human life, (3) payment of annuity for a period till termination of human life, (4) payment of annuity for a prescribed period, (5) payment for continuous disability (6) payment based on investment account contract and (7) payment based on investment linked contract. Certain contracts of insurance for one year or less that provide for payment of an assured sum on death by accident or as a result of a specified sickness are not considered as life insurance contracts.25 Contract of insurance As per Bunyon26, Tindal CJ has defined the contract of insurance as the one which provides for payment of a lump sum of money by the insurer by undertaking the risk of happening of an event in return for payment of premium paid by the insured. If the event intended is death of human life, the contract is life insurance contract and if it is any other event causing loss, it is a contract of general insurance. Life insurance is a misnomer because such a contract also covers payment of an assured sum upon survival of the assured at the expiry of a fixed term.27 Thus life insurance is a contract for payment of a certain sum of money upon happening of an event which is certain but timing of which is unknown whereas general insurance or non-life insurance is contract for payment of a sum of compensation only if the event contemplated happens and causes loss to the insured property such as fire, accident to living person causing injury or death, any other event such as motor accident, earth quake, floods causing loss to the property. Hence, life insurance is a contract of guarantee since it guarantees payment upon death or survival till the fixed period of time which is certain subject to other conditions like prompt payment of consideration etc. On other hand, non-life insurance is a contract of indemnity since insurer undertakes to pay only upon happening of an event which may or may not happen. In the former, the risk of untimely death is insured and in the latter, risk of happening of an event is insured. 28 In life insurance, the terms insurance and assurance mean the same. In the past, life insurance used the term assurance because it assures to pay on compliance with certain terms and conditions. There was an assurance to pay a certain sum of money. Hence it has become a tradition call life contracts as assurance and general contracts as insurance. 29. As already seen above, in Australia, Commonwealth Government has the non-exclusive power to legislate on insurance. Principal statutes are Life Insurance Act 1995, Insurance Act 1973, Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) and Marine Insurance Act 1909. States also are free to enact, for example insurance Act of 1902 of NSW and Insurance Act of Qld. 30. Insurance Contracts Act 1984 is applicable to insurances contracts except contracts of reinsurance and medical benefits insurance under National Health Act 1953, contracts of insurance by friendly societies or the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, wokrers’ compensation and third party insurance covering death or injury arising out of motor vehicles. This act also does not also apply States’ and Northern Territory which enact for their own insurance businesses undertaken. Thus section 7 of the Insurance Contract Act 1984 (Cth) provides for general laws to be applicable to the insurance contracts except to the extent they are affected by the act expressly or by implication making it clear that the act does not function as an independent code of insurance law. Although gaming or wagering contracts are illegal at common law, insurance contracts akin to wagering agreements are exempted. Insurable interest and utmost good faith make the insurance contracts distinct from other contracts.31 Thus in case of properties being sold, insurable interest passes to the buyer once the contracts are exchanged even though vendor has not completed formalities. Hence any insurance on the party taken by the vendor earlier to the contract and valid for the period in which the vendor is likely to complete the formalities can not be used to claim any loss to the property even though the vendor purports to assign the benefit under the policy. This is based on the premise that once contracts are exchanged, equitable (hence the insurable title) title passes to the buyer and legal title alone remains with the vendor. Thus the buyer having the equitable title is not entitled to claim loss from the insurer if he has not taken insurance after passing of the insurable interest in his favour. He can neither claim under vendor’s policy not the vendor can claim on his own as decided by the High Court in Ziel Nominees pty Ltd v VACC Insurance Co32. However statute law Conveyancing Act 1919 of NSW provides for vesting of vendor’s benefit of insurance once the contracts are exchanged.33 Life Insurance contract is unique in that parties to the contract have unequal bargaining powers. The insurer is liable for any failure to perform whereas the insured cannot be held liable for failure to perform except that the insured may have premiums paid lapse. The reason being the insured’s inability to commit, insurer imposes front-loading of premium sufficiently high to keep the insured committed. This is guided by the theory of dynamic contracting as an insurance contract should have the information on the entire profile of future premiums. The lack of commitment by the consumers decides the contractual design that involves front-loading of premiums (pre-payment) that facilitates lock-in of the insured. (consumers). The higher the front loading, lesser the policy lapsation. The contracts having considerable front-loading, tend to have lower present value of premiums for the entire period coverage. The dynamic contracting theory advocates front-loading that enhances consumer commitment and such front-loaded insurance contracts are capable of tolerating more risks.34 The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). As briefly seen above, the APRA regulates life insurance industry among others such as general insurance, friendly societies, most of the superannuation industry, banks, credit union and building societies. It supervises institutions having assets of over $ 3.4 trillion form about 21 million Australian depositors, policy holders and superannuation members.35 Established in 1998, APRA has been supervising the Life Insurance industry in Australia registered under Life Insurance Act 1995. It is expected to maintain a register of life insurers which at present has 32 life insurance companies in Australia not being Friendly Societies which have separate register.36 The prudential framework comprises mainly of legislation, registration, prudential standards, prudential practice guides and prudential rules made under Life Insurance Act 1995.37 Legislation refers to Life Insurance Act 1995 and Life Insurance Regulations 1995 and others along with APRA’s powers in respect of authorisation and prudential supervision of life companies. Registration refers to registration of life insurance companies which must show that they can meet their obligations to policy owners before APRA can register them as a life insurance company and ensure they continue to comply with the Life Insurance Act 1995. Prudential standards refer to the prudential capital requirement, valuation of policy liabilities, solvency standard, capital adequacy standard, minimum surrender values and paid-up values, cost of investment performance, management capital standard, general standard, risk management, reinsurance, outsourcing, business continuity management, audit and actuarial requirements, contract classification for the purpose of regulatory reporting, fit and proper, consolidation of prudential rules and approved benefit fund requirements. These include some new standards introduced and modified standards with effect from 1 January 2008 and the following have been removed with effect from 1 January 2008 except the last one with effect from 1 April 2007. They are, standards relating to risk management, audit, subsidiaries, guarantees, overseas trading, non-benefit fund based funds management and associated market activities and service contracts. Most important of them are discussed below.38 Prudential Standard No 3- Minimum Capital Under Life Insurance Act 1995, section 230A, following standards known as Prudential Standards No 3 which if not complied with do not constitute an offence but will result in a direction to be given under section 230B. The objective of this standard is to ensure a financial position of a company being reflected by its capital apart from statutory funds of the company. This is to be achieved by prescription of a minimum capital amount in addition to the statutory fund regardless of actuarial standards imposed. Thus with effect from 30 June 2002, a registered life insurance company should maintain a minimum capital of $ 10 million as part of its general fund that refers to the shareholders’ fund distinct from statutory funds of the life company. 50 % of the requirement must be in the form of eligible assets which should be in tangible and readily liquefiable. 39 Prudential Standard LPS 2.04 – Solvency Standard Section 65 of the Life Insurance Act, also called Actuarial Standard 2.04, the solvency standard prescribed by Life Insurance Actuarial Standards Board (LIASB), if not complied with does not constitute an offence but will lead to a direction being give under section 230 B of the Life Insurance Act 1995. With effect from 1 January 2008, the solvency standard shall be the prescribed minimum capital requirement of a statutory fund so as to ensure that company will be in a position to meet its guaranteed obligations to policy owners and other creditors under a range of adverse circumstances. This solvency standard should be disclosed in regulatory and general purpose financial statements indicative of financial position of the company. The standard requires that value of assets and liabilities must be disclosed on a realistic, going concern and market value consistent bases. The solvency standard is not meant for affording absolute security to the policy owners which would not be interest of company’s viability and in turn not in the best interests of the policy owners.40 Prudential standard no LPS 3.04- Capital adequacy standard Section 70 of the Life Insurance Act 1995 prescribes this standard which is not to be disclosed in statutory and general purpose financial statements but to prudential regulating authority on a confidential basis as an important indicator of the long term financial position of the company so as to provide for regulatory monitoring to ensure short term solvency. The three standards are interactive and should be considered together.41 As already stated above, modern insurance is a scientific product theoretically upgraded from time to time offered in different forms for practical usage in the present and near future. To achieve this, regulation by law is necessary. The regulations must be stimulating and not an aggravating factor in the industry’s growth. Quality of legal regulation aids in problem solving and addressing permanent challenges which process is known as cost-benefit analysis.42 Verzone 43 points out the unfair marketing practices of the insurance companies which offer long-term insurance by announcing that regulators are likely to reduce the guarantee period in the near future. They probably do this create fear in the market and trigger rush for long-term policies. Conclusion What distinguish life insurance contract from other contracts are insurable interest, utmost good faith, duty of disclosure and misrepresentation. These are the elements required to be present in an insurance contract in addition to what the traditional common law contracts are required to have. And the intention of the regulatory mechanism is to balance the interests of the policy holders and the insurers who should necessarily be kept within the rig-fence focus which will restrain them with unequal bargaining power from acting against the consumers’ interests. References Act No. 4 of 1995 as amended Annual Report, 2008, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, < http://www.apra.gov.au/AboutAPRA/upload/APRA_AR_2008_complete.pdf> Register of Life Insurers available at < http://www.apra.gov.au/Life/List-of-Registered-Life-Insurance-Companies.cfm > accessed on 9 November 2009 APRA’s and ASIC’s life insurance functions, CCH Online Commentary, available at < http://prod.resource.wkasiapacific.com/resource/scion/document/default/io515364sl15827120 > accessed on 10 November 2009 Bunyon (1914) Bunyon on Life Assurance, 5th ed p 1 CCH Life insurance commentary Galli Giampaola, 2005, Towards a Good Governance in Financial and Insurance Services: Transparency in the Life Insurance Industry in Italy, The Geneva Papers (2005) 30, 443–450., available at < http://www.palgrave-journals.com/gpp/journal/v30/n3/full/2510039a.html>accessed> on 9 November 2009 Gillies Peter, 2004, Business Law, Federation Press pp 138-140 Hendel Igal and Lizzeri Alessandro, 2003, The Role of Commitment in Dynamic Contracts: Evidence from Life Insurance, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 118, No. 1, pp 299-327 Heyland Kjetil and Wallace Stein W, 2001, Analyzing legal regulations in the Norwegian life insurance business using a multistage asset–liability management model, European Journal of Operational Research 134 (2) P293-308 Independent Order of Odd Fellows v Commissioner of Stamps (SA) 85 ATC 4214 ;( 1985) 38 SASR 282 Kenley Monica, 2001, The evolution of the Australian life insurance industry, Accounting, Business & Financial History, Volume 11, Issue 2 July 2001 , pages 145 - 170 Life Insurance Act, 1995, Section 9 Life Insurance and Friendly Societies Home, available at APRA's life insurance and friendly society prudential framework < http://www.apra.gov.au/Life/Life-Insurance-and-Friendly-Society-Prudential-Framework.cfm> accesed on 9 November 2009 Metlife Insurance Ltd v Visy Board Pty Ltd and 25 others, (2007) NSWSC 1481 Morrison Alan D, 2004, Life Insurance: Regulation As Contract Enforcement, Economic Affairs, 24(4), Issue 47-52 NM Superannuation Pty Ltd v Young & Aynor (1993) 7 ANZ Insurance Cases and Fuji Finance Inc v Aetna Life Insurance Ltd (1995) 8 ANZ Insurance Cases in item supra 8 above. Polborn Mattias K, Hoy Michael, and Asha Sadanand, 2006, Advantageous Effects of Regulatory Adverse Selection in the Life Insurance MarketThe Economic Journal, 116 (508) p 327-354 Professional development program, Taxation of life insurance companies. 2004, Life insurance Companies skilling module1- Introduction to life insurance in Australia. available at accessed on 10 November 2009 Prudential Standards No 3, avialble at < http://www.apra.gov.au/Life/upload/PS3-1.pdf>accesed on 9 November 2009 Prudential Standards No LPS 2.04 avialble at < http://www.apra.gov.au/Life/upload/LPS-2-04_Nov2007.pdf > accesed on 9 November 2009 Prudential Standards No LPS 3.04 avialble at < http://www.apra.gov.au/Life/upload/LPS-3-04_Nov2007.pdf > accesed on 9 November 2009 Sain Zelko, 2009, Challenges in Insurance Industry, Interdisciplinary Management Research. %, p 471-479 Sain Zeljko and Selimovic Jasmina, Challenges in insurance industry, Interdisciplinary Management Research V Thorburn Craig, 1999, Australian Supervision of Life Insurance, Enhancing Life Insurance Regulatory Regimes in Asia, An International Symposium, available at < http://www.apec.org.au/docs/thor.pdf > accessed on 9 November 2009 Verzone Ronald D, 1999, Looming change for the worst, Best’s review, 100(7) pg 85 Williamson v. Suncorp Metway Insurance Ltd & Anor [2008] QSC 244 Ziel Nominees pty Ltd v VACC Insurance Co (1975) 7 ALR 667. Zurich Australian Insurance Ltd v Regal Pearl Pty Ltd [2006] NSWCA 328 Read More