When it comes to any voluntary insurance, the “same old story” begins, the newspaper notes. As if, their capitalist habits are alien to us. But it is not so. About 30-40 years ago the USSR insurance market was one of the largest and most developed in the world. By 1985, there were 23 types of state insurance: 14 property and 9 personal types. 85 million people (more than 25% of the USSR population) used life insurance (including cumulative). This market has been lost along with the old system.
“After the collapse of 1991 with huge hyperinflation, people lost almost all their savings, not only their insurance, but also bank deposits, anything. Savings depreciated at the time, - says Maxim Chernin, the Chairman of the Committee for Development of Life Insurance of the All-Russian Union of Insurers. - When such crises occur, it instantly hits financial instruments, especially such long-term as life insurance. In the genetic memory, people still have the feeling "I will invest money, and they will be lost".
This argument is confirmed by statistics. According to a NAFI study, only 30% of Russians trust in insurance companies today. And experts do not know what to do with this prejudice. There is a law of behavioral economics: you plan your future for as many years ahead as have passed since the last financial crisis. In Russia, they occur every 8-10 years. In the US and in Europe, the frequency is the same, but the scale is smaller. Bubbles burst in specific markets: mortgage, internet companies. The depreciation of the national currency at times was not there for a long time. That is why they have the habit of investing money on the long term basis.
Also, as "Komsomolskaya Pravda" notes, a steady myth has developed in people’s minds that they will have to wheedle the money out of the insurance company. And, there is no guarantee they will get it. The insurance companies do not actually hurry to give up on money. It is not about double-dealing, the experts explain. Our people still believe that the contract can be skimmed, or even worse, signed blind. An insurance contract is always a set of services and a very wordy legal document.
- Most controversial situations arise due to the lack of contract understanding. For example, a car can be insured only against theft, but it is also possible to insure it against damage. The house can be insured only from fire, but it is possible to insure it from falling trees, problems with the foundation. Such peculiarities will affect the refusal of payment when it turns out that this risk was not insured. In addition, the policyholder may not comply with the deadline for reporting an accident or taking measures to prevent the risk. For example, the car should be equipped with signaling system, but it was not. Or a tourist did not include climbing activities in the insurance policy, but decided to climb Elbrus, - explains Alexander Tsyganov, a professor at the Financial University at the Government of the Russian Federation. - This often causes confusion as an insurance contract can have the same name with a different set of insured risks and exceptions to them.
The publication also notes that almost half of Russians (40%) do not plan their lives. These are the polls of RPORC. The study was conducted in 2010 and before that in 1990; and everywhere the percentage of absent-minded people was the same. “We often postpone solving important problems, hoping for luck or miracle. A pragmatic European will hardly understand this behavior,” the newspaper notes. - However, this habit indicates that we are optimists by nature. We chase out the thoughts of death, accident, fires and other cataclysms hoping we can avoid them.”
Valery Fedorov, the General Director of Russian Public Opinion Research Center (RPORC), suggests that this is a consequence of our turbulent and contradictory time, when a person does not know today what will happen tomorrow. Or it is the Russian psyche special feature.
He noted that one of the most important indicators of society’s level of development, stability and comfort is the planning horizon. If a person is able to plan for several years ahead, this is an indicator of the quality of this society and the fact that people are comfortable living in it.
Perhaps, insurance in our country is not popular because the majority of Russians simply did not reach the level of welfare that they would like to seriously protect, notes kp.ru.
