Life insurers join Haiti aid effort

Two major life insurers are providing disaster relief to Haiti by making donations to the earthquake-ravaged republic. New York Life Insurance Co. today said it will donate $100,000 toward relief efforts in Haiti, giving the money to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund for Haiti. At the same time, New York Life will match employee, retiree and agent contributions of up to $150,000. The company also pointed out seven other charitable organizations to which employees and agents can turn for donations and matching contributions from New York Life: AmeriCares Foundation Inc., Care USA, Heart to Heart International Inc., Save the Children Federation Inc., the United Nations’ World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Way Worldwide Disaster Fund. In all, New York Life will donate up to $400,000. Also, the Northwestern Mutual Foundation, the charitable arm of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., announced that it will donate $100,000 to the American Red Cross. Haiti, however, is unlikely to see much in the way of payouts from property/casualty insurers. At least 90% of Haiti’s insured risks are based in its capital Port-au-Prince — near the epicenter of the 7.0 magnitude quake — but property/casualty coverage is scanty. Insurance penetration in Haiti is only around 0.28% of its gross domestic product, according to Risk Management Solutions Inc., a risk-modeling firm. The crisis, however, has triggered an $8 million payout to Haiti from The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, an insurance pool made up of Caribbean nations to help buffer the cost of a crisis.