MONEY INSURANCE
An insurance on your money may sound vain, but big businessmen often have large sums of money either in their house safes or in transit. You may be carrying huge sums of money to the bank, post office, office or any other place where the money is needed. There is always a fear of robbery or theft during such a conveyance and burglary at homes, as you may have read in the local newspaper several times. It is at such times that you might want to buy a money insurance or cash insurance to protect your hard-earned money.
Benefits Of Money Insurance
You may need to insure your cash in the following circumstances
- Suppose you are carrying cash from your bank to the factory to distribute wages to the workers. If your vehicle is waylaid and you are robbed of the money, you will have no way to get back your earnings except through an insurance payment. The police may or may not find the culprits and get your money back, but an insurance is a surer way to retrieve at least a part of your money.
- You may be robbed when you are carrying cash from your home or office to the bank or any financial institution for safe depositing. Money insurance ensures that you get your money back through insurance claim.
- If you have money stored in your home safe overnight or over a bank holiday, and your house is burgled, then money insurance will be helpful in getting back the amount.
- If you are a banking institution and you are carrying cash to deposit in an ATM, you could be robbed. Cash insurance protects you against this loss.
- The premium amounts are affordable and justifiable as protection to your cash.
The sum assured will depend on the following main points
- Maximum liability of a company for a loss (single carrying limit)
- Approximate amount that may be in transit during a year
- The actual amount in transit/safe
- The cash amount insured should, of course, be legitimate and declared with the Income Tax Department for you to avail a money insurance. The insurance policy has to be renewed at least once a year.
Money Insurance Covers
Money insurance protects your cash equivalents such as:
- Cash
- Bank Drafts
- Currency Notes
- Treasury Notes
- Cheques
- Postal Orders
- Current Postage Stamps
The money is protected in the following circumstances, against events such as robbery, burglary, theft, hold-up, kidnapping or other unexpected circumstances:
- Cash or cash equivalent in transit
- Money in safe deposits in banks or on your home premises.
- The policy can be extended at a higher premium to include risks from fraud, infidelity of employees, terrorism, disbursement risks, and foreign currency coverage. You can also get extra protection for assault on the authorized cash-carrying person during the theft or robbery, leading to death or disability of the person.
Money Insurance Exclusions:
The following reasons for loss of cash are usually not considered for payout claims by most insurance companies in India, unless any specific event is covered under the terms of the policy:
- Shortage in cash due to error or omission
- Losses due to the fraud/dishonesty of the employee entrusted with the money
- Losses covered by other policies
- Loss or damage due to riot, strike, civil commotion
- Loss or damage due to flood, cyclone, earthquake and other natural disasters, and wars and terrorism
- Loss or damage due to misplaced or duplicated keys to a safe that held the cash, unless it is a case of robbery where the keys were forcefully taken
- Loss because the money was given to an unauthorized person or a carrier/courier
- Loss when the person insured or an employee is either the principal or accessory, unless the dishonesty is discovered within 2 days
- Loss when the money was being carried under contract of affreightment
- If the money was kept at home or office premises 48 hours after being withdrawn from a bank
- Loss when the money was not kept in a safe or strong-room
- Loss due to legal liability
- Inexplicable disappearance of money
- Theft from an unsecured vehicle
List Of Companies Providing Money Insurance:
The following insurance companies are among those that offer money insurance in India:
- The New India Assurance Co. Ltd
- Bharati AXA
- L&T Insurance
- United India Insurance Company Ltd.
- SBI General Insurance
- HDFC Ergo
- ICICI Lombard
- Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.
- Reliance General Insurance
Money Insurance Claim Process
To make an insurance claim on your loss of money under the circumstances approved in your offer document, you need to follow the below steps:
- Give a call to the insurance company’s customer care and intimate them of the claim. Later, as soon as possible, submit the claim form.
- Lodge a complaint at the nearest police station and obtain the First Incident Report (FIR).
- Within 14 working days, send to the insurance company a detailed statement with complete information of the loss or damage, with an estimate of the intrinsic value of the money lost or an estimate of the damage sustained.
- If the money was lost or robbed while an authorized person was carrying the money and the person/s carrying the amount died during the robbery, post-mortem should be conducted on the body and report submitted to the insurance company.
- All documentary evidence of the loss or damage to the cash or cash equivalent needs to be provided.
This may include:
- Claim intimation report
- Claim form
- Police FIR
- Final Investigation Report by the police
- Documents proving the cause of loss
- Documents proving the extent of loss
- Daily record of the amount of cash contained in the safe or strong-room and in transit