How we do it:
The Club is governed by its Members
Shipowners' Board of Directors draws on the expertise of a wide cross-section of the Membership. At their quarterly meetings, the Directors decide on the Club's general policy on calls, scope of cover, claims and investment policy. The diversity of their commercial and geographical knowledge ensures that Shipowners meets the particular needs of its Members.
The day-to-day operation of the Club is handled by a team of professional Managers. Unlike many P & I Clubs the management company, Shipowners Protection Ltd., is wholly owned by the Club and is only concerned with the management of the Club. This focus has enabled us to develop extensive knowledge of your needs - the challenges you face, the cover you require and the service you expect. As Managers of a mutual association we act on behalf of our Members. We look for reasons to pay a claim rather than exclude it and, once settled, we pay swiftly. We are similarly robust in helping you deal with third party claimants. In all situations we assign a Member of our expert claims handling team to handle each claim personally.
We react fast to your claims and other queries. In most cases you can turn to the broker or your local Club correspondents for immediate help in handling any claims that may arise. Should you need to contact our office in London you will find us on call 24 hours a day - with our home phone numbers available for contact during out of office hours.
Investment Policy
Although we aim to process claims as swiftly as possible many claims take time to be settled. This means we always hold substantial funds in reserve. The Directors oversee the professional management of these funds, ensuring a secure rate of growth to benefit all Members.
Sharing Exposure
Shipowners' enables you to share your liability with many others so minimising your individual risk. Our much larger Membership brings greater stability to the Club as a whole.
It makes sense to share liability with others of similar type. When you entrust your third party liability to Shipowners' you can be confident your fellow Members are of similar size and character. For example there is no danger of sharing liability with a VLCC.
Each year we estimate the total premium cost for each Member in advance, taking partial payment in the form of an advance call and then later, should the year's actual claims demand it, take in an additional call. Calls are minimised by reinsurance and by our expertise in forecasting costs.
As Members of the International Group of P & I Clubs Shipowners' is supported by the 'pooling' of claims between Clubs which, together, insure over 90% of the world's ocean-going tonnage. Through this support - as well as our substantial reinsurance programme - we are protected from major fluctuations in claims. We can therefore offer Members more security from the effects of large claims and also stability in premium rates.
Naturally you want to know the cost of your insurance in advance. Change makes budgeting difficult, yet mutuality must entail some degree of uncertainty. Our task is to contain this uncertainty - and the Shipowners' frequent avoidance of additional calls shows our ability to deliver stable, cost-effective cover.
Our history of financial stability demonstrates our accuracy of assessing risks - and our restriction of Membership to those who bring acceptable risks.
*Ask your broker
