{"id":389659,"date":"2026-04-21T01:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389659\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:23:09","slug":"claims-triple-to-countrys-biggest-insurer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389659\/","title":{"rendered":"Claims triple to country’s biggest insurer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A storm hit New Zealand every eight days on average in the last year, causing claims to the country’s largest insurer to more than triple.<\/p>\n

By Kate Newton of RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n

IAG’s Wild Weather Tracker showed there were 46 storms between March 2025 and the end of February this year.<\/p>\n

The company said an increasing number of New Zealanders were aware of the risks of climate change-related events, were taking steps to protect their properties – and wanted more investment in resilience.<\/p>\n

An increasing number of severe weather events were now happening in spring and summer, IAG said – suggesting a shift in overall climate patterns.<\/p>\n

Overall, there were more than 33,000 storm-related claims – covering rain, flood, wind and other damage.<\/p>\n

The most damaging event was the October 2025 storm in Southland<\/a>, where ferocious winds toppled trees and power lines, leaving many homes without power for days.<\/p>\n

State of emergency declared for the region and residents warned again to leave low lying areas.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

More than 5000 people lodged claims with AMI, State and NZI – the three insurance brands underwritten by IAG.<\/p>\n

A nationwide survey commissioned alongside the tracker showed growing awareness and levels of preparation for severe weather.<\/p>\n

The number of respondents who had taken steps to protect their homes against natural hazards had doubled since the 2022 survey, from 40 to 805.<\/p>\n

Almost 60% said they had experienced storm-related anxiety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

IAG climate spokesperson Bryce Davies said the country was now experiencing storms far more often, and with greater severity, than in the past.<\/p>\n

Over 15 years of data, storms – which the tracker defines as a damaging weather event driven by strong winds or intense rainfall – had jumped from about one a month to three or four a month.<\/p>\n

Awareness among ordinary New Zealanders was growing, Davies said.<\/p>\n

“They’re worried about this. 75% of New Zealanders want to see more investment [in managing the risk].<\/p>\n

“We, as a country, have spent a lot of our past responding to events… We’ve not had as much focus as we’ve need to on reducing the risk upfront.”<\/p>\n

There was a mismatch between the current level of concern and the national response to the problem, he said.<\/p>\n

“At the moment it feels very ad hoc, it feels very fragmented, and it doens’t feel like there’s a coherent system that we have as a country for managing and reducing our natural hazard risk.”<\/p>\n

Insurance Council chief executive Kris Faafoi told RNZ earlier this week there need to be greater urgency from the government over how climate adaptation would be funded.<\/p>\n

Davies said people were looking for a “systemic response”.<\/p>\n

“It’s about making sure we’re focused on the real hotspots, where we’re enabling councils to do what they need to do – [that] the planning laws are there, the funding’s there, the guidance is there – there’s a whole range of things we need to put in place.”<\/p>\n

IAG wanted to offer insurance to as many people in New Zealand, for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

Having a coherent response to climate-related hazards “makes our job a hell of a lot easier”, he said.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including more weather damage emerges in Wellington, and charges laid after a girl\u2019s body is found in a car boot. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A storm hit New Zealand every eight days on average in the last year, causing claims to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[390,111,43,139,69,244,3393],"class_list":{"0":"post-389659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-weather-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}