Insurers axe dividend payments

Sue58

Aviva, Direct Line Hiscox and RSA have all axed dividend payments. Legal & General are still insisting they will pay their dividend.

worldtraveller

Is that really a surprise to anyone?

A dividend payment is largely a distribution of profits, so this news, and company policy, is surely expected from the vast majority of companies now, and in, at the very least, the short term, for sure.

That said, I'll be very interested to see, and will be watching, very closely, the salaries, and any bonuses, paid to the top management of any companies I'm invested in currently, to make sure that they're not hoodwinking, and/or taking the **** out of their shareholders in this crisis! 

Thrugelmir

Unlikely L&G will pay a dividend for this current financial year though. 

nottsphil

No doubt the losses will be heavily subsidised by the huge gains they must be making from a collapse in claims from motorists. Just like a proportion of VED finding its way into non motoring related expenditure, it's the motorist who will be paying. 

george4064

nottsphil said:

No doubt the losses will be heavily subsidised by the huge gains they must be making from a collapse in claims from motorists. Just like a proportion of VED finding its way into non motoring related expenditure, it's the motorist who will be paying. 

On the flip side (and a slightly more morbid note), a lot of insurance policies that pay out at death will be paying out at the moment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Moe_The_Bartender

george4064 said:

nottsphil said:

No doubt the losses will be heavily subsidised by the huge gains they must be making from a collapse in claims from motorists. Just like a proportion of VED finding its way into non motoring related expenditure, it's the motorist who will be paying. 

On the flip side (and a slightly more morbid note), a lot of insurance policies that pay out at death will be paying out at the moment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

And annuities will stop paying.

Reaper

george4064 said:

On the flip side (and a slightly more morbid note), a lot of insurance policies that pay out at death will be paying out at the moment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Actually no. At least so far the death rate has been very low. Approx 7,000 compared to 17,000 average annual UK deaths from seasonal flu.

What's more the 7,000 is artificially high as most of those would have died anyway as they were already extremely ill. The UK's scientific adviser guessed half to 2/3rds of those included in the stats would have died anyway. More accurate figures are available from a study of Italian death certificates which reveal only 12% of those in the Corvid-19 statistics actually died from the disease (though admittedly it may have shortened their final days).

The annual seasonal flu figures on the other hand are adjusted such that that figure is only those that died above the normal rate.

What's more it seems reasonable to assume the seasonal flu deaths this year will be much lower than usual due to all the social isolation, offsetting the Corvid-19 ones.

I have no idea what the final death toll will be, but at present the insurance payouts for deaths will not be making any impact. I suspect other insurance (eg holiday) will be much more of an issue.

Thrugelmir

Moe_The_Bartender said:

george4064 said:

nottsphil said:

No doubt the losses will be heavily subsidised by the huge gains they must be making from a collapse in claims from motorists. Just like a proportion of VED finding its way into non motoring related expenditure, it's the motorist who will be paying. 

On the flip side (and a slightly more morbid note), a lot of insurance policies that pay out at death will be paying out at the moment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

And annuities will stop paying.

More property will come onto the market.