In contrast, the Hohokam tribe in Arizona dug and maintained canals as an irrigation system to facilitate farming in a relatively arid climate. Similarly, the Pueblo peoples used light dams to prevent deep ruts and gullies from forming and redirect the water for agricultural and other purposes. Farmers in dry regions continue use these and other Indigenous practices in order to overcome environmental challenges and preserve natural resources.
Across the Americas, Indigenous populations used controlled fires to manage forests. Over time, trees would grow back in a process known as environmental succession, shifting nutrients from the soil to an organic form. The grasslands of the Midwest and Southwest resulted from swidden agriculture which involves selectively burning forests to use ash as a fertilizer for crops and promote regeneration over time. This practice resulted in the forests that emerged after colonial practices removed Indigenous populations from their land; to this day, those forests cover land in Wisconsin, Illinois, and the Texas Hill Country.
nfu pet insurance claim form 22
NFU Mutual (NFUM) is a UK insurance composite, its directors and executives are directly answerable to customers/policyholders (who own the business) for conduct of business as NFUM is and mutual and so has no shareholders to hold it to account. The full name of the organisation is National Farmers' Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited.
The Midlands Farmers' Mutual Insurance Society Ltd formed in 1910 by seven farmers in Warwickshire. John William Lowe was the first Chair. James Robertson Black was the first secretary. His farmhouse was the first office. In 1912 he became the inaugural Managing Director. He served the society for 42 years becoming vice-Chair in 1946, a post he held to his 1952 death.[6] The first accounts (1911) show income of 311 and profit of 16. In 1919, premiums stood at 4,345 and profit at 1,825.[6]
As early as 1912, the farmers' union in Lincolnshire had approached the directors for advice about forming a mutual insurance company. They were advised to join the mutual in the Midlands that was already in existence.
During this period NFUM employed Sidney Carter to run a film unit. Anyone attending his film shows would be educated by current affairs films and entertained by dramas and documentaries about how they could be covered by insurance, provided of course by NFU Mutual"[6]
During World War Two, a mutual employee named Arthur Scarf was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Scarf came from a Lincolnshire farming family and worked for the Mutual's claims department between the wars.[6]
Former NFUM director John Murray[9] initially approached the five venture capitalists in the hope of launching a bid. One of the reasons this was advanced the opinion that the company was "eroding its value by selling insurance to non-farming customers at knockdown rates"; at the time, windfalls for members of between 20,000 and 25,000 were anticipated.[10] Commenting to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee[11] on the possibility of demutualisation, Andrew Young, the then managing director said:
In 2002, Andrew Young retired and was succeeded by Ian Geden, who came from a farming family near Stratford-upon-Avon and had joined the Mutual as a professional trainee in 1969. He became Group Chief Executive in 2005 when that post was created. During his term, the general insurance premium income grew from 603m to 944m.[6]
In 2008, Lindsay Sinclair became Chief Executive (the first such appointment from outside NFUM),[6] There were reports that NFU Group Secretaries were dissatisfied with his leadership and decision to move away from the farming customer base[12][13] In 2013, Bite Back, a forum for Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists claimed to hacked the company's records; NFUM denied the attack.[14]
In March 2021, Nick Turner took over as the current NFUM's Chief Executive.[17]NFU Mutual had shared in losses of 58million connected with the collapse of Made.com, as reported in August 2022 in The Times.[18] NFUM was named Which? 'Insurance Brand of the Year' for 2022'.[19] Later that year, the business stated that the drought of that summer has seen a huge growth in (to in excess of 500) farm and combine harvester fires reported to it for claims and settlement[20] - such fires cost the mutual around 100 million in the previous year, when incidents were lower.[21] The number of fires was subsequently revised upwards to over 800.[22] That year the Annual report stated:
Following the invasion of Ukraine, NFUM stated it would divest from Russian holdings as soon as practically possible. The business represented it had limited exposure to Russian assets, and stated that therefore the impact on customers and portfolio performance would be limited.[24]
NFU Mutual offers personal insurance products such as home, private motor, pet and travel. They also offer agricultural and commercial insurance to business customers of various sizes.[27] In 1928, NFU Mutual set up a final-salary pension scheme for employees and establish a life assurance business, which wrote more than 100,000 of sums assured in year one.[6]
For example, in 2011, with the Insurance Times quoting an observer as saying: "Ian Leech, sales and agency director, received a mere 21 per cent increase... because he retired two thirds of the way through the calendar year...[43] More recently, in 2022, Irish Farmers Journal reported financial director Richard Morley pocketed 738,000 a year from the business while the current chief executive, Nick Turner, currently CEO, took remuneration of over 1.04 million from the business in 2021.[44][32] The former CEO, Lindsay Sinclair, took 879,444 from the business in 2021.[32] Sinclair's drawings were over 2.5 million annually before he left,[32] a matter about which concerns were renewed in 2019.[38][12]
An Long Term Incentive Plan grant is made each year with performance conditions covering a three year period. Under the rules of the plan the maximum grant for the CEO is an additional 150% of base pay, and 108% for executive directors.
There are around 900,000 members of the NFU Mutual.[46] As NFU Mutual has no shareholders, it represents that a proportion of its profits, if any, are returned to policyholder members in the form of an adjustment on quoted premiums of renewing customers. A claimed discount of between 8.5% and 13.5% (2022/2023) is currently asserted by NFU Mutual (without any external adjudication), which the business brands "Mutual Bonus".[47]
A subsidiary, Avon Insurance, was established in 1925 to provide insurance to non-farming customers,[58] and later specialised in personal accident insurance. Avon closed to new business in 2013.[59] The establishment of this enterprise was opposed by NFU hierarchy and the NFUM directors were required to agree that they would "consult on such matters in future".[6]
During the 2020 pandemic, NFUM claimed it had no liability to meet claims for COVID-19 related business interruption. This has since emerged to be untrue in some cases and still contested in others; more specifically, some policy holders who were initially wrongfully denied payments have already had to be paid,[87][88] while other policyholders are bringing proceedings against the business on the basis that the Financial Conduct Authority test case in 2020 did not conclude all of the issues.[89][90] One policyholder involved said early on: "They have quite happily taken the premiums for the last 15 years but the one time I need it I'm not going to get any help off them ... It's disgusting".[91] By April 2020, the mutual's claims not to owe these policyholders were being questioned in evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.[92]
Trust is important everywhere in insurance ... We have a product which is a promise essentially ... So many people's lives and businesses have been affected in tragic and possibly permanent ways... If you haven't written a policy wording very precisely to protect the insurance company and bring clarity to the consumer, then that is where the problems lie... We [will] have to work to renew trust with certain customers [who feel they have been let down], it will be challenging this is going to run and run ... if [the issues around policies we have sold have put policyholders] into incredibly difficult positions or even administration, nothing is going to put a smile on [their] face[97]
I am aware that NFU Mutual has continued to make such deductions. As stated in my letter, these grants are intended to provide emergency support to businesses at this time of crisis, and it is the Government's firm expectation that they are not to be deducted from business interruption insurance claims... The FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] has also made it clear that it may intervene and take further actions where firms do not appear to be meeting the FCA's expectations and treating their customers fairly[103]
In 2011, an employee of NFU Mutual insurance, Gordon Murray, was jailed for a 400,000 fraud.[107][108] In 2018, Iain Wishlade, an NFU Mutual employee was also jailed for a 129,000 fraud.[109][110]
In 2010, the NFU Mutual brought an action in the High Court, making a claim against HSBC. In the case, (The National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited v HSBC Insurance (UK) Limited [2010] EWHC 773 (Comm)) the NFU Mutual had sought to require HSBC to pay a contribution to the more than 1.8 costs of fire damage to a property that NFU Mutual was insuring for a purchaser after the exchange of contracts. The NFU Mutual lost the case.[115]
In 2016 NFU Mutual sought to force a policyholder to meet a 128,000 bill for damage to a cottage from a water burst, even though she was covered by an insurance policy. The NFU Mutual lost this case in court and was also ordered by Mr Justice Holgate to pay a 100,000 legal costs bill on top of the costs of the damage.[117][118][119] 2ff7e9595c
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