What 68 Years in Insurance Taught Us About Crises

Lessons from Fires, Floods, Pandemics, and Human Behaviour

After nearly seven decades in the insurance industry, one truth becomes unavoidable:
crises evolve, but human behaviour does not.

Insurance history is not a timeline of disasters.
It is a study of how people react when assumptions collide with reality.

From fires and floods to geopolitical disruptions and global pandemics, crises have one thing in common. They expose decisions made long before the event itself.

Crises in Insurance Are Not Events. They Are Patterns.

Search engines love the word crisis.
Experienced insurers understand the word pattern.

What appears sudden is often familiar:

• Property damage caused by underestimated exposure

• Business interruption overlooked until operations stop

• “Standard insurance policies” failing in non-standard situations

In insurance, crises rarely come from unknown risks.
They come from risks that were known, ignored, or misunderstood.

The Myth of the “Unprecedented” Insurance Crisis

Every major insurance loss is described the same way:
“No one could have seen this coming.”

History disagrees.

Floods follow geography.
Fires follow construction and maintenance.
Pandemics follow human movement.

What changes is not the risk, but the confidence that it will not happen again.

Insurance experience teaches a hard lesson:
most crises are not unprecedented.
They are postponed.

Why Insurance Fails When It Matters Most

From an SEO perspective, people search for:

• “Why insurance claims get rejected”

• “Does insurance really cover this?”

• “What went wrong with my policy?”

From experience, the answer is consistent.

Insurance fails when it is bought for reassurance instead of relevance.

Policies are often selected based on:

• Price instead of exposure

• Templates instead of advice

• Familiar wording instead of real understanding

Paper coverage does not equal real protection.

Experience vs Time in the Insurance Industry

Longevity alone does not create expertise.
Exposure does.

True insurance experience is built through:

• Managing large loss claims

• Seeing identical mistakes across decades

• Watching the same wording fail in different crises

A policy written for one country, one building type, or one era rarely transfers cleanly to another.

Insurance is not universal.
Risk is local.

The Difference Between Insurance Sales and Insurance Advice

This distinction becomes visible only during crises.

Sales-driven insurance focuses on:

• Speed

• Volume

• Comfort language

Advisory insurance focuses on:

• Asking uncomfortable questions

• Removing unnecessary coverage

• Saying no when protection would be misleading

Over 68 years, one pattern repeats clearly:
the most resilient policies are not the most comprehensive.
They are the most deliberate.

What Long-Term Insurance Experience Really Teaches

It teaches restraint.

No insurer predicts every crisis.
No policy survives untouched.
No system is perfect.

But experienced insurers understand this:
insurance is not about eliminating risk.
It is about preserving functionality when systems are under stress.

Why Experience Matters More Than Innovation Alone

Technology improves speed.
Data improves pricing.
Experience improves judgment.

In moments of crisis, judgment outweighs everything else.

That is why insurers with long institutional memory approach risk differently.
They design coverage for reality, not optimism.

Final Thought: Insurance as Crisis Literacy

After 68 years, the lesson is not about disasters.
It is about literacy.

Understanding risk.
Understanding behaviour.
Understanding consequences before they arrive.

That is what experience quietly provides.

CAN Sigorta
Insurance that protects, not sells.