This post is a follow up to the all-members email I sent out on October 16, 2024. The information contained is based on my research following discussions at the September ACTAA committee meeting and the NSFC October committee meeting.
If you read the attached email you will notice that I couldn’t get any information from the MAAA on how they decide their policy to cover the excess payment on second subsequent claims.
If you have doubts about the accuracy of any of the information contained in this post please feel free to undertake your own research and post the results as comments appended to this post.
Hello everyone,
The following is provided for information to supplement previous discussions.
After we discussed the MAAA insurance cover briefly at our September committee meeting I decided to follow up to see what the MAAA insurance actually covers. As Mitch mentioned, the current MAAA insurance was arranged through V-Insurance (https://vinsurancegroup.com/maaa/) and they provide comprehensive details on their website detailing what is covered. So to summarise:
(1) Property Insurance – is available but requires a separate premium that is paid by the club
(2) Individuals, Members and Officials – covers Public Liability, Professional Indemnity and Personal Accident. Personal accident only covers ages 2 to <90 years with a reduce cover from age 75 to 90 years. There is a $5000 excess (see the attachment individuals.pdf for a comprehensive summary)
(3) Clubs – covers Public Liability, Personal Accident, Cyber Liability and Association Liability. As with the individual insurance, the coverage applies to ages 2 years to 90 years with reduced cover from 75 to 90 years and there is also a $5000 excess (see the attachment clubs.pdf for a comprehensive summary).The MAAA also has 2 MOPS (https://www.maaa.asn.au/mops) that talk about the insurance cover:
(1) “MOP042 Policy for Visitor Insurance at Flying Fields” discusses third party insurance and is designed to cover ” … “bona fide” visitors, Honorary Members as well Education Visitors. This is to allow prospective members to attend/visit a club to assess their facilities and decide if they would like to join. It is not intended to cover non-members.”
(2) “MOP057 Insurance Conditions” discusses MAAA policy on non-affiliate members, sanctioned events, flying venues, insurance excess, FPV, self guided model aircraft and UAVs. On the question of insurance excess MOP057 says “… individual members lodging a public liability claim will be required to contribute $500 towards the excess payment (or make contribution of $500 towards payment of the claim if the MAAA Executive determines that no claim is to be made on the MAAA Insurance policy). … the MAAA may impose the full $5,000 excess payable for continued damage to specific
third party property in the event that no preventative action is undertaken by the club to
reduce the risk …”.I also queried some specifics with Rhyll who received some more detail from V-Insurance as follows:
(1) Regarding the $5000 excess on personal insurance Public and Product Liability I asked about the factors that may affect the MAAA subsidy and got the response “Correct, a $5,000 will apply for any one Occurrence or series of Occurrences arising from one originating cause.”
(2) Regarding the change in insurance benefits for those over 75 years I received the response “The benefit for Accidental Death and Disablement is reduced to $20,000 for those over 75 yrs ($100,000 for those under 75 yrs). The Weekly Injury Benefits will be unavailable for those over 75 yrs.”
(3) On the question of the cover for clubs, I got the response “The distinction is that clubs will have insurance protection for claims made against the club’s legal liabilities. Clubs cover their Directors, Officers, and their committee members, including coverage for club’s events, shows and the club’s property / contents.
Whereas cover for members will focus on the liability and personal protection of its members during aeromodelling and sanctioned special interests’ activities.
Both categories work together to ensure that all aspects of the aeromodelling community (individuals and the club) are adequately protected during their activities.”
Please note that in the response to the clubs cover question above it mentions “property / contents”, given that property insurance requires a separate premium paid by the club I am not sure what this comment means exactly.
I hope this information supplements our discussion at the committee meeting and the notes included in the minutes of the meeting. As usual it is best to go to the source documents for the exact details on coverage, claims process etc. All of this information is in the public domain so feel free to discuss it with your club membership.
Regards,
Neil
Email dated 01/10/2024 from ACTAA Secretary to all ACTAA affiliated clubs.
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Neil Muller
ACTAA Secretary