Emergency Contact Renewal 2018/2019 Home Latest updates News Renewal 2018/2019 30 Nov 2017 Download Sign up for alerts In our Half Year Report, it was noted that the Club had achieved a positive underwriting result, reporting a 99.3% combined ratio. The Board noted that during the third quarter there had been ongoing pressure on income and that claims activity had continued in line with the first half of the year, which included enhanced activity of claims reported by Clubs to the International Group through the Pooling mechanism. This may be an indication of an uplift in global claims activity, and a returning to higher utilisation in shipping. The Club therefore anticipates an underwriting result close to breakeven for the year. Investments The Club’s return on investments has been ahead of expectations and as a result an overall surplus for the year is expected. The ability to utilise reserves is a unique feature of mutuality and, by maintaining a strong financial position, the Club is able to address any future underwriting imbalance. This facet allows us to offer Members stable premiums, as is reflected by both our supplementary call record and our history of the lowest general premium increases. 2018 Financial year Looking ahead to 2018, premium income and claims are broadly expected to be in line with 2017. However, it is anticipated that the strengthening of sterling against the US dollar will impact the expenses incurred in managing the Club. It has also been noted that the catastrophic losses experienced from natural disasters earlier this year are likely to cause a slight hardening of the reinsurance market. Such factors will inevitably place pressure on achieving a technical underwriting balance for 2018. Therefore at present, the Club anticipates a small underwriting deficit on the 2018 financial year. 2018 General increase While the Club has a policy of underwriting to a breakeven position, the Board recognise the strong financial position of the