Once the dust settles, the final bill for yesterday's terrorist attack on America could reach over $30bn.
With the total death toll estimated at around 10,000 people, the issue of liability is “terrifying” for both life and general insurers in the industry.
Brian Bendle, director of CBC UK, said: “The disaster will affect property, workers compensation, EL, PL and ‘keyman' insurance but it will be the pensions that will be the most dramatic. Insurers are terrified because the World Trade Centre housed some of the world's senior executives who like top floor offices, with seven figure salaries and eight figure pensions.
All those pension funds at one hit will be catastrophic for the industry.
“Say the death toll is 10,000 with 5% of that total high salaried executives, plus the fact that the World Trade Centre's and the surrounding district would have had some of the most expensive and sophisticated technology in the world, then we are talking billions of losses.
“Looking at the final cost, any natural disaster such as Hurricane Andrew bears no comparison. This event will dwarf all previous claims,” he said.
Analysts are assuming there are at least 400 airline passengers killed when the four planes crashed. At $100m per plane and roughly $5m per passenger, the claims could reach $2.5 billion. The World Trade Centre's estimated worth is £1.5bn.
John Percy-Davis of Alexander Forbes agrees the final cost
