WHO do you blame when a giant wave knocks down your home? That’s what happened to this house in Banda Aceh, Sumatra, on 26 December 2004, and insurers would usually have gone straight to the top, pointing the finger of legal blame at God in order to excuse themselves from paying up. In fact, most insurers disregarded the “act of God” exclusion clause that is routinely built into travel insurance policies, at least, and honoured claims made by travellers caught up in the disaster. But acts of God make many natural-disaster experts uncomfortable.
Why? Because it implies helplessness. In insurance…
