Many people are wary of taking out insurance. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to pay off. But history tells us that it does. The whole point of insurance, beyond the small details, is to ensure that a financial misfortune doesn’t ruin our lives.

As 11Onze agent Pilar Oltra explains, insurance has generated an “uncomfortable” popularity because there is a tendency to think that “we’re taking out smoke and mirrors”. But the reality is that they have been with us since the Middle Ages, when communities began to work together in solidarity to guarantee food.

The Code of Hammurabi, written more than four thousand years ago in Babylon, devoted hundreds of clauses to the bottomry. And around the same time, Chinese merchants shared risks by exchanging goods between their ships in case one of them sank. The earliest surviving maritime policy dates from around 1300 and there is also a regulation of maritime insurance from 1435.

It was in the 17th century that the industry took another leap forward. The first fire insurance company was created in London, and Lloyd’s was also born. It coined the concepts of “insurance, policy and subscriber in documents very similar to those we sign now”, as Oltra explains.

Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it

Insurance protects us against calamities and unforeseen events. That is why, as they say, “it is always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it”. On the one hand, it provides us with “security” in the event of any eventuality that could happen and also lets us “reduce risks in both the personal and professional spheres”, as the 11Onze agent explains. That is why it brings “a lot of peace of mind”.

As Oltra points out, in a world without insurance it would be impossible to rebuild “a building after an accident” and there would be no one to assume “the costs after an earthquake”. “They make it possible for an uncertain world to be lived safely, and this leads citizens to invest and believe in the future”, concludes Pilar Oltra.

The 11Onze agent warns that it is impossible to save money for all unforeseen events and exemplifies this with an exercise in which we would have to put money in different boxes for the problems that could affect our lives, our house, our car… “Make a calculation with the cost of these situations that you or someone you know has suffered. How long would you need to get it? And once you have spent it, do you know when the claim will happen again? I assure you that we would be unable to keep the boxes full at all times,” Oltra concludes.

If you want to discover fair insurance for your home and for society, check 11Onze Segurs.