Right at the core of an insurance broker’s remit is showing prospective policyholders the need for coverage – in other words, letting them know why they should go ahead and buy. Now a survey commissioned by terrorism reinsurer Pool Re has shone a spotlight on the other side of the equation, revealing businesses’ reasons for not taking out a policy.

Citing data from Comres, which conducted the poll on behalf of the UK-backed mutual, a report by City A.M. named the following as among the issues: the expectation that their existing insurance covers terrorism-related losses, with 20% of respondents pointing to this reason; as well as the “very small” chances of the policy being claimed upon, with 22% seeing this as a reason not to get covered.

Perhaps what’s more interesting to note is the reason cited by 25% of businesses – not knowing they can actually purchase terrorism insurance. The Pool Re survey also found that 81% of organisations in the UK either do not have coverage or do not know whether they do.

“These figures demonstrate the knowledge gap on terrorism insurance that UK businesses must address to ensure we are as resilient as possible to the secondary effects of terrorism,” the report quoted Pool Re chief executive Julian Enoizi as saying.

“We aim to promote the broadest possible take-up of terrorism insurance policies, and thus help UK businesses be better protected from damage to their business should the worst happen.”