Security needs generate great demand in the world markets. At a time when scams and accidents occur daily, clients of different services aim for certain guarantees to be provided which promise to support them in the face of certain events. Thus, tourists traveling to a specific country may purchase plane tickets that provide the option of free cancellation or modification in case they are unable to travel on those dates. Although this type of insurance is a complementary option, oftentimes, this type of service requires both parties involved, the provider and the contracting party, to produce and sign an insurance policy which includes the conditions regulating both parties’ expectations and, more importantly, the compensation scheme and the actuation on the part of the insurer in the face of certain events.
In this sense, there are insurance companies which cover several kinds of issues. First, there’s personal cover insurance. Generally, these services include life insurance (in the event of death or disability); personal accident cover (where compensation is paid in the event of an accident, or even death) which are so common in some professions, especially those involving some risk; health insurance (which is responsible for reimbursing the expenses related to health services or at least a percentage of them) and dependency insurance (for those affected by some kind of diagnosed physical/psychological limitation). On the other hand, we can find insurance against damages or violations concerning property. This type of insurance spans many areas, and covers car insurance (both the minimum compulsory third party insurance to be able to circulate as well as those which are complementary to get greater coverage or compensation in cases of less frequent damages), engineering insurance (for damages caused by natural phenomena), theft (which include burglary with violence or intimidation), transport (for goods), fire, home or civil liability insurance. And last but not least, there’s insurance related to the provision of services, where we find travel assistance insurance, death insurance (for the expenses related to the processing of a funeral) and legal defense insurance, which cover expert assessment. Of course, there are other less typical and quite odd insurance policies, such as insuring body parts, or insuring the organizers of an event, for example, in the case of cancellation of a competition due to adverse conditions (e.g., let’s imagine that we have booked a flight and a hotel stay in another country to assist a sports event and this is canceled; there’s even insurance for golf event promoters which covers them in the event that they have to pay prize money to a player that makes a hole-in-one).
All of this is proof that insurance products have a large scope and with a tremendous presence at international level, since these are sometimes applied between different countries, especially when framed in the tourist sector. Therefore, insurance companies are established as one of the biggest clients of language services, which is why we can talk about a specific market for this sector and the need for expert translation profiles.
Insurance companies generate a large amount of paperwork, mostly belonging to the legal and technical fields. Among them, we can find the drafting of insurance policy conditions, contract clauses, general legal terms, but also accident claims, financial reports, written statements and recorded statements by the parties involved in an event, attached medical reports, clinical records and all kinds of invoices, as well as all the advertising material that the company generates to promote their services across different channels (social media, TV, digital media, etc.). All these kind of materials highlight the fact that this is a sector which is bound to use different translator profiles according to specific needs, but which always require a high level of expertise and thoroughness, as the scope of content of these documents can have very significant repercussions at economic and legal level for the parties involved. Although insurance companies are normally only meant to produce their materials in the official language of the country in which they operate, the truth is that facilitating these same materials in the mother languages of their respective foreign clients entails a series of advantages, as this generates greater trust and therefore, a potential income increase. It’s a well-known fact that consumers are more inclined when suppliers localize the products they offer to their respective languages. This becomes even more important when the product on offer is security, coverage and legal representation, where all conditions must be clear before signing on the dotted line. Likewise, we could include interpretation services in this section, to provide assistance both on the phone (when there is a specific accident or event) and in person, in the context of legal proceedings.
As such, insurance companies must search for translation agencies or professionals who can follow translation workflows which include specialized translators and rigurous quality controls, such as a second party review and proofreading. Another feature that has a positive impact is that the company’s been awarded some kind of official certification. On the other hand, this kind of client is usually interested in imposing considerations concerning the confidentiality of the processed data, and occasionally, they manage these projects using sworn translations. The key feature is to show the utmost transparency and professionalism, since this is a market with many open doors.
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