Multiple disasters and catastrophes that occurred during the last several months and that coincided with the current economic downturn have made many problems more acute. Unsolved problems have considerably affected the negative economic consequences of these sad events. One such unsolved problem in modern Russia is civil liability insurance.

We lag behind the rest of the civilized world in this aspect because leaders of Russia have long misunderstood the complex nature of the financial institute of insurance, which involves enormous financial resources. They did not know (or did not care to know) that in other countries the institute of insurance plays an important social and economic function of stabilizing and maintaining balanced economy, helping protect entrepreneurs and citizens from unforeseen economic losses due to those or other unfavorable developments. The budgets of any city, country, or economy sector cannot include an article to compensate for damages related to natural calamities, human mistakes and other adverse events.

If the Russian insurance sector began with the civil liability insurance, many mistakes could have been avoided. The Russian mentality would change to that of “responsibility for all and for everything.” This would mean that if there should be a fire or a flood, or should there occur any health damage or material damage to any third party, the insurance company would compensate this damage in accordance with the policy terms and conditions. No “human mistake insured events” lines would have to be entered into the budget, etc.

In our city of St. Petersburg recently a 14-year girl was badly scalded by hot water after a hot water pipe broke; utilities enterprises did not assure safety of passers-by as they removed snow and ice from rooftops, which resulted in a severe trauma of a young woman who walked by. In both cases the victims will need long-term expensive treatment and seeking to compensate these damages will most likely turn into a lengthy legal process.

These are only a couple of widely publicized cases, which must be added to many cases of damaged cars and other individual and company property. Human health was also in danger in many ways.

We believe that if the guilty parties had had civil liability insurance, this would have allowed to compensate the damage fully in very short time with no lengthy litigation.

Therefore, it remains one of the most important goals at the local level and federal level to develop a system of civil liability insurance in the broadest sense of the word, which would become an important point in the program of modernizing the Russian economy.

Joint-Stock GUIDEH Insurance Company was founded in St. Petersburg in February, 1993. The English were our first teachers and they invented the Company’s name as well.

From the very beginning the Company focused on close cooperation with foreign partners, particularly the oldest insurance corporation – Lloyd’s of London. As a result of that partnership, the founder of Robert Bruce Fitzmaurice (an insurance broker of Lloyd’s of London) – Fitzmaurice Management Ltd has become GUIDEH’s shareholder. Therefore GUIDEH’s name for a long time had been the Joint-Stock GUIDEH Russian-British Insurance Company.

GUIDEH’s first large customers have been: Procter&Gamble, restaurant Nevskie Melodii, plant Kombinat imeni Stepana Rasina, Research and Production Association NPO Positron, the hotel Rus’, Joint Venture SP LenVest, poultry plant Nevskaya, private protection agency Argus, Limited Liability Partnership Modul’, Marine Cargo Terminal Petersburg.

To improve the customer service Company set up Moscow and North-Western regional Representative offices. In 1998 GUIDEH purchased two offices of more than 500 m in area in the center of St. Petersburg (2; 4; Hersonskaya ul.). As the business expanded, in 2007 the headquarters of GUIDEH Company moved to the business-center Alexandrovsky (39, Hersonskaya ul.). The Company’s headcount presently makes up 200 persons.

License of Federal Insurance Supervision Service of Russia permits GUIDEH Insurance Company to carry out almost all insurance lines. Thereby our managers will tailor an appropriate insurance program to the needs of even sophisticated customer. Actually, the Company’s major guideline is to meet customer’s needs. The infrastructure of the Company’s claim department constantly develops and improves.

The Company owns the auto-service station; its qualified auto maintenance provided for insured vehicles combines with the comfortable claim service and appropriate repairing time. There were reached the agreements with the other auto-service stations dealing with almost all existing vehicle brands. There is also a Health Care Center fitted especially for GUIDEH Voluntary Health Insurance Programs, located at 22, Moskovsky pr., and providing health care programs for both adults and children; 24/7 multifunctional dispatcher service receives more than a hundred calls a day from the persons insured.

To provide a comfortable lodging of nonresident children and their parents for the time of medical examination and treatment in the Child Center of Closed Joint-Stock Company Policlinicheskiy Complex, we offer an accommodation in our well-equipped mini-hotel, situated not far from the Child Center.

To protect the major lines of business GUIDEH Reinsurance Department successfully cooperates with the world’s leading reinsurers. The list of reinsurers changes annually, but nevertheless it always includes only major companies, with business solvency being confirmed and highest rates being received by the most famous rating agencies.

GUIDEH Company is proud of its unassailable reputation that saves explanations: 80 percent of our new customers come from referrals – the holders of our policies. We would like to emphasize that actually today GUIDEH is the only one insurance company in St. Petersburg insurance market that lived up its reputation and kept customers’ credit during the crisis.

As from the founding of the Company and so far GUIDEH has been directed by its Chief Executor Officer Tatyana M. Gai.