Concept

It grows tax deferred, belongs to the policyholder, and can be accessed by withdrawal up to basis, by policy loan, or by full surr...

Primary beneficiaries come first, contingent beneficiaries receive only if no primary survives, and per stirpes wording passes a d...

During this period the insurer can investigate and deny a claim for material misrepresentation, even unintentional ones such as an...

If payment arrives within the window nothing changes. If it does not, a life policy may lapse or trigger automatic premium loans t...

Contributions are deductible, growth is untaxed, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax free, a combination no oth...

After the cap is reached the insurer pays 100 percent of covered in network claims for the rest of the plan year. The ACA sets cei...

Actual cash value pays the depreciated worth of a lost item, so a 15 year old roof might return a fraction of reroofing cost, whil...

Programs score mileage, time of day, hard braking, phone use, and speed patterns, offering discounts that can reach 30 to 40 perce...

Structures range from single parent pure captives through group captives to rented cells. The appeal is retaining underwriting pro...

Formal retention uses reserves, letters of credit, and for employee benefits, self funded health plans run under ERISA with stop l...

The form traces to the mutual fire societies of the eighteenth century and remains dominant in US property casualty, with several ...

Risks that go surplus lines include tough classes such as nightclubs, demolition contractors, and cannabis operations, unusual lim...

Staff adjusters work for insurers, independent adjusters contract to carriers especially in catastrophe surges, and public adjuste...

The premium must cover expected claims, expenses such as commissions, taxes, and operations, and leave a margin, averaged over poo...

Higher deductibles cut premiums because they filter small claims and share cost, so raising an auto deductible from 250 to 1,000 d...

Life underwriting uses medical exams, labs, prescription histories, motor vehicle records, and financial justification for the fac...

Actuaries combine probability, statistics, and financial mathematics, credentialed through exam systems such as the Society of Act...

Once covered, people may guard less against loss, from leaving doors unlocked to filing borderline claims, and insurers cannot wat...

If only the sick insured, premiums would spiral until the healthy exit and the pool collapses, the classic death spiral of pre ref...

Each member pays a premium reflecting average expected loss plus loadings, and the unlucky few who suffer claims draw from the com...

Loss ratio is incurred claims divided by earned premium, running near 60 to 80 percent in well run books depending on line. The co...

It shows the named insured, policy period, covered locations and vehicles, coverage parts with limits, deductibles, premiums per c...

Primary insurers, called cedents, buy it to smooth catastrophe volatility, protect surplus against large losses, gain capacity to ...

Proportional treaties, quota share and surplus, share every risk by percentage or line, with ceding commissions and often profit s...

Each submission is underwritten on its own facts, offered at a bespoke price, and accepted or declined, unlike treaty automatic fl...

Retro lets a reinsurer balance portfolios, cap peak exposures, and free capital, creating a chain from policyholder through insure...

A program might sit 400 million in limits part of 250 million, meaning the reinsurer pays when one event net loss crosses 250 mill...

Cat bonds pay sponsors a layer of protection funded by investor principal: if a defined event or aggregate loss trigger hits, inve...

The line between insurance and wager, it was pressed by courts and codified in England by the Life Assurance Act of 1774 after wag...

If an insurer pays a fire claim caused by a neighbor faulty wiring, it can sue the neighbor and keep recoveries up to the amount p...

In health insurance, an 80/20 plan means the insurer pays 80 percent of allowed charges after the deductible and the member pays 2...

Copays make routine costs predictable: a plan might charge a set fee for a primary care visit, a higher one for a specialist, and ...

Massachusetts introduced the first no-fault auto system in the United States in 1971, and about a dozen states now use some form o...