by Alvar » Wed Jan 22, 2014 8:03 pm
. Liability insurance is a very broad superset that covers legal claims ... nsuranceFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, searchThis article is about insurance in finance. For the side bet known as "insurance" in the card game of blackjack, see Blackjack#Insurance.Question book-new.svg This article needs additional citations for verification.Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(May 2008)Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed and known small loss to prevent a large, possibly devastating loss. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured or policyholder is the person or entity buying the insurance. The insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage, called the premium. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.Contents[hide]Principles of insuranceFinancial market participantsAssorted United States coins.jpgCollective investment schemesCredit unionsInsurance companiesInvestment banksPension fundsPrime BrokersTrustsFinance seriesFinancial marketParticipantsCorporate financePersonal financePublic financeBanks and bankingFinancial regulation v ? d ? e Commercially insurable risks typically share seven common characteristics.[1] 1. A large number of homogeneous exposure units. The vast majority of insurance policies are provided for individual members of very large classes. Automobile insurance, for example, covered about 175 million automobiles in the United States in 2004.[2] The existence of a large number of homogeneous exposure units allows insurers to benefit from the so-called ?law of large numbers,? which in effect states that as the number of exposure units increases, proportionally the actual results are increasingly likely to become close to expected proportions. There are exceptions to this criterion. Lloyd's of London is famous for insuring the life or health of actors, actresses and sports figures. Satellite Launch insurance covers events that are infrequent. Large commercial property policies may insure exceptional properties for which there are no ?homogeneous? exposure units. Despite failing on this criterion, many exposures like these are generally considered to be insurable. 2. Definite Loss. The event that gives rise to the loss that is subject to the insured, at least in principle, take place at a known time, in a known place, and from a known cause. The classic example is death of an insured person on a life insurance policy. Fire, automobile accidents, and worker injuries may all easily meet this criterion. Other types of losses may only be definite in theory. Occupational disease, for instance, may involve prolonged exposure to injurious conditions where no specific time, place or cause is identifiable. Ideally, the time, place and cause of a loss should be clear enough that a reasonable person, with sufficient information, could objectively verify all three elements.ClaimsClaims and loss handling is the materialized utility of insurance; it is the actual "product" paid for, though one hopes it will never need to be used. Claims may be filed by insureds directly with the insurer or through brokers or agents. The insurer may require that the claim be filed on its own proprietary forms, or may accept claims on a standard industry form such as those produced by ACORD.Insurance company claim departments employ a large number of claims adjusters supported by a staff of records management and data entry clerks. Incoming claims are classified based on severity and are assigned to adjusters whose settlement authority varies with their knowledge and experience. The adjuster undertakes a thorough investigation of each claim, usually in close cooperation with the insured, determines its reasonable monetary value, and authorizes payment. Adjusting liability insurance claims is particularly difficult because there is a third party involved(the plaintiff who is suing the insured) who balancing act, fraudulent insurance practices are a major business risk that must be managed and overcome. Disputes between insurers and insureds over the validity of claims or claims handling practices occasionally escalate into litigation; see insurance bad faith. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance onsakthi 49 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.