History of Insurance Flashcards
Actuarial department
Calculates statistics: policy rates, reserves and dividends
Alien Insurer
Someone in the USA whose main office is outside of the USA
Admitted Insurer
A certificate of authority for a person to conduct insurance business in that particular state
Broker
one who represents themselves and the person insured, can sell insurance for any company.
Captive Insurer
owned and operated by a parent firm, used to insure the parent firm, minimize losses
Certificate of Authority
Certificate that allows a company to conduct insurance business in a particular state
Captive Agents vs. Broker
Captive Agents - only sell one company’s insurance
Brokers - “free” per se, do not sell for just one company
1868 Paul V. Virginia
Decided that insurance was a state to state thing, not to be controlled by another state.
1944 United States v. Southeastern Underwriters Association
shifted control from states to federal government
1945 McCarran - Ferguson Act
made it clear that this act is not regulated by state law.
1958 FTC Intervention
Federal trade commission’s attempt to control the health insurance industry’s advertising
1959 SEC intervention
Argued that insurers that issue variable annuitites need to conform to their regulations and the state’s
1970 Fair Credit Reporting Act
Requires fair and accurate reports of clients. Insurers must tell the consumer about any investigations being made.
What is the role of insurance?
Transfer financial risks from an individual to a company
Annuities
Provides a stream of income by making a series of payments over a certain period of time
Mutual Insurance Companies
Insurance companies with no stockholders. Policyholders own the company.
(Participating or par companies)
Participating or Par Companies
Policy owners do participate in being paid dividends
Mutualization
The process of a stock company being converted to a mutual company
Stock Insurance Companies
Companies that are owned by stockholders. Stockholders get a portion of the company’s profit.
Demutualization
Mutual Insurance Company going to a Stock Insurance Company
Lloyd’s of London
Association dedicated to underwrite and create coverage for items or areas that aren’t easily insured.
Reinsurers
Specialists who insure other insurance company’s risks.
Insurance company sells a portion of their risk
What do ceding companies do?
Transfer the risk from one company to another
Home Service Insurers
Industrial insurance, sold by home service or debit insurance companies. Collected weekly, door to door. Usually 1k-2k.
What government programs offer insurance?
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
State Guarantee Associations
Protects policy owners in the event the insurance company goes out of business or unable to pay claims
What is the purpose of insurance?
To provide financial protection against losses from death, illness or accident
What is the law of large numbers?
The larger the number of people, the more predictable the losses will be.
What is a speculative risk?
It involes the opportunity to either lose or gain. It is not covered by insurance companies.
What is a pure risk?
Only opportunity for losses, no gains. Only type of risk that is insurable.
What are the five ways to handle risks?
Avoidance-avoiding as many risks as possible
Reduction-taking action to decrease the possibility of a loss
Sharing-group of individuals sharing the losses within the group
Retention-AKA Self-insurance, people are financially stable enough to fund their losses
Transfer- Risk is transferred to another party
What is the only insurable risk?
Pure risk.
Must be due to chance, not catastrophic and must be randomly selected.