Principles of Risk and Insurance Flashcards
Law of large numbers
as the number of independent events increases. the likelihood grows that the actual results will be close to the expected results. For this to work the insurer needs a large number of similar (homogeneous) units
Insurance entails pooling of risks and transferring them to an insurance company to replace uncertainty with certainty
Adverse Selection
There should be the same proportion of good and bad risks in the group insured as there were in the one from which the statistics were taken. the tendency of the poorer than average risks to seek insurance to a greater extent than the average or better than average risks must be reduced
Morbidity
the incidence and severity of sickness and accidents in a well defined class or classes of persons
mortality table
a statistical table showing the probable rate of death at each age, usually expressed as so many per thousand
Self-insurance
is a formal program of risk retention.
the self insurance business performs most functions of an insurance company for its own risks. This requires a large number of similar potential losses, the ability to predict overall losses with a reasonable degree of accuracy and the establishment of a formal fund for future losses and their possible fluctuations.
primary used by but not limited to large companies
Advantages of self insurance to a company
- the company can avoid the cost associated with commercial insurance
- reserves for future claims can be invested in short term money market type instruments. The company can use its earnings to offset the costs
Disadvantages of self insurance to a company
the greatest disadvantage is that it can leave the company exposed to a catastrophic loss. The company must duplicate the services provided by an insurance company
the company may have to pay income taxes on reserves held for future claims at year end
Risk Control
- Risk avoidance
- Risk diversification
- Risk reduction
Risk Financing
- Risk retention
- Risk transfer
Basic Rules of Risk Management
- coverage for potential catastrophes should be purchased first (life, disability, health, homeowners, and auto)
- Severity is more important than probability
- high probability will mean high premiums or a decline of coverage by the carrier
Guidelines for risk management
- high severity, low frequency: transfer
- high severity, high frequency: avoidance
- low severity, high frequency: retention and reduction
- low severity, low frequency: retention
Principle of indemnity
a principle underlying insurance contracts (besides LI) under which the insurer seeks to reimburse the insured for approximately the amount lose no more and no less
Contract requirements
COALL
- there must be an agreement preceded by offer and acceptance
- consideration
-legal capacity
- - not incompetent or incapacitated
- - minors for necessities only
- contract for lawful purpose
Unilateral
Only one of the parties to an insurance contract (insurer) makes a binding promise that if broken breaches the contract
Adhesion
contract is accepted “as is” or not at all. It is not a regulated contract
- agents cannot change the contract, only CEO, VP, secretary, etc
Special note on adhesion
because insurance policies are generally contracts of adhesion is in the event of ambiguity in the terms, the courts are likely to rule in favor of the insured and against the insurer
Aleatory contract
with insurance, the amount of dollars spent by the parties is typically unequal
recission
contract is deemed null from its beginning due to fraud, misrepresentation, concealment, or mutual mistakes as to a material of fact
reformation
when the contract between the parties fails to express the original intent of the parties, the contract can be amended
Collateral source rule
in tort liability the plaintiffs measure of damage should not be mitigated by payments received from sources other than the negligent parties
Subrogation
when an insurer pays a claim it takes over the legal rights its insured had against a negligent third party
policy ownership
the policy can be owned by the insured, applicant owner, any party with insurable interest
- the owner can transfer the policy to someone else, receive cash values or dividends, borrow against cash value, or change the beneficiary
- at death of insured the beneficiary becomes the owner of the policy
Beneficiary designations
a change of ownership does not automatically change the beneficiary
Insurable risks
CHAD
- must be sufficiently large number of homogeneous exposure units to make losses reasonably predicable
- loss must be produced by the risk must be definite and measurable
- loss must be fortuitous and accidental
- loss must be not catastrophic to the insurance company
Method to control losses
- avoidance of risk : instead of purchasing it, rent it
- diversification : store assets at different locations
- reduction of risk : install sprinklers
- retention of risk : deductibles, co insurance, self insurance
- transfer - insurance
Parts of the insurance contract
“dont read contracts, roll the DDICE”
- Declarations : factual statements that identify person, property, specific to transaction
- Definitions : explain key policy terms
- Insuring agreements : basic promise of insurance company
- Conditions : duties and rights of parties
- Exclusions : when insurer will not pay
