Unit 1: General Insurance Flashcards
What are the 2 types of risk?
•speculative
•pure
What are speculative risks?
•have a possibility of a loss and also the possibility of making a gain
•insurance companies will not insure these since you can win or lose money
What are some examples of speculative risks?
•gambling losses
•investments
—> because you could win or lose money
What are pure risks?
ONLY involve the possibility of experiencing a loss & CAN be covered by insurance
What is an example of a pure risk?
The chance of being in a car accident
How do you determine the total amount of loss?
[value before loss] - [value after loss]
What is exposure?
•the risk assumed by an insurer and the amount that the insurer is responsible to pay out at any given time
i.e., risks for which the insurance company would be liable
How is exposure expressed?
•in units
Ex. The unit for life insurance exposure is $1,000 of death benefit and premium rates apply per unit of exposure
What is the calculation for insurance premium?
[rate] x [# of exposure units]
What is an example of a calculation for insurance premiums?
•if the life insurance rate is $32 per $1,000 of death benefit,
—> the premium for a $100,000 policy would be: $32 x $100 = $3,200
What is a peril?
A cause of loss
For life insurance, what is the peril?
Death
For health insurance, what are the perils?
•accidents
•illness
What are some examples of perils?
•if a house burns down, the peril (cause of loss) is the fire
•if electronics in a home are destroyed because of lightning, the peril is the lightning
•if you drive your car through a hailstorm and the car’s body is damaged, the peril is the hail
For property & casualty insurance, what are the perils?
Fire, lighting, etc.
What is a hazard?
•anything that increases the chance that a loss will occur
•do NOT cause the loss
*”get down before you get hurt”
What are the 3 types of hazards?
•physical
•moral
•morale
What are physical hazards?
•physically identifiable factors that increase the chance of loss
•can be seen or determined
What are some examples of physical hazards?
•a wet floor
•for life & health insurance, a heart condition-because it is physically identifiable using lab equipment that produces tangible evidence of its existence
What are moral hazards?
•arise from an individual’s character
•intentionally causing a loss
What is an example of a moral hazard?
Dishonesty—>because it increases the chance that an individual might lie on an insurance application or fake a loss
What are morale hazards?
•a state of mind or careless attitude
•an unconscious change in a person’s actions or behaviors
What is an example of a morale hazard?
Carelessly leaving the doors & windows unlocked when not at home
What are the methods for handling risk?
STARR:
•Sharing
•Transfer
•Avoidance
•Reduction
•Retention
What is Sharing of risk?
•2 or more individuals agree to pay a portion of any loss incurred by any member in the group
Ex. Stockholders in a corporation share the risk of profit or loss
What is Transfer of risk?
•what happens with insurance
•the insurer agrees to pay if any individual or business has a loss
•the individual or business has a cost in the form of a premium payment
•while the loss is large & uncertain, the premium is a much smaller certainty
•this is used by insurance companies to spread a risk of loss among thousands/millions of insureds
•not everyone will experience an accident while they own an insurance policy
—>the large # of insureds who do not have an accident will be paying for the losses of the few who do have an accident
—>this is the only way that insurance can work & make the premiums affordable
What is Avoidance of risk?
•eliminating a particular risk by not engaging in a certain activity
Ex. An individual who does not drive avoids the risk of injuring someone in a collision & being held liable for those damages
Ex. Working from home if the roads are icy
What is Reduction of risk?
•lessening the chance that a loss will occur
•lessening the extent of a loss that does occur
Ex. Wearing seatbelts reduces the severity of a car accident
Ex. Installing a smoke detector will not prevent a fire, but it may keep individuals from serious harm
What is Retention of risk?
•the individual will pay for the loss if it occurs
•without health insurance a person will have to pay the bill if they need hospitalization
—>this is an example of intentionally retaining a risk
What is the law of large numbers?
•the principle that makes insurance possible
•the larger the group—>the more accurately the losses can be predicted
•it is impossible to guess specifically who will suffer a loss in the future, but can be fairly certain how many losses will occur in the group as a whole
—>so insurance companies can predict fairly accurately how many dollars in claims they will have to pay out each year based on the actual losses they experienced in the past
—>this prediction allows them to charge each insured a premium that, pooled together, will cover all claims & operating costs
What are the elements of risks that can be insured?
CANHAM:
•Calculable
•Affordable
•Non-catastrophic
•Homogeneous
•Accidental
•Measurable
In CANHAM, what is Calculable?
Premiums must be calculable based upon prior loss statistics for that particular risk in order to predict future losses
In CANHAM, what is Affordable?
The premium for transferring the risk should be affordable for the average consumer
In CANHAM, what is Non-catastrophic?
•insurance cannot insure events that cause widespread losses to large numbers of insurers at the same time
—>this is why the peril of war is excluded from most policies, because the risk is much too large for the insurance company to pay
In CANHAM, what is homogeneous?
The individual risks that the insurer covers must all be similar (homogeneous) in regard to the factors that affect the chance of loss
In CANHAM, what is Accidental?
•insurance is a method of handling risk
—>if a loss is certain to occur, there is no risk
In CANHAM, what is Measurable?
•must be possible to estimate the loss as a dollar amount
•insurance covers the financial loss of unexpected death or medical bills from sickness
What is adverse selection?
•the tendency for higher-risk individuals to get & keep insurance more than individuals who represent an average level of risk
•risks that have a greater than average change of loss
•the statistics insurers use to predict their losses are based on average risks
—>adverse selection could cause the insurance company to experience more losses than predicted
—>it increases the chance that they have not collected enough premiums to pay for their losses
What can be done to avoid adverse selection?
An insurer can do an underwriting
What is an underwriting?
To avoid adverse selection, insurers make an extensive evaluation of information related to a particular risk
What can an insurer do if an underwriter determines that a risk is higher than average?
•charge a higher rate to insure the risk
•limit the amount of coverage it will issue on the risk
•refuse the application for insurance altogether
What is reinsurance?
•like insurance for insurers
•an insurance company paying another insurance company to take some of the company’s risk of catastrophic loss
•transfers risk from one insurer to another
•to reduce the total amount of loss it is liable for, one insurer may pay the other insurer a premium to assume a portion of its risk
•ceding insurer=the company reducing its risk
•reinsurer=the company assuming the risk
What is one example of reinsurance?
•insuring risks in certain geographical areas may expose the insurer to the potential of having to pay for a large number of losses at one time-may happen due to things such as earthquakes or hurricanes
•to protect the company from these catastrophic losses, the insurer pays a premium to another insurer to transfer some or all of its risks in these areas
•the company accepting the risk is called the reinsurer
What are the 2 types of reinsurance?
•facultative reinsurance
•treaty reinsurance
What is facultative reinsurance?
The reinsurer considered each risk before allowing the transfer to be made from the ceding company