Basics of Insurance
“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 a guaranteed small loss to prevent a large possibly devastating loss.”
Definition of Risks
- A variation in the possible outcome.
- The degree of uncertainty associated with a particular loss.
- Greater the accuracy with which the outcome can be predicted the lower is the risk.
- Risk is the possibility of an unfortunate occurrence.
- Risk is the possibility of loss.
- The combination of hazards.
- Uncertainty of Loss
- The tendency that actual results may differ from predicted results.
Requirements of Insurable Risks
- Should be a pure risk.
- Involves a chance of loss or no loss.
- Large Number of exposure units.
- To predict average loss.
- Accidental and Unintentional loss
- To control moral hazard.
- To assure randomness.
- Determinable and Measurable Loss
- To facilitate loss adjustment
Insurance Industry of India consists of 52 insurance companies of which 24 are life insurance business and 28 are non – life insurance companies. (As per August , 2015 update)
Among the life insurers, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is the sole public sector company. Apart from that, among the non – life insurers there are six public sector insurers.
Out of 28 non-life insurance companies, five private sector insurers are registered to underwrite policies exclusively in health, personal accident and travel insurance segments. They are Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd, Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company Ltd, Max Bupa Health Insurance Company Ltd, Religare Health Insurance Company Ltd and Cigna TTK Health Insurance Company Ltd. There are two more specialized insurers belonging to public sector, namely, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India for Credit Insurance and Agriculture Insurance Company Ltd for crop insurance.
The oldest existing insurance company in India is National Insurance Company, which was founded in 1906 and is still in business. The Government of India issued an Ordinance on 19 January 1956 nationalized the Life Insurance sector and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) came into existence in the same year. But LIC starts its operations from 1 September, 1956.
Methods Of Insurance
Some important methods of insurance are discussed as under:
- Co-insurance – When insurance companies shares risks between them known as CoInsurance or Risks shared between insurers
- Dual Insurance – If a person has taken more than one policies for specific purpose orrisks having two or more policies with same coverage
- Self-Insurance – Situations where risk is not transferred to insurance companies and solely retained by the entities or individuals themselves
- Reinsurance – If one insurance company passes some or whole part of risks to another insurance company or Situations when Insurer passes some part of or all risks to another Insurer called Reinsurer.
