Catastrophic Insurance Futures And Options
First exchange-traded risk management tool specifically developed for the insurance industry by the Chicago Board of Trade as a way for the primary insurance company to offset its underwriting exposures. See also futures tied to reinsurance. These contracts are designed to provide the insurance company with a hedge against underwriting losses resulting from catastrophic occurrences. The futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a commodity or financial instrument at a set price on a given date. The option permits the owner to decide whether or not to exercise the option to buy or sell the commodity or financial instrument by the stipulated exercise date. The insurance option trading is based on the loss ratio concept (losses incurred over a stipulated time period divided by premiums earned over the same time period). For example, assume an insurance company buys an option on the loss ratio that will fall within the range of 50% to 70%. Should losses fall within that range, the insurance company would then exercise the option and sell the contract, thereby enabling the company to make a profit on the option. This profit could then be used by the company to offset losses. Should the loss portion not fall within the 50% to 70% range, the option would expire at zero value.
Popular Insurance Terms
Liability policy that covers all liability exposures for a large group that has something in common. For example, wrap-up insurance can be written for all the various businesses working ...
Partnership in which family members hold all interest in the partnership. This partnership is treated as a cash flow through stand-alone entity. All sums of income and credits, as well as ...
Model state law of the NAIC that requires that the insurance policy contain language that meets a readability test (usually, the Flesch readability test that uses a formula approach to ...
Rules used by state regulators to value securities on the books of insurance companies. Bonds with acceptable credit quality are carried at amortized value, which is the face value plus or ...
Form whose purpose it is to help the agent and the prospective policyowner judge the validity of the insurance company's policy illustrations. This questionnaire's focus is on the ...
Marine cargo coverage for a single shipment of goods. Also known as special risk insurance and trip cargo insurance. Contrasts with open policy cargo insurance that covers all of a ...
In property insurance policy, clause that stipulates that if legislative acts or acts of the insurance commissioner's office expand the coverage of an insurance policy or endorsement forms ...
Mandatory age of retirement. ...
Premise that, out of a large group of people, a given number will die each year (conversely, a given number will remain alive each year) until all the people in that original group are ...

Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.