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
Replacement for the earlier Family Automobile Policy (FAP) with these nine basic coverages: Coverage A Liability, The company pays damages for which an insured becomes legally obligated ...
Same as term Dividend Addition: option in a participating policy under which dividends are used to purchase fully paid-up units of whole life insurance. This option deserves careful ...
Ratio of authorized control level risk-based capital of an insurance company to its total adjusted capital. This statistic determines regulatory action taken by the state's insurance ...
Modified endowment insurance policy under which the insured receives one-half the death benefit as the maturity value of the policy. ...
Specified requirements of minimum age and years of service to be met by an employee before the individual's benefits are vested. For example, under the ten year vesting rule, "n employee ...
Exchange of a new policy for one already in force. ...
Court-appointed or commissioner of insurance-appointed custodian to manage the affairs of an insurance company whose management is deemed unable to manage that company in a proper fashion. ...
Form of marine insurance that covers mobile equipment of a contractor, including road building machinery, steam shovels, hoists, and derricks used on the job by builders of structures, ...
Same as term Basic Limit of Liability: required minimum amounts of coverage that an insurance company will underwrite. For example, for auto liability coverage the minimum that many ...

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