Insurance Futures
Futures contracts (legally binding contract that stipulates that delivery of an asset will be taken or delivery of an asset will be made at a future time at an agreed upon price at the current moment) on insurance lines to include catastrophic insurance futures, automobile insurance futures, homeowners insurance futures, and so forth, traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Traditionally, precious metals such as gold and silver; agriculture commodities such as cattle, corn, and soy beans; and United States Treasury issues such as bonds and bills, have all been traded on the CBOT. The aim of the transaction with these futures is to cancel the contract with a gain before the delivery of the commodity. (Who would want cattle delivered to their house?) On the other hand, the insurance futures contract concerns itself with the dollar value the market attaches to an index. In turn, this index is an expectation of how much of the premium income generated by a particular line of insurance will have to be allocated to pay off incurred losses. For example, if the automobile insurance line generates an income of $5,000,000 and the market has an expectation that 90% of that income will have to be allocated to paying off incurred losses, the market will value that futures contract at a price somewhat less than $450,000. This is because of such factors that have to be accounted for as incurred but not reported losses (IBNR).
Popular Insurance Terms
Form of insurance that insurance companies buy for their own protection, "a sharing of insurance." An insurer (the reinsured) reduces its possible maximum loss on either an individual risk ...
Same as term Compulsory Insurance: coverage required by the laws of a particular state. For example, many states stipulate minimum amounts of automobile liability insurance that must be ...
Provision in a policy that states the circumstances under which an insurer may elect not to renew the policy. ...
Smallest premium necessary to keep the life insurance policy in force regardless of the current mortality, interest, and expense experience of the insurance company. This type of premium is ...
Situation in which insurance benefits exceed the actual loss of an insured. Overinsurance can be a problem for the insurer because it may tempt the insured to make a false claim in order to ...
Type of premium plan under which the employer (if noncontributory plan) or the employer and employee (if contributory plan) make level annual premium payments to fund the future retirement ...
Amount of required capital that the insurance company must maintain based on the inherent risks in the insurer's operations. These risks include asset depreciation risk, credit receivables ...
Written document containing instructions on managing one's assets during one's lifetime. The document may be revoked (unless made irrevocable at creation), terminated, or amended at any ...
Independent insurance salesperson who represents particular insurers but may also function as a broker by searching the entire insurance market to place an applicant's coverage to maximize ...
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