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
Statement by an auditor or certified public accountant indicating if a company's financial statements fairly present its true financial condition. A statement of opinion may be unqualified, ...
Group that, with the exception of the government, establishes the standards for all financial accounting and reporting for the various entities in the United States. The standards enable ...
Statutory liabilities minus the interest MAINTENANCE RESERVE minus the ASSET VALUATION RESERVE. ...
Provision that covers a business to be protected under a reinsurance treaty. The class either can appear at the beginning of the agreement or may be included in the retention and limits ...
Amount expressed as a liability on the insurance company's balance sheet for benefits owed to policy owners. These reserves must be maintained according to strict actuarial formulas as they ...
Life insurance policy given by a donor to a charity; donor only relinquishes the cash value and the cost of the premiums previously paid. The receiving charity's future value of the life ...
Time interval between the date benefits end under Social Security and the date these benefits resume. For example, survivor benefits are paid only as long as the parent (if less than age ...
Action by the owner of a cash value policy to relinquish it for its cash surrender value. Since the depression of the 1930s, companies have reserved the right to delay payment of a cash ...
Means of borrowing at no charge by a policyowner under universal life insurance policies. ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.