Long-tail Liability
One where an injury or other harm takes time to become known and a claim may be separated from the circumstances that caused it by as many as 25 years or more. Some examples: exposure to asbestos, which sometimes results in a lung disease called asbestos; exposure to coal dust, which might cause black lung disease; or use of certain drugs that may cause cancer or birth defects. These long-tail liabilities became very expensive for many corporations in the 1970s and 1980s, also causing problems for insurers because it was unclear when the situation that gave rise to the claim happened and who should pay the claim. One theory, the MANIFESTATION/INJURY THEORY, states that the insurer is responsible whenever the disease is diagnosed. The other view, the OCCURRENCE/INJURY THEORY, states that the insurer must pay only when the person is injured.
Popular Insurance Terms
Physical contact of an automobile with another inanimate object resulting in damage to the insured car. Insurance coverage is available to provide protection against this occurrence. ...
Agency that sells insurance policies from both a stock insurance company and a mutual insurance company. ...
Transaction in which the property owner (for example, a pension fund) agrees to pay the insurance company a rate of return tied to the fluctuations in real estate prices. In return, the ...
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 ...
Evaluation of the demographic characteristics of the entire group (such as age, sex, morbidity, mortality), as opposed to the evaluation of individuals in that group. ...
Figure in a mortality table derived by dividing the number of people alive at the end of a given year by the number of people alive at the beginning of that same year. ...
Life insurance distribution system under which the state underwrites and sells life insurance to any resident of Wisconsin who makes application. ...
Plan under which life insurance is substituted for retirement income. Under the plan, a married individual selects a single life annuity payout from the pension plan, which will generate ...
Law by which many states attempt to regulate insurers who are unlicensed in those states. With a few notable exceptions, such as re insurers, insurance companies must be licensed in the ...
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