Definition of "Statutory earnings"

Revenue based on conservative reserve requirements of various states. Statutory earnings do not meet generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). A role of state regulation is to make certain that insurers have enough money set aside in statutory reserves to pay all future claims and that the company will remain solvent. For this reason, regulators take a conservative approach to setting reserve requirements. But because an increase in reserves translates into lower earnings for a stock insurer, investors, and securities analysts argue that they are not helpful in gauging the health of a company for investment purposes. Therefore, insurers calculate statutory earnings for regulators and another set of earnings, based on natural reserves, for investors.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Insurance Terms

Size of the losses used as a factor in calculating premium rates. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics studies the number of days lost by injured employees per million ...

Coverage that is renewable at the option of the insured, who is not required to take a medical examination. Regardless of physical condition, the insured must be allowed to renew the policy ...

Branch of knowledge dealing with the mathematics of insurance, including probabilities. It is used in ensuring that risks are carefully evaluated, that adequate premiums are charged for ...

Mathematical premise stating that the greater the number of exposures, (1) the more accurate the prediction; (2) the less the deviation of the actual losses from the expected losses (X - x ...

Quality of investments of insurance companies. State insurance regulators establish rules for company investments. Authorized investments vary, depending on whether a company is a life ...

Contractual obligation that requires one party to the contract to fulfill its obligation before another party to the contract is required to fulfill its contractual obligation. For example, ...

Contracts of reinsurance in which expected income from investments is a major component of the UNDERWRITING process. Also, the ultimate liability of the reinsurer is limited. The reinsurer ...

Person by whose life the duration of an insurance policy, estate trust, or gift is measured. This person is generally referred as the insured in an insurance policy. ...

Premium paid by an insured business to an insurance company from which the company subtracts charges for the cost of putting a policy on its books, premium taxes, and profit. The remainder ...

Popular Insurance Questions