Underwriting Cycle
Tendency of property and liability insurance premiums, insurers' profits, and availability of coverage to rise and fall with some regularity over time. A cycle can be said to begin when insurers tighten their underwriting standards and sharply raise premiums after a period of severe underwriting losses. Stricter standards and higher premium rates often bring dramatic increases in profits, attracting more capital to the insurance industry and raising underwriting capacity. On the other hand, as insurers strive to write more premiums at higher levels of profitability, premium rates may be driven down and underwriting standards relaxed in the competition for new business. Profits may erode and then turn into losses if more tax underwriting standards generate mounting claims. The stage would then be set for the cycle to begin again.
Popular Insurance Terms
Limitation imposed on insurance companies by state law. States oversee the insurance industry, being responsible for making certain that the rates are fair, reasonable, and adequate, and ...
Right of a beneficiary of a life insurance policy to exchange the future installments due that beneficiary for a lump sum distribution. ...
Provision in business interruption insurance that excludes coverage for continuing the wages of rank and file employees. Business interruption insurance covers an employer for loss of ...
Section of the Internal Revenue Code that provides for the taking of the proceeds from one life insurance policy or annuity and the reinvesting of these proceeds immediately in another life ...
Covers all employees of a business on a blanket basis with the maximum limit of coverage applied separately to each employee guilty of a crime. ...
Assumption of total disability when an insured loses sight, hearing, speech, or a limb. When such a loss occurs to an insured with disability income insurance, the insurer often assumes ...
Individual retirement account established under the tax reform act of 1986, for a spouse who has unearned income. The maximum annual combined contribution into the worker's and spouse's IRA ...
Ratio of the company's investment in noninvestment grade bonds dividend to its adjusted surplus. This ratio shows how vulnerable the company's surplus is to the market fluctuations in ...
Methods for payment of the value of a policy. An insurance company can select one of three options in settlement of a loss: make a cash payment; take possession of damaged or destroyed ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.