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
Model state law of the NAIC that requires that the insurance policy contain language that meets a readability test (usually, the Flesch readability test that uses a formula approach to ...
Chart showing rate of death at each age in terms of number of deaths per thousand. ...
Expenses added to the beginning of a premium payment period. For example, an annuity with a 10% front load would include $10 of expenses for each $100 premium paid. ...
Type of guaranteed insurance contract in which the term is fixed, the rate is fixed, and the contract owner does not participate in the insurance company's earnings. ...
Historical mortality table that replaced the annuity table, 1949, used for the calculation of annuity rates with more-current mortality experience at that time. This table was subsequently ...
Liability insurance coverage for claims arising from acts that occurred before the beginning of the policy period. Policies written on a claims made basis, such as malpractice liability ...
Division of a sum of money between a deferred annuity and an immediate life annuity certain. ...
Exclusion in property insurance eliminating coverage for damage or destruction of property due to insects. ...
Capacity of parties to an insurance contract to understand the meanings of their action in order for the contract to be valid. ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.