Insurance Concepts part 3

What is Insurance? 

• Insurance is defined as a contract between two parties whereby one party called insurer undertakes in exchange for a fixed sum called premium to pay the other party called insured a fixed amount of money after happening of a certain event.

• According to the Indian Contract Act 1872, “A Contract may be defined as an agreement between two or more parties to do or to abstain from doing an act, with an intention to create a legally binding relationship.”

What is Banccasurance?

• Banccasurance means selling of insurance products through banks. The insurance companies and the banks come up in a partnership wherein the bank sells the tied insurance company’s insurance products to its clients. 

• Bank Insurance Model is also termed as Banccassurance. 

Who is an Actuary?

• A person with expertise in the fields of economics, statistics and mathematics, who helps in risk assessment and estimation of premiums etc for an insurance business, is called an actuary.

• A professional statistician working in an insurance company is an Actuary. 

What is an Actuarial Science?

• Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in insurance, finance and other industries and professions.

• Actuarial science includes a number of interrelated subjects, including probability, mathematics, statistics, finance, economics, financial economics, and computer programming.

Who are Third Party Administrators?

• Third Party Administrators or TPAs are a vital link between health insurance companies, policyholders and health care providers.

• The TPAs maintain databases of policy holders and issue them identity cards with unique identification numbers and handle all the post policy issues including claim settlements. 

What is Mortality Charge?

• Mortality Charge is the amount charged every year by the insurer to provide the life cover to the policyholder on the life of the Life Insured. It is also called as Cost of Insurance.

What is Maturity Date?

• The date on which the principal amount of a note, draft, acceptance bond or other debt instrument becomes due and is repaid to the investor and interest payments stop.
• The maturity date tells you when you will get your principal back and for how long you will receive interest payments.

Who is an Agent?

• An Agent is a person who is licensed by state to sell Insurance. The Agents serve as an intermediary between the insurance company and the insured.
• Agents are only responsible for the timely and accurate processing of forms, premiums, and paperwork.
  • Captive Agent – Agent sell Insurance of a specific Company.
  • Independent Agent – Agent who works independently and sells Insurance of many companies.

Who is a Broker?

• An insurance broker is a specialist in insurance and risk management.Brokers act on behalf of their clients and provide advice in the interests of their clients.
• Insurance brokers can be best described as a kind of super-independent agent.

What is Annuity?

• A long-term contract sold by an insurance company designed to provide payments to the holder at specified intervals, usually after retirement. 

What are Insurable and Uninsurable Risks?

• A risk that conforms to the norms and specifications of the insurance policy in such a way that the criterion for insurance is fulfilled is called insurable risk.
• In case of a scenario where the loss is too huge that no insurer would want to pay for it, the risk is said to be uninsurable.

What is AD&D in Insurance?

• AD&D in Insurance refers to Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance. 
• It is a policy that pays benefits to the beneficiary if the cause of death is an accident. This is a limited form of life insurance which is generally less expensive.

What is Lapse in Insurance?

• The policy for which all benefits to the policy holder cease and is terminated due to non payment of premium amount on the due date or even after the grace period is called a lapsed policy.

What is Surrender Value?

• Surrender Value is the amount the policy holder will get from the insurance company if he decides to exit the policy before maturity. Surrender value is payable only after three full years premiums.