What Is Insurance?
Insurance is a form of risk management in which the insured transfers the cost of potential loss to another entity in exchange for monetary compensation known as the premium.
Introduction
In one form or another, we all own insurance. Whether it's auto, medical, liability, disability or life, insurance serves as an excellent risk-management and wealth-preservation tool. Having the right kind of insurance is a critical component of any good financial plan. While most of us own insurance, many of us don't understand what it is or how it works. In this tutorial, we'll review the basics of insurance and how it works, then take you through the main types of insurance out there.
More precisely, we speak of the existence of unknown factors of risk (uncertain). Insurance, therefore, has the primary purpose of "transforming the risk in spending." In fact, through the signing of a contract, the insured intends to "quantify" the financial damage that it would have if the event guaranteed (risk) occurs.
Insurance allows individuals, businesses and other entities to protect themselves against significant potential losses and financial hardship at a reasonably affordable rate. We say "significant" because if the potential loss is small, then it doesn't make sense to pay a premium to protect against the loss. After all, you would not pay a monthly premium to protect against a $50 loss because this would not be considered a financial hardship for most.
Insurance is appropriate when you want to protect against a significant monetary loss. Take life insurance as an example. If you are the primary breadwinner in your home, the loss of income that your family would experience as a result of our premature death is considered a significant loss and hardship that you should protect them against. It would be very difficult for your family to replace your income, so the monthly premiums ensure that if you die, your income will be replaced by the insured amount. The same principle applies to many other forms of insurance. If the potential loss will have a detrimental effect on the person or entity, insurance makes sense.
Everyone that wants to protect themselves or someone else against financial hardship should consider insurance. This may include:
- Protecting family after one's death from loss of income
- Ensuring debt repayment after death
- Covering contingent liabilities
- Protecting against the death of a key employee or person in your business
- Buying out a partner or co-shareholder after his or her death
- Protecting your business from business interruption and loss of income
- Protecting yourself against unforeseeable health expenses
- Protecting your home against theft, fire, flood and other hazards
- Protecting yourself against lawsuits
- Protecting yourself in the event of disability
- Protecting your car against theft or losses incurred because of accidents
- And many more
Fundamentals Of Insurance
How does insurance work? Insurance works by pooling risk.
What does this mean? It simply means that a large group of people who want to insure against a particular loss pay their premiums into what we will call the insurance bucket, or pool. Because the number of insured individuals is so large, insurance companies can use statistical analysis to project what their actual losses will be within the given class. They know that not all insured individuals will suffer losses at the same time or at all. This allows the insurance companies to operate profitably and at the same time pay for claims that may arise. For instance, most people have auto insurance but only a few actually get into an accident. You pay for the probability of the loss and for the protection that you will be paid for losses in the event they occur.
Risks
Life is full of risks - some are preventable or can at least be minimized, some are avoidable and some are completely unforeseeable. What's important to know about risk when thinking about insurance is the type of risk, the effect of that risk, the cost of the risk and what you can do to mitigate the risk. Let's take the example of driving a car.
Type of risk: Bodily injury, total loss of vehicle, having to fix your car
The effect: Spending time in the hospital, having to rent a car and having to make car
payments for a car that no longer exists
The costs: Can range from small to very large
Mitigating risk: Not driving at all (risk avoidance), becoming a safe driver (you still have to contend with other drivers), or transferring the risk to someone else (insurance)
Let's explore this concept of risk management (or mitigation) principles a little deeper and look at how you may apply them. The basic risk management tools indicate that risks that could bring financial losses and whose severity cannot be reduced should be transferred. You should also consider the relationship between the cost of risk transfer and the value of transferring that risk.
Risk Control
There are two ways that risks can be controlled. You can avoid the risk altogether, or you can choose to reduce your risk.
Risk Financing
If you decide to retain your risk exposures, then you can either transfer that risk (ie. to an insurance company), or you retain that risk either voluntarily (ie. you identify and accept the risk) or involuntarily (you identify the risk, but no insurance is available).
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