American Agency System
Marketing of insurance through independent agents; also called independent agency system. Independent agents usually represent several insurance companies and try to insure the risk according to availability of coverage and most favorable price. Independent agents are paid a commission in the form of a percentage of the premiums generated by the policy sold. They own all the records of the policies sold and have the right to solicit renewals. They are not restricted to maintaining business with just one company and can transfer the business upon renewal to another company.
Popular Insurance Terms
Excess liability coverage above the limits of a basic business liability insurance policy such as the owners, landlords and tenants liability policy. For example, if a basic policy has a ...
Method of comparing the costs of a set of cash value life insurance policies that takes into account the time value of money. The true costs of alternative cash value policies with the same ...
Automatic reinsuring of individual risks by an insurer with a reinsurer. The insurer must transfer the risks to its reinsurer and its reinsurer must accept this transfer. ...
Same as term General Characteristics: attributes of a particular employee benefit plan. For example, a general characteristic of group life insurance is that the whole group is ...
Payments awarded by a court in a liability suit. Money damages can be broken down into compensatory and punitive. Compensatory damages reimburse a plaintiff for expenses incurred for such ...
Same as term agent of record: individual who has a contractual agreement with a policyowner. The agent of record has a legal right to commissions from the insurance policy. ...
Initial premiums on all insurance policies in force (those policies that have not been cancelled or expired). ...
Health maintenance organization that provides medical services to the HMO members through an exclusive contract with specific physicians and hospitals. These selected physicians and ...
Time frame during which an annuitant makes premium payments to an insurance company. The obligations of the company to the annuitant during this period depend on whether a pure annuity or ...

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