Catastrophic Insurance Futures And Options
Definition of "Catastrophic insurance futures and options"
First exchange-traded risk management tool specifically developed for the insurance industry by the Chicago Board of Trade as a way for the primary insurance company to offset its underwriting exposures. See also futures tied to reinsurance. These contracts are designed to provide the insurance company with a hedge against underwriting losses resulting from catastrophic occurrences. The futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a commodity or financial instrument at a set price on a given date. The option permits the owner to decide whether or not to exercise the option to buy or sell the commodity or financial instrument by the stipulated exercise date. The insurance option trading is based on the loss ratio concept (losses incurred over a stipulated time period divided by premiums earned over the same time period). For example, assume an insurance company buys an option on the loss ratio that will fall within the range of 50% to 70%. Should losses fall within that range, the insurance company would then exercise the option and sell the contract, thereby enabling the company to make a profit on the option. This profit could then be used by the company to offset losses. Should the loss portion not fall within the 50% to 70% range, the option would expire at zero value.
Popular Insurance Terms
process of discovering sources of loss concerning the liability risk faced by individuals and business firms. The first step in risk management is to identify the causes of a loss by ...
clause found in health insurance contracts that requires the insured to pay a specified percentage of the covered health care expenses. ...
Frequency of death. ...
Part of the federal Medicare program for additional coverage on a voluntary basis. The Medicare program is divided into two parts: (1) Hospital Insurance provides hospital benefits to ...
Benefit in disability income insurance whereby an injured or ill wage earner receives a monthly income payment to replace a percentage of his or her lost earnings. ...
Provision that covers a business to be protected under a reinsurance treaty. The class either can appear at the beginning of the agreement or may be included in the retention and limits ...
Same as term Expiration: termination date of coverage as indicated on the insurance policy. ...
Type of guaranteed investments contract in which the interest credited is adjusted on a periodic basis to reflect the investment earnings of the underlying assets of the contract. ...
Sum it takes to replace an insured's damaged or destroyed property with one of like kind and quality, equivalent to the actual cash value, minus physical depreciation (fair wear and tear) ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.