Definition of "Insurance futures"

Futures contracts (legally binding contract that stipulates that delivery of an asset will be taken or delivery of an asset will be made at a future time at an agreed upon price at the current moment) on insurance lines to include catastrophic insurance futures, automobile insurance futures, homeowners insurance futures, and so forth, traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Traditionally, precious metals such as gold and silver; agriculture commodities such as cattle, corn, and soy beans; and United States Treasury issues such as bonds and bills, have all been traded on the CBOT. The aim of the transaction with these futures is to cancel the contract with a gain before the delivery of the commodity. (Who would want cattle delivered to their house?) On the other hand, the insurance futures contract concerns itself with the dollar value the market attaches to an index. In turn, this index is an expectation of how much of the premium income generated by a particular line of insurance will have to be allocated to pay off incurred losses. For example, if the automobile insurance line generates an income of $5,000,000 and the market has an expectation that 90% of that income will have to be allocated to paying off incurred losses, the market will value that futures contract at a price somewhat less than $450,000. This is because of such factors that have to be accounted for as incurred but not reported losses (IBNR).

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Insurance Terms

Expense of soliciting and placing new insurance business on a company's books. It includes agent's commissions, underwriting expenses, medical and credit report fees, and marketing support ...

Table charting relative costs of a group of cash value life insurance policies derived by using the net cost method of comparing costs (traditional net cost method of comparing costs; net ...

Mechanism used by a fidelity and surety insurance company to spread its liability through reinsurance by issuing a surplus treaty as a first layer of coverage, thereby enabling a cedent to ...

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 ...

Amount of the loss absorbed by an insurance company after deducting any reinsurance applicable to the loss, as well as subrogation and ABANDONMENT AND SALVAGE rights. ...

Formula for a given line of insurance used by property and casualty insurance companies to compare losses and loss adjustment expense with premiums. This shows the amount of each premium ...

Maximum amount of insurance that an insurance company will issue on a particular risk exposure. This limit is used by the insurance company to avoid having to pay for a loss on the exposure ...

Fund that comes into existence because premiums for ordinary life insurance policies in their early years are higher than necessary for the pure cost of protection. These excess premiums, ...

Coverage for an insured firm if its business debtors fail to pay their obligations. The insured firm can be a manufacturer or a service organization but it cannot sell its products or ...

Popular Insurance Questions