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

Life insurance policy death benefit or cash value paid out in a series of installments, rather than in a lump sum. ...

Program designed as protection for political risk (action taken by a foreign government resulting in financial loss to companies trading or investing overseas). Coverage is provided for ...

Inability of the insured to perform any and all important daily duties of that insured's occupation. ...

Historical mortality table that replaced the group annuity table, 1951, whose statistics at that time were more current than the replaced table. This table was subsequently replaced by the ...

Property insurance closely associated with fire insurance and usually purchased in conjunction with a Standard Fire Policy. Allied lines include data processing insurance, demolition ...

Condition surrounding a work environment that increases the probability of death, disability, or illness to a worker. This class of hazard is considered when writing workers COMPENSATION ...

Classification of ships according to their construction material, age, physical condition, propulsion type, stress tests of structure, and owners. Marine insurance rates for a particular ...

Forgery insurance covering securities issues such as stocks and bonds. They protect the issuer of securities against forgery of the securities. ...

interconnection of computers that contain pages classified into groups called web sites that can be accessed over the internet. The only requirement for visiting a web site is to have ...

Popular Insurance Questions