Underwriting Cycle
Tendency of property and liability insurance premiums, insurers' profits, and availability of coverage to rise and fall with some regularity over time. A cycle can be said to begin when insurers tighten their underwriting standards and sharply raise premiums after a period of severe underwriting losses. Stricter standards and higher premium rates often bring dramatic increases in profits, attracting more capital to the insurance industry and raising underwriting capacity. On the other hand, as insurers strive to write more premiums at higher levels of profitability, premium rates may be driven down and underwriting standards relaxed in the competition for new business. Profits may erode and then turn into losses if more tax underwriting standards generate mounting claims. The stage would then be set for the cycle to begin again.
Popular Insurance Terms
Provision in an all risks inland marine policy that denies coverage for exposure to dampness and extremes of temperature. Some property, like living plants, might be particularly vulnerable ...
Duration of a policy. Property and casualty coverages are usually written for one year, although a personal automobile policy can be for six months. Life insurance can be written on a term ...
Payments made to the insured by the insurance company before the settlement date. For example, a claim is scheduled to be settled on June 1, 2000, but the insurance company pays the ...
Provision of liability policies and the liability sections of package insurance policies, such as the personal automobile policy (pap), that pay medical expenses without regard to fault. ...
Husband's interest in his wife's property upon her death. A husband has an insurable interest in that property and can purchase a property and casualty insurance policy to cover the ...
Smallest acceptable premium for which an insurance company will write a policy. This minimum charge is necessary to cover fixed expenses in placing the policy on the books. ...
Local life insurance office that sells and services ordinary life insurance as well as other forms of life insurance except debt insurance. ...
Ratio of the insurance company's investment in common stocks dividend to its adjusted surplus account. This ratio shows how vulnerable the company's surplus is to the stock market ...
Inverse of the actuarial present value of a life annuity, taking the employee's life expectancy into account, to commence income payments at the normal retirement age of the employee. It is ...
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