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Showing posts with label insurance people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insurance people. Show all posts

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Factors affecting insurance quotes

The life insurance quotes refer to the rates of life insurance policies. However these rates vary from company to company and from policy to policy. Though there many sources for information about the quotes it is better to collect from the company itself. If you can collect from more companies, well and good as it gives competitive edge. Read more from the article on insurance quotes.The article covers

* What are life insurance quotes?
* Where to get them?
* Factors affecting insurance quotes
* Best life insurance quotes

Life Insurance quotes are the prices at which life insurance policies are proposed to be sold. In that context a life insurance quote does not necessarily become the selling price of all life insurance policies as some are given at concessions in case if the individuals chooses to take other types of insurance policies from the same company. In case of group life insurance scheme special discounts are also offered. Life insurance quotes vary from company to company and from individual to individual.

There are several methods for obtaining the life insurance quotes. The insured can contact the company directly to collect the information. He may also visit the official website of the company and enter the required details. He will thus be able to obtain online life insurance quotes. Similarly the insured can collect the information from insurance agents. An insurance agent will not only offer you the quotes but also help you in deciding the one that is best for you.

It is recommended to get quotes from as many companies as possible. This will give you the details of many companies and also help in deciding the best options. You may also find the competitive edge by comparing one with the other. These insurance quotes are extremely useful to you. They help you to know how much you should invest exactly in an insurance policy.

Parts of an insurance contract

Parts of an insurance contract

* Declarations – identifies who is an insured, the insured’s address, the insuring company, what risks or property are covered, the policy limits (amount of insurance), any applicable deductibles, the policy period and premium amount. These are usually provided on a form that is filled out by the insurer based on the insured’s application and attached on top of or inserted within the first few pages of the standard policy form.

* Definitions – define important terms used in the policy language.
Insuring agreement – describes the covered perils, or risks assumed, or nature of coverage, or makes some reference to the contractual agreement between insurer and insured. It summarizes the major promises of the insurance company, as well as stating what is covered.

* Exclusions – take coverage away from the Insuring Agreement by describing property, perils, hazards or losses arising from specific causes which are not covered by the policy.

* Conditions – provisions, rules of conduct, duties and obligations required for coverage. If policy conditions are not met, the insurer can deny the claim.

* Endorsements – additional forms attached to the policy form that modify it in some way, either unconditionally or upon the existence of some condition. Instead of allowing nonlawyer underwriters to directly customize core policy language with word processors, insurers usually direct underwriters to modify standard forms by attaching endorsements preapproved by counsel for various common modifications.

Parts of an insurance contract

Parts of an insurance contract

* Declarations – identifies who is an insured, the insured’s address, the insuring company, what risks or property are covered, the policy limits (amount of insurance), any applicable deductibles, the policy period and premium amount. These are usually provided on a form that is filled out by the insurer based on the insured’s application and attached on top of or inserted within the first few pages of the standard policy form.

* Definitions – define important terms used in the policy language.
Insuring agreement – describes the covered perils, or risks assumed, or nature of coverage, or makes some reference to the contractual agreement between insurer and insured. It summarizes the major promises of the insurance company, as well as stating what is covered.

* Exclusions – take coverage away from the Insuring Agreement by describing property, perils, hazards or losses arising from specific causes which are not covered by the policy.

* Conditions – provisions, rules of conduct, duties and obligations required for coverage. If policy conditions are not met, the insurer can deny the claim.

* Endorsements – additional forms attached to the policy form that modify it in some way, either unconditionally or upon the existence of some condition. Instead of allowing nonlawyer underwriters to directly customize core policy language with word processors, insurers usually direct underwriters to modify standard forms by attaching endorsements preapproved by counsel for various common modifications.

Insurance Policy

Insurance Policy.

In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the insured, known as the policyholder, which determines the claims which the insurer is legally required to pay. In exchange for payment, known as the premium, the insurer pays for damages to the insured which are caused by covered perils under the policy language. Insurance contracts are designed to meet specific needs and thus have many features not found in many other types of contracts. Since insurance policies are standard forms, they feature boilerplate language which is similar across a wide variety of different types of insurance policies.
Insurance Policy

Insurance Policy

The insurance policy is generally an integrated contract, meaning that it includes all forms associated with the agreement between the insured and insurer. In some cases, however, supplementary writings such as letters sent after the final agreement can make the insurance policy a non-integrated contract. One insurance textbook states that “courts consider all prior negotiations or agreements … every contractual term in the policy at the time of delivery, as well as those written afterwards as policy riders and endorsements … with both parties’ consent, are part of written policy”. The textbook also states that the policy must refer to all papers which are part of the policy. Oral agreements are subject to the parol evidence rule, and may not be considered part of the policy. Advertising materials and circulars are typically not part of a policy. Oral contracts pending the issuance of a written policy can occur.
General features

The insurance contract is a contract whereby the insurer will pay the insured (the person whom benefits would be paid to, or on the behalf of), if certain defined events occur. Subject to the “fortuity principle”, the event must be uncertain. The uncertainty can be either as to when the event will happen (i.e. in a life insurance policy, the time of the insured’s death is uncertain) or as to if it will happen at all (i.e. in a fire insurance policy, whether or not a fire will occur at all).

* Insurance contracts are generally considered contracts of adhesion because the insurer draws up the contract and the insured has little or no ability to make material changes to it. This is interpreted to mean that the insurer bears the burden if there is any ambiguity in any terms of the contract. Insurance policies are sold without the policyholder even seeing a copy of the contract.

* Insurance contracts are aleatory in that the amounts exchanged by the insured and insurer are unequal and depend upon uncertain future events.

* Insurance contracts are unilateral, meaning that only the insurer makes legally enforceable promises in the contract. The insured is not required to pay the premiums, but the insurer is required to pay the benefits under the contract if the insured has paid the premiums and met certain other basic provisions.

* Insurance contracts are governed by the principle of utmost good faith (uberrima fides) which requires both parties of the insurance contact to deal in good faith and in particular it imparts on the insured a duty to disclose all material facts which relate to the risk to be covered. This contrasts with the legal doctrine that covers most other types of contracts, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). In the United States, the insured can sue an insurer in tort for acting in bad faith.

Structure

Early insurance contracts tended to be written on the basis of every single type of risk (where risks were defined extremely narrowly), and a separate premium was calculated and charged for each. This structure proved unsustainable in the context of the Second Industrial Revolution, in that a typical large manufacturer might have dozens or hundreds of types of risks to insure against.

In the 1930s, the insurance industry shifted to the current system where covered risks are initially defined broadly in an insuring agreement on a general policy form, then narrowed down by subsequent exclusion clauses. If the insured desires coverage for a risk taken out by an exclusion on the standard form, the insured can pay an additional premium for an endorsement to the policy that overrides the exclusion.