Sarasota Insurance Agency >> blog
Almost all of us have insurance. When your insurer gives you the policy document, generally, all you do is glance over the decorated words in the policy and pile it up with the other bunch of financial papers on your desk, right? If you spend thousands of dollars each year on insurance, don't you think that you should know all about it? Your Insurance advisor is always there for you to help you understand the tricky terms in the insurance forms, but you should also know for yourself what your contract says. In this article, we'll make reading your insurance contract easy, so you understand their basic principles and how they are put to use in daily life.
Most insurance contracts are Indemnity contacts. Indemnity contracts apply to insurances where the loss suffered can be measured in terms of money.
There are some additional factors of your insurance contract that create situations in which the full value of an insured asset is not remunerated.
Not all insurance contracts are indemnity contracts. Life Insurance contracts and most personal accident insurance contracts are non-indemnity contracts. You may purchase a life insurance policy of $1 million, but that does not imply that your life's value is equal to this dollar amount. Because you can't calculate your life's net worth and fix a price on it, an indemnity contract does not apply.
It is your legal right to insure any type of property or any event that may cause financial loss or create a legal liability for you. This is called insurable interest.
Suppose you are living in your uncle's house, and you apply for homeowners' insurnce because you believe that you may inherit the house later. Insurers will decline your offer because you are not the owner of the house and, therefore, you do not stand to suffer financially in the event of a loss. When it comes to insurance, it is not the house, car or machinery that is insured. Rather, it is the monetary interest in that house, car or machinery to which your policy applies.
It is also the principle of insurable interest that allows married couples to take out insurance policies on each other's lives, on the principle that one may suffer financially if the spouse dies. Insurable interest also exists in some business arrangements, as seen between a creditor and debtor, between business partners or between employers and employees.
Subrogation allows an insurer to sue a third party that has caused a loss to the insured and pursues all methods of getting back some of the money that it has paid to the insured as a result of the loss.
For example, if you are injured in a road accident that is caused by the reckless driving of another party, you will be compensated by your insurer. However, your insurance company may also sue the reckless driver in an attempt to recover that money.
All insurance contracts are based on the concept of uberrima fidei, or the .doctrine of utmost good faith. This doctrine emphasizes the presence of mutual faith between the insured and the insurer. In simple terms, while applying for insurance, it becomes your duty to disclose your relevant facts and information truthfully to the insurer. Likewise, the insurer cannot hide information about the insurance coverage that is being sold.
Depending on their nature, these statements may either be representations or warranties.A) Representations: These are the written statements made by you on your application form, which represent the proposed risk to the insurance company. For instance, on a life insurance application form, information about your age, details of family history, occupation, etc. are the representations that should be true in every respect. Breach of representations occurs only when you give false information (for example, your age) in important statements. However, the contract may or may not be void depending on the type of the misrepresentation that occurs. (For more information on life insurance, read "Buying Life Insurance: Term Versus Permanent, Long-Term Care Insurance: Who Needs It?" and "Shifting Life Insurance Ownership.")B) Warranties: Warranties in insurance contracts are different from those of ordinary commercial contracts. They are imposed by the insurer to ensure that the risk remains the same throughout the policy and does not increase. For example, in auto insurance, if you lend your car to a friend who doesn't have a license and that friend is involved in an accident, your insurer may consider it a breach of warranty because it wasn't informed about this alteration. As a result, your claim could be rejected.
As we've already mentioned, insurance works on the principle of mutual trust. It is your responsibility to disclose all the relevant facts to your insurer. Normally, a breach of the principle of utmost good faith arises when you, whether deliberately or accidentally, fail to divulge these important facts. There are two kinds of non-disclosure:
For example, suppose that you are unaware that your grandfather died from cancer and, therefore, you did not disclose this material fact in the family history questionnaire when applying for life insurance; this is innocent non-disclosure. However, if you knew about this material fact and purposely held it back from the insurer, you are guilty of fraudulent non-disclosure.
When you supply inaccurate information with the intention to deceive, you insurance contract becomes void.
Doctrine of Adhesion. The doctrine of adhension states that you must accept the entire insurance contract and all of its terms and conditions without bargaining. Because the insured has no opportunity to change the terms, any ambiguities in the contract will be interpreted in his or her favor.
Principle of Waiver and Estoppel. A waiver is voluntary surrender of a known right. Estoppel prevents a person from asserting those rights because he or she has acted in a such a way as to deny interest in preserving those rights. Presume that you fail to disclose some information in the insurance proposal form. Your insurer doesn't request that information and issues the insurance policy. This is waiver. In the future, when a claim arises, your insurer cannot question the contract on the basis of non-disclosure. This is estoppel. For this reason, your insurer will have to pay the claim.
Endorsements are normally used when the terms of insurance contracts are to be altered. They could also be issued to add specific conditions to the policy.
Co-insurance refers to the sharing of insurance by two or more insurance companies in agreed proportion. For the insurance of a large shopping mall, for example, the risk is very high. Therefore, the insurance company may choose to involve two or more insurers to share the risk. Coinsurance can also exist between you and your insurance company. This provision is quite popular in medical insurance, in which you and the insurance company decide to share the covered costs in the ratio of 20:80. Therefore, during the claim, your insurer will pay 80% of the covered loss while you shell out the remaining 20%.
Reinsurance occurs when your insurer "sells" some of your coverage to another insurance company. Suppose you are a famous rock star and you want your voice to be insured for $50 million. Your offer is accepted by the Insurance Company A. However, Insurance Company A is unable to retain the entire risk, so it passes part of this risk – let's say $40 million – to Insurance Company B. Should you lose your singing voice, you will receive $50 million from insurer A ($10 million + $40 million) with insurer B contributing the reinsured amount ($40 million) to insurer A. This practice is known as reinsurance. Generally, reinsurance is practiced to a much greater extent by general insurers than life insurers.
When applying for insurance, you will find a huge range of insurance products available in the market. If you have an insurance advisor, he or she can shop around and make sure that you are getting adequate insurance coverage for you money. Even so, a little understanding about insurance contracts can go a long way in making sure that your advisor's recommendations are on track.
Furthermore, there may be times when your claim is canceled because you didn't pay attention to certain information requested by your insurance company. In this case, lack of knowledge and carelessness can cost you a lot. Go through your insurer's policy features instead of signing them without delving into the fine print. If you understand what you're reading, you'll be able to ensure that the insurance product that you are signing up for will cover you when you need it most.
2019-03-21 14:53:09