Property and Casualty Insurance Companies

 

The investment policies of these companies are affected by two basic facts. First, because they are subject to federal income taxes (unlike life insurance companies), the largest share of their assets is held in tax-exempt municipal bonds. Second, because property losses are more uncertain that the death rate in a population, they are less able to predict how much they will have to pay policyholders than are life insurance companies. Therefore, property and casualty insurance companies hold more liquid assets than life insurance companies; municipal bonds and US government securities amount to over half their assets and most of the remainder are held in corporate bonds and corporate stock.

Property and casualty insurance companies will insure against losses from almost any type of event, including fire, theft, negligence, malpractice, earthquakes, automobile accidents, and so on. If a possible loss being insured is too large for any one firm, several firms will frequently join together to write a policy in order to share the risk. The most famous risk-sharing operation is Lloyd’s of London, an association in which different insurance companies can insure a fraction of an insurance policy. Lloyd’s of London has claimed that it will insure against any contingency - for a price.

 

1. Answer the questions:

 

1. How would you distinguish between insurance and assurance?

2. What is premium?

3. What events can ruin us?

4. How does the insurance company make its profit?

5. What are the differences between life insurance companies and property and casualty insurance companies?

6. What are the assets of life insurance companies? What assets are liquid? What assets are risky?

7. Which type of policy is more profitable to a company: a permanent or a term one?

8. What do the property and casualty insurance companies insure?

2. Match each of the words on the left with the correct explanation on the right:

 

1. policy	a. freedom from payment of taxes
2. installment	b. a life insurance policy by which the sum insured is payable at the end of a fixed period or on the earlier death of the person insured
3. premium (n.)	c. money or property given upon trust so as to produce a regular and permanent income
4. claim adjustment	d. a contract by which the insurer, in return for a payment binds himself to pay the named person a certain sum of money
5. to incapacitate	e. of specially good quality and therefore sold at a higher price
6. premium (adj.)	f. to deprive of natural capacity
7. commissioner	g. the money paid by the insured to the insurers in return for insurance covers
8. endowment	h. one of a series of regular payments
9. exemption	i. the settlement of demands
10. contingency	j. an uncertain and unwelcome event
1. endowment policy	k. an official appointed by the state

3. Translate the sentences into English:

 

1. Страхование на срок во многом схоже со срочным банковским депозитом с фиксированным процентом.

2. Аналогично банкам, страховые компании предлагают гарантированные выплаты и являются закрытыми организациями, поскольку клиент не знает, как используются его средства.

3. Страховой полис может защитить нас в случае финансовых потерь, в пределах, не превышающих страховочную сумму.

4. Компании, занимающиеся страхованием жизни, гарантируют доход своему клиенту в том случае, если последний потерял трудоспособность в результате болезни.

5. Основным принципом любого типа страхования является накопление средств для дальнейшей компенсации возможных убытков.

6. Под страхованием-вкладом понимается такой тип договора-страхования, при котором сумма страхования подлежит выплате в случае, если смерть застрахованного лица наступила в течение срока, обозначенного в контракте.

7. Оказывая услуги по управлению портфелем инвестиций, приобретая долгосрочные закладные облигации и государственные ценные бумаги, американские компании по страхованию жизни во многом копируют деятельность сберегательных институтов.

8. Полис пожизненного страхования (whole of the life policy) распространяется не на определенный срок, а на всю оставшуюся жизнь страхуемого лица.