Due to popular demand, we’ve created an A-Z glossary of insurance terms, breaking down and explaining terms you may come across as a player in the insurance industry. Whether you’re an MGA, underwriting or insurance company, you can bookmark this page as a mini dictionary that you can refer back to whenever you need.
Each term has its own page with more information and examples on how it’s used.
ACORD provides the standard forms for carriers which is essential to send a quote back to the agency and insurers. Using the ACORD form lets insurance carriers improve the efficiency, speed and accuracy of information processing.
Bordereau is a report an insurance company prepares for their reinsurance company, to declare the claims that have been made and paid. It could also refer to a detailed list of assets covered in part by the reinsurance company.
Bordereaux management is the process of creating and distributing the reports known as bordereau (see “bordereau”) can incorporate the reporting of written risks, premiums paid for the insurance policies, as well as claims incurred.
One form of cancellation can be an NTU (Not Taken Up) – an already made quote is not being converted into a policy because of client preferences, price or conditions.
Cloud-based insurance software is a tool that stores and manages the data on remote servers hosted on the internet and helps insurance businesses manage a part or entire of their processes seamlessly.
Co-insurance is the splitting or spreading of risk among multiple insurers. For example, insurer A assumes 60% of risk and insurer B 40% of risk.
According to Lloyd’s “Coverholder” means a company or partnership authorised by a Managing Agent to enter into a contract or contracts of insurance to be underwritten by the members of a syndicate managed by it in accordance with the terms of a Binding Authority.
Deductible or excess is the amount of expenses that must be paid by the customer before an insurer will pay any expenses.
Delegated authority is the permission granted by an insurer to another party to act on the insurer’s behalf, either when it comes to underwriting or claims handling processes.
Excess or deductible is the amount of expenses that must be paid by the customer before an insurer will pay any expenses.
First Notice of Loss, according to Investopedia is the initial report made to an insurance provider following a loss, theft, or damage of an insured asset.
Insurance automation software can be described as using tools or software to automate, simplify and streamline manual processes. For example, the underwriting journey, policy management, claims handling, renewals etc.
Insurance broker portals are often owned and operated by MGAs and insurers to allow their distribution partners (brokers and agents) to distribute their insurance products.
Capacity in insurance means the amount a company or market has available for insurance or reinsurance. From the perspective of an MGA, capacity is used colloquially to refer to the insurance or reinsurance companies who assume the risk based on the delegated authority agreement.
Insurance commission is a fee paid to an insurance agent or broker for selling insurance policies. It is a form of compensation for the services they provide in finding and securing coverage for clients.
insurance condition is the document that sets the fine print or the playing rules to which you must comply to be eligible for monetary indemnification following a claim.
An insurance endorsement or MTA (Mid-Term Adjustment) is a document that modifies the terms of an insurance policy. It can be used to add coverage, exclude certain types of risks, change the policy limits, or make other changes to the policy.
Insurance premium is the amount of money that one pays in order to have his risk covered by the insurance company. Gross premium, net premium and commission are additional terms to know.
Insurance Rating Engines store rating rules and price calculation formulas, algorithms, base rates and the rules necessary to combine them to calculate premiums.
Insurance software is a type of software that is used by insurance companies and other organizations in the insurance industry to manage and streamline their operations. This can include managing policyholder and claimant information, processing insurance claims, calculating premiums and policy quotes, and analyzing risk.
Insurtech refers to using technological innovations designed to help insurance businesses cut costs and reach efficiency in their processes regardless of the insurance industry model they work with.
Low-code in insurance is an approach taken by a software provider or IT company so that insurance software only needs a small or ‘low’ amount of code to work. It’s beneficial because it minimises the time it takes for developers to make a change, and it’s also quicker for MGAs and insurers who can make changes to their insurance software without a delay.
A Managing General Agent (MGA) is described by International Risk Management Institue (IRMI) as a type of insurance agent/broker. Unlike traditional agents or brokers, an insurer authorised them for underwriting on behalf of a delegated underwriting authority (DUA).
International Risk Management Institute (IRMI MGA 2022)
Managing General Agents Association (MGAA 2022)
No-code in insurance is an approach built to help people and businesses develop their processes and applications without coding knowledge by non-technical people.
Sum insured sometimes referred to also as the insurance value, is the monetary value of the risk that you are insuring (e.g. value of your car).
An underwriter is a person or company that assesses the risk of insuring something and sets the terms and premium for an insurance policy.
Insurance underwriting is the process of evaluating a potential policyholder’s risk level and determining whether to offer coverage and at what price. It involves assessing the applicant’s personal and financial information, as well as any potential risks associated with insuring them.
Usually, usage-based insurance premiums are calculated by considering a base cost and adding other fees based on how much, how, when and where someone drives.
In UBI, the period of the insurance policy can be much shorter to that in regular insurance. Usually, the providers of UBI have a mechanism of knowing when the insured is “using” the insurance cover and they have a way to temporarily turn insurance cover on or off, as opposed to traditional insurance policies, where the cover period is usually fixed.
If you’d like us to add an insurance term to our glossary, you can send your request to info@insly.com/en.
