All knowledge objects of the Insurance Knowledge Graph: terms, clauses, coverages, regulations and risk engineering knowledge.
Topic pages collect the briefly defined terms of a field. Every term has its own anchor and can be linked directly.
The operative time of a group personal accident policy determines whether accidents are insured around the clock at work and in leisure time (24-hour cover) or only during occupational activity including business journeys and business travel (occupational-only cover).
24/7 travel assistance is the round-the-clock alarm and coordination centre of business travel accident insurance that organises medical advice, hospital referral, guarantees of payment, evacuations, security information and crisis support – usually delivered by specialised assistance providers such as International SOS or the insurer's own assistance company.
The 72 Hours Clause defines a 72-hour window for windstorm, earthquake or similar natural perils within which multiple individual losses are treated as a single occurrence for the purposes of the deductible and the maximum indemnity.
Abandonment is a right in marine insurance law allowing the policyholder to surrender the insured property to the insurer following a total loss, missing vessel, or governmental seizure, in exchange for the full sum insured.
Explained on the topic page Transport Insurance
Abfertigung is the Austrian statutory lump-sum severance payment due on termination of employment; since 2003 it has been funded through ongoing contributions to an employee provident fund (Abfertigung NEU).
Absence management is the systematic corporate process for recording, analysing and reducing sickness- and accident-related absences from work: it combines key figures, early detection, contact and return-to-work interviews, case management and reintegration with the benefits of daily sickness allowance insurers, UVG accident insurers and disability insurance.
The abstract referral clause allows a disability insurer to refer the insured to another reasonable occupation when a claim arises, even if that occupation is not actually being performed.
Access control system records the method by which entry to a location or to sensitive areas within it (server rooms, cash offices, hazardous storage) is restricted and logged, as queried in property and cyber insurance proposal forms to assess unauthorised-access exposure.
Access control systems (ACS) manage and log entry to buildings and security areas based on identification credentials, complementing mechanical and electronic intrusion protection with person-based access management.
The access to records clause grants the reinsurer the right to inspect the cedent's books, files and claims records in order to verify cessions and claims handling.
The accident annuity (Unfallrente) is a monthly benefit agreed in private accident insurance, paid for life in the amount of the agreed annuity sum once the accident-related degree of disability reaches a specified threshold, commonly 50 per cent.
Accident insurance pays a benefit when a sudden, externally acting event causes involuntary bodily injury to the insured person, regardless of where the event occurs.
The accident year is the year in which an insured loss actually occurred, and forms the central axis of a claims triangle.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
An accident-like bodily injury (unfallähnliche Körperschädigung, UKS) is one of the injuries exhaustively listed in Art. 6 para. 2 UVG – such as bone fracture, meniscus tear, tendon rupture or ligament lesion – for which Swiss mandatory accident insurance pays even where the statutory definition of accident is not met, unless the injury is predominantly attributable to wear and tear or illness.
Accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) is an internationally common accident insurance benefit that pays the agreed principal sum on accidental death and a percentage of that sum, fixed in a schedule of losses, for the loss of limbs, sight, hearing or speech.
The accumulated stocks clause ensures that an insured receives an equitable allowance for the depletion of finished goods stock used to maintain turnover after a loss, where that depletion only postpones rather than avoids a loss of turnover.
Accumulation risk is the danger that a single event simultaneously affects multiple insured risks, thereby causing a total loss that is economically significant for the insurer.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Acquisition cost financing is the financing of a primary insurer's initially high acquisition costs through specially structured reinsurance arrangements, such as development quotas or finite quota shares.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Acquisition costs are the costs incurred by an insurer to solicit and conclude insurance contracts, primarily commissions paid to intermediaries.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
Actual cash value (ACV) is the replacement cost of property less depreciation for age, wear or obsolescence, and forms the basis of indemnity in property insurance when cover is not written on a reinstatement-value basis.
This clause defines whether actual cash value (replacement cost less wear-and-tear deduction) or replacement cost (full replacement value without deduction) governs the insurable value and the basis of indemnity.
The additional contribution is the fund-specific share of the premium that members of Germany's statutory health insurance (GKV) must pay on top of the general statutory contribution rate.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
The additional interest reserve (ZZR) is the part of the technical provision in life insurance that is set aside on top of standard reserves for future guaranteed-interest obligations during periods of low capital market rates.
Explained on the topic page Reserving
Adequate causation exists when an event, according to the ordinary course of things and general life experience, is suited to bring about or substantially favour an outcome of the kind that occurred.
Adjacent buildings at construction site describes the proximity, type and condition of neighbouring structures that could be damaged by excavation, vibration, dewatering or crane operations, as declared in Construction and Erection All Risks and construction liability proposal forms.
Adjacent property exposure describes the occupancy, construction and separation distance of neighbouring buildings and sites, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess the risk of fire or explosion spreading to or from a location.
The ADL (Activities of Daily Living) scale assesses the need for long-term care based on the ability to independently perform basic daily activities, and is used by health and life insurers to tier benefits.
The administrative fine provisions of the VAG empower the supervisory authority to sanction breaches by insurance undertakings and their officers of regulatory duties with fines.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
The admission and satisfaction prohibition barred policyholders under former German law from acknowledging or settling liability claims without the insurer's prior consent.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The admission medical examination is a medical examination of an applicant required by the insurer to assess the risk to be insured before a contract is concluded.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
An advance payment bond secures a project owner's repayment of an advance payment made if the contractor fails to perform its contractual obligations.
An adverse development cover retrospectively protects a primary insurer against under-reserving of past claims, with the reinsurer assuming payments above an agreed attachment point.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The advisory documentation record is the written record of an insurance advisory session, capturing the customer's demands and needs and the reasons for the recommendation given.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Aerosol product storage is classified into hazard levels based on the flammability of propellant and contents, since bursting cans can spread fire across large areas within seconds through rocketing and torching.
The agency agreement governs the contractual relationship between an insurer and its insurance agent, including authority, remuneration, and duties.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Agency subsidies are performance-independent payments made by an insurance company to insurance agents to support agency set-up, which are not offset against commissions.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Authority to bind entitles an insurance agent to conclude insurance contracts on the insurer's behalf with immediate binding effect.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
An aggregate is the sum of a risk carrier's exposures under certain perils, calculated as the basis for a reinsurance arrangement, for example to determine an attachment point and limit.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The aggregate extension clause allows several smaller individual losses arising from the same natural event to be aggregated for the purposes of a catastrophe excess of loss cover, instead of each falling below the retention individually.
The aging reserve is a technical provision in private health insurance that offsets the age-related increase in healthcare costs and stabilizes premiums over the contract term.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Aircraft impact is an insured peril in several property lines covering damage from an aircraft, its parts, or its cargo striking insured property.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
The allocation clause governs how defence costs and settlement or judgment payments are to be apportioned where a D&O claim involves both covered and uncovered elements, parties, or causes of action.
The alterations and repairs clause confirms that ongoing alteration, repair or extension works on the insured building do not automatically prejudice cover, provided certain limits (such as project value or construction method) are observed.
Alternative insurance models are special forms of Swiss basic health insurance with restricted choice of provider (Art. 41 para. 4 and Art. 62 KVG, Art. 99 et seq. KVV): insured persons undertake to contact their family doctor, an HMO centre or a telemedicine service first whenever they fall ill, and receive a premium discount in return.
Alternative production site records whether the insured has access to a second, qualified site at which critical production or service delivery can be resumed following a total loss of the primary location, as queried in business interruption proposal forms.
Alternative reinsurance is the umbrella term for non-traditional forms of reinsurance products that go beyond pure risk transfer, such as financial reinsurance or ART.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Alternative risk transfer refers to the transfer of insurance risk to the capital markets or to specialized risk carriers outside traditional (re)insurance.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The alternative trading clause requires that turnover generated by the insured elsewhere during the indemnity period be brought into account as actual turnover when calculating a business interruption loss.
Animal insurance covers veterinary treatment costs and the actual cash value of pets or livestock in the event of illness, accident, or death.
Animal owner liability insurance covers third-party damages claims caused by an animal kept by the insured, in particular under strict, no-fault owner liability.
The annual aggregate deductible clause sets a total annual retention that the cedent must first absorb from the sum of all losses falling under the non-proportional treaty before the reinsurer becomes liable.
An AHB clause capping the insurer's total indemnity payments for all insured events in a policy year at a multiple of the agreed limit per occurrence.
The annual annuity is the calendar-year amount of an annuity benefit from an annuity policy or a retirement system, used as the reference figure for actuarial calculation.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
An annual contract is an insurance contract with an initial term of one year that automatically renews for a further year unless terminated in due time by either contracting party.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The annual maximum benefit is the maximum amount agreed in health or supplementary insurance tariffs up to which the insurer reimburses costs for certain types of benefits within one policy year.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Annual mileage records the distance a vehicle or fleet is expected to travel per year, as queried in motor insurance proposal forms because it is a direct driver of accident frequency exposure.
The annual premium is the premium agreed for a full policy year, serving as the reference figure for calculating installment surcharges when premiums are paid at intervals shorter than a year.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Annual surplus is an insurer's positive annual result determined under statutory or IFRS accounting rules, forming the basis for profit distribution, reserve allocation, and policyholder surplus participation.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Annuity insurance is a form of life insurance under which the insurer grants the insured a regular lifelong or time-limited annuity payment from an agreed starting date.
The any one accident limit is the maximum amount agreed in group personal accident policies that the insurer will pay for all insured persons affected by the same accident or the same original cause; if individual claims exceed the limit, they are reduced proportionately. Separate scheduled and non-scheduled aircraft accumulation limits frequently apply to air travel.
The appointed actuary is a statutorily required function at German life and health insurers, responsible for ensuring compliance with actuarial principles in pricing and reserving.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
This clause sets out an out-of-court procedure under which independent experts determine the basis and amount of a loss in a binding manner where insurer and policyholder cannot agree.
The approved repairer clause requires the policyholder to have own-damage claims repaired exclusively at a workshop nominated by the insurer, in return for a premium discount.
The arbitration clause requires the parties to resolve disputes under an international policy or reinsurance contract through private arbitration with an agreed seat and procedural rules, rather than before national courts.
The arbitration clause obliges the cedent and reinsurer to resolve disputes arising from the treaty through private arbitration rather than before state courts.
An arc flash is an uncontrolled electrical arc in power equipment that releases temperatures of several thousand degrees, a pressure wave and molten metal within milliseconds, posing a severe hazard to both personnel and the installation itself.
The area of cover is the geographical territory defined in an international health insurance contract within which treatment is reimbursed – typically "Worldwide" or "Worldwide excluding USA", with some insurers offering regional zones – and one of the most important premium drivers in IPMI.
Arson prevention comprises access control, surveillance and housekeeping measures that make it harder to start deliberate fires, since arson is among the most frequent causes of major industrial losses.
The asbestos and contamination exclusion comprehensively removes damage, costs and liability claims arising from the presence, release or removal of asbestos from property and liability policies.
Aspirating smoke detection actively draws air samples from the monitored area through a pipe network and analyses them with high-sensitivity detectors, identifying fires substantially earlier than point-type smoke detectors.
Asset allocation is the strategic distribution of an investment portfolio across different asset classes to optimize return and risk.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Asset backed securities are securities collateralized by a pool of receivables or other assets, with payments to investors serviced from the cash flows they generate.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Asset liability management is the integrated management of an insurer's investments and liabilities to limit interest rate, liquidity, and duration mismatch risks.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Asset liability modelling is the simulation-based analysis of the interaction between an insurer's investments and liabilities under various capital market and business scenarios.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Asset management is the professional management of investments on behalf of investors, including investment decisions, monitoring, and reporting.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Asset-liability mismatch risk is the risk that an insurer's investments and liabilities do not sufficiently align in terms of maturity, interest rate sensitivity, or currency.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Assignment as collateral refers to the contractual restriction that ties disposal of an insurance benefit to the consent of a third party, usually a lender, in whose favour the policy has been pledged or assigned as security.
In an assignment as security, the claims arising from a life insurance policy are pledged as collateral for a third party's claim (e.g. a bank), without the policyholder changing.
Assignment is the contractual transfer of a claim, such as a claim to an insurance benefit, from the existing creditor to a new creditor.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Assistance insurance covers emergency services such as breakdown help, repatriation, or organising medical care at home or abroad, rather than merely providing financial compensation.
Assumed reinsurance is the offering of reinsurance capacity and the underwriting of reinsurance covers by a reinsurer, as opposed to ceded reinsurance from the cedent's perspective.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The ASVG is the central Austrian statute governing statutory social insurance and regulates health, accident, and pension insurance for employees within a single act.
Financial instruments measured at fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL) are remeasured to fair value at each balance sheet date, with changes recognized immediately in profit or loss.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
The ATA Carnet is an internationally standardised customs document that enables the temporary, duty-free import, export and transit of goods such as trade fair exhibits, professional equipment or commercial samples across more than 80 contracting countries.
The ATSG (SR 830.1) is the Swiss framework act that gives the federal social insurance schemes uniform definitions (illness, accident, incapacity for work, incapacity for gainful activity, disability, helplessness), a common administrative procedure, and the coordination and overcompensation rules that apply between the schemes.
The attachment point is the loss amount above which a reinsurer becomes liable to respond under a non-proportional reinsurance cover.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The Austrian Insurance Broker Act governs the legal status, duties, and liability of insurance brokers towards their clients and distinguishes broking from the role of the tied insurance agent.
The Austrian Insurance Contract Act (VersVG) governs the private-law relationship between insurer and policyholder and is the central body of contract law for the insurance industry.
The Austrian Insurance Supervision Act 2016 (VAG 2016) governs licensing, solvency (Solvency II), and business organisation of insurers; the supervisory authority is the Financial Market Authority (FMA).
Risk profile for an automated high-bay warehouse (high-rise racking with stacker cranes, shuttle systems or automated storage and retrieval systems): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
An AHB clause under which newly arising risks of the policyholder are automatically and provisionally covered from their inception, until they are notified to the insurer and formally incorporated into the policy.
The automatic reinstatement clause ensures that the sum insured is not permanently reduced by a claim payment, but is automatically restored to its full amount from the date of loss in return for an additional premium.
This clause provides that a fixed-term insurance contract automatically renews for a further period absent termination, subject to a statutorily fixed maximum duration per renewal.
Automatic sprinkler systems are fixed water-based fire protection installations that detect and control or extinguish a fire in its early stages through heat-activated sprinkler heads, without relying on human intervention.
Risk profile for an automotive supplier (manufacture of parts, components or subassemblies for motor vehicles supplied into original-equipment or aftermarket supply chains): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Automotive suppliers face a risk profile shaped by tightly scheduled just-in-time supply chains, highly automated production lines and strong dependency on a small number of customers, in which business interruption losses frequently exceed direct property damage.
The AUVA is the statutory carrier of accident insurance under the ASVG and covers work-related and occupational accidents as well as occupational diseases of employees in Austria.
Available for Sale was a financial instrument classification under IAS 39 under which fair value changes were recognized in other comprehensive income rather than in profit or loss.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
An aval is a guarantee or surety bond issued by a bank or credit insurer on behalf of a customer in favor of a third party, without any cash changing hands.
Avalanche is a natural hazard peril in which falling masses of snow or ice damage buildings, infrastructure, and people, and is offered in mountainous regions as an extension of natural hazard cover.
The average claim amount is the ratio of total claims payments to the number of claims within a given period or portfolio.
The US coinsurance clause requires the policyholder to insure the covered property up to a specified percentage (commonly 80–100%) of its actual value; if this threshold is not met, the insurer proportionally reduces the indemnity even for partial losses.
The clause excludes, and partially reinstates, cover for accidents arising from acts of war and from the use of aircraft.
Aviation insurance covers hull and liability risks associated with the operation of aircraft and, due to the high individual risk exposures involved, is predominantly underwritten in the international specialty insurance market.
Backup strategy and offline copy records how frequently an organisation backs up critical data and whether at least one copy is kept offline, air-gapped or immutable, a decisive control against ransomware queried in cyber proposal forms.
Bad faith describes blatantly unfair conduct by an insurer in handling a claim that exceeds mere breach of contract and can give rise to damages claims beyond the policy limit.
BaFin is Germany's supervisory authority for banks, insurers, and securities services providers, overseeing insurance undertakings at the federal level under the VAG.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
The balance sheet date is the point in time to which the valuation of all assets and liabilities in an insurer's financial statements refers.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
A model condition that partially reinstates the AHB exclusion for damage caused by environmental impact, bringing sudden, accidental environmental damage back into cover under a standalone basic policy.
The Basic Tariff is a statutorily mandated tariff in German private health insurance offering benefits comparable to statutory health insurance, with a mandatory acceptance obligation for insurers.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Basis risk is the risk that a hedge — particularly a parametric or index-based instrument — does not precisely match the actual loss suffered.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The Basisrente is a state-subsidized German private pension plan providing lifelong annuity payments that cannot be inherited, pledged, or transferred.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
A benchmark is a reference standard, typically an index, against which the performance of an investment or portfolio is measured.
Explained on the topic page Investments
The beneficiary is the person designated by the policyholder to receive the insurance benefit upon a covered event, without being a party to the contract themselves.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
A beneficiary designation determines which person receives the benefit from a life insurance policy on survival or death, and can be granted on a revocable or irrevocable basis.
Benefit escalation is a contractual provision under which an ongoing annuity benefit (e.g., from disability or pension insurance) is periodically increased by a fixed percentage or in line with inflation.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Benefit reduction for gross negligence is the statutory curtailment of the insurance benefit where the insured person has brought about the insured event through gross negligence; in Switzerland it is applied under Art. 14 VVG in proportion to the degree of fault and, under Art. 37 UVG, for non-occupational accidents by reducing daily allowances during the first two years.
Berufsgenossenschaften are the industry-based, self-governing carriers of statutory accident insurance in Germany under § 114 SGB VII; they are financed exclusively by employers' contributions on a pay-as-you-go basis, calculated according to the funding requirement, the payroll and the hazard classes of the hazard tariff (§§ 150–157 SGB VII).
The Best Estimate is the probability-weighted average of the future cash flows of an insurance portfolio and the central valuation component of technical provisions under Solvency II.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Bicycle insurance covers theft, vandalism, and damage to bicycles and e-bikes, supplementing the usually tightly limited bicycle cover under household contents insurance.
A bid bond protects a tender issuer against a bidder withdrawing its offer before the bid validity period expires or failing to accept the award.
A binder is a preliminary, often informally issued insurance undertaking that provides coverage before the final policy has been issued.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The binding period is the time during which an offer or a reinsurer's underwriting commitment remains binding before it lapses without acceptance.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
A blanket policy establishes a single overall sum insured covering several insured objects or risk types, without dividing it among the individual items.
A block policy is a master cover that automatically insures an indeterminate number of similar individual risks or shipments under uniform terms.
Explained on the topic page Transport Insurance
Bodily injury is harm to a person's health or physical integrity, ranging up to death, and forms, alongside property damage, the central category of loss in liability insurance.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The bonus-malus system tiers motor insurance premiums based on the policyholder's individual claims history.
Book value is the value of an asset recognized in the balance sheet, typically the acquisition or production cost less accumulated depreciation.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
A bordereau is a periodic statement through which a cedent provides its reinsurer with details of individual ceded risks, premiums, or claims.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The declaration process is the periodic reporting of individual risks written by the cedent under a proportional reinsurance treaty to the reinsurer.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The both to blame collision clause requires the cargo insured to reimburse the carrying vessel's owner for part of the damages it pays to the cargo owner where both vessels are found jointly at fault in a collision.
Bottleneck machinery identifies the units within a production process that have no redundancy and whose failure or destruction would halt or severely constrain the entire output, as queried in property and machinery proposal forms.
The brands and labels clause allows the policyholder to remove brands, labels or other identifying marks from damaged goods before they are sold as salvage, protecting the policyholder's reputation against branded goods reaching the market at a discount.
This clause provides that a reduction or loss of benefits for breach of a contractual condition does not apply where the policyholder proves that the breach caused neither the occurrence of the insured event nor affected the extent of the insurer's liability.
This clause sets out the consequences (rescission, termination, retroactive contract adjustment or loss of cover) that follow where a policyholder has misrepresented or withheld material pre-contractual risk facts.
Breakage damage is the sudden mechanical destruction of a machine part or a glass surface and is the central insured event in machinery and glass insurance.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
The broker clause designates the insurance broker instructed by the policyholder as the recipient of the insurer's communications and information, and sets out whose knowledge is attributed to the policyholder within the intermediation relationship.
Broker's authority is the mandate granted by the policyholder that authorizes an insurance broker to represent them toward insurers within a defined scope, without the broker acting on behalf of an insurer.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Broker's professional liability refers to the civil liability of an insurance broker toward its client for damage arising from defective advice, placement, or ongoing servicing.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Brokerage commission is the remuneration paid by an insurer to an insurance broker for placing and servicing an insurance contract.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Builder's liability insurance covers a project owner's statutory liability for bodily injury and property damage suffered by third parties in connection with a construction project.
Building floor area records the footprint and total gross floor area of a building, and is queried in property proposal forms to size fire compartments, accumulation and probable maximum loss.
Building maintenance condition records the observed state of upkeep of a building's structure and technical installations, and is queried in property proposal forms as a general indicator of housekeeping standards and loss frequency.
Building owner's liability is the causal liability of the owner of a building or other structure for losses arising from a defective condition or inadequate maintenance of the structure.
A bundled policy combines several legally independent insurance lines into a single policy with a unified premium invoice.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
The burden of proof determines which contracting party must prove the factual requirements for the existence or non-existence of an insurance claim.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Burglary is theft in which the perpetrator gains access to the policyholder's premises by overcoming an obstacle.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Burning cost is an experience-based reinsurance pricing method that relates the historical loss experience of a portfolio to its premium base.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The business activity description records the precise nature of the operations conducted at an insured location or by an insured entity, as captured in insurance proposal forms to establish the risk profile and scope of cover.
Business closure insurance covers loss of income resulting from an officially ordered closure or restriction of operations, particularly due to infection control measures.
Business continuity management is the systematic development of plans and capabilities that enable a company to quickly resume critical processes after an operational disruption.
Business interruption insurance replaces lost operating profit and continuing costs when an insured physical damage event interrupts business operations.
Business interruption loss history records the frequency, cause, duration and financial impact of an operation's past interruption and contingent business interruption events, giving underwriters a direct test of the declared indemnity period and dependency exposure.
Business travel accident insurance (BTA, corporate travel insurance) is an annual policy taken out by the employer that protects employees on business trips with accident capital, medical expenses abroad, medical and security evacuation, repatriation, baggage, cancellation and assistance benefits – supplementing statutory accident insurance, which in principle already covers accidents on business trips.
Business travel days abroad records the number of employee travel days spent on international business trips per year, used to size accumulation and severity exposure for accident and travel insurance underwriting.
Risk profile for a corporate business travel programme: the risk attributes typically assessed in travel and accident underwriting and the resulting insurance programme architecture for employees on business trips.
Cable fire loads arise from the large quantities of combustible insulation and sheathing materials bundled in cable routes and ducts; without fire stopping and suitable cable grades, a local fault can spread rapidly across entire fire compartments.
The cancellation clause governs the periods, form and grounds under which an insurer or policyholder may terminate an international policy early, usually with tiered periods for ordinary and extraordinary cancellation.
Cantonal building insurance is a public-law insurance institution that holds a statutory monopoly on natural hazard insurance for buildings in a number of Swiss cantons.
Capacity is the maximum amount of liability an insurer, reinsurer or the overall market can or will provide for a risk or a line of business.
Explained on the topic page Underwriting
Capacity for tort is a person's ability to be held civilly responsible for fault-based damage caused, and a prerequisite for liability.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The Cape Cod method is an actuarial reserving technique that combines the chain ladder method with a stabilizing expected loss ratio derived from the entire portfolio.
The capital funding method is a funded financing approach for retirement systems in which sufficient capital is accumulated from the outset for each accrued pension entitlement.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
A capitalization requirement obliges a company to recognize certain expenditures as an asset on the balance sheet rather than expensing them immediately.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
A captive is a group-owned insurance or reinsurance company that primarily underwrites risks of its own corporate group, thereby financing a structured retention.
Explained on the topic page Risk financing
The care credit is a notional additional income credited when calculating AHV pensions for individuals who care for close relatives with a recognised degree of helplessness.
Explained on the topic page AHV
AHB exclusion for damage to third-party property caused by the policyholder's own processing, repair or other business activity on that property, commonly bought back through a market endorsement.
The care, custody and control exclusion excludes from liability insurance damage to third-party property that is in the insured's custody, care, or control at the time of loss.
Cargo refers to the goods being transported, whose damage or loss forms the central insured event in marine and transport cargo insurance.
Explained on the topic page Transport Insurance
Cargo value in transit records the maximum value of goods typically carried on a single vehicle, wagon or consignment at any one time, as queried in goods-in-transit proposal forms to set per-conveyance and aggregate accumulation limits.
COGSA is a 1936 US federal statute governing carrier liability for cargo loss or damage on international ocean shipments, generally limiting that liability to a fixed amount per package.
Carrier's liability is a transport company's statutory liability for loss of or damage to goods accepted for carriage.
Explained on the topic page Transport Insurance
Case management is the coordinated, individualized support of claims cases aimed at faster recovery, reintegration, or appropriate care for the insured.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
A cash call is a cedent's request to its reinsurer for early payment of an already foreseeable claims share ahead of the regular settlement cycle.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The cash call clause entitles the cedent to demand an immediate advance payment from the reinsurer for a large individual loss, instead of waiting for the regular periodic account.
A cash deposit is collateral placed by a reinsurer with the cedent to secure the cedent's claims under the reinsurance contract.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Cash flow matching is an investment strategy aligning the timing and amount of investment cash flows with expected future insurance benefit payments.
Explained on the topic page Investments
The cash reserve is the holding of immediately available liquid funds that an insurer maintains to meet short-term payment obligations.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Cash shortage insurance covers cash-handling employees against personal liability toward their employer for unexplained shortfalls arising in the course of their duties involving cash, securities, or goods.
A catastrophe bond is a security through which insurers or reinsurers transfer catastrophe risk to capital market investors in exchange for a coupon.
A Cat XL is a non-proportional reinsurance treaty that protects a cedent against the accumulated loss burden from a single natural catastrophe event.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
A catastrophe model simulates the frequency and severity of natural catastrophe events and their expected losses to an insured portfolio.
Causal liability is a liability regime in which liability arises independently of the tortfeasor's fault, based solely on the existence of a legally defined causal link between a cause and the loss.
Causation is the causal link between an event or conduct and a loss that has occurred, the establishment of which is central both to founding liability and to reviewing coverage under an insurance contract.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The cedent is the primary insurer that transfers (cedes) all or part of the risks in its portfolio to a reinsurer.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The Central Call Service of Motor Insurers is a facility run by the German Insurance Association (GDV) and German motor insurers that provides accident victims with free information on the motor liability insurer of a vehicle involved in an accident, where a legitimate interest exists.
The central limit theorem states that the distribution of the standardised mean of a large number of independent, identically distributed random variables can be approximated by the standard normal distribution, and it underpins risk pooling within a collective.
Explained on the topic page Risk theory
Cession is the transfer of a risk or a share of risk by the primary insurer (cedent) to a reinsurer (reinsurer/cessionary) in exchange for a reinsurance premium.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The cession limit is the maximum share of a risk or contract that a reinsurer agrees to accept from a cedent under a reinsurance treaty.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The chain ladder method estimates ultimate claims cost by projecting historical development patterns from a claims triangle onto the as-yet unresolved accident years.
The change in law clause governs how contract terms and continuation are affected if new legislation or regulation enacted after inception materially changes the insured risk or the basis of the contract.
Chemical inventory and quantities records the range and volume of chemical substances handled or stored by the insured, as queried in property and environmental liability proposal forms.
Risk profile for a chemical plant (bulk production, formulation, blending and packaging of chemical substances): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Chemical plants present an industry-specific hazard profile arising from the handling of flammable, reactive or toxic substances, closely linking fire, explosion and environmental risk.
Child disability insurance is personal insurance that pays a capital sum or a lifelong annuity where a child becomes permanently disabled as a result of accident or illness, closing the gap left by private accident insurance (accidents only) and social insurance (no or low disability benefits for children).
The child-raising credit is a notional additional income credited to parents for years with children under 16 when calculating their AHV pension, offsetting disadvantages caused by child-raising duties.
Explained on the topic page AHV
The choice of law clause determines the substantive law under which an international policy is construed and coverage questions are decided, independently of the policyholder's domicile or the place of loss.
A chronic illness is a long-lasting, generally not fully curable disease that is subject to special underwriting and benefit rules in health, disability, and long-term care insurance.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Churning refers to the improper replacement of an insurance contract, driven primarily by an intermediary's commission interest, without economic benefit to the customer.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Civil commotion refers to violent disturbances by a crowd within a state that can be included in or excluded from property insurance policies as a distinct peril.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Beihilfe is the employer allowance paid by the state to civil servants and their dependents toward medical costs, typically supplemented by private complementary health insurance.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
The claims control clause gives the (re)insurer or programme leader the right to control investigation, defence and settlement of a claim in whole or in part, typically drafted as a condition precedent to its own liability.
The claims cooperation clause obliges the cedent to notify the reinsurer of losses and involve it in claims handling, in some versions up to a consent requirement for settlements.
Claims settlement speed is the time between receipt of a claim and completion of its handling, and serves as a quality metric for an insurer's claims service.
Explained on the topic page Claims management
A claims triangle is a tabular presentation of an insurer's historical claims costs or payments by accident year and development year, forming the basis of classical actuarial reserving methods.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
The claims-made principle makes coverage of a loss dependent on the claim first being asserted against the insured during the current policy period.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The contractual definition of the coverage trigger, determining whether the notification of the claim (claims-made) or the event causing the loss (occurrence) governs which policy period responds.
A claims-sharing agreement is an arrangement between insurers under which, for certain loss scenarios with unclear or disputed liability shares, an individual case review is waived and the loss is split according to a fixed formula.
A clash cover protects a reinsurer or cedent against the accumulation of losses from multiple lines or policies triggered by the same loss event.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Cliquet crediting permanently locks in annual gains of a fund- or index-linked life insurance policy so that they cannot subsequently be lost.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Cloud usage extent records how much of an organisation's critical infrastructure, applications and data has moved to public, private or hybrid cloud environments, and how that dependency is configured and secured.
Co-payments are additional payments by insured persons, over and above their normal contributions, required to access certain benefits under Germany's statutory health insurance (GKV).
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
The coefficient of variation is the ratio of the standard deviation to the expected value of a distribution and measures the relative volatility of a risk.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Coinsurance refers to splitting a single risk among several insurers, each independently assuming a defined share of the risk and premium.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Cold and frozen storage warehouses combine combustible insulated panel envelopes with refrigeration plant whose refrigerant can itself be a fire or health hazard if it leaks, requiring a dedicated fire protection concept.
Risk profile for a cold and frozen storage facility (chilled and deep-frozen warehousing with insulated construction and refrigeration plant): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Cold calling refers to contacting a potential customer by phone or in person without prior consent or an existing business relationship.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Collection authority entitles an insurance intermediary to receive premium payments from the policyholder on behalf of the insurer, with the effect that payment to the intermediary discharges the policyholder's obligation toward the insurer.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The combined ratio is the sum of an insurer's loss ratio and expense ratio; a value below 100 percent means the underwriting business is profitable.
A combustible dust explosion occurs when fine combustible dust is dispersed as a cloud at sufficient concentration and ignited by an effective ignition source, where a primary explosion can lift settled dust into a far more destructive secondary explosion.
Combustible dust generation records whether the insured's process produces fine particulate that can form an explosible dust cloud, as queried in property and business interruption proposal forms.
The compensation claim under § 89b HGB entitles an insurance agent, upon termination of the agency, to compensation for benefits the insurer continues to derive from the agent's acquired customers.
Commission is the performance-based fee, usually calculated as a percentage of the placed premium, that an insurer pays an intermediary for placing or servicing an insurance contract.
The communicable disease exclusion removes damage and business interruption connected with communicable diseases from property and business interruption cover, and was significantly developed further in response to COVID-19.
Commutation is the final financial settlement of a reinsurance contract, under which the ceding insurer gives up all rights in exchange for compensation and the reinsurer is released from all obligations.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
In Germany a commuting accident is an occupational accident on the direct route to and from the place of work that is connected with the insured activity (§ 8 para. 2 SGB VII), and in Austria an occupational accident on the way to or from the workplace (§ 175 para. 2 ASVG); Switzerland has no separate category and treats the commute as a non-occupational accident, or as an occupational accident for part-time employees working fewer than eight hours a week (Art. 7 para. 2 UVG).
A company pension is an old-age, disability, or survivors' benefit promised or co-financed by the employer as part of occupational pension provision.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
Complaints management is the organizationally embedded, regulatorily governed process by which insurers must handle customer complaints.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Completed operations refers to liability coverage for bodily injury and property damage that arises only after work performed by the insured has been finished and accepted.
Compliance and governance programme records whether the applicant maintains a formal, documented compliance function and governance framework, as queried in directors' and officers' liability proposal forms.
The compliance function is one of the four Solvency II key functions and monitors compliance with laws and regulatory requirements within an insurance undertaking.
A composite insurer is an insurance undertaking that writes both life and non-life insurance business, a model that is restricted or no longer permitted under the supervisory law of many jurisdictions.
Compounding is the calculation of the future value of a present capital amount, taking interest and compound interest into account.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Comprehensive motor insurance covers damage to the policyholder's own vehicle and is divided into partial and fully comprehensive cover, which differ in the scope of insured perils.
Compressed gas cylinder storage records the number and type of compressed, liquefied or dissolved gas cylinders held on site, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Compressed gas cylinder storage requires segregation by gas properties (flammable, oxidising, inert, toxic), securing against falling, and adequate ventilation to limit fire, explosion and asphyxiation hazards.
Compulsory contracting obliges an insurer to conclude an insurance contract with any applicant within a defined scope, without the right to individually decline the risk.
Compulsory insurance is insurance mandated by law, the taking out of which is a mandatory precondition for engaging in a particular activity or for a particular risk to be permitted.
The Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze is the annually determined income threshold in Germany above which employees are exempt from mandatory statutory health insurance and may switch to private health insurance.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Condition monitoring systematically captures measurands such as vibration, temperature or oil quality to continuously assess the technical condition of machines and plan maintenance proactively rather than reactively.
Conduct risk is the risk that inappropriate behavior by an insurer towards customers causes harm and results in regulatory or reputational consequences.
A confidence interval indicates a range of values that contains the true parameter of a statistical estimate with a specified probability.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
A conflict of interest exists when an insurer's or intermediary's own interests contradict those of the policyholder, thereby jeopardizing objective advice or service delivery.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The consent to settle clause requires the insurer to obtain the insured's approval before concluding a settlement, rather than settling claims against the insured unilaterally.
Consequential loss is an indirect economic loss resulting from a preceding physical or bodily injury loss, without constituting that loss itself.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Consequential loss from a defect is damage caused by a defect in a delivered item or service to other legal interests of the injured party, and, unlike the defect itself, is generally covered by liability insurance.
Construction all risks (CAR) and erection all risks (EAR) insurance covers unforeseen damage to construction works, plant and site facilities during the project and erection phase.
Construction class categorises a building by the combustibility and fire resistance of its structural materials, and is queried in property proposal forms to gauge fire severity potential and set base rates.
Construction delay risk captures the factors that could push a project beyond its planned completion date, and the financial consequences of such delay, as assessed in Construction and Erection All Risks proposal forms alongside any associated delay-in-start-up cover.
Construction period is the planned duration from commencement of works on site to practical completion (and, where applicable, the subsequent maintenance period), as declared in Construction and Erection All Risks proposal forms.
Construction sum insured is the total contract value of the works, materials, plant and site facilities to be completed under a Construction or Erection All Risks policy, forming the basis on which premium and probable maximum loss are calculated.
Consulting liability is civil liability for damage suffered by a third party as a result of defective professional advice or information.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The clause sets out the conditions and time limits under which a life insurer may avoid the contract because of a breach of the pre-contractual duty of disclosure.
Contingent business interruption covers loss of income arising when physical damage at a supplier or customer disrupts the policyholder's own operations.
CBI cover insures interruption losses triggered by physical damage at third parties – in particular suppliers, customers or utility providers.
The cyber contingent business interruption clause extends cyber business interruption cover to income loss caused by a cyber incident at a third-party service provider (e.g. a cloud provider or IT vendor).
Continuation insurance preserves the right to reinstate a suspended policy at a later date at its original terms, without a new health assessment.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
In international health insurance, continuation of cover refers to maintaining existing insurance protection without fresh underwriting – on a change of insurer by carrying over the previous terms (continued personal medical exclusions, CPME), on leaving a group scheme through a conversion right into an individual policy, and within the policy through a waiver of cancellation on grounds of age or claims history; market practice ties it to continuous prior cover, maximum ages and a comparable level of benefits.
The continuation option allows an insured person to convert a group insurance policy into an individual policy without a new health assessment upon leaving the group.
A continuing hazard is a persistent, not merely temporary, risk-increasing circumstance, the non-disclosure of which can trigger specific contractual consequences.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The continuity clause credits waiting periods and prior cover already completed by insured employees when a group policy moves to a new insurer.
The continuity date clause sets the date from which an insured can demonstrate uninterrupted D&O cover and serves as the reference point for the prior-knowledge exclusion test on a change of insurer or renewal.
The contra proferentem rule holds that ambiguous clauses in insurance policy wording are, in case of doubt, construed against the insurer as the drafter of the wording.
Contract certainty is the principle that all material contract terms should be fully agreed and documented before, or immediately upon, the inception of coverage.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The contract price clause provides that damaged or destroyed goods already subject to a sale contract are indemnified on the basis of the agreed contract price rather than market value or the cost of manufacture.
Contractor management covers the selection, induction, contractual integration and supervision of external firms so their employees follow the same safety and fire protection rules as the site's own staff.
Contractor usage records the extent to which an insured relies on external contractors and subcontractors for operations, maintenance or construction work on its premises, since third-party workers introduce liability and property risks that the insured does not fully control.
Contractors' works insurance covers physical damage to the works of a construction project during the construction period against unforeseen events.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Contractual liability is liability for damage resulting from non-performance or defective performance of contractual duties, as distinct from tortious liability.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
Contractual penalty clauses record whether an insured has agreed to liquidated damages, penalty payments or performance guarantees in its customer contracts, since such assumed contractual liability typically exceeds and falls outside standard general or professional liability cover.
An AHB exclusion for claims seeking contractual performance, supplementary performance or equivalent performance substitutes, since liability insurance covers statutory third-party claims, not the claimant's expectation interest.
A contribution gap exists when a person has paid no, or insufficient, AHV contributions in a given calendar year, resulting in a permanent reduction of their old-age pension.
Explained on the topic page AHV
The contribution principle governs how multiple insurers that independently cover the same risk share a loss among themselves.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
A contribution-oriented defined benefit promise is a German occupational pension commitment where contributions are converted into a guaranteed pension benefit the employer promises.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
The contributory causes clause reduces the accident benefit in proportion to the extent that pre-existing illness or infirmity contributed to the injury.
Contributory or comparative negligence is the legal doctrine under which a claimant's damages are reduced in proportion to the extent that their own negligence contributed to the loss.
The contributory share (Mitwirkungsanteil) is the percentage determined in accident insurance to which illness or infirmity contributed to an accident-related injury or its consequences; above a contractual threshold – 25 per cent under the AUB 2020 – it leads to a proportionate reduction of the degree of disability or of the benefit.
The convalescence benefit (Genesungsgeld) is a supplementary benefit of private accident insurance paid as a fixed daily amount following an accident-related hospital stay for the same number of days as the hospital cash benefit, usually on a decreasing scale and for a limited period.
The coordinated salary is the portion of salary insured under occupational pension provision (BVG), calculated as the qualifying AHV salary less the coordination deduction.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pension
The coordination deduction is the fixed or percentage-based amount subtracted from AHV salary to align occupational pension provision with AHV benefits and avoid over-insurance.
A corporate bond is a fixed-income security issued by a company and one of the most important asset classes in insurers' investment portfolios.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Corporate group insurance is a contract under which an employer insures the employees of a business collectively against certain risks (e.g. accident, illness, death), without concluding an individual contract for each person.
Corporate group structure captures the applicant's shareholding chain, subsidiaries, joint ventures and foreign affiliates, as queried in directors' and officers' and umbrella liability proposal forms.
Corporate health management (Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement, BGM) is the systematic management of corporate structures and processes with the aim of preserving employees' health and performance; it integrates occupational safety and health protection, absence management and workplace health promotion in line with the Luxembourg Declaration and is certified in Switzerland with the "Friendly Work Space" label.
Risk profile for a corporate workforce benefits programme: the risk attributes typically assessed in occupational pension and group benefits underwriting and the resulting insurance programme architecture for an employer's workforce.
Cosmetic surgery after an accident is a benefit module of private accident insurance that reimburses, up to the agreed sum, the costs not borne by third parties of medical procedures to correct an accident-related impairment of the insured person's outward appearance, including dental treatment of incisors and canines.
A cost approval (Kostengutsprache) is the binding confirmation obtained before treatment that an insurer or canton will pay for a specific service; in Switzerland it is standard for out-of-canton hospital stays (Art. 41 para. 3 KVG), certain KLV benefits and practically all hospital supplementary and rehabilitation benefits under the VVG, and functionally corresponds to pre-authorisation in international private medical insurance.
Cost sharing under Art. 64 KVG is the share of health care costs borne by insured persons in Swiss basic insurance: an annual deductible (franchise; ordinary CHF 300, electable up to CHF 2,500 for adults), a co-payment of 10 % of costs above the deductible (capped at CHF 700 per year, children CHF 350) and a hospital contribution of CHF 15 per day (as per Art. 103 f. KVV, September 2026).
Cover for existing structures records whether a Construction or Erection All Risks policy extends to pre-existing buildings and installations owned or under the care, custody or control of the principal on which works are being carried out.
A cover note is a preliminary confirmation of insurance coverage issued by an insurer or broker pending issuance of the final policy.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The cover pool is a specially protected ring-fenced asset pool held by life insurers, primarily intended to secure policyholders' claims.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Coverage litigation is the judicial or extrajudicial process determining whether, and to what extent, liability insurance provides coverage for a specific loss.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The coverage trigger determines which point in time is decisive for whether a loss is covered under a given insurance period.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
A covered bond is a secured bond protected, in addition to issuer liability, by a ring-fenced pool of high-quality collateral assets.
Explained on the topic page Investments
The covered journey is the temporary business absence from the place of residence or work, directed by the employer, as defined in business travel accident insurance – it begins on leaving that place, ends on return, includes attached private holiday days within limits and is capped at a maximum duration of typically 90 to 365 days; commuting is not a business trip.
Cranes and lifting equipment carry the risk of a dropped load through overload, failure of load-bearing components or human error, endangering the lifted goods as well as neighbouring plant and personnel.
Crane and lifting operations records whether tower cranes, mobile cranes or other heavy lifting equipment are used on the construction site, as declared in Construction and Erection All Risks and general liability proposal forms.
Credibility theory weights an individual risk's own claims experience against a collective value, depending on the statistical reliability of the individual experience.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Credit assessment is the systematic evaluation of a counterparty's ability to pay and forms the central underwriting basis of credit insurance.
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
Credit default risk is the risk that a debtor fails to meet its contractual payment obligations, in whole or in part.
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
Credit exposure (German: Obligo) is the total amount of outstanding receivables owed by a specific buyer at a given point in time, to which the coverage of a trade credit insurance policy relates.
Credit rating captures the external or internal creditworthiness assessment assigned to an applicant or its counterparties, as queried in credit, surety and directors' and officers' proposal forms.
Creditworthiness is a debtor's ability and willingness to meet its financial obligations fully and on time, and forms the basis of rating and credit risk assessment.
Explained on the topic page Investments
An AHB clause under which the insurer bears the cost of a criminal defence lawyer it has requested or approved, where criminal proceedings may give rise to a covered liability claim.
Critical illness insurance pays a single lump sum upon diagnosis of a serious illness exhaustively defined in the contract, regardless of actual loss of income.
Condition-based maintenance of critical machinery and equipment reduces breakdown and consequential loss risks and is a key prerequisite for insurable machinery and business interruption exposures.
Critical spare parts stock records the extent to which components with long replacement lead times for bottleneck machinery are held in stock, contractually reserved or otherwise secured, as queried in machinery and business interruption proposal forms.
A clause in multi-party policies that applies cover separately to each insured, so that a claim brought by one co-insured against another co-insured under the same policy is covered.
Cross-border business refers to the distribution of insurance products beyond an insurer's home state, based on the European freedom to provide services.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Cross-selling refers to selling additional insurance products to existing customers who already hold another contract with the same insurer.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
A cure treatment is a medically prescribed, usually multi-week course of treatment at a climatically or therapeutically suitable location, whose reimbursement under health and supplementary insurance is subject to specific tariff conditions.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
The currency clause determines the currency in which premiums and benefits are calculated and paid, and governs the treatment of exchange rate fluctuations.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The currency clause (reinsurance) specifies the currency in which premiums and losses are settled and how amounts in other currencies are converted where a treaty covers several currencies.
Customer concentration records the share of the insured's total revenue generated by its single largest customer or by a small group of top customers, as queried in business interruption and trade credit proposal forms.
A cut-through clause gives the policyholder or claimant a direct payment claim against the reinsurer if the primary insurer – typically a fronting company – fails.
The property cyber exclusion removes cyber-related losses from traditional property policies to eliminate "silent" (non-affirmative) cyber exposure and to channel cyber risk into standalone cyber policies.
Cyber incident history records the frequency, nature and cost of an organisation's past cyber security incidents and data breaches, giving underwriters a key indicator of control effectiveness and future breach likelihood.
Cyber insurance covers first-party and third-party losses from information security breaches – such as business interruption after ransomware, data restoration, liability and crisis services.
The cyber systemic risk exclusion (infrastructure exclusion) removes accumulation losses arising from the large-scale failure of third-party digital infrastructure (e.g. cloud providers, internet backbone, power grid) from cyber cover, irrespective of any war or state nexus.
LMA5567 excludes losses in cyber policies caused by a cyber attack carried out in the course of war or attributable to a state as a hostile act, but requires a demonstrable attribution process before it applies.
Cyber-physical security of fire and security systems refers to protecting networked fire detection, intrusion detection, video and access control systems from manipulation and failure caused by cyber attacks.
D&O claims and proceedings history records past claims, regulatory investigations and derivative or securities actions brought against a company's directors and officers, giving underwriters the primary basis for assessing management liability exposure.
D&O insurance (directors and officers liability) protects board members and senior executives against personal financial loss from alleged breaches of duty in their corporate roles.
Daily sickness benefit insurance pays an agreed daily benefit during incapacity for work due to illness or accident, to compensate for the resulting loss of income, typically after a deferred period has elapsed.
Dangerous goods transport records whether an insured's vehicles carry classified hazardous substances, as queried in motor liability and environmental proposal forms because it substantially increases the severity of potential third-party and environmental loss.
Risk profile for a data centre (colocation, enterprise or hyperscale server facility): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Data centres combine a very high concentration of asset value in a small footprint with extreme sensitivity to business interruption, since even brief outages of power or cooling can trigger far-reaching consequential losses for customers.
The data protection officer monitors compliance with data protection law within an organization and is regularly required to be appointed by insurers due to their extensive processing of sensitive data.
The death benefit is the contractually agreed insurance benefit that a life insurer pays to the beneficiary upon the death of the insured person.
The debris removal clause covers, in addition to the underlying property damage, the cost of clearing debris and wreckage produced by an insured event, usually subject to its own percentage limit or separate sub-limit above the sum insured.
Debris removal costs are the expenses for clearing and disposing of rubble and other unsalvageable remains at the loss site; combined homeowners property insurance typically covers them on a proportional basis.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Debt collection is the commercial recovery of receivables owed to, or assigned for collection to, a specialised, typically registered collection service provider, which pursues pre-legal and, where necessary, legal steps to recover overdue payments.
Debtor structure and concentration measures how the applicant's receivables are distributed across buyers, in particular the share held by the largest debtors, as queried in trade credit insurance proposal forms.
The declaration/reporting date clause adjusts the sum insured for stock values that fluctuate significantly by reference to regular, usually monthly, reports of the actual value on hand, avoiding both underinsurance and premium waste.
Decrement probability, in life and health insurance, is the probability of leaving a defined population group within a given period of time.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
The decrement table presents the withdrawal probabilities of policies leaving a private health insurer's portfolio, by age and observation period.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
A deductible is the contractually agreed portion of a loss that the insured bears itself before the insurance payment begins.
Explained on the topic page Contract design
An AHB clause under which the policyholder bears a fixed amount of each indemnity payment for every insured event, regardless of the size of the established claim.
The defects exclusion clauses (London Engineering Group LEG 1–3 and Defective Condition DE 1–5) define the extent to which loss or damage caused by defective design, materials or workmanship is excluded from construction and erection all-risks cover.
Defense against unfounded claims is one of a liability insurer's two principal contractual obligations, requiring it to reject unfounded claims brought against the policyholder.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
A defense right is a counter-right that can be raised against an otherwise existing claim, hindering its enforcement without eliminating the claim itself.
The deferment period is the time between conclusion of a deferred annuity contract and the start of pension payments, during which capital is accumulated.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
Where premiums cannot be maintained, a life policy can be converted to a reduced, premium-free benefit instead of being cancelled.
The deferred period is the contractually agreed span of time between the occurrence of an insured event and the start of the insurer's obligation to pay benefits, particularly under daily sickness benefit and disability insurance.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Under a deficiency guarantee, the creditor may only call on the guarantor once enforcement against the principal debtor has proven unsuccessful.
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
A defined contribution plan with minimum benefit is a German occupational pension commitment type where the employer guarantees only the contributions paid, not a specific pension amount.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
The definition of accident is the contractual or statutory description of an accident as a sudden, involuntary event acting externally on the body and causing bodily injury, which delimits the insured event in accident insurance from illness and wear and tear.
The degree of disability is the percentage of permanent impairment of physical or mental capacity, determined under accident insurance using a scale of limb values or a medical assessment, which governs the amount of the disability benefit.
Explained on the topic page Accident Insurance
A demand guarantee obliges the surety to pay immediately upon the creditor's mere demand, without first having to examine objections.
Demolition costs are the expenses for tearing down building remains that can no longer be salvaged after a loss event; combined homeowners property insurance typically covers them up to a defined share of the sum insured.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
The denial of access clause extends business interruption cover to loss of income caused when access to the insured's own, undamaged premises is prevented or seriously hindered by an insured event nearby.
Dental supplementary insurance is private supplementary cover for dental treatment and dentures beyond the benefits provided by Germany's statutory health insurance (GKV).
The departmental clause requires that a business interruption loss be calculated separately for each department of a business, provided their trading results are independently ascertainable.
Depreciation is the systematic or exceptional accounting reduction in the book value of an asset over its useful life or due to a permanent impairment.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
A derivative is a financial instrument whose value is derived from an underlying asset, used by insurers primarily to hedge investment risks.
Explained on the topic page Investments
A development commission is an additional reinsurance commission through which the reinsurer provides the cedent an expense overallowance to help build up its business operations.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Difference in Conditions/Difference in Limits cover closes gaps between a global insurance program and divergent, less comprehensive local policies.
The DIC/DIL clause extends an existing local policy under a Controlled Master Program with the broader conditions (DIC) or higher limits (DIL) of the master policy where the local policy does not respond, or does not fully respond, to a loss.
Diminished value refers to the residual loss in value of a repaired item, particularly a vehicle, that remains despite proper repair compared with its condition before the loss.
Direct billing is the settlement of treatment costs directly between the healthcare provider and the insurer, so that the insured person does not have to pay up front; it usually requires a provider network, pre-authorisation and a guarantee of payment issued by the insurer to the hospital.
Direct insurance is one of five statutory implementation vehicles for occupational pensions in Germany, where the employer takes out a life policy for the employee's benefit.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
A direct insurer sells its products directly to end customers, particularly via the internet and telephone, without intermediaries.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
A direct pension promise is an employment-law commitment under which an employer undertakes to pay a defined pension benefit directly from the company to an employee in old age, on disability, or to their survivors on death.
The direct right of action allows an injured party to assert its claim for damages directly against the wrongdoer's liability insurer.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
Directors and officers exposure profile summarises the applicant's board composition, decision-making structure and the regulatory and stakeholder environment its directors operate in, as queried in D&O proposal forms.
D&O insurance covers the personal legal liability of executive management, board members, and supervisory board members for financial losses caused by a breach of duty in the exercise of their office.
Disability is the permanent, usually accident-related impairment of a person's physical or mental capacity, which represents the central triggering event for benefits under accident insurance.
Explained on the topic page Accident Insurance
The IV is the Swiss social insurance scheme that provides integration measures and pension benefits to individuals whose earning capacity is permanently impaired by a birth defect, illness, or accident.
The Versehrtenrente is the pension of Austrian statutory accident insurance under §§ 203 ff. ASVG for insured persons whose earning capacity is reduced by at least 20 percent for more than three months as a result of an occupational accident or occupational disease; the full pension amounts to 66 2/3 percent of the assessment basis, the partial pension to the share corresponding to the reduction in earning capacity, and severely injured persons receive an additional pension.
The disappearance clause is a provision in accident and travel insurance under which an insured person who disappears following an accidental event – such as the sinking, crash or disappearance of a conveyance – and is not found within a set period (typically twelve months) is deemed to have died as a result of an accident, so that the death benefit becomes payable; if the person later turns up alive, the benefit must be repaid.
Discounting is the conversion of a future payment amount into its present value using a given interest rate.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
A distance selling contract is an insurance contract concluded exclusively through means of distance communication, subject to special information duties and an extended right of withdrawal.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Diversification reduces the overall risk of a portfolio or insurance book by spreading exposure across weakly correlated risks, asset classes, or lines of business.
Explained on the topic page Investments
The doctor's orders clause required insureds under disability policies to follow medical instructions, and is now largely absent from modern policy wordings.
Dog owner's liability insurance is a specialized liability policy for dog keepers that covers bodily injury and property damage caused by the animal, and is a statutory requirement for certain breeds or generally in many regions.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
Doorstep selling refers to concluding an insurance contract away from the intermediary's business premises, such as in the customer's private home, which triggers extended withdrawal and disclosure obligations to protect the consumer.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Double insurance exists when the same interest is insured against the same peril with multiple insurers and the combined sums insured exceed the insurable value.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
This clause governs notification, contribution and liability where the same interest against the same risk is insured with more than one insurer and the sums insured together exceed the insurable value.
Dowry endowment insurance is a life insurance policy taken out on a child that pays a lump sum upon the child's marriage or upon reaching a specified age.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Drainage pipes carry wastewater out of a building; breakage damage to them inside the building is typically covered under the water damage peril in combined homeowners property insurance.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
A drawdown payout plan is a form of decumulating accumulated capital at retirement through regular installments plus interest, until the capital is exhausted.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
Driver pool and minimum age records who is authorised to operate the insured vehicles and the minimum age or licence-holding period required, as queried in motor and fleet insurance proposal forms to assess the human-factor exposure behind the wheel.
Drone insurance covers liability and, optionally, hull risks arising from the operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/UAV) and is in many cases a statutory requirement.
A drop down cover is a clause under which a higher excess layer drops down into an exhausted or unavailable lower layer to close the resulting coverage gap.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Dry pipe and antifreeze systems protect piping and sprinkler sections in areas exposed to freezing or left unheated by holding air instead of water, or by dosing the water with an approved antifreeze solution.
The due date is the point in time from which a contractual claim can be demanded by the creditor and must be performed by the debtor.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Duration measures the average capital-weighted maturity of a fixed- income security or portfolio and its sensitivity to interest rate changes.
Explained on the topic page Investments
The duty to advise is the statutory obligation of an insurer or intermediary to inform the policyholder of material aspects of the contract, in particular exclusions, obligations, and rights of withdrawal.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The clause determines whether the insurer conducts the legal defence itself and bears its cost directly ("duty to defend") or only reimburses the insured for defence costs already incurred ("duty to indemnify"/"duty to pay").
The duty to ensure safety obliges anyone who creates or maintains a source of danger to take the measures reasonable under the circumstances to protect third parties from resulting harm.
The duty to mitigate loss obliges the policyholder to take reasonable measures to avert or reduce the loss in the event of an insured event.
A dynamic increase clause automatically raises the premium and benefit of a life or annuity contract at regular intervals without a new health assessment.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
E-bike and bicycle ownership records the number, type and value of bicycles and e-bikes owned by a household, as queried in bicycle insurance proposal forms to assess theft, accidental-damage and battery-related exposure.
Earthquake is a natural peril with high accumulation potential, whose insurability depends significantly on regional seismicity and reinsurance capacity.
Earthquake hazard zone records the seismic intensity or microzonation class assigned to a location by a recognised hazard map, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess ground-shaking exposure.
Education endowment insurance is a life insurance policy taken out on a child that provides a lump sum to fund education or university studies.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
EIOPA is the European supervisory authority that coordinates insurance supervision across the EU, develops technical standards, and promotes consistent application of Solvency II.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure combines high electrical power density with proximity to vehicle batteries and parking areas, turning overload, misuse and battery incidents into a distinct fire and business risk.
Electrical damage is loss to electrical installations or devices caused by the direct effect of electric current (e.g. short circuit, overvoltage, cable fire), without a fire in the sense of fire insurance occurring.
Electrical equipment in hazardous (classified) locations must be selected according to zone classification, type of protection and temperature class and inspected on a recurring basis, since a single unsuitable or damaged device can be enough to ignite an explosion.
Periodic inspection of electrical installations detects insulation faults, overloads and ageing damage before they cause fires or outages, and is a recurring statutory and insurance requirement in many jurisdictions.
Electrical thermography uses infrared cameras to reveal overheating in electrical installations before it leads to fires or outages, and is a standard instrument of insurance-driven loss prevention.
Electronic equipment insurance covers damage to electronic devices and systems from virtually all unforeseen events, including operating errors and internal breakdown.
Embedded value is an actuarial metric that derives the present value of an insurer's existing life insurance portfolio from expected future profits.
Emergency power systems and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) keep critical processes and life-safety systems running during a mains failure; their reliability depends largely on regular load testing and proper battery maintenance.
Emergency response planning defines how an operation protects people during fires, explosions and other loss events through defined alarm, evacuation and response procedures, and how it supports first responders.
Employee benefits are the pension and insurance benefits financed or arranged by an employer for its staff beyond salary; in Switzerland they mainly comprise occupational pension provision (BVG), daily sickness allowance insurance, supplementary UVG and group accident insurance, group supplementary health insurance and international private medical insurance for expatriates, and are compared against the market by brokers through benchmark studies.
Employee-financed occupational pension arises when an employee funds their occupational pension by converting part of their own salary into pension contributions.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
The employer's duty of care obliges it to protect the life, health and personal integrity of employees on business trips through appropriate measures – in Switzerland under Art. 328 CO, in Germany under section 618 BGB and the Occupational Safety Act, in Austria under section 1157 ABGB and the ASchG, and at common law as the duty of care; business travel insurance is part of, not the fulfilment of, this duty.
Employer's vicarious liability is a principal's tortious liability for damage caused by its auxiliary person while carrying out an assigned task.
Employment legal protection is a benefit category of legal expenses insurance covering judicial and out-of-court representation of legal interests arising from employment and public-service relationships.
Employment of domestic staff records whether a household employs cleaners, nannies, gardeners or other domestic workers, as queried in household liability and accident insurance proposal forms to assess employer's liability and mandatory social-insurance exposure.
EPLI covers claims for damages by employees against their employer arising from unlawful employment practices such as discrimination, harassment, or wrongful termination.
The entry threshold is the legally defined minimum annual salary above which employees must be mandatorily insured under occupational pension provision (BVG).
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pension
Environmental installation risk records the presence, type and condition of an insured's plant, tanks, pipework and storage facilities that could release pollutants into soil, groundwater, surface water or air, and is central to underwriting environmental liability exposure.
Environmental liability insurance covers third-party damages claims and the costs of remediating environmental damage caused by the operation of an insured facility or activity.
Environmentally hazardous substances records which substances handled or stored by the insured pose a risk of soil, groundwater or surface water contamination, as queried in environmental liability proposal forms.
An equalization reserve is a statutory accounting provision that sets aside amounts from better-than-average loss years to offset future worse-than-average loss years in highly volatile lines of business.
Equity risk is the risk of a loss in value from equity investments due to price fluctuations in capital markets, and is a sub-risk of the market risk module under Solvency II.
Explained on the topic page Investments
The errors and omissions clause preserves cover under an international programme despite inadvertent administrative mistakes, such as a late notification or misrecorded local entity, provided the error is rectified promptly upon discovery.
The errors and omissions clause (reinsurance) ensures that unintentional mistakes or omissions in ceding, reporting or administering a risk do not automatically void cover, provided they are corrected promptly on discovery.
ESFR (Early Suppression Fast Response) sprinklers are fast-acting, high-discharge sprinkler heads that suppress a fire at an early stage, particularly in high-piled storage, rather than merely controlling it.
ESG refers to environmental, social, and governance criteria that insurers must increasingly consider in investments, underwriting, and regulatory disclosure.
Explained on the topic page Investments
Event cancellation insurance covers the financial loss an organiser incurs when an event is cancelled, interrupted, postponed, or curtailed for an insured reason.
The event definition clause specifies in a reinsurance contract how multiple individual losses from the same occurrence are aggregated in time and substance into a single loss event, which forms the basis for the retention and liability limit.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Risk profile for the organisation and running of an event: the risk attributes typically assessed in liability and event cancellation underwriting and the resulting insurance programme architecture for organisers of conferences, exhibitions and public events.
An ex gratia payment is a voluntary goodwill payment made by an insurer without acknowledging any legal obligation.
Explained on the topic page Claims management
The ex-gratia payments clause governs whether and to what extent voluntary goodwill payments made by the cedent without legal liability are also shared by the reinsurer.
Excess of loss is the fundamental form of non-proportional reinsurance, under which the reinsurer covers losses above an agreed retention up to a capacity limit.
An exclusion clause limits or excludes a contracting party's statutory or contractual liability but is subject to strict limits under terms-and-conditions review.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
A Vorbehalt is an individual benefit exclusion in Swiss private supplementary health insurance under the VVG by which the insurer removes existing or past conditions and their consequences from cover; it is based on the health declaration (duty of disclosure, Art. 4 VVG), may be limited in time or permanent, and is not permitted in basic insurance under the KVG.
An exclusion of liability is a contractual clause that wholly or partially excludes a party's liability for certain damages or causes; in an insurance contract, this corresponds to a risk exclusion.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
An exclusive agent places insurance contracts solely for a single insurance company, with which it maintains a particular relationship of trust.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The exhaustion clause governs the consequences when the capacity of an insurance or reinsurance layer has been fully used up by losses already incurred.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Risk profile for the expatriate assignment of an employee abroad: the risk attributes typically assessed in international benefits underwriting and the resulting insurance programme architecture for employees on long-term postings outside their home country.
Expatriate assignments records the number of employees on long-term postings outside their home country, used to size exposure for international medical and business travel accident underwriting.
Expatriate insurance is the protection of employees who work outside their home country for an extended but temporary period, combining international health, accident, assistance and life cover; it distinguishes between classic assignees, local-plus contracts and third-country nationals.
Expected value is the probability-weighted average of a random variable and the basis of every actuarial risk premium.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
The expediting expenses clause covers extra costs incurred to speed up the repair or reinstatement of damaged property, thereby limiting the resulting business interruption loss.
The expense ratio relates an insurer's administrative and acquisition costs to its earned premiums and is a component of the combined ratio.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Explosion is a sudden release of force caused by the tendency of gases or vapors to expand, and one of the basic perils of fire insurance.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Explosion protection comprises primary, secondary and constructional measures used to prevent the simultaneous occurrence of an explosive atmosphere and an effective ignition source in hazardous areas, or to limit the consequences if it occurs.
Explosion protection concept confirms whether locations handling flammable gases, vapours or combustible dusts have a documented ATEX- compliant explosion protection concept with hazardous area classification, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Export control compliance records whether an insured has a formal process to screen products, customers and destinations against export control, sanctions and dual-use regulations before shipment, since violations can trigger regulatory, contractual and liability exposure.
Export credit guarantees are state-backed export credit guarantees provided by the Federal Republic of Germany to promote foreign trade, known as Hermes cover.
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
Export credit insurance protects exporters against economic and political risks of non-payment by foreign buyers.
Exposure is the extent to which assets, people or earnings are subject to a particular risk; it is the basis of all risk assessment and premium rating.
The exposure clause in accident and travel insurance clarifies that bodily injury or death suffered by an insured person as a result of an accident through unavoidable exposure to the elements – such as freezing, heatstroke, dying of thirst or drowning after a crash, shipwreck or becoming lost – is deemed a consequence of the accident and triggers the table benefits.
Exposure rating is a method for pricing reinsurance treaties based on portfolio metrics and loss distribution curves rather than actual claims experience.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The extended expiration or run-off clause ensures that losses arising from events occurring during the treaty period can still be settled under the treaty after its expiry.
A supplementary condition to product liability cover that partially reinstates the AHB exclusion for damage to goods manufactured or supplied by the policyholder, bringing certain processing and consequential defect losses back into cover.
A clause in claims-made policies allowing claims arising from wrongful acts committed during the policy period to be reported for a further defined period after expiry.
An extended reporting period is the continuation of insurance or reinsurance cover beyond the end of the underlying policy period for losses not yet reported from that earlier period.
The extended reporting period allows an insured under a claims-made policy to report claims for wrongful acts committed before policy termination even after the policy has expired or been cancelled, without reopening the covered period itself.
Extreme value theory is a statistical approach for modeling the distribution of rare, particularly extreme events in the tails of a distribution.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Facade material records the composition and fire classification of a building's external wall cladding and insulation, and is queried in property proposal forms because combustible facades enable rapid, hard-to-suppress vertical fire spread.
A facultative facility is a simplified process for facultatively reinsuring individual risks within predefined limits agreed in advance with the reinsurer.
Facultative reinsurance is the case-by-case reinsurance of a specific individual risk, which the reinsurer may accept or decline after individual assessment.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Fair value is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability between knowledgeable, willing parties at the measurement date.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
Family insurance allows spouses and children of a member of Germany's statutory health insurance to be co-insured without additional contribution, subject to income limits.
FATCA is a US law requiring foreign financial institutions, including certain life insurers, to report accounts held by US taxpayers.
Fault liability is the basic rule of civil liability under which a tortfeasor is only obliged to compensate a loss if they are at fault – through intent or negligence.
Fee-based advice is a remuneration model in insurance and financial advisory services in which the advisor is paid a fee directly by the client rather than being financed through commissions from the product provider.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Under Germany's statutory health insurance, a benefit application is deemed approved if the fund fails to decide within the statutory deadline.
FIDA (Financial Data Access) is the EU regulation proposal that extends open finance to the insurance sector: customers gain a right to access their financial and insurance data, and data holders must provide it through standardised APIs.
Fidelity insurance covers financial losses suffered by the policyholder as a result of intentional wrongful acts by its own employees or other persons in a position of trust.
Fidelity/crime loss history records past employee dishonesty, theft, fraud and cash-handling shortfall events, giving underwriters direct evidence of internal control effectiveness and moral hazard within an organisation.
The FINC clause indemnifies the parent company of an international programme for the diminution in value of its interest in a subsidiary that suffers an otherwise covered loss in a country where non-admitted insurance is prohibited.
A financial investment intermediary places certain investments such as investment fund units or capital investments and requires a distinct trade-law license to do so.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
A supplementary agreement in general liability cover that brings pure financial losses without a preceding bodily injury or property damage into cover under AHB clause 2.1.
FinDAG is the German law that establishes BaFin and governs its organization, funding, and cooperation with other authorities.
Finite risk reinsurance is a form of alternative reinsurance in which risk assumption is limited and more strongly focused on the timing of cash flows.
Fire alarm monitoring and signal transmission govern how an alarm signal from the fire detection system is reliably relayed to the fire brigade, an alarm receiving centre or in-house responsible staff, and which response steps follow.
Fire brigade access and water supply ensure that emergency vehicles can reach a property at all times and can be supplied with a sufficient quantity and pressure of water throughout the entire firefighting operation.
Fire brigade response distance records the road distance and expected response time from the nearest public or works fire brigade to a location, and is queried in property proposal forms to gauge how quickly external fire-fighting support can arrive.
Fire compartmentation records how a building is subdivided into fire-resistant sections, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess how effectively a fire can be contained before it spreads.
Fire compartmentation subdivides a building into spatially limited units using fire-resistant construction elements, delaying fire spread and limiting the maximum foreseeable loss.
Fire detection and alarm system records whether, and to what extent and design standard, a location is equipped with automatic fire detection, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Fire detection and alarm systems automatically sense smoke, heat or flame at an early stage of a fire and initiate alarm signalling, actuation of connected equipment and notification of the fire brigade or an alarm receiving centre.
Fire doors and shutters records whether openings between fire compartments are protected by self-closing, fire-rated doors, gates or shutters, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Fire doors and shutters close openings in fire compartments and must close automatically in the event of a fire so that the surrounding wall retains its required fire resistance rating.
Fire safety training and evacuation drills teach employees correct behaviour in the event of fire, the use of portable extinguishers, and the alarm organisation's procedures, and are regularly tested through practical exercises.
Fire drills and training records how regularly staff practise evacuation and basic firefighting response through drills and instruction, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Fire insurance covers property damage caused by fire, lightning strike, explosion, or the impact of an aircraft on the insured property.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Fire protection concept status confirms whether a location has a documented, coherent fire protection concept covering structural, technical and organisational measures, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
A fire protection concept is the project-specific, integrated plan of all structural, technical and organisational fire safety measures for a building and forms the binding basis for building permits, construction and the property insurer's risk assessment.
Fire protection regulations set out organizational and structural fire prevention measures and behavior in the event of fire for a building or business.
Fire protection water tanks store the water volume required by sprinkler and other fixed extinguishing systems on site, whenever the public supply alone is insufficient, and secure its availability for the entire required discharge duration.
Fire pumps raise the pressure and flow of an in-plant water supply to the level required by sprinkler and other fixed extinguishing systems whenever the available water source alone is insufficient.
Fire resistance of building elements describes the standardised time span during which walls, floors, columns and other elements maintain their load-bearing capacity, integrity and insulation performance in a fire.
Fire safety in timber construction assesses how load-bearing and separating timber structures can reach a level of safety comparable to mineral-based construction through charring behaviour, encapsulation and complementary extinguishing technology.
Fire safety management is the systematic process, driven by senior management, through which an organisation's fire protection is organised, integrated into its safety organisation, monitored and continuously improved.
Fire safety of facades addresses the fire performance of external wall claddings, external thermal insulation composite systems and ventilated cavities through which a fire can spread vertically across floors on the outside of a building.
Fire safety of roof systems covers selecting and installing roof coverings, insulation and rooftop structures so that neither fire spread across the roof nor rapid collapse of the roof structure is encouraged.
A fire safety officer is the qualified specialist appointed by senior management to act as the central point of contact for preventive, responsive and organisational fire protection, advising on and overseeing the implementation of measures.
Fire safety officer appointed confirms whether a named individual with defined authority and competence has been formally assigned responsibility for fire safety at a location, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Fire safety on construction sites covers the organisational and structural measures used during new build, refurbishment or demolition to address the elevated fire risk of an incomplete building envelope and missing protection systems.
Fire stopping seals the openings made by cables, pipes and ventilation ducts through fire-separating elements so that their fire resistance is not undermined by open gaps.
Fire-fighting water supply records the source, flow rate and duration of water available for fire suppression at a location, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess whether sprinklers and hydrants can be sustained through a design-basis fire.
Firewalls and complex partition walls are particularly robust, high-fire-resistance elements that divide buildings or industrial complexes into independent fire areas and must remain stable even under full-scale fire.
In first loss insurance, the sum insured is not set to the full value of the insured object but to a freely chosen amount (the "first loss"), up to which losses are indemnified in full without applying the underinsurance rule.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
The Fisher equation describes the relationship between the nominal interest rate, the real interest rate, and expected inflation, and is relevant to valuing inflation-linked obligations.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
The fit-and-proper test (reliability check) is a precondition for granting a trade licence to independent insurance intermediaries and is carried out by the competent chamber of commerce or by the insurance company itself.
Flammable liquids storage requires classification by flash point and quantity together with containment, ventilation and segregation measures to limit fire and explosion hazards arising from vapour formation.
Flammable liquids storage quantity records the maximum volume of flammable and combustible liquids held on site at any one time, as queried in property and environmental liability proposal forms.
Fleet insurance covers multiple vehicles of a single owner under one unified policy with collective premium pricing.
Flood hazard zone records the flood return-period class assigned to a location by a recognised hazard map or zoning system, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess exposure to riverine and lake flooding.
Foam extinguishing systems apply an air- or water-based foam blanket to burning liquids or stored goods, covering the fire surface, excluding oxygen and preventing re-ignition.
The follow-the-fortunes clause binds the reinsurer to the cedent's fortunes: it must accept the cedent's good-faith, businesslike claims settlements without reopening them.
The follow-the-settlements clause contractually obliges the reinsurer to accept the cedent's claims settlement, provided it falls within the terms of the original policy and is made in good faith, without re-examining liability or quantum.
Risk profile for a food and beverage production plant (processing, mixing, cooking, bottling or packaging of food and drink products): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
The food industry combines dust explosion, cooking-oil fire and ammonia refrigeration risk with strict hygiene and traceability requirements, closely linking loss prevention and product liability exposure.
Force majeure describes an extraordinary event, external to the parties, that could not have been foreseen or averted even with the utmost reasonable care, affecting liability and coverage questions in insurance.
A form requirement demands a specific form, such as written or text form, for a declaration of intent to be valid, non-compliance with which can render it invalid.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The forward rate is the interest rate implicitly expected for a future period, derived from the current yield curve.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
The fraud exclusion with a final adjudication proviso removes fraudulent or intentional misconduct from D&O cover, but only applies once such conduct has been finally established by a non-appealable judicial decision.
Free choice of physician is the right of a privately health-insured person to select their treating physician from among all licensed doctors, without being tied to a fixed provider network.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Heilfürsorge is a special benefit system under which certain professional groups (e.g., police, military) receive free medical services or benefits in kind directly from their employer in lieu of conventional health insurance.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Freeze protection and water damage prevention comprise measures that stop water-carrying pipework and plant in a facility from freezing, thereby avoiding frost damage and consequential water losses.
Fronting is an arrangement in which a licensed insurer issues a policy and passes the risk entirely or predominantly to another risk carrier – often a captive – via reinsurance.
Explained on the topic page Risk financing
The fronting clause provides that a locally admitted insurer issues a policy on behalf of an international programme leader and cedes the bulk of the risk back to it through reinsurance.
Frost damage is property damage caused by cold exposure, such as to water-bearing pipes, and can be treated differently across property insurance conditions.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Fuel storage tanks records whether the insured operates above-ground or underground tanks for fuels such as diesel, heating oil or petrol, as queried in property and environmental liability proposal forms.
A full and final settlement declaration is a document signed by the policyholder in which, upon final closure of a claim, they waive any further present and future claims arising from that loss.
Full medical underwriting (FMU) is the risk assessment method in international health insurance under which the applicant declares their complete medical history before inception and the insurer then permanently excludes pre-existing conditions, applies a premium loading or – if the findings are unremarkable – accepts the risk without restriction; the boundaries of cover are therefore fixed at policy start.
In full value insurance, the sum insured equals the full insured value of the insured object, so that no underinsurance can generally arise in the event of a claim.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Funds withheld refers to an arrangement under which the cedent retains and manages assets that would otherwise be transferred to the reinsurer.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Funeral expense insurance is a life insurance policy with a comparatively low death benefit intended to cover the funeral costs of the insured person.
The GAP clause (lease/loan gap cover) closes, in the event of a total loss or theft of a leased or financed vehicle, the gap between the replacement value paid under motor own-damage cover and the outstanding balance owed under the lease or loan agreement.
Gas turbines feature high combustion temperatures, highly stressed compressor and turbine blades, and complex control and fuel systems, so foreign object damage, flashback or blade failure can cause total losses with long outage times.
Gaseous extinguishing systems flood an enclosed space with inert gas or a chemical clean agent to extinguish a fire without residue or water damage, primarily to protect electronic and high-value equipment.
General average is a marine law principle under which losses and expenses deliberately and reasonably incurred to save a ship and its cargo from a common peril are shared proportionally by all parties with an interest in the voyage.
The general average clause confirms cover for a cargo owner's share of a general average, meaning value voluntarily sacrificed or expended to save the ship and cargo, usually assessed under the York-Antwerp Rules.
The GDPR is the directly applicable EU-wide regulation protecting personal data, of particular importance to insurers given their extensive processing of sensitive health and risk data.
The ADSp are standard terms and conditions used in the German freight forwarding trade, governing the rights and duties of the forwarder and their client, particularly regarding cargo insurance.
Explained on the topic page Transport Insurance
General Insurance Conditions are pre-formulated contract terms that uniformly govern the scope, exclusions, and obligations of an insurance contract across a large number of policies.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The ARB are the general policy conditions for German legal expenses insurance, which since 1994 no longer require regulatory approval and therefore vary considerably between insurers.
General liability insurance covers statutory damages claims by third parties arising in connection with the operation of a policyholder's business.
The AHB are the special policy conditions of German liability insurance that govern contract-specific terms and take precedence over general insurance conditions.
The German Insurance Contract Act (Versicherungsvertragsgesetz, VVG) governs the private-law relationship between insurer and policyholder, in particular disclosure duties, conditions, increase of risk and the legal consequences of their breach, and the insurer's duty to perform.
The Insurance Supervision Act is the central German law governing state supervision of insurance companies and transposes the European Solvency II Directive into national law.
The Investment Ordinance set quantitative investment rules for smaller German insurers outside the Solvency II regime, prior to the introduction of Solvency II.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Glass insurance covers breakage of building and furnishing glazing and certain sanitary fixtures against virtually all causes of breakage.
The good local standard clause requires that a local policy within an international programme provides at least the conditions, scope of cover and premium level that an insurer licensed in the country concerned would ordinarily quote a comparable local client.
The grace period is a statutorily mandated additional payment period that an insurer must grant a policyholder in the event of non-payment of a renewal premium, before the insurer can deny coverage or terminate the contract.
Gradual damage is property damage caused by the sustained, long-term action of external circumstances, and is frequently limited or excluded under liability insurance.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The Green Card is an internationally recognized proof of motor liability insurance coverage for using a vehicle abroad.
The gross method presents assets and liabilities arising from reinsurance separately and unnetted, rather than offsetting them against the net result.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
The gross premium is the total premium payable by the policyholder before deduction of reinsurance shares and commission.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
Gross profit basis records the insured's declared gross profit margin (gross profit as a percentage of turnover) used to establish the sum insured basis for a business interruption policy, as queried in property and BI proposal forms.
Ground conditions risk classifies the geotechnical and hydrogeological characteristics of a construction site, such as soil bearing capacity, groundwater level and flood exposure, as declared in Construction and Erection All Risks proposal forms.
Ground-up cover refers to reinsurance coverage that applies from the first dollar of a loss, without the cedent retaining a deductible.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Groundwater and dewatering records whether excavation works require active groundwater lowering and, if so, by what method, as declared in Construction and Erection All Risks proposal forms.
Group insurance covers a large number of persons belonging to a defined group under a single master contract with simplified enrollment conditions.
In a group insurance contract, a policy is concluded between an insurer and a policyholder (e.g. an employer or association) that insures a group of persons under uniform conditions.
Group personal accident insurance is accident insurance taken out by a company, club or association as policyholder for a defined group of persons, providing the insured persons with capital, annuity and expense benefits on accidental death, disability and other accident consequences – either around the clock or limited to occupational activity.
Group supervision extends solvency supervision under Solvency II from the individual insurance company to the entire insurance group.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
The guarantee commission is the fee a customer pays to a bank or surety insurer for assuming the risk of a guarantee or bond (aval).
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
A guarantee credit line is a facility granted by a bank or surety insurer within which individual guarantees and bonds (avals) can be issued on behalf of a customer.
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
The guarantee facility limit is the contractually agreed maximum amount up to which a surety insurer or bank will issue guarantees and bonds for a customer.
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
A guarantee fund is a statutorily mandated protection scheme that grants policyholders a basic level of protection in the event of a life insurer's insolvency.
The guaranteed insurability clause allows the sum insured to be increased on specified life events without a new health assessment.
A guaranteed insurability option is a contractual right to increase the coverage of a life or disability insurance policy upon certain life events, without a new medical underwriting assessment.
The guaranteed interest rate is a life insurer's contractual obligation to provide a minimum return on the savings premiums of a policy.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Guarding and alarm response services comprise the deployment of security personnel and connected monitoring and alarm receiving centres that react to alarms from detection systems and intervene on site when an event occurs.
Guarding services records whether, and to what extent, a location is protected by static or patrolling security personnel and by contracted alarm response, as queried in property insurance proposal forms to assess response time and deterrence.
Hail is a natural hazard in which precipitation in the form of ice pellets damages buildings, vehicles, and crops, and is typically covered as a named peril in homeowners, contents, motor, and agricultural policies.
Hail and windstorm exposure zone records the hail-frequency and gust-speed class assigned to a location by a recognised hazard map, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess exposure to hail and windstorm events.
Hail protection comprises the selection of impact-resistant roofing, façades and outdoor installations together with mechanical safeguards that protect building envelopes and rooftop equipment from hail damage.
The hammer clause caps the insurer's liability at the settlement amount it recommended, plus defence costs incurred up to that point, where the insured rejects a settlement the insurer regards as reasonable.
Hard market and soft market describe the cyclical phases of the insurance and reinsurance market in which capacity, premium levels, and terms move inversely to supply and demand.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
A hazardous activity (Wagnis) in Swiss accident insurance is an act by which the insured person exposes himself or herself to a particularly great danger without taking, or being able to take, the precautions that would limit the risk to a reasonable level; cash benefits for non-occupational accidents resulting from such an activity are reduced by half and refused in particularly serious cases.
Hazardous materials handling comprises the systematic identification, classification, labelling and segregation of dangerous substances at a facility to prevent fire, explosion and environmental damage caused by mishandling or incompatible storage.
Hazardous materials transport volume records the quantity of dangerous goods moved by the insured's own or contracted vehicles per shipment or per year, as queried in motor liability and environmental liability proposal forms.
The clause excludes accidents arising from the practice of specifically named, particularly hazardous sports from cover.
Health claims history records an individual's or group's past medical treatment and benefit utilisation, giving underwriters the primary basis for individual medical underwriting and group experience rating.
Health declaration records the set of self-reported health questions an applicant answers when applying for individual life, health or disability cover, forming the primary basis for medical risk assessment.
Health insurance covers the cost of medical treatment, preventive care, and in some cases loss of income due to illness, and is organized in many countries as a dual system of statutory and private cover.
The health underwriting questionnaire collects an applicant's health status before contract conclusion, forming the basis for the insurer's risk assessment.
This clause automatically brings newly added risks, business locations or activities of the policyholder into the existing cover for a limited period, without requiring separate advance notification.
The helplessness allowance is a monthly cash benefit of Swiss social insurance for persons who, because of a health impairment, permanently depend on the help of others or on personal supervision for everyday activities (Art. 9 ATSG); in accident insurance it amounts under Art. 27 UVG to two, four or six times the maximum insured daily earnings, depending on the degree of helplessness.
Heritage protection status records whether a building is listed or otherwise legally protected for its historic, architectural or cultural value, and is queried in property proposal forms because it constrains repair options and can significantly increase reinstatement cost.
High-bay warehouses are fully automated storage systems with rack heights typically exceeding twelve metres, whose concentrated fire load in a confined footprint demands particular sprinkler protection, water supply and smoke venting arrangements.
Historical cost comprises all expenditures incurred to acquire an asset and bring it into a condition ready for use.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
A hold harmless agreement is a contractual arrangement under which one party undertakes to indemnify the other party financially against certain third-party claims or a specific event.
Home security level records the standard of burglary-resistant locks, doors, windows and, where installed, alarm systems protecting a residence, as queried in home contents and valuables insurance proposal forms.
Homeowners building insurance covers damage to residential buildings caused by fire, water escape, storm, hail, and other insured perils.
Risk profile for a hospital or residential care home (inpatient medical care or nursing care with accommodation): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
The hospital cash benefit (Krankenhaustagegeld) is a fixed cash amount that accident or supplementary health insurance pays to the insured person for each calendar day of medically necessary inpatient treatment, irrespective of the actual costs incurred.
Hospital supplementary insurance is a private supplementary cover under the Swiss Insurance Contract Act (VVG) that pays the additional cost of a hospital stay beyond the general ward covered by basic insurance: free choice of hospital throughout Switzerland, a two-bed (semi-private) or single room (private) and free choice of physician up to the chief physician; Flex models allow the ward to be chosen only on admission against a co-payment.
Hospitals and care homes permanently house people who cannot self-evacuate in the event of fire, which is why fire protection concepts are designed around staged relocation ("defend in place") rather than immediate evacuation.
Hot work such as welding, cutting and soldering is among the most frequent fire causes in industrial plants; a formal permit procedure with a fire watch drastically reduces the risk.
Hot work permit system confirms whether welding, cutting, grinding and similar spark- or heat-generating activities are controlled through a formal permit procedure, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Risk profile for a hotel property (accommodation, food and beverage, conference/event operations): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Accommodation establishments house guests unfamiliar with the building, who in an emergency depend on clearly marked escape routes and a working alarm system, placing particular demands on fire protection and emergency organisation.
In catastrophe reinsurance treaties, the hours clause defines the time window within which individual losses from a natural event may be aggregated into a single loss occurrence.
Household contents insurance covers damage to a household's movable property caused by fire, burglary, water damage, storm/hail, and optionally other natural hazards.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Household contents value is the declared or estimated total value of a household's movable property, used to set the sum insured for home contents and to detect potential underinsurance in personal lines property proposals.
Housekeeping is the systematic control of waste, spillage and stored material on a site that reduces combustible loading and ignition sources and makes maintenance deficiencies visible at an early stage.
Hunting liability insurance covers third-party claims for damages arising from the practice of hunting and is, in many jurisdictions, a precondition for obtaining a hunting license.
The hurdle rate is the minimum required return on capital demanded by investors or management that a business, underwriting line, or investment project must achieve to be considered value-creating.
Hybrid capital comprises financing instruments with characteristics of both equity and debt, which under Solvency II can qualify as basic own funds of Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 quality depending on their structure.
Hydroelectric power plants face, alongside the classic machinery risk of turbines and generators, additional flood, sediment and dam-related risks that require protective measures extending well beyond the powerhouse.
The IAIS is the international standard-setting body for insurance supervisors, developing and coordinating global supervisory standards for the insurance industry.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
IBNR (incurred but not reported) refers to losses that have already occurred but have not yet been reported to the insurer; technical reserves are established for them.
Explained on the topic page Reserving
The Insurance Capital Standard (ICS) is a global, risk-based capital standard developed by the IAIS for internationally active insurance groups.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
IFRS 17 is the international accounting standard for insurance contracts that mandates a consistent, market-consistent measurement and presentation of results over the full contract lifetime.
Impairment management is the cross-system governance of planned and unplanned outages of protection, detection and security systems – from suppression systems through fire alarms to security equipment – aimed at minimising downtime and compensating the loss of protection while a system is out of service.
Imputed periods are contribution-free periods in German statutory pension insurance that are credited to increase the pension, offsetting the low pension resulting from an early reduction in earning capacity.
Explained on the topic page Pension insurance
In-plant fire protection water supplies ensure that sprinkler, wall hydrant and other fixed extinguishing systems within a facility are continuously supplied with the required flow and pressure through tanks, pumps and an internal pipe network.
Incapacity for work describes the illness-related state in which an employee can no longer perform their most recent occupation, distinct from occupational and general disability.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Inception of cover is the point in time from which the insurer is substantively liable for insured events, which can differ from the formal contract start date.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Incident response plan records whether an organisation has a documented, tested procedure for detecting, containing and recovering from a cyber security incident, and how quickly it can be activated.
Income splitting is the equal division of both spouses' AHV-qualifying income earned during the years of marriage when calculating pensions, regardless of who actually earned the income.
Explained on the topic page AHV
This clause requires the policyholder to notify the insurer without delay of any subsequent material increase in the insured risk, and sets out the consequences of a failure to notify, up to loss of cover.
An increase of risk is a subsequent change in risk circumstances that heightens the insured risk and triggers particular disclosure duties for the policyholder.
The ICOW/AICOW clause governs the extent to which additional expenditure incurred to avoid or reduce a loss of turnover after an insured damage event is reimbursed under a business interruption policy.
The indemnification claim is the policyholder's claim against the liability insurer to be released from justified third-party claims for damages.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
Indemnity period records the maximum length of time, in months, for which a business interruption or contingent business interruption policy will pay the insured's loss of gross profit following an insured damage event.
The indemnity period clause defines the maximum period for which a business interruption policy indemnifies loss of income following an insured property damage event.
An independent insurance intermediary acts in the customer's interest and is not legally or economically bound to a specific insurer, unlike a tied insurance agent.
The index clause automatically adjusts the sum insured and premium in line with an agreed index (such as a construction cost or consumer price index), keeping cover in step with general price movements.
Index-linked replacement value is a valuation model used in German residential buildings insurance that ties the sum insured to the notional "1914 value" and an annually published adjustment factor, so it moves automatically with construction price inflation.
Industrial insurance refers to the segment of property and liability insurance that individually underwrites the complex risks of industrial and large corporate clients, frequently involving brokers and co-insurance consortia.
Inflation risk describes the risk that an insurer's future claims costs turn out higher than assumed in premium pricing or reserving due to general price or wage increases.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
The initial reserve is the amount set up as the first claims reserve in an insurer's claims system for a newly reported loss.
Explained on the topic page Claims management
Injury benefit (Verletztengeld) is the income replacement benefit of German statutory accident insurance for incapacity for work resulting from an occupational accident or occupational disease (§§ 45 ff. SGB VII); it amounts to 80 percent of the regular pay, capped at net pay, is generally paid after the end of the six-week period of continued salary payment and ends at the latest after the 78th week.
The injury pension (Verletztenrente) is the pension of German statutory accident insurance for insured persons whose earning capacity is reduced by at least 20 percent beyond the 26th week as a result of an occupational accident or occupational disease (§ 56 SGB VII); the full pension amounts to two thirds of the annual earnings, the partial pension to the share corresponding to the reduction in earning capacity.
The innocent non-disclosure clause protects a good-faith co-insured from having another insured's intentional or negligent breach of the duty of disclosure imputed to them, provided they had no knowledge of the undisclosed circumstances themselves.
Insolvency is a debtor's inability to fully meet due payment obligations, and it forms the central insured default risk in trade credit insurance.
The insolvency clause requires the reinsurer to continue paying its share of a loss to the cedent's insolvency estate even if the cedent becomes insolvent and can no longer settle policyholder claims in full.
Inspection, testing and maintenance (ITM) of extinguishing systems covers the recurring control and upkeep activities carried out during normal operation that ensure sprinkler and other fixed extinguishing systems remain reliably functional.
The Institute Cargo Clauses are the London market's standard wordings for marine cargo insurance, offering tiered levels of cover from comprehensive (A) through named perils (B) to basic cover (C).
The Institute War and Strikes Clauses exclude war, strikes, riots and similar political perils from standard cargo cover and make them available as a separately incepted extension with its own termination mechanisms.
Insurable interest is the legally recognised economic interest a person has in the non-occurrence of an insured event; it is a basic precondition for any valid indemnity insurance contract.
An insurance agent is an independent intermediary who arranges contracts on behalf and in the name of one or more insurers, acting either as a tied agent or a multi-agent.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The insurance application is the declaration of intent by which a prospective policyholder offers to conclude an insurance contract on specified terms.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The Abredeversicherung is the extension of non-occupational accident insurance by special agreement with the previous UVG insurer under Art. 3 para. 3 UVG and Art. 8 UVV; it must be concluded before the end of the 31-day run-off cover and extends protection against non-occupational accidents by a maximum of six months.
The insurance contract is the legal agreement under which the insurer, in exchange for a premium, undertakes to provide the agreed benefit upon occurrence of the insured event.
The Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) is the EU directive on insurance distribution; it governs registration, conduct of business, information duties and product oversight for all distribution channels.
The insurance policy is the document issued by the insurer that confirms in writing the conclusion and essential content of an insurance contract.
The IPID is a standardized, short information document summarizing the key features of a non-life insurance contract for the policyholder in an understandable format before conclusion.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The insurance supervisory authority oversees insurance companies in the interest of policyholders through legal, financial, and qualitative supervisory tools.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Insurance-linked securities are securitized risk transfer instruments that transfer insurance risk – particularly natural catastrophe risk – directly to capital market investors, bypassing the traditional reinsurance market.
The insured earnings are the basis for calculating all cash benefits of Swiss compulsory accident insurance under Art. 15 UVG; they generally correspond to the salary subject to AHV contributions and are capped under Art. 22 para. 1 UVV at CHF 148,200 per year or CHF 406 per day (as of 2026).
The insured event is the occurrence defined in the insurance contract whose occurrence triggers the insurer's obligation to pay.
The insured versus insured exclusion bars cover under a D&O policy for claims brought by an insured person or the insured company itself against another insured person.
Integrity compensation is a lump-sum benefit of Swiss accident insurance under Art. 24 f. UVG for a permanent and significant impairment of physical, mental or psychological integrity; it is assessed independently of earning capacity as a percentage of the maximum insured earnings according to the scale in Annex 3 UVV.
Intellectual property insurance covers costs and financial losses related to the infringement or enforcement of patent, trademark, and other intellectual property rights.
The interdependency clause extends business interruption cover to loss of income at an insured location caused by an insured physical damage event at another, related location of the same insured or group.
Interest rate risk is the risk that an insurance company fails to earn, from its investments, the discount rate assumed in premium calculation.
Explained on the topic page Solvency
The interest rate transitional measure is a Solvency II transitional provision that allows insurers to temporarily approximate the risk-free yield curve used to value their obligations to an earlier Solvency I interest rate.
Explained on the topic page Solvency
The interest sharing clause governs, in excess-of-loss reinsurance, how default or litigation interest arising from a claim is allocated between the primary insurer and the reinsurer.
Interest surplus is the part of a life insurance portfolio's investment result that remains after deducting investment management expenses and the guaranteed interest owed to policyholders.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Interest-bearing assets are the capital of an insurance company available for yield-generating investment; on the balance sheet they mainly comprise own funds and technical provisions.
Explained on the topic page Investments
The interim portfolio is the stock of German life insurance policies concluded between 1 January 1995 and 1 January 1998, administered separately from the legacy and new portfolios.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
For a single event straddling the boundary between two consecutive treaty years, the interlocking clause provides that only one retention and one limit apply to the entire event, instead of charging both years separately.
The intermediary clause contractually designates the broker as payment agent between cedent and reinsurer, so that payments to the broker are treated as payment to the other party.
Internal models are risk models developed by an insurer itself and approved by the supervisor for calculating the Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR), designed to reflect the insurer's individual risk profile more precisely than the standard formula.
Explained on the topic page Solvency II
International private medical insurance (IPMI) is comprehensive private health insurance for people living or working outside their home country, covering in-patient and out-patient treatment, medical evacuation and repatriation within a contractually defined geographical area of cover – independently of the social security system of the host or home country.
Intrusion detection system status records whether a location is protected by an automatic burglar alarm connected to a monitored response, as queried in property and warehouse insurance proposal forms to assess theft and burglary exposure.
Intrusion detection systems detect unauthorised entry into secured areas through detectors, a control panel and alarm transmission, and form graded levels of protection under VdS and EN 50131 security grades.
IPMI benefit modules are the combinable building blocks of an international health plan – in-patient cover as the core, supplemented by out-patient, dental, maternity, evacuation, vision and wellness modules – through which the scope, limits and premium of a plan are controlled.
The Swiss Insurance Supervision Act (ISA/VAG) governs licensing, solvency (SST) and conduct duties of insurers as well as the registration of insurance intermediaries; the supervisory authority is FINMA.
Risk profile for an IT and software company (software development, IT consulting or managed services): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
The J-curve describes the typical result pattern of a reinsurance contract, an underwriting year, or an ILS investment, in which losses are incurred initially before results improve over time.
Joint and several debtors are multiple debtors from any of whom the creditor may demand the entire performance until the claim is fully satisfied.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
Joint and several liability exists when several persons are each individually liable to the injured party for the entire loss, allowing the injured party to claim full compensation from any one of them.
This clause determines which court has jurisdiction over disputes arising from the insurance contract and which substantive law applies, though mandatory consumer-protection rules narrowly restrict contractual freedom of choice.
The jurisdiction clause determines which state courts or arbitral tribunals will hear disputes arising from an international policy, independently of the governing substantive law.
Just-in-time dependency records whether the insured operates with minimal buffer stock and relies on frequent, closely timed deliveries from suppliers to sustain production, as queried in contingent business interruption proposal forms.
Keeper's liability is a no-fault strict liability that holds the keeper of an object (particularly a motor vehicle or animal) liable for damage to third parties solely on the basis of the inherent operational or object risk.
Key management describes the procedures by which physical keys, key cards and master keys are issued, tracked and recovered, as queried in property insurance proposal forms to assess the integrity of an otherwise effective mechanical security or access control system.
Key person dependency records how much of a company's revenue, client relationships or technical know-how relies on one or a small number of named individuals, underpinning key person life and disability cover.
Risk profile for an SME's dependency on one or a small number of key individuals: the risk attributes typically assessed in key person underwriting and the resulting insurance programme architecture to cushion the financial impact of their loss.
Key person insurance is a life or disability insurance policy taken out by a company on an individual who is indispensable to its business success, to cushion the financial impact of their loss.
Kitchen fire suppression systems are pre-engineered extinguishing systems installed over fryers, griddles and exhaust ductwork in commercial kitchens that automatically suppress grease fires with a wet chemical agent while shutting down the energy supply.
The KVG is the Swiss federal act on health insurance that governs the mandatory basic health insurance scheme and its supervision.
A large loss is a claim whose size exceeds a defined threshold and which is tracked separately because of its significance for reserves, reinsurance, and statistics.
Explained on the topic page Claims management
Latent claims are liability claims where a long period, often spanning many years or even decades, elapses between the causative event and the visible manifestation or reporting of the loss.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The law of large numbers states that the average claims cost of an insurance portfolio converges toward the theoretical expected value as portfolio size grows.
A layer is a defined liability band within an excess-of-loss reinsurance program, situated between a lower retention and an upper capacity limit, frequently underwritten by different reinsurers.
The leading insurer clause provides that a lead insurer in a co-insurance arrangement decides on behalf of all participating insurers regarding policy amendments and claims settlement.
A legal entity is a legally independent legal person that can hold rights and obligations in its own right as a policyholder, insured party, or insurer.
The Legal Entity Identifier is a globally unique, 20-character alphanumeric code used to identify legal entities participating in financial transactions and is mandated under numerous regulatory reporting requirements.
Legal expenses insurance covers the costs of pursuing or defending legal claims on behalf of the insured, in particular attorney, court, and expert witness fees, within the agreed scope of legal protection.
A letter of credit is a bank's conditional payment undertaking in favor of a seller, honored against presentation of contractually specified documents.
Level of automation records the degree to which a site's processes are controlled by manual labour, semi-automated equipment or fully automated and networked systems, which shapes both physical loss potential and cyber-physical exposure.
The liability activity description records the precise operations, products and services an insured performs, as declared in general and product liability proposal forms to define the scope and rating basis of the cover.
Liability claims history (5 years) records the frequency, cause, cost and legal status of a business's past general, product and umbrella liability claims, giving underwriters the primary basis for assessing tort exposure and pricing the account.
A life annuity is a recurring payment owed for the entire remaining lifetime of the beneficiary, thereby transferring the biometric risk of longevity to the insurer.
Life expectancy is the statistically expected average remaining lifetime of a person of a given age, derived from a mortality table, and is a central actuarial assumption in life and annuity insurance.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Life insurance is the insurance line that ties financial benefits to the death, survival, or other biometric events of the insured, encompassing both risk protection and retirement provision.
The life settlement secondary market is the market on which rights under existing life insurance policies are traded between policyholders and investors.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Lightning and surge protection covers the risk-based design of air termination systems, down conductors, earthing and surge protective devices to prevent injury, fire and electronic equipment damage from direct lightning strikes and induced overvoltages.
Lightning protection system confirms whether a building and its electrical and electronic installations are protected by an external and internal lightning protection system, as queried in property and electronic equipment insurance proposal forms.
Lightning strike is the direct discharge of lightning onto an insured property and is treated as a distinct, typically covered peril in property insurance.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
A limitation period is the statutorily defined period after which an insurance claim can no longer be legally enforced, provided the opposing party invokes the expiry of that period.
This clause specifies the period within which claims under the insurance contract become time-barred, and clarifies whether and to what extent this period may be contractually shortened.
With a limited premium payment period, premiums for a life or annuity policy are paid only over part of the total contract term, while coverage applies for the full term.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Liquidity risk is the risk that an insurer does not have sufficient liquid assets available to meet its short-term payment obligations, particularly claims payments, on time.
Listed company status records whether the applicant's shares or bonds are admitted to trading on a public stock exchange, as queried in directors' and officers' liability proposal forms.
Risk profile for a listed corporation viewed as a governance overlay: the risk attributes typically assessed in D&O underwriting and the resulting management liability and crime insurance programme architecture, applicable across sectors.
Lithium-ion batteries and stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS) can enter thermal runaway following a cell, charging or cooling fault - a self-sustaining reaction that causes fires which are difficult to extinguish and releases toxic gases.
Lithium-ion battery storage records whether the insured stores, charges or stockpiles lithium-ion batteries or battery-powered equipment in quantity, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Lloyd's of London is an insurance marketplace in London where independent underwriting groups (syndicates) write specialty risks through brokers, rather than operating as a single unified insurance company.
The location of risk principle ties the permissibility and regulatory treatment of insurance business to the place where the insured risk is situated.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
A lockout is an employer's industrial action tool that temporarily excludes employees from the workplace; as a political risk, it is covered under property insurance extensions.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Logistics service providers face, beyond the structural warehouse risk, additional industry-specific exposures from vehicle fleets, order picking, supply chain interdependency and high throughput of frequently changing third-party goods.
Risk profile for a logistics and distribution warehouse (storage, cross-docking, order picking): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Long-term care insurance covers the financial risk of needing long-term care, providing, depending on the product design, reimbursement of costs, a care allowance, or an agreed daily benefit.
Longevity risk is the risk that annuitants live on average longer than assumed in premium pricing, resulting in higher than expected annuity payments for the insurer.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
A loss is the involuntary reduction in material or immaterial value caused by an insured event, giving rise to the insured event under the policy.
The loss corridor clause sets a band of loss ratios within which the cedent bears losses entirely on its own account, while the reinsurer is only liable below and above the corridor.
Loss estimation (MFL/EML) is the risk engineering methodology used to derive the largest realistically expected loss for a property and business interruption exposure, forming the technical basis for the probable maximum loss (PML) concept.
Loss frequency trend classifies whether an operation's rate of claims per exposure unit has been increasing, stable or decreasing over recent policy years, giving underwriters a forward-looking signal beyond the raw claims count.
Loss history analysis systematically evaluates the frequency, causes and severity of an operation's or a portfolio's past losses, providing a key input for risk grading, loss prevention prioritisation and premium calculation.
The loss occurrence definition clause specifies which individual losses count as a single loss occurrence for the purposes of the retention and limit under an excess of loss treaty.
The EO is the Swiss social insurance scheme that pays a daily allowance to compensate for lost earnings during military and civil protection service, maternity, and other defined care situations.
Explained on the topic page Social Insurance
A special agreement under AHB clause 2.2 that treats the loss of third-party keys, code cards or transponders as property damage and covers the cost of replacing locks and locking systems.
Loss of rent insurance compensates the owner of a building for lost rental income when a leased property is temporarily unusable as a result of an insured physical loss.
Loss of use is the economic disadvantage suffered by an injured party from being unable to use a damaged item, particularly a motor vehicle, during the repair or replacement period.
The loss payee / mortgagee clause protects the interest of a mortgagee or other loss payee in the insurance proceeds by making its claim, to varying degrees, independent of acts or breaches of duty by the policyholder.
A loss portfolio transfer is a reinsurance transaction in which a cedent transfers existing, not-yet-fully-settled claims reserves from a defined book of business to a reinsurer in exchange for a single upfront premium.
The loss ratio relates the loss expenditure incurred in a period to the premium earned in that period, and is a central metric for assessing underwriting profitability.
The loss ratio cap clause limits the reinsurer's liability under a proportional treaty to a maximum loss ratio, above which any further loss reverts to the cedent.
Loss-of-function insurance pays an annuity if the insured person permanently loses defined basic physical or mental abilities, regardless of occupation.
The lump-sum disability benefit (Invaliditätskapital) is the one-off capital payment under private accident insurance for permanent accident-related impairment of physical or mental capacity, the amount of which is derived from the sum insured, the degree of disability under the schedule of disability percentages and any agreed progression.
Machinery breakdown prevention covers the design, proper installation and supervised operation of rotating and stationary machines to prevent breakdown losses caused by overload, foreign objects, lubrication failure or operating errors.
Machinery fleet age records the average or maximum age of the production and processing equipment at an insured site, as ageing machinery carries a higher probability of breakdown and consequential business interruption.
Machinery insurance covers unforeseen, sudden damage to operational machinery and technical plant caused by internal operational faults or operating errors.
MaGo is a circular issued by BaFin that specifies the supervisory requirements for the governance system of German insurance undertakings under the Insurance Supervision Act.
Contractor structure records whether a construction project is delivered under a single main contractor with subcontracted trades, or through separate trade contracts let directly by the principal, as declared in Construction and Erection All Risks and construction liability proposal forms.
The maintenance visits clause covers, under construction and erection insurance, loss or damage the contractor causes to the works while attending site during the maintenance period solely to fulfil contractual maintenance obligations, without the broader latent-defect cover of the extended maintenance clause.
The Mallorca policy clause raises the cover limits of German motor liability insurance for accidents involving vehicles hired in other European countries to the German statutory minimum, to the extent the local liability cover of the hire vehicle provides for lower limits.
Management of change (MOC) is a formal procedure that reviews and authorises structural, technical, process and organisational changes before implementation to identify new fire, explosion and property damage risks.
The management of change process attribute records whether an insured operates a formal procedure to review new or modified equipment, processes and organisational arrangements for fire, explosion and liability risk before implementation.
A managing general agent is a multi-line agent with extensive underwriting authority who binds specialty risks, collects premiums, and settles claims on behalf of the insurers it represents.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
A managing general agent is a specialized distribution partner that exercises delegated authority on behalf of one or more risk-carrying insurers to underwrite, price, and, often, settle claims within specific risk segments.
The UVG governs the mandatory insurance of employees in Switzerland against the financial consequences of occupational accidents, non-occupational accidents, and occupational diseases.
The mandatory employer subsidy requires employers to pass on part of the social security contributions saved through deferred compensation to the employee's occupational pension.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
Mandatory health care insurance (OKP) is Switzerland's basic health insurance under the KVG: every resident must take out cover (Art. 3 KVG), every licensed insurer must accept applicants without medical underwriting, and the benefits catalogue (Art. 25 et seq. KVG) is identical for all insurers.
The margin clause grants a percentage uplift on declared insurance values, protecting against the consequences of unintended underinsurance caused by value fluctuations.
The master policy clause defines the central policy of an international programme, issued in the parent company's home country, which supplements local policies through DIC/DIL and FINC mechanisms without replacing them.
The matching principle requires insurers to align their assets in currency, duration, and liquidity with their technical liabilities so that valuation fluctuations do not have an uncontrolled impact on solvency.
Maturity age is the age of the insured person specified in the contract at which the policy matures and, where applicable, a survival benefit becomes payable.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
The maturity benefit is the amount an insurer pays out when a life or annuity policy reaches its agreed maturity date and the insured survives.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Maturity management is the process by which life and annuity insurers inform and advise customers, ahead of policy maturity, about benefit amounts and payout options.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Maximum age is the contractually or tariff-defined upper age limit up to which a person may enter into or remain covered under a life, health, or pension insurance policy.
Mechanical security technology comprises burglar-resistant components such as locks, window and door reinforcements, and safes or strongrooms that, classified by resistance grade, increase the time required to carry out a burglary.
Medical aids are physical medical devices such as prostheses, hearing aids, wheelchairs, or vision aids, the cost of which is reimbursed under health and long-term care insurance in accordance with the applicable tariff terms.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Medical evacuation is the insured, medically necessary transport of a person to the nearest suitable hospital where local facilities are inadequate; repatriation is the subsequent transport to the country of residence or nationality, including the repatriation of mortal remains in the event of death.
The Vertrauensarzt is the professionally independent physician appointed by a Swiss health insurer who, under Art. 57 KVG, advises the insurer on medical questions as well as remuneration and tariff application and reviews benefit conditions; the physician may pass on to the insurer only the information necessary for the decision and thus acts as a data protection filter between treatment and insurance.
Medical expenses (Heilungskosten) are the costs of medically necessary treatment after an accident covered by accident insurance – medical treatment, hospital stay, medicines, aids and transport – which Swiss mandatory accident insurance provides as a statutory benefit and private accident insurance offers as a subsidiary expense module.
Medical history disregarded (MHD) is the underwriting basis for corporate group schemes in international health insurance under which the insurer waives any health assessment and covers employees' pre-existing conditions from day one; it is typically offered from a minimum group size of around 15 to 20 members and is the most expensive but most inclusive underwriting option.
Medical inflation (medical trend) is the annual rate of increase in healthcare costs per insured person, made up of price, volume and treatment mix effects and regularly exceeding general inflation; for 2026 insurers expect 10.3 % globally according to WTW (Asia Pacific 14.0 %, North America 9.2 %, Europe 8.2 %), making it the central premium driver in international health insurance.
A messenger merely transmits another person's already-formed declaration, without making an independent legal decision like an agent, which affects knowledge attribution in insurance law.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Risk profile for a metal processing plant (rolling, forging, welding, surface treatment): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Military insurance is the Swiss social insurance scheme that covers members of the armed forces, civil protection, and other persons subject to service obligations against the health and economic consequences of harm suffered during service.
Explained on the topic page Social Insurance
The Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) is the absolute floor of eligible own funds under Solvency II, below which the supervisory authority is entitled to withdraw the insurer's authorization immediately.
Mining and mineral processing operations face a distinct risk profile spanning property, machinery and business interruption exposure, driven by dust explosions, heavy mobile equipment, conveying systems and often remote locations.
Model policy conditions are non-binding reference wordings for insurance policy terms, issued by industry associations, that serve individual insurers as guidance for drafting their own contract wordings.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Model risk is the risk of flawed business decisions resulting from incorrect assumptions, errors, or improper application of quantitative models used in investment, reserving, or risk management.
Moral damages are a monetary payment compensating non-material harm (pain and suffering) owed in cases of severe personality infringement resulting from bodily injury or death.
Moratorium underwriting is a risk assessment method in international health insurance that dispenses with a health questionnaire: pre-existing conditions from a look-back period before inception (typically five years) are automatically excluded at first and only become covered once the insured person has completed a stability period (usually 24 months) free of symptoms, treatment, medication or medical advice; the assessment takes place only at the point of claim.
Morbidity risk is the risk that the actual frequency or severity of illness within an insured population deviates from the assumptions used in premium pricing.
A mortality decrement table is the rule used to determine the expected number of deaths per age group within a defined population over a given period.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Mortality risk is the risk that the actual mortality of an insured population under death benefit cover turns out higher than assumed when calculating the actuarial assumptions.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
A mortality table gives, for each age, the statistical probability of dying within one year, and serves as the basis for premium and reserve calculation in life insurance.
Motor claims history records the frequency, cause, at-fault status and cost of past motor liability and own-damage claims for a vehicle or fleet, giving underwriters the core empirical input for no-claims rating and fleet risk grading.
The motor insurers' guarantee fund is an institution supported by the insurance industry that compensates traffic accident victims when the tortfeasor is unknown, uninsured, or the insurer is insolvent.
The motor own damage exclusions clause generally removes certain causes and circumstances – in particular wilful acts, gross negligence, motorsport, and war, civil commotion and nuclear risks – from the scope of partial and fully comprehensive motor own-damage cover.
Motor third-party liability insurance is the statutorily mandated insurance that covers bodily injury, property damage, and financial loss suffered by third parties caused by the operation of a motor vehicle.
Multi-factor authentication records whether privileged, remote and email access to an organisation's systems requires more than one independent authentication factor, a baseline control queried in virtually every cyber insurance proposal form.
A multiple agent places insurance contracts for several independent insurers, without primarily representing the customer's interests as a broker does.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Munich Re endorsement 004 extends the maintenance-period cover of a construction or erection policy to loss or damage caused by the contractor during the construction period but first discovered during the maintenance period, going beyond the basic maintenance-visits cover.
Munich Re endorsement 006 extends a construction or erection policy to cover the extra costs of overtime, night work, work on public holidays and express freight incurred to expedite the repair of an insured loss, excluding airfreight.
Munich Re endorsement 013 extends a construction or erection policy to loss or damage to insured property temporarily held in a named off-site storage location away from the contract site, usually subject to its own sub-limit.
Mutual dissent exists when insurer and policyholder are, on closer examination, not actually in agreement on material contract terms, even though a contract was assumed to have been concluded.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The NAIC is the standard-setting and coordinating body for state insurance regulators in the United States, developing model laws and fostering cooperation among regulators across states.
In group personal accident insurance the insured persons may either be listed by name in the policy or – on an "unnamed basis" – be described only by categories of persons, headcount or payroll; under unnamed cover joiners and leavers are automatically included and the policyholder declares the population periodically.
The named driver clause defines which persons may regularly drive a vehicle under the motor policy and forms the basis for premium calculation according to the statistical accident risk of that group of drivers.
The named windstorm clause imposes a distinct, usually percentage-based deductible for losses caused by an officially named tropical storm or hurricane, set higher than the general property deductible.
A natural hazards exposure assessment systematically evaluates locations for perils such as flood, earthquake, windstorm and hail, providing the basis for protection measures, limits and insurance structure.
The natural hazards extension clause broadens fire and buildings insurance to cover natural perils such as flood, windstorm, hail, avalanche, snow pressure and landslip, and is compulsorily bundled with private fire insurance in Switzerland.
Natural perils are losses caused by natural events such as flood, earthquake, landslide, or snow load, which can generally only be covered against an additional premium.
Negligence is the failure to exercise the care required in the circumstances and the central form of fault underlying liability claims.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The net investment return is the actual investment yield achieved by a life insurer after deducting investment management expenses, measured relative to the average book value of investments held.
Explained on the topic page Investments
A net policy is an insurance contract whose premium contains no sales commission, because the advisory service is separately and transparently remunerated between the client and the intermediary.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The net premium is the actuarially calculated risk premium under the equivalence principle, excluding loadings for expenses, profit, and safety margins, covering exclusively the expected present value of the insurance benefit.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
The net retained lines clause requires the cedent to keep a specified share of every ceded risk for its own account, ensuring an alignment of interest with the reinsurer.
Net retention is the portion of an assumed risk that an insurer or reinsurer actually retains for its own account after taking into account all existing reinsurance protection arrangements.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
New value insurance indemnifies the cost of reinstating or replacing an insured item in new condition, without any deduction for age or wear and tear.
Risk profile for a new-build construction site (residential, commercial or industrial shell and core): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
The new-for-old replacement clause pays, in the event of total loss, destruction or theft of a new vehicle within a contractually defined period after first registration, the full new price instead of the lower replacement value.
The no-claims class is the specific rating level of a motor insurance policy within the bonus-malus system, determined by the number of claims-free years driven.
The no-claims discount protection clause prevents, for an additional premium, one at-fault claim per calendar year in motor liability or own-damage insurance from downgrading the policyholder's no-claims class.
The non-admitted insurance clause provides that a master policy in an international programme covers a risk directly in a given country only where placement without a local licence is legally permitted there, otherwise pointing to a locally admitted policy.
The insurance non-discrimination rule prohibits differentiating premiums and benefits based on the sex of the insured person and led to the introduction of gender-neutral unisex tariffs.
The non-invalidation clause preserves cover for other parties, such as lenders or affiliated companies, even where cover would otherwise be invalidated as against the policyholder because of that policyholder's own breach of duty.
A non-occupational accident (Nichtberufsunfall) under Art. 8 UVG is any accident that is not an occupational accident; in Switzerland employees working at least eight hours a week for the same employer are compulsorily insured against non-occupational accidents as well, with the NBU premium in principle charged to the employee.
Non-proportional reinsurance splits losses not according to a fixed percentage but according to loss severity: the reinsurer is liable only once a loss exceeds an agreed retention.
The notice of loss clause requires the policyholder to notify the insurer of a possible loss immediately or within a specified period, so that the insurer can direct investigation and adjustment in good time.
Insurance companies must promptly notify the supervisory authority of certain business events and changes, such as changes in board membership or significant changes in shareholdings.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Nuclear liability insurance is a compulsory cover for the strict liability of nuclear plant operators, reinsured internationally through specialized nuclear pools.
Nuclear liability insurance covers the no-fault liability of operators of nuclear facilities for nuclear damage and is typically underwritten through specialized pools due to the extreme loss potential involved.
Employee headcount records the total number of persons employed by the policyholder, used to size exposure for liability, accident and group health underwriting and to benchmark rates per employee.
Number of rented-out properties records how many residential or commercial units a policyholder lets to third parties, as queried in landlord buildings, rent-loss and liability insurance proposal forms to assess accumulation and property-owner exposure.
Number of storeys records the vertical extent of a building above and below ground, and is queried in property proposal forms because it affects fire and smoke behaviour, evacuation and firefighting access.
The observation period is the historical timeframe whose data is used to calculate tariffs, reserves, or reinsurance premiums.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Occupancy type records the actual use of a building or premises, and is queried in property and liability proposal forms because it determines the hazard class applicable to fire, business interruption and third-party risk.
An occupational accident is an insured event under statutory accident insurance suffered by covered persons as a result of their work or insured activity.
Explained on the topic page Accident Insurance
An occupational accident (Berufsunfall) under Art. 7 UVG is an accident that an insured person suffers while performing work on the employer's instruction or in the employer's interest, during work breaks, or before and after work at the workplace; in Switzerland the premium for it is borne exclusively by the employer.
Occupational class rating assigns occupations to risk classes based on their risk profile, which significantly determines premium levels in disability and accident insurance.
Explained on the topic page Disability
Occupational disability exists when an insured person is, for the foreseeable long term, unable to continue practicing their most recently and specifically held occupation due to illness, injury, or loss of strength.
Explained on the topic page Disability
Occupational disability insurance pays an agreed pension if the insured person becomes unable, due to illness or accident, to continue practicing their most recently held occupation.
An occupational disease is an illness caused exclusively or predominantly by harmful substances or specific types of work in the course of employment and therefore compensated by statutory accident insurance like an accident; in Switzerland, Germany and Austria recognition is based on a statutory list, supplemented by a general clause for unlisted conditions.
Occupational pension commutation is the one-time lump-sum settlement of an occupational pension entitlement in place of ongoing pension payments.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
Occupational pension plan records the design and generosity of the employer's supra-mandatory BVG pension benefits, used to underwrite group life and reinsurance/stop-loss cover for pension risk.
The BVG governs mandatory occupational pension provision in Switzerland and, as the second pillar alongside the AHV, aims to maintain the accustomed standard of living in old age, upon disability, and in the event of death.
The OAK BV is the Swiss federal authority ensuring the consistent application of supervision over second-pillar pension funds by the regional supervisory authorities.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pension
The occurrence principle makes coverage of a liability loss dependent on the harmful event occurring during the current policy period, regardless of when the claim is asserted.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
Off-premises cover extends property insurance to movable property located outside the insured location named in the policy, supplementing the location-bound base cover.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Risk profile for an office and administrative building (single or multi-tenant): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
The offset clause allows the cedent and reinsurer to net mutual amounts owed under several contracts against each other instead of settling every payment individually.
The ÖGK is the largest carrier of statutory health insurance in Austria and covers benefits in kind such as medical treatment, hospitalisation, and medicines for employees.
The AHV is the first pillar of the Swiss pension system, a mandatory universal insurance designed to cover basic living costs in old age and upon the death of a breadwinner.
The old-age pension is the recurring benefit paid by the statutory pension scheme, or by a private or occupational pension arrangement, once the standard retirement age is reached.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
The insurance ombudsman is an independent dispute resolution body that settles disputes between policyholders and insurers out of court and free of charge for the consumer.
An open cover is a framework insurance agreement in cargo insurance that automatically covers all of a policyholder's future shipments falling within defined terms, without requiring an individual declaration for each shipment.
Explained on the topic page Transport Insurance
An open cover policy is a framework policy that automatically insures all risks or shipments of a policyholder falling within its scope, without requiring individual declaration in advance.
Operating expenses for the insurance business comprise all costs an insurer incurs for acquisition, administration, and servicing of insurance contracts, alongside other underwriting expenses.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
Operational flood protection comprises structural, technical and organisational measures that protect a facility's buildings, plant and stock against flood and backwater damage.
Operational risk is the risk of loss resulting from inadequate internal processes, people, systems, or from external events, and is treated as a distinct risk category under Solvency II.
The option for lump-sum payment is a contractually granted right to choose a one-time payout of the accumulated technical reserve instead of the agreed lifetime annuity payment.
An order policy is an insurance document commonly used in cargo insurance that can be transferred by endorsement, tying the rights under the insurance contract to a person named in the document or to that person's order.
The original conditions clause requires the reinsurer to apply the same terms, rates and scope of cover as under the underlying original policy, unless the reinsurance contract expressly provides otherwise.
The ORSA is the firm-specific process every insurer must carry out under Solvency II to assess its overall solvency needs, taking into account its own particular risk profile.
OT/IT network segmentation records whether operational technology such as production and process control systems is logically and physically separated from the corporate IT network, limiting the ability of a cyber incident to cross into physical operations.
The other insurance / contribution clause governs how several policies covering the same risk relate to one another in the event of a claim, in particular whether and in what proportion the insurers involved share the indemnity.
Outdoor storage refers to storing goods, raw materials or empty containers outside enclosed buildings, where the absence of sprinkler protection must be offset by generous separation distances, vegetation control and access security.
Outpatient medical treatment is medical examination or treatment of an insured person that does not involve admission to a hospital, such as treatment by a physician in private practice.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Outsourcing is the contractually agreed transfer of functions or activities of an insurer to a service provider that would otherwise be performed by the insurer itself, and is subject to specific regulatory requirements.
Over-insurance exists when the agreed sum insured significantly exceeds the actual insured value, meaning the policyholder is not entitled to a benefit exceeding that value in the event of a loss.
Own funds are an insurer's eligible capital under Solvency II that must be available to meet the solvency capital requirement.
Oxygen reduction systems permanently lower the oxygen concentration in a protected space below the ignition threshold of the fire load present, preventing a fire from starting rather than fighting it once ignited.
Paid-up reduction refers to continuing a capital-forming life or annuity policy premium-free with a correspondingly reduced sum insured, when premium payments are discontinued.
The pair and set clause provides that where one part of a pair or set (such as earrings or a furniture suite) is lost or damaged, the indemnity is generally limited to the proportionate value of the affected part rather than the value of the entire set.
Idle wood or plastic pallets and empty containers create a disproportionately high fire load because of their open, air-permeable structure, requiring their own stack height, area and separation rules independent of the actual goods warehouse.
Pandemic business interruption insurance covers the financial loss a business incurs from government-ordered measures resulting from an epidemic or pandemic.
Parental liability covers the liability parents or other persons responsible for a child's upbringing bear for losses caused by minor children in their care to third parties.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
Partial retirement allows older employees a gradual transition into retirement by reducing working hours in exchange for partial wage compensation.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
Participation in valuation reserves is the statutory entitlement under Section 153 VVG of German life insurance policyholders to a share of the hidden reserves attributable to their contract's investments.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Passenger accident insurance is a supplementary motor insurance cover that financially protects the driver and passengers of a vehicle in the event of an accident, regardless of fault.
Patch management records how systematically an organisation identifies and applies security updates to operating systems, applications and network devices, and within what timeframe, a control central to limiting exploitable vulnerability exposure.
This financing method for social and pension systems sets contributions for a given period so that they cover exactly the benefits expected in that period plus the build-up of a fluctuation reserve.
In a pay-as-you-go system, the contributions currently paid by active contributors directly fund the current pension benefits paid to current beneficiaries, without building up an individual capital reserve.
The payment-to-reserve ratio relates the payments already made for a line of business's accident-year losses to the reserves additionally established for those same losses.
Explained on the topic page Reserving
The payroll clause governs the extent and period for which wage and salary costs are reimbursed as a continuing expense under a business interruption policy following an insured damage event.
Pending litigation captures ongoing, threatened or recently settled legal proceedings and regulatory investigations involving the applicant or its directors and officers, as queried in liability proposal forms.
The pension access factor is a factor used in Germany's statutory pension insurance that accounts for claiming the old-age pension earlier or later than the standard retirement age.
Explained on the topic page Pension insurance
The adjustment review duty requires employers to review, every three years, whether ongoing occupational pension benefits should be adjusted for inflation.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
Pension backing insurance is a life insurance policy taken out by an employer on an employee's life to financially fund an employment-law pension or severance commitment.
The pension certificate is the annual document issued by a pension fund informing an insured person about their retirement savings and the expected benefits from occupational pension provision.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pension
A pension fund is a legally independent occupational pension provider established by one or more sponsoring employers to provide retirement benefits to their employees.
Pension fund regulations are the rules issued by a pension fund that set out the specific rights and obligations of insured persons and the detailed benefits of occupational pension provision.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pension
Under the offset method, benefits from the statutory pension scheme or other retirement systems are credited against an occupational pension promise to cap total retirement income.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pensions
The per-capita premium (Kopfprämie) is the income-independent premium of Swiss basic health insurance: within a premium region and age class each insurer charges all insured persons the same premium (Art. 61 KVG); premiums require annual approval by the Federal Office of Public Health (Art. 16 KVAG) and may not vary by health status, sex or income.
A percentage reimbursement tariff is a health insurance tariff that reimburses medical treatment costs not in full, but only up to a percentage agreed in advance, often used to supplement other cost carriers.
Perimeter lighting records whether the exterior areas, yard and access routes of a site are illuminated during hours of darkness, as queried in property insurance proposal forms to assess deterrence and the effectiveness of video surveillance at night.
Permanent total disablement (PTD) in personal accident wordings denotes the permanent, total and irrecoverable inability of an insured person, as a result of an accident, to engage in gainful occupation; it usually triggers a lump-sum benefit of 100 % of the sum insured.
Personal data processing records the volume and sensitivity of personal and special-category data an organisation collects, stores or processes, a primary driver of breach notification duties, regulatory exposure and third-party liability.
Personal insurance is the overarching insurance category that covers risks directly attached to the person of the insured, particularly life, health, and earning capacity.
Personal liability insurance covers an individual's legal liability for bodily injury, property damage, and financial loss culpably caused to a third party in the course of private life.
Pet ownership records whether the household keeps dogs, cats or other animals, the species, breed and number of animals, as queried in animal liability and pet insurance proposal forms to assess bite, property-damage and veterinary-cost exposure.
Risk profile for a household keeping one or more pets: the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting private animal insurance programme architecture.
A market-standard demarcation clause that excludes statutory liability arising from the use of a motor, aircraft or watercraft from personal or general liability cover, allocating it to compulsory motor liability insurance instead.
A petty claim is a loss of low value where the cost of processing and settling the claim is disproportionate to the loss amount itself.
Explained on the topic page Claims management
The Pflegegeld is an Austrian federal benefit that grants people in need of long-term care a flat-rate cash contribution towards care costs, regardless of income or assets.
Risk profile for a pharmaceutical manufacturer (production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, formulation or packaging of medicinal products): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Pharmaceutical product liability insurance is a compulsory cover under German law that protects manufacturers against strict liability for bodily injury caused by marketed drugs.
Photovoltaic insurance covers property damage to solar power systems and the resulting loss of feed-in revenue, and is often complemented by dedicated liability cover for operating the system.
Photovoltaic systems carry a specific fire risk from DC components, wiring and module mounting structures that, especially on roof-mounted arrays, affects both firefighting access and property protection of the building.
Pillar 3a is the tax-privileged, tied form of private pension provision in Switzerland, whose savings can be accumulated up to an annual maximum and generally only withdrawn from the statutory reference age onward.
Pillar 3b is the untied form of private pension provision in Switzerland, whose capital is available at any time and is subject to few tax restrictions.
The piracy exclusion clause determines whether piracy losses in cargo and hull policies are excluded as a war risk or covered as a named peril in their own right, affecting premium and sublimits in high-risk areas.
The place of performance is the location where a contractual obligation must be carried out, relevant to questions of jurisdiction and applicable law.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The planned maintenance programme attribute records whether an insured operates a documented, scheduled preventive maintenance regime for its machinery and equipment, as opposed to purely reactive repair, which is a key predictor of breakdown frequency.
Planning and advisory activity records whether, and to what extent, an insured provides design, planning, engineering or advisory services, since such intellectual or professional work carries pure financial loss exposure distinct from bodily injury or property damage.
Plastics storage requires its own commodity classification, since plastics – especially expanded and unpackaged forms – release substantially more heat than comparable quantities of ordinary combustibles.
Policy acceptance is the insurer's declaration accepting the insurance application, thereby bringing the insurance contract into effect.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
A policy condition (Obliegenheit) is a duty imposed on the policyholder whose culpable breach does not give rise to a damages claim but can lead to a reduction or denial of the insurer's benefit.
Storno refers to the early termination of an insurance contract before its regular expiry, in particular through termination, non-payment of premium, or withdrawal.
A policy loan is a loan granted by a life insurer to a policyholder against a pledge of the surrender value of a surrenderable life insurance policy.
The policy reserve is the actuarially calculated capital a life insurer must hold to meet the future benefit obligations of a contract.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
The policy term is the contractually agreed period during which an insurance contract is in effect, determining not only premium calculation but also cancellation and renewal terms.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The political risk clause extends property or credit cover to losses caused by expropriation, confiscation, nationalisation, currency and transfer restrictions, or a change of government in politically unstable markets.
An insurance pool is an arrangement among multiple insurers who jointly underwrite a particular risk according to a predetermined allocation formula, in order to pool capacity and expertise for hard-to-insure risks.
The portability clause lets a person leaving a group daily sickness benefits policy move to an individual policy without a new health assessment.
Portable extinguishers and wall hydrants coverage confirms whether a location is equipped with first-response firefighting equipment sized and positioned to the occupancy, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Portable fire extinguishers and wall hydrants enable occupants to tackle a fire manually in its first minutes, before automatic extinguishing systems or the fire brigade become effective.
A portfolio transfer is the regulatory-approval-requiring transfer of an insurance portfolio from one insurer to another while preserving policyholder rights.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
The portfolio transfer / entry-withdrawal clause governs whether and how, at the start or end of a proportional treaty, unearned premium and outstanding claims reserves are transferred between the parties.
Post-employment coverage is the legally guaranteed, time-limited continuation of death and disability protection under occupational pension provision after an employment relationship ends, before a new pension relationship begins.
Explained on the topic page Occupational Pension
Power generation plants are electricity-producing facilities whose risk profile is shaped by a high concentration of asset values, complex machinery trains and often limited redundancy of key components.
The power surge and scorching damage clause expressly brings damage from lightning-induced power surges or scorching without an actual fire within fire or electronic equipment cover, since neither would otherwise be covered under the narrow definition of fire.
The pre-contractual duty of disclosure requires the applicant to truthfully and fully disclose to the insurer all known circumstances material to the risk.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
A pre-existing condition is a medical condition that already existed before conclusion of the insurance contract, whose disclosure under the duty of disclosure is relevant to underwriting and the insurer's acceptance decision.
The clause governs how a health or daily sickness benefits policy treats conditions that already existed at the time of application, for example through exclusion, a premium loading, or a waiting period.
Pre-incident planning with the fire brigade documents site-specific information on buildings, hazardous materials and fire protection equipment in advance, so that responders can react faster and more effectively during an incident.
A preclusion period is a time limit upon whose expiry a right or claim is permanently extinguished, without requiring the debtor to raise a defense.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The premium is the consideration payable by the policyholder in exchange for the insurer's assumption of risk, and constitutes the policyholder's central principal obligation.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Premium adjustment is the statutorily regulated increase or decrease of premiums in German private health insurance when actual benefits paid deviate sustainably from calculated levels.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
This clause entitles the insurer to unilaterally adjust the premium during the policy term to reflect changed calculation bases (claims cost, mortality, loss statistics), usually subject to threshold values and a duty to give reasons.
Premium default is the failure to pay a subsequent premium on time, entitling the insurer, after an unsuccessful reminder, to be released from its obligation to pay or to terminate the contract.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Premium indexation automatically increases the premium and benefit of a life or annuity policy by an agreed percentage, usually without renewed underwriting.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Premium payment is the policyholder's principal obligation under the insurance contract, timely performance of which is a precondition for continued coverage.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Premium payment default is a policyholder's failure to pay a due insurance premium on time, triggering a statutorily regulated reminder procedure with graduated legal consequences.
Premium payment frequency is the contractually agreed rhythm at which recurring insurance premiums are due – typically annual, semi-annual, quarterly or monthly.
Explained on the topic page Contract design
Premium payment history records the applicant's track record of paying insurance premiums on time across prior policies, as queried in property and liability proposal forms.
The premium payment warranty makes the commencement of substantive coverage dependent on timely payment of the first premium.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The premium payment warranty requires the policyholder or cedent to pay the premium within a fixed period; if the deadline is missed the contract can terminate automatically or be cancelled by the insurer.
A premium refund is the partial repayment of premiums to private health insurance policyholders who made no or only minor claims in the prior observation period.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
The premium reserve clause allows the reinsurer to withhold part of the reinsurance premium as a security reserve until the final loss experience of the treaty year is known.
The individual premium subsidy (IPV) is the social counterweight to the per-capita premium in Swiss basic health insurance: under Art. 65 KVG the cantons grant premium reductions to insured persons of modest means, co-financed by a federal contribution of 7.5 % of gross basic insurance costs (Art. 66 KVG).
A premium waiver relieves the policyholder of the obligation to pay further premiums while coverage continues unchanged to the agreed extent.
Explained on the topic page Disability
A premium waiver is a supplementary benefit under which the insurer covers further premiums upon a defined event, without coverage lapsing.
Once disability is recognised, the insurer takes over the ongoing premiums for the main policy and, where applicable, attached riders.
Present value is the value of future cash flows discounted to today, forming the basis of nearly every actuarial valuation.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Pressure vessels store gases or liquids under pressure and must be designed, built and recurringly inspected according to their hazard category, since material failure, corrosion or a failed pressure relief device can trigger a sudden release of stored energy.
The PRIIPs Regulation requires providers of packaged retail investment products, including unit-linked life insurance, to produce a standardized key information document for retail investors.
The principal obligation is the central performance duty that characterizes a contract type; in an insurance contract, this is the provision of cover on the insurer's side and payment of the premium on the policyholder's side.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The principle of indemnity holds that a policyholder must not be economically better off as a result of the insurance payout than they would have been without the insured event.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The principle of indemnity holds that the insurance benefit must not place the policyholder in a financially better position than if the loss had not occurred, in order to prevent unjust enrichment through the occurrence of a claim.
The prior acts clause sets a retroactive date before which wrongful acts are excluded from cover, regardless of when the resulting claim is actually made.
Prior insurer and reason for cancellation records the identity of the applicant's previous carrier and, where cover was not simply renewed on standard terms, why it ended, giving underwriters an early signal of undisclosed adverse history.
Risk profile for a private individual owning and using a passenger vehicle: the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting private motor insurance programme architecture.
The probable maximum loss (PML) is the largest loss expected at a location or for a risk under realistically adverse conditions; it serves as a measure of capacity and reinsurance requirements.
Process safety management is a systematic management system for preventing major events such as releases, fires and explosions in process plants, going beyond individual technical protection measures.
Product certification and standards compliance records which safety, performance or regulatory standards an insured's products are certified against (e.g. CE marking, UL listing, industry-specific norms), since gaps in certification are a leading cause of product liability and recall exposure.
Product liability insurance covers the legal liability of a manufacturer or supplier for bodily injury and property damage suffered by a third party as a result of a defect in the manufacturer's product.
Product risk classification groups an insured's products by the severity of harm they could plausibly cause if defective, ranging from low-hazard goods to safety-critical or life-sustaining products, and drives the underwriting treatment of product liability exposure.
Production capacity and utilisation record the theoretical maximum output of a site and the percentage of that capacity currently used, which together determine how much spare capacity exists elsewhere to absorb a loss and how business interruption indemnity should be calculated.
The professional fees clause covers the necessary fees of architects, engineers and other professionals incurred in planning and supervising the reinstatement of property following an insured loss.
Professional indemnity insurance covers financial loss suffered by a third party as a result of a professional error by a member of a regulated or liberal profession.
Professional indemnity insurance covers third-party damages claims arising from pure financial loss caused by a policyholder's defective professional service.
Risk profile for a professional services or consulting firm (management consulting, engineering or planning advisory): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Profit commission is additional remuneration the reinsurer grants the cedent when a reinsurance treaty's loss experience is favorable.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The clause governs how policyholders share in the surplus generated by a life insurance fund.
The progressive disability scale (Progression) is a benefit scale agreed in private accident insurance under which the disability benefit increases more than proportionately above a certain degree of disability and reaches a multiple of the base sum insured at full disability, with 225, 350 or 500 per cent being common market levels.
Property all risks insurance covers unforeseen damage to or destruction of insured property from any peril that is not expressly excluded.
Property claims history (5 years) records the frequency, cause and cost of a location's or portfolio's past property and business interruption losses, giving underwriters the primary empirical basis for grading physical risk and pricing the account.
Property risk grading classifies a property exposure by construction, occupancy, protection and exposure into a consistent rating scheme – ranging from standard risk to Highly Protected Risk (HPR) – providing a comparable basis for underwriting and pricing.
A property risk survey is the systematic on-site inspection of an operation by risk engineers that records hazards, protection measures and management programmes, providing the technical basis for risk grading, conditions and insurance terms.
Proportional reinsurance splits premiums and losses between cedent and reinsurer according to a fixed percentage agreed in advance.
The prospective reserve method calculates the technical reserve as the present value of expected future insurance benefits less the present value of expected future net premiums.
This clause grants immediate, but time-limited and substantively restricted, cover from an agreed point in time, before the final insurance contract is concluded or the policy issued.
The public utilities clause extends business interruption cover to loss of income resulting from an insured physical damage event at an electricity, gas, water or telecommunications supplier, without requiring any damage at the insured's own premises.
The PVA is the largest carrier of statutory pension insurance in Austria and pays old-age, disability, and survivors' pensions to employees.
A qualified reminder notice is a written payment demand issued by the insurer upon default on a renewal premium, which must state the outstanding amount, a payment deadline, and the legal consequences of non-payment.
The qualifying salary is the gross salary recognised under the AHV Act, on the basis of which contributions to the first and second pillars, as well as the coordinated salary, are calculated.
Explained on the topic page Social Insurance
Quality management certification records whether an insured's quality system is certified to a recognised standard such as ISO 9001, which underwriters use as an indicator of consistent process control and therefore of product liability and recall risk.
The radioactive contamination exclusion comprehensively removes damage caused by ionising radiation, nuclear fuel, nuclear installations, and chemical, biological and electromagnetic weapons from property cover.
Random fluctuation risk is the component of an insurer's technical risk arising from the random dispersion of actual losses around the calculated expected loss, and it cannot be eliminated even with correctly estimated parameters.
Explained on the topic page Risk theory
In risk theory, random risk is the non-negative random variable describing the loss amount of an insured risk, forming the basic mathematical building block of actuarial models.
Explained on the topic page Risk theory
A rate (tariff) is the set of premium rates and rating factors defined by an insurer for a line of business or product, used to calculate the premium for a specific risk.
Recall potential and history records an insured's prior product recalls or field corrective actions together with an assessment of how likely and how costly a future recall would be, given product design, market reach and traceability.
Recovery time objective (RTO) records the target maximum time within which a critical process, system or facility must be restored after a disruption, as defined in the insured's business continuity plan and queried in business interruption proposal forms.
Recycling and waste management facilities are shaped by highly heterogeneous, hard-to-control combustible material and a growing fire risk from incorrectly discarded lithium batteries, which significantly complicates fire protection concepts.
Risk profile for a recycling and waste management facility (sorting, shredding, baling, treatment or interim storage of waste and recyclable materials): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
The reduction in earning capacity (MdE) is the percentage measure used by statutory accident insurance in Germany and Austria for the abstract loss of working opportunities across the entire field of gainful employment resulting from an insured event (§ 56 para. 2 SGB VII, § 203 ASVG); it is determined on the basis of medical experience values and governs the entitlement to and amount of the injury pension (Verletztenrente) or disability pension (Versehrtenrente).
Referral marketing acquires new customers through active recommendations from satisfied existing customers and is considered a particularly cost-effective distribution channel in insurance.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Refrigeration systems and compressors carry mechanical breakdown risk as well as substance-specific hazards from the refrigerant used; ammonia systems add toxicity and explosion hazards that require structural separation and dedicated detection.
Regional rating class is a motor insurance rating factor that classifies a vehicle owner's registration district into one of several risk classes based on the loss experience observed there.
The register of insurance intermediaries is a publicly accessible official record in which all licensed insurance intermediaries are listed and registered.
The Regular Supervisory Report is the confidential Solvency II report an insurer must periodically submit, containing detailed information exclusively for the supervisory authority.
Explained on the topic page Solvency II
Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 coordinates the social security systems of the EU member states – and, via Annex II of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons and the EFTA Convention, of Switzerland – by determining which national legislation applies to persons working across borders, aggregating insurance periods and making benefits exportable; it is supplemented by Implementing Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 and has replaced Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 since 1 May 2010.
The reinstatement clause governs whether, and on what terms, the coverage limit of a contract used up by a loss is restored for further events.
After cover has lapsed for non-payment of premium, it can be revived by paying the overdue premium.
Reinsurance acceptance is the legally binding acceptance of a reinsurance offer by the reinsurer, communicated to the primary insurer or reinsurance broker.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
A reinsurance audit is a reinsurer's review of a primary insurer's or reinsurer's business processes, typically conducted as an underwriting or claims audit.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
A reinsurance broker arranges and structures reinsurance contracts on behalf of a cedent and manages their placement in the market.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
A reinsurance deposit is a security amount withheld by the cedent or posted by the reinsurer to secure outstanding obligations under a reinsurance treaty.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The reinsurer is the company that, for a premium, assumes risks or shares of risk from a primary insurer (the cedent) and provides it with a proportionate indemnity in the event of a loss.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The clause sets the period after an accident within which a relapse or late-developing consequence can still be claimed and the disability benefit reassessed.
Relapse and late sequelae (Rückfall und Spätfolgen) denote, in accident insurance, the recurrence of an accident injury considered healed and the first appearance of accident consequences after a longer period, for which Swiss mandatory accident insurance pays under Art. 11 UVV even after the case has been closed, provided the causal link to the accident is more probable than not.
The relatives clause excludes, in liability insurance, claims brought by relatives of the policyholder who live with them in the same household or are co-insured under the policy.
Remote access and homeoffice extent records how many employees connect to corporate systems remotely, through which technical channel, and under what security controls, a significant driver of the attack surface in cyber underwriting.
Removal damage is damage to insured property that occurs while it is being moved out of a space threatened by an insured peril, and is generally covered under property insurance.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Removal insurance covers transport and breakage damage to household contents and furniture caused by the moving company or third parties during a residential or office relocation.
The supervisory authority may require the removal of an insurance company's management or supervisory board member where deficiencies are identified.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
A supplementary agreement that lifts the AHB exclusion for damage to rented, leased or borrowed property, giving a tenant or lessee cover for damage they cause to the rented item itself.
Replacement staff costs are the travel and accommodation expenses, covered under business travel accident insurance, for a substitute whom the employer sends to take over the business task of a traveller who is incapacitated by death, accident or serious illness – including the cost of the recovered person later resuming the assignment.
Replacement value is the amount required to newly acquire an insured item of the same type and quality, without regard to its age or wear.
This clause contractually defines which individuals within the policyholder's organisation count as representatives, whose intentional or grossly negligent conduct is attributed to the policyholder as if it were its own fault.
Representative liability holds that a policyholder must accept responsibility for the conduct and knowledge of a person who independently manages the contract or the insured risk on their behalf.
Rescission allows the insurer to retroactively void the insurance contract if the policyholder fraudulently misrepresented facts material to the risk.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Reserving risk is the risk that an insurer's technical provisions established for losses already incurred are insufficient to cover the actual future payments required.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Restitution in kind is the reinstatement of the condition that would have existed absent the damaging event, as opposed to indemnification through a pure monetary payment.
Retention is the share of risk that a primary insurer or a company deliberately keeps for its own account instead of insuring or reinsuring it.
Explained on the topic page Risk financing
Retirement provision refers to the planned financial protection of one's standard of living in old age through state, occupational, and private pension products.
Germany's 2001 Retirement Savings Act established state-subsidized private retirement provision and introduced the so-called Riester pension.
Retroactive cover extends the protection of a claims-made policy to breaches of duty committed before the start of the policy, provided they occurred after an agreed retroactive date.
A clause in claims-made policies that moves the retroactive date back before the start of the policy, bringing wrongful acts committed but not yet known before inception into cover.
Retrocession refers to the further transfer of a risk already assumed by a reinsurer to another reinsurer, known as the retrocessionaire.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
A return of premium rider is a supplementary annuity provision ensuring that, upon death before the annuity starts, the premiums paid are refunded to survivors.
Explained on the topic page Pension insurance
Revenue seasonality records how evenly the insured's turnover is spread across the year, or whether it is concentrated in specific peak periods, as queried in business interruption proposal forms to correctly time and size the loss of gross profit.
Revenue split by activity records the breakdown of an insured's total turnover across its different business activities or product lines, allowing underwriters to allocate premium and business interruption sum insured proportionately to each activity's distinct risk profile.
Reversal of the burden of proof shifts the general obligation to prove a claim from the claimant to the defendant, particularly in certain product liability and medical malpractice cases.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The Rezeptgebühr is the statutory co-payment that members of Austria's statutory health insurance must pay per prescribed medicine package.
The Riester allowance is Germany's state subsidy for private funded retirement provision, consisting of a basic allowance and a child allowance under sections 79 et seq. of the Income Tax Act (EStG).
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
Where an insured person leaves a group insurance scheme, they may continue equivalent cover as an individual policy without waiting periods or a new risk assessment.
The right of withdrawal allows a policyholder to cancel a newly concluded insurance contract retroactively within a statutory period, without giving reasons.
Riot is a political peril related to civil commotion in which parts of the population openly rise up against state authority, and is often written together with lockout as an extension of cover.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
A risk community is the pool of all persons insured by an insurer against a comparable risk, whose premiums form the basis for the risk equalisation calculated according to the law of large numbers.
Risk equalisation under Art. 16 et seq. KVG offsets differences in risk structure between Swiss health insurers: insurers with a below-average risk portfolio pay levies, insurers with above-average risk receive contributions; the indicators are age, sex, hospital or nursing home stay in the previous year and pharmaceutical cost groups (PCG). The scheme is run by the Common Institution under the KVG.
Risk improvement recommendations are the prioritised loss prevention measures derived from property risk surveys, and their systematic tracking through to completion is an integral part of effective risk management.
Risk loading is a margin added to the expected-value-based net premium, through which an insurer is compensated for the uncertainty of the loss estimate and the volatility of the risk assumed.
Robbery is the taking of insured property through the use or threat of force against a person, and is a distinct peril in burglary and robbery insurance.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Roof construction and covering records the structural build-up and weatherproofing materials of a roof, and is queried in property proposal forms because roofs are a frequent source of fire spread, snow-load collapse and weather damage.
In rotating equipment such as pumps, fans and motors, bearings are the most frequent failure cause; vibration and temperature monitoring detects incipient bearing damage before it develops into a breakdown loss.
The run-off result is the difference between claims reserves established in prior years and the claims payments actually needed to settle those losses.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Sabotage refers to the intentional damage or destruction of property or business operations by third parties for political, ideological, or economic motives.
Safe and mechanical security rating records the certified resistance grade of a safe, strongroom or vault used to store cash and valuables, as queried in property and cash-shortage insurance proposal forms to set sum-insured limits for stored values.
Safety training programme records whether the policyholder runs a structured, documented occupational safety training scheme for employees, a key mitigation factor in accident and liability underwriting.
The salvage and subrogation clause governs how salvage proceeds and recovery rights arising from a loss are shared between cedent and reinsurer.
The salvage clause governs the rights and obligations of insurer and policyholder in dealing with damaged but still valuable property following a loss, in particular regarding the recovery, preservation and disposal of the residual value.
Salvage costs are expenses incurred to rescue, secure, or clear insured property in connection with an insured event, reimbursed by the insurer in addition to the sum insured.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
The sanctions clause clarifies that the insurer provides no cover and makes no payment to the extent that doing so would expose it to economic sanctions or embargoes.
Sandwich panels consist of two metal facings with an insulating core in between; where the core is combustible, it can cause extremely rapid fire spread and a high risk of total loss.
The schedule of disability percentages (Gliedertaxe) is the table agreed in private accident insurance conditions that assigns fixed degrees of disability to the loss or complete loss of function of specified body parts and sensory organs, thereby standardising the assessment of the disability benefit.
The scheme of operations is the description of planned business activity, organization, and financial resources an insurer must submit as part of its licensing application.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Scorching damage is heat damage to property without open flame, treated differently from fire damage in property insurance and regularly excluded from standard cover.
The search and rescue costs clause extends accident or travel insurance to reimburse the cost of search, rescue, and recovery following an accident.
The Second Care Strengthening Act (PSG II) reformed Germany's statutory long-term care insurance from 1 January 2017 by replacing the three care levels with five care grades and a newly defined concept of care dependency.
Second-loss cover is a higher layer borne exclusively by the reinsurer, which attaches only after the underlying layer carried by the primary insurer (first loss) has been exhausted.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Secondary residence records whether the insured property is a holiday home or other secondary residence occupied only part of the year, as distinct from the policyholder's primary domicile, which affects both buildings and household liability underwriting.
A security concept uses a risk analysis to determine which combination of mechanical, electronic and organisational measures is required to effectively reduce burglary and theft risk at a given site.
Security evacuation is the removal of an insured person to the nearest place of safety or to the country of residence, organised and paid for under business travel accident insurance, when political unrest, war, terrorism, natural disasters, expulsion or an official recommendation to leave make remaining in the host country unreasonable – as distinct from medically indicated evacuation.
Seismic retrofitting comprises structural measures that improve the earthquake performance of existing buildings and plant in order to reduce injury and property damage in the event of an earthquake.
A self-inspection programme delegates regular, checklist-based monitoring of fire protection, security and maintenance features to trained facility staff, bridging the periods between formal surveys carried out by external risk engineers.
An AHB clause under which several causally connected insured events are treated as a single loss occurrence, deemed to have taken place at the time of the first event.
The service of suit clause requires an insurer domiciled outside the forum to submit to suit by the policyholder before the competent courts and to appoint an attorney authorised to accept service of process.
Set-off is the declaration by which mutual, like-kind claims of two parties are extinguished to the extent they correspond in amount.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
The severability clause treats each insured director or officer as separately insured for purposes of application statements and exclusions, so that one individual's misconduct or knowledge does not automatically jeopardise cover for all other insured persons.
The several liability clause (LMA3333) makes clear that each (re)insurer on a Lloyd's or company market contract is liable only for its own underwritten share and is not responsible for the default of any other participating underwriter.
The Seventh Book of the German Social Code (SGB VII) of 7 August 1996 is the legal basis of German statutory accident insurance; it governs the insured population, insured events (occupational accident, commuting accident, occupational disease), prevention, medical treatment, cash benefits such as injury benefit and injury pension, the replacement of employer liability, and the organisation and financing through Berufsgenossenschaften and public accident insurance funds.
Home office share records the proportion of staff regularly working remotely rather than at a company premises, relevant to occupational accident classification and cyber exposure underwriting.
Share of export revenue records the percentage of an insured's turnover generated outside its home jurisdiction, which underwriters use to assess exposure to foreign product liability regimes, litigation environments and currency and trade-related risks.
Shell construction type records the primary structural material and method used for the building's shell and core (e.g. reinforced concrete, steel frame, timber), as declared in Construction and Erection All Risks proposal forms.
Shift operations record whether a production or processing site runs single, double, triple or continuous shifts, as this pattern drives supervision levels, equipment wear and the frequency of hazardous shutdown and start-up events.
Shutdown and start-up frequency records how often production equipment is deliberately taken offline and restarted, since these transitional states carry a disproportionately high share of machinery breakdown and fire losses compared with steady-state running.
Shutdown and start-up risks arise when an operation or parts of a plant are temporarily taken out of service or brought back online, since supervision, protection systems and established routines are reduced during these phases.
The Side A/B/C structure divides a D&O policy into three insuring agreements: direct personal protection for directors and officers without indemnification (Side A), reimbursement of indemnification payments made by the company (Side B), and standalone entity cover for claims against the company itself (Side C).
The simple reinstatement clause pays the full replacement-cost indemnity once the policyholder credibly evidences an intention to reinstate, without requiring reinstatement to already be secured.
Risk profile for an owner-occupied single-family home: the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting private insurance programme architecture.
Single-source suppliers records whether the insured procures a critical raw material, component or service from only one supplier or production site, with no qualified alternative available on short notice, as queried in contingent business interruption proposal forms.
Site access and accessibility describes the road, gate and internal circulation arrangements that allow emergency vehicles and personnel to reach and move around a location, and is queried in property and construction proposal forms to assess emergency response capability.
The sliding scale clause links the cedent's ceding commission under a proportional treaty to the actual loss experience: the better the loss ratio, the higher the commission.
Sliding scale commission is a remuneration structure in proportional reinsurance where the commission rate moves inversely with the loss ratio within defined limits.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Smaller mutual insurance associations below certain premium and membership thresholds may be wholly or partly exempt from ongoing insurance supervision.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Smoke and heat venting records whether, and to what extent, a building is fitted with natural or powered smoke and heat exhaust ventilation (SHEV), as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Smoke and heat exhaust ventilation systems (SHEVS) release fire smoke and heat to the outside in a controlled way to keep escape routes clear of smoke, assist the fire brigade and support earlier, more localised sprinkler activation.
Smoking controls and designated smoking areas are organisational measures by which operations exclude uncontrolled ignition sources from smoking in fire-hazardous areas while meeting statutory requirements on protection from passive smoking.
Smoking policy records whether smoking is fully prohibited or confined to designated, fire-safe smoking areas on the premises, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Smoothing techniques spread short-term fluctuations in investment values or bonus declarations across multiple periods to stabilize outcomes for policyholders.
Explained on the topic page Actuarial
Snow load refers to the loading of roof structures from accumulated snow and ice, which can cause deformation or roof collapse once the design load is exceeded.
Snow load zone records the ground and roof snow load class assigned to a location by a recognised design code or hazard map, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess exposure to roof collapse from accumulated snow.
The social engineering clause extends crime or cyber cover to financial loss arising when an employee is deceived (for example by spoofed emails or calls) into making a good-faith but fraudulently induced transfer of funds or property.
Social security affiliation of posted workers determines which national social security legislation applies to an employee temporarily working abroad: within the EU/EFTA and Switzerland, Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 provides that only one legislation applies at a time, and for postings of up to 24 months the legislation of the sending state continues to apply (A1 certificate); workers posted to Switzerland from treaty states may, under Art. 2 para. 5 KVV, be exempted on application from compulsory KVG insurance if the employer guarantees equivalent cover.
Risk profile for a photovoltaic power plant (roof-mounted or ground-mounted solar park): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Solar power plants are large, ground-mounted photovoltaic installations whose risk profile, beyond the electrical fire risk of the modules themselves, is shaped mainly by hail, vegetation fire, vandalism and the large number of series-connected inverters.
The SFCR is an insurer's annually published report under Solvency II that publicly discloses business activity, risk profile, valuation, and capital position.
Explained on the topic page Solvency II
Under Solvency II, the Solvency Capital Requirement is the capital an insurer must hold to remain solvent even in the face of an extreme event with a statistical return period of 200 years.
Solvency II is the EU's risk-based supervisory regime for insurers and reinsurers; it governs capital requirements, governance and reporting duties in three pillars.
The solvency ratio relates an insurer's eligible own funds to its Solvency Capital Requirement, indicating the factor by which the regulatory minimum capital level is met.
A documented spare parts strategy defines, for critical units with long replacement lead times, which components are stocked, contractually reserved or protected through redundancy, and thereby largely determines the realistic indemnity period of a business interruption policy.
Special Conditions supplement or modify the General Insurance Conditions for specific risks, target groups, or coverage extensions.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Special hazard fire protection concepts combine the selection and arrangement of extinguishing systems for hazards that cannot be reliably controlled by standard sprinkler protection alone, such as highly reactive materials, high-value equipment or specific process risks.
A special purpose vehicle (SPV) is a legally independent entity set up solely to issue securities through which insurance or credit risks are placed with capital market investors.
The special termination clause gives either or both parties the right to end the reinsurance treaty early upon defined trigger events such as a rating downgrade, change of control or solvency concerns.
Special termination rights entitle either the insurer or the policyholder to end an insurance contract outside the ordinary renewal date, for example after a claim or on a change of ownership of the insured property.
Spontaneous combustion is the onset of fire through an exothermic oxidation or decomposition reaction occurring within a material itself, which builds up to ignition temperature without any external ignition source.
Spontaneous combustion-prone materials records whether the insured handles or stores materials that can self-heat and ignite without an external ignition source, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
Sports accident insurance is accident insurance tailored to the practice of sport that protects athletes, clubs and federations against the financial consequences of sports accidents – death, permanent or temporary disablement, medical and rescue costs – and includes hazardous sports that are excluded or subject to reduction in standard policies.
Design density and hazard classification determine the water discharge rate and design area a sprinkler system must be able to deliver so that it effectively controls the actual fire hazard of an occupancy.
Impairment management ensures that planned or unplanned outages of sprinkler and fire suppression systems are controlled, compensated and ended as quickly as possible.
Sprinkler protection extent records whether, and to what design standard, a location is protected by an automatic sprinkler system, as queried in property insurance proposal forms.
The square meter method is a method for determining the insured value of a building based on its living or usable floor area and a per-square-meter price, frequently used to set the sum insured.
The stability clause indexes the retention and limit of a non-proportional treaty to an agreed index, keeping the real coverage effect stable over the life of the treaty against inflation.
Staff accommodation records whether the employer provides on-site or company-managed housing for employees, relevant to property and liability exposure where residential and operational risk overlap.
Staff turnover rate records the annual proportion of employees leaving and being replaced, used as a proxy for training gaps, morale and operational risk in liability and accident underwriting.
The statutory disability pension is a benefit of Germany's statutory pension insurance for partial or full reduction in earning capacity, which private disability income insurance can supplement.
Statutory health insurance is Germany's solidarity-based compulsory branch of social insurance providing medical care for the majority of the population.
Steam boilers carry an explosion potential from high pressure and temperature that is primarily driven by low water conditions, corrosion or scale buildup; recurring statutory inspections and safety devices such as low-water cutoffs are therefore key protective measures.
Steam turbines are highly stressed rotating machines in which blade failures, bearing damage or water induction can cause total losses with long replacement lead times, making vibration monitoring and protective automation key loss prevention measures.
A stress test examines how an insurer's financial position would develop under a hypothetical, exceptionally adverse scenario, to assess resilience and capital adequacy.
Strict liability is fault-independent liability attaching to the operation of a lawful but particularly hazardous object or activity.
The strict reinstatement clause makes payment of the part of the indemnity exceeding the insurable value (the new-for-old uplift) conditional on reinstatement or replacement of the damaged property actually being secured.
The SRCC clause covers physical damage caused directly by strikers, locked-out workers, rioters or civil commotion, and is increasingly being carved out of all-risks property policies and offered separately or as a buy-back.
Subcontractor usage records the extent to which an insured delegates construction, installation or operational work to subcontractors, and whether contractual risk transfer arrangements are in place, since subcontracted work can create vicarious or non-delegable liability for the insured.
A contractual condition setting out the circumstances and extent to which damage caused by engaged subcontractors is covered under the main contractor's general liability policy.
Subrogation refers to an insurer's right, after indemnifying an insured, to pursue recourse against the tortfeasor or another liable third party in order to recover the amount paid.
The subrogation clause governs the transfer of the policyholder's recovery rights against third parties to the insurer once a claim has been paid, and aligns that right across the master and local policies of an international programme.
The subsidence and landslip clause extends property cover to damage caused by gradual sinking, heaving or slipping of the ground on which the insured building stands, typically excluding damage caused by mining, vibration or defective foundations.
The subsidiarity principle provides that an insurer is only secondarily liable for a loss if and to the extent that no other, primarily responsible insurance covers the same loss.
The sue and labour clause requires the insured to take reasonable steps to avert or minimise a loss where an insured event threatens or occurs, and covers the costs reasonably incurred in doing so in addition to the sum insured.
The suicide clause excludes the death benefit under a life insurance policy if the life insured intentionally takes their own life within a set period after inception.
The suitability assessment requires an intermediary providing advice to gather and consider the customer's knowledge, experience, objectives, and financial situation.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
The sum insured is the contractually agreed maximum amount up to which the insurer pays in the event of a loss, and also the basis for premium calculation.
Explained on the topic page Contract design
The sum insured is the contractually agreed maximum amount up to which the insurer is liable for one or more insured events.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
In group personal accident insurance the sum insured per insured person may be agreed as a multiple of annual salary instead of a fixed amount (typically, by way of illustration, 3 to 5 times); the benefit then automatically follows salary development but requires a clear salary definition, a maximum (salary cap) and the periodic declaration of payroll.
The sum insured equalisation clause offsets excess sums insured on one position within the same property policy against underinsured positions, so that no pro-rata reduction for underinsurance is applied.
The sunset clause sets a time bar after which losses under a terminated or lapsed reinsurance contract may no longer be notified or claimed.
The supervisory board oversees the management board of an insurance company and, under the VAG, must be composed of professionally qualified and fit and proper members.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Supervisory orders are measures imposed by the supervisory authority requiring an insurance company to remedy identified deficiencies within a set period.
Explained on the topic page Regulatory
Supplementary benefits are means-tested payments made to AHV or IV pensioners when their pensions and other income fail to cover recognised basic living costs.
Supplementary insurance is an additional policy that extends an existing main contract, or statutory social insurance cover, with extra benefits.
Explained on the topic page Health Insurance
Supplementary pension provision forms the second pillar of retirement provision in Germany, mainly comprising the Riester pension and occupational pension schemes.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
The supplementary pension scheme for public sector employees is a collectively agreed occupational pension system for employees in the German public sector.
Explained on the topic page Retirement Provision
Supplementary UVG insurance is a group accident insurance taken out by the employer under the VVG that tops up the benefits of Swiss compulsory accident insurance – typically by insuring the surplus salary above the UVG maximum, raising the daily allowance to 100 percent, covering private or semi-private hospital wards, providing lump sums for disability and death and waiving benefit reductions for gross negligence.
The suppliers and customers extension broadens business interruption cover to loss of income resulting from an insured physical damage event at a named or unnamed supplier or customer.
Supply chain risk engineering identifies an operation's critical suppliers and customers and quantifies the resulting contingent business interruption exposure as a basis for limits, diversification and continuity measures.
Supply pipes carry fresh water or gas into a building; breakage damage to them inside the building is typically covered under the escape-of-water peril.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Surety bond insurance replaces a cash security deposit for the policyholder, with the insurer acting as surety or guarantor to a third party (the obligee) for the fulfillment of an obligation.
A suretyship is the civil law contract by which a surety undertakes to the creditor to answer for the performance of a third party's obligation.
Explained on the topic page Credit Insurance
Surface water and backflow risk records a location's exposure to heavy-rain ponding and sewer backflow independent of riverine flooding, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess exposure to pluvial flood events.
Surface water drainage and backflow protection cover the routing of rainwater away from a building together with technical safeguards that prevent sewage backing up into low-lying parts of a building.
Surplus share reinsurance is a form of proportional reinsurance in which the reinsurer assumes only the portion of a sum insured exceeding a retention line set by the ceding insurer.
Surrender value is the amount a life insurer pays to the policyholder upon early termination of a capital-forming policy; it corresponds to the policy reserve less a surrender charge.
The survival benefit is the lump sum or annuity payment a life insurer provides when the insured person survives the contract's agreed maturity date.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
A survivor's pension is a recurring benefit from a life or annuity insurance policy or a retirement system, paid to a spouse, registered partner, or children following the death of the insured person.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Suspension temporarily halts a contract's cover and premium obligation; reinstatement restores full cover once the reason for suspension has ceased to apply.
SUVA is the largest provider of mandatory accident insurance in Switzerland, insuring in particular businesses in the trade and industrial sectors.
The administration of compulsory accident insurance in Switzerland is split in two: businesses in the industries listed in Art. 66 UVG are compulsorily insured with Suva, while all other employers choose a registered private insurer, a public accident insurance fund or a health insurer (Art. 68 UVG); the UVG substitute fund (Ersatzkasse, Art. 72 f. UVG) covers employees of employers who have failed to insure.
Suva hazard class records the occupational hazard category assigned to a business activity under the Swiss occupational accident insurance tariff, determining the base rate applied to the insured wage sum.
The Swiss Insurance Contract Act (ICA/VVG) governs the private-law relationship between insurer and policyholder – from disclosure duties and premiums to payment of benefits in the event of a loss.
SwissDRG is the case-based flat-rate system for acute inpatient hospital services in Switzerland in force since 2012 (Art. 49 KVG): each hospital stay is assigned to a diagnosis related group with a cost weight and multiplied by the hospital-specific base rate; the remuneration is shared between the canton of residence (at least 55 %) and the health insurer (at most 45 %) under Art. 49a KVG.
Switchgear distributes and protects electrical power in buildings and industrial plants; contact ageing, mis-coordinated protective devices or overload are among the most frequent causes of electrical fires.
The table of benefits (also table of events or continental scale) is the schedule contained in international personal accident wordings that assigns a fixed percentage of the sum insured to each insured event – death, loss of limbs, sight, hearing or permanent disablement – and is thus the counterpart to the German-style schedule of disability percentages (Gliedertaxe).
TARMED was Switzerland's nationwide fee-for-service tariff for outpatient physician services from 2004 to 2025; since 1 January 2026 it has been replaced by the overall tariff system approved by the Federal Council, consisting of TARDOC (fee-for-service tariff with around 1,400 items) and around 300 outpatient flat rates, maintained by OAAT AG. Remuneration equals tax points multiplied by the cantonal tax point value.
The tax treatment of employer-funded group personal accident insurance governs whether and when contributions count as wages: in Germany the inflow depends on whether employees have a direct claim, and wage tax may be levied at a flat rate of 20 % under section 40b (3) EStG; in Switzerland employer contributions to collective supplementary UVG insurance need not be declared on the salary certificate; in Austria contributions for future security are tax-free up to EUR 300 per year.
The technical interest rate is the prudently set actuarial interest rate used in life insurance premium and reserve calculations to reflect future expected investment returns, and is guaranteed to the policyholder.
Technical provisions are an insurer's balance-sheet obligations to policyholders arising from existing contracts, in particular for future benefits and claims not yet fully settled.
Telematics and driver assistance systems records whether an insured's vehicles are equipped with telematics tracking and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), as queried in motor insurance proposal forms because such systems measurably reduce accident frequency and severity.
The temporary removal clause extends cover to insured property that is temporarily removed from the insured location, for example for repair, cleaning or exhibition purposes, usually subject to a time limit and a percentage or sub-limit of cover.
Temporary total disablement (TTD) is the temporary inability of an insured person, as defined in personal accident wordings, to carry out their usual occupation as a result of an accident; it is compensated by a weekly benefit that is limited to salary or a share of salary, subject to an excess period and restricted to a maximum benefit period.
Risk profile for a household renting its home: the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting private insurance programme architecture.
Tenant's legal liability covers damage a tenant causes to the leased property and for which they are legally liable to the landlord; personal liability insurance regularly covers this risk as an included benefit.
Term life insurance pays an agreed death benefit if the insured person dies within a fixed term, with no savings component or accumulation of capital.
Termination is the unilateral declaration by a contracting party ending an insurance contract, either on notice at the end of a defined period or extraordinarily on a specific triggering event.
This clause gives both the insurer and the policyholder a time-limited special right of termination that can be exercised after a claim has occurred and been settled.
Terms and liability waivers record whether an insured uses standard terms and conditions containing liability limitation, exclusion or waiver clauses, and whether such clauses are legally enforceable in the relevant contract or sales jurisdiction.
The territorial scope clause defines the countries or regions in which an international programme or an individual policy provides cover, independently of where a lawsuit may be brought.
The territorial scope clause limits the geographic reach of a reinsurance treaty to specified countries or regions and addresses the treatment of cross-border risks.
Territory protection grants an exclusive agent the right to be protected from competition by other agents of the same insurer within a defined geographic area.
The property terrorism exclusion excludes physical damage and consequential costs caused directly or indirectly by terrorism and places the burden of proving that a loss falls outside the exclusion on the policyholder.
Terrorism insurance covers property and business interruption losses caused by acts of terrorism, and is frequently offered separately from standard cover due to the difficulty of calculating the risk.
The testing and commissioning clause sets out the conditions – in particular mechanical completion and a stable performance test over a minimum period – under which cover applies to plant during or after testing and commissioning, or attaches to an operational policy.
Theft is the unlawful taking of another's movable property with intent to appropriate it, and one of the central perils in property insurance.
The clause limits theft cover to cases where the perpetrator gained entry to the insured building by force, leaving visible signs of forcible and violent entry, and typically excludes simple theft without evidence of a break-in.
Theft prevention in transport and logistics comprises technical and organisational measures along the supply chain that prevent cargo theft from vehicles, swap bodies and cross-dock warehouses.
Third-party access to systems describes which external vendors, suppliers or service providers hold network or system access into an organisation's IT environment, and under what controls, a frequent source of indirect cyber exposure.
A third-party beneficiary acquires an independent right of claim from a contract between two other parties, without itself being a party to that contract.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Third-party loss liquidation allows a contracting party to assert, in its own name, a loss that has occurred at a third party due to a special legal relationship.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
The three-pillar system is the constitutionally enshrined basic structure of Swiss old-age, survivors', and disability provision, consisting of state, occupational, and private pension provision.
Tiers garant and tiers payant are the two reimbursement systems of Swiss health insurance under Art. 42 KVG: under tiers garant the insured person owes the provider's fee and is reimbursed by the insurer; under tiers payant the insurer owes the fee directly to the provider. For inpatient treatment tiers payant applies by law.
The total declared rate is the sum of the guaranteed interest rate and the current bonus a life insurer actually credits to policyholders in a given year.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
A total loss occurs when an insured object is completely destroyed, irretrievably lost, or no longer economically reasonable to repair.
Trade credit insurance protects businesses against the loss of receivables resulting from the insolvency or protracted default of their customers on goods or services supplied on credit.
Trail commission is ongoing remuneration paid to an intermediary for servicing an existing insurance contract after it has been concluded.
Explained on the topic page Distribution
Transformers are frequently heavy, custom-built and slow to replace, making them key links in energy supply whose failure through insulation faults, overloading or inadequate cooling can trigger substantial property and business interruption losses.
The transit/duration clause defines when cover for machinery, plant components or contract works attaches and terminates during transport, interim storage and erection, and governs the interface between marine cargo and construction/erection cover.
Transport routes and radius records the typical geographic operating area and journey type of an insured fleet, as queried in motor liability proposal forms because road type, distance and territory materially change the accident and jurisdictional exposure.
The travel days declaration is the premium basis of business travel accident insurance: at inception the employer reports the estimated number of travel days or trips for the policy year, the premium is calculated provisionally on that basis and adjusted at year-end or renewal against the actual figures; alternatively the policy is rated on headcount.
Travel health insurance is a private cover against the risk of illness during a stay abroad, outside the reach of statutory health insurance protection.
Travel insurance bundles various coverage modules for risks associated with a trip, in particular trip cancellation costs, medical emergencies abroad, baggage, and trip interruption.
Travel risk management is the systematic process by which an organisation identifies, assesses and treats the health, security and travel risks of its employees; ISO 31030:2021, a non-certifiable guidance standard, sets out the elements of travel policy, risk assessment, treatment hierarchy, traveller tracking, briefings and crisis management.
Treaty adjustment is the contractual alignment of a reinsurance treaty with actual business performance, achieved through variable premiums or sliding scale commissions.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
Treaty reinsurance is a form of reinsurance in which the reinsurer is obliged to automatically accept all risks of a defined portfolio ceded by the cedent.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The cancellation, curtailment and delay module of business travel accident insurance reimburses cancellation charges, unused travel services and additional costs of return or onward travel when a business trip cannot be started, has to be cut short or is continued late because of an insured event – sickness, accident, death, natural event, civil unrest, strike or cancellation of the business appointment.
The two-risk warranty requires that a loss claimed under a per-risk excess of loss treaty involves at least two independent risks or policies before cover responds.
In reinsurance, ultimate net loss refers to the total loss amount ultimately borne by the ceding insurer after deducting other applicable reinsurance and recoveries, but before application of the reinsurance treaty itself.
The ultimate net loss clause defines which amounts – the principal loss, claims expenses and recoveries from other cover – are taken into account when calculating the net loss recoverable under a reinsurance treaty.
Umbrella liability insurance provides additional liability cover above the limits of several underlying liability policies, and can also drop down as standalone cover for risks not covered by any underlying policy.
Where the sum insured is materially lower than the insurable value at the time of loss, the insurer indemnifies the loss only in the proportion that the sum insured bears to the insurable value.
Underinsurance exists when the agreed sum insured is lower than the actual insured value; the indemnity is then reduced in accordance with the proportionality rule.
Underwriting is the process of risk assessment, selection and pricing by which an insurer decides whether, and on what terms, to accept a risk.
Explained on the topic page Underwriting
Underwriting cycle management is the management approach that systematically factors the alternation between hard and soft insurance markets into corporate and competitive strategy.
Underwriting policy comprises an insurer's objective and resource decisions on accepting insured risks, including underwriting limits, retentions and risk premiums.
Explained on the topic page Underwriting
The underwriting year is the year in which a contract's risk period begins, and it serves as the reference basis for underwriting, reserving and results analysis in primary and reinsurance business.
Explained on the topic page Reinsurance
The unearned premium reserve is the technical provision for the portion of written premium that economically relates to a coverage period after the balance sheet date.
Explained on the topic page Accounting
The ALV is the Swiss social insurance scheme that pays daily allowances to insured employees in the event of involuntary unemployment, short-time work, weather-related work stoppages, and employer insolvency.
Explained on the topic page Social Insurance
In unit-linked life insurance, the policyholder bears the investment risk directly, since the maturity benefit is tied to the performance of chosen investment funds.
US/Canada revenue share records the percentage of an insured's turnover generated in or attributable to the United States and Canada, which underwriters treat separately from other export markets due to the materially higher liability litigation exposure in these jurisdictions.
A market-standard exclusion carving claims brought before United States or Canadian courts, or governed by their law, out of an otherwise granted worldwide liability extension.
Utmost good faith obliges both policyholder and insurer to act honestly and in mutual trust throughout the formation, performance, and claims settlement of an insurance contract.
The Federal Act on Accident Insurance (UVG, SR 832.20) is the legal basis of mandatory accident insurance in Switzerland; it governs the insured population, the insured events (occupational accident, non-occupational accident, occupational disease), benefits in kind and in cash, the insurers and the financing of the scheme.
The UVG daily allowance is the income replacement benefit of Swiss accident insurance for accident-related incapacity for work; under Art. 17 UVG it amounts to 80 percent of the insured earnings for full incapacity and is paid from the third day after the day of the accident until working capacity is regained or a pension begins.
The UVG disability pension is the long-term benefit of Swiss compulsory accident insurance for accident-related disability of at least 10 percent (Art. 18 UVG); it amounts to 80 percent of the insured earnings for full disability and, where it coincides with an IV or AHV pension, is paid as a complementary pension up to 90 percent of the insured earnings (Art. 20 UVG).
UVG wage sum records the total insurable payroll subject to mandatory Swiss occupational accident insurance (UVG), forming the premium base that Suva or the private UVG insurer applies its hazard-class rate to.
Valuables insurance covers jewelry, art, collections, and other particularly valuable movable items beyond the standard sub-limits of household contents insurance.
Valuables value is the declared or appraised total value of jewellery, watches, furs, art and other individually valuable items kept in a household, used to set sublimits and safe-storage requirements in valuables insurance proposals.
A valuation reserve is the hidden reserve that arises when the market value of an investment exceeds its lower statutory book value.
Explained on the topic page Investments
VdS security classification records the recognised protection class assigned to a location's overall security concept (combining mechanical, electronic and organisational measures), as queried in property insurance proposal forms to benchmark security adequacy against value at risk.
Vehicle fleet age records the average and maximum age of vehicles within an insured fleet, as queried in motor and fleet insurance proposal forms because older vehicles carry higher breakdown, safety and total-loss risk.
Vehicle fleet size and type records the number, category and use of motor vehicles operated by an insured, as queried in motor fleet insurance proposal forms to establish the scope and homogeneity of the risk to be rated.
Vehicle type class is a motor insurance rating factor that classifies a vehicle model into one of several risk classes based on the model-specific loss experience observed for it.
Venue determines which court has territorial jurisdiction over a dispute arising from an insurance contract, with consumer protection rules limiting contractual agreements.
Explained on the topic page Contract Law
Vested benefits are the retirement savings accrued in occupational pension provision that must be transferred to a new pension fund, or otherwise preserved, when leaving a pension fund.
Vesting refers to the preservation of an already accrued entitlement to an occupational pension benefit even after early departure from employment before the pension event occurs.
A vicarious agent is a person who, with the debtor's knowledge and consent, assists in performing the debtor's obligation, and for whose fault the debtor is liable.
Explained on the topic page Liability Insurance
A clause confirming that general liability cover also responds to the policyholder's statutory liability for the fault of vicarious agents, such as subcontractors and freelancers, engaged to perform its obligations.
Vicarious liability refers to the liability of a principal or contracting party for losses caused by persons engaged to carry out their business operations or contractual obligations.
The victim's priority right provides that an injured party who was not fully indemnified by their own insurer is satisfied out of the tortfeasor's remaining assets before their insurer's subrogated recourse claim.
Video surveillance coverage records the extent to which a location's perimeter, entrances and vulnerable areas are monitored by a CCTV system, as queried in property insurance proposal forms to assess deterrence and post-loss investigation capability.
Video surveillance systems (VSS) capture and document security-relevant events and, combined with intrusion detection and access control systems, support alarm verification and evidence preservation.
Voluntary insurance allows membership in Germany's statutory health insurance for people no longer, or not yet, subject to compulsory insurance.
The waiting period is the time-based deferment that must elapse after the onset of a cyber-related business interruption before cyber BI cover responds.
The waiting period is the period after inception of a contract during which no cover yet exists for certain or all benefits.
Waiting period and deferred period describe time spans after policy inception, or after a claim event occurs, during which no benefit is yet payable.
This clause contractually waives the insurer's statutory right to reduce or refuse its benefit where the policyholder caused the insured event through gross negligence, placing the policyholder in the same economic position as for ordinary negligence.
The clause waives, within motor own-damage cover, the insurer's statutory right to reduce indemnity for gross negligence in causing a vehicle claim, except for drink-driving or other expressly excluded breaches.
Waiver of premium is a supplementary life insurance benefit under which the insurer assumes the ongoing premium payment obligation if the policyholder becomes disabled, without reducing insurance cover.
Under a waiver of subrogation, the insurer waives its right to recover a paid loss from specified third parties – for example group companies, tenants or contract partners.
The insurer contractually waives reliance on the average clause where underinsurance is established, and indemnifies in full up to the sum insured, provided the value was determined under the agreed valuation method.
The war and terrorism clause in business travel insurance excludes losses arising from war, civil war, warlike events and terrorism in principle, but market practice grants a passive write-back for travellers who are caught up in such an event as non-participants – time-limited, without cover for known crisis zones and without capital benefits unless an endorsement is agreed.
The war clause excludes or limits the life insurance benefit where the death of the life insured is directly caused by acts of war.
Warehouse and rack storage risk describes the fire and loss hazards arising from the quantity, arrangement and combustibility of stored goods, forming the basis for sizing sprinkler protection and fire compartments.
Warehouse insurance covers property and, in part, liability risks associated with the storage of third-party goods in a warehouse, including the warehouse keeper's special duty of care liability.
The warranty of retention guarantees that the cedent actually retains the agreed net retention for its own account, unreduced, throughout the life of the treaty.
Waste management for fire safety governs the collection, interim storage and removal of combustible waste so that it does not act as an ignition source, a source of combustible loading, or an easy target for arson.
Waste management process describes how the insured collects, sorts, stores and disposes of production and packaging waste, as queried in property and environmental liability proposal forms.
Water damage from pipes arises when water escapes improperly from supply or drainage pipes, water-carrying installations, or connected appliances, and is one of the standard base perils covered by homeowners and contents insurance.
Explained on the topic page Property Insurance
Water mist systems discharge finely atomised water at high or medium pressure, controlling fires through cooling, oxygen displacement and radiant heat shielding while using far less water than conventional sprinklers.
Supplementary cover for the operation of water-hazardous installations excluded under both the AHB and the basic environmental liability clause, responding to strict, no-fault liability for water pollution.
Whole life / endowment insurance combines death benefit protection with a guaranteed capital payout on maturity, serving both the risk protection needs of survivors and the classic savings goal of retirement provision.
Wildfire exposure records a location's proximity to forest, scrub or grassland fuel and its position in the wildland-urban interface, and is queried in property proposal forms to assess exposure to wildfire spread.
Wildfire exposure describes the hazard posed to buildings and outdoor installations by uncontrolled vegetation fires in forest-edge and drought-prone areas, and the protection measures derived from it.
Wilful intent refers to a policyholder knowingly and deliberately causing an insured event, which is mandatorily excluded from cover in almost all lines of insurance.
Risk profile for a wind power plant (onshore wind turbine or wind farm): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Wind turbines face a specific risk profile of lightning strike, nacelle fire, gearbox and rotor blade damage, and limited accessibility for fire brigade intervention that differs markedly from conventional power plants.
Windstorm is a weather-related air movement reaching a contractually defined minimum wind speed, insured as a natural hazard peril in property insurance.
Windstorm preparedness and roof inspection comprise the regular examination of roofs, façades and outdoor installations together with structural measures that limit wind damage to buildings and its consequential losses.
The wood processing industry is characterised by high fire loads from raw timber, chips and dust together with a pronounced dust explosion and spontaneous combustion risk that differs markedly from the fire hazard of finished timber construction.
Risk profile for a wood processing plant (sawing, planing, gluing, pressing or surface-finishing of wood and wood-based panels): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
The clause confirms that accident cover generally applies worldwide and around the clock, regardless of where the life insured is located.
A market-standard extension lifting the AHB base exclusion for foreign loss events and bringing liability claims arising from temporary stays abroad back into cover.
The clause sets out in which countries, and for how long a stay, a health insurance policy provides benefits.
This clause provides that declarations under the insurance contract – such as terminations, notifications or contract amendments – must be made in written form or, at minimum, text form to be valid.
The WZW criteria under Art. 32 KVG require that benefits of Swiss basic health insurance be effective (wirksam), appropriate (zweckmässig) and cost-effective (wirtschaftlich); effectiveness must be demonstrated by scientific methods. They are the central benefit condition of the OKP and the counterpart to the cost-effectiveness principle of § 12 SGB V in Germany.
Yacht insurance covers property and liability losses connected with the ownership, operation, and use of leisure boats and yachts.
Year of construction records when a building was originally built, serving as a proxy for the applicable building code generation, ageing building services and expected maintenance needs.
The yield curve shows how the yields of comparable bonds depend on their remaining maturity at a given point in time, and it forms the basis for the market-consistent valuation of insurers' future payment obligations.
Explained on the topic page Solvency
The York-Antwerp Rules are the internationally recognized, privately agreed set of rules for the uniform calculation and apportionment of general average losses in maritime shipping.
Risk profile for a young family arranging life, health and income protection planning: the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting private life and pension insurance programme architecture.
The Zillmer premium is the net premium of a life insurance policy, increased by the acquisition cost loading determined through zillmerisation and annuitised over the premium payment period.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
The Zillmer rate is the supervisory-capped percentage used to calculate the acquisition cost loading in life insurance under zillmerisation.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
The Zillmer reserve is the technical reserve of a life insurance policy built up using the Zillmer premium.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
Zillmerisation, named after actuary August Zillmer, is the premium calculation method used to finance a life insurance policy's acquisition costs through the ongoing premiums.
Explained on the topic page Life Insurance
ZÜRS is a geoinformation system developed by the German insurance industry that assigns every building location a hazard class for flood, backflow and heavy rain.