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Categories: Insurance

These represent olde tyme reinsurance contracts, first set up by Lloyd's of London. The structure, seen as lacking in today's market, helped usher in a new market for finite reinsurance in the 1960s. So, in that way, think of them like the mini skirt and go-go boots of the financial world: good for the time, but not aging all that well.

The basic structure involved claims payments made on pre-arranged dates for pre-arranged sums. As a reinsurance structure, it lacked flexibility. Because the payments came on a fixed schedule, they didn't match up to what happened with actual claims. They didn't do enough to transfer risk in a real-world sort of way.

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Finance: What is reinsurance?7 Views

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and finance Allah shmoop What is re insurance Oh all

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right people When life takes a swing at you you'll

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be glad you bet against yourself with insurance Did you

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get into a car accident Well good thing you bet

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that you would Now you get a car insurance payout

00:19

in the hospital while you won your own bed against

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yourself Because you win a health insurance payout Well the

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insurance industry makes these bats with us They bet you'll

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be fine I'll collect those premiums In the meantime thank

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you While you're betting my life is a dangerous place

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and I'm a mere mortal meat bag from individuals to

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companies insurance seems available for well pretty much anyone to

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buy to bet against themselves Everyone except the insurance company

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Pretty much But who Insurers Insurance companies How can we

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trust that they'll be there with our payouts when we

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need them What if they go under because other people's

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payouts made their funds run dry while the answer insurance

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companies ensure each other i e They deploy reinsurance insurance

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companies cover themselves by covering each other That's reinsurance That's

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what it is You might have thought Insurance companies air

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all competitors enemies to each other But in fact they're

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more like frenemies Who coop it Tate Take Ricky's insurance

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company right here This guy They cover a lot of

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people's homes in case of an earthquake Well guess what

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When the earthquake struck Ricky's insurance company got lucky It

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was big enough and that was making enough money from

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investing all those monthly premiums to make the promised payouts

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to the quake stricken homeowners And when it was time

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there was only a few $1,000,000 worth of damage and

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that was it Ricky took on all of that risk

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is an insurance company and ended up well basically dodging

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a bullet But just down the road Ricky's brethren Romans

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didn't fare so well Roman's insurance company also in the

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quake insurance biz had to make a big payouts after

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the town was shaken not stirred Romans insurance company insured

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300 freestanding homes all of which were left completely decimated

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Now Romans and Wells left with a cool $382,000,000 to

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pay out and they don't have that money on hand

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right Romans had no choice but to close up shop

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in declare bankruptcy leaving all those homeowners with quake and

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shake insurance from Romans Insurance Company up this creek While

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this situation is obviously not so great for Roman it's

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also not so great for the entire insurance industry either

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How can people be sure their insurance company will be

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there to pay when they need them to pay well

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without a guaranteed payout as agreed upon in the initial

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insurance contract during the insurance time of need it becomes

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too risky for your average Joe to be paying monthly

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premiums What's the point of paying every month if you're

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not even sure your insurance company will be there to

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cover you when you need him Alas a new era

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was born in the insurance industry Insurance companies banded together

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Is frenemies spreading risk among themselves keeping each other and

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therefore their whole industry afloat People no longer had to

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worry about being left high and dry by their insurance

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company because like them their insurance company was insured more

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left So in order to manage the risk of complete

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company death the world of reinsurance began to be a

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thing in the reinsurance biz There's the seeded company this

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thing the one getting insured seeding the dough and the

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reinsurer the one taking on some risk for the other

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insurance company Well as with your insurance your insurance company

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if they're reinsured pays premiums to the reinsurance company in

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exchange for a come rescue me when I need you

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Ticket Well there are two main types of reinsurance contracts

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Treaty reinsurance and faculty tive Reinsurance Yeah say that three

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times Fast Treaty reinsurance is more broad covering an area

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of an insurance company's risk For instance treaty insurance might

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cover a company's earthquake insurance contracts but not flood and

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or fire While treaty reinsurance is more general insurance for

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insurance companies faculty tive reinsurance is the emergency insurance It's

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pretty specific covering more unusual situations that might occur like

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Martian happenings or huge earthquakes or ah Noah like flood

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faculty tive reinsurance is there to cover everything that treaty

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reinsurance doesn't When the you know what hits the fan

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how do insurance companies ensure each other There are different

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types of reinsurance for instance proportional and none proportional those

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air two types proportional reinsurance means the reinsurer agrees to

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cover a percentage of an insurance policy For instance Ricky's

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insurance company could have agreed to be a reinsurer for

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Romans insurance company for earthquake insurance is up to 70%

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of the damages We'll that would also mean Ricky's insurance

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company gets some of the premium payments from Romans insurance

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company non proportional reinsurance on ly kicks in once the

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seeding company company paying out the dough in premiums passes

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a retention limit For instance Romans could buy reinsurance from

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Ricky's which would cover claims over $10,000,000 add up to

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like $100,000,000 Romans would be responsible for covering the 1st

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10,000,000 on its own but would get some help from

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Ricky's if claims were larger than 10,000,000 bucks Ricky's will

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cover all claims after the 10,000,000 mark But well they

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stopped short of 100,000,000 mark because hey they aren't made

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of money Any earthquake claims exceeding 100,000,000 mark would be

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back on Romans They're also rules that re insurers can

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apply the contracts each called basis like risks attaching basis

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and losses occurring basis risks attaching basis means claims can

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be made later after the reinsurance contract has expired Will

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the event that led to the claim needs to have

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happened within the contracts time frame But the insurance claim

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from that event can happen later And the reinsurer well

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they just need to pay up well For instance let's

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say Randy a homeowner with earthquake insurance covered by Romans

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Insurance Company was on vacation when the quake was a

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shaken well Ricky's was covering Romans on a proportional earthquake

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contract Randy came home to find his house well gone

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making his claim much later than everyone else is In

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the meantime you have quite reinsurance contract between Ricky's and

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Romans expired Ricky's would still have to cover Randy via

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Romans insurance company at the agreed upon percentage in the

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now expired contract since the earthquake happened when the contract

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was still a thing but only if the reinsurance had

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a risks attaching basis That's the only way they get

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paid legally Losses occurring basis is kind of the opposite

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where all claims during the reinsurance contract period are covered

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If the earthquake contract between Ricky's and Romans was on

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a losses occurring basis well then it means Romans would

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have to cover Randy on its own without the help

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of Ricky's A loss is occurring bases reinsurance structure means

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that only claims during the contract period or covered making

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the reinsurer not responsible for anything once it's expired So

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yeah once insurance companies finally sat down on the table

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together they began making all kinds of reinsurance deals All

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of the seeding insurance companies went cover themselves so they

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can remain solvent in the long run And all of

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the insurer insurance companies want to make sure they aren't

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taking on too much risk Some insurance companies find themselves

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on both sides sometimes as the seeding company and sometimes

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as the insurer That being said there are specialised re

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insurance companies companies that on Lian sure other insurance companies

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So yeah that's reinsurance for Ricky's and Romans It's sort

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of in I've got your back Jack You've got mine

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Situation comes in handy when one of them has an 00:07:28.521 --> [endTime] itch Yeah

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