Insurance Directory
Insurance has always provided a way of transferring the risk of numerous activities to other people for a price. Historically, insurance was provided for merchant vessels. That way, the owner of a ship could mitigate against the danger of a ship getting lost. Thus the concept of paying for insurance was born in the coffee shops of london, hundreds of years ago. Insurance, has continued to become more and more sophisticated, both in terms of how risk is measured and how risk is transferred among market participants. Huge, reinsurers such as Swiss Re, Munich Re and Berkshire Hathaway actually take lines of insurance from other market participants and reinsure them for potentially huge claims. For example, if you have an accident in your car, if the value of the claim is small, it’s likely to be handled by your insurance company. However, very occasionally even car accidents can result in huge claims. For example there was an accident involving a truck in the Mont Blanc tunnel several years ago, this resulted in the tunnel being closed and the resulting claim was in the millions. Insurers, purchase reinsurance specifically with these huge claims in mind. By giving away some of their premium, they can reduce the volatility of their earnings while giving away some profitability.
Over the years insurance has continued to evolve, such that you can now obtain cover for a wide vareity of risks in your life. Car insurance, life insurance and home insurance are amongst the most popular, but the market now provides niche insurance such as wedding insurance and pet insurance. A new site www.insuranceindex.us provides a huge searchable database of insurance specialists in the USA.