Principles of General Insurance

M.Rajaram
J.B.Boda Insurance Brokers Pvt.Ltd
Delhi
 General Insurance
• Definition
• History of growth of General Insurance in India
• Growth of general insurance premium
• Classes of General Insurance
• Prospects of further growth in India
• Important terms used in General Insurance
• Underwriting and claim procedures
• Insurance and Reinsurance
• Impact of detariffing rates and products
• Role of Regulator
• Conclusion
 General Insurance
• Insurance is classified into Life and General
• Any insurance other than human lives comes
under the scope of General Insurance
• It is preferable to call this as General Insurance
instead of non-life insurance
• There is vast scope and the market is trying to
cope up with the demands of the market
• Insurance penetration is improving in India and
being the second largest developing economy
in the world the scope is huge
 Insurance in India
• Marine insurance was being practiced in India from
the beginning of 19th century
• Offices were established in Kolkatta which was the
centre for East India Company
• Fire insurance followed in 1825 at Madras
• Swadeshi movement also had its impact on Insurance
and first Indian Company was formed in 1907 – Indian
Mercantile Insurance Company
• Need to control insurance business was felt by the
British government which introduced the Insurance Act
in 1938 and Insurance Rules in 1939
 Development in 1970
• Life Insurance business was nationalised in India in the year
1956
• General Insurance business was being done by 106 companies
including LIC (GI)
• On May 13th 1971 an ordinance was promulgated taking state
control of general insurance business with custodians in charge
• In 1972 GI Nationalisation act was passed allowing the formation
of GIC as the holding company and with 4 subsidiaries each
having its Head Office at one metro
• 1st Jan 1973 GIC and 4 companies were formed taking in them
106 companies and the 4 PSUs were taking care of the general
insurance business in the country till 2000 totally. GIC on its own
was also writing aviation and crop business besides becoming
the National & Asian Reinsurer
• The objective of nationalisation was to spread insurance to nook
and corner of the country and to utilise people’s money for the
people’s good thus uplifting the socio economic condition of the
country
 Liberalisation
• Following globalisation moves Malhotra
committee had been formed to look into the
methods of liberalisation of insurance
• Based on the report IRA bill was introduced but
later on withdrawn without discussions from the
floor of parliament
• Later on the bill in the modified form as IRDA
bill was introduced in 1999 and the IRDA act
was passed.
• An independent statutory authority as Regulator
for insurance business came into existence in
1999
 Developments since 2000
• Surveyors and loss assessors regulations 2000
• Third party administrators regulations 2001
• Investment regulations 2001
• Policy holder’s interests regulations 2002
• Brokers’ regulations 2002
• Corporate Agents regulations 2002
• Manner of receipt of premium 2002
• Rural sector 2002
• Distribution of surplus 2002
 Insurance councils & Institutes
• Two councils which had been reconstituted – life
insurance council
• Insurance ombudsman had been appointed
• General insurance council
• IIISLA has been formed
• IIBA- Brokers association
• IIRM- Institute of risk management
• Intermediaries now allowed-Agents/ corporate agents/
Brokers
• Institutes for educating the agents/Brokers have been
formed and passing the examination has been made
mandatory for carrying out insurance business
• Surveyor licensing is being controlled by Regulator
 General Insurance business done
• Year In Crores NA;OIC:UI;NA;GIC
• 1974 219.99 25.3:25.5:25.5:21.5:2.6
• 1975 253.75 26.6:26.7:26.7:21.1:2.6
• 1976 286.51 27.1:26.5:23.4:21.0:2.1
• 1990 2174.43 29.8:22.4:26.7:20.1:1.0
• 2000 10272 crores
• 2006 > 20000 crores
• 2007 > 24000 crores
 International comparison
• Penetration( premium as • Density ( Premium per
% of GDP) capita) USD
• United states 4.32 • USA 1474.4
• Canada 3.31 • Canada 700.6
• UK 3.05 • UK 741.5
• Germany 3.55 • Germany 913.5
• Japan 2.30 • Japan 805.5
• South Korea 2.89 • South Korea 262.3
• China 0.61 • China 5.0
• India 0.54 • India 2.4
 General Insurance
• Insurance of property
• Insurance of persons
• Insurance of liability
• Insurance of Interest
 Classes of GI Business
• Fire –Property damage and business
interruption insurance
• Marine- Cargo and Hull
• Misc - Motor/ Engineering/Liability/
Aviation/ Space/Energy/ Guarantee/
Bonds/ Rural/ Livestock/ weather/ Crop/
All risks/ accident/ Travel/ Baggage/
 Insurers now licensed by IRDA
• LIFE INSURERS • GENERAL INSURERS
• 1. Bajaj Allianz • 1. Bajaj Allianz
• 2. Birla sun life • 2. ICICI Lombard
• 3. HDFC Std life • 3. Iffco-Tokio General Insurance
• 4. ICICI Prduential • 4. National Insurance
• 5. ING Vysya • 5. New India Assurance Company
• 6. LIC • 6. Oriental Insurance
• 7. Max New York Life • 7. Reliance General Insurance
• 8. Metlife • 8. Royal Sundaram Alliance
• 9. Kotak Mahindra OM • 9. TATA-AIG General
• 10.SBI Life • 10.United India Insurance
• 11.TATA-AIG Life • 11. Cholamandalam MS General
• 12.Reliance Life • 12. HDFC Chubb General
• 13.AVIVA life • 13. Export Credit Guarantee
• 14.Sahara India life • 14. Agriculture Insurance Company
• 15.Shri Ram Life • 15. Star Health & Allied
• 16.Bharti AXA Life • Sompho/ Shri Ram General/AXA/
Apollo DKV
 New Companies licensed
• Life • General

• 2000 3 • 2000 3
• 2001 7 • 2001 3
• 2002 2 • 2002 3
• 2003 1 • 2003
• 2004 • 2004
• 2005 • 2005
• 2006 • 2006
• 2007 • 2007
 Terminology used in General
Insurance
• Proposer-Insured-Insurer
• Risk- Peril
• Proposal form
• Sum Insured
• Premium ( Consideration)
• Excess ( Deductible)
• Indemnity
• Cover note
• Policy document
• Endorsement-for effecting changes in the policy
• Warranties/ Clauses
• Conditions
• Underwriting
• Renewal
• Hazard
 Basic Principles of General Insce
• Insurance is a legal agreement entered
between Insured and Insurer due to which due
to the consideration, the Insurer agrees to
indemnify the Insured, for the loss or damage or
liability created due an accident which is
covered under the policy subject to the terms
and conditions of the contract
• All insurance policies are subject to the
warranties, conditions and clauses of the policy
contract and claims will be settled accordingly
 Basic principles
• UTMOST GOOD FAITH- which is embodied in all
insurance contracts and appears in the conditions of
the policy documents.
• Since only the Insured who is the owner/possessing
the property he/she needs to declare the details which
are to be considered by the Underwriter. To obtain the
requisite details the Insurer arranges all questions in
order in the proposal form so that he/she knows where
to look for the required details. Material fact is the
detail of the risk which will influence the mind of the
Underwriter to accept/reject; and if to accept the rate
/terms at which the risk is to be accepted.
• Duty of disclosure is on the proposer/Insured and if
wilful concealment/ non-disclosure of facts could be
established the claim if any could be denied
 Insurable interest
• Only the person who has insurable interest can
arrange insurance and seek indemnity due to
loss or damage
• Insurable interest is defined as legal interest in
another person’s life or in the protection of
property from injury,loss,destruction or
pecuniary damage
• By virtue of ownership
• Tenant who had leased property
• Employer’s interest on employees lives
 Proximate cause
• Insurer is liable for any loss proximately caused
by a peril insured against, but he is not liable for
any loss which is not proximately caused by a
peril insured against-Judge Lumb
• Proximate cause means the active, efficient
cause that sets in motion a train of events
which brings about a result, without the
intervention of any force started and working
actively from a new and independent source
 Indemnity
• Insurance contracts are mostly contracts of indemnity
• Insured is entitled to obtain the loss amount suffered
from the insurances he had effected on the property
• He is not to be benefited due the loss/damage
• If sum insured is on agreed value basis the loss will be
settled on that basis
• Extent of indemnity will be based on the market value
of the property at the time of occurrence of the event
which caused the loss/damage or destruction
• Subrogation and contribution are the corollaries of
indemnity to ensure that the claim settlement follows
the normal indemnity
 Underwriting and claims
• Offer and acceptance- Proposal is studied by the Underwriter
who then quotes the premium terms, warranties and conditions

• Once accepted by the proposer and premium is paid, the cover

note is issued. Later on policy document is issued.
• Alterations/ changes are effected by endorsements
• Claim is being processed to take into account the salvage,
under-insurance and excess under the policy and many times
to deduct the additional premium for restoring the sum insured
to the original level by charging the additional premium on the
claim amount paid from the date of loss till the date of expiry.
• Claim will be subject to getting the subrogation rights preserved
against the third parties responsible for making good the loss
and transferring the same to Insurers
 Changes
• Fire insurance; Reinstatement value
(other than stocks) Market value
• Marine insurance : Agreed value
• Marine hull insurance: Agreed value
• Motor insurance: Insured declared value
• Engineering insurance: Present day
replacement value
• Misc insurance: Market value
 Insurances which need to become
popular
• Business Interruption insurance
• Engineering insurance
• Liability insurance- CGL Public /Product
• E & O ( PI) liability insurance
• D & O liability insurance
• PI for Lawyers/CAs/Doctors/ Brokers/Architects/
structural engineers
• Overseas travel insurance
• Employees benefit policies ( GPA/GMC)
 Detariffing
• TAC was earlier providing the rates, terms policy
wordings and regulations as to how to conduct the
business
• Nearly 70% of the business was in the purview of the
tariff
• After liberalising the market by allowing new players
Tariff rates had been withdrawn wef 1-1-2007 but with
some limitations
• From 1-1-2008 it is expected that the policy wordings
will be withdrawn by IRDA which will allow freedom to
the insurers to come out with their policy design
wordings clauses and warranties.
• The beneficiary will be the customers/ insureds