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Purchasing Groups

The Liability Risk Retention Act of 1986 provides for the formation of purchasing groups to buy insurance. Such groups must be made up of members or companies with similar risk exposure due to their involvement in similar businesses. The groups must meet the regulatory requirements of the states in which they are organized, but, due to preemption by the Act, some regulatory requirements of other states in which the groups do business do not have to be met.

Policy Construction Supporting Coverage

An insurance policy may contain provisions that state when coverage will be forfeited or which perils are excluded from coverage. Such provisions may be valid and enforceable, if unambiguous.

Insurable Interest

A beneficiary may procure insurance upon the life of an insured only if he has an insurable interest in that insured's life. The determination of whether the beneficiary has an insurable interest depends upon the nature of the relationship between the beneficiary and the insured. If the beneficiary has a valid, insurable interest, he may recover the insurance proceeds upon the insured's death. If he does not, however, the insurer may plead a lack of insurable interest and avoid liability on the policy.

Mass Marketing

Mass marketing in the insurance field is the presentation of a selling message to induce a number of insureds at one time to purchase insurance policies. It has changed the traditional method of selling insurance on a one-on-one basis.

The Meaning of Reinsurance

Reinsurance is the process by which an insurance company shares the risk that it assumes when it issues an insurance policy. For example, an insurance company that issues a $1 million life insurance policy may reinsure or have other insurers assume $900,000 of the risk. The insurance company issuing the policy thus "cedes" most of the risk to one or more reinsurers.