IRDA - GIC Agent Mock - 3

'Composite insurance agent' means an individual who is appointed as an insurance agent by two or more insurers. He cannot act as insurance agent for more than one life insurer, one general insurer, one health insurer and one of each of the mono-line insurers. 

All the given options come under valuables. Valuables mean photographic, audio, computer, telecommunication and electrical equipment, telescopes, binoculars, spectacles, sunglasses antiques, watches, jewellery, furs and articles made of precious stones and metals and no claim will be paid for valuables. Such items should be carried by the insured person and should not be packed as a part of checked baggage.

Company's total liability to pay compensation, claimant's costs, fees and expenses and defence costs shall not exceed the indemnity limit stated in the schedule. Indemnity limit applies to any one claim or series of claims arising from one originating cause. Indemnity limit shall represent the total amount of company's liability during policy period.

The IDV of vehicles aged over five years is calculated by mutual agreement between insurer and the insured. Instead of depreciation, IDV of old cars (obsolete) is arrived at by assessment of vehicle’s condition done by surveyors, car dealers etc. 

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority is the licensing authority for surveyors. 

A form of self-insurance employed by organizations, which have determined that the cost of transferring risk to an insurance company is greater over time than that of retaining the risk and paying for losses out of their own reserve fund is known as risk retention.

'Hut insurance' covers loss or damage to huts due to
Fire (including fire resulting from explosion and short-circuiting)
Lighting
Earthquake
Flood, Inundation
Storm, Tempest, cyclone or other atmospheric disturbance
Impact damage,
Riot, Malicious Damage
Aircraft
Explosion of boiler or gas used for domestic purpose only 

Pure premium is sufficient enough to pay for losses, however it does not account for administrative expenses or profit.

Endorsements - additional forms attached to the policy form that modify it in some way, either unconditionally or upon the existence of some condition. Endorsements can make policies difficult to read for non-lawyers; they may modify or delete clauses located several pages earlier in the standard insuring agreement, or even modify each other. Because it is very risky to allow non-lawyer underwriters to directly rewrite core policy language with word processors, insurers usually direct underwriters to modify standard forms by attaching endorsements pre-approved by counsel for various common modifications.

Negligence will be proved only when following conditions are satisfied:

1. Existence of duty of care
2. Breach of this duty
3. Injury suffered by a person or property damaged as a result of that breach.

The Central Government shall form a Government company in accordance with the provisions of the companies Act to be known as the General Insurance Corporation of India for the purpose of superintending, controlling and carrying on the business of general insurance.

From the commencement of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Act 2002, the provisions of this subsection shall have effect as if for the words “superintending, controlling and carrying on the business of general insurance”, the words “carrying on reinsurance business” had been substituted.

The right to change (convert) insurance coverage from one type of policy to another is known as conversion privilege. A conversion privilege also guarantees coverage and set premium payments for a certain number of years regardless of the health status of the insured.

CBDT stands for Central Board of Direct Taxes. The Central Board of Direct Taxes or CBDT comes under the control of the Ministry of Finance, under the Department of Revenue. It gives inputs for making policies, as well as in the planning of the direct taxes in the country.

Loss, destruction or damage to bullion or unset precious stones, any curios or works of art for an amount exceeding Rs.10,000, goods held in trust or on commission, manuscripts, plans, drawings, securities, obligations or documents of any kind, stamps, coins or paper money, cheques, books of accounts or other business books, computer systems records, explosives are covered only if expressly stated in the policy. If not stated in policy, they will not be covered under policy. 

In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract between the insurer and the insured. Insurer determines which claims are legally required to pay. If the insurer decides that a certain loss is not payable because it is not covered under the policy, then such matters will be decided in the court of law.

Types of fidelity guarantee policies include individual policy, floating policy, collective policy and blanket policy.

There are three important elements in the computation of premium. They are mortality, expenses of management and expected yield on its investment.

Indemnity means security or compensation against loss or damage. The principle of indemnity states that the insurance company may not compensate the insured with an amount exceeding the insured’s economic loss. The insured would be compensated with the amount equivalent to the actual loss and not the amount exceeding the loss.

Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, consumer-finance companies, stock brokerages and investment funds etc. 

To qualify for a particular policy at a particular price, companies have the right to ask for information about health and lifestyle. An insurance company will use this information, the evidence of insurability, to decide if your application for insurance is acceptable and at what premium rate.

By transferring the risk to an insurer, it becomes possible to enjoy peace of mind, invest funds that would otherwise have been set aside as a reserve and plan one’s business more effectively. It is precisely for these reasons that insurance is needed.

Floating insurance covers for situations where the total insurable amount can be reasonably estimated, but cannot be determined accurately-enough for computing correct premium, until the insurance policy comes to an end. 

The Regional Transport Office or Regional Transport Authority (RTO/RTA) is the organisation of Indian government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers and vehicles of various states of India.

As per IRDAI guidelines, a thirty days grace period is allowed for renewal of individual health policies. All continuity benefits are maintained, if the policy is renewed within thirty days from expiry of the earlier insurance. Claims, if any, during the break period will not be considered.

Public Liability Insurance Act was passed in 1991.

Fire policies are generally issued for a period of 12 months. Only for dwellings, insurance companies offer long term policies, i.e. for a period over 12 months. In some cases, short period policies are also issued.

Contractors All Risks (CAR) Policy is designed to protect the interests of contractors and principals engaged in civil engineering projects from small buildings to massive dams, buildings, bridges, tunnels, etc. The policy provides an “All Risk” cover, thus providing indemnity against any sudden and unforeseen loss or damage that occurs to property insured at the construction site. This can be extended to cover third party liability and other exposures. Premium chargeable depends on the nature of the project, the project cost, the project period, geographic location and the period of testing.

Arbitration is a method of alternative dispute resolution, used to settle disputes between two parties outside a court of law. Both parties agree on an independent third party, called an arbitrator, to hear their dispute and decide the outcome.

Premises section covers the loss of cash from one’s premises/locked safe due to burglary, housebreaking, hold up etc. Other features of the policy are normally the same as of burglary insurance.

A bill of lading providing for the carriage of goods by water, from their point of origin to their final destination, either by successive ocean carriers or by more than one mode of transportation.

Deductibles are the amount of money you have to pay for a loss before your insurance company starts to pay a claim, according to the terms of your policy. The higher your deductible, the more money you can save on your premiums.

Products are also designed keeping in mind the target customer segment. The benefit structure, pricing, underwriting and marketing for each segment is quite distinct. Products classified based on customer segments are:
(1) Individual cover offered to retail customers and their family members
(2) Group cover offered to corporate clients, covering employees and groups, covering their members
(3) Mass policies for government schemes like RSBY covering very poor sections of the population

Burglary policy is meant for business premises like factories, shops, offices, warehouses and godowns which may contain stocks, goods, furniture fixtures and cash in a locked safe that can be stolen.

Insurance Web Aggregators are one of the newest types of service providers to be governed by IRDAI regulations. Through their websites and telemarketing, they can solicit insurance business through distance marketing without coming face to face with the prospect and generate leads of interested prospects to insurers with whom they have an agreement.

No Claim Bonus is a powerful strategy to improve underwriting experience and forms an integral part of rating systems. This bonus recognises the factor of moral hazard. It rewards the insured for not lodging claims either by adopting better driving skills as in motor insurance or taking better care of his health as in mediclaim policies.

Catastrophic risk is the one where a large number of people are exposed to the risk of a large loss by reason of the occurrence of a peril. It could be a natural calamity in the form of earthquakes, floods, droughts or even terrorist attack resulting in loss of life, destruction of infrastructure on a large scale.

The main motive of insurance is cooperation. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of risk of loss from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium.

The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991 imposes liability on no fault basis on those who handle hazardous substances, if a third party is injured or his property is damaged during the course of such handling. The names of hazardous substances and the quantity of each, is listed in the Act.
The amount of compensation payable per person is fixed and for actual damage to property, it is up to Rs. 6000.

This policy can be taken by persons between the age of 26 to 65 years and is renewable up to 70 years.

Sharing of claim between two insurers is known as contribution. The principle holding that two or more insurers each liable for a covered loss should participate in the payment of that loss. Having paid its share of a loss, an insurer may be entitled to equitable contribution, a legal right to recover part of the payment from another insurer whose policy was also applicable.

Informant means any person providing information solely in return for monetary payment made or promised by the policyholder.

Pre-hospitalisation expenses would be relevant medical expenses incurred during period up to the defined number of days (generally 30 days) prior to hospitalisation and will be considered as part of claim.

The cancellation clause is also standardized by regulatory provisions and an insurance company may at any time cancel the policy only on grounds of misrepresentation, fraud, non-disclosure of material fact or non-cooperation by the insured.

If, during an insured journey, cash owned by or in the custody of an insured person is lost, then the company will reimburse the insured person the amount up to the total sum insured stated in the schedule. The deductible, if applicable, shall be deducted from the payable compensation.

Micro- insurance business is done through the following intermediaries:

Non-Government Organisations
Self-Help Groups
Micro-Finance Institutions

No Claim Bonus (NCB) is the benefit accrued to an insured for not making any claims during the previous policy period. As per current norms in India, it ranges from 20% on the Own Damage premium (and not on Liability premium) and progressively increases up to 50%.

Erection All Risks (EAR) Policy is a type of Engineering policy. 

Burning ratio is an insurance-industry calculation of excess losses divided by total subject premium. The burning ratio is an experience-based insurance-rating method commonly used in determining rates for excess of loss reinsurance, or the insurance that insurance companies buy to protect themselves against total claims that exceed their total premiums collected.

To distribute by engaging Financial Service Executives (FSE) who are individuals licensed to market, distribute and service such other financial products namely:

a. mutual funds of mutual fund companies regulated by SEBI;
b. pension products regulated by PFRDA;
c. other financial products distributed by SEBI licensed Investment Advisors;
d. banking/ financial products of banks/ NBFC regulated by RBI;
e. non-insurance products offered by Department of Posts, Government of India;
f. any other financial product or activity permitted by the Authority from time to time.

Liquidated damage is an estimated amount equal to the extent of injury that may occur, if the contract is breached. These damages are determined when a contract is drawn up and serve as protection for both parties that have entered the contract.