Insurance Techniques Course

Lesson 1 • Classification of Insurance Lines

Distinguishes life, health, property, liability, and specialty lines. Provides a taxonomy students use to navigate product-specific chapters.

Lesson 2 • Nature and Purpose of Insurance

Defines insurance as a contractual risk-transfer tool and its economic role. Grounds all subsequent technical study in fundamental purpose.

Lesson 3 • Risk Concepts and Terminology

Defines peril, hazard, exposure, and loss as precise technical terms. Accurate terminology is essential for policy analysis and underwriting.

Lesson 4 • Core Legal Principles

Covers insurable interest, utmost good faith, indemnity, subrogation, and contribution. These principles govern every insurance contract studied later.

Lesson 1 • Elements of a Valid Insurance Contract

Examines offer, acceptance, consideration, and legal capacity in insurance contexts. Connects general contract law to insurance-specific formation rules.

Lesson 2 • Policy Interpretation Rules

Applies contra proferentem, reasonable expectations, and ejusdem generis to ambiguous language. Equips students to resolve coverage disputes analytically.

Lesson 3 • Coverage Triggers and Definitions

Explains occurrence, claims-made, and discovery triggers and how defined terms shape coverage. Misreading triggers is a leading cause of coverage disputes.

Lesson 4 • Policy Conditions and Warranties

Distinguishes conditions precedent, conditions subsequent, and warranties and their breach consequences. Directly affects claims validity and insurer obligations.

Lesson 1 • Risk Submission and Evaluation

Covers application review, inspection reports, loss history analysis, and financial data. Students learn to gather and weigh evidence before making decisions.

Lesson 2 • Underwriting Decision Making

Guides accept, decline, and conditional acceptance decisions with supporting rationale. Students practice structured judgment using real submission scenarios.

Lesson 3 • Underwriting Fundamentals

Defines underwriting objectives, the underwriting cycle, and the underwriter's role. Establishes the decision framework used throughout this chapter.

Lesson 4 • Underwriting Controls and Audits

Examines premium audits, mid-term reviews, and portfolio quality controls. Ensures students understand ongoing risk management after policy issuance.

Lesson 1 • Expense Loading and Profit Margins

Incorporates fixed and variable expenses, profit loads, and investment income into final rates. Produces a complete, commercially viable rate structure.

Lesson 2 • Actuarial Role in Insurance Pricing

Defines the actuary's function, reserving responsibilities, and relationship with underwriting. Positions actuarial science as the quantitative backbone of pricing.

Lesson 3 • Rate Adequacy and Indicated Change

Calculates the indicated rate change using the loss ratio and pure premium methods. Students can assess whether current rates are adequate, deficient, or excessive.

Lesson 4 • Trend Analysis and Loss Adjustment

Applies frequency and severity trends, on-leveling, and loss development to historical data. Adjusts past losses to reflect future expected conditions.

Lesson 1 • Property Risk Identification

Identifies construction, occupancy, protection, and exposure factors for property risks. These COPE elements drive every property underwriting decision.

Lesson 2 • Business Interruption and Time Element

Covers business income, extra expense, and contingent business interruption coverages. Time element losses are often larger than direct property losses.

Lesson 3 • Property Claims Adjustment

Applies proof of loss, scope of damage, and settlement methods to property claims. Connects policy terms to practical claims resolution techniques.

Lesson 4 • Property Valuation Methods

Compares replacement cost, actual cash value, agreed value, and functional replacement. Correct valuation prevents underinsurance and coverage disputes.

Lesson 1 • Umbrella and Excess Liability

Distinguishes umbrella and excess forms, drop-down coverage, and underlying schedule requirements. Students structure layered liability programs for complex risks.

Lesson 2 • Liability Claims Investigation and Defense

Applies reservation of rights, coverage analysis, and defense management to liability claims. Integrates policy interpretation with practical claims handling.

Lesson 3 • Professional and Management Liability

Covers errors and omissions, directors and officers, and employment practices liability. These claims-made forms protect against professional and managerial wrongdoing.

Lesson 4 • Legal Liability Foundations

Reviews negligence, strict liability, vicarious liability, and tort damages relevant to insurance. Provides the legal context underwriters and adjusters must understand.

Lesson 1 • Life Insurance Product Types

Compares term, whole life, universal life, and variable life structures and their uses. Product selection depends on client need, risk profile, and financial goals.

Lesson 2 • Disability and Long-Term Care Coverage

Covers own-occupation definitions, elimination periods, and benefit periods for disability and LTC. Morbidity risk management differs significantly from mortality risk.

Lesson 3 • Health Insurance Coverage Structures

Examines indemnity, managed care, and high-deductible health plan designs and their cost-sharing features. Coverage structure directly affects claims exposure and premium.

Lesson 4 • Life Underwriting and Mortality Risk

Applies medical, financial, and lifestyle underwriting to assess mortality risk. Accurate risk classification protects portfolio profitability and pricing equity.

Lesson 1 • Alternative Risk Transfer Mechanisms

Examines captives, risk retention groups, catastrophe bonds, and parametric triggers. ART solutions complement traditional reinsurance for complex or uninsurable risks.

Lesson 2 • Reinsurance Pricing and Security

Applies burning cost, exposure rating, and reinsurer security assessment to treaty pricing. Students evaluate both cost and counterparty risk in reinsurance decisions.

Lesson 3 • Non-Proportional Reinsurance Structures

Covers excess of loss per risk, per occurrence, and aggregate stop-loss treaties. Non-proportional structures protect against severity and accumulation losses.

Lesson 4 • Reinsurance Fundamentals

Defines reinsurance purposes, the cedent-reinsurer relationship, and treaty vs. facultative placement. Establishes the conceptual base for all reinsurance structures.