Marine Insurance

The modern origins of marine insurance law were in the law merchant, with the establishment in England in 1601 of a specialised chamber of assurance separate from the other Courts. Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice in the mid-eighteenth century, began the merging of law merchant and common law principles. The establishment of Lloyd's of London, competitor insurance companies, a developing infrastructure of specialists (such as shipbrokers, admiralty lawyers, and bankers), and the growth of the British Empire gave English law a prominence in this area which it largely maintains and forms the basis of almost all modern practice. The growth of the London insurance market led to the standardisation of policies and judicial precedent further developed marine insurance law. In 1906 the Marine Insurance Act was passed which codified the previous common law; it is both an extremely thorough and concise piece of work. Although the title of the Act refers to marine insurance, the general principles have been applied to all non-life insurance.
In the 19th. century, Lloyd's and the Institute of London Underwriters (a grouping of London company insurers) developed between them standardised clauses for the use of marine insurance, and these have been maintained since. These are known as the Institute Clauses because the Institute covered the cost of their publication.
Within the overall guidance of the Marine Insurance Act and the Institute Clauses parties retain a considerable freedom to contract between themselves.
Marine insurance is the oldest type of insurance. Out of it grew non-marine insurance and reinsurance. It traditionally formed the majority of business underwritten at Lloyd's. Nowadays, Marine insurance is often grouped with Aviation and Transit (ie. cargo) risks, and in this form is known by the acronym 'MAT'.

Life Insurance

Life insurance or life assurance is a contract between the policy owner and the insurer, where the insurer agrees to pay a sum of money upon the occurrence of the insured individual's or individuals' death or other event, such as terminal illness or critical illness. In return, the policy owner (or policy payer) agrees to pay a stipulated amount called a premium at regular intervals or in lump sums. There may be designs in some countries where bills and death expenses plus catering for after funeral expenses should be included in Policy Premium. In the United States, the predominant form simply specifies a lump sum to be paid on the insured's demise.
As with most insurance policies, life insurance is a contract between the insurer and the policy owner (policyholder) whereby a benefit is paid to the designated Beneficiary (or Beneficiaries) if an insured event occurs which is covered by the policy. To be a life policy the insured event must be based upon life (or lives) of the people named in the policy.

Liability insurance

Liability insurance is a part of the general insurance system of risk transference. Originally, individuals or companies that faced a common peril, formed a group and created a self-help fund out of which to pay compensation should any member incur loss. The modern system relies on dedicated carriers to offer protection against specified perils in consideration of a premium. Liability insurance is designed to offer specific protection against third party claims, i.e., payment is not typically made to the insured, but rather to someone suffering loss who is not a party to the insurance contract. In general, damage caused intentionally and contractual liability are not covered under liability insurance policies. When a claim is made, the insurance carrier has the right to defend the insured. The legal costs of a defense are not always affected by any policy limits, which is useful because they can be significant where long trials are held to determine either fault or the amount of damages.

Health insurance

The term health insurance is generally used to describe a form of insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program, or from private insurance companies. It may be purchased on a group basis (e.g., by a firm to cover its employees) or purchased by individual consumers. In each case, the covered groups or individuals pay premiums or taxes to help protect themselves from high or unexpected healthcare expenses. Similar benefits paying for medical expenses may also be provided through social welfare programs funded by the government.
Health insurance works by estimating the overall risk of healthcare expenses and developing a routine finance structure (such as a monthly premium or annual tax) that will ensure that money is available to pay for the healthcare benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization, most often either a government agency or a private or not-for-profit entity operating a health plan.

Credit insurance

Credit Insurance is a term used to describe both Trade Credit Insurance and Credit Life Insurance.
Credit Life Insurance is a consumer purchase, often sold with a big ticket purchase such as an automobile. The insurance will pay off the loan balance in the event of the death or the disability of the borrower. Although purchased by the consumer/borrower, the benefit payment goes to the company financing the purchase to satisfy a debt.
Credit Insurance or Trade Credit Insurance is an insurance policy and risk management product that covers the payment risk resulting from the delivery of goods or services. Credit insurance usually covers a portfolio of buyers and pays an agreed percentage of an invoice or receivable that remains unpaid as a result of protracted default, insolvency or bankruptcy. Trade Credit Insurance is purchased by business entities to insure their accounts receivable from loss due to the insolvency of the debtors. This product is not available to private individuals.
The costs (called a "premium") for this are usually charged monthly, and are calculated as a percentage of sales of that month or as a percentage of all outstanding receivables.
Credit insurance insures the payment risk of companies, not of private individuals. Policy holders require a credit limit on each of their buyers for the sales to that buyer to be insured. The premium rate is usually low and reflects the average credit risk of the insured portfolio of buyers.

Casualty insurance

Casualty insurance policies are written to cover loss that is the direct result of accident. It may include Auto liability insurance for car accidents, Marine insurance for shipwrecks or losses at sea, and etc. Life, health and property insurance are typically excluded from the definition. Loosely used to describe an area of insurance not particularly or directly concerned with life insurance, fire insurance or automobile insurance. Most frequently it refers to liability, crime and plate glass insurance but may include surety as well.

Boiler insurance

More than 22 million UK households rely on a boiler for their heating and hot water.[1] But boilers are not usually covered by standard home insurance. They can be very costly to repair or replace so if you own your own home; it is advisable to take out separate insurance for your boiler or central heating system.
You only need to get boiler cover for your home if you are the owner, or if you’re the landlord of the property. If you live in social housing or rent from a private landlord then any repairs to the boiler are not your responsibility.
Boiler cover is usually a contract tying you into regular monthly payments for a year.
There are various types of boiler cover available in the UK:
• Boiler only • Boiler and service • Full heating system

[edit] Boiler only
Some types of boiler insurance policies cover only the boiler and heating controls - these are the cheapest types of policy.

[edit] Boiler and service
Boilers need to be serviced every year to ensure that they run safely and efficiently but it is estimated that four out of ten households neglect to service their hot water and heating systems. [2]
If your annual service isn’t included in your boiler cover, a service by a Corgi-registered engineer will set you back anything from £65 to more than £90,[3] however some types of cover will include this in your policy so it will automatically be done each year.

[edit] Full heating system
The most expensive types of boiler cover will insure not just your boiler and controls but also your full central heating system, including pipes, radiators and valves. You can even get boiler insurance that covers your plumbing and electrical wiring. But this cover will cost around £26 a month,[4] so you should ask yourself whether or not you really need to get all of this covered.

[edit] Who offers boiler cover?
Many home energy providers offer boiler cover and you don’t have to be a customer to take out boiler insurance from that company, nor do you have to take boiler cover from the company that supplies your gas and electricity.
Various types of boiler cover at various costs are offered by British Gas, E.ON, Npower, HomeCall+ and Direct Line.

[edit] Boiler cover exceptions
Each boiler cover policy comes with some exceptions. These range from the amount of times you can call an engineer out to the amount that each repair can cost to what the insurer considers to be an emergency.
Most policies have a “no claims” period of between 30 and 45 days to ensure that customers don’t sign up simply to avoid paying emergency costs on a boiler that’s already broken down since it will typically cost £33 an hour to call out an engineer - or £76 in London[5] .
If your boiler is more than 15 years old you might not be able to get it covered as it will be unreliable and costly to the insurer. In cases like this it might be better to invest in a new boiler.
If your boiler is 10-15 years old then it probably isn’t an energy saving boiler and could be wasting 875kg of CO2 a year[6] . By law, all new boilers must now be energy efficient condensing boilers, which could save you at least £150 a year according to the Energy Saving Trust [7] .
Make sure that you read the small print on any policy that you sign and carefully go over the terms and conditions to make sure that you know how long it will take for an engineer to visit; some will come out within 24 hours, some within a few days and others will limit callouts at weekends to extreme emergencies only.