Insurance is an agreement where, for a stipulated payment called the premium, one party (the insurer) agree s to pay to the other
(the policyholder or his designated beneficiary) a defined amount
(the claim payment or benefit) upon the occurrence of a specific loss.
This defined claim payment amount can be a fixed amount or can reimburse all or a part of the loss that occurred. The insurer considers the losses expected for the insurance pool and the potential for variation in order to charge premiums that, in total, will be sufficient to cover all of the projected claim payments for the insurance pool. The premium charged to each of the pool
participants is that participant’s share of the total premium
for the pool. Each premium may be adjusted to reflect
any 3 special characteristics of the particular policy. As will be
seen in the next section, the larger the policy pool, the more predictable its results.