Definition of 'Captive Insurance Company'
A company that provides risk-mitigation services for its parent company. A captive insurance company may be formed if the parent company is unable to find an outside firm to insure against a particular business risk; if the parent company determines that the premiums it pays to the captive insurance company are sufficiently deductible; or that the insurance the captive insurance company provides is more affordable or offers better coverage.
Investopedia explains 'Captive Insurance Company'
Whether the parent company will be able to see a tax break from the creation of a captive insurance company depends on the classification of insurance company transactions. The IRS requires risk distribution and risk shifting to be present in order for a transaction to be considered "insurance".
While there are financial benefits to creating a separate entity to provide insurance services, parent companies must also weigh the personnel cost of a captive insurance company. Some types of risk that the captive company might insure against could result in larger expenses than the parent company can afford, and can lead to bankruptcy. Larger private insurers are less likely to be bankrupted by a single event because of a diversified pool of risk.A company that offers insurance policies to the public, either by selling directly to an individual or through another source such as an employee's benefit plan. An insurance company is usually comprised of multiple insurance agents. An insurance company can specialize in one type of insurance, such as life insurance, health insurance, or auto insurance, or offer multiple types of insurance.
In health insurance, coinsurance is sometimes used synonymously with copayment, but is defined differently – a copay is typically fixed while the coinsurance is a percentage that the insurer pays after the insurance policy's deductible is exceeded up to the policy's stop loss. It is expressed as a pair of percentages with the insurer's portion stated first. The maximum percentage the insured will be responsible for is generally no more than 50%. Once the insured's out-of-pocket expenses equal the stop loss the insurer will assume responsibility for 100% of any additional costs. 70-30, 80-20, and 90-10 insurer-insured coinsurance schemes are common, with stop loss limits of $1,000 to $3,000 after which the insurer covers all expenses.
In property insurance
Coinsurance is a penalty imposed on the insured by the insurance carrier for under reporting/declaring/insuring the value of tangible property or business income. The penalty is based on a percentage stated within the policy and the amount under reported. As an example:
A building actually valued at $1,000,000 has an 80% coinsurance clause but is insured for only $750,000. Since its insured value is less than 80% of its actual value, when it suffers a loss, the insurance payout will be subject to the underreporting penalty. For example: It suffers a $200,000 loss. The insured would recover $750,000 ÷ (.80 × 1,000,000) × 200,000 = $187,500 (less any deductible).
In this example the underreporting penalty would be $12,500.
The most commonly issued coinsurance percentage would be 80% but can be as high as 100%. The latter[100%] would impose the greatest penalty for under reporting. For this reason, it is vital that values of property are accurately reported and updated annually to reflect inflation and other increases in cost.
In title insurance
Owner's title insurance policy forms of the American Land Title Association created between 1987 and late 2006, contain coinsurance clauses. For partial losses, they require the insured carry a percentage of the risk of loss in two circumstances. The first is if the insured did not insure its title for at least 80 percent of its market value at the time the policy was issued. In this case, the insurer will pay only 80 percent of the loss. The second is when improvements constructed on the property after the policy is issued increase the property's value by at least 20 percent above the amount of the policy. In this case, the insurer will pay a percentage of the claim equal to the ratio of 120 percent of the amount of insurance purchased divided by the sum of the amount of insurance and the cost of the improvements.
Coinsurance is also used among U.S. domestic title insurers in a manner similar to that described below for the international insurance market.
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