General Insurance PrinciplesQuestion 226 of 531

Which characteristic of a loss exposure makes it hard for a private insurer to insure?

a.a loss that is definite in time, place, cause and amount
b.a loss large enough to create real hardship for the insured
c.a loss that happens by chance rather than by the insured's design
d.a loss that would strike an enormous number of insureds at once

Explanation

An insurable risk should not be catastrophic to the insurer, because a peril that hits a huge share of the book at the same moment destroys the pooling on which pricing depends; that is why such exposures move to reinsurance, pools or federal programs. The other three are requirements an insurable exposure should meet: losses must be definite and measurable, accidental, and significant enough to be worth insuring.

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