General Insurers

An unusual feature of general insurance is that at the time an insurance company enters into a contract of insurance with a policyholder it cannot know either the extent of its financial obligations to that policyholder or over what period they will be discharged. Its own historic claims experience together with data from publicly available sources are analysed by management and external actuaries to inform the process of valuing its liabilities to policyholders. For some types of insurance business putting a value on incurred claims is more straightforward: either because the lag between the incurring of a claim its notification to the insurer and settlement is relatively short;...