Definition: Insurance policy

Category: SNA

An insurance policy is an agreement between an insurance corporation and another institutional unit, called the policyholder. Under the agreement, the policyholder makes a payment (a premium) to the insurance corporation and, if or when a specified event occurs, the insurance corporation makes a payment (claim) to the policyholder. In this way, the policyholder protects itself against certain forms of risk; by pooling the risks the insurance corporation aims to receive more from the receipt of premiums than it has to pay out as claims (§ 17.1). http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/SNA2008.pdf