If you’re thinking about moving to Florida one day, consider Naples or Marco Island. They’re quiet, beautiful towns with plenty of housing and polite people. The only real downside to paradise is that they’re in the path of hurricanes every now and then. The thing is…if a hurricane or other natural disaster levels your house, your typical property insurance isn’t going to replace a home that’s washed away into the Gulf of Mexico.
You need a very specific type of insurance to protect yourself against rare, but highly destructive events. Enter catastrophe insurance.
This is a form of insurance that protects property against Acts of God or man-made disasters like war or terrorism. Insurance companies realize that one massive event will lead to a huge number of claims all at once. Which is why we see many different catastrophe insurance spreading risk across a market, with reinsurance policies backing up those companies.
Come to think of it...why not just stay on dry land? Kentucky’s nice. Oh, wait...there’s flooding there.
Oregon, then? Ah, no. Earthquakes.
Illinois? Tornadoes.
Boy, existence is terrifying.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is Directors & Officers In...100 Views
finance a la shmoop what is directors and officers insurance coverage? well if
you ever sit on the board of a public company you'll want this or at least a [People sat at a table in a meeting]
feeling you'll sleep better at night if you have it. D&O insurance is just
insurance like any other kind of insurance only it insurers for board
stupidity or rather legal definitions of dumb things companies do that costs
shareholders money and for which the Board of Directors then gets blamed and
sued in theory if company ever lost a large lawsuit well at worst they would [Man and woman in a court]
just hand over the keys to the company itself to whoever won the lawsuit
famously warren buffett founder and CEO Berkshire Hathaway and the largest
seller of insurance in the world through Geico and other subsidiaries does not
allow his Board of Directors to carry any D&O insurance because he feels that
if the company stumbles so stupidly because of poor governance that he along [Warren Buffet appears]
with all of his boards should suffer the resulting personal bankruptcies that
would follow with all the lawsuits that would be piled on and yes sometimes
companies are so corrupt or stupid or unlucky that the damages in a lost
lawsuit exceed the value of the entire company itself and then the insurance
company has to be called to cover whatever is left in legal bills after
the company has been handed over in practice it's not quite that dramatic
companies carry D&O insurance for smaller things as well like a company
stock goes from $22 to $14 after a bad quarter and some ambulance-chasing [Company stock graph appears]
lawyer from New York is able to convince a judge that proper disclosure wasn't
made about the lack of sales in the Uzbekistan office and to make the
lawsuit go away the company held hostage pays seventeen million dollars in
damages to shareholders making a claim the key thing is the shareholders here
get like pennies a share and the lawyers get millions a typical D&O policy for a
smaller public company might carry a ten million dollar deductible so in this
case the first ten million of that seventeen comes out of the company
coffers and then the money beyond that comes from the insurance company that
wrote the coverage policy well historically the business of writing D&O
policies has been a great business for the insurance industry as tons of
premiums get paid by nervous Nelly directors who in fact never lose [Hammer nails sign to the wall]
lawsuits and well you know the gravy train keeps on graving... [Man riding a gravy train]
Up Next
What is term life insurance, and variable life insurance? Hit play to find out, and, uh...let's hope you live long enough to figure out the answers.