How To Draft and Interpret Insurance Policies (2024)

How To Draft and Interpret Insurance Policies guides legal and risk professionals step by step through the process of interpreting existing policy language, from applying a basic coverage analysis, to looking for overriding concerns, to understanding advanced coverage issues like the reasonable expectations doctrine.

Most insurance, risk , and legal professionals are never taught the proper way to read and interpret an insurance policy, discover drafting errors, or correct poorly worded policy language. Unfortunately, this lack of training results in surprise coverage denials, missed opportunities when reviewing competitors’ policies, damage to professional reputation, lost clients, and bad faith or other legal claims that could have been avoided with accurate insight.

Recognizing that you, your team, and the industry need some help on this front, IRMI has responded withHow To Draft and Interpret Insurance Policies. This working tool guides legal and risk professionals step by step through the process of interpreting existing policy language, from applying a basic coverage analysis, to looking for overriding concerns, to understanding advanced coverage issues like the reasonable expectations doctrine. How To Draft explains what to look out for in terms of words, phrases, punctuation, and formatting, along with the negative and positive implications of specific wording. The knowledge and insights in this powerful book will improve the ability of any legal or risk professional to quickly and correctly determine how a policy does or does not apply to a claim scenario or to draft bulletproof policy language that clearly conveys coverage intent.

How To Draft and Interpret Insurance Policies (2024)

FAQs

How to interpret an insurance policy? ›

How to read your insurance coverage
  1. Read the overview on your declarations page. ...
  2. Learn insurance terminology. ...
  3. Train your eagle eye and read the fine print. ...
  4. Ask yourself questions. ...
  5. See what's covered (your insuring agreement) ...
  6. See what's not covered (your exclusions)

What is the simplest way to explain insurance? ›

Insurance is a contract between you (or a business) and an insurance company to help protect you and your loved ones from financial loss due to an unexpected event, like an accident, illness, natural disaster, or other unexpected circ*mstances.

How do you explain an insurance policy? ›

An insurance policy is a legal contract between the insurance company (the insurer) and the person(s), business, or entity being insured (the insured). Reading your policy helps you verify that the policy meets your needs and that you understand your and the insurance company's responsibilities if a loss occurs.

How do you read a policy document? ›

Every policy document will include a section called the 'policy conditions' and often, each different cover within your policy will have its own 'section conditions' that refer to that cover specifically. These are essentially a set of rules or requirements that need to be met for your cover to be valid.

What are the four main parts of an insurance policy? ›

Here are five parts you should know:
  • Declaration page. The declaration page is usually the first page of an insurance policy. ...
  • Insuring agreement. The insuring agreement is a broad summary of the policy's coverage. ...
  • Exclusions, limitations and conditions. ...
  • Riders. ...
  • Definitions.
Jun 22, 2022

What is insurance explained for beginners? ›

Insurance is a contract (policy) in which an insurer indemnifies another against losses from specific contingencies or perils. There are many types of insurance policies. Life, health, homeowners, and auto are among the most common forms of insurance.

What are the 5 principles of insurance explain? ›

In the insurance world there are six basic principles that must be met, ie insurable interest, Utmost good faith, proximate cause, indemnity, subrogation and contribution. The right to insure arising out of a financial relationship, between the insured to the insured and legally recognized.

How to explain insurance coverage? ›

Insurance coverage is the amount of risk or liability that is covered for an individual or entity by way of insurance services. Insurance coverage, such as auto insurance, life insurance—or more exotic forms, such as hole-in-one insurance—is issued by an insurer in the event of unforeseen occurrences.

Why is insurance so difficult to understand? ›

Some insurance companies still use complicated and manipulative tactics to confuse policyholders. The courts still hold clauses that insurance companies are required to be precise with language, and the terms must be presented and not hidden.

What is an insurance policy wording? ›

What is insurance policy wording? The policy wording is the exact offer from the insurance company to you. It is a document that contains full terms and conditions of the coverage offered, including any applicable exclusions, conditions and limitations to cover. You are always recommended to read this fully.

What does a declaration page of an insurance policy look like? ›

An insurance declarations page can be one page or multiple pages. Every dec page is slightly different, but you should see your insurance company's name at the top, followed by your name, policy number and your agent's contact information. The rest of the policy details are usually listed underneath this section.

How do you explain what a policy is? ›

Policy is a law, regulation, procedure, administrative action, incentive, or voluntary practice of governments and other institutions.

How to draft a policy document? ›

Policy Writing Guidance
  1. Keep it simple. Policies should be written in plain language – not legalese. ...
  2. Keep it general. Policies cannot contemplate all possible situations. ...
  3. Make it relevant. ...
  4. Check for accuracy and compliance. ...
  5. Ensure the policy can be enforced. ...
  6. Clearly state who does what. ...
  7. Less is more.

How to read and understand a document? ›

Reading Technical Documents
  1. Recognize the layout / standardization of technical documents, especially articles. ...
  2. Look for headings. ...
  3. Get an overview. ...
  4. Look up unfamiliar key terms. ...
  5. Take broad and specific notes. ...
  6. Stay in context.

What is insurance interpretation? ›

art. 2045: Interpretation of a contract is the determination of the common intent of the parties. 3) Jurisprudential responsibility is to determine the parties' common intent as reflected by words in the policy to determine the extent of coverage.

How do you explain insurance coverage? ›

Insurance coverage is the amount of risk or liability that is covered for an individual or entity by way of insurance services. Insurance coverage, such as auto insurance, life insurance—or more exotic forms, such as hole-in-one insurance—is issued by an insurer in the event of unforeseen occurrences.

How to read insurance policy limits? ›

You'll usually see your liability limits in a split limits form, like 25/50/30- which means $25,000 in medical expenses, $50,000 for all injured parties, and $30,000 in property damage. Sometimes insurance limits come in the form of a combined single limit.

How do you read a life insurance policy? ›

You can expect your life insurance policy to contain the details of the plan you purchased, the death benefit amount, your premium, and other key details like policy number, issue date and the name of the insured and beneficiaries. It's important to note the policy owner may not be the same person as the insured.

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