General insurance helps us protect ourselves and the things we value, such as our homes, our cars and our valuables, from the financial impact of risks, big and small – from fire, flood, storm and earthquake, to theft, car accidents, travel mishaps – and even from the costs of legal action against us. And we can choose the types of risks we wish to cover by choosing the right kind of policy with the features we need.
In general, insurance works by spreading the cost of unexpected risks among a large number of people in the same region who share similar risks. When you take out an insurance policy, you pay a monthly or annual premium. That money joins the premiums of many thousands of other policyholders and goes into a big pool of funds.
Insurance contracts that do not come under the ambit of life insurance are called general insurance. The different forms of general insurance are fire, marine, motor, accident and other miscellaneous non-life insurance.
The tangible assets are susceptible to damages and a need to protect the economic value of the assets is needed. For this purpose, general insurance products are bought as they provide protection against unforeseeable contingencies like damage and loss of the asset. Like life insurance, general insurance products come at a price in the form of premium.
Insurance other than ‘Life Insurance’ falls under the category of General Insurance. General Insurance comprises of insurance of property against fire, burglary etc, personal insurance such as Accident and Health Insurance, and liability insurance which covers legal liabilities. There are also other covers such as Errors and Omissions insurance for professionals, credit insurance etc.
Non-life insurance companies have products that cover property against Fire and allied perils, flood storm and inundation, earthquake and so on. There are products that cover property against burglary, theft etc. The non-life companies also offer policies covering machinery against breakdown,there are policies that cover the hull of ships and so on. A Marine Cargo policy covers goods in transit including by sea, air and road. Further, insurance of motor vehicles against damages and theft forms a major chunk of non-life insurance business.