Surrender value

UK: cash value of a whole of life or endowment assurance policy when discontinued.
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Surrender value is the amount payable to the policy holder on his surrendering his right under a policy and terminating the contract of insurance.
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UK: The cash due when a life insured terminates his policy before maturity. The existence of a reserve makes the payment possible but due allowance is made for expenses and the cover granted. Often there is no surrender value during the first two years.

Swaps

An alternative risk transfer between two parties having risks in the opposite direction. An insurer might swap a windstorm exposure with a building contractor who gets work if windstorm occurs. If it does not occur, the contractor’s excess capacity is compensated from the insurer’s additional profit following favourable claims experience.

Swaps (weather)

Agreement between parties with diverging interest to exchange payment streams based on an underlying rate, index, instrument or asset and a ‘notional amount’. An ice cream manufacturer wants a warm summer while an overseas tour operator expects a cool summer to boost his sales. If the temperature is above the reference temperature, 18°C, the ice cream company pays the tour operator out of their enhanced revenue. No premium changes hands, the upside risk of one party pays the downside risk of the other.

Switching investments

Most insurance companies issuing investment bonds and unitised funds offer a variety of investments linked to property, equity, managed and fixed-interest funds, and sometimes cash or gilt funds. In return for a fee most will permit the holder to switch his investment from one fund to another. As the money remains invested in the same life policy liability to tax does not arise as happens when shares are sold.

Sympathetic damage

Where damaged cargo taints other cargo, the resultant loss is known as sympathetic damage. If the original damage was occasioned by an insured peril without any intervening cause then the sympathetic damage is covered by the policy. Goods liable to cause this type of damage include: hides and skins, certain cheeses, guano and carbon disulphide.