Kinds of Companies (OR ‘OFFICES’)
United kingdom insurance businesses have cultivated up from the first origins in 1583 to turn into quite substantial companies. The main kinds of organisation writing life insurance in the united kingdom are:
- Proprietary companies, which might be usually businesses restricted by shares where the participants are investors (rather than policyholders);
- Mutual companies, which might be usually businesses restricted by guarantee, the members being the policyholders; and
- Branches of insurers incorporated overseas.
In addition, specific Lloyd’s syndicates underwrite temporary life business.
In the majority of cases the main businesses in the united kingdom are ‘composites’ writing general and other insurance enterprise as well as life business. From the policyholders’ point of view general insurance is pure insurance against threat e.g. motor, fire etc. whereas life assurance may be a form of investment. We do nottherefore discuss non-life insurance further in this presentation (see for example Macve, R. and Gwilliam, D., A Survey of Lloyd’s Syndicate Accounts, Prentice Hall / Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), 1993, for a discussion of the accounting concerns and the particular difficulties that arise in ‘long-tail’ insurance e.g. personal injury, professional liability, latent diseases including asbestosis, and environmental pollution).
See Also:
Mutual insurance companies
See Also:
Mutual insurance companies
