Insurance touches a part of virtually everyone’s life, from their pet, to their car, home and health through to business and cyber security protection.

Insurance is more than just about taking out an insurance policy. Its about being able to understand what the particular risks are in any area of your life, which risks you are prepared to live with, which you can mange and reduce yourself and which risks you need help with by6 way of an insurance policy.

This site looks at all of these areas. It looks and explains how insurance works, what the jargon actually means, and what the main risks and threats in any particular area are and how best to manage them.

The following are the main areas of insurance and risk management that are covered here:

The Changing Face of Insurance

Although insurance has been around for a long time, the enormity of the impact that the internet has had on it is not always fully understood or appreciated.

Before the Internet really took hold on society, people would normally buy their insurance through an insurance broker. There were some areas of insurance such as life assurance where companies employed sales agents, but generally speaking they were a rarity.

How Insurance works -The Basics

Insurance itself relies on a number of fairly simple ideas which can probably best be understood by looking at 3 specific areas:

• A brief history of insurance,
• A look at the various roles of people who work in the insurance industry,
• An understanding of the basic legal principles behind an insurance policy.

Health Insurance

Health insurance is unlike most other types of insurance, people tend to take out an insurance policy to protect themselves against an unexpected loss or risk that they are fearful of.

In the biggest health insurance market, the United States, people take out health insurance as a way of providing themselves with some level of healthcare, if they are able to afford it, a way of paying for treatments that they know they are going to need at some point in their life …

Life Insurance

Life insurance is one of the simplest and most understandable types of insurance when purchased on its own. Where it becomes more difficult and more complicated is where it often gets linked to other types of financial products, such as mortgages, pensions, savings accounts, critical illness cover etc.

Often it is a good idea to combine the two, but doing so makes it harder to assess the cost of each individual product, so it makes sense to research whether it is worth buying such products separately or together.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance is a type of insurance that is primarily intended for people who are travelling overseas from their own country of residence. Its main focus is on providing financial cover for any emergency relating to a sudden accident or illness including hospitalisation and repatriation to their home country.

The insurance will also normally cover associated risks such as lost baggage, delayed or cancelled flights, stolen cameras, laptops etc.

Car / Auto Insurance

Some type of car insurance is mandatory in most countries around the world. The insurance will focus on providing some type of liability cover for the owner/driver of the car for third party claims that relate to bodily injury or physical damage, The insurance will offer additional types of cover as well which are normally optional.

Home / Household Insurance

Home insurance, often referred to as homeowners insurance, is the type of insurance rather like auto insurance that most ordinary consumers have. Although it is not normally legally required, many people will have some type of insurance as a condition of their mortgage or bank loan. The scope and cover of the insurance can differ quite widely.

Cyber Security Insurance

Commonly referred to as cyber insurance, this type of protection is needed for pretty much any business or organisation, big or small, as well as for many individuals and families. The risks of cyber crime increase every day, as people become more and more dependent on smartphones and devices in order to run their lives, so increases the need for threat protection at many different levels.