The Fundamentals of Insurance: Theories, Principles and Practices

Insurance is perhaps the most effective device for managing ‘Risk’, which is a pervasive phenomenon, an ever present part of our lives. We can sometimes ‘avoid’ risk, or ‘reduce’ it, but never entirely eliminate it.

Whether you are a Graduate student who is studying insurance as a part of your curriculum, or an Executive tasked with the responsibility of managing your Organization’s Insurance and Risk Management Program, this book will provide you with a strong conceptual foundation, comprehensive knowledge of non-life and life insurance products, and a perspective of how insurance functions as a part of the economy.

Essentially, you will understand ‘why’ insurance is needed, ‘what’ solutions it provides, and ‘how’ different business processes and professionals work together to deliver the vital compensation to victims of disasters.

Organized in 18 Chapters, comprehensive, but brief and crisp, it continuously relates facts to theories, and concepts to processes, events to their context, and the ‘rule-of-thumb’ to the underlying ‘Basic Principle’. Thus insurance will be de-mystified and you will be empowered to decode “insurance speak”.

The book draws from the Author's hands-on experience in the Indian Insurance industry. However, the insights and observations go beyond borders, reflecting universal principles and practices of insurance that are recognized worldwide.

Hargovind Dayal served from 1981 to 2015, first with United India Insurance Co. Ltd, and then with Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd. Working in functions ranging from Sales, Claims Management, Underwriting, Customer Service and Learning and Development, provided him with a continuous learning experience which helped him write this book.

During this period of more than thirty-three years he lived and worked in Allahabad, Agra, Lucknow and Mumbai, and carries in his persona the imprint of each of these unique cities. A self-confessed insurance ‘evangelist’, Hargovind immerses himself in Social Work, Indian History and the Spanish Guitar when not at work on projects connected with insurance.