Authors: Dr. Mehdi Haghighi Kafash, Mohammad Vafaei Yeganeh

Coordinator: Insurance Management and Regulation Research Group

Abstract

Growing the quantity of insurance agents as a result of increasing the number of private insurance companies created some opportunities and threats for the insurance industry. Granting insurance agency certificate, it is necessary for the agents to obtain some standards in regard of their knowledge, experiences and skills. To this reason, Central Insurance of I.R Iran (Insurance Regulatory and Supervisory Authority), is trying to specify the necessities of the insurance agents with respect to knowledge, expertise and other related characteristics to keep the industry healthy and to protect the lefts of the policyholders.

The current research was done based on the above mentioned purpose and according to its goal and data gathering method is considered as applied and descriptive, respectively. It is considered as a qualitative research based on its data gathering method. Investigating the available documents and foreign sources and interviews are employed as the two major methods of the data gathering methods. Meanwhile, based on its research method, it is considered as a comparative study. Studying the current condition of the selected countries with regard to the issues related to the insurance agents and comparing it with Iran has provided some results which are considered as the basis to improve the internal affairs. The snowball method was adopted for sampling. The samples include 30 experts (managers and experienced agents in insurance industry) and 14 applicants of insurance agency.

The researchers first of all investigated the process of granting agency among the selected countries, and then they examined the training syllabus for the insurance applicants in these countries. After that, some interviews were done with the experts and applicants and they were analyzed utilizing the Content Analysis Method. Next, the current status of granting insurance agency and standards of training based on the results obtained were reviewed while investigating the foreign sources and interviews. Finally, the by-law for granting agency and training syllabus for the insurance agency applicants was provided.

Key Words: Insurance Agency, Comparative Study, Training Standards, Process of Granting Agency, Selected Countries.

Coordinator: Insurance Management and Regulation Research Group

Abstract

The main goal of the current study is to compare the general terms of insurance policies nationally and internationally, and to formulate some scientific criteria in order to set up the general terms of the insurance policies in Iran. Firstly, the theoretical studies were performed regarding the general terms of the commercial and economic contracts generally and the insurance contracts specifically using the national and international library and internet sources. Then, all of the general terms of the policies passed by the High Insurance Council were analyzed. After that, the current general conditions of policies were extracted.

For this purpose, first of all, a list of the general terms of the policies issued by some valid companies around the world including AXA, AAMI, AIG, Allianz, Zurich, MetLife, Pacific, and Magma insurance companies were prepared and after analyzing their contents, the most important factors and points were specified.

According to the research findings, the most important issues in the general terms of the policies are as follows:

Definition of the general terms of insurance, insurer liabilities, insured obligations, insurance coverage limit (according to the period, location and issues under coverage), exceptions, legal consequences and responsibilities, the procedure of loss announcement and indemnification, the conditions of contract termination or cancellation, the procedure of settling down the complaints and the disputes, etc.

Key words: General Terms of Policy, Major Elements of General Terms of Policy, Insurance Contract.

Author: Azin Sadat Ostadramezan

Coordinator: Property and Casualty (Non-life) Insurance Research Group

Abstract

This project is conducted in order to modify general conditions of fire insurance ratified by the High Council of Insurance (the Bylaw 21). With regard to extensive experts' discussions around the Bylaw 21 in relevant committee meetings and analyzing the code of practices in both domestic and international laws as well as investigating experience, laws and rules of fire insurance and its corresponding general conditions in six selected countries including United States, England, Singapore, Canada, Japan and Malaysia, and comparing them with Bylaw 21, it can be stated that the proposed general conditions could have the following features:   

Restructuring general conditions from 3 to 7 chapters and from 34 articles to 39, transferring  the responsibility of ‘declaring inconsistent cases between insurance proposal and policy’ from insurers to policyholders, resolving the ambiguity of inception and termination hour of the policy, determining the policyholder duty of good faith to its insurer, adding average clause article (article 10 to insurance law), modifying and completing the provisions to clarify ambiguity and put them into effect in order to raise awareness of the policyholder, enumerating additional risks and coverage, compressing all articles pertinent to policyholder’s tasks and commitments in the bylaw 21 into one chapter and adding 3 additional articles in this regard, determining different states of risk increase, determining declarer as well as degree of transfer ownership of the insured object, specifying the duty of policyholder or beneficiary to avoid any act that could complicate insurer’s action against liable for damage, determining the duty  of policyholder to observe safety recommendations as well as declaring dislocation of the insured object, determining the way of pronouncing cancellation and inception of its effect on behalf of policyholder, defining the cases that are considered as full loss, specifying the reference who determines the amount of payable damage, increasing exceptions, adding an article of dispute resolution in order to provide the solutions such as negotiation or referral  to the court.

It should be noted that in all modifications in the articles and notes of the proposed general conditions, the technical justifications, based on expert comments, are separately provided in a comprehensive report.

Keywords: Comparative Study, Fire Insurance, General Condition.

Authors: Hamid Alijani

Coordinator: Property and Casualty (Non-life) Insurance Research Group

Abstract

Cargo insurance is among the oldest types of insurance. Since transportation industry faces different risks threatening the delivery of goods, it is essential to consider cargo insurance. Before 2008, clauses 1983 had been referred in the Cargo insurance market. However, following dramatic progress in international trade and transportation industry, new conditions were passed and approved by the Joint Cargo Committee in 2008, after 27 years, and went into effect by early 2009.

As a consequence of the aforementioned changes, the Bylaw 79 (consists of two parts: general condition and clauses A, B, and C) was approved by the High Council of Insurance at the beginning of year 2012. But since the focus is mainly on clauses, general conditions have not been updated as expected.

Therefore, it was decided to review the Bylaw regarding  general terms and clauses A, B, and C with reference to the present project entitled: “General Terms of Cargo Insurance Policy and  Modified Recommendations” and make necessary corrections to the Bylaw 79.

According to domestic and international research and studies, the final version of the general terms and clauses A, B, and C was provided and the detailed report is available.

Keywords: Comparative Study, Cargo Insurance, General Condition.