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Captive insurance companies are limited purpose insurance companies established with the specific objective of financing risks emanating from their parent group or groups, although they sometimes also insure some of the risks of the parent company's customers. In the simplest terms, it is an in-house self-insurance vehicle. Captives usually represent commercial, economic and tax advantages to their sponsors due to the reductions on costs they help create, the ease for insurance risk management and the flexibility for cash flows they generate. Additionally, they may provide coverage of risks which are neither available nor offered in the traditional insurance market at reasonable prices, and allow the relevant group direct access to reinsurance markets.

Bancassurance is the term used to describe the sale of insurance products in a bank. The word is a combination of "banc" and "assurance" signifying that both banking and insurance is provided by the same corporate entity. The usage of the word picked up as banks and insurance companies merged and banks sought to provide insurance, especially in markets that have been liberalised recently. It is a controversial idea, and many feel it gives banks too great a control over the financial industry.

In some countries, bancassurance is still largely prohibited, but it was recently legalized in countries such as the United States, when the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed after the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Accidental death and dismemberment insurance (also known as AD&D) covers death or dismemberment as a result of an accident. In constrast to life insurance, AD&D generally would not pay survivor benefits in the case of death by illness. AD&D premiums are generally cheaper than life insurance because the incidence of death by accident is lower than death by natural causes. Dismemberment refers to the loss of two limbs or the complete loss of sight (ie: blindness), and is a rider (attached endorsement) to a policy.

Insurance companies may be classified as

Any risk that can be quantified probably has a type of insurance to protect it. Among the different types of insurance are:

Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a potential loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium and duty of care.