Meaning of Insured
The notion of insured is linked to the verb insure: to make something firm or secure. The concept is usually used with reference to the good that has the protection of an insurance policy.
It is called insurance policy the contract requiring the insurer to pay a certain amount of money to the policyholder of the insurance when one of the contingencies provided for in the contract occurs. The policyholder, for his part, must pay a premium to the insurer to be protected.
Through this type of policy, a person can insure different kinds of assets: a house, a car, a computer (computer), etc. As long as you pay the agreed premium, the corresponding goods will be insured according to the conditions detailed in the contract.
Suppose a man decides to insure a car against all risks. This means that, if the insured vehicle is stolen, or if it is damaged by an act of vandalism, to name two possibilities, the insurance company will pay you an amount as compensation.
Of course, the process is much more complex, since it is never possible to go directly to the payment of compensation without first carrying out the expertise of the accident. This procedure consists of entrusting to a specialized professional the evaluation of the damages that the insured property has suffered, in this case a car, although first of all to find out if it is a legitimate case or an attempted fraud by the client.
Among the most important functions of the expert are the following:
* determine if the damages that the insured has declared may have been generated by the exposed causes of the loss;
* value the damages from an economic point of view and propose an amount as compensation;
* carry out quality control after the repair work, to check that the workers have proceeded in accordance with the appropriate safety standards and that the result is consistent with what the company has promised the insured.
Once the expert determines that the claim is valid, he must calculate the amount necessary to indemnify the client in accordance with the provisions of the contract, something that usually leads to the latter’s dissatisfaction. It is important to highlight that the insurance companies have the obligation to carry out an objective and impartial study of each claim, although in practice there is the idea that they always try to defraud their clients.
In case of not being satisfied with the compensation proposed by the expert, the insured has the option to start a litigation process to demand a larger sum. Another measure that the client has at his disposal to achieve the result he is looking for is to propose an expert on his own, to contrast his assessment with that provided by the company employee. In such a situation, both parties must formally justify their conclusions, with the greatest possible degree of detail and technical data.
In summary, we could say that, for an insured asset to exist, there must be two parties (the policyholder and the insurance firm) who sign a contract (the insurance policy), which establishes reciprocal obligations and rights. On the part of the policyholder, the main obligation is to pay the premium in a timely manner. The insurance company, for its part, must respond (paying what corresponds) when an incident occurs in the contract.
In some cases, that the property is insured is mandatory by law. Cars, for example, cannot circulate on public roads if they are not insured against damages that the driver may cause to a third party.
