1.0 INTRODUCTION
Insurance is a contract for payment of a sum of money to the person assured on the happening of the event insured against. Usually the contract provides for the payment of an amount on the date of maturity or at specified dates at periodic intervals or at unfortunate death, if it occurs earlier. Among other things, the contract also provides for the payment of premium periodically to the Corporation by the assured. Insurance is universally acknowledged to be an institution which eliminates `risk’, substituting certainty for uncertainty and comes to the timely aid of the family in the unfortunate event of death of the breadwinner.
Insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; the insured, or policyholder, is the person or entity buying the insurance policy. The amount to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage is called the premium. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.
The transaction involves the insured assuming a guaranteed and known relatively small loss in the form of payment to the insurer in exchange for the insurer’s promise to compensate (indemnify) the insured in the case of a financial (personal) loss. The insured receives a contract, called the insurance policy, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insured will be financially compensated.
Insurance involves pooling funds from many insured entities (known as exposures) to pay for the losses that some may incur. The insured entities are therefore protected from risk for a fee, with the fee being dependent upon the frequency and severity of the event occurring. In order to be insurable, the risk insured against must meet certain characteristics in order to be an insurable risk. Insurance is a commercial enterprise and a major part of the financial services industry, but individual entities can also self-insure through saving money for possible future losses.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
We look back in history at who first felt the need for a guarantee against loss, and who gave them that guarantee. Way back in Babylonian times, around 2100 B.C.(Frank J. 2008), the Code of Hammurabi was the first basic insurance policy. This policy was paid by the traders in the form of a loan to guarantee the safe arrival of their goods by caravan. Of course, caravans faced the same kind of perils our transportation industry faces today – like robbery, bad weather and breakdowns.
Now the insurance industry was growing to huge proportions. The companies, though competitive, worked together to create productive systems that could be used throughout the industry. They needed to keep up with the requirements of the increasing amount of laws governing insurance. For example, the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 in Britain required employers to insure their employees against industrial mishaps. This also fostered what we know today as public liability insurance, which came strongly into play when the automobile arrived on the scene. (Brown RL. (1993).
Brown RL 1993 also said that in the 19th century, many societies were founded to insure the life and health of their members. Fraternal orders were created to provide low-cost insurance strictly for their members. Today, many of these fraternal orders and labor organizations still exist. Most employers offer group insurance policies for their employees, providing them with life insurance, sickness and accident benefits, and pensions.
Now insurance was the accepted thing to do. Everybody needed to protect themselves against the many risks in life. Farmers wanted crop insurance. People wanted deposit insurance at their banks. Travellers wanted travel insurance. Everybody turned to insurance companies to give them peace of mind. And really, isn’t that what insurance is – the paying of a premium to protect against some form of loss. This project is aimed at automating the insurance service.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PRONBLEM
Tracking a policy and tracking the performance of sales force in insurance companies have become methodical and almost flawed in the manual system of tracking and evaluation of sales force performance. Lead distribution and tracking need to be more systematized on computerized platform of insurance service application. After studying the insurance company and their services, I found the following problems:
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
After analysing the above problem, I noted that the solution will be an online application that will address the problems mentioned above. Therefore among the objectives of this study are to provide a system that will:
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
This project study has several significances that we can attest to. This section provides insight into the significance of this study. This significance of the proposed system are:
1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY
The system was restricted to the following areas during the development. The system provides only five types of Insurance services, which include Life Insurance, medical Insurance, motor Insurance, home Insurance and travel Insurance. There are other types of insurance which it doesn’t support. New Users can access the site so as to get information online. An existing policy holder can view his policy details. The web site provides information about the new strategies and subsidiary Schemes of the company. All other types of insurance like breast insurance is beyond the scope of this research work.
1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Some setbacks were encountered during the research. These include:
1.7 DIFFINITION OF TERMS
INSURANCE:
This is a financial protection against loss or harm: an arrangement by which a company gives customers financial protection against loss or harm such as theft or illness in return for payment premium.
CASUALTY:
Liability or loss resulting from an accident.
LIABILITY: Broadly, any legally enforceable obligation. The term is most commonly used in a pecuniary sense.
LIABILITY INSURANCE – Insurance that pays and renders service on behalf of an insured for loss arising out of his responsibility, due to negligence, to others imposed by law or assumed by contract.
DIVIDEND:
The return of part of the policy’s premium for a policy issued on a participating basis by either a mutual or stock insurer. A portion of the surplus paid to the stockholders of a corporation.
DEATH BENEFIT:
The limit of insurance or the amount of benefit that will be paid in the event of the death of a covered person.
INSURANCE QUOTE:
It is an estimate of the cost of your insurance. Depending upon the type of insurance you are buying the final cost may be higher or lower than the estimate.
POLICY:
Policy is a course of action: a program of actions adopted by a person, group, or government, or the set of principles on which they are based. In this context, it is the set of actions adopted by the insurance firm.
WEB PORTAL:
This is a link page, presents information from diverse sources in a unified way.
SSADM:
Structural system analysis and design methodology.
1.8 ORGANIZATION OF WORK
Chapter one: insurance service. I also provided the problem that led to the development of the system. The objectives of the study, significance of study, scope of study, limitation of study.
Chapter two: literature review of insurance service, basically what people have done on the topic.
Chapter three: the research methodology, the step followed and analysis of the existing system.
Chapter four: the design and implementation of the system, the data dictionary, input-output specification, table format/structure, hardware
Chapter five: Recommendation and future development; Summary, conclusion and then references.