Insurance is a type of risk management practice done for appraising and controlling against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss. It is defined as transferring the risk of a loss from one entity to another in exchange for payments. Insurance is sold by insurance company to a policy holder who might be a person or an entity buying the insurance policy. Premium is the amount to be charged for a certain sum of insurance cover depending on the insurance rate. There are many types of insurance like home insurance, health insurance, auto insurance, causality insurance including political risk insurance and crime insurance, accident, sickness, unemployment and disability insurance, disability overhead insurance, total permanent disability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, life insurance, burial insurance, property insurance including flood insurance, inland marine insurance, earthquake insurance, home insurance, lanlord insurance, crop insurance, aviation insurance, fidelity bond, terrorism insurance, windstorm insurance, surety bonds, volcano insurance and boiler insurance.

Liability insurance includes directors and officers liability insurance, errors and omissions insurance, public liability insurance, prize indemnity insurance, environmental liability insurance, professional liability insurance. Credit insurance includes accounts receivable insurance and mortgage insurance. Other insurance schemes include bloodstock insurance, business interruption insurance, all-risk insurance, collateral protection insurance, expatriate insurance, defense base act, kidnap and ransom insurance , locked funds insurance, legal expenses insurance, livestock insurance, pet insurance , nuclear incident insurance, media liability insurance, purchase insurance, title insurance, pollution insurance and travel insurance.

Disability insurance includes the policy holder’s paid sick leaves, short-term and long-term disability benefits and covers the risks that disability may result in hampering the income of the policy holder. Types of disability insurance includes individual, high-limit, key person, business overhead expense and national programs disability insurance schemes. Individual disability insurance are meant for those self-employed people whose employers do not provide any insurance benefits. These people can purchase their own polcies from the open market and premiums and benefits vary from company to company and location to location. High-limit disability insurance offers individual benefits at 65 percent of income irrespective of the income level of the individual. Key person disability insurance offers cash benefits to companies to move forward and maintain profits in the event of loss of key employee due to any disablility.

Sickness and accident insurance is meant to provide an insurance cover with monthly payment if the policy holder is unable to work as a result of long-term sickness or incapacity caused due to any accident. Many insurance companies offer sickness and accident policy insurance quote at different premium rates. Several companies presents a detailed comparsion report of sickness and accident insurance policies offered by many insurance companies. The person seeking insurance plan must ensure to do a thorough research on the various offers, policies and prices of these insurance companies and get an insurance quote for the best policy at the best premium rate. If a person gets confused about various insurance policies offered by different insurance companies, then he or she should look for the policy that covers the maximum expenses.

Income protection insurance is offered by the insurance company and helps the policyholder who becomes incapacitated due to serious illness or an accident and is unable to work and earn his or her living. This type of insurance usually contains a deferred period and a proportionate benefit which may delay the onset of benefits and pay the policyholder a reduced benefit if he or she agrees to work on part-time basis or take up a lower level paying job. 60 percent to 70 percent gross earnings of the policyholder are covered under the benefit limits of the insurance cover. If the policyholder is incapacitated, he or she may be granted a waiver of premium during that period. But, not all policies grant waiver of premium and are dependent upon the premiums being made each month whether or not the policy holder can hold down a job or not. If the benefits are paid through an employer, they come under the category of taxable income, otherwise the benefits are usually not considered to be taxable income. The income protection insurance is not meant for people who are past retirement age. This insurance policy covers only those adults who are still working at the time of any incapacitation caused due to an illness or accident that has made them unemployed.

Disability insurance is meant for a person who has a family and has commitments like mortgage on home. This insurance insures the policyholder’s earned income against the risk of a disability that may result in working and earning difficult or impossible. Disability insurance cover may include paid sick leave, short-term benefits and long term disability benefits. Since disability insurance is meant for employees, many companies offer disability coverage to their workers. But, disability insurance cover depends upon the extent of disability or incapacitation and often times it is not enough to cover what is needed.

Factors like age, health status, occupation, earned income, employment status and whether the policy holder is a smoker or not affect the premium rates for the income protection insurance. Therefore, it is suggested that a person should look carefully at how the policy defines incapacitation or disability. Income protection insurance helps the policyholder against the tide of rising bills if he or she loses a job. If a person gets sick, this policy will allow making the payments once the paid employment has ceased.

There are many insurance companies offering these types of disability and income protection insurance policies on internet and offline. One should have a careful understanding of the policy, insurance quote, premium rates, benefit limits, eligibility and other factors before finalizing any deal. Other than that, “which one is the right policy that offers the maximum insurance cover” and “for how long are these policies offer such benefits” are few important questions that should be on the priority list of the person looking for an insurance policy. For example: income protection insurance covers 60% to 70% of the policy holder’s gross earnings, where as sickness and accident insurance provides up to 75% of the salary if a person suffers from sickness or accident.

An insurance policy that helps people to pay for the treatment and other expenses caused by any sudden serious physical or mental injury that can keep them out of work for long time is called trauma insurance. The amount is paid out by the insurance company and it is defined in the product disclosure statement (PDS). But, before the amount payment, the insurance company will examine the case. If the case gets qualified, the medical reports and other papers have to be submitted for proving the conditions that meet the medical trauma. And, after around 14 to 15 days the payment will be made, but that too varies from company to company. Different companies cover different types of medical conditions under trauma insurance. And, paying extra amount for insurance can add extra conditions in the policy. The medical conditions covered include Alzheimer's, angioplasty, tumor of the brain, blindness, cancer, cardiac arrest, coma, deafness, dementia, kidney failure, liver disease, loss of limbs, loss of speech, organ transplant, Parkinson's disease, muscular dystrophy, head trauma, HIV and hypertension. The amount of money to be received from insurance company depends on the traumatic condition, and generally, more money can be received if the nature of medical condition is more serious.

Insurance policy that covers the business interruption of the policyholder whether temporarily or fully due to fire, earthquake, flood, tornado, hurricane or any other natural calamity is called loss of income insurance. This policy may also refer to personal insurance providing income to a policyholder due to long-term illness or any disability. This insurance policy also provides normal profit and expenses based upon prior history of the business to get the business back to the point where it was prior to the loss. The reason for shutting down the business should be covered as per the policy terms and conditions. Loss of income insurance policies also includes the insurance cover triggered by mechanical or equipment breakdown. The insurance companies analyze the catastrophic scenarios that affect the business and make sure that the amount for the loss of income protection is covered.

The loss of income protection insurance policy costs varies from company to company. By paying the benefits, this insurance scheme helps the policyholders who are unable to work due to illness or accident. The benefit limit can be up to 70% of the gross earning, but any state benefits or the benefits from other policies may reduce the maximum benefits under this scheme. And, generally income protection insurance policy will be valid only if the policyholder is a permanent resident in the area defined by the policy. Many policies allow cover for the holiday vacations and temporary residences outside of these defined areas.

Work cover insurance policy is meant for workers to cover accidents and injuries at the time of work. This scheme provides wage replacement and medical benefits for employees who get injured in the course of employment. This policy do not cover issues related to general damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages for employer negligence.

Life insurance is a policy contract between policy holder and the insurer or insurance company in which the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person which can be the basis of protection and financial stability after one's death. The main function of life insurance is to help beneficiaries financially after the owner of the policy dies. Other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger payment as per the insrance policy depending on the contract. The policy holder agrees to pay a stipulated amount or premium at regular intervals or in lump sum amount in return. A good life insurance policy not only covers the loss of income when the insurer dies, but also, covers the new costs arising after the death of insurer like funeral expenses, taxes, probate costs, the need for housekeepers and child care. These cash benefits are provided for the family of the insurer for future needs like college education fees for the children and part or all of insurer spouse's retirement needs.

There are many online and offline insurance advice companies that help people by clarifying the doubts and queries related to insurance policies and guiding them about the policy plans of insurance companies. Industry experts give insurance advice on a variety of topics like auto insurance, health insurance, homeowners insurance and life insurance. These companies offer easily accessible articles revealing tips on topics such as buying insurance, amounts and types of insurance coverage, insurance policy questions, addressing complaints and claims. Since there are a number of insurance companies and their insurance plans, these insurance advisory companies help in knowing about the plans and their benefits. Like Sickness and accident insurance allows the payment of cash benefits to be made directly to the insurer so that he or she can use the money to help pay for out-of-pocket medical costs, lost wages or other unexpected expenses due to illness or injury. Accident & Disability insurance provides coverage for bodily injury or death resulting from accidental means (other than natural causes).

For getting a life insurance policy, a life insurance quote is evaluated on the estimated cost of insurance policy of an applicant. It is generally calculated on the information supplied by the applicant to the insurance company. An applicant is required to provide his or her age, gender and state whether they use tobacco or not. Mortality tables calculated by actuaries with health and family history are used when calculating a life insurance quote. Life insurance quote includes written terms and conditions for which a life insurance contract will be provided. Whether the insurance is on term basis or permanent basis is stated by the life insurance quote. Typically, insurance quotes are obtained by the insurance brokers, agents or any online brokerage insurance company on behalf of their customers or applicants. And, the representatives (brokers, agents or online company) will shop one or more insurance companies to find the best price and coverage in a life insurance quote.