Underwriting

Underwriting is the process of determining acceptable levels of risk, calculating what to charge for that risk, and identifying potential losses in order to determine premiums.

Premiums

Just as some birds collect food to offset difficult times in the future, we do our best calculate fair premiums that help fund recovery in case members experience a loss. To do this as equitably as possible, our underwriting process considers six major factors: the value of the assets, the deductible, the loss history and risk exposure, our reinsurance, and the reciprocal portion.

Asset Value

We make sure your assets are correctly valued and consistently up-to-date with today’s prices. This means that in the event of a loss, you are fully put back to the same position you were before.

Reciprocal Portion

This is the basic amount we need to collect from everyone in order to cover the cost of basic claims.

Subscriber Deductible

The higher your deductible (the amount you pay in the event of a loss), the lower your premium. Deductibles help keep costs down for everyone by reducing the amount of small claims.

Risk Profile, History & Exposure

We look at how often you’ve made insurance claims in the past, and how vulnerable your organization is to catastrophic events such as hail, wildfire, floods, and other damages. Less risk and previous claims means lower premiums.

Liability Exposure

Your organization has its own unique liabilities (things that you have borrowed or owe). During the underwriting process, we examine your risk exposure for these liabilities compared to key metrics to determine the appropriate premium.

Excess & Reinsurance

To make sure we can cover our whole subscriber pool in the event of a major claims event, we buy reinsurance (insurance for insurance companies) and excess insurance (extra coverage). This allows everyone to have more protection without increasing premiums exorbitantly.

When Genesis has a good claims year, unspent premiums are reinvested in the program

Sharing the Wealth

Traditional insurers build both broker commissions and investor profits into their premium calculation. This is not the case for Genesis as the reciprocal is not looking to earn a profit or compensate brokers. This means Genesis is usually at least 15% to 25% less expensive than traditional insurance companies.

When insurance companies have “good claims years” more profit goes into the pockets of their shareholders. When Genesis has a good claims year, unspent premiums are reinvested in the program in the form of subscriber equity used for future rate stabilization or program enhancements.