In economic terms insurance is a form of risk management which is primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. It is the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another. In lame mans word insurance is a hedge against misfortune. People like to live life free of hassles and worries. This is possible when there is an assurance that they indeed don't worry about things. This is only possible when they have insured things around which their life revolves. These things may be the family members or any possession of the individual. The idea is that people have a sense of security.

The concept of insurance is not new. This concept had evolved since the ancient world. But the actual concept was formulated around the time of Industrial Revolution. The first insurance company in the United States was formed in the year 1732 and it provided only fire insurance. It was Benjamin Franklin who helped popularize and make standard the practice of insurance. Their acumen for the sector can be understood from the fact that thy at times refused to insure certain buildings like wooden houses, where the risk of fire was too great.

Prior to American Civil War, slavery was an integral part of American Society. Around that time many insurance companies in the United States insured the lives of slaves for their owners. The bills passed in California in 2001 and in Illinois in 2003, asked the companies to search their records and check if any such policies existed. New York Life, reported that Nautilus sold 485 slaveholder life insurance policies during a two-year period in the 1840s; they added that their trustees voted to end the sale of such policies, fifteen (15) years prior to the Emancipation Proclamation.

In the twentieth century insurance was widely used by organized crime as a means of generating tax free income and to control businesses, populations, and politics, usually on a local level.

The federal government in USA had never made insurance mandatory in any form on whole of the nation. But the Social Security Act was formulated for this purpose. It expanded the concept and acceptance of insurance as a means to achieve individual financial security which otherwise was not available. This expansion experienced its first boom immediately after the Second World War with the original VA Home Loan programs that greatly expanded the idea that affordable housing for veterans was a benefit of having served.

The GI life insurance policy of 1940 enabled to ease the burden of military losses on the civilian population and survivors. With a rapid rise in the road accidents during 1970s and 1980s, the drivers were mandatorily asked to have insurance, which acted as a means of proving financial responsibility as it was observed that automobile causes significant collateral damage in case of accident.

Insurance has seen tremendous changes over the year. But the basic motive has remained same since ancient time and is bound to remain same in the years to come.

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Article Submitted By: Andrea Gamree
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