• An Accredited Insurance Advisor (AAI) is a professional title obtained through a joint effort between the Insurance Institute of America (IIA) and the Independent Insurance Agents of America (IIAA). The program leading to this appointment consists of three 13-week courses with three national examinations and is intended for all insurance production personnel in any distribution system.

  • Acquisition costs are the direct costs an insurer incurs to “purchase” a premium, such as commissions paid to a broker or front company. These costs should be expensed in the same proportion as the premiums to which they relate are earned. For a calendar year policy, acquisition costs are expensed on a straight-line basis each month and the amount to be expensed in future periods is recognized as a deferred acquisition cost (asset) on the balance sheet.

  • A natural disaster is an accident or event caused by natural causes without human intervention or intervention that could not have been prevented by reasonable foresight or care, such as flood, lightning, earthquake or storm. This is the hazard terminology used in the politics of the oceans and inland seas.

  • The “act as one” clause is found in reinsurance contracts, a clause that is included to avoid the situation where several reinsurers are parties to the same dispute and each wants to appoint their own arbitrator. The “act as one” clause obliges reinsurers to act in concert in selecting an arbitration panel, as well as in all major communications and decisions relating to the dispute. It leaves reinsurers free to assert their own claims or objections, and this does not detract from several obligations that normally exist under most reinsurance contracts. This allows the arbitration process to move forward without confusion about how many arbitrators the parties to the dispute will appoint. In effect, it treats the reinsurer as one party (which it is) and the reinsurers as one party when more than one reinsurer is involved in a dispute. Thus, each of the two “parties” or parties may appoint one arbitrator, and the arbitrators appointed by the parties may appoint a judge, fulfilling the contractual requirement for a panel of three arbitrators.

  • Action Levels are (1) regulatory levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure compliance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) when pesticide residues are found in foodstuffs. food or feed for reasons other than the direct use of pesticides. Unlike “tolerances” that are set for residues resulting from proper use, action levels are set for unintentional residues resulting from previous legitimate use or accidental contamination. (2) In the Superfund program, the existence of a contaminant concentration in the environment is high enough to justify action or cause a reaction under the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 and the National Oil Emergency Plan and dangerous substances. The term is also used in other regulatory programs.

  • The Active Life Fund is, in relation to the pension plan, an unallocated fund for active participants included in the deposit management plan. As members retire, individual annuities are purchased with fund money.

  • The Active at Work clause is a clause of a group health insurance policy that excludes coverage for an employee who is absent from work due to an accident or illness on the effective date of the health insurance policy. Under the active-at-work clause, an employee is not eligible for coverage until he or she returns to work.