Nj Auto Insurance Companies

A car owner looking for NJ auto insurance companies can easily get a list just by browsing through the Internet. No need to waste time and effort by personally going to each offices; anyone can just research on the Internet and get the desired list of NJ auto insurance companies.
Residents of New Jersey who are planning to renew their policies or get an entirely new car insurance policy should first get a list of NJ auto insurance companies before deciding on what company to get their car insurance from. Such list can be requested from the various online companies offering a list of NJ auto insurance companies and can be received in a matter of minutes.
Car insurance is a must for car owners and this should be the very first thing that should warrant their consideration. NJ auto insurance companies offer different insurance package that responds to the diversified needs of every car owner. It is important to know the different NJ auto insurance companies to enable a car owner to make an intelligent decision on his car insurance.
The first consideration one should look into when considering NJ auto insurance companies is the type of insurance coverage that is required by the car owner. Another important consideration that should be looked into when considering NJ auto insurance companies is of course the cost of the insurance policy.
While car insurance is a necessity a person should not just get insurance from the first NJ auto insurance companies that offer him a package. It is important to take note of the coverage of the insurance policy and match it to the needs of the owner.
It is also recommended that the car owner do some research on the type of insurance company he will be getting his car insurance from. He should talk to former or present clients of the car insurance company who can give him feedback as to how the company processes the various car insurance claims that are filed in their office.
The best thing about NJ auto insurance companies is that the car owner has an option to cancel the insurance policy within a pre-agreed period. He will then be entitled to a refund of a portion of the car insurance policy which he has already paid and which has been cancelled.
While NJ auto insurance companies offer a lot of benefits and insurance package, all insurance carry the basic coverage for any personal injury that may be suffered by the insured or the car passenger in case of an accident. There is a provision in which the insurance company agrees to pay for the medical and other bills of the injured passenger no matter whose fault the accident is.
There is also another type of insurance that pays for damages if the insured is at fault for the accident. This can be very helpful in case the driver is sued by the injured victim.
NJ auto insurance companies carry within their policy coverage for both physical injuries as well as damage to property. Such insurance policy may cost more but when a person is faced with a lot of people injured and property damaged as a result of an accident in which he is at fault then he will think that the money he paid for the car insurance policy is meager compared to what he has to pay if he was not covered.
It is understandable that every car owner would favor getting car insurance policies that are cheaper. However, do not be fooled by cheap car insurance offers because they may cost you more in the future.
The proper thing to do is to weigh all factors that should be considered when choosing an auto insurance agency. Price is of course an important consideration but a car owner should look more into the benefits and the coverage he can get from the insurance policy.
A car owner who is ready to face the task of getting the appropriate insurance coverage for his car should not hesitate to request for a list of NJ auto insurance companies and narrow down his choices from these list. Only then can he assure himself he has made the right choice.

Car Insurance Rates in America

Car insurance rates in America are increasing every day. With the average American policy premiums trumping the average car payment, it's no wonder people are sending in complaints left and right. With nearly 200 million motorists on the road, and over 250 million registered vehicles, insurance companies have their hands full when it comes to sizing up different price points.
One of the largest factors in determining your overall rate is your location. Some locations are at more risk than others. The higher risk locations, such as California, New Jersey or New York send in the most claims and reports, and therefore have the highest amount of risk involved with them. These areas are generally more urban in nature, and have a larger density of people. This usually leads to more accidents, crime, and theft. Also, with more people follows more uninsured or underinsured motorists. This puts a large strain on the system and end up increasing the rates for everyone in the vicinity. Insurance companies are well aware of this and adjust the insurance premiums for people living in these locations.
More rural areas, such as Wyoming or Montana usually enjoy a lower rate because of the population size and minimal amount of claims being reported. Theft and crime is also low in these areas and insurance prices are adjusted accordingly. The average 35 year old man living in a high priced area such as New Jersey would on average pay over $1,100 in insurance premiums. That same man living in a more rural area such as Wyoming would pay less than a third of that price.
Location is not the only factor that can play a role in your insurance price. Other factors such as age, driving record, credit report, and car type can also play a major role. However, many of these factors are long term, and if mistakes are made, one would have to wait as long a few years for corrections to be made. As extreme as it sounds, many Americans cut their insurance rates drastically just by moving to a quieter, more rural area of their state.

Landlords House Insurance

Landlords and Property Owners have many options when it comes to the management of their property or properties. From sorting everything on their own to employing the services of a property management company. Here are therefore some tips for Landlords and Property Owners to make sure their assets are protected:
What can you do to protect your property?
Landlord Insurance is available so that in the event of a loss (by an insured event) you will be protected and covered. In order to reduce the chances of a loss you can however take certain steps to help. These include:
- Make your property more secure by installing deadlocks on doors and locks on the windows.
- Install an alarm system. Many insurers will offer a lower premium because you have lowered the risk of loss through theft. For certain postal areas a minimum level of security will be required.
- Remove potential fire hazards from around the outside of the house as well as inside
- particularly around the kitchen.
- Make sure you have working smoke detectors and a suitable fire extinguisher. Put the extinguisher somewhere handy and make sure members of your household know how to use it.
What should you insure your contents for?
As a landlord, it's quite possible that the property that you are letting contains contents that you own. It is important to note these contents and ensure that you have provided adequate cover for them in your insurance policy. It might be worth doing a room by room inventory and working exactly what level of cover you require. Again though if you are in any doubt, just ask your Insurance Broker.
How can landlords minimize financial losses related to repairs and maintenance?
You can avoid many problems by maintaining the property in excellent condition. Here's how:
- Use a written checklist to inspect the premises and fix any problems before new tenants move in.
- Encourage tenants to immediately report safety or security problems such as plumbing, heating, broken doors or steps
- whether in the tenant's unit or in common areas such as hallways and garages.
- Keep a written log of all tenant complaints and repair requests with details as to how and when problems were fixed.
- Handle urgent repairs as soon as possible
- take care of any safety issues within 24 hours. Keep tenants informed as to when and how the repairs will be made.
- Twice a year, give tenants a checklist on which to report potential safety hazards or maintenance problems that might have been overlooked. Use the same checklist to personally inspect all rental units once a year.
Also, your commitment to repair and maintenance procedures should be clearly set out in the lease or rental agreement. Owning a property or a portfolio of properties can be very rewarding so follow these simple tips and make sure you and your properties are protected at all times.
This article was written by Mark Burdett, Marketing Manager of Northern Counties Insurance Brokers

Car Insurance Online Quotes

In only a short while, you can obtain several great quotes. You'll even get very affordable auto insurance (online) quote as you'll be able to contrast quotes and packages and be able to make quite informed decisions on what's best for your vehicle insurance. Add the ease of use and you'll agree that there is no reason to do this any other way. You may wonder why such great online resources are free and what the catch might be...
Businesses normally use up much money in getting clients. Although clients do NOT truly contemplate this, this outlay is usually included in the price of the solution or product they procure. If it's a competitive industry, the cost of getting buyers will be higher. This will end up inflating what you ultimately pay. What does this information have to do with making savings in your auto insurance? You'll soon see...
An insurance agent usually contacts you and makes an attempt to sell insurance plans to you. This is the regular process of customer acquisition in the insurance market. You eventually pay for a policy if you're won over. The cost of taking care of such agents is part of the insurance company's overheads. Nevertheless, by now you understand it's included in the bill you are given.
However, by getting your auto insurance quotes and buying online, you remove that cost to the insurance company. Include how much easier it is for insurance companies to coordinate data online and you'll certainly agree they will prefer it. So, you guessed right: They hand over part of those savings to you.
You could easily get the best auto insurance quote online by simply receiving quotes from not less than three insurance quotes sites. Requesting quotes from a minimum of three quotes sites increase the chances that you'd realize bigger savings.
This is because offers not covered by one site would be covered by the other. And because your chances of getting lower insurance quotes has to do with the range of quotes you receive, the more insurance companies you obtain quotes from, the higher your chances. This offers you a broader basis for doing more extensive comparisons thereby increasing your chances of realizing more savings.

House Insurance Buy To Let

After a series of five interest rate rises in eleven months buy to let lenders are still insisting that buy to let even today is still a sound bet. Should consumers be viewing this as merely feelgood propaganda in a time of uncertainty and should the realisation of the bandwagon having passed by that it may well be too late, or does the great British love affair with property underpin the whole ideal.
The buy to let positives can be typically drawn from lenders commentaries and confirm that the average total return for a buy to let investor was 13.0 per cent over the past year to June 2007, exclusive of fees and mortgage interest costs. The price of the typical buy to let property in the UK increased by 7.3 per cent over the year to June 2007 and house price growth rose slightly over the past year from 6.0 per cent in June 2006.
UK Buy To Let rental yields have fallen marginally over the past year to 5.5 per cent in June 2007 from 5.7 per cent in June 2006. Nationally, the average rent increased to £651 per month in June 2007, compared with £623 per month in June 2006.
By region, total returns for buy to let investors were highest in Northern Ireland over the year to June 2007, followed by Scotland and the South East. The lowest returns seen in the East Midlands. rental voids (the time a property is empty) have fallen for the last nine months and is at 2.8% confirming strong tenant demand. Voids have remained somewhat stable between 2.6 and 3.0 weeks for the majority of the last four years but have declined over the first half of 2006.
Most Investors though simply want to cover costs as their property investments are seen as long-term. Intimating that an investment into bricks and mortar is the preferred route than into a pension. Accepting that there will always be peaks and troughs and to weather the storm. Landlords who bought ten years ago will no doubt be more comfortable with this scenario than novice landlords. Landlords entering the market today will also be greeted with lender arrangement fees of up to 2.5% of the advance compared with a standard arrangement fee over a year ago of between £300 to £500.
More lenders have also entered the market with relaxed criteria increasing loans to 90% of the property value and reducing rental income cover in some cases to between 100% and 115%. One lender no longer looks at rental income at all and/or earned income, justifying the decision by saying rental income was not a robust test, as many lenders accepted the word of a letting agent on rental achieved.
Tenant deposit protection schemes were launched on Friday 6 April. Under new regulations, all landlords will be required to protect their tenants' deposit using one of three government-authorised schemes alongside two insurance-based schemes which allow landlords to retain the full deposit amount themselves. These schemes require a fee to join, and a premium is payable for each protected deposit. Only any disputed amount is passed to the scheme at the end of the tenancy period. Landlords of properties that house five or more tenants and are at least three storeys high (House of multiple occupancy) from April 6 2006 have to apply for a mandatory license from their local authority and meet a raft of criteria. Including upgrading fire and safety regulations to installing wash basins in every bedroom, this latter criteria was branded as 'daft' by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The license fee is set by individual councils and will not be uniform. Around 10 per cent of the 2.6m private rented UK households are defined as houses of multiple occupancy.
Reports also suggest that Revenue & Customs are stalking 80,000 landlords over incorrect payment of tax. The buy-to-let market is coming under fire for rendering the housing market even more unattainable for first time buyers. In its annual plan for 2005-06 the OFT identified and prioritised attention to landlords who ignore legislation. The OFT guidance outlines why some standard contract terms used in tenancy agreements are considered to be potentially unfair. While landlords also have a potential green tax to look forward to in 2008.
Many entrepreneurial landlords are now looking further afield to enjoy the previous returns while also securing their own piece of paradise. Current developments in Thailand and The Dominican Republic offer guaranteed rental yields of 8% and ten years of tax incentives and no purchase tax. while the term 'off plan' within the UK property market may well have lost some resonance and compounded by the wettest summer since records began, the incentives along with sharing paradise with 10 people per acre is realising significant demand.
Mortgage-Loan-UK is a premier resource for personal finance information along with an extensive collection of mortgage related calculators. For more information on the Buy to Let mortgage database and Caribbean property visit us now.

Insurance Auto Quote

Finding auto insurance quotes online is easy, but finding the cheapest auto insurance rates can be more of a challenge. To get the lowest quotes, follow these tips to help you find ways to trim possibly hundreds off your auto insurance quotes.
1. Give them details – If you don’t provide information about your zip code, marital status, car’s safety features, and annual commuting miles, by default insurance companies will quote you a higher auto insurance rate. Provide as much detail as possible to make sure you get each discount that you qualify for.
2. Shop around – Auto insurance rates can vary as much as 300% between companies for the same coverage. You can save hundreds of dollars a year by comparing prices between companies. Don’t forget to check out your current insurance company, they may have lower rates for new customers that you may be able to negotiate for yourself.
3. Raise your deductible – Higher deductibles equal lower insurance premiums. For example, increasing your deductible from $250 to $500, can save you a hundred dollars or more on your annual premium. However, plan on having additional financial resources to cover the deductible in case of an accident.
4. Cut the miles you drive – For drivers who travel on average 40 miles or less a day, they qualify for a low mileage discount with most insurance companies. Consider carpooling or taking public transit a couple of days a week to reduce your car’s mileage to qualify for the discount. By flying or taking a train for vacations instead of driving, you can further reduce the miles on your car.
5. Switch drivers – For married couples, compare insurance quotes between the male as the main driver and the female as the main driver. You may get a lower quote if the female is insured on a truck and the male is insured on the minivan. Teens should also be insured on safer cars such as the family sedan, rather than a sports car.
6. Add an anti-theft device – By installing car alarms or a tracking system in your car, you will get a discount from auto insurance companies. Since anti-theft devices reduce the risk of your car being stolen, insurance companies pass on the savings to you. A certified defensive-driving class can also reduce your premium for three years with most insurance companies.

Insurance Australia

1. Structure
a) The Nomination, Remuneration & Sustainability Committee ("the Committee") is established by resolution of the Board of Insurance Australia Group Limited ("IAG"). References to "Board" means the Board of IAG.

b) The Committee shall comprise of up to five members, who shall be non-executive directors of IAG all of whom are independent, where independent has the meaning attributed to it in the ASX Corporate Governance Council’s Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations.

c) The Committee may consider any matter that falls within the roles and responsibilities delegated to it by the Board, notwithstanding that the particular matter(s) may have been previously referred to, and considered by another Board Committee.

d) The Board of IAG shall appoint the Committee and its Chair. If the Chair is not present within 15 minutes after the time appointed for holding a committee meeting, the Committee members may choose one of their members as Chair of the meeting.

e) The Committee shall review this charter from time to time, as it deems appropriate, and refer any proposed amendments to the IAG Board for approval.

f) The Committee will annually review fulfilment of its responsibilities as set out in this Charter.
2. Role
The role of the Committee includes the following:
a) Provide advice and support to the Board in fulfilling its responsibilities to shareholders to ensure that the Board is comprised of persons who have the necessary range of skills, expertise and experience to enable it to discharge its responsibilities effectively;

b) Provide advice and support to the Board in the performance, composition and size of the Board;

c) Oversee corporate governance, board performance and composition of IAG subsidiary and associated companies

d) Provide assurance to the Board relating to the effectiveness, integrity and compliance of IAG’s remuneration policies and practices;

e) Ensure the overall remuneration policy and approach fits the strategic goals of IAG; and

f) Ensure the issues of corporate reputation, social responsibility, and IAG’s commitments around safety, environment, and community, stakeholder views are appropriately considered in the context of IAG’s view of its corporate purpose and strategy and the importance of corporate reputation to the delivery of sustainable value for shareholders.

Online Term Life Insurance Quotes!

There is a list of great term life insurance links above. Online term life insurance quotes have played a dramatic role in driving down the cost of term life insurance rates. Why is this? Term life rates have decreased substantially due to the increased price transparency of the Internet, the highly competitive nature of the insurance industry, and the convenience of the online quoting process. All of these three factors have helped many Americans to find very affordable term life quotes online.Price Transparency of the Internet10-20 years ago shopping for term life insurance could be a gigantic hassle. When you consider that an appointment would need to be scheduled, illustrations would need to be prepared, and a sales presentation endured all simply to see some concrete numbers. (And that is not even taking into consideration the fact that it was next to impossible to compare more than two different companies side by side). Now with the price transparency of the Internet rates have dropped quite a bit as insurance shoppers can now just compare online price quotes in less time that it takes to brush your teeth.Highly Competitive Nature of the Insurance IndustryThe insurance industry is extremely competitive, especially in the area of term life insurance. With the exception of Return of Premium (ROP) term and a few other term insurance variations there is not really a whole lot of difference in one term life insurance policy versus another. Yes, you want to choose an insurance company that is rated an “A” or higher by AM Best for their financial strength and yes, you want a big company that you can trust but once those criteria are satisfied then term life insurance is a very commoditized product. This ability to compare “like to like” and “apples to apples” puts tremendous downward pressure on insurance companies to maintain competitive term life insurance rates.Convenience of the Online Quoting ProcessNo appointment is necessary. No traveling is necessary. No sales presentation is necessary. No requirement to request information during standard 9-5 business hours is necessary. All of these positives are reasons why the online life insurance quoting process is fast becoming a preferred avenue for many Americans. You can now request life insurance quotes from multiple insurance companies and view some solid numbers from the comfort of your own home or office.Make sure you check out the list of great term life insurance resources above

what is insurance

Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium. Insurer, in economics, is the company that sells the insurance. Insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount, called the premium, to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.

Principles of insurance

1. A large number of homogeneous exposure units. The vast majority of insurance policies are provided for individual members of very large classes. Automobile insurance, for example, covered about 175 million automobiles in the United States in 2004.^[2] The existence of a large number of homogeneous exposure units allows insurers to benefit from the so-called “law of large numbers,” which in effect states that as the number of exposure units increases, the actual results are increasingly likely to become close to expected results. There are exceptions to this criterion. Lloyd's of London is famous for insuring the life or health of actors, actresses and sports figures. Satellite Launch insurance covers events that are infrequent. Large commercial property policies may insure exceptional properties for which there are no ‘homogeneous’ exposure units. Despite failing on this criterion, many exposures like these are generally considered to be insurable.
2. Definite Loss. The event that gives rise to the loss that is subject to insurance should, at least in principle, take place at a known time, in a known place, and from a known cause. The classic example is death of an insured on a life insurance policy. Fire, automobile accidents, and worker injuries may all easily meet this criterion. Other types of losses may only be definite in theory. Occupational disease, for instance, may involve prolonged exposure to injurious conditions where no specific time, place or cause is identifiable. Ideally, the time, place and cause of a loss should be clear enough that a reasonable person, with sufficient information, could objectively verify all three elements.
3. Accidental Loss. The event that constitutes the trigger of a claim should be fortuitous, or at least outside the control of the beneficiary of the insurance. The loss should be ‘pure,’ in the sense that it results from an event for which there is only the opportunity for cost. Events that contain speculative elements, such as ordinary business risks, are generally not considered insurable.
4. Large Loss. The size of the loss must be meaningful from the perspective of the insured. Insurance premiums need to cover both the expected cost of losses, plus the cost of issuing and administering the policy, adjusting losses, and supplying the capital needed to reasonably assure that the insurer will be able to pay claims. For small losses these latter costs may be several times the size of the expected cost of losses. There is little point in paying such costs unless the protection offered has real value to a buyer.
5. Affordable Premium. If the likelihood of an insured event is so high, or the cost of the event so large, that the resulting premium is large relative to the amount of protection offered, it is not likely that anyone will buy insurance, even if on offer. Further, as the accounting profession formally recognizes in financial accounting standards (See FAS 113 for example), the premium cannot be so large that there is not a reasonable chance of a significant loss to the insurer. If there is no such chance of loss, the transaction may have the form of insurance, but not the substance.
6. Calculable Loss. There are two elements that must be at least estimatable, if not formally calculable: the probability of loss, and the attendant cost. Probability of loss is generally an empirical exercise, while cost has more to do with the ability of a reasonable person in possession of a copy of the insurance policy and a proof of loss associated with a claim presented under that policy to make a reasonably definite and objective evaluation of the amount of the loss recoverable as a result of the claim.
7. Limited risk of catastrophically large losses. The essential risk is often aggregation. If the same event can cause losses to numerous policyholders of the same insurer, the ability of that insurer to issue policies becomes constrained, not by factors surrounding the individual characteristics of a given policyholder, but by the factors surrounding the sum of all policyholders so exposed. Typically, insurers prefer to limit their exposure to a loss from a single event to some small portion of their capital base, on the order of 5%. Where the loss can be aggregated, or an individual policy could produce exceptionally large claims, the capital constraint will restrict an insurers appetite for additional policyholders. The classic example is earthquake insurance, where the ability of an underwriter to issue a new policy depends on the number and size of the policies that it has already underwritten. Wind insurance in hurricane zones, particularly along coast lines, is another example of this phenomenon. In extreme cases, the aggregation can affect the entire industry, since the combined capital of insurers and reinsurers can be small compared to the needs of potential policyholders in areas exposed to aggregation risk. In commercial fire insurance it is possible to find single properties whose total exposed value is well in excess of any individual insurer’s capital constraint. Such properties are generally shared among several insurers, or are insured by a single insurer who syndicates the risk into the reinsurance market.

History of insurance

In some sense we can say that insurance appears simultaneously with the appearance of human society. We know of two types of economies in human societies: money economies (with markets, money, financial instruments and so on) and non-money or natural economies (without money, markets, financial instruments and so on). The second type is a more ancient form than the first. In such an economy and community, we can see insurance in the form of people helping each other. For example, if a house burns down, the members of the community help build a new one. Should the same thing happen to one's neighbour, the other neighbours must help. Otherwise, neighbours will not receive help in the future. This type of insurance has survived to the present day in some countries where modern money economy with its financial instruments is not widespread (for example countries in the territory of the former Soviet Union).

Turning to insurance in the modern sense (i.e., insurance in a modern money economy, in which insurance is part of the financial sphere), early methods of transferring or distributing risk were practiced by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, respectively. Chinese merchants traveling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessel's capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c. 1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen.

Achaemenian monarchs were the first to insure their people and made it official by registering the insuring process in governmental notary offices. The insurance tradition was performed each year in Norouz (beginning of the Iranian New Year); the heads of different ethnic groups as well as others willing to take part, presented gifts to the monarch. The most important gift was presented during a special ceremony. When a gift was worth more than 10,000 Derrik (Achaemenian gold coin weighing 8.35-8.42) the issue was registered in a special office. This was advantageous to those who presented such special gifts. For others, the presents were fairly assessed by the confidants of the court. Then the assessment was registered in special offices.

The purpose of registering was that whenever the person who presented the gift registered by the court was in trouble, the monarch and the court would help him. Jahez, a historian and writer, writes in one of his books on ancient Iran: "[W]henever the owner of the present is in trouble or wants to construct a building, set up a feast, have his children married, etc. the one in charge of this in the court would check the registration. If the registered amount exceeded 10,000 Derrik, he or she would receive an amount of twice as much."

A thousand years later, the inhabitants of Rhodes invented the concept of the 'general average'. Merchants whose goods were being shipped together would pay a proportionally divided premium which would be used to reimburse any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during storm or sinkage.

The Greeks and Romans introduced the origins of health and life insurance c. 600 AD when they organized guilds called "benevolent societies" which cared for the families and paid funeral expenses of members upon death. Guilds in the Middle Ages served a similar purpose. The Talmud deals with several aspects of insuring goods. Before insurance was established in the late 17th century, "friendly societies" existed in England, in which people donated amounts of money to a general sum that could be used for emergencies.

Separate insurance contracts (i.e., insurance policies not bundled with loans or other kinds of contracts) were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, as were insurance pools backed by pledges of landed estates. These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, a separation of roles that first proved useful in marine insurance. Insurance became far more sophisticated in post-Renaissance Europe, and specialized varieties developed.

Toward the end of the seventeenth century, London's growing importance as a center for trade increased demand for marine insurance. In the late 1680s, Mr. Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house that became a popular haunt of ship owners, merchants, and ships’ captains, and thereby a reliable source of the latest shipping news. It became the meeting place for parties wishing to insure cargoes and ships, and those willing to underwrite such ventures. Today, Lloyd's of London remains the leading market (note that it is not an insurance company) for marine and other specialist types of insurance, but it works rather differently than the more familiar kinds of insurance.

Insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, which in 1666 devoured 13,200 houses. In the aftermath of this disaster, Nicholas Barbon opened an office to insure buildings. In 1680, he established England's first fire insurance company, "The Fire Office," to insure brick and frame homes.

The first insurance company in the United States underwrote fire insurance and was formed in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), South Carolina, in 1732.

Benjamin Franklin helped to popularize and make standard the practice of insurance, particularly against fire in the form of perpetual insurance. In 1752, he founded the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin's company was the first to make contributions toward fire prevention. Not only did his company warn against certain fire hazards, it refused to insure certain buildings where the risk of fire was too great, such as all wooden houses.

In the United States, regulation of the insurance industry is highly Balkanized, with primary responsibility assumed by individual state insurance departments. Whereas insurance markets have become centralized nationally and internationally, state insurance commissioners operate individually, though at times in concert through a national insurance commissioners' organization. In recent years, some have called for a dual state and federal regulatory system for insurance similar to that which oversees state banks and national banks.

In the state of New York, which has unique laws in keeping with its stature as a global business center, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was in a unique position to grapple with major national insurance brokerages. Spitzer alleged that Marsh & McLennan steered business to insurance carriers based on the amount of contingent commissions that could be extracted from carriers, rather than basing decisions on whether carriers had the best deals for clients. Several of the largest commercial insurance brokerages have since stopped accepting contingent commissions and have adopted new business models.