Reserve is the amount of funds or assets necessary for a company to have at any given time to enable it, with interest and premiums paid as they shall
accrue, to meet all claims on the insurance. The reserve is always reckoned as a liability, and is calculated on net premiums. When a business creates a “Reserve”, they are essentially setting aside a certain amount of money for a specific purpose. Reserves are monies set aside to act as a buffer against future losses.Reserving is a fundamental aspect of a business management principle. It is all the more a basic requirement for an Insurance company as it reflects in the insurance companies’ balance sheet. The change in reserves is a significant item on the income statement. A small change, adjustment, or error in the reserves can have a major impact on the income reported by a company. Actuaries calculate the reserves.To emphasize the impact of Reserve, we shall see an example -Reserves of Insurance Company “X” –1,34,60,59,480
Change in Reserves– 7,21,69,080
Net Income– 13,28,303In this example, a 0.1% error in the reserves would wipe out the net income itself.Hence, it is clear that the apparent profitability of a business as well as its solvency is highly dependent on the value of the reserves. Most of the key functional performance statistics used by insurance company analysts depend in some way upon the reserve value.The reserving process provides great insights in to the past claims performance and policy exposures and these can influence the terms and conditions offered on future business, including the basis of decisions to cease underwriting certain classes or to withdraw from insurance entirely in order to support alternative enterprises that may offer better rates of return or capital.Claims that occur during a year of insurance are generally paid of the premiums received during that year. But, it is obvious that, while closing of accounts there could be a number of claims which are unpaid and will be settled in the following year.For this purpose, the Insurer has to keep aside a reserve amount to settle those claims. This amount set aside for paying out the claims is called the Reserve for Outstanding Claims.The reason why there is such spill over of claims settlement could be:1.Some claims may be in the process of investigation, survey, arbitration or litigation.
2.There can be some other claims which have been surveyed but final payment not released.Such reserves normally include the amount of liability for claims that are classified as:a)Reported and surveyed but not yet paid
b)Reported but not yet surveyed.The reserve for outstanding claims also includes provision for Incurred but not reported (also called IBNR claims). Here, claims may arise in the year of account but may be intimated during the following year.Majority of General Insurance policies are annual contracts and issued throughout the year. Such contracts tend to end on different dates. Their end dates can come or claims can occur after the date of reckoning for accounting purposes. Summarily, as at the closing date of accounts, there will be unexpired liability under various policies and it becomes necessary for the Insurance Company to make provision to pay for losses which may occur during the unexpired term of the policies. Such provisions are called as Reserves for the Unexpired Risk or Unearned Premium Reserve.We can actually calculate the unexpired portion of the premium under each policy. But, the data involved would be large. There are several methods for calculation of the unexpired portion of the premium. Some of the most popular ones are: Pro-rata or 1/365 method, 1/24 method, 1/8 method, Blanket method based on some set forth percentage, which is being used widely. There is a simple calculation formulated by means of a percentage of premium income that can be allotted for reserves for unexpired risk.This calculation is based on some valid assumptions like:Under Policies issued duringUnexpired risk as at the end of the following year 1st quarter ј 2nd quarter 2/4 or Ѕ 3rd quarter ѕ 4th quarter 1/1 Average 5/8 i.e. 62% approx.Assuming that all policies are evenly distributed throughout the year, the percentage of premiums which have not been earned at the end of the year will is 62 percent.Further, the percentage is reduced to 60% taking into consideration some short period policies which would expire before the closing of accounts. Provision for commission and management expenses is not required because it is already collected as a part of the premium rate. So, 40% is the logical percentage that would be required as provision for reserve.But, as per the provisions of the Insurance Act, 1938, insurers are required to provide to 50% of the premium in fire, marine, cargo and miscellaneous classes and 100% in marine hull insurance as reserves.