People at all times tried to protect themselves as best as possible from all sorts of dangers of natural, social, man-made origin. Insurance has become a universal tool that contributes to the achievement of these goals, which is a kind of economic relations aimed at ensuring the protection of people and their activities from various dangers.
In a broad sense, insurance includes various types of insurance activities: insurance, reinsurance, coinsurance, which in general constitute insurance coverage. In the narrow sense, it represents a legal relationship arising on a contractual basis between the policyholder and the insurer in order to protect the property interests of the policyholder in the event of certain unfavorable events for him - insured events.
The essence of insurance lies in the fact that persons using this legal institution are provided with insurance protection, which consists in the preliminary formation of funds from contributions of persons interested in insuring their property, life and health, business risks, etc. In the event of an insured event, the injured party receives a monetary compensation from this fund, which covers the damage caused.
There are many approaches to classifying the types of insurance activities. In the most common version, two types are distinguished: life insurance - personal - and all other types of insurance that are not related to life insurance (property insurance).
Personal insurance is subject to the property interests of persons directly related to their life, health, possible changes in working capacity, and future retirement benefits. The object of property insurance is exclusively property interests related to the right of ownership - issues of ownership, use and disposal of property.
The federal law "On the organization of insurance business in the Russian Federation" provides for two forms of insurance: compulsory and voluntary. Mandatory is established by the state in order to protect priority objects, i.e. in cases where the need for material compensation for the damage caused affects the interests of not only specific individuals, but also the entire society.
Compulsory state insurance is carried out by insurance organizations for budgetary funds. Voluntary insurance, in contrast to compulsory, arises exclusively on the basis of a voluntarily concluded contract between the insurer and the policyholder. The insurance contract is confirmed by the issuance of an insurance policy.
