Insurance refers to the commercial behavior of establishing an insurance fund with centralized insurance premiums to compensate the insured for losses caused by natural disasters or accidents, or to bear the responsibility of paying insurance money when an individual dies, is disabled, falls ill or reaches the age limit agreed in the contract.
Insurance is a safe and reliable guarantee; Later, it was extended to a guarantee mechanism, a tool for planning life finance, a basic means of risk management under the condition of market economy, and an important pillar of financial system and social security system.
The content of insurance can be revealed from two angles: from the economic point of view, insurance is a financial arrangement to share the losses of accidents, and the losses of a few unfortunate members are shared by all members, including the injured; From a legal point of view, insurance is a contractual arrangement between the insurer and the applicant. The insurer agrees to compensate the insured or beneficiary for losses or pay insurance money, and the insured transfers the risk to the insurer by purchasing an insurance unit.
Buying savings insurance products from insurance companies is not only for personal safety, but also a way of investment. As an investment method, insurance can exempt banks from personal interest income tax, which has great advantages. Besides long-term life insurance products, other insurance claims are also tax-free. However, in China's insurance industry, there has always been a problem of predetermined interest rate, which will be paid to the insured when the premium is returned, while the predetermined interest rate of domestic insurance is very close to the bank interest rate.
From the beginning, human society has been confronted with natural disasters and accidents. In the process of struggling with nature, ancient people came up with insurance ideas and original insurance methods to deal with disasters and accidents. Around 2500 BC, the king of Babylon ordered monks, judges and village heads to collect taxes as fire fighting funds. Masons in ancient Egypt set up funeral mutual aid organizations to solve the problem of raising funeral funds by paying membership fees. Soldiers' organizations in the Roman Empire provided living expenses for the survivors of fallen soldiers in the form of fund-raising and gradually formed an insurance system. With the development of trade, around 1792 BC, it was the era of Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon, and the business was prosperous. In order to help commerce and protect the goods of mules, horses and caravans that compensate for losses, in code of hammurabi, it is stipulated that * * * should share the compensation for losses.