General Insurance Products
Core concepts
General insurance covers short-term, non-life risks and is usually renewed annually. Candidates must know the main classes: motor (compulsory third-party liability, plus comprehensive cover), household (buildings and contents, often with accidental damage extensions), travel, pet, private medical, and commercial lines such as employers' liability, public liability and professional indemnity.
Learn the structure of a policy: declarations, insuring clauses, exclusions, conditions and definitions. Understand sum insured versus sum insured limit versus policy limit (per-claim, per-event, aggregate). Know excess (the first part of a loss the insured bears) and franchise (no cover at all unless the loss exceeds the threshold). Understand betterment, salvage, subrogation and contribution between policies.
Traps
Questions often test buildings versus contents (fixtures and fittings are buildings; movable items are contents). Watch for average/underinsurance on commercial and household policies, and for exclusions that candidates overlook - e.g. wear and tear, gradual deterioration, or damage caused by an unoccupied property. Another trap is the motor third-party only minimum versus comprehensive cover, and whether employers' liability is compulsory (in the UK, generally yes, with limited exemptions).
Worked rule of thumb
When a loss is covered by two policies, apply contribution: each insurer pays its rateable share. If policy A has a £200,000 sum insured and policy B £100,000 on the same £60,000 loss, A pays £40,000 and B pays £20,000 (two-thirds/one-third).