Iowa Code
Chapter 515F - CASUALTY INSURANCE
Section 515F.2 - Definitions.

515F.2 Definitions.
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. “Advisory organization” means an entity, including its affiliates or subsidiaries, which either has two or more member insurers or is controlled either directly or indirectly by two or more insurers, and which assists insurers in ratemaking-related activities such as enumerated in sections 515F.10 and 515F.11. Two or more insurers having a common ownership or operating in this state under common management or control constitute a single insurer for purposes of this definition.
2. “Commercial risk” means any kind of risk which is not a personal risk.
3. “Commissioner” means the commissioner of insurance.
4. “Developed losses” means losses, including loss adjustment expenses, adjusted, using standard actuarial techniques, to eliminate the effect of differences between current payment or reserve estimates and those needed to provide actual ultimate loss, including loss adjustment expense, payments.
5. “Expenses” means that portion of a rate attributable to acquisition, field supervision, collection expenses, general expenses, taxes, licenses, and fees.
6. “Joint underwriting” means a voluntary arrangement established on an ad hoc basis to provide insurance coverage for a commercial risk pursuant to which two or more insurers jointly contract with the insured at a price and under policy terms agreed upon between the insurers.
7. “Loss trending” means a procedure for projecting developed losses to the average date of loss for the period during which the policies are to be effective.
8. “Personal risk” means insurance covering homeowners, tenants, private passenger nonfleet automobiles, and mobile homes, and other property and casualty insurance for personal, family, or household needs.
9. “Pool” means a voluntary arrangement, established on an ongoing basis, pursuant to which two or more insurers participate in the sharing of risks on a predetermined basis. The pool may operate through an association, syndicate, or other pooling agreement.
10. “Prospective loss costs” means that portion of a rate that does not include provisions for expenses (other than loss adjustment expenses) or profit, and is based on historical aggregate losses and loss adjustment expenses adjusted through development to their ultimate value and projected through trending to a future point in time.
11. “Rate” means the cost of insurance per exposure unit whether expressed as a single number or as a prospective loss cost with an adjustment to account for the treatment of expenses, profit, and individual insurer variation in loss experience, prior to any application of individual risk variations based on loss or expense considerations, and does not include minimum premium.
12. “Residual market mechanism” means an arrangement, either voluntary or mandated by law, involving participation by insurers in the equitable apportionment among them of insurance which may be offered to applicants who are unable to obtain insurance through ordinary methods.
13. “Supplementary rating information” includes a manual or plan of rates, classification, rating schedule, minimum premium, policy fee, rating rule, underwriting rule, statistical plan, and any other similar information needed to determine the applicable rate in effect or to be in effect.
14. “Supporting information” means the experience and judgment of the filer and the experience or data of other insurers or advisory organizations relied upon by the filer, the interpretation of any other data relied upon by the filer, descriptions of methods used in making the rates, and any other information required by the commissioner to be filed.
90 Acts, ch 1234, §46; 2018 Acts, ch 1041, §104; 2021 Acts, ch 181, §24, 25
Referred to in §515F.23
NEW unnumbered paragraph 1
NEW subsection 3 and former subsections 3 – 13 renumbered as 4 – 14