What is the meaning of Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation?

Answer 1

'insurance is a subject matter of solicitation', which essentially means that insurance has to be requested or asked for, not sold. - Souvik Maitra To fully understand the meaning of this cryptic phrase, take a look at the wording of any insurance policy that has been issued by an insurance company to a customer. Every insurance policy says that the insurance company is providing you insurance against a risk on YOUR request/solicitation, i.e. the company agreed to sell you its insurance policy after you solicited or asked for such a sale. In legal terms, insurance is a product that should not be pushed by a seller, but should be pulled by a buyer. That doesn't happen in real life, though -- Kapil Bajaj

Answer 2

This has something to do with the following concept behind the insurance: (1) The Insurer (i.e. insurance company) and Insured (i.e. an individual) enter into a legal contract. The Insured pay a premium to the Insurer and in return the Insurer assures the Insured to compensate him against the losses or hazards mentioned in the contract. (2) The Insured has an insurable interest in the subject matter (i.e. some property or life of certain individual). This means that the Insured stands to gain if the subject matter is protected against the hazards and will stand to lose if any damage is caused to the subject matter. (3) Though the Insurer assures the Insured to compensate against certain type of losses, he do not assure to compensate 'all' the losses. In any case the Insured stand to lose 'something' in case of loss of damage to the subject matter. (For example, one can not get a property insured at a higher amount than its actual value and then stand to gain from insurance claim in case the property is damaged. This will be a breach of contract.) (4) Even after entering into insurance contract with Insurer, the Insured will take all reasonable and appropriate steps for the safety of the subject matter. For example, if a house is insured against theft, fire, etc, the Insured party can not delibrately or negligently expose the house to such hazards. (5) The Insurer approaches, prompts, lure (???) the Insured to enter into the insurance agreement. However, the Insured party is supposed to reveal all relevant information related to the subject matter in 'good faith'. For example, in case of life insurance the Insured is supposed to expressely reveal to the Insurer of any health complications, etc that he is aware of and that may have some impact on the insurance contract. (The insurance premium is decided keeping in view possible risk, so if some factors are concealed, it will impact the amount of premium.)