Elephant.co.uk

elephant.co.uk, a trading name of EUI Limited,is a car insurance specialist which launched in August 2000. Its head offices are in Ty Admiral, David Street, Cardiff, Wales. The company also has offices in Swansea and Newport, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. It shares these with its sister companies Admiral Insurance, Diamond Insurance and Bell Insurance. The company is a subsidiary of the Admiral Group.

When it launched, elephant.co.uk was the UK’s first wholly online car insurance provider, although it also has call centres so customers are able to contact it.

The Admiral Group floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004, it is currently the only FTSE 100 listed company headquartered in Wales. It employs more than 5,000 people and has more than 3 million customers. The company’s turnover was £2.19 billion in 2011.

Elephant Motorbike Insurance is arranged and administered by Vast Visibility Limited (8 Princes Parade, Princes Dock, Liverpool L3 1DL) - FCA registration number 566973, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.At Elephant, we're just as keen on two (or three) wheels as four, which is good news for you if you're a biker. Use a dedicated motorbike insurance comparison site to search over 30 brokers and bring you great cover and value.

Woo-hoo - you're taking a trip! We hope you have a fantastic time - even business trips can be fun. Before we wish you bon voyage, take a look at Elephant Travel Insurance.

You've earned your break, so make sure it goes swimmingly. You shouldn't have to worry about anything on your holiday. With knowledge that you have the right type of cover, you can really relax and enjoy yourself.

Depending on which type of cover you choose, Elephant Travel Insurance offers instant cover with 24-hour emergency support, medical expenses cover and personal accident cover.

Elephant has teamed up with Warranty Direct, the UK's leading Warranty specialist. You can relax, knowing you have a reliable and cost effective way of maintaining your car with an extended car warranty.

Institute of Advanced Motorists

      The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is a charity based in the United Kingdom and serving nine countries, whose objective is to improve car driving and motorcycle riding standards, and so enhance road safety, by using the British police's system of car and motorcycle control commonly known as "the System". The System was devised in 1937 by racing driver Mark Everard Pepys, 6th Earl of Cottenham, to reduce accidents in police pursuits.

People who have passed an IAM test have substantially fewer accidents and typically report getting more pleasure from driving too.Research has shown that IAM training increases a wide range of driving skills,including speed, safe distances,gear changing and cornering.

In 2006, two new assessments were introduced: DriveCheck and RideCheck. These checks provide the opportunity to have your driving or riding ability assessed by an IAM observer. DriveCheck and RideCheck are not, however, a test. There is no pass or fail. The IAM later added DriveCheck55, which offers the opportunity for people over the age of 55 to have driving checked and receive tips from a police Class 1 driver.

At the end of 2006 the organisation formed the IAM Motoring Trust and took over the work of the AA Motoring Trust which had been formed by The Automobile Association in 2002.

In 2010, the IAM published "How to be a better cyclist" (the third in the IAM Series, the others being "How to be a better driver" and "How to be a better rider"). The IAM now offers a special Cycling membership that includes insurance cover.

The IAM Motoring Trust, incorporating the AA Motoring Trust, is the policy and research division road safety of the IAM.It was formed in 2006 to carry out road safety research and advocates for safer roads, drivers and vehicles when the IAM assumed responsibility for the work of the AA Motoring Trust.

The AA Motoring Trust was formed in 2002 after the demutualisation of The Automobile Association in 1999. The Trust was to carry out the organisation's public interest motoring and road safety work.The activities of the AA Motoring Trust were then transferred to the newly formed IAM Motoring Trust on 31 December 2006.

The stated objectives of the organisation are concerned with the undertaking of road safety research, the promotion of practical evidence-based policies to improve road safety, the advocacy of safer roads, drivers and vehicles, and the encouragement of responsible motoring.

AXA insurance

       AXA is a French multinational insurance firm headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that engages in global insurance, investment management, and other financial services. The AXA Group operates primarily in Western Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific region, and the Middle East, with presence also in Africa. AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

The company was originally founded in 1816 as Mutuelle de L'assurance contre L'incendie.It acquired Compagnie Parisienne de Garantie in 1978 and became Mutuelles Unies.It went on to buy the Drouot Group in 1982, becoming Mutuelles Unies/Drouot. It adopted the AXA name in 1985.The takeover of the American insurance company The Equitable, came in 1991.It bought Union des Assurances De Paris (UAP), France's largest insurer, in 1996 becoming AXA-UAP for a while before reverting to the name AXA in 1999.Then in February 1999 AXA acquired Guardian Royal Exchange.In May 2000 AXA acquired all shares it did not already own in Sun Life & Provincial Holdings.On 14 June 2006 AXA acquired the leading Swiss insurance company Winterthur Group from Credit Suisse for approximately €9 billion.

AXA trades in the United Kingdom as AXA UK using a number of subsidiaries such as AXA Sun Life, AXA Insurance, AXA Investment Managers, AXA Wealth and AXA PPP Healthcare. AXA PPP Healthcare was created when AXA bought Guardian Royal Exchange (GRE), though it subsequently sold the other parts of GRE to Aegon. The company also owns the online insurer Swiftcover, distribution business Bluefin and fund manager Architas. In January 2007 AXA was reorganised into "strategic business units" (SBU's) aimed at competing within their specific markets.

AXA Canada offers insurance services through a network of affiliates operating in the different Canadian regions such as Quebec, Ontario, Western Canada and Atlantic Canada. In 2009, the company had a total of approximately 2,300 employees and 4000 brokers and advisors. The head office is in Montreal, Quebec. In 2011, AXA's Canadian operations were acquired by Intact Financial Corp. for C$2.6 billion.

The American arm of AXA is AXA Financial, inc., which is known mainly through its subsidiaries such as AXA Advisors, LLC, AXA Equitable Life Insurance, AXA Network, MONY (former Mutual of New York), US Financial Life, and AllianceBernstein.The Equitable was acquired in 1991; MONY was acquired in 2004.

AXA headquarters is located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.AXA, which already owned 23 Avenue Matignon, acquired the former Hotel de La Vaupalière, an 18th-century building, in the late 1990s. Architect Ricardo Bofill integrated the facade of the hotel with a modern glass building that covers the courtyard that the hotel also occupies. The complex serves as AXA's head office.

Nationwide Insurance

      On December 17, 1925, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation incorporated the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in Columbus, Ohio.At that time, Ohio law required 100 people to pledge to become policyholders. The first agents managed to recruit ten times that number, and on April 12, 1926, Farm Bureau Mutual started business with 1,000 policyholders.

The first product of the new company, as its name implied, was automobile insurance. The company wrote policies only to Ohio farmers. In 1928, Farm Bureau Mutual began offering policies to West Virginia farmers, followed by Maryland, Delaware, Vermont, and North Carolina. Farm Bureau Mutual began underwriting residents of small towns in 1931, and residents in larger cities in 1934.

Also in 1934, Farm Bureau Mutual began offering fire insurance. This product grew the following year with the purchase of a struggling fire insurance company. With growth came a need for expansion of office space. In 1936, the company moved to the famous 246 Building at 246 N. High Street in Columbus. By 1943, Farm Bureau Mutual operated in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Even with the tripling of space in the 246 Building (which was finally dedicated on the 25th anniversary of the company), Farm Bureau Mutual still had insufficient office space, and began opening regional offices in 1951.

In 1955, Farm Bureau Mutual changed its name to Nationwide Insurance, a name by which it is commonly known today. In the 10 years that followed, Nationwide expanded into Oregon, making the company truly "nationwide". It also expanded into 19 other states, bringing the total by 1965 to 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Nationwide outgrew the 246 Building by the 1970s and work began on a new skyscraper headquarters for the company. In 1978, One Nationwide Plaza was completed at the southwest corner of N. High Street and Nationwide Blvd. on the northern edge of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Since 1988, Nationwide has added the following to its presence in Downtown Columbus: Plaza Two (on the northeast corner of High Street and Chestnut), Plaza Three (just west of High Street and Chestnut), Plaza Four (Front Street), 275 Marconi (behind Plazas One and Three on Marconi Blvd), and 10 West Nationwide, which together with Plaza One form the primary downtown complex. In addition to downtown Columbus, Nationwide also has a significant presence in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan suburbs of Dublin and Grove City.

On September 24, 2007 Columbus Children's Hospital was rededicated as Nationwide Children's Hospital. This was done in response to a $50 million donation to the hospital by Nationwide.

By 1997, the city of Columbus had grown to become the 15th largest city in the United States. However, Columbus by this time was the largest American city without a professional sports franchise competing in the top leagues in the United States (i.e., Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, or the National Hockey League). After plans to move the Hartford Whalers to Columbus failed when voters rejected a tax levy, the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company announced that it would build an arena adjacent to One Nationwide Plaza in an effort to bring an NHL franchise to Columbus. This second effort was successful, and the Columbus Blue Jackets began play at Nationwide Arena in late 2000. Nationwide Arena, named for the company, is the centerpiece of the Arena District, an area of entertainment venues, restaurants, and hotels linking downtown Columbus with The Short North neighborhood.

The Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer were actually the first Major League franchise representing Columbus in the post-war era, and they play at their own stadium, Columbus Crew Stadium, which was the first Soccer-specific stadium built in the United States, opening in 1999. The Crew were one of the original members of the MLS, and won their first MLS Cup in 2008.

New York State Insurance Department

      Until 1849, insurance companies doing business in New York State were chartered by special acts of the New York State Legislature.In 1849, the Legislature passed a law requiring prospective insurance companies to file incorporation papers with the New York Secretary of State.The law also vested regulatory power over insurance companies with the State Comptroller, who was authorized to require the companies to submit annual financial statements and to deny a company the right to operate if capital securities and investments did not remain secure.

In 1859, the New York State Legislature created the New York State Insurance Department, and assumed the functions of the Comptroller and Secretary of State relating to insurance.The Department began operations in 1860 and William F. Barnes was the first Superintendent of Insurance.The Home Life Insurance Company based in Brooklyn, New York was the first life insurer to be authorized by the newly formed New York State Insurance Department in 1860. Superintendent Barnes supervised the filings of 155 fire insurance companies and 16 life insurance companies during his first year in office.

By the 1870s, each state regulated insurance in some manner and most had an insurance department or agency.However, because different state requirements led to confusion in the insurance industry, New York State Superintendent George W. Miller, in 1871, invited the heads of insurance departments or agencies from other states to meet in New York to strive for more uniform regulation.Eighteen states met that year for the first session of what is now the National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC").

Mismanagement in the life insurance business, including exorbitant salaries and questionable investments, resulted in a 1905 investigation led by Charles Evans Hughes.The investigation, known as the "Armstrong Investigation", led to the passage of a law that set forth a series of reforms, including mandatory periodic examinations of all life insurers.

During the Great Depression, the Insurance Department promoted new rules clarifying insurer investment requirements, setting more equitable determination of cash surrender values and forfeitures, and recognizing up-to-date values and improvements in mortality tables.

After World War II, the Insurance Department pioneered many consumer protections, including comprehensive mandated health insurance benefits, open enrollment, and prohibitions against insurers arbitrarily dropping an individual’s health insurance coverage.

The New York State Insurance Department was the first insurance department or agency in the United States to establish a capital markets group to examine and measure the risks in insurer investment practices, and was the first state to recognize the importance of segregating multiple lines insurance from financial guaranty insurance as a means of preventing systemic risk.

In 2001, New York was the first state to establish an Insurance Emergency Operations Center ("IEOC"), which was designed to accelerate disaster assessments and expedite claims payments to disaster victims.The IEOC helped New Yorkers recover from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

During the financial crisis of 2008, the Insurance Department helped stabilize financial guaranty insurers and worked with federal regulators to ensure that AIG did not collapse when it experienced a liquidity crisis.

In 2011, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature consolidated the New York State Insurance Department and the New York State Banking Department and created the New York State Department of Financial Services.James J. Wrynn was the fortieth and last Superintendent of Insurance.

Insurance policy

     In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the insured, known as the policyholder, which determines the claims which the insurer is legally required to pay. In exchange for an initial payment, known as the premium, the insurer promises to pay for loss caused by perils covered under the policy language.

Insurance contracts are designed to meet specific needs and thus have many features not found in many other types of contracts. Since insurance policies are standard forms, they feature boilerplate language which is similar across a wide variety of different types of insurance policies.

The insurance policy is generally an integrated contract, meaning that it includes all forms associated with the agreement between the insured and insurer.:10 In some cases, however, supplementary writings such as letters sent after the final agreement can make the insurance policy a non-integrated contract.:11 One insurance textbook states that generally "courts consider all prior negotiations or agreements ... every contractual term in the policy at the time of delivery, as well as those written afterwards as policy riders and endorsements ... with both parties' consent, are part of written policy".The textbook also states that the policy must refer to all papers which are part of the policy. Oral agreements are subject to the parol evidence rule, and may not be considered part of the policy if the contract appears to be whole. Advertising materials and circulars are typically not part of a policy Oral contracts pending the issuance of a written policy can occur.

Early insurance contracts tended to be written on the basis of every single type of risk (where risks were defined extremely narrowly), and a separate premium was calculated and charged for each. This structure proved unsustainable in the context of the Second Industrial Revolution, in that a typical large conglomerate might have dozens of types of risks to insure against.

In the 1940s, the insurance industry shifted to the current system where covered risks are initially defined broadly in an insuring agreement on a general policy form (e.g., "We will pay all sums that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages..."), then narrowed down by subsequent exclusion clauses (e.g., "This insurance does not apply to..."). If the insured desires coverage for a risk taken out by an exclusion on the standard form, the insured can sometimes pay an additional premium for an endorsement to the policy that overrides the exclusion.

Insurers have been criticized in some quarters for the development of complex policies with layers of interactions between coverage clauses, conditions, exclusions, and exceptions to exclusions. In a case interpreting one ancestor of the modern "products-completed operations hazard" clause, the Supreme Court of California complained:

In the United States, property and casualty insurers typically use similar or even identical language in their standard insurance policies, which are drafted by advisory organizations such as the Insurance Services Office and the American Association of Insurance Services.This reduces the regulatory burden for insurers as policy forms must be approved by states; it also allows consumers to more readily compare policies, albeit at the expense of consumer choice.In addition, as policy forms are reviewed by courts, the interpretations become more predictable as courts elaborate upon the interpretation of the same clauses in the same policy forms, rather than different policies from different insurers.

In recent years, however, insurers have increasingly modified the standard forms in company-specific ways or declined to adopt changes to standard forms. For example, a review of home insurance policies found substantial differences in various provisions.In some areas such as directors and officers liability insurance and personal umbrella insurance there is little industry-wide standardization.