Glossary of Insurance Terms

W - X - Y - Z

Waiver of subrogation - An insurer has the right of subrogation; however, it may waive that right through this method.

Wear and tear exclusion - A common heading for an "all risks" exclusion relating to a group of events that do not represent risk at all. Property will become worn out and torn; it will rust, settle, become rotted, infested, marred, scratched, etc. It is easy to distinguish however between the marring that occurs over time (excluded) and marring that occurs when a concrete block is dropped onto a fine wooden table.

Whole dollar premium - The practice of many insurers to round premiums to the nearest dollar, rather than carrying them out to the nearest cent. An amount of 51 cents or more is usually rounded up to the next dollar, and any cents amount less than that is dropped.

Workers compensation insurance - Coverage that conforms to the workers compensation laws of the states in which it written. See also Employers liability insurance.

Wrap up - A liability coverage specialty focused on contracting risks, at-tempting to manage in a single contract the broad interplay of exposures and interests among owners, general contractors, and subcontractors.

XCU - Short for explosion, collapse, and underground, this acronym is used to denote that certain construction projects carry this hazard.

Y2K - An abbreviation for Year 2000. The Y2K problem resulted from the use of two-digit year fields in computer software codes and silicon chip technology. Because of this, the software or chip cannot recognize "00" as the year 2000 instead of 1900 or doesn’t recognize it at all.

Zone system - Developed by the NAIC for the triennial examination of insurers. Under the system, teams of examiners are formed from the staffs of several states in each of the geographical zones. The results of their examinations are then accepted by all states in which an insurer is licensed, without the necessity of each state having to conduct its own examinations.