Insurance

Insurance, also known as surety, was a means of protecting from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, one party agreed to compensate another in the event of a contingent loss, damage, or injury. This service could be found in the cities of Baldur's Gate, Ravens Bluff, and Waterdeep, as well as to a lesser extent all over the Heartlands, along the trade routes of the Sword Coast, and parts of Wildspace. The entity who provided insurance was called either an insurer or underwriter, while the one buying it was referred to as the policyholder.
==Description==
When buying insurance, the person or entity receives a written contract, presided over at a temple, called a "performance bond" or "insurance policy". This transaction was most often presided over within a Waukeenar temple. These contracts detailed the conditions and circumstances under which an insurer had to compensate the insured.
In Faerûn the insurers of these policies were moneylenders, some guilds, and increasingly over time governments and rulers. In some instances there existed businesses centered around this service, known as insurance companies. Government-issued performance bonds were provided to adventurers, costers, or guilds willing to undertake a risky task on behalf of the insuring ruler.
There existed a wide variety of insurance types, each devoted to providing protection against the loss or injury of a specific thing or in a specific manner. These ranged from particular items of property, vehicles like ships and spelljammers, the cargo on a ship, buildings, limbs, or even the death of a specific person. Fire bonds were surety for houses that obligated a guarantor to either put out a house fire or, more often, compensate for any lost goods. Tumbledown surety, also known as "windstorm surety", compelled an insurer in the cases of a building collapsing to pay for the construction of a new one and the compensation of all property. Theft insurance could protect a sailing ship from suffering a financial loss from piracy or dockside pilferage. And spoilage insurance could protect a ship from the financial loss of perishables going bad due to unforeseeable time delays, like dockworkers striking, bureaucratic port delays, or long periods without wind. However, performance bonds could not cover every unforeseeable form of loss, and it was up to buyers to be savvy of what coverage they might need.
For insurers, there was sometimes a risk of policyholders trying to defraud them, such as burning down their own insured building. When insurers have reason to suspect foul play was at work, they would hire investigators to prove the validity of their claims. A plaintiff might even have to submit themselves to magical scrutiny in order to prove their innocence.
==Notable Insurers==
* Cheesemore, a Lathanderite priest in Ravens Bluff, under the permission of the Church of Lathander and Chief Prelate Relarn Dayspring, began offering in 1370 DR a "holy innovation" that he dubbed "Life Insurance policies". In return for a stiff fee of 100,000 gold pieces, no questions asked, the Halls of Morning Light would do whatever was necessary into order to restore the policyholder back to life in the case of an untimely demise. A group of people (such as an adventuring company) could all contribute to a policy, though only the first to die would benefit from it. Furthermore, the body of the deceased had to be brought to the Halls – their contracts had no clause obligating the church to retrieve the body. Many Ravenians were skeptical of the policies, as Cheesemore had a prior criminal history, though none of the members of the city's Clerical Circle dared to challenge Relarn's pet project.
* The Dock, a spelljamming port in the Utter East that was controlled by mercane, offered all who docked there the option of docking insurance at a rate of 1 silver piece per every ten tons of their spelljammer. They guaranteed a replacement of any materials that stolen, destroyed, or damaged while a craft was moored. However, they would not compensate for any losses caused by acts of war, acts of gods, curses, or the baneful effects of artifacts."Tonnage" in Spelljammer products typically referred to the volume occupied by a ship in spatial tons, different from the typical tonnage of seafaring ships. One spatial ton was equivalent to a volume of 100 cubic yards (76 cubic meters).
* Fishermen and Merchants' Collective of Dragonmere, an insurance coster that presumably operated in the lands around the Dragonmere.
* Frozenfar Expeditions, an adventuring shop in Caer-Konig, sold search-and-rescue insurance policies to explorers of the Frozenfar region. Explorers would put up postings on the shop's noticeboard, detailing their expedition plan and date of return. If they did not return by that time, Atenas Swift would use their deposit to hire a group of adventurers to attempt a rescue.
* The Safe Harbor Marine Insurance Company, a Ravenian business that specialized in providing marine insurance, that being protection for ships and their cargo, as well as theft and spoilage insurance. Its marine insurance specifically offered compensation in the case of a shipwreck or damage from fire or salt water. Their fees varied depending upon a ship's reputation and whether or not its owner or captain was a regular client. Safe Harbor later expanded to offering property insurance for valuable pieces of art, jewelry and furniture. Not long after, experiencing a number of insurance frauds, the business further expanded to employing its own roster of investigators to inspect suspicious losses of property.
==Appendix==
===See Also===
* Godsfrown Shield
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Category:Industries