Self-insurance

Self insurance is a risk management method in which an organization that is liable for some risk does not take out any third-party insurance, but rather chooses to bear the risk itself. When used prudently, the organization that self insures sets aside money using actuarial and insurance information and the law of large numbers so that the amount set aside (similar to an insurance premium) is enough to cover the future uncertain loss. The advantage is that no premium has to be paid, but the organizations own assets are used to pay out claims or losses.^[1]

The idea of self insurance is that by retaining, calculating risks, and paying the resulting claims or losses from captive or on-balance sheet financial provisions, the overall process is cheaper than buying commercial insurance from a commercial insurance company. Cost savings to the self-insured entity are usually realised through the elimination of the carrying-costs that commercial insurers are obliged to pass on to their insurance consumers.

Self insurance is not often used by individuals because they rarely have the funds to cover large uncertain risks and rarely gain sufficient cost-savings on premiums to justify taking on the risk unless third party insurance is not available to them.^[2] Self-insurance may not be possible when there is a legal obligation to hold insurance such as mandatory third-party car insurance that is required in some countries. In some cases organizations need to apply for special licenses to self-insure certain risks, such as employee benefits insurance.^[3]