Glossary of Insurance Terms

Printed with permission from the Insurance Institute of Canada.

Please choose a letter to continue:

Umbrella Policy
A special form of liability policy designed to protect the insured for certain unknown contingencies over and above coverages and to provide excess insurance.

Umpire
A third person appointed to decide an arbitration.

Underwrite
To insure. More commonly, to scrutinize a risk and decide on its eligibility for insurance.

Underwriter
1) The insurance company or group that underwrites or insures a particular risk.
2) The individual within an insurance company whose responsibility it is to accept or reject business in the particular line in which he/she specializes and in this way chooses risks his/her principals are prepared to underwrite.

Back to Top

Underwriters' Laboratories of Canada (U.L.C.)
An organization financed by stock insurance companies whose purpose is fire prevention and safety. It provides testing laboratories for various manufactured items and approves those that are acceptable. Labels issued by the Underwriters' Laboratories are evidence to the public that the particular item meets the safety standards.

Unoccupied
Where the premises contain contents but no human beings, such persons being temporarily away from the premises, on vacation for example, the premises are said to be unoccupied. This is distinguishable from Vacant in that in vacancy, the contents have been moved out leaving nothing but the building.

Unprotected
A property located in an area not regularly serviced by a fire department.

Utmost Good Faith
A phrase in a legal document calling for the highest standards of integrity on the part of the insured and the insurer. See also Uberrimae Fidei.

Back to Top