RESERVE

(n.) The amount of funds or assets necessary for a company to have at any given time to enable it, with interest and premiums paid as they shall accure, to meet all claims on the insurance then in force as they would mature according to the particular mortality table accepted. The reserve is always reckoned as a liability, and is calculated on net premiums. It is theoretically the difference between the present value of the total insurance and the present value of the future premiums on the insurance. The reserve, being an amount for which another company could, theoretically, afford to take over the insurance, is sometimes called the reinsurance fund or the self-insurance fund. For the first year upon any policy the net premium is called the initial reserve, and the balance left at the end of the year including interest is the terminal reserve. For subsequent years the initial reserve is the net premium, if any, plus the terminal reserve of the previous year. The portion of the reserve to be absorbed from the initial reserve in any year in payment of losses is sometimes called the insurance reserve, and the terminal reserve is then called the investment reserve.