Reference

Glossary

The insurance and SQL terms the course relies on, each linked to the page or the day that explains it.

Find a term

66 of 66 terms

Accident year Insurance: The year in which the loss happened, whenever it was reported or paid. Claims triangles group claims by accident year. Insurance theory: Claims development
Adjuster Insurance: The person who investigates a claim, assesses the damage and decides what the insurer pays. Insurance theory: Losses and claims
Aggregate function SQL: A function that summarises many rows into one value, such as COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN and MAX. SQL theory: Aggregation and grouping
Anonymised data Insurance: Data that can no longer be linked to a person by anyone. Unlike pseudonymised data, it is not personal data under the GDPR. Insurance theory: Data, privacy and regulation
Anti-join SQL: Finding rows with no match in another table, with LEFT JOIN ... WHERE other.id IS NULL or NOT EXISTS. SQL theory: Joins and relationships
Broker Insurance: An intermediary who sells policies to customers on behalf of insurers, paid by commission. Insurance theory: Distribution
Case reserve Insurance: The amount the adjuster expects still to pay on a known, open claim. Insurance theory: Reserves and incurred claims
Chain ladder Insurance: A method that projects the ultimate cost of each accident year from how earlier years developed, using development factors from a claims triangle. Insurance theory: Claims development
CHECK constraint SQL: A rule each row must satisfy, such as CHECK (end_date >= start_date). A row that breaks it is refused. SQL theory: Integrity and normalisation
Claim Insurance: A policyholder's request for payment after a loss. One loss can lead to one claim, several, or none. Insurance theory: Losses and claims
Claim frequency Insurance: The number of claims per unit of exposure, such as claims per policy-year. Insurance theory: Measuring a portfolio
Claim severity Insurance: The average cost of a claim: incurred claims divided by the number of claims. Insurance theory: Measuring a portfolio
Claims development Insurance: How the known cost of an accident year's claims grows as they are reported and paid over the following years. Insurance theory: Claims development
Combined ratio Insurance: Claims plus expenses, divided by earned premium. Below 100% the insurance itself makes a profit. Insurance theory: Measuring a portfolio
Commission Insurance: The share of the premium paid to the broker who sold the policy. Insurance theory: Distribution
Coverage Insurance: What a policy pays for, such as third-party liability or theft, each with its own limit and deductible. Insurance theory: Policies
CTE SQL: Common table expression: a named query in a WITH clause, used by the query that follows, to build a result step by step. SQL theory: Views, CTEs and window functions
Deductible Insurance: The part of each loss the policyholder pays themselves, before the insurer pays. Insurance theory: Policies
Earned premium Insurance: The part of the premium that belongs to the cover already given: the premium times the share of the policy period that has passed. Insurance theory: Premiums
EXPLAIN SQL: Shows how PostgreSQL will run a query: its plan, with estimated costs. EXPLAIN ANALYZE also runs it and shows the actual times. SQL theory: How PostgreSQL plans a query
Exposure Insurance: The amount of risk insured, usually in policy-years: a policy in force for half a year is 0.5. Insurance theory: Premiums
Foreign key SQL: A column that must match the primary key of another table, such as claims.policy_id, so no row points at something that does not exist. SQL theory: Integrity and normalisation
Fraud flag Insurance: A pattern in a claim that is more common in dishonest claims, such as a loss soon after cover starts. A reason to look, not proof. Insurance theory: Fraud and data quality
GDPR Insurance: The EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which governs how personal data may be collected, used and kept. Insurance theory: Data, privacy and regulation
GIN index SQL: A generalised inverted index: for each key or value, the rows that contain it. It serves JSONB containment (@>), arrays and text search. SQL theory: JSON and extensions
GRANT SQL: Gives a role a right, such as GRANT SELECT ON claims TO reporting. REVOKE takes it away. SQL theory: Transactions and security
GROUP BY SQL: Groups rows that share values, so aggregate functions summarise each group. HAVING filters the groups. SQL theory: Aggregation and grouping
IBNR Insurance: Incurred but not reported: a reserve for losses that have happened but that the insurer has not yet heard of. Insurance theory: Reserves and incurred claims
Incurred claims Insurance: What has been paid on claims plus what is still reserved on them: the best estimate of their cost so far. Insurance theory: Reserves and incurred claims
Index SQL: A sorted copy of one or more columns with a pointer to each row, so PostgreSQL can find rows without reading the whole table. SQL theory: Integrity and normalisation
JOIN SQL: Combines rows of two tables on a condition. An inner join keeps matches only; a left join keeps every row of the left table. SQL theory: Joins and relationships
JSONB SQL: PostgreSQL's binary JSON type, which can be queried with operators such as ->, ->> and @>, and indexed. SQL theory: JSON and extensions
Lapse Insurance: A policy that ends because its premium was not paid. Insurance theory: Policies
Least privilege Insurance: Giving every person and program the access its job needs, and no more. Insurance theory: Data, privacy and regulation
Limit Insurance: The most a policy pays for one loss, or for one coverage. Insurance theory: Policies
Line of business Insurance: A group of similar products, such as motor, home or travel, reported together. Insurance theory: Policies
Loss Insurance: The event that causes damage, such as a crash or a burglary, and its cost. A claim is the request to be paid for it. Insurance theory: Losses and claims
Loss ratio Insurance: Incurred claims divided by earned premium: the share of the premium that goes to claims. Insurance theory: Measuring a portfolio
Partial index SQL: An index on only the rows that match a WHERE, such as open claims: small, and quick to maintain. Day 8: Query optimisation
Personal data Insurance: Any information that identifies a living person, directly or combined with other data. Insurance theory: Data, privacy and regulation
PL/pgSQL SQL: PostgreSQL's procedural language, for functions and triggers with variables, conditions and loops. SQL theory: Functions and triggers
Policy Insurance: The contract between insurer and policyholder: what is covered, for how long, and at what premium. Insurance theory: Policies
Policy period Insurance: The dates the policy covers, from its start date to its end date inclusive. Insurance theory: Policies
Premium Insurance: What the policyholder pays for the cover. Insurance theory: Premiums
Primary key SQL: The column, or columns, whose value identifies each row: unique and never null. SQL theory: Relational databases
Pseudonymised data Insurance: Personal data with names replaced by an id. Still personal data: whoever holds the key can reverse it. Insurance theory: Data, privacy and regulation
Query plan SQL: The steps PostgreSQL chooses to run a query, such as a sequential scan, an index scan or a hash join. SQL theory: How PostgreSQL plans a query
Renewal Insurance: A new policy term that follows on from one that ends, usually for another year. Insurance theory: Policies
Reserve Insurance: Money set aside for claims the insurer still owes: case reserves on known claims and IBNR on unknown ones. Insurance theory: Reserves and incurred claims
Retention Insurance: The share of policies that are renewed when they end. Insurance theory: Measuring a portfolio
Risk pooling Insurance: Sharing the cost of the few who suffer a loss across the many who pay premiums. Insurance theory: How an insurer works
Role SQL: A user or group in PostgreSQL. Rights are granted to roles, and roles can be members of other roles. SQL theory: Transactions and security
Row-level security SQL: Policies that filter which rows of a table each role may see or change, such as a broker's own clients. SQL theory: Transactions and security
Sequential scan SQL: Reading every row of a table. Right for small tables or when most rows are wanted; slow for finding a few rows in a big one. SQL theory: How PostgreSQL plans a query
Solvency II Insurance: The EU's rules for insurers: the capital they must hold, how they are governed, and what they report to supervisors. Insurance theory: How an insurer works
Subquery SQL: A query inside another, in WHERE, FROM or SELECT. SQL theory: Aggregation and grouping
Transaction SQL: Statements that succeed or fail together: BEGIN, then COMMIT to keep the changes or ROLLBACK to undo them. SQL theory: Transactions and security
Trigger SQL: A function PostgreSQL runs automatically when rows are inserted, updated or deleted, before or after the change. SQL theory: Functions and triggers
Trigram SQL: A sequence of three characters. The pg_trgm extension compares texts by their trigrams to find similar spellings. SQL theory: JSON and extensions
Ultimate cost Insurance: What an accident year's claims will cost in the end, when all are settled. Insurance theory: Claims development
Unearned premium Insurance: The part of the premium for cover still to come: written premium minus earned premium. Insurance theory: Premiums
UNIQUE constraint SQL: Refuses a second row with the same value in a column, such as a policy number. SQL theory: Integrity and normalisation
View SQL: A saved query that can be used like a table. It runs with its owner's rights, so it can expose some columns and hide others. SQL theory: Views, CTEs and window functions
WHERE SQL: Filters the rows a query reads, before any grouping. SQL theory: How a query is evaluated
Window function SQL: A calculation over rows related to the current one, without grouping them away, such as RANK(), LAG() or a running SUM() OVER (...). SQL theory: Views, CTEs and window functions
Written premium Insurance: The premium of the policies that start in a period, whether or not it has been paid or earned. Insurance theory: Premiums