An entity seeking to transfer risk (an individual, corporation, or association of any type, etc.) becomes the 'insured' party once risk is assumed by an 'insurer', the insuring party, by means of a contract, called an insurance 'policy'. Generally, an support liability includes, at a minimum, the following elements: the parties (the insurer, the insured, the beneficiaries), the premium, the period of coverage, the particular depletion event covered, the jillion of coverage (i.e., the extent to be paid to the insured or beneficiary in Florida Health Insurance the adventure of a loss), and exclusions (events not covered). An insured is thus said to be "indemnified" against the loss events covered in the policy.

In the United States, regulation of the insurance industry is highly Balkanized, with greatest responsibility assumed by individual state insurance departments. Whereas assurance markets have become centralized nationally and internationally, state provision commissioners operate individually, though at times in concert through a national support commissioners' organization. In recent years, some have called for a dual state and federal regulatory classification for insurance coinciding to that which oversees state banks and national banks.