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A comment on Building Payments for an Insurance Startup.

Re:Building Payments for an Insurance Startup by phonon on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @02:50PM (#20577079)
> Insurance firms sometimes cover extremely “long-tail” risks, such as alien abduction insurance.

That's not what "long tail" means in insurance. It does not mean unlikely, it means the claim might need to be paid out years after the period coverage was paid for. (Think current lawsuits about asbestos exposure from the 1970s).

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/longtail-liability.asp

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Re:Building Payments for an Insurance Startup by nradov on Thursday August 01, 2019 @07:56AM (#20582992)
The alien abduction insurance was clearly described as a gag gift.
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Re:Building Payments for an Insurance Startup by phonon on Thursday August 01, 2019 @01:19PM (#20586068)
That's a secondary issue (the writer (CEO?) tried to give an example of a insurance policy that covers a very remote event). So fine, doubly nonsensical.

I would have also done a separate article separating paying premiums to the carrier from the carrier paying out claims. Those are basically two totally different parts of the insurance company, with different systems (usually) and definitely from different bank accounts.

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Re:Building Payments for an Insurance Startup by devnulloverflow on Thursday August 01, 2019 @02:10AM (#20581374)
Well, maybe the aliens will keep returning to earth and at unpredictable intervals demanding money in exchange for keeping the hostage alive.
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