[Underwriting and Rating: Setting Insurance Rates]How do insurers try to balance premiums against the losses...

Insurers must ensure they collect enough premium to cover potential losses while remaining competitive. One of the most important methods is maintaining a good spread of risk—diversifying exposures across different geographical areas, classes of business, and types of insureds. This spreads the impact of losses, reducing the chance that a single catastrophic event or concentration of similar risks will threaten the insurer’s financial stability.

Option B, specialization, increases dependence on a narrow market segment and may elevate risk volatility. Option C is unrealistic because insurers cannot rely solely on “superior risks,” nor can they guarantee such a selection. Option D—concentrating business in one location—is dangerous because natural disasters, economic downturns, or localized events could cause severe aggregated losses.

Thus, insurers most effectively manage loss volatility through A: a good spread of risk.