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Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein
Are there any rules how high insurance rates are for interstellar shipping?
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Insurance for freight is covered under Terms of Shipping (pp. 54-55), specifically Cost, Insurance, and Freight:
"... but the seller must pay for insurance (0.1% of the goods' value) ..."
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And how much do you pay for the insurance of a free trader?
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Under Bank Financing (p. 98) it says:
"The mortgage payments include loss and liability coverage for the bank's interest, but the owners must arrange for insurance on their own."
Given the mortgage rates from CT (which are carried over into Far Trader directly) and the canonical 0% inflation rate, the bank's coverage works out to 2-3% of purchase price per year. This is comparable to historical shipping loss rates prior to the use of radio and aircraft for search and rescue.
Corporations and governments almost always self-insure. That is, they carry enough cash reserves to make up any losses out of pocket, rather than rely on third party coverage.
Realistically, it is unlikely that a lone free trader is going to qualify for insurance in the traditional sense for either ship or cargo. It is simply too hard to quantify the risks (and a lot of work for not a lot of fun from a gaming perspective). There is also the problem that insurance is essentially a bet on the part of the insurer that the insured will succeed -- which means they would need overwhelming evidence that a PC group is motivated to do more than fold and take the payout when things get tough.