Tenn. Code Ann. § 56-2-201 (2026)

Kinds of insurance are defined as follows:

• (1) "Accident and health insurance" means insurance against bodily injury, disablement or death, by accident or accidental means, or the expense of bodily injury, disablement or death, against disablement or expense resulting from sickness, and every insurance pertaining thereto; providing for the mental and emotional welfare of an individual and members of the individual's family by defraying the cost of legal services; or providing aggregate or excess stop-loss coverage in connection with employee welfare benefit plans, managed care organizations participating in commercial plans or the TennCare program, or both, health maintenance organizations, long-term care facilities, physician-hospital organizations as defined in § 56-32-102 and provider aggregate or per-patient stop-loss protection insurance coverage as authorized by § 56-32-104;

• (2) "Casualty insurance" includes vehicle insurance, disability insurance, and in addition is:
  • (A) "Boiler insurance," which is insurance against any liability and loss or damage to property resulting from accidents to or explosion of boilers, pipes, pressure containers, machinery, or apparatus, and to make inspection of and issue certificates of inspection upon boilers, machinery and apparatus of any kind, whether or not insured;
  • (B) "Burglary and theft insurance," which is insurance against loss or damage by burglary, theft, larceny, robbery, forgery, fraud, vandalism, malicious mischief, confiscation or wrongful conversion, disposal or concealment, or from any attempt of burglary, theft, larceny, robbery, forgery, fraud, vandalism, malicious mischief, confiscation or wrongful conversion, disposal or concealment; also insurance against loss of or damage to moneys, coins, bullion, securities, notes, drafts, acceptances or any other valuable papers or documents, resulting from any cause, except while in the custody or possession of and being transported by any carrier for hire or in the mail;
  • (C) "Collision insurance," which is insurance against loss of or damage to any property of the insured resulting from collision of any other object with the property, but not including collision to or by elevators, or to or by vessels, craft, piers or other instrumentalities of ocean or inland navigation;
  • (D) "Credit insurance," which is insurance against loss or damage resulting from failure of debtors to pay their obligations to the insured;
  • (E) "Elevator insurance," which is insurance against loss or damage to any property of the insured resulting from the ownership, maintenance or use of elevators, except loss or damage by fire, and to make inspection of and issue certificates of inspection on elevators;
  • (F) "Glass insurance," which is insurance against loss of or damage to glass and its appurtenances resulting from any cause;
  • (G) "Liability insurance," which is insurance against legal liability for the death, injury, or disability of any person, or for damage to property; and insurance of medical, hospital, surgical and funeral benefits to persons injured, regardless of legal liability of the insured, when issued as an incidental coverage with or supplemental to liability insurance;
  • (H) "Livestock insurance," which is insurance against loss of or damage to any domesticated or wild animal resulting from any cause;
  • (I) "Personal property floater," which is insurance of individuals, by an all-risk type of policy commonly known as the "personal property floater," against any and all kinds of loss of or damage to, or loss of use of, any personal property other than merchandise;
  • (J) "Professional liability insurance," which is insurance against legal liability of the insured, and against loss, damage or expense incident to a claim of legal liability, and including any obligation of the insured to pay medical, hospital, surgical and funeral benefits to injured persons, regardless of legal liability of the insured, arising out of the death or injury of any person, or arising out of injury to the economic interest of any person as the result of negligence in rendering expert, fiduciary or professional service;
  • (K) "Water insurance," which is insurance against loss of or damage to any property caused by the breakage or leakage of sprinklers, water pipes and other apparatus, or by water entering through leaks or openings in buildings, other than flood waters;
  • (L) "Workers' compensation and employer's liability insurance," which is insurance of the obligations accepted by, imposed upon, or assumed by employers under law for death, disablement, or injury of employees; and
  • (M) Insurance against any other kind of loss, damage, or liability properly the subject of insurance and not within any other kind or kinds of insurance as defined in this section, if the insurance is not disapproved by the commissioner as being contrary to law or public policy;

• (3) "Credit insurance" includes:
  • (A) "Credit accident and health insurance," which means that form of insurance under which a borrower of money or a purchaser of goods is indemnified in connection with a specific loan or credit transaction against loss of time resulting from accident or sickness; and
  • (B) "Credit life insurance," which means that form of insurance under which the life of a borrower of money or a purchaser of goods is insured in connection with a specified loan or credit transaction;

• (4) "Life insurance" means insurance on human lives and insurance appertaining to human lives or connected with human lives. For the purposes of this title, the transacting of life insurance includes the granting of annuities, both with and without a life or mortality contingency or element, and endowment benefits, additional benefits in the event of death by accident or accidental means, additional benefits in the event of the total and permanent disability of the insured, and optional modes of settlement of proceeds;

• (5)
  • (A) "Property insurance" means insurance against loss of or damage to real or personal property of every kind and interest in the real or personal property, from any or all hazards or causes, and against loss consequential upon the loss or damage;
  • (B) "Property insurance" includes, but is not limited to:
    • (i) Insurance against loss or damage to property and loss of use and occupancy by fire, lightning, storm, flood, frost, freezing, snow, hail, ice, weather or climatic conditions, including excess or deficiency of moisture, rain or rising of the waters of the ocean or its tributaries, drought, insects, vermin, forces of nature, smoke, smudge, riot, riot attending strike, strikes, sabotage, civil commotion, vandalism or malicious mischief or caused by wrongful conversion, disposal or concealment of a motor vehicle or aircraft, whether or not handled under a conditional sales contract or subject to chattel mortgage, civil war, rebellion, insurrection, invasion, bombardment, military or usurped power, or by any order of civil authorities meant to prevent the spread of conflagration or epidemic or catastrophe, explosion with no fire ensuing, except explosion by steam boilers or flywheels, but there may be insured explosion of pressure vessels, not including steam boilers of more than fifteen pounds (15 lbs.) pressure, in buildings designed and used solely for residential purposes by not more than four (4) families, explosion of any kind originating outside the insured building, or outside the building containing the property insured, and explosion of pressure vessels that do not contain steam or that are not operated with steam coils or steam jackets;
    • (ii) Insurance against loss or damage by insects or disease to farm crops or products, and loss of rental value of land used in producing the crops or products;
    • (iii) Insurance against accidental injury to sprinklers, pumps, water pipes, elevator tanks and cylinders, steam pipes and radiators, plumbing and its fixtures, ventilating, refrigerating, heating, lighting or cooking apparatus, or their connections, or conduits or containers of any gas, fluid, or other substance, and against loss or damage to property of the insured caused by the breakage or leakage thereof, or by water, hail, rain, sleet or snow seeping or entering through water pipes, leaks or openings in buildings;
    • (iv) Insurance against loss or damage caused by railroad equipment, motor vehicles, airplanes, seaplanes, dirigibles or other aircraft;
    • (v) Insurance against loss of or damage to vessels, crafts, aircrafts, cars, automobiles and vehicles of every kind, as well as all goods, freights, cargoes, merchandise, effects, disbursements, profits, moneys, bullion, precious stones, securities, choses in action, evidence of debt, valuable papers, bottomry and respondentia interests therein, in respect to, appertaining to or in connection with, any and all risks or perils of navigation, transit, or transportation, including war risks, on or under any seas or other waters, on land or in the air, or while being assembled, packed, crated, baled, compressed or similarly prepared for shipment or while awaiting the being assembled, packed, crated, baled, compressed or similarly prepared for shipment or during any delays, storage, transshipment incident thereto, including marine builder's risks and all personal property floater risks, and persons or property in connection with or appertaining to a marine, inland marine, transit or transportation insurance, including liability for loss of or damage to either, arising out of or in connection with the construction, repair, operation, maintenance or use of the subject matter of the insurance, but not including life insurance or surety bonds, and precious stones, jewels, jewelry, gold, silver and other precious metals, whether used in business or trade, or otherwise, and whether in course of transportation or otherwise, and bridges, tunnels and other instrumentalities of transportation, and communication, excluding buildings, their furniture and furnishings, fixed contents and supplies held in storage, unless fire, tornado, sprinkler leakage, hail, explosion, earthquake, riot and/or civil commotion, are the only hazards to be covered, and piers, wharves, docks and ships, excluding the risks of fire, tornado, sprinkler leakage, hail, explosion, earthquake, riot and/or civil commotion, and other aids to navigation and transportation, including dry docks and marine railways, against all risks;
    • (vi) "Marine protection and indemnity insurance," which means insurance against, or against legal liability of the insured for, loss, damage or expense arising out of, or incident to, the ownership, operation, chartering, maintenance, use, repair or construction of any vessel, craft or instrumentality in use in ocean or inland waterways, including liability of the insured for personal injury, illness or death or for loss of or damage to the property of another person; and
    • (vii) Vehicle insurance;
  • (C) Matters set out in subdivision (5)(B) are not deemed to limit the scope of property insurance as defined in subdivision (5)(A), nor shall the fact that certain coverages coming within the scope of property insurance, as defined in subdivision (5)(A), are also defined as part of another kind of insurance be deemed to limit the scope of the definition of property insurance or the right of a property insurer to provide the coverage;

• (6) "Surety insurance" includes:
  • (A) Credit insurance;
  • (B) "Fidelity insurance," which is insurance guaranteeing the fidelity of persons holding positions of public or private trust;
  • (C) Guaranteeing the performance of contracts, and guaranteeing and executing bonds, undertakings, and contracts of suretyship;
  • (D) Indemnifying banks, bankers, brokers, financial or moneyed corporations or associations or other persons against loss, resulting from any cause, of bills of exchange, notes, bonds, securities, evidences of debts, deeds, mortgages, warehouse receipts, or other valuable papers, documents, money, precious metals and articles made from precious metals, jewelry, watches, necklaces, bracelets, gems, precious and semiprecious stones, including any loss while the items are being transported in armored motor vehicles, or by messenger, but not including any other risks of transportation or navigation; also against loss or damage to the insured's premises, or to the insured furnishings, fixtures, equipment, safes and vaults in safes, caused by burglary, robbery, theft, vandalism or malicious mischief, or any attempt of burglary, robbery, theft, vandalism or malicious mischief; and
  • (E) Insurance that guarantees the performance of any debt obligation of a public or private corporation; and

• (7)
  • (A) "Vehicle insurance" means insurance against loss of or damage to any land vehicle or aircraft or any draft or riding animal or to property while contained therein or thereon, or being loaded or unloaded therein or therefrom, and against any loss, expense or liability for loss or damage to persons or property resulting from or incident to ownership, maintenance, or use of the vehicle or aircraft or animal;
  • (B) Insurance against accidental death or accidental injury to individuals, including the named insured, while in, entering, alighting from, adjusting, repairing, cranking, or caused by being struck by a vehicle, aircraft, or draft or riding animal, if the insurance is issued as part of insurance on the vehicle, aircraft, or draft or riding animal, shall be deemed to be vehicle insurance.

Acts 1951, ch. 212, § 1 (Williams, § 6107); T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 56-306; Acts 1955, ch. 13, § 1; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 56-218; Acts 1984, ch. 582, § 1; 1986, ch. 504, § 1; 1988, ch. 948, § 1; 1994, ch. 888, § 1; 1995, ch. 221, § 1; 1996, ch. 780, § 1; 2008, ch. 831, § 14; 2012, ch. 798, § 17; 2013, ch. 409, § 2; 2016, ch. 724, § 1.