As an industry, insurance is detailed and complicated, and it takes time to understand the basics, let alone the nuances. There are a multitude of policies; commercial property, commercial liability, commercial auto, homeowners, tenants, personal auto to name just a few of the basic ones. There are new terms and acronyms such as BOP, PAP, CGL, CPCU, E&O, D&O, and others to learn as well. There's one acronym that most people learn very early on in their insurance careers; that's DICE, which is used as shorthand for the parts of an insurance policy. While there are many types of policies, they generally consist of the same components, which are declarations, insuring agreement, conditions and exclusions.

When you're first learning about insurance, it's important to know how all these parts work together to form an insurance policy and provide coverage and exclusions as well as basic information about the insured and what is being insured. Let's look at the parts individually.

The declarations is formally called the declarations page and is often referred to as the dec page. It is usually the first page of the policy and it provides the details of who and what is being insured. It provides the insured's name and address, date the policy started and when it will end, type of policy, policy number, the agent's name and address, property address where the insured can be reached, what is being covered, coverage limits, premiums charged for each coverage, and a list of endorsements. Endorsements are forms that allow the insured or the insurer to modify the basic policy.