insurance company. This is why typical homeowner's policies cover damage from fire or falling trees (usually affecting an individual house), but not floods or earthquakes (which affect many houses at the same time). For all types of insurance underwriting, advice and assistance is often provided by reinsurers, who of course have an interest in accepting risks on appropriate terms. Other forms Continuous underwriting Continuous underwriting is the process in which the risks involved in insuring people or assets are being evaluated and analyzed on a continuous basis. It evolved from the traditional underwriting, in which the risks only get assessed before the policy is signed or renewed. Continuous underwriting was first used in workers' compensation, where the premium of the insurance was updated monthly, based on the insured's submitted payroll. It is also used in life insurance and cyber insurance. Real estate underwriting Real estate underwriting is the evaluation of a real estate investment, either of equity ownership or of a real estate loan. The underwriting process generally involves a detailed analysis of expected cash flows, the local market, supply and demand, and risks such as the physical state of the property, environmental or geotechnical risks, zoning, taxes, and insurance. In the evaluation of a real estate loan, lenders assess both the risk of lending to a specific borrower as well as the risk of the underlying real estate. Loan underwriters use various metrics including debt service coverage ratio, loan-to-value ratio, and debt yield ratio to assess out whether the property is capable of making debt service payments. Forensic underwriting Forensic underwriting is the "after-the-fact" process used by lenders to determine what went wrong with a mortgage. Forensic underwriting is a borrower's ability to work out a modification scenario with their current lien holder, not to qualify them for a new loan or a refinance. This is typically done by an underwriter staffed with a team of people who are experienced in every aspect of the real estate field. Sponsorship underwriting Underwriting may also refer to financial sponsorship of a venture, and is also used as a term within public broadcasting (both public television and radio) to describe funding given by a company or organization for the operations of the service, in exchange for a mention of their product or service within the station's programming. Thomson Financial league tables Underwriting activity in the mergers and acquisitions, equity issuance, debt issuance,