Risk assessment is a procedure for assessing the risk of a potential policy­holder or insurance contract before the start of the contract. Risk assessment also refers to the process between the appli­cation by the policy­holder (insurance appli­cation) and the accep­tance of the insurance contract by the insurance company.

The purpose of risk assessment is to determine whether an applicant or the risk to be insured is considered insurable under the General Terms and Condi­tions of Insurance (GTC) or whether there is a signif­i­cantly increased risk compared to the calcu­lation for "normal risk" (e.g. due to a recent heart attack of an applicant for life insurance).