In the context of insurance, a part of the relevant liability which the insured party agrees to pay before the insurer will meet the relevant claim. On an insurance policy with an excess, the policy limit is exclusive of the excess. For example, under a policy with a limit of £1 million and an excess of £100,000, on the occurrence of a £1.1 million loss, the insured will bear the first £100,000, and the insurer the next £1 million. In principle, an excess operates in a different way to a deductible, but in practice both provisions might have the same effect.