Definition
In risk management, transfer is the strategy of shifting the financial or operational consequences of a risk to another party, most commonly through insurance, contracts, or assigning a task to someone better equipped to handle it. The risk itself still exists; only responsibility for its consequences moves.
Plain English
Transfer means handing the cost or responsibility for a risk to someone else, usually through insurance or by letting a more capable person handle the situation. The danger doesn't go away — but the burden of dealing with it shifts.
Context Anchor
Used in the TEAM risk-management checklist during flight planning, training decisions, and go/no-go decisions.
Derivation
From Latin transferre, meaning 'to carry across.' In risk management, what is being carried across is the responsibility for a risk's consequences — moved from one party to another.
Why Pilots Care
Positive transfer speeds learning and improves safety; negative transfer can cause errors when old habits do not fit the new situation.
Intuition Check
Transfer does not mean the risk disappears. It means you bring in the right person to help decide what to do about it.
Example Sentence 1
By purchasing aircraft insurance, the owner uses transfer to shift the financial risk of damage to the insurance company.
Example Sentence 2
Negative transfer caused the student to apply the wrong flap settings because of habits formed in a different aircraft model.