What describes the process of redistributing risk among a group to minimize financial loss?

Risk pooling is the correct answer as it describes the method through which multiple individuals or entities come together to share their risks, thereby minimizing the potential financial losses that any one member might face. In this arrangement, the collective contributions or premiums paid by all members create a fund that can be utilized to cover losses incurred by any single member of the pool.

By broadening the base of risk, each participant's individual risk exposure is reduced, leading to more stable and predictable outcomes for all members. This concept is fundamental to the insurance industry, where premiums collected from many policyholders serve to pay claims made by a few.

In the context of the other options, risk transfer involves shifting the risk from one party to another, often through the purchase of insurance, but does not inherently create a shared fund for losses. Insurance underwriting is the process of evaluating and assessing the risk of insuring an individual or entity and does not directly relate to the collective sharing of risk. Lastly, actuarial assessment pertains to the use of statistical methods to evaluate the likelihood of future events and their financial impact, but it does not involve the actual redistribution of risk among a group.