March 24th, 2009 by DieWolf

Health Insurance

Health insurance should be your first consideration. If you have just left your current job to start your own business, you may be eligible for COBRA, which will provide temporary interim coverage. This will keep you covered while you search for the best health insurance policy.

Disability Insurance

Disability insurance will guarantee you some income should you suddenly become unable to work because of injury or illness. Having this extra peace of mind may be well worth the extra money you pay.
Life insurance will help ensure that your family has the money it needs should you meet with an untimely death. Some lenders require that you have life insurance before they’ll issue a loan; this guarantees that the loan will be repaid if you meet with an untimely end.

Business Property Insurance

Business property insurance helps protect you against loss of inventory or equipment. If your business equipment or inventory is damaged in a flood, fire, or other disaster, this type of insurance will allow you to recoup your losses.

General Liability Insurance

Comprehensive general liability insurance is necessary for your home-based business if you plan on having clients or customers visit your home. Whether you plan to hold meetings, allow customers to pick up merchandise, or have members of the public enter your home for any other reason, this insurance will protect you if someone is injured while on your property. This insurance will typically pay for your legal defense should you face a lawsuit as the result of a fall or other damage that occurs on your property.

Business Interruption Insurance

Business interruption insurance will help your business recover from natural disasters. It will cover you for income lost during the disaster, and will pay for operating expenses that continue to accrue, even though your business isn’t up and running.

Worker’s Comp

Workers’ compensation insurance is vital if you plan on having employees working out of your home. Without workers’ comp, you’ll be responsible for any medical expenses arising from injuries employees sustain while working for you. Many home-based business owners mistakenly believe that this type of insurance is only required by businesses that have a retail or separate location, but that’s not the case.

These insurance plans can help ensure that you are prepared to face any eventuality that might occur while you are running your own business. Disasters, accidents, and crises can strike at any time. By preparing now, you may be saving your company significant money over time.

March 19th, 2009 by DieWolf

What are the chances of new insurance agent success becoming a reality? Intense analysis of licensed Department Insurance agents records conclude that only 6% of agents survive slightly over 4.3 years. Examine the facts, and logical explanations why insurance sales agent retention and success stories are so grim.

Dismiss many of the misconceptions of recruiting new insurance agents. There are over 1,500,000 health and life insurance agents currently licensed by insurance departments within the United States In my evaluation, this means an unnecessary surplus of over a half million agents. Countless new life and health insurance sales agents are either poorly trained, have an insufficient number of prospective clients, or should have never been hired to begin with. So if 550,000 agent trainees were fired today, the life and health insurance agent system would be stronger.

Some agencies place newspaper ads, and others go so far as using college campus job fair recruiting methods to find new agents to hire. Both of these methods when analyzed, show almost identical results. Those results are that 85% of agents will starve their way out of insurance sales within the first 18 months. In insurance sales you have two types of agents, those who can fill out an order application and those that can actually solicit and sell life and health insurance products.

Here lies at least 50% of the blame for agents dropping like flies. The recruiters hire agents who are unable to go out on their own and make a sale.. Even though almost every applicant can pass an interview of prepared interviewer questions, this in itself does not guarantee any measure of success. Look at the person who the insurance agency promoted to do prospective hiring. In most cases this is a newly appointed sales manager with under 4 years experience. Sure, he is fairly good at selling, but just because he can sell, it does not mean he can successfully recruit. Both the sales manager and college campus recruiter work hard to highly pump the prospective agent up with inflated dream visions of easy success and a lifetime steady insurance career.

Another 25% of non survival is a result of insurance agent recruiters for providing false concepts, and poor training. New licensed sales agents anticipate easily obtaining incomes exceeding $40,000 to $70,000. My studies show less than 7% of these rookies ever obtain that level. In fact, if most insurance agencies did not money subsidize their newer agents, the income figure for a new insurance agent would be under $20,000. When one agent leaves, another will be quickly licensed to take his place. The departing rookie has written policies on a few friends, neighbors, and outsiders, so when these policies renew. the insurance company collects all the premiums without paying any acquisition costs. I call this concept putting meat in the insurance company freezer.

Job fair recruiters sent to college campuses usually do the worst job. The college recruiter pitches a memorized and rehearsed script to college seniors, exalting how entering the insurance professional is more prosperous than other qualified fields. Remember the college recruiter usually gets a bonus for each recruit. If the prospective agent would had been screened with numerous background questions, survival chances could have been quickly predetermined.

How do you predetermine a success chance factor? Well first realize the agent might already be financially in debt, and hanging on to survive, living from paycheck to paycheck. You must start with agents that possess sales ability and are self determined to quickly become financially strong enough to survive. This is fine if the new college grad comes from a wealthy family background. However, in today’s world, most college graduates are not in this category. Their background is often middle class, with parents living in a middle class neighborhood, earning a middle class income. The new college grad, now an insurance agent, often took out student aid loans. These need to be paid back so this agent requires a higher income just to survive.

Why are the odds so highly against this agent? The career agency is usually located in an swank, suburban area of a major city where the average mean family incomes are the highest. in the state. The targeted customer for these agencies are high income individuals and small successful businesses. 90% of the limited training is spent on target marketing to these prime clients exclusively. The large agency however only contains a few experienced insurance professionals earning over $70,000 a year.

During the first 4 years of almost any salesperson’s career there is an existing comfort zone almost impossible to break. In other words, the salesperson is most comfortable talking to and attempting to sell prospective clients in an environment or income level that matches the agent. The career insurance agency however wants big premiums, and tries to train career insurance agents to sell large policies to prominent people. Upon failure to make sales, the blame comes down to the agent for not trying or working hard enough. The agency should have started working a new agent on a $40,000 class of clientele while gradually raising the level. A career agent then is able to work upwards. The reward is being one of the few 6 out of a hundred insurance sellers surviving the first 4 years.

March 13th, 2009 by DieWolf

If you are lucky enough to have received a diamond ring for engagement or just a gift or are considering purchasing one for someone then it is worth looking into insuring such a precious stone.

Many people forget the importance of insuring a diamond ring, what can be worse than falling in love with a ring and something happening to it, whether it is lost or damaged if the ring is not insured then the costs will have to be forfeited by the owner, If the diamond ring was expensive then you may find your self in a situation where you simply can not afford to replace or repair the ring.

Diamond ring insurance is not as simple as you may think, most insurance companies will not just cover the item on your normal policy, some may cover jewelry for theft but not for other circumstances where by the diamond ring has become lost or damaged.

Most insurance companies will allow you to purchase additional insurance for fine jewelry and your diamond ring however there are a few questions you should ask before taking out this addition to your existing policy.

1st and most importantly you will want to know how much the insurance will cost. It is also wise to ask how this will affect your policy should you need to make a claim for your diamond ring.

2nd ask if an appraisal needed to cover your diamond ring and if so would these need to be provided by yourself by specific appraiser or will your insurance company take care of this for you.

3rd ask if the diamond ring be covered for its full value or replacement cost and will this be in the form of a cash sum where by you would purchase the replacement ring yourself or will the insurance company replace the diamond ring themselves and send to you.

4th check if the diamond ring be covered wherever the damage or loss takes place, some insurance companies will only cover loss or damage within your own company so additional travel insurance may be needed if you were to go abroad.

5th will the insurance cover all repairs on the diamond ring and who will make any repair to the ring, some insurance companies have their own tradesmen who would make any repairs needed other insurance companies will ask for several estimates provided by yourself before you can go ahead and get the diamond ring repaired.

6th always ask about excess, this is a sum of money you will pay before anything is repaired or replaced, this is normally ascertained by the value of the ring, it is a very important aspect of insurance, you may find small repairs can be done without going through your insurance, some cases will show that it simply is not worth paying the excess to replace or repair your diamond ring depending on the excess figure.

Diamond ring insurance may sound daunting but it need not be, knowing what to ask and knowing the facts always helps.

March 11th, 2009 by DieWolf

For additional premiums most policies will include riders-provisions attached to the basic contract which give the policyholder extra benefits or options. Some of these are so common that they are automatically inserted in the policy, and the premium is quoted as part of the whole policy.

Double Indemnity

A famous novel and movie turned this rider into a household word. If you have a double indemnity rider your beneficiaries will get double the face value of the policy should you die in an accident. Some policies triple the amount if the accident occurs while you are traveling in a common carrier.

Is it worth buying? We’d say it’s a matter of personal choice. The chances are statistically small that you will die as the result of an accident; on the other hand, the extra premium cost is modest and the returns are large.

Disability Waiver

For a small extra premium, your policy may include a waiver of premiums in the event of disability before 60 or 65 years of age (depending upon the company). This is an extremely important rider, and one that we advise you to consider most seriously. Here’s what it provides:

If you become totally and permanently disabled, the company will pay your premiums for you. At the same time, all the provisions of the insurance contract remain effective. Generally this covers only disability which lasts longer than six months. But the waiver is retroactive to the beginning of the disability period.

The waiver is obviously a great protection against a loss of security in a time of emergency. But it is also a moneymaking machine. During the period it operates, the cash value keeps increasing, and so may be borrowed against if extra cash is needed, or withdrawn, if you want to terminate the policy later. If you have a term policy, you may even be able to convert it to a permanent policy such as whole life or universal life insurance during the time you are disabled and using the waiver. If the rider allows for it, the insurance company will pay the new premiums-an incredible advantage if you are permanently disabled. If you are only temporarily disabled, be sure you will be in a position to pay the new, higher premium once you return to work.

Insurability Protection

This is a useful type of rider for the young family provider. It gives the insured the right to buy additional insurance of specified amounts at certain ages, usually up to age 40, without further physical examination. This is a good deal: the additional premiums are low and your insurability is guaranteed, even if you become ill or disabled. Also, if you have the waiver of premium rider, you can exercise this rider during your disability and the insurance company will pay this additional premium during your disability-an advantage worth having.

March 9th, 2009 by DieWolf

Health insurance plan costs can be a little bit complicated if you are not familiar with them and many people are surprised that, having paid what they consider to be an enormous premium, they then get stuck with a bill the first time they try to make a claim. So, before you are hit with a large medical bill, it is worth just taking a moment to understand what sort of costs you can expect to incur on your health insurance policy.

Premium. The first and most obvious cost is the plan premium which is the amount you will pay monthly (or occasionally quarterly or annually) for the benefits covered under your health insurance plan. If you are a member of a group insurance plan arranged by your employer or a union then you will normally only be required to meet a percentage of the premium.

The Deductible. Most health insurance policies will includes an annual deductible and it is very important that you understand the details of any deductible applied to your policy. A deductible is a sum of money that you will have to find yourself before the insurance company begins paying out on any claims. In other words, if your annual deductible is $1,000 then you will need to pay the first $1,000 in medical bills each year before the insurance company will start paying out. As with other forms of insurance, such as car insurance, the higher the deductible on your policy the lower your premiums will be. A family health insurance plan will typically include multiple deductibles for the various members covered under the plan.

The Co-payment. A co-payment is a fixed sum of money that you will have to pay on each medical bill. The amount of the co-payment differs according to the type of health insurance plan you have and is typically lower on an HMO plan than it is on an indemnity plan. The co-payment can also vary for different types of medical service and, if you are a member of an HMO plan, will normally increase if you seek treatment outside of the HMO network.

Co-Insurance. Co-Insurance is the sum of money, expressed at a percentage, that you will be responsible for paying on each medical bill. A common policy ratio is 80/20 which means that the insurance company will pay 80% of a claim and you will pay 20%. This percentage will often increase if you are a member of an HMO plan and go outside of the HMO’s network. In addition, where a claim exceeds what the insurance company considers to be “reasonable and customary” for the treatment undertaken you may be required to meet the additional cost.

As you can see comparing health insurance plans is about much more than simply comparing premiums and it is vitally important whenever you request a quote, particularly if you are asking for a quote online, that you fully understand the range of costs involved.

To keep costs low in an HMO plan always try to stay within the HMO’s network and, if you go outside the network, then be careful to compare the actual cost of treatment against what the insurance company considers “reasonable and customary” before undergoing treatment. You can also control costs by raising or lowering the deductible on many policies and by selecting higher or lower co-insurance. Be careful though to balance these against the likelihood that you will need to claim on the policy.