A Life Without Debt: Insurance Helps

Many people cut corners on insurance in an effort to save money.

They don’t buy policies that they should have, or they are underinsured on the policies they do have. They think that paying a smaller premium is a way to save money and do better financially. Technically, this is a way to save money. But only until you need the insurance and then you learn that all the money you saved on premiums is peanuts compared to the amount that you have to pay out of pocket if you don’t have good insurance.

One of the ways that we have remained out of debt is by not skimping on insurance. It sounds counterproductive. We spend around $5,000 per year on insurance premiums for our home, our cars, umbrella insurance, life insurance, flood insurance, disability insurance, and long term care insurance. This doesn’t count the health insurance through our employers, of which we pay a portion. Our policies are not basic. We’ve bought as much liability as we can afford and we’ve added several options to many of our products to deal with some special cases we have. It’s a lot of money to lay out every year, but without several of these products we would be deeply in debt.

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Know your health care needs. GlobalHealth Asia is your wisest choice of corporate insurance plans to enhance your corporate, organization or association employee benefits program while helping you to manage the health of your employees or members.

It’s Important To Be Professional

Many small businesses fail.


There are often a variety of reasons for the failure including cash flow problems, having a poor idea or product, or tax issues. Many businesses also fail because the owners are not professional. They’re late, they look strange, they don’t follow through, or they make excuses. It does not matter what sort of business you are in; in order to succeed you must act professionally any time you interact with clients or potential clients. Even if you are an eccentric artist, you still have to act like a businessperson if you want people to give you their money. What makes you seem professional? Here are some thoughts.

Dress the part: Depending on what you do, you might not need a suit and tie. However, your clothes should be clean, well fitting, and well mended. Stick to classic, basic looks and avoid anything too trendy (unless fashion is your business) or revealing. Look at how others in your industry dress and dress accordingly.

Speak well: Try to cultivate a good speaking voice. Don’t speak in slang and clean up your use of “Like,” “Um,” “You know,” and “Prolly” (for probably). Don’t swear. Speak clearly and enunciate so your clients can understand you.

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Insurers ending child-only policies

Several of the nation’s largest health insurance companies will stop issuing certain children’s insurance policies to avoid complying with a new mandate in the Democrats’ health care overhaul.

The insurers will no longer write “child-only” policies — a small, niche market — over concern that the health reform law will make the market unstable and unprofitable.

Beginning Thursday, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to turn down any child who applies for coverage, even if he or she has a pre-existing condition. It’s a benefit of health care reform that President Barack Obama and other Democrats tout frequently.

But insurers are worried that children — or, more likely, their parents — might apply for coverage literally on the way to the hospital or doctor’s office and cancel it once treatment is complete. The lack of child-only coverage has the potential to keep healthy consumers out of the market, driving up costs.

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Automatic Coverage Upon Birth
Corporate Insurance Plans

The 7 Best Places To Put Your Savings

Money that is considered savings is often put into a low risk, interest-earning account, rather than into higher risk investments. Although there is opportunity for larger returns with certain investments, the idea behind savings is to allow the money to grow slowly with little or no associated risk. The advent of online banking has increased the variety and accessibility of savings accounts and vehicles. Here are some of the different types of accounts so you can make the most of your savings.

1. Savings Accounts
Savings accounts are offered by banks and credit unions. The money in a savings account is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) up to specified limits. Certain restrictions may apply to savings accounts; for example, a service fee may be charged if more than the permitted number of monthly transactions occurs.

Money in a savings account typically cannot be accessed through check-writing or ATMs. Interest rates for savings accounts are characteristically low; however, online banking does provide higher-yielding savings accounts. (Even with inflation fears, saving money is still sage advice in a recovering economy. Check out How Savings Are Saving The Economy.)

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Purchasing the Right Corporate Insurance

Risks are no doubt a part of life. You never know when unpredictable occurrences strike you and the expenses that may be incurred to meet such emergencies may take a toll on your financial health. You may even fall into debt and face financial crunch for some time owing to the eventuality. Insurance is the answer here. Insurance in India is available for numerous risks ranging from health, travel, life, property to business, manufacturing units, employees, and related paraphernalia.

Entrepreneurship can be a risk-free and worry free affair, especially of employees and business assets if you are insured with a corporate insurance. You will obviously not want your hard earned money utilized in business to be suddenly lost during an emergency. So, buy corporate insurance and protect your business and employees against all possible risks. Such insurance in India will safeguard your employees against sickness, personal accidents, also encompassing business assets like trading and service properties, manufacturing units for any unexpected emergencies.

Corporate insurance may involve a bulk investment; hence, it is advisable that you first gain knowledge about the concept and then look into the details of all corporate insurance policies offered by different companies. Once you know what each company offers, you can easily compare, get quotes and then select the right insurance policy. But, this can be a time consuming affair. Here is a platform where you can compare policies offered by reputed companies by using a unique web comparison tool. What more can you ask for at this platform where you can get instant quotes for free.

The selecting and buying process is made as simple as ever. With us, you can use a cheque or your credit card or debit card to buy your corporate insurance policy.
To buy a corporate insurance for your employees, you will have to provide essential details like number of employees and their dependents (with their age and names), claim status of any previous policy, status of your previous policy, etc. For your business assets, you will have to furnish the necessary details of the same.

By Johney Smith

Obama's Reforms at Risk as Corporate Leaders Cut Support

Is President Obama's relationship with the American business community effectively over?
Like Bill Clinton in 1992, candidate Obama had stronger-than-usual support as a Democrat from both Wall Street and Main Street business leaders. Now, amid both the endgame of the struggle for financial regulation and the Gulf oil crisis, the President's alienation from the top level of the private sector leaves him weakened with Congress and the public, and as a political force.


Governing during a period of serial global and national challenges of almost unprecedented scale — to which he has largely responded with government action of unprecedented scale — Obama was bound to make enemies in some camps from which he drew support in 2008. Labor unions, journalists, independents, antiwar activists and liberals are just some of the groups that have more or less turned on the man in whom they once invested so many hopes. But it is the apparent break with Big Business that is at once most pronounced and, at the moment, potentially most consequential. Any effects on Corporate Insurance Plans ?

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What If My Employer Decides Not to Offer Insurance?

Q.

Our school superintendent says he plans to pay the fines rather than pay for insurance for every school employee. If employers choose to pay the fines, then how do the employees receive health insurance? — Annie Brown
A.
If your employer doesn’t offer coverage, you’d be able buy insurance on the health insurance exchanges that will start up in 2014. You’d also be eligible for premium subsidies if your income is less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level.

But some policy experts question whether, when push comes to shove, employers will actually drop health insurance coverage. For one thing, at a school that employs teachers who are under union contract, the superintendent can’t just make a unilateral decision to discontinue health coverage, said Jennifer Tolbert, an associate director at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But even without a union contract, there are other factors that come into play. Under the new law, employers aren’t required to offer health insurance. But if they don’t and even one of their employees turns to the health insurance exchange for coverage, the employer would be subject to a $2,000 per employee penalty. Depending on the value of the health plan, paying the penalty might be cheaper than offering health insurance,  Ms. Tolbert said. But even if that were the case, “They’ll lose the tax deduction for providing insurance, and at the end of the day employees will leave outright or demand a higher salary because they’re losing a major benefit,” she said.

Have a question about the new health care law? Send it to health_feedback@nytimes.com.

Activists organize to demand universal health care

Health care activists from the Private Health Insurance Must Go! Coalition, in collaboration with Healthcare-NOW!, Physicians for a National Health Program (N.Y. Metro chapter) and Single Payer New York, gathered at St. Luke’s Hospital on April 24 to discuss moving forward in the fight for universal health care in the U.S.

Conference organizer and PHIMG Chair Ajamu Sankofa opened up the third annual teach-in and summit, asserting that “health care activists must develop an effective narrative showing that the current law cannot and will not work.” He raised the need to assess the current period, recognizing the pernicious impact of neoliberalism and privatization on society and the need to end the movement’s deferential treatment of the Democratic Party. “We need a movement like the civil rights movement,” he said, “to show that Medicare for all is not only fiscally responsible, but a moral imperative that saves lives and prevents pain and suffering.”

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Get More Money Without a Second Job

When thoughts turn to getting more cash every month, many people assume that they’ll have to take a second job.
That may be true. If your financial situation is dire or if you have your heart set on some big ticket item, a second job may be the only way to get to the necessary level of income. However, it is possible to bring in large sums of money without getting a second job, just by changing the way you currently live.

You can do this three ways (singly or in combination): Sell your stuff, cut your fixed expenses, and find ways to earn money that are not a “job” (online surveys, entering contests, a little freelance work, etc.). The easiest and quickest way is to cut your fixed expenses. I hear you now, “But a fixed expense is just that. Fixed. It can’t be changed so we’re stuck with it.” That’s just not true. Nothing is “fixed” in stone. Yes, getting the expense reduced may mean some time, inconvenience, or sacrifice on your part, but it is possible to reduce or eliminate every expense that you think is fixed.

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Resources for Corporate Insurance Plans

CBG Group Looking To Buy Corporate Insurance Brokers

LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. insurance broker CBG Group PLC (CB.LN) Tuesday said it is hoping to carry on its buy-and-build strategy in 2010 by acquiring corporate insurance brokers as potential vendors become more realistic on pricing.

Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires, Group Managing Director Mike Askew said the Manchester-based firm will continue to focus on buying businesses in the northwest of England, adding that there are "tremendous opportunities" to buy small corporate insurance brokers.

Askew said there are no plans to raise money from investors at the moment as it has enough headroom in its banking facilities, adding that any acquisitions would likely have a share incentive included too.

Company Web site: www.cbg-group.co.uk
8ZGDSVZNJPE9

Premiums Aren't Going Down Under Obamacare

"When it becomes law, families will save on their premiums," President Obama declared in his weekly radio address before Christmas, pitching his health care reform.

If you've got health insurance, get ready for higher premiums.

If only that were so. Nobody who tracks health insurance sees any sign of softening premium prices for people who already have insurance, Obamacare or not. Premiums for 2010 were up 10% and are predicted to keep growing at the same rate in coming years.

Health insurance is beginning to resemble air travel--where deep-pocketed business passengers subsidize penny-pinching vacationers. Insurance companies, under the measures in Congress, would be forced to take all comers, young and old, healthy and sick. Over ten years they would confront $871 billion in spending on uninsured and newly subsidized customers, costs that would be passed along to the young and healthy. The federal government isn't going to pick up all of that tab. So those now insured through a private plan at work or one bought individually will have to chip in.

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Know your alternatives > Corporate Insurance Plans

4 Reality Checks For Your Finances

A few simple calculations can tell you whether you're doing fine or staring at debt disaster. And be sure to see how your peers are handling their burdens as well.

"It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept." -- cartoonist Bill Watterson

People in debt often fool themselves about how bad things really are. They think they can afford their obligations if they're able to swing the minimum payments. Or they assume their credit card bills are about average, when in fact they owe way more than the norm.

Many carry these illusions to the brink of disaster, realizing only too late how deep a hole they've dug for themselves.

Even if the truth won't set you free immediately, it should give you the motivation to stop digging and start paying off your debt -- or to get help if you're really in over your head.

* Compare your credit

To that end, here are four money ratios you should figure out so you really know where you stand.
Leverage ratio
Leverage ratios, which measure total debt against total assets, are used in investing to evaluate relative riskiness. The higher a company's leverage ratio, the riskier that company is as an investment.

The same holds true for household finances.
Learn How To Calculate Your Leverage Ratio.

Obama Reads Letter To Insurance Executives To Shame Them

President Obama walked in today on a closed-door meeting between Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and top insurance industry executives, and read the executives a letter from an Ohio woman whose case he thought demonstrated why the industry needs more regulation in the form of a comprehensive bill.

The letter Gibbs described from Natoma Canfield, 50, talked about how she'd been cancer-free for 11 years but nonetheless had last year paid $6,075 in premiums and about $4,000 more for medical care, co-pays and prescriptions, and her insurance had paid out only about $935. Then she was informed her 2010 premiums would go up 40%.

Sebelius is asking insurers to provide actuarial data justifying large rate increases.

Expect to hear the president to talk a lot more about that letter in the coming weeks as he travels the country to whip up support for Democrats to pass a health care overhaul on a bare-majority vote.

Here's the text:

Dear President Obama:

I am 50 years old. I was diagnosed with carcinoma in-situ 16 years ago and following my divorce 12 years ago I became self-employed. After my Cobra ran out I was able to find costly, but affordable health insurance. As a responsible individual, I have struggled to maintain my individual coverage and have increased my deductible and out of pocket-limits in an attempt to control my cost and keep my health insurance.

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Corporate Insurance Plans

In Review: GlobalHealth Asia's corporate insurance plans

GlobalHealth Asia offers plans to enhance your corporate, organization or association employee benefits program while helping you to manage the health of your employees or members. With special Group Rates available, these plans provide:

* Customized Benefits
* A streamlined underwriting approach
* Blanket coverage for all pre-existing conditions and removes any waiting periods.
* Wellness benefits including check-ups and vaccinations
* Premium discounts off our standard rates

Learn more about GlobalHealth Asia's corporate insurance plans

Corporate Insurance Plans - Global Health Asia

Review : Innovative Private Medical Coverage


GlobalHealth Asia offers plans to enhance your corporate, organization or association employee benefits program while helping you to manage the health of your employees or members. With special Group Rates available, these plans provide:

* Customized Benefits
* A streamlined underwriting approach
* Blanket coverage for all pre-existing conditions and removes any waiting periods.
* Wellness benefits including check-ups and vaccinations
* Premium discounts off our standard rates

Get a Free Quote and Find out more about Global Health Asia's Corporate Insurance Plans

Corporate Governance for Insurers

At the end of 2009 the Indian insurance market regulator, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), issued its Corporate Governance Guidelines for Insurers. This is a lengthy and comprehensive document containing a combination of specific measures and general guidelines to be adopted and implemented by Indian insurers by April 1 2010. The guidelines are supplemental to the requirements of the Companies Act 1956, the Insurance Act 1938 and any other law on the basis that where any provision of the guidelines conflicts with another enactment, that other enactment will prevail. However, where the requirements of the guidelines are more rigorous, they will take precedence.

There seems to be a number of driving forces behind these guidelines, including:

• the unprecedented revelations of the financial irregularities at Satyam;
• the impact of the credit crunch on a number of overseas insurers; and
• the perceived importance of the financial sector in general to Indian economic growth and the public at large.

Of equal importance is the fact that in the coming years a number of Indian insurers are expected to come to market for the first time. According to Section 6AA of the Insurance Act, the existing position is that the Indian promoter of an Indian insurer cannot hold more than 26% of the paid-up equity. For a newly formed insurer, a holding above 26% must be gradually brought down to 26%, starting at the latest from the 10th year after the insurer commenced business. A number of insurers will be commencing their 10th year in the near future and the IRDA has already announced that it intends to publish its guidelines on insurers making public offerings soon.

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Corporate Insurance - No One Policy Covers Everything

Corporate insurance plans are much more important these days. Adequately covering directors and officers is much harder and more expensive. The risks and liabilities are much better defined - but also much more severe. Investors need to make sure that the right coverage at the right price is firmly in place.

The board of directors has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the assets of the company they serve. Good governance involves the use of insurance for various predictable risks. Some companies opt to self-insure for some risks, a strategy to employ when a company has a large number or employees or a large amount of control over the activity they are self-insuring against. If a company chooses to purchase insurance against risk, a good understanding of the policy chosen is important. In today's litigious society, a company, CEO or corporate director cannot afford to be without coverage.

When reviewing corporate insurance policies, directors or committees should pay particular attention to exclusions. Exclusions are items not covered by a particular insurance policy.
The following are three main reasons why certain issues are not covered:

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