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Archive for April, 2010

Even if you need insurance for your UK business, you might want to pay less for it. That’s reasonable. However, considering all of the types of cover needed (not to mention the amount of each type), is it possible to find cheaper UK business insurance? Here are some tips to help you to get enough business cover, with a lower price tag:

1. Purchase a policy package
Taking this step can help you to save a small fortune, when shopping for business cover. For instance, you could enjoy major discounts by purchasing multiple policies from the same company. Like other companies, insurers appreciate repeat customers. However, as a word of caution you should examine policy packages carefully. While such packages could be more cost-effective than buying the policies individually, they might contain types of cover that your company doesn’t necessarily need.

2. Get your paperwork together
That includes various documentation related to your company’s assets, tax returns, professional licenses, and so on. This information will help to determine more precisely how much cover your business needs. On the other hand, failing to secure this paperwork could cause you to buy more cover than necessary. And when you’re looking for cheap business insurance, that’s definitely a situation that you’ll want to avoid.

3. Keep an eye out for fees and charges
In particular, be cautious about the hidden ones. The bottom line of business insurance policies’ quotes should include ALL of the fees and charges that your company will owe. If it doesn’t, then you might be unpleasantly surprised when your company starts paying the premiums for its new business cover policy.

4. Avoid buying overlapping policies
This can easily happen if you buy bundled insurance policies for your company. Yes, policy packages can seem extremely attractive when a company wants to save money on business cover. However, if some of the policies provide redundant cover, then it’s like taking two steps forward and then three steps backwards.

5. Get personal referrals
This is unquestionably one of the best ways to find cheap commercial insurance. That’s because referrals from people we know are much more reliable than from other sources, such as formal reviews. Such reviews could be skewed due to a business relationship between the reviewer and the reviewed company. Will personal referrals always provide good advice? No, but you’ll be significantly more likely to find cheaper business insurance.

6. Shop around
The Internet has made this process 100% easier than it once was. Think about this fact: you can shop for commercial insurance, from any place with Internet access. Why waste time and effort when you don’t have to? From the privacy of your own home, you can compare business cover policies of different companies. And you can do it whenever you have the time to search. Simply put, the process couldn’t be easier.

Yes, you can find quality UK business cover, and still pay a lower price for it. These tips are some of the ways that you can get more, for less money. You can always find a better price!

Each year, I look forward to attending the prestigious Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Annual Meeting in New York City to hear directly from the country’s premier industry speakers on the very topics most on our hearts and minds: the state of the market and our economy. Attending these sessions allows me to bypass the media hype on behalf of my clients and get to the heart of what’s happening.

Last year, I reported that senior level professionals were working behind the scenes to fix the unfolding economic crisis. I advised my clients to hold onto their confidence for the future while managing their financial affairs according to their ‘rainy-day’ plans.

This year’s event struck me quite differently. As the day progressed, I felt that too many politicians and regulators used it as a platform to congratulate themselves for all that they felt they had accomplished. I was conflicted as I heard key speakers avoid providing clear answers to what caused last year’s meltdown. As they described new regulations that did not address last year’s issues, I wondered if the supervisory lapses that provided the environment for the meltdown to occur were in danger of being perpetuated.

Mary L. Shapiro, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was our breakfast speaker and went into detail about how the SEC had changed regulations and were taking additional enforcement actions. However, most of the regulations and enforcement actions she discussed were about controlling the interaction between retail investment advisors/brokers and their clients. I walked away from that session with the realization that controlling the end-investor relationship was not the regulatory answer that last year’s meltdown needed. My questions about what was being done to implement the proper supervisions to prevent another meltdown went unanswered.

At the end of the day, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner’s one and a half hour interview with Charlie Rose was imprecise and evasive, not providing us with any clear sense of direction or perspective. Although Geithner was bright and cheerful, he did everything in his power to avoid answering a single question with clarity. When speaking of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) monies, he told us that he expects more financial institutions to return the money they received. He said, “It will depend on the institution, but for major banks in the country I think that money will come back relatively quickly.” When Charlie Rose asked him, “How soon, three years? five years?” Geithner would only reply with, “Soon.”

During the mid-morning panel session, Ronald J. Kruszewski, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc., pointed to the real reasons for last year’s economic meltdown: unregulated derivatives, reduction in lending standards enabled by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the efforts of Congress to increase national home ownership by encouraging banks to lend to those folks who were not creditworthy, and industry regulators ignoring their supervisory responsibilities by becoming too ‘clubby’ with the folks they were regulating. He further asserted that the regulatory and political focuses described during this event were doing nothing to prevent or correct what happened last year. When he said aloud, “The Emperor has no clothes on,” the message of the day was clear for me.

It was clear from other discussions that I heard that the unspoken directive was to rely on the individual investor to circumspectly manage their own affairs rather than depend on the elected politicians and appointed regulators to watch out for them. Because of this shift in focus from last year, here is the advice I will be bringing to my clients in the months ahead:

1. Continue to have a well-funded ‘rainy day’ plan in place. Don’t be caught unawares again. Depending on politicians and regulators to take care of your financial future is a mistake that can jeopardize all your retirement plans. Be proactive about taking care of yourself and your family for the future.

2. Work with a qualified professional. Planning your financial future with a qualified financial professional you can trust is more important than ever before. I’m not talking about chasing hot stocks and searching for rates of return. I’m talking about making good decisions about how you are handling down-side risk in your investments, implementing practical asset protection, reducing taxes, and planning your estate. The current financial media sweetheart is not your best choice to provide you with the advice you need.

3. Review and revise your financial plan regularly. Your plan needs to be reviewed and revised on a much more frequent basis now. It needs to be flexible, adapting to the changes in the market, regulations, and taxes. In the past, a family could design a financial plan that would guide their financial decisions for years, if not decades. Working with a qualified professional can help your plan stay abreast of how each of these arenas affects the whole of your future plans. Get a planner and get a plan; then learn how to work that plan together.

4. Only excellence will succeed. Competition for business in the global economic environment is going to get fiercely competitive. Its effects on small businesses and job security are just beginning to be felt. Being average will not be enough to guarantee a strong financial future. You will need to position yourself and your small business to pursue excellence and efficiency on every front. I am still optimistic about the future of America. I am optimistic about what you and I can do to take personal responsibility for our individual futures and how that can positively affect the years ahead. Working closely with a qualified professional can help you take charge of your personal economic recovery with confidence.

What general provisions do life insurance policies have in common? In other words, what general framework do life insurance policies share? If this question means absolutely nothing to you, don’t worry, you are not alone, but it does mean that there are some aspects to life policies that you should be aware of.

When you look at a life insurance policy, regardless of whatever else may in that policy, you are going to find four clauses, or sections to the policy. This is actually a way in which you can begin to understand your policy. Look for and identify these four basic clauses.

the incontestability clause the suicide clause the lapse clause the clause for explaining what to do when both the insured and beneficiary die at the same time.
Incontestability Clause. This clause declares a period of time to allow the insurance company to investigate and contest, or disagree with, the payment of the policy. After the period of time stated in the incontestability clause, the insurer cannot revoke the policy and must pay the amount agreed upon in the policy. The importance of this clause to you should be obvious, and when getting life insurance, you want
to be sure the policy includes this clause and that you agree with the time limit. Let me mention that normally the maximum period of time stated in policies is 2 years.

Suicide Clause Basically, the sucide clause states that in the event that the person with the insurance policy kills him or her self, the policy is invalid and does not have to be paid, or otherwise severely restricts the payment of benefits in some way. Normally, in the event where the issue of suicide might be of concern, the burden of proof rests with the insurance company. What this means is that if an insurance company tries to deny a claim based on the suicide clause, it is up to the insurance company to prove that the policy holder committed suicide.

Lapse and Reinstatement Clause. This clause lays out the guidelines concerning the failure to pay premiums. When an insurance policy has lapsed, that means a premium or premiums have not been paid. The period of time lapsed is the period of time of non-payment. With most policies, there is a thirty day grace period. It is of the utmost importance for you to know whether or not your policy has a grace period
what the length of that grace period is. In the event that the beneficiary dies during the grace period, the policy must be paid minus any money owed. If your life insurance policy lapses, the policy will state terms necessary for reinstatement. Reinstatment simply means that your policy is once again in good standing. Generally speaking, the person with the insurance policy may get reinstatement by sending theinsurance company the following,

proof of insurability payment of money owed plus the interest at the percentage agreed upon in the policy payment of any outstanding loan balance plus interest. This would not apply to term life insurance because that type of insurance does not have a cash balance account.

It is important to also be aware that there is usually a fixed period of time allowed for reinstatment. This can be anywhere between one and five years, but this is another point vital to know about before putting your signature on the dotted line.

Simultaneous Death of Insured and Beneficiary. The point of this clause is to lay out the rules explaining what to do when the insured and beneficiary die as a result of the same accident or event. Normally, the insured is considered to have died after the beneficiary. This allows the policy to be paid either to a co-beneficiary or to whomever is named the second (or contingent) beneficiary. If there is no other beneficiary, then the policy can be paid to the estate of the deceased policy holder. Occasionally the order of death comes into dispute. That is, someone claims that the insured died first (that the beneficiary died after the insured). In this event, the burden of proof of the order of death rests with the person making the dispute. Why would someone make such a dispute? A person seeking a share of the beneficiary’s estate, who would not otherwise be entitled, might contest the order of death.

Understanding the basic concepts outlined in this brief article will provide you with a framework for approaching, examining, and ultimately purchasing life insurance.

I saw a question within another online hedge fund community regarding the differences between hedge funds and mutual funds and figured I would copy my answer to the individual here in my blog. For those of you in the hedge fund industry this is obvious stuff so please just let me know if I missed something glaring.

Mutual Funds

Their performance is marked against a relevant benchmark which they try to beat in up years with superior performance and protect their investors with less losses in bad years- Pooled investment vehicle similar to a hedge fund. They can use some securities that have returns traditionally uncorrelated with the overall market but in general they are limited to stocks, money market accounts, and bonds Anyone can invest in mutual funds Mutual funds calculate the price of their vehicle daily based on the number of investors and the market-rate or cost for a mutual fund goes up as it becomes more popular- You can find mutual fund of fund products and they have been rising in popularity in the past 5 years- Average cost of a mutual fund is 75 basis points or .75% per year
Hedge Funds

Contrary to what Investopedia will tell you hedge funds do not always invest in publicly traded securities. They often invest in art, futures, PIPE deals, real estate and other investment vehicles that aren’t highly correlated to the general market. Depending on who you ask there are around 12-14,000 hedge funds competing against each other- Hedge fund have developed (the media has developed) an image of hedge funds as being ultra risky employing dangerous levels of leverage- Hedge funds may invest in art, website domain names, stocks, bonds, options, futures, Foreign Exchange, or wind power farms Hedge funds manage their portfolios aiming for absolute growth targets and they don’t usually compare themselves against any stock exchange-based benchmark such as the S & P 500 or Russell 3000 Most hedge funds are attempting to invest their money that is uncorrelated with the overall market You have to be an accredited investor (if you live in America. This means meeting high net worth standards) to invest in a hedge fund or hedge fund of fund product- There are several hedge fund of funds. These are investment vehicles that invest in other hedge funds. This way if someone has $2M to invest they can place it into a hedge fund of fund and they will create a portfolio for your funds so that it fits your specific appetite for risk- While fees are starting to come down the average hedge fund manager charges a 2% base fee and a 20% performance fee. Note: America is one of the only places where you have to be an accredited investor to invest in hedge funds.

Term Life Insurance policy is the best suitable for the people who are looking for an appropriate Insurance policy at an affordable price. Finance specialists advice this as the first choice to be considered by any well informed buyer.

Internet also provides a large number of useful tools which are accessible online, in addition to the websites of the companies providing Insurance, thereby making it very simple for potential customers of life Insurance to purchase a suitable Life Insurance policy.

By utilizing the vast knowledge accessible on web and high speed provided by the internet, an Insurance buyer can purchase the most suitable Insurance cover to provide the necessary financial protection to his dependants.

Also due to the presence of so many Insurance providing companies in the market, competition has increased manifold .consequently every company offers a variety of Insurance policies with lucrative features available at different price tags suitable for a wide range of customers. One can get the best Insurance plan with the maximum discount if one undertakes to explore online the different terms and conditions laid down by various Insurance providers for discounts. For example, some Insurance companies offer concession to senior citizens, teachers or army personnel.

One other way to get the Best Insurance deal is to purchase Insurance from the same Insurance provider from whom the individual has already taken some kind of Insurance. For Example if an individual has car Insurance from ABC Company and the same company also provides Life Insurance then it would be good to buy Life Insurance from the same company. The rationale behind this is that the customer will be well versed with the terms and conditions of the company and having the knowledge about the quality of service provided by the Insurance Company. It may also be possible that one’s regular Insurance provider offer some extra benefit without any extra cost. However for this one needs to do proper research on the same.

Thus, to strike the best deal with regards to purchasing Life Insurance, exploring the web will help a lot. However one must keep in mind to compare between different Insurance providers, through websites offering such service. All this can be done fast, and without incurring any cost, by just giving time online.

One should keep in mind that these websites will provide information on common Term Life Insurance plans and if one wish to work out the exact premium amount then a thorough assessment of one’s medical past with other factors is needed.

Sound financial planning extends to what sorts of insurance you get from which insurance company to cover for health related expenses for you and your family but for most American households, their families extend to accommodate their home’s furry occupants. As such, having dog or cat insurance also falls under wise budget allocation. You never know when your four-legged family members could get sick or in an accident, which, according to statistics, just happens to take up 40% of all vet fees. Animal insurance can make those otherwise costly unforeseen expenses affordable. But then, like with human health insurance, you need to get your hands on some pet insurance reviews to know what types of insurance from which provider can best suit your needs.

Fortunately, the internet doesn’t lack the necessary information on that field either. A quick Google or Yahoo search can land you some good insurance reviews and sites offering advice and comparisons, not to mention free insurance quotes. To point you in the right direction, my pet insurance reviews are one of more reliable sites you can start from. Other site provides dog insurance basics and advice: from why you should get insurance for your furry loved ones to what you need to know about the pet indemnity industry to online quotes and comparisons of insurance companies and their policies.

On the other hand, if you want to hear about policies from the proverbial horse’s mouth, then my pet insurance reviews would be of great help. The site helps you get free quotes and compare coverage and rates from leading pet insurers, but what you would probably find most useful about it is the pet insurance reviews from actual pet owners. People who visit the site are encouraged to share their own views of the pet coverage policies they’ve taken out from whatever insurer if they already have pet indemnity. For people like you who want to know and hear about actual experiences from people who’ve been there, this is the perfect spot to scout out real pet insurance reviews.