Friday, April 23, 2010

FAQ About Business Insurance

B04.org - Business coverage can be quite hard to understand for those who have never dealt with it, or those who are making their first steps into entrepreneurship. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions concerning business coverage and answers to them:


Should I disclose all the details about my business when getting it insured?


The insurance company should be fully aware of your business's operations, assets and property in order to provide you with the right type and amount of coverage that would be reasonable for your enterprise. In most cases when the insurance company is misinformed about the activities and belongings of the business any insurance policy is canceled (sometimes with a substantial fine).


Do I have to show my wages?


This information is required by the insurance provider in order to calculate the possible liability to others as well as the size of your enterprise.


Is landlord insurance required if my business uses lent property?


This entirely depends on your contract with the landlord. Some landlords will have all their property and buildings ensured with their own policy and this means that you do not need to insure it separately with your business policy. Other landlords won't provide any coverage, so you'll have to insure the property for yourself. Also, make sure to analyze the loan contract in order to define which circumstances are covered and which aren't.


Is public liability insurance a must?


Of course, you can go off without it but in our litigious age when a lawsuit on business can be filed any day it will be not quite bright from the business owner's part. Public liability will cover your court fees and payouts awarded if you are found guilty, and taking the fact that only lawyer expenses can account thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, this type of business insurance is particularly useful.


My business is small and only my family members work for it. Do I need employer's liability insurance?


The Employers Liability Act of 1969 makes an exception on family members for employer's liability insurance. However, if you operate as a limited company then you should cover all the employees, no matter how are you related to them.


My stock is limited, can I only cover liabilities?


Yes, it is possible, however business insurance is usually employed for other aspects as well, such as loss of profits, damage to immovables, equipment, public liability and much more. So make sure to get adequate insurance for all activities you business is involved.


I'm a product seller. In case a customer is injured by the product I sold that was defect, does my business insurance pay for that?


In most cases public liability insurance includes product liability coverage to various extents.


Does public liability insurance cover me in cases of errors and omissions of my business?


Public liability will only cover injuries or damage resulted from a defunct product. If you need a greater extent of this specific coverage or are providing services then it is recommended that you purchase errors and omissions insurance and add it to your business insurance policy. This type of insurance will be very useful for businesses that are involved in production of goods.

Insuring your life after

B04.org - You know that insuring own life can be quite troublesome for cancer patients, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's impossible. The likelihood of getting a good policy depends on a set of factors such as type of cancer, stage it was treated at and even the treatment plan itself. And there's a direct relation between the rates you will have to pay and how it is likely for your cancer to be cured. For example, most insurance companies don't regard skin cancer as a serious illness and having a history of it may even not influence your premiums at all.


Those patients who were diagnosed with breast or prostate cancer at treatable stages can still cover their lives, falling under "standard" rating if everything is ok. However, those with leukemia or colon cancer will be classified as "substandard" or "high substandard" (which means higher rates), or even get a denial of services. Patients with metastasized forms of cancer will almost always get a denial. This also applies to those who are still undergoing cancer treatment, regardless of type and stage.


How to get cheap life insurance if you have survived cancer?

In case you have survived cancer, you have more reasons to purchase life insurance. And here are a few tips on how to make it both easier and more feasible for you:



  • Compile all of your medical records, reports and even prescription labels, especially if they have to do with cancer. Your insurance provider should have all the information on your condition, and will request it sooner all later. Helping your insurer with all the records means that your application process will be faster and you will be regarded as of a less risk. Insurance companies are very suspicious when clients do not wish to provide all the information and will usually charge more for their services. So don't make such a mistake and cooperate for better life insurance rates.

  • Cooperate with your doctor even if it is a routine check-up after the treatment. Your insurance provider will most likely wait for the results of the check up before signing you up. So the earlier you pay your doctor a visit the better.

  • Get your quotes from various providers and the more the better. Insurance companies have various methods of calculating their risks and if one company classifies you as a very high risk, another one can view you as standard. Use this to your advantage and shop around.

  • If you can get group insurance options from any organization you make part of it will be the best option for you. Group insurance always has better rates and more preferential approach from providers.

  • Think about getting a "graded" policy (providing limited benefits) in case full death benefits are not allowed. Graded policy has special periods. If the insured person dies during such a period due to cancer condition then the policy will pay only a part of the death benefit. If the person dies after the period due to another condition, the policy will pay its entire face value.

Friday, April 9, 2010

How to keep car insurance quotes low

B04.org - When it comes to paying the premiums vehicle insurance can give you a very bad headache, especially if you have a costly vehicle to insure. And "costly" doesn't necessarily mean "expensive". You may ride a cheap car that will cost you hundreds of dollars more to insure than a large SUV. It may seem illogic at first, but you will have to understand the way insurance companies asses risk in order to find the perfect car to lower your insurance costs with.

Insurance companies analyze a set of elements regarding each car make and model before giving you a quote. It's not that insurance providers have prejudice against certain makes. Each car is analyzed and evaluated by how risky it is to insure. The factors that will influence a car's insurance rating include: passenger safety; damage and injury scores; theft rates; repair costs. These factors vary significantly between car types and within types as well. So let's look closer at these elements.

Passenger safety. It's evident that if a car has low passenger safety it will be costlier to insure. Why? Because the insurance company is more likely to pay for the injuries a passenger (or driver) will sustain in this car and they want to cover their risks respectively. So before you buy a new or used car, take some time to analyze its crash test scores and if they are low don't even bother buying it, no matter how cheap it may be. Besides saving your life you will also free yourself from high premiums with such a ride.

Damage and injury. Somewhat similar to passenger safety, this factor also analyzes how much damage the car is likely to deliver to another vehicle, its passengers or infrastructure. That is, if a car is quite big to ruin a concrete wall or total the other car it had collision with it is likely to be more costly to insure. That's quite often the other side of the coin of having a big SUV car that is safe for the people who are inside it.

Theft rates. Quite obviously, if the car is likely to be stolen in your area your auto insurance company will charge you more for insuring it. So if you are dreaming about a luxury car that you will have to hire a swat team to guard - forget about cheap auto insurance. Ask your insurance agent about theft rates according to car makes and models in your area and choose a vehicle that is very unlikely to be stolen if you want auto insurance quotes.


Repair costs. Different cars have different costs when it comes to repair. And the insurance company won't be quite happy to pay thousands of dollars every now and then for repairing your car at the body shop. If you want to find a car that is cheap to repair and doesn't needs frequent services you might want to ask a local repair shop for a little information. You can also check magazines and the Internet for a comparison of different car makes and models with respect to repair rates. Do this before you buy your car, or otherwise you will have both constant visits to the shop and high insurance rates.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Health Insurance For You

B04.org - You must know that the widely-discussed reform of healthcare industry in the US owes much of the stir around it to the simple fact that having your health insured in our country isn't affordable for millions of people of different demographic groups. In other words, it's just too expensive to be within the family budget of most US citizens. But how much does it cost to get your health insured these days, anyway?

This strongly depends on several factors that may vary your cost significantly. Things like your health condition, age, workplace, location, income and other live factors play a very important role in shaping your final rates. Not to mention the provider you're getting your coverage from. The form in which you get your health insured also plays a crucial role, because getting your insurance in a group from your employer usually costs less than if getting it on your own.

But what comprises the final insurance costs?

Many people get confused by the fact that there are more elements to insurance costs than just the rates you seen when quoting your price. Here are the most important of them:

Premiums

Premiums are periodic fees (usually, monthly) that have to be paid to the insurance company for receiving any medical services under your plan. If you have an individual plan then you are paying your premiums on your own. If you are covered under a group plan at work, your employer pays the premiums, usually requiring you to pay a small part of this amount. Premiums depend on your health condition, your age and your income status. Premiums also vary significantly between insurance companies, so you'd better spend some time on comparing health insurance quotes before you sign your plan.

Out-of-Pocket expenses

Out-of-pocket expenses are all the additional costs of health insurance plans that are extended beyond premiums. These usually include deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. With some plans these expenses can be limited to a maximum amount, while other plans have no limitations at all, so be on the lookout for that.

Deductible is the amount of money you have to pay on an annual basis before your actual coverage kicks in. You will most commonly encounter them in PPO plans for the services received outside the network. And as with other types of insurance products, you will have to pay lower premiums if your deductible is higher.

Coinsurance is the part of the medical cost you have to meet after paying the annual deductible. It is usually 20-30% of what you pay for the services when going to the doctor.

Co-payments represent a fixed fee for certain services within your plan. In many HMO and PPO insurance plans co-payments are set for things like doctor's visit or prescription medications.

And what are the average costs?

  • Across the US, the premium is $2,985 for individual health insurance and $6,328 for a family plan.
  • The annual premium differs significantly between states. If a family in New York had to pay $13,296 as an annual premium, the very same plan in Iowa was worth $5609.
  • The amount of deductible paid has a strong effect on the annual premium. A family plan that had no deductible had a premium of $12686, while a $10,000 deductible shed this amount more than in half, with $5380 to be paid.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The most important about home insurance

B04.Org - There are many factors can make your home insurance go expensive or cheap. When you own a house in a good area, you are twice as lucky but when you are the one with the good insurance on your house - think of yourself as of a "jackpot" winner.

The amount you will have to pay for your insurance plan depends on lots of elements. First of all, it is wrong to think nobody will check up on you and your insurance past so we advice you not to try to hide anything. It is always better to stay honest.

You house is like a map that can take you anywhere. But it is not enough to have a home in a prestigious neighborhood. Your rates can be crazy high even when it looks perfect on the outside. Let us take a look t the factors that can influence the payments you will have to make and try to point out the ways to cut the costs where possible.

You house is new. But guess what? The methods of construction and materials employed for construction were not strong enough to make it withstand the storm damage, fire or earthquake. Therefore we can see that some materials used for the house construction will affect your payments - homes made of bricks will be less costly to insure when stick frame houses will cost quite expensive to insure. Brick doesn't get burned down easily that is another reason for the cost difference between those two.

Age is only a number - this is exactly what we are used to saying. But when it comes to insurance age does matter. If you are the owner of an old house it will cost you more to insure it while newer houses cost less due to the fact that the materials are stronger. This also means the percentage of failure is smaller.

We all want our houses in a good are. Unfortunately, not all of us get those, but this doesn't mean we don't have to insure them. Yes, it is true that if your neighborhood is pleasant your insurance plan will cost you less. The location can affect your payments greatly. There are areas that are dangerous to live in as burglary is very common there. The house owners that live in these areas pay almost twice the price the people living in nice areas pay. We know it is unfair, but so true. Cheap home insurance is mostly for those who afford to pay for it, funny though.

Deductibles and coverage amounts differ from one policy to another. Your deductible is the amount of money you will have to pay out of pocket before your policy kicks in. It is necessary to take this into consideration as well. Another important fact - the amount of coverage you get will affect the amount of money you will pay for your home insurance.

You can get additional coverage whenever you need or feel like you need some. The more insured you will get - the better it will be for you when the replacement time comes.

So, don't let anyone think you can't find a good solution. You can get a cheap home insurance when you own a good home. Remember this.

4 Types of Health Insurance Plans

B04.Org - You must know that there are various types of plans out there on the market, each of them having their special features, pros and cons. And it's quote hard to say which plan type is better, because they all appeal to different customers and different situations. Just like you can't say that coffee is better than tea, you can't affirm that HMOs are better than PPOs. So if you are a bit confused with different plans and don't know which one to choose, this short overview will definitely help you decide with type of health coverage to purchase when you decide you need one.

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

This plan type is probably one of the most popular and widely used amongst managed care plans. It delivers a very wide selection of services, including preventive care, regular exams, access to different specialists and medications. However, you are limited to a specific network of medical facilities and physicians you can receive services from. Moreover, you are required to choose a primary car physician (PCP) who will refer you to other specialists when needed. Otherwise, if getting your care outside the network or without your doctor's referral you will have higher out of pocket expenses.

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)

PPOs are practically identical to HMOs, taking the fact that you are also limited to a network of facilities and have to choose a PCP in order to receive care. However, you have more freedom when choosing your primary physician, which is especially helpful if you have a good relationship with your family doctor who is out of the network. And you usually get a wider network of facilities to receive care in. Still, any out of network services will be considerably more costly.

Point of Service (POS)

POS plans have strict rules concerning referrals. If you don't have a referral to other specialists issued by your primary physician then you won't be able to receive any cheap health insurance coverage at all.

Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO)

EPOs are very close to HMO and PPO plans. It's the same type of managed care health insurance where you have to select a PCP and are limited to a network of hospitals and doctors you can get medical services from. But the main difference is that with EPO plans you pay for each visit to the doctor or service received when required in contrast to HMO plans where you have a monthly fee that should be paid constantly regardless whether you have used your coverage or not.

Fee-for-Service

Fee-for-Service is the oldest type of individual health insurance that was around ever since health coverage was introduced. With such plans you have total control over where to get your care and whom to address. You pay only for the services you receive and don't need any referrals in order to get to a specialist. However, the fees are usually much higher than with managed care plans and many insurance experts say that the resulting out-of-pocket expenses are larger than the amounts of money you would spend on a managed care plan.

Right now it's up to you to decide which plan type works best for you. Analyze your situation, see what your options are and get the plan that would reflect your personal interest and would be most convenient to you personally.

The peculiarities of Life Insurance in Florida

B04.org - You must know that people of Florida, like to know that life isn't going anywhere it should not be going. We try to keep focused on what we do and we try to do it good. We want everything to the maximum. When we drink, we get crazy drunk, when we eat, we want to feel totally full, and when we get insured we need and expect maximum protection. This is one way of living the life you deserve and this means doing what you want and feeling comfortable with it.

What you must do before you get in your car and hit the door of the insurance company office? Well, you have to collect information about the type of insurance you need. You need to get your thoughts together and point out the reasons for getting insured. If you want it only because everybody else has it and you don't want out on your opportunity to get insurance, this might not be the best reason. If you have dependents, people that are dependent on you financially and they might end up in trouble if something happens to you, then you might need to get yourself life protection coverage. Be considerate and help those who will not be able to handle the money situation if you pass away.

There are many independent insurers in Florida. Not all of them deserve your attention and trust. Some people will try to fool you; some will try to make money on you and your problems. But, thank God, there are good people as well - companies that have a brilliant reputation and some strong feedback that will be enough to push you towards collaboration with them.

We don't want you to feel alone when you don't know or can't figure out whether you need to get insurance or not. There are plenty of information on web-pages and articles about people that got insured, their personal experiences and stories. You can get motivation from those people as well as your friends and relatives.

Insurance companies of Florida are as expensive as they are in New York or California, for example, but Kentucky and Ohio have better prices indeed. But there is a good advantage to the fact that there are plenty of insurance companies in Florida nowadays. The prices began to drop. The big amount of companies creates the competition that benefits the payments of costumers and that makes them very happy.

You can read Florida life insurance quotes on almost every company's site. Make sure the site looks trust-worthy to you before you apply for any type of insurance even a cheap one. In order to get a cheap Florida life insurance, you have to shop around a bit and compare conditions with payments. If this isn't enough for you, you can book a meeting with an independent agent and ask him everything you have to ask. Don't be scared to do so and don't be afraid to seem unprofessional, you don't have to know everything about insurance. There are special people that are meant to discuss possibilities with you and help you choose the correct type of protection.

Now, we want to remind you one again about the importance of protection. If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for somebody else. There are always people around you that will need you to make certain steps and we hope you will do them in the right direction. Your Florida insurance is almost in your pocket.