Life Insurance

Life Insurance Isn't Just for the Young

2011-12-19T04:34:00.000-08:00

Many people believe that when they reach retirement age, the need for life insurance diminishes. After all, once the kids have left home, the mortgage is paid off and Social Security and pension plans start kicking in, why pay for a life insurance benefit that’s not needed? The fact is, life insurance isn’t just for young families anymore. New economic realities mean a growing number of older Americans may benefit from incorporating life insurance into their retirement strategy.

Here are three reasons today’s retirees or pre-retirees should think twice before cutting back or eliminating their life insurance coverage.

Tougher Financial Times

Americans retiring today face a difficult economic landscape and are retiring with more debt. Nearly 45% of Americans enter retirement with a mortgage, and one in three owe $50,000 or more.1 These statistics are bound to climb, considering 30% of 45‐ to 54‐year‐old boomers currently owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.2 Life insurance can help ensure that mortgage payments continue for a surviving spouse, or help beneficiaries pay off an unwelcome debt.

Debt and other factors also are leading more workers to anticipate delaying retirement or working for pay in retirement. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the percentage of workers planning to work for pay in retirement now stands at 74%.3 Almost all retirees who worked in retirement in 2010 name at least one financial reason for doing so, including a decrease in the value of their savings or investments, difficulty making ends meet, or keeping health insurance or other benefits. Another indicator of tight economic times: six in 10 boomers are still providing financial support to their adult children, handing over $3,675 per year, on average.4 Life insurance can provide a financial safety net for surviving spouses who depended on income from a still-working spouse, or it may give adult children the boost they need to become financially independent.

American Life Insurance-one of the Most Trusted Company

2011-11-30T01:12:00.001-08:00

American Life Insurance the most trusted company which has a reputation of about 87 years. This company is one of the globally recognized life insurance companies and it has a number of branches all over the world which has a vast customer line following. American Life Insurance gives various tax benefits to all its insurance policy holders and it also takes care of all your life insurance related policies like retirement insurance policy, wealth management policy, medical insurance, health insurance etc.

Life insurance basic terms as you know is an important factor in every person's life and when it comes to life insurance age is not the main criteria when it comes to get your life insured. American Life Insurance also known as AIG insurance company and majority of Americans has insured themselves with this life insurance company. The market value of this company is high and you can find the companies ratings in the financial books due to their vast financial transactions with other financial institutes.

There are two major life insurance policies that this AIG Insurance Company deals with i.e. the Term Life Insurance and Whole Life Insurance. In case of Term Life Insurance the policy taken is for a short period of time and Whole Life Insurance is where you get yourself insured for your whole life.

AIG insurance company is one such life insurance company that charters to the needs of the common person. One of the benefits of getting insured in this life insurance company is that you reap a rich harvest of life insurance benefits on all your life insurance policies which no other life insurance company provides you as this company provides you with the benefits when you are still alive.

This life insurance company in order to increase its relationship with their vast flowing customer's have started life insurance online services which has made it easy and convenient for them to get themselves and their family members insured staying within the very comforts of their own house. AIG Insurance is one of the most sought of companies and it is a tough competitor to other life insurance companies.

Long-term care, life insurance, annuities part of new hybrid policies

2011-09-12T01:21:00.000-07:00

Have you neglected planning for long-term care often uncovered by Medicare or health insurance? If so, you have more choices these days.

Straight long-term care insurance could rise in price just when you need it or perhaps, never get used. However, you might be eligible for a life insurance/long-term care policy or a long-term care annuity.

In fact, Palm Beach insurance broker Peter Bono says he is converting clients with certain annuities into these newer offerings. They are attractive, he says, for someone whose annuity had large taxable gains. Reason: Thanks to newer regulations, you generally can tap these new hybrid policies, provided that contracts contain appropriate language, tax-free for long-term care.

In Florida, expect to pay a median of $83,950 annually for a private room in a nursing home, $41,184 for a home health aide; or $31,950 for a private, one-bedroom assisted living facility, according to Genworth Financial.

So how do you know which policy to select?

With a long-term care rider on cash value life insurance, you generally can choose a long-term care benefit that pays benefits for a specific term. Whatever is unused passes to your beneficiary when you die.

With a tax-deferred fixed annuity, you may invest a lump sum with the life insurance company. A certain amount of the cash value may be tapped for long-term care benefits. If you don’t use those benefits, you can either withdraw your funds or obtain periodic income for life.

Benefits on either of these are likely not as comprehensive as straight long-term care insurance. However, experts say the long-term care benefits are apt to be more comprehensive on hybrid life insurance policies than on hybrid annuities.

On the other hand, if you have a pre-existing condition and can’t qualify for long-term care insurance, the underwriting for an annuity/long-term care hybrid likely won’t be as tough, according to Bono.

Life insurance policies, coupled with either long-term care or chronic illness riders, account for 6 percent of the market, says LIMRA in Windsor, Conn. But annuity/long-term hybrids are newer. On an annuity, expect to give up 0.75 percent to 1.25 percent of your interest annually, depending on your age, for a long-term care rider, says Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-term Care Insurance in Los Angeles. Life insurance/long-term care costs are priced into your policy premiums and/or benefits.

In either case, you could lose if you withdraw early. Annuities may have both an IRS penalty if you withdraw before age 59½, as well as surrender charges if you withdraw early — often within the first seven years. On a life insurance hybrid, expect at the very least, to lose earned interest upon early withdrawal.

These programs can be attractive if you have lazy money — say $400,000 to $500,000 sitting in a bank account, Slome says. “What you have to do is put in enough now so that in 10, 15 or 20 years, you have meaningful coverage.”

Long-term care life insurance and annuity hybrids are complex, and the benefits may not be enough to fund your care. Inflation may erode the buying power of your long-term care benefit. Consult with your tax adviser. Earnings on your annuity, at least, may be taxed if you don’t use the long-term care benefit. And always check the financial strength of the insurance company you’re considering. The strongest are rated “A plus plus” by A.M. Best.

Let's dispel those life insurance myths

2011-09-12T01:19:00.000-07:00

I grant you that life insurance can be complicated, even mystifying. Some current and potential policy owners do their homework and get up to speed at least part of the way.

Others do not. Unfortunately, in too many cases the latter group draws uninformed conclusions about a myriad of life-insurance topics. The more common errors are often widely held. Let's refer to these as life insurance myths, and let's dispel some now.

Myth: You can haggle your way to a better deal.

Reality: There is no such thing in life insurance.

The life-insurance agent represents the insurer and offers what he or she is authorized by the insurer to sell. The provisions of the insurance policy and the price charged (the premium) are set by the insurance company. The agent has no authority to change the price. So, while one can dicker for cars, houses and flea-market items, there is no use in trying to haggle with life insurance.

In fact, life insurance companies have to file their policies and premiums with state regulators. And, for applicants who are similar in terms of age, sex and medical condition, the premium has to be the same. The insurer cannot discriminate in favor of one or another applicant, even if the insurer does a boatload of business with that applicant's agent.

Myth: Insurance is cheaper if bought online.

Reality: There is no Internet discount.

Again, because of the prohibition against discrimination, the policies and premiums offered online are the same as a local agent can offer if licensed with the same insurer. The only difference is that without the agent you do not get expert advice and ongoing, personalized service.

So, while the buyer may be eager to go online to avoid a local agent in order to avoid paying a commission as part of the premium, in fact the commission is already built into the online premium. The insurer simply does not pay commission for an online sale but instead increases its own profits. In the meantime, the buyer has foregone the expertise and guidance of the local agent in favor of an online formula calculation of his or her insurance needs.

The same flaw can be found in the purchase of life insurance from an 800 number. The stranger on the other end does not know the buyer and may have had training for all of two weeks before answering the phone. Maybe more. But the point is that the buyer does not know if the voice really knows his stuff or is just winging it. And the two will probably never speak to each other again.

Myth: You're borrowing your "own money" when borrowing against the cash value of life insurance.

Reality: The cash value belongs to the insurer, is held for only your benefit, and is used as part of the reserve to keep your future policy premiums moderate and to pay the future death benefit. While the borrowed cash is outstanding, the insurer cannot earn sufficient investment return to reach the targeted amount for the death benefit. That's why you're charged interest on the loan; the insurer has to make up for that loss of investment return.

Such life-insurance myths abound. Asking questions of well-trained, seasoned agents will keep you well-informed and less susceptible to misunderstandings.

Buying a property is the top trigger for taking out protection such as life insurance

2011-03-09T03:44:00.003-08:00

Getting on the property ladder is the top trigger for clients to take out protection, according to a survey of IFAs .

Scottish Provident's Financial Safety Net report questioned over 900 intermediaries and revealed that 92 per cent of IFAs said purchasing property was a major reason for taking out a new protection policy. The survey also found that having children, at 80 per cent, was the second most common trigger, while almost 57 per cent (three in five) say it is because their client simply wants peace of mind about the future.

Three quarters of IFAs (76 per cent) state life insurance is the most common policy clients ask about without being prompted, with just 10 per cent saying it was unemployment benefit, 9 per cent critical illness and only 5 per cent income protection .

Susan Barclay, head of marketing at Scottish Provident, said: "The research confirms that IFAs' clients are mainly prompted to take out protection products when they experience huge life changes such as buying a property or having children."

Women warned over lack of life insurance

2011-03-09T03:44:00.001-08:00

More women than ever claim to be the main breadwinners in their household, but they are failing to protect themselves adequately should they be unable to work, new research has revealed.

As females throughout the world celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, research from Bright Grey reveals almost half of working women now describe themselves as the main earners in their family.

But despite the growing importance of the female wage in many households, the survey suggests thatwomen are less likely than men to have financial back-up should they be unable to work or even worse.

Over half of working women admitted that they have no life insurance cover in place, a product aimed at protecting their families financially in the event of their death.

Meanwhile, more than four in five female workers do not hold income protection products, and over three quarters admitted to not holding either a critical illness policy or private medical insurance.

"With women taking more financial decisions, it is vital that they do not leave out having adequate financial protection for themselves and their families when making their choices," said Roger Edwards, proposition director at Bright Grey.

"By buying a protection product that pays out if they are unable to work due to a serious illness or disability, women can ensure they protect both their household income and current lifestyle.

"It is crucial that women in the UK who are increasingly running their household finances are protected."

Whether you're male or female, protecting yourself and your family financially against any unforeseen circumstances should always be at the top of your list of priorities.

Arranginglife insurance is not as time consuming or expensive as you might think, with well known names such as NatWest Life offering competitively priced products.

Post Office Life Insurance starts from £5 a month, while applicants for cover from Tesco Life receive a free £50 gift card.

Online applicants for Barclays Life Insurance get a 10% discount as well as receiving a £15 Marks & Spencer voucher (once the third monthly payment has been made)

Ex-smokers should aim for cheaper life insurance

2011-03-09T03:43:00.001-08:00

New research from Sainsburys Finance has revealed that ex-smokers in the UK, which amount to about 3.3 million people, are losing out big savings when taking out life insurance premiums . It was estimated that that ex-smokers are paying out GBP316 million more in total than necessary, due to them forgetting to inform their insurer about having given up on their habit.

Sainsbury’s Finance said that people who have managed to give up their smoking could save up to 46 per cent on their life insurance cover . The findings from the report revealed that the average smoker’s life insurance premium is GBP209.75 per year, as compared to GBP111.88 for a non-smoker, meaning that you can save as much as GBP95 on annual life cover if you qualify as a non-smoker.

For people to be allowed to put themselves down as a non-smoker on life insurance forms, they must have given up smoking at least a year before, as well as avoiding the use of nicotine replacement products since then, otherwise insurers will still charge them more.

Andrew Gray, life insurance product manager at Sainsbury’s Finance, commented "A huge number of people have quit smoking over the past few years and the health benefits of not smoking are now very well-known, although the financial gains are often underestimated."

Life insurance sell off hits profits at AXA

2011-03-09T03:42:00.001-08:00

A sharp fall in profits at insurance giant AXA has been blamed on its sale of its life insurance division, AXA Sun Life, to Friends Provident last September. The insurer, which employs about 1,000 staff in the UK, announced underlying earnings of GBP131 million for 2010, down from the GBP235 million reported the previous year.

The GBP2.75 billion AXA Sun Life sell off was part of a restructuring programme, which resulted in four specialist units, personal insurance, commercial insurance, healthcare and wealth management, in an attempt to focus on the demands of both consumers and intermediaries .

AXA has also stated that it expects further rises in premiums for personal insurance products over this year as the market worked towards restoring profitability.

Paul Evans, group chief executive for AXA UK and Ireland, commented "Our priority for 2011 is to focus on delivering great service and valued products to consumers and businesses in those markets where AXA can leverage real competitive advantage."

French-owned AXA said that the operating ratio in 2010 was disappointing, but that greater improvements would come during this year as premium increases applied across personal lines in 2010 took effect. However, they recently warned there would be possible redundancies at their Ipswich office due to the separation of its commercial and personal lines operations.

Should the lowest premium decide which life insurance cover you buy?

2010-11-04T05:43:00.000-07:00

Financial planning is not complete without adequate life insurance, most of us would agree. And term insurance at that — particularly if you are earning and have dependents — for it is the most cost-effective option available in the market.

But even the cost of a term cover commensurate with your age and risk profile varies from company to company.

So, should you buy a cover from the company that charges you the least premium for the amount of cover you wish to take?

Experts suggest you look at a number of other factors and not the amount of premium alone.

The most important things to consider are the probability of the claim getting settled in the event of your death, and at the earliest, to avoid financial duress to the loved ones you leave behind. Imagine paying premium diligently for 20 years and then, after your death, the claim being disapproved for one reason or the other. You would also not like it if your family fails to get the sum assured say six months or even a year after your death, would you?.

These two considerations — assurance of the claim being settled and on time — are perhaps what have been driving people to prefer the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) over the private players.

While such apprehensions may hold in a few cases, a generalisation would be far from accurate.

An analysis of the efficiency of claims settlement of various insurance companies based on the figures submitted by them to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irda) should be in order.
For the sake of simplicity, we have selected six private life insurance companies and the LIC for comparison.

The private life insurers selected here charge the lowest premium for a term cover of Rs 1 crore, for a 30-year-old male, for 30 years. Note that the premium differs significantly across companies as the age and tenure changes. Hence, in case you want a cover for 20 years or for a lower value, it could just as well be that the cheapest cover is provided by some other insurance company.

Next, we compare their claim settlement ratio and turnaround time for settlement based on the data uploaded on their websites and submitted to Irda for the 2009-10 financial year. Turnaround time is the number of days it takes to settle a claim once all the documents have been submitted to the insurance company. For LIC, the latest such data available is for FY 2008-09, which has been taken.

Please also note that the claim settlement ratio and turnaround time for settlement mentioned in the table are cumulative for all the insurance plans offered by a company and not specific to term plans.

As can be seen, the claim settlement ratio of the cheapest term plan, offered by Aegon Religare, is a poor 48% and it also has the lowest turnaround of 46% within one month.

In comparison, LIC has the best claim settlement ratio of 95%, though its cost of cover is more than three times that of the other insurers.

ICICI Pru’s iProtect plan stands out as one of the cheapest term covers with a respectable settlement ratio of 90% and with 74% of the claims getting settled within one month.

Met Life’s Met Protect plan also compares favourably.

An analysis of the rejected claims reveals that most of them are for policies which are less than two years old. This may be a reason for the low claim settlement ratio of new companies such as Aegon Religare. Whether it improves in future will need watching.

To conclude then, even the private insurance companies have good claim settlement records, even when they are offering the cheapest term plan.
Such analysis should be done periodically to check the consistency and long-term trends before zeroing in on any plan.

Financially Speaking: Life insurance: How much do you need?

2010-10-10T02:12:00.001-07:00

No one likes to think about death. Unfortunately, it's going to happen to all of us one of these days.

Life insurance was created to help people protect the financial stability of their families in the event of their premature death. With so many insurance products available today, it's becoming more difficult to determine how much life insurance you need, and which type of insurance is appropriate.

Simple rules of thumb are often used to estimate someone's life insurance need. The income rule calculates your life insurance need at six to eight times your gross annual income. For example, if you earn $60,000 per year, this rule calculates your needed coverage at $360,000 to $480,000.

The income-plus-expense rule calculates your insurance need at five times your gross annual income plus the total of your outstanding debt, plus estimated final expenses and special funding needs such as college expenses. Using this rule, if your income is $60,000 and your combined debt plus funding need totals $150,000, you would need $450,000 of life insurance.

The income replacement method assumes you should purchase enough life insurance to replace the income you could potentially earn throughout your working career, considering future inflation, increases in your earning capacity, and the investment performance of the life insurance proceeds over time.

These rules are overly simplistic, in my opinion, because they fail to consider several important factors:

You may be able to reduce your life insurance need by some or all of the value of your existing investments, although you will need to consider the effect of income taxes and any limitations on the accessibility of those assets. For example, retirement plan assets that might be subject to early withdrawal penalties.
If you are married, have you considered your spouse's future earning capacity after your death? He or she might be able to earn enough to cover your debt payments. Conversely, the death of a parent might create a need to obtain professional household or child care services and that expense should be included in your calculation.
You might have already accumulated a vested pension benefit that is available to your survivors.
Liquidity is a consideration that is frequently overlooked. Although there is no federal estate tax in 2010, it will very likely resume after Dec. 31. The value of real estate or a closely held business could easily take the value of a decedent's estate above the federal or state exclusion. Life insurance can be a cost-effective vehicle to provide your estate with the cash needed to pay the tax and avoid a forced liquidation.
Even if estate taxation is not a problem, life insurance can be used to equalize bequests to your heirs. For example, if one of your two children works in a family business valued at $1 million, you could leave the business to one child and a $1 million life insurance policy to the other.
If there is no one who would be financially harmed by your death, you might not need any life insurance at all.

An experienced independent life insurance agent can help you determine the appropriate amount of life insurance you need and the type of policy to purchase. You should also obtain expert advice regarding ownership and beneficiary designations in order to avoid inadvertently creating a tax problem.

Life insurer Axa sold to Resolution

2010-09-18T01:15:00.001-07:00

Life insurance consolidator Resolution Ltd has finalised its takeover of Axa UK Life. Resolution, which also bought up insurance provider Friends Provident last year, is based in the Channel Islands, and is paying up to GBP2.75 billion for the life insurance arm of Axa.

Denis Duverne, deputy chief executive of Axa, commented "This transaction is instrumental in our strategy of further optimising capital allocation within the group while focusing our operations on the higher margin and higher growth segments of the UK life and savings market ."

The acquisition of Axa UK Life by Resolution, which led to the suspension in trading of Resolution's ordinary shares from the London Stock Exchange, has been called a reverse takeover .

There have also been a few changes within the company due to the deal. Although Trevor Matthews will remain as chief executive officer of Friends Provident Holdings, David Hynam has been appointed as executive director of operations for Friends Provident Holdings, and Andy Parsons will become interim finance director. Both Hynam and Parsons previously worked at Axa.

Resolution provided a statement on the moves: "A new organisational structure is being implemented which will broaden the complement of top management in the business."

Life Insurance: Think Before You Sell Your Policy for Cash

2010-09-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

It's no wonder why many older adults are considering selling their life-insurance policies to strangers: They're looking to shore up their finances. After all, the economy is slumping and the stock market is in a 10-year funk. The strategy, though, might not make as much sense as it did a few years ago, thanks to a steep decline in the prices investors are willing to pay for policies.

In a so-called life-settlement transaction, an investor buys a stranger's life-insurance policy for a lump sum and continues paying the premiums until the policyholder dies, at which point the investor collects the death benefit. The sooner the insured person dies, the greater the return to the investor.

The cash windfall may sound great. But before making a deal, consult a trusted adviser. There may be better options for any policy you own, and commission-paid brokers may not volunteer these alternatives or even understand them themselves.

There also are taxes to consider. A 2009 Internal Revenue Service ruling raised the tax bill for many who sell their policies.

The life-policy secondary market dates back to the 1980s, when AIDS patients sold their policies to raise cash for medical treatments. In recent years, it has evolved into a place for older adults to unload "permanent" life policies—designed to be in place until the policyholder dies, rather than for a specified number of years—they no longer need or can afford.

Hedge Funds Pile In
The market boomed earlier this decade, as hedge funds eager for offbeat alternative investments piled in. With demand keen, older adults typically netted more than they could by surrendering a policy to the insurer for a lump-sum payment.

But things have changed since the credit crisis of 2008-09, and investor enthusiasm for life settlements has yet to recover. After growing rapidly, the total face value of policies purchased in the secondary market fell to $7 billion in 2009 from $13 billion in 2008, according to industry estimates.

Prices for policies, meanwhile, fell to an average of 13% of the death benefit in 2009 from 21% in 2006, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Various factors, including investors' concern about the reliability of life-expectancy estimates, have contributed to "make this current market a buyer's market," says Doug Head, executive director of Life Insurance Settlement Association, a trade group in Orlando, Fla.

The bottom line: "You should think very carefully before you decide to sell," says Richard Connolly, an insurance agent at Ward & Connolly in Columbus, Ohio. With buyers often making stingy offers, "we believe there is often a strong economic case for policyholders to hold on to their policies, provided they have the wherewithal to keep them in force."

Options for Sellers
There are several alternatives to life settlements. Policyholders can often withdraw or borrow funds from a policy or restructure the coverage to make premiums more affordable, for example. There also are tax-efficient ways to exchange one policy for another one that might better suit your current needs, such as a retirement-income annuity.

With a well-conceived strategy, a policyholder can free up cash while preserving at least some portion of the death benefit for heirs, says Caleb Callahan, vice president of investments at ValMark Securities Inc., an Akron, Ohio, independent broker-dealer that specializes in life insurance.

Which option makes the most sense depends on factors including the policyholder's financial goals and health and whether the policy has "cash value," which is a form of savings that accumulates inside permanent-life policies.

If your policy has built up a lot of cash value and you want to access it, you can take out a loan against it. Under New York Life Insurance Co.'s Access Plus program, for instance, clients who are 65 or older and meet certain health requirements may be able to borrow even more than a policy's cash value. As with other types of loans, borrowers must repay the principal and interest, or heirs will see those amounts deducted from the death benefit.

Instead of taking out a loan, consumers with certain types of policies can withdraw at least a portion of their cash value. Although this approach reduces the ultimate death benefit, says Mr. Connolly, it saves on interest expense.

There are caveats: Under some circumstances, loans or withdrawals can trigger tax bills, says Gary Cotter, a certified financial planner at Cotter Financial LLC in Sun City Center, Fla. Moreover, if you substantially erode your policy's cash value, you may face significantly higher premiums down the road, or your coverage will lapse.

'Accelerated' Benefits
Some policies also allow those with a terminal illness to take at least some of a policy's death benefit tax-free. To qualify for an "accelerated death benefit," a policyholder has to obtain a certification from a physician that his or her health condition could "reasonably be expected to result in death within 24 months," according to the IRS.

If you are too cash-strapped to continue paying premiums, some advisers recommend asking your heirs to cover all or a portion of the cost. Each heir can give you a maximum of $13,000 this year free of gift tax.

Another option: Ask the insurer to scale back the death benefit to a level at which you can afford to make payments. Or keep the same death benefit, but reduce the period for which the coverage will be in force.

Susan Bruno, a certified public accountant at Beacon Wealth Consulting LLC in Rowayton, Conn., recently advised a 78-year-old facing a potential estate-tax bill to hold on to a $3 million universal-life policy rather than sell it to investors for $800,000. She recommended the family pay just enough—$85,000 a year—to fund the policy for the next eight years.

If the policyholder lives longer, the family is likely to face substantially higher premiums. But given the policyholder's health, the heirs are willing to take the risk, Ms. Bruno says.

Those who have paid more in premiums than they have amassed in cash value may want to consider a tax-free exchange of their policy for another type of coverage, such as a combination life-insurance and long-term-care contract or an annuity, says ValMark's Mr. Callahan.

Such a move can net substantial tax benefits. One client of Mr. Cotter's recently swapped a $700,000 policy, which had a cash value of $20,000, for a deferred annuity. The policyholder had paid $100,000 in premiums, which meant there was an $80,000 investment loss. As a result, the annuity can appreciate by $80,000 before tax is owed on withdrawals.

RBC seeks to sell US life insurance arm

2010-08-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

Royal Bank of Canada is seeking a buyer for a bulk of its US life-insurance arm a decade after it acquired the unit as part of an ambitious strategy to sell financial services in the world’s largest economy.

The bank has been working with Goldman Sachs for several months on selling the unit, which trades as RBC Insurance but is legally registered as Liberty Life Insurance, according to people familiar with the matter.

RBC, Canada’s largest bank by assets, said on Tuesday that it would not comment on speculation about the future of the insurance unit, based in South Carolina. Goldman Sachs also declined to comment.

Apart from a small travel insurance business, Liberty makes up all of RBC Insurance. The potential sale of the unit was first reported by Bloomberg.

People familiar with the sector said that RBC could struggle to attract interest in the business, as companies that had previously been buyers of individual life insurance businesses were now scaling back in that area.

RBC has said that its focus in the US is on expanding its capital markets and wealth management business. The bank is already among the world’s top 20 money managers and almost three-quarters of its capital markets business is outside Canada.

Gordon Nixon, chief executive, told the Financial Times last year that there was “no hurry because there are going to be lots of opportunities and lots of restructuring in the financial services industry over the next five years.

“So if you do something, you want to make sure it’s very sensible and very strategic.”

RBC bought Liberty in 2000 as part of a drive to expand south of the border across a broad range of activities, including retail banking, wealth management and capital markets.

The US contributed 22 per cent of RBC’s total revenues but less than 3 per cent of net income in the three months to April 30.

Its retail banking operations, centred in the south-eastern US, have been through several restructurings in a bid to staunch losses.

The insurance arm, which has assets of about $4bn and employs some 200 full-time agents, has been too small to make an impact. Revenues totalled $733m in the six months to April 30, up from $549m a year earlier. The unit has gone through several chief executives under RBC’s ownership.

Like Canada’s four other biggest banks, RBC has been relatively unscathed by the financial crisis.

Are Life Insurers Playing Fair?

2010-08-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Every day, it seems, another lawmaker or regulator is calling for a probe of how life insurers pay out death benefits.

One concern: whether beneficiaries understand their options for getting money due when an insured person dies.

Often insurance firms put policy proceeds into interest-bearing accounts and provide what many call "checkbooks" for withdrawals, rather than mailing a lump-sum check. With the checkbook, which is not the same as bank-account checkbook, the beneficiary may withdraw all or part of the money.

The checkbook approach has been around since the 1980s. But a July Bloomberg Markets magazine article put a human face on the subject—the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan who feels misled—bringing it widespread attention.

The industry promotes the accounts as a useful service for people too bereft to make quick financial decisions. But regulators are looking at whether insurers should be required to offer consumers a lump-sum check, whether it is appropriate for insurers to profit from the money they hold for beneficiaries and whether insurers adequately disclose that their accounts aren't insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Aviva to sell life insurance via Santander

2010-08-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

Aviva, Britain's second-biggest insurer, said the agreement with the Spanish bank gave it access to a 25-m strong customer base.

Santander already sells Aviva's general insurance products and will add its life insurance, critical illness and income protection policies under a five-year scheme starting next June.

Nearly Half The UK's Population Have No Life Insurance

2010-03-20T21:24:00.001-07:00

Amongst those who currently have life insurance policies, 53% had no idea how much they would receive if they were to make a claim. This suggests that they don't know whether they have adequate cover in place. It is also highly likely they haven't reviewed their cover recently and so could therefore be paying over the odds.

Richard Morea, Technical Manager at L&C said, "Consumers are clearly burying their heads in the sand and adopting an 'it won't happen to me' stance. We urge people with no cover to take action now to protect their family in the event of the unforeseen happening. Those with cover should understand exactly what it will provide in the event of a claim. If it is sufficient, they should review the cost. L&C's online 1 minute life insurance check calculator will quickly show them if savings can be made. In addition they should review whether their cover is still adequate and if it's not take expert advice'.

For a free life insurance review, speak to one of L&C's expert advisers on 0800 073 1932.

AIG to sell foreign life insurance arm for $15.5bn

2010-03-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

AIG, which last week agreed to sell AIA, its Asian life business, to Prudential for $35.5bn, has agreed final terms for the disposal of to sell its overseas life and health insurance arm Alico to MetLife for $15.5bn.

The deal, which was announced yesterday – after weeks of intense negotiations and over a year of talks – will provide AIG $6.8bn in cash, with the remaining $8.7bn coming in MetLife shares and options.

The deal will see AIG ending up with a 20pc stake in MetLife, making it the company's second-biggest shareholder, and giving US taxpayers – who control 80pc of AIG's shares – a stake in a second major US insurer.

The cash will be added to the $25bn cash it will receive on completion of the AIA sale, and means the troubled insurer will be able to significantly pay down the credit line it has with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

At the end of December, AIG owed $47.3bn to the US Treasury, and $47.9bn to the new York Fed.

"Both sales give AIG greater flexibility to move forward with our restructuring and rebuilding efforts," said Harvey Golub, AIG's chairman.

Like AIA, which AIG had considered floating in Asia, Alico had been the subject of internal discussions regarding a stock market listing in New York since at least July last year.

The discussions continued in spite of talks with MetLife over Alico, which began in early 2009 under former chairman Ed Liddy's tenure, and restarted in the late summer, by which point Mr Golub and AIG chief executive Bob Benmosche had been appointed.

Mr Benmosche ran MetLife from 1998 until 2006, and was responsible for taking it public in 2000. However, he was not part of the Alico sale talks.

Alico, which began life in Shanghai in 1921, has 20m customers in more than 50 countries, with significant operations in central and eastern Europe as well as Latin America and the Middle East, plus Japan and the UK.

90% of critical illness claims paid out

2010-01-29T20:54:00.003-08:00

New figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show over 100 families and individuals a day claiming on their life or critical illness insurance, during 2008.

According to the ABI, the average claim stood at £52,000 or double the average UK annual salary.

In addition, the number of critical illness claims paid out rose to 90% in 2008, compared with 80% in 2005, and for life term assurance, 97% of claims were paid last year.

The ABI believes its new Code of Practice has led to less claims being declined due to non-disclosure and says it is now working with its members to tackle the number of claims declined because they don’t meet the definition of “Total Permanent Disability”.

The ABI’s director general, Nick Starling, comments: “The insurance industry pays out £5.9 million every day in life and critical illness insurance claims, making a real difference to people’s lives at the most difficult of times.

He adds: “The new ABI code is making a dramatic improvement to the number of critical illness claims we pay.”

The ABI has also been working with the Law Commission which is reviewing an aspect of insurance contract law that has resulted in huge numbers of claims being rejected over the years.

Under the Marine Insurance Act 1906, the consumer has a duty of disclosure when completing an insurance proposal form.

Currently policyholders answer the questions asked by their insurance company but are expected to disclose any other facts that may be relevant to the insurer, without necessarily knowing what factors the insurer will take into account when accepting a risk.

Health exclusions should equal premium cuts

2010-01-29T20:54:00.001-08:00

LifeSearch is advising consumers to seek premium reductions when health conditions are excluded from their protection insurance.

The price comparison website estimates that one or more illnesses are excluded in around 15% of critical illness and income protection applications.

In such cases, the extent of the policy is reduced but not necessarily the premium.

According to the firm, not every insurer will reduce costs, although some have now taken a stand and agreed to make premium cuts.

The firm urges consumers to remember that if they take out a policy and a significant exclusion, such as Cancer, is added, there are insurers who will treat them fairly.

LifeSearch senior policy adviser, Matt Morris, says: “If they refuse, speak to an independent adviser who can find you an insurer that will.”

He adds: “Remember that the way to avoid exclusions – other than the general ones, such as war and suicide – in the first place is to take out a policy while you are still healthy. Don’t wait until disaster strikes.”

Widow of banker settles life insurance case

2010-01-10T03:06:00.001-08:00

The widow of a banker whose employer fired him and then collected on a life insurance policy when he died has settled her lawsuit against the employer for an undisclosed amount.

Irma Johnson sued Amegy Bank after she discovered because of a post office error that the bank received $4.7 million when her husband died of brain cancer in 2008. Dan Johnson had been diagnosed with the terminal cancer before the bank bought policies on him and more than 40 other bankers in 2001, according to her lawsuit.

Amegy fired Dan Johnson a few months after it purchased the policies.

The industry refers to such life insurance as “dead peasant” policies. They provide tax benefits for employers who take out the insurance, and a windfall if the covered employee dies, typically without paying anything to surviving family members.

In her lawsuit, Irma Johnson asked for the net proceeds Amegy received, $3.8 million — the death benefit minus the premiums Amegy paid. Under terms of the settlement Thursday, neither party disclosed its details.

“We settled to the mutual satisfaction of both parties,” Amegy Bank spokeswoman Leigh Akin said.

Johnson's lawyer, Mike Myers of McClanahan Myers Espey, also said only that both sides were satisfied.

Insurance market to grow fast in coming years

2010-01-10T03:04:00.001-08:00

The "Vietnam's Insurance Sector Forecast To 2010" report, according to the report, Vietnam’s insurance market, one of the fastest growing markets in the world, has expanded rapidly over the past few years.

The life insurance market in Vietnam seems very promising as the country has a population of over 85 million people, with only eight life insurers. Thus, life insurance market can prove to be a boon for foreign life insurers.

The report forecasts that during the 2008-2010 period, Vietnam ’s insurance industry would grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 22 percent; life insurance is projected to hit a CAGR of about 12.1 percent; and non-life insurance industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29 percent./.

Becoming Familiar with Life Insurance Death Benefit Essential,

2010-01-10T03:03:00.000-08:00

No one likes to think about it, but a proper life insurance policy is essential to anyone who wants to make sure their loved ones are provided for even after they themselves have passed on. But to design the right life insurance policy, individuals have to familiarize themselves with all the aspects of life insurance policy, including the most important of details, the death benefit.

According to a new InsuranceAgents.com article, "Life Insurance Death Benefit: What It Is And How It Works," a death benefit is what the policyholder's family (or other beneficiary) gets when the policyholder has passed away. This money can help the surviving family members make ends meet during a time of intense grief. They can pay their bills, any debts left behind by the policyholder, mortgage payments, or even just pay for college.

"Remember that the first obligation of a life insurance policy is to ease the burden of your debts and financial requirements that your family must face upon your passing," the article states. "If you so choose and have the means to do so you can include extra benefits to continue or improve your family's lifestyle."

The death benefit can be a lifesaver during an emotional time. There are two ways the death benefit can be awarded to the beneficiary(s):
• One lump sum in the amount of the life insurance policy
• A series of periodic payments in the form of either a fixed or variable annuity
To determine the appropriate amount for a death benefit, individuals should contact their local life insurance agent. The death benefit amount will be based on the individual and family's personal lifestyles and situation. For more information, or to receive free life insurance quotes, visit InsuranceAgents.com.

National Life settlement favors investors

2009-12-17T00:15:00.001-08:00

An Austin judge on Wednesday approved the release of nearly $20 million back to defrauded investors who sunk money into National Life Settlements LLC.

About 320 investors will share $19.8 million, or about 69 percent of the amount they invested in the Houston company, which is accused of selling promissory notes that were purportedly backed by life insurance policies, according to the Texas Securities Commission.

Houston attorney Janet Mortenson, the court-appointed receiver in control of NLS, said checks to investors will be mailed Dec. 17.

A life settlement is the sale of an insurance policy to a third-party in exchange for a one-time cash payment. The purchaser then continues to pay the premiums and becomes the beneficiary of the policy.

Many of the investors were teachers and state of Texas retirees who turned over retirement funds to the company.

An investigation led by the State Securities Board and the Texas Attorney General’s office unveiled that National Life Settlements sold about $30 million in unregistered investments, mostly through insurance agents. The company, which also had offices in Austin and South Texas, marketed their investments as safe products that promised a steady return of 10 percent a year, according to court documents.

Howard Judah Jr., the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of NLS, is a three-time convicted felon whose most recent conviction was in U.S. District Court in New York in 1998 for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the commission. Another principal of NLS, Gregory Jablonski of Castle Rock, Colo., also sold unregistered securities to unsuspecting retirees.

A.I.G. Said to Plan Hong Kong Listing for Asian Life Insurance Unit

2009-12-17T00:12:00.000-08:00

SHANGHAI — American International Group, the troubled insurance giant, has decided to submit plans later this month to raise billions of dollars next year by listing its Asian life insurance unit on the Hong Kong stock exchange, people briefed on the plans said Thursday.

The planned listing of American International Assurance is expected to help A.I.G. repay some of the huge debts it owes the United States government, which took an 80 percent stake in the company following a series of massive bailouts this year.

Analysts say the Hong Kong listing could raise as much as $20 billion, which would make it one of the largest public stock offerings in history.

The decision to submit a plan this month for a public listing was first reported in the Financial Times on Thursday.

A.I.A., which has more than 20 million policy holders in dozens of countries throughout Asia, is considered one of the bright spots in A.I.G.’s troubled portfolio.

This week, A.I.G. agreed to give a stake in the Asian unit to the New York Federal Reserve in exchange for forgiving a $16 billion loan that was threatening to damage A.I.G.’s credit rating.

Earlier this year, A.I.G. tried to auction off its Asian assets, but later scrapped the idea in favor of a public stock offering.

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley have been selected to prepare the public offering, according to people familiar with the deal.

Life insurance policies offer options

2009-08-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

Some people don’t believe in life insurance. Maybe it is because they don’t understand the concept. Life insurance is to replace the earning power or human life value of a person if they experience premature death. In simple terms, it replaces a wage earner’s paycheck for the family if that person dies early in life.

Life insurance policies are legal contracts. Policies with cash values have a valuable section inside called non-forfeiture values. These are choices within the life insurance contract. If the policy expires or lapses because of non-payment of premium, the insured may surrender the policy for the cash value, elect to receive a paid up policy for a reduced amount of life insurance, elect to take no action and the policy will automatically become a term-life plan for a certain number of years and days depending on the cash left in the policy.

Never discard or destroy an old life insurance policy until a competent life insurance agent has checked its status. You may be throwing away cash.

Another important and useful section in most life insurance contracts is the settlement options. When the insured dies, a life insurance benefit will be paid. Settlement options offer choices of how the proceeds are to be paid. The insured may select a choice before death or the beneficiary may choose after the insured is deceased. Life insurance proceeds are normally income tax free to the beneficiary.

The settlement options include a lump sum cash payment and an interest-only settlement when proceeds are left with the insurance company. This is normally only for a short time, giving the beneficiary time to make a decision about a permanent settlement option. A third option is a fixed time period option when the insurance company calculates an annuity type payment to pay out all monies by the end of of a certain length of time. The choice must be made before the first payment is made. The fourth option is a fixed dollar amount where beneficiaries will receive the monies until they are paid out. The fifth option is a life income or annuity where equal installments are paid to the beneficiary for life to protect the proceeds for the family in the event of an early death of the beneficiary. A choice can be made to include a guarantee of the payments continuing to a second beneficiary until all proceeds are paid.

Cash in on Your Life

2009-08-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

Many seniors are now selling their life-insurance policies to raise cash. In 2006 alone, policies worth $6.1 billion in death benefits changed hands. This trade wouldn't be possible, however, except for one controversial aspect: The party on the other end profits from your death -- and the sooner, the better. When you (or a family member who may actually own the policy on your life) sell the insurance, the buyer becomes the owner and beneficiary. Upon your death, this stranger stops paying premiums and collects the death benefit.

These transactions used to be called viatical settlements. They were especially ghoulish because early investors were generally small companies that offered big discounts from the death benefit to buy policies from AIDS patients, who weren't expected to last long and desperately needed cash for medical bills. (Some investors lost a lot of money when new drug combinations greatly prolonged the life of AIDS sufferers.)

Now these deals are called life settlements and are moving to the financial mainstream. Institutions such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse, as well as hedge funds and German pension funds, are investing in packages of life settlements because the rate of return is not correlated to the stock market, making life settlements a portfolio diversifier. Even some life-insurance companies, such as Phoenix, are becoming investors.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

Do I still need the insurance? If you're 65 or older, or if you have health issues, you may be unable to replace the insurance (or unable to afford to). So think about why you got the policy in the first place. If you still have a mortgage in retirement or are supporting or educating children or grandchildren, you should probably keep the insurance.

What's the net payout? The key is what you'll keep after taxes. A life settlement is the sale of an asset, a taxable event. The tax specifics are up in the air in Congress and the courts. So most sellers make a three-tiered tax calculation: First, you don't owe taxes on the premiums you've paid through the years (minus any outstanding policy loans). Second, you owe ordinary income taxes on the difference between premiums paid (your basis) and the cash value. Third (and this is the big break), you pay capital gains on the amount by which the payout exceeds the cash value -- which is likely to be most of the haul.

Is there a way to save on the cost of insurance? If you need insurance in old age but can no longer afford it, you may have other options besides a settlement. Universal life, for example, has built-in flexibility in what you pay, says Glenn Daily, a fee-only insurance consultant in New York City. "A lot of people don't understand that they can change their premium," Daily says. If you have ample cash value, you may be able to skip or reduce your premiums for a while without danger that the policy will lapse.

Would a policy loan work instead? Life-settlement brokers focus on two numbers: the amount you'd get if you surrendered the policy to the insurance company and the substantially higher payout from a settlement. But those aren't your only options. If you need cash and want to keep the insurance in effect, you can take a policy loan up to almost the amount of the cash value. You won't get nearly as much as in a life settlement, but your beneficiaries will still get the bulk of the death benefit tax-free when you die (the benefit payment is reduced by the loan principal and accrued interest). There's no tax on loan proceeds and no requirement to repay the money, as long as you don't let the policy lapse.

What about family members? If you are ill and have only a year or so to live, it would be crazy to sell the policy for any amount (or to let a family member with power of attorney do so). Your insurer may offer accelerated death benefits, freeing up the death benefit while you're still alive.

If investors find your policy extremely attractive because your life expectancy is short, it's worth making maximum effort to salvage the policy. "You might want to schedule a meeting with your beneficiaries and say, 'This is what I'm thinking about doing. Here's what it might cost to keep this policy in effect,'" says Adam Hamm, North Dakota's insurance commissioner. Your sons and daughters or other heirs might pitch in to help pay the premiums or lend you the money because they'll end up with a much bigger and tax-free payout if you maintain the coverage.

SMART SHOPPING

If you decide that a life settlement is still your best option, you want to ensure you negotiate the fairest deal. You can get a ballpark estimate by using Norman Hood's free tool at www.policysettlement.com, but that's just a start.

--Get multiple offers. "There are about 60 different life-settlement companies, and they all have unique buying criteria," says Daniel Anderson, chief executive of Madison Brokerage, Morristown, New Jersey. That means the brokers like Anderson who present your information to investors can, and should, drive a hard bargain on your behalf. Your goal is to hold out for the highest percentage of the death benefit and hope that a particular institutional investor is looking for a person like you to round out its diversified pool of death-benefits-to-come.

--Find out how much money each participant in the deal is getting. "In some cases, the brokers are making the same amount as, or more than, the consumer," says Jim Poolman, who helped develop the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' model life-settlements law, which several states have recently passed or are in the process of adopting.

"Consumers have the right to look at their brokers and the people involved and say, 'Maybe I don't want to pay that much,'" says Jack Kelly, director of government relations for the Institutional Life Markets Association. The association requires life-settlement brokers to fill out disclosure forms for consumers before selling policies to its members (which include Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse). Go to www.lifemarketsassociation.org for a copy.

--Ask specifically how much money each person or company is getting, not just percentages. Sometimes the commission percentage is based on the full death benefit, and sometimes it's based on the purchase price. "Once you get a commission below 10 percent of the purchase price, you're doing OK," says Daily. Ideally, the commission shouldn't be charged against the part of your settlement that is the existing cash value because that's yours to take anyway. Some insurance companies that are getting into the settlement business see it this way; some of the settlement firms do not.

--Ask who will own your policy. The creepiest thing about life settlements is that a stranger will benefit from your death. Fortunately, most investors are now large banks and other institutional investors that own big pools of policies (similar to the way mortgages are traded) and not individuals who are counting the days until you die. Also inquire about how often the life-settlement company will contact you after you sell your policy. You don't need frequent calls asking if you've been in the hospital. An occasional form letter should suffice.

--Ask about privacy. To get a quote, you must authorize the broker to view your medical records. Find out who else will have access and who will have your name after you sell the policy. Hood, the Illinois insurance adviser, says you should insist that the broker withhold your name, address and other identifying information from anything sent to big investors, who should care only about your age, health and the type and cost of the insurance they're being pitched to buy.

--Talk with independent experts. Before accepting an offer, run it by an independent financial adviser whose compensation is not based on whether you sell the policy. Be particularly wary of any insurance salesperson who's pushing hard to have you sell your policy and then buy a new one. "There's the potential to earn two commissions from the sale -- one from the life settlement and another from a life-insurance sale," says John Gannon, senior vice-president of investor education for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Are Life Insurance Leads really available?

2009-08-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Speak with a life insurance agent and you are sure to hear many different things when it comes to how they are generating leads. Believe it or not, some of them will tell you that life insurance leads are not readily available. While this may be true for them, you don't have to buy into the same propaganda. There are enough life insurance leads to go around, and you can find plenty of them if you know where to look.

The way that you generate life insurance leads will determine just how available they are to you. For instance, if you are only cold calling you may get the feeling that there are no leads out there. Remember, cold calling is a game of numbers and chance. The more calls you make the better chance you have of securing a lead. But even then, there is no guarantee.

But what if you decide to purchase life insurance leads? This is when you will really begin to see that leads are available. In fact, they are more than available. You can get all that you want if you are willing to pay for leads.

In short, life insurance leads are definitely available. If you are dedicated to finding them there is nothing that will stop you. Remember to search for leads in a variety of ways. By doing this, while also purchasing life insurance leads, you will always be ahead of the competition.

For a limited time, InsuranceLeads.com is offering 20 free leads worth up to $300 applicable to auto, home, health, life insurance leads.

How to Buy Term Life Insurance Leads

2009-08-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

Do you want to buy term life insurance leads? Is this something that would catapult your business to the next level? If you answered yes to both of these questions you are well on your way to increasing sales. Of course, you first need to know how to buy these leads. In today’s day and age, buying term life insurance leads is easier than ever before. But of course, this doesn’t mean that you will be able to easily make this happen without the right knowledge.

The easiest way to buy term life insurance leads is online. When you use the internet you can quickly and efficiently buy leads that are of high quality. Sites such as InsuranceLeads.com sells leads to agents just like you. Once you are a member and know how to buy leads, the only thing left is to get started.

Before you begin to buy term life insurance leads you should think about the money you have in your budget. How much you can you spend on term life insurance leads without feeling like you went overboard? Is there a way to get what you want within your budget? Most agents find that buying term life insurance leads is more than affordable if they know how much they can spend.

Are you ready to buy term life insurance leads? This is easy enough the first time around, and things will only get more enjoyable as you continue forward. There is no better time than now to purchase term life insurance leads.

Michael Jackson's life insurance paid out

2009-08-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES — Court filings state the administrators of Michael Jackson's estate have received the King of Pop's life insurance proceeds.

The records, filed Friday in Los Angeles, are redacted and don't indicate how much the policy paid out. The filings state that money designated for Jackson's three children has been received by a trust being handled by special administrators of the singer's estate.

The filings are meant to augment a petition to give the children a monthly stipend. Another filing indicates Jackson's mother, Katherine, is also eligible for some benefits from the policy.

The administrators are also seeking an allowance for Katherine Jackson, who is now caring for the children.

A court hearing is scheduled Monday on whether the allowances will be granted.

China H1 insurance premiums up 6 pct yr/yr

2009-07-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

SHANGHAI(Reuters) - China's insurance premiums in the first half of the year grew 6.4 percent on the year to 597.6 billion yuan ($87.47 billion), the official China Securities Journal said on Wednesday, quoting a senior regulatory official.

Chen Wenhui, assistant chairman at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said life insurance premiums in the first half of the year rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier to 440.0 billion yuan, while asset insurance premiums gained 15.8 percent to 157.6 billion yuan.

China Pacific Insurance Group Co (601601.SS), the country's third-biggest life insurer, said in a statement that premiums of its life insurance subsidiary reached 35.2 billion yuan in the first half of the year, while premiums from its asset insurance subsidiary were 18.6 billion yuan. ($1=6.832 Yuan) (Reporting by Rujun Shen and Eric Burroughs; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

Buying Life Insurance: What Kind and How Much?

2009-07-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

Finding the middle ground between being "insurance poor" and unprotected requires assessing real needs and choosing products that are affordable. This article introduces different types of insurance products and the role that they can play in a personal financial plan.

Buying Life Insurance
Conventional wisdom says that life insurance is sold, not purchased. In other words, some people are reluctant to discuss the importance of owning life insurance, and others are simply unaware of the need to have life insurance. Although many large companies provide life insurance as part of their benefits package, this coverage may be insufficient.

Who needs life insurance? If there are individuals who depend on you for financial support, or if you work at home providing your family with such services as child care, cooking, and cleaning, you need life insurance. Older couples also may need life insurance to protect a surviving spouse against the possibility of the couple's retirement savings being depleted by unexpected medical expenses. And individuals with substantial assets may need life insurance to help reduce the effects of estate taxes or to transfer wealth to future generations.
Back to top

Types of Insurance
Term insurance is the most basic, and generally least expensive, form of life insurance for people under age 50. A term policy is written for a specific period of time, typically 1 to 10 years, and may be renewable at the end of each term. Also, the premiums increase at the end of each term and can become prohibitively expensive for older individuals. A level term policy locks in the annual premium for periods of up to 30 years.

Declining Balance Term insurance, a variation on this theme, is often used as mortgage insurance since it can be written to match the amortization of your mortgage principal. While the premium stays constant over the term, the face value steadily declines. Once the mortgage is paid off, the insurance is no longer needed and the policy expires. Unlike many other policies, term insurance has no cash value. In this sense, it is "pure" insurance without any investment options. Benefits are paid only if you die during the policy's term. After the term ends, your coverage expires unless you choose to renew the policy. When buying term insurance, you might look for a policy that is renewable up to age 70 and convertible to permanent insurance without a medical exam.

Whole Life combines permanent protection with a savings component. As long as you continue to pay the premiums, you are able to lock in coverage at a level premium rate. Part of that premium accrues as cash value. As the policy gains value, you may be able to borrow up to 90% of your policy's cash value tax-free.

Universal Life is similar to whole life with the added benefit of potentially higher earnings on the savings component. Universal life policies are also highly flexible in regard to premiums and face value. Premiums can be increased, decreased or deferred, and cash values can be withdrawn. You may also have the option to change face values. Universal life policies typically offer a guaranteed return on cash value, usually at least 4%. You'll receive an annual statement that details cash value, total protection, earnings, and fees.

Drawbacks to this type of insurance include higher fees and interest rate sensitivity. Universal policies include up-front fees as well as ongoing administrative fees totaling as high as 5% to 7% of your premiums. You may also find your premiums increasing when interest rates decline.

Variable Life generally offers fixed premiums and control over your policy's cash value. Your cash value is invested in your choice of stock, bond, or money market funding options. Cash values and death benefits can rise and fall based on the performance of your investment choices. Although death benefits usually have a floor, there is no guarantee on cash values. Fees for these policies may be higher than for universal life, and investment options can be volatile. On the plus side, capital gains and other investment earnings accrue tax deferred as long as the funds remain invested in the insurance contract.

Universal Variable Life insurance is the most aggressive type of policy. Like variable life, you control your investment in mutual funds. However, there are no guarantees on universal variable policies beyond the original face value death benefit. These policies are probably best suited to affluent buyers who can afford the risks involved.

Key Terms and Definitions

Face Value -- The original death benefit amount.
Convertibility -- Option to convert from one type of policy (term) to another (whole life), usually without a physical examination.
Cash Value -- The savings portion of a policy that can be borrowed against or cashed in.
Premiums -- Monthly, quarterly, or yearly payments required to maintain coverage.
Beneficiary -- The individual(s) or entity (e.g., trust) that is designated as benefit recipient.
Paid Up -- A policy requiring no further premium payments due to prepayment or earnings.

How Much Insurance Do I Need?A popular approach to buying insurance is based on income replacement. In this approach, a formula of between five and ten times your annual salary is often used to calculate how much coverage you need. Another approach is to purchase insurance based on your individual needs and preferences. The first step is to determine your unique income replacement needs.

Currently, a large portion of your income goes to taxes (insurance benefits are generally income tax free) and to support your own lifestyle. Start off by determining your net earnings after taxes. Then add up all your personal expenses such as food, clothing, magazine subscriptions, club memberships, transportation expenses, etc. The remainder represents annual income that your insurance will need to replace. You'll want a death benefit amount which, when invested, will provide income annually to cover this amount. Then, you should add to that the amounts needed to fund one-time expenses such as college tuition for your children or paying down mortgage or debt.

Income replacement for nonworking spouses is an important and often overlooked insurance need. Coverage should provide for your costs for day care, housekeeping, or nursing care. Add to this any net earnings from part-time employment.

Finally, estimate your own "final expenses" such as estate taxes, uninsured medical costs, and funeral costs.
Back to top

Other Types of Life Insurance

Survivorship life insurance (also referred to as last-to-die or second-to-die) is a unique type of contract that insures the lives of two people. It pays a death benefit upon the death of the second insured. Therefore, it is typically less expensive than two individual policies. Survivorship life is often used for estate planning, where it may be possible to potentially leverage today's dollars -- via insurance premiums -- into a potentially significant death benefit that can be used to fund estate taxes, create wealth for future generations, or benefit a charity. These policies may be available if one insured is medically "uninsurable."

First-to-die life insurance insures the life of at least two people and pays a benefit upon the death of the first insured. This policy is useful for covering a mortgage or other large debt obligation where there is more than one debtor. In addition, it can be an ideal tool for funding a buy-sell agreement within a closely held business.
Back to top

Conclusion

Life insurance is an important component of a sound financial plan. Buying insurance involves asking a variety of personal lifestyle and financial questions. If you are not already working with an insurance professional, you may want to consider the advice of a fee-for-service financial planner who can offer you an objective review of your insurance options. When you decide on what you want, there are many solid insurance companies to choose from. Consult your library or an independent insurance professional for companies with the highest ratings from the four ratings agencies: AM Best, Duff Phelps, Standard & Poor's, and Moody's.

Life insurance cash-out

2009-07-01T02:07:00.000-07:00

Many people buy life insurance when they start a family to provide for them in case anything should happen.

Yet some people are still paying premiums when they start collecting Social Security, which may be financial overkill.

Seniors 65 and older with life insurance have several options:

- Continue paying. Death benefits don’t usually have to be reported on federal tax returns and can be used to pay state estate taxes.
n Surrender the policy for its cash value, if any.

- Let the policy lapse.

- Sell the policy in what is called a life settlement.

Through an intermediary, certain whole life policies can be sold to investors, such as hedge funds, said Rob Gatti, CEO of Life Settlement Leads, a company that evaluates policies on behalf of buyers.

“All seniors during these tough economic times should consider a life settlement,” Gatti said.

He noted that payouts usually range from 5% to 30% of the death benefit, plus any cash value, depending on the insured’s age, medical condition and type of policy, as well as other factors.
Traditionally, the market for life settlements has been for policies of $1 million or more.

This summer, Gatti’s company will begin accepting inquiries from people with policies as small as $50,000.
. Peter Traphagen Jr., a certified public accountant in Oradell, N.J., said that, before accepting an offer, you should double check a life settlement’s statistical assumptions.
“You should run your own calculations,” he said.

Unfortunately, he noted, having your own experts evaluate a life settlement for a $50,000 policy would prove costly given what you’re likely to get.

Of course, if you’re fortunate enough to be a healthy senior, it still might be worth it even if you have a modest policy.

America’s healthcare debate: the fight of your life

2009-06-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

In the past five months, President Obama and the Democrats have moved with startling speed and expanded the power of an already out-of-control federal government to heights only dreamed of by the likes of Franklin Roosevelt. Now they are coming after the Holy Grail for socialists – your healthcare. With this power, they will not only secure their absolute control over a massive sector of the economy, but will literally have the power of life and death over millions of Americans.

In order to convince Americans to surrender their liberty on such a massive scale, the collectivists are using the same tactics they have for decades. The method is to create or exploit a “crisis”, which will in turn justify the suspension of constitutional limitations on government. Since last fall, they have used an economic recession – an event which has occurred on average every 5- 1/2 years since 1945 - to manufacture a horrifying crisis requiring the unconstitutional nationalization of banks and automobile manufacturing companies, and an unprecedented increase in government spending.

Now they will stoke the fires of the bogus “healthcare crisis” to justify nationalizing the industry and take away your right to privately contract for your own health care needs. The issue of the high cost of health care has been referred to by socialists as a crisis since the Clinton administration tried to implement socialized medicine under the Hillary Care plan in 1993. What kind of “crisis” lasts for sixteen years?

The collectivists and world-savers told us during the election that there are 45 million Americans without health insurance, although that number seems to have jumped to more than 50 million now that the push is on for a government takeover. What they won’t tell you is that 43% of these uninsured “Americans” are not Americans at all – they are aliens of both legal and illegal status. People who simply do not work make up 26%, and people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, who generally do not see the need to pay for health insurance, constitute 29%. Nearly 8% are people in higher income ranges, many of whom may simply choose to pay out of pocket for their medical needs. While some of these groups overlap, it is clear that the actual number of uninsured Americans is less than half what we are told by our rulers in Washington.

They also won’t tell you that government is the reason healthcare costs so much. The government already lays out more than half of all the health care dollars spent in the United States. This money is doled out by an army of bureaucrats who have no incentive to identify fraud and who also have to be paid salaries and benefits at taxpayer expense. This government control of half the health care market results in a gross distortion of the marketplace and causes prices to rise.

Health insurance, on the other hand is not insurance in the traditional sense at all. “Insurance” traditionally means paying a relatively small amount of money to someone, who in turn promises to pay you a very large sum of money if an unlikely event were to happen. For example, you pay an insurer $500 a year for homeowner’s insurance, but in the unlikely event that your house burns down, he will pay you $250,000 to replace it. Traditional health insurance would work the same way, paying relatively small premiums to pay for an unlikely catastrophic illness. Instead we have developed, as a result of government meddling, a system of paying large premiums to an insurer who in turn pays for nearly all of our healthcare costs. Each of these payments has to wind their way through either a private bureaucracy or an incompetent government agency, greatly adding to the cost. Doctors who accept insurance have to hire a staff just to deal with the paperwork – so you have to pay him and his employees.

Life insurance can protect family's future

2009-06-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

Fathers in the UK should take out life insurance to provide their families with protection if they suffer a critical illness or pass away, a financial services provider has advised.

Research by Legal & General (L&G) showed that just 63% of fathers have life insurance, 33% possess critical illness cover and 27% have income protection.

Alan Ferguson, protection marketing and channel development director at L&G, said: "Protection insurance can help provide peace of mind that a family could maintain its living standards if dad was critically ill or passed away.

"Given the economic backdrop, now could be a good time to consider how to protect your family against financial hardship."

The study showed that the value of a father to a household has increased since the company last undertook similar research in 2005.

Men now spend 53 hours a week on household chores and childcare compared with 34 hours four years ago, while the value of a dad to a family has increased from £12,738 to £23,000 a year.

Previous research from L&G showed that the value of a mother to a household has increased from £24,440 to £32,000 a year during the same period.

Korea Life Insurance aids disabled, elderly, kids

2009-06-18T01:09:00.000-07:00

Korea Life Insurance’s social contributions are mainly funneled through the Sarangmoa Volunteer Group, which involves 25,000 executives and financial planners.

The organization connects more than 140 volunteer groups from across the country and seeks to form close relationships with organizations for the disabled and the elderly as well as with orphanages. The individual volunteer groups involved with the organization also help children through cultural events.

Local disaster support is another key area for Korea Life Insurance.

The company helps prepare guidelines for local volunteer groups to deliver emergency relief products after natural disasters such as the big fire in Yangyang, the flood in Yeongwol and heavy snow in the Gangwon region.

Korea Life Insurance’s executives are actively involved in philanthropy as well. Each executive participates in at least 20 hours of volunteer work each year, which is equal to at least 1 percent of their annual working hours. They also donate a portion of their salaries to good causes. Additionally, the company matches employee donations.

Korea Life Insurance even has a volunteer activity program for new employees, and it hosts a huge festival every October that allows volunteers to form bonds and exchange ideas and information.

In January of 2006, Korea Life Insurance established the Happy Friends Volunteer Group to help teenagers lead healthy lives, both physically and mentally. More than 400 students from 33 middle schools and high schools in 10 regions have participated in volunteer activities through the program.

The company actively promotes volunteer activities not only in Korea but also in countries across the world. Selected volunteer teams are given the chance to volunteer their time and efforts in places like Kenya, Cambodia, El Salvador, among other countries.

Reforming health care (Part V): Adjust insurance involvement

2009-06-10T02:40:00.001-07:00

During the recent presidential campaign, one voice had a particularly ironic ring to it: John McCain, the GOP’s Chosen One, claimed "market forces" would solve the problem, ignoring the fact that "market forces" caused the mess in the first place. This man who’s received government-administered care all his life warned of the terrible consequences of allowing bureaucrats to control health care. With no worries about his own access to health care, McCain wants insurance company execs to continue denying care to people who need it while receiving fat bonuses for performing that odious task.

Market forces, indeed!

In the long run, the goal must be universal single-payer coverage. But as much as we want to kick those evil insurance companies out of the health-care picture, it won’t happen overnight. In the first place, it’s just not wise to tell an entire industry to simply fold up its tents and go away quietly. Such a move would create so much chaos that even the recent banking/auto scare would seem like an economic boom in comparison.

Instead, Congress should pass reforms that squeeze so much profit out of insurance involvement that companies voluntarily drop out of that part of the business. That would give them time to adjust their business models and move personnel to other departments, minimizing any resulting layoffs. Insurance businesses have a lot of irons in many different fires (pun definitely intended). They’ll find other ways to use the resources they now focus on the medical industry.

At the same time, Congress must establish a comprehensive government plan that is cheaper than private insurance. Such a policy would be so seductive that people will abandon insurance companies, hastening their decision to bail. You see, millions of people still believe private insurance is superior to government-administered care. That misconception is based on the fact that Medicare has so many holes that force beneficiaries to buy supplemental insurance to cover the gaps that were manufactured by meddling insurance lobbyists in the first place. Talk about a vicious circle!

It’ll take time to lure all those people away from tradition. But when that finally happens, for-profit medical insurance will be history--at last!

Besides the army of lobbyists and lawyers whose sole purpose is to prevent solutions to the health-care crisis, a series of anti-reform commercials is scaring people by citing rare problems from the U.K. But for every single occurrence elsewhere, there are thousands of cases of neglect resulting from bad policies on the part of U.S. insurance companies:

Insurance companies deny coverage of diagnostic tests, often leading to avoidable patient deaths.
Insurance companies deny coverage of medication and treatments, forcing patients to "just live with the pain."
Insurance companies deny effective treatments, calling them "experimental," often leading to avoidable deaths from treatable conditions.
Insurance companies require preapproval in emergency situations, hindering timely care and sometimes leading to avoidable deaths.
Then there are new-employee waiting periods and that infamous pre-existing condition clause. You know: when insurance companies deny medical care to people because they need medical care.
These and other policies are the reason Congress must set strong guidelines for insurance reform, including:

Abolish all waiting periods for coverage and restrictions on pre-existing conditions.
Patients can choose their own doctors and receive care at any accredited medical institution.
Insurance must pay for all preventive care, including regular physicals, vaccines, and diagnostic tests.
Insurance must pay for all necessary medical care, including pain medication and treatments.
All prescription medications must be covered, with no formularies allowed. Only equivalent generic brands can be substituted for a brand-name drug.
Insurance must fully cover so-called "mental" or "psychological" care, with no temporal or monetary limitations attached.
When a person becomes temporarily unemployed, their health insurance premiums would be paid by a government subsidy until they return to work.
If Congress can establish a truly effective government insurance program, in spite of all those lobbyists, then it won’t be too long before every American will be standing in line to get that superior single-payer coverage from Uncle Sam. It not only can happen, it must happen!

Rising life expectancy to help lower insurance premium

2009-06-10T02:37:00.001-07:00

Life insurance premium rates are likely to drop over the next few months owing to longer life expectancy, with a new mortality and morbidity table expected to be in place by the fourth quarter of 2009 to replace the current one, which is of 1994-96 vintage.

The new rates will include the claim experience of individual companies and will be based on 2006-08 data.

The Mortality and Morbidity Investigating Centre, an affiliate of the Institute of Actuaries of India, plans to publish the mortality table by October. The institute has been working on the table for the last six months.

Data and statistics are currently being collected from various insurance companies though a handful of large players, including government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, are yet to submit data, said IAI President G N Agarwal.

With the risk perception falling, premium rates, which are based on mortality rates, are expected to fall as well. "Over the years, life expectancy has increased, mortality has come down drastically and this gives a room for the rates to drop," said Agarwal, who is the chief actuary of Future Generali India Life Insurance Company, a joint venture between the Future Group and Italy's [ Images ] Generali.

Agarwal said over the last 12 or 15 years, according to data available so far, mortality rates have come down by 25 to 30 per cent in the higher age brackets, which may translate into a reduction of 15 to 20 per cent in certain segments.

While the impact will be felt most on term covers, unit-linked insurance plans are also expected to see an impact, but only on the insurance component. In the case of endowment policies, the impact is likely to be on bonus payments on certain policies, since 8 to 9 per cent of the premium is linked to mortality rates.

"Term and savings-cum-life endowment (policies) are likely to see a reduction in premiums, while on the other side, rates on annuity products may go up. Insurers have already factored in the anticipated improvement in their mortality table," said SBI [ Get Quote ] Life Appointed Actuary Sanjeev Pujari.

The new tables are likely to provide data for various product categories and on the experience of individual insurers, since it would be based on the sex, age and geography, among other factors. At present, the tables only provide the mortality rate per thousand.

For instance, according to the Indian Assured Lives Mortality (1994-96), which has been in effect since January 2005, for people who are 40 years old, the probability of their death is 2.053 per 1,000. For 60 year olds, the probability is 13.073 per 1,000, which results in a higher premium.

The new table is expected to provide additional data by classifying customers into various segments on the basis of economic groups as well, making pricing according to their profile possible.

Pujari added that since the industry was opened in 2000-2001, private insurers have enough experience to contribute to the table.

"Some actuaries have been reducing premium rates for life covers over the last few years as life expectancy has increased. I don't expect the new table to reduce the premium rates drastically," said ICICI [ Get Quote ] Prudential Life Insurance Appointed Actuary Abhijit Chatterji.

However, actuaries said the new table would be predominantly based on LIC [ Get Quote ] data, since private insurers would not have rates for ages beyond a particular limit. Private sector insurance companies have a relatively younger client base and therefore have data for fewer age groups.

Once the tables are finalised, apart from the industry-wide data, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has also agreed to allow companies to decide the premium based on their experience, which would be based on their own tables.

Life, health insurers invest big in tobacco

2009-06-04T23:12:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Major US, Canadian and British life and health insurance companies have billions of dollars invested in tobacco companies, a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine said.

Wesley Boyd, the study's lead author, found that at least 4.4 billion dollars in insurance company funds are invested in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.

"Despite calls upon the insurance industry to get out of the tobacco business by physicians and others, insurers continue to put their profits above people's health," said Boyd, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School.

"It's clear their top priority is making money, not safeguarding people's well-being," he wrote.

Tobacco is considered the leading cause of lung cancer and a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, pulmonary disease and cancer.

According to the World Health Organization, it is a contributing factor in 5.4 million deaths a year.

Researchers first revealed that health and life insurance companies had major investments in tobacco companies in 1995 in an article in the British medical journal Lancet.

"Although investing in tobacco while selling life or health insurance may seem self-defeating, insurance firms have figured out ways to profit from both," Boyd wrote.

"Insurers exclude smokers from coverage or, more commonly, charge them higher premiums. Insurers profit -- and smokers lose -- twice over."

According to the study, US insurer Prudential Financial Inc. has 264.3 million dollars invested among three US tobacco companies, including Reynolds America and Philip Morris.

Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial Inc., which sells life, disability and health insurance, has a stock portfolio with more than one billion dollars in two tobacco companies, including 890 million dollars in Philip Morris.

Prudential Plc, which sells health and disability insurance, has 1.38 billion dollars in two tobacco companies, including British American Tobacco.

The study also details the substantial tobacco investments of the US firms Northwestern Mutual and Massachusetts Mutual Life, and the Scottish firm Standard Life Plc.

More young people need to buy life insurance deals

2009-06-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

Increasing numbers of young people need to make sure they have a life insurance policy in place, one insurer has claimed.

According to LifeSearch, a life insurance specialist, its figures for 2008 show 3% of the policies it sold during 2008 were for young people aged 25 and under.

The firm stated that young consumers could take out life insurance, critical illness and income protection, three policies which would be less expensive for young people because of their age and better health.

Matt Morris, a LifeSearch policy adviser, said more effort needs to be made to impress the importance of life insurance on younger people.

He stated: "Many younger people have debts, mortgages and families that need financial protection in the event of the main income provider being unable to work. Often they either buy no financial protection at all or rely on the internet to get the best deal."

Previous research from LifeSearch revealed that the price of life cover has fallen by as much as 40% during the past two years.

Ask The Experts: The 'Real Deal' on Life Insurance

2009-05-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

Q. After my brother's death about 11 years ago I bought a whole life policy. When my children were born I also thought it would be good idea to get them some whole life policies too. Now I am thinking that was not such a wise decision. I currently have a $100k policy and pay ~$67/month. My two older children each have $75K and it is costing me ~$32/month for each. Should I keep them??? or cash them out and get a term policy? The surrender value on mine is about $4500 and for my children it is ~ $300 & $600. -Ady, IL

A. Ady - Here's my 'real deal' on life insurance: It exists to protect those who depend on your income or other benefits of your labor. Now, I hope you're not putting the kids to work so young--of course not!--hence, there is no need for them to have life insurance.

Think of it this way, what does your family have to lose financially if they lose you? As a wage-earner (are you sole or primary?) they would lose a lot, hence the need for life insurance to help them maintain a similar quality of life when your paycheck goes away. If your wife works, the same may go for her. However, even if she doesn't work, you would need to get a smaller policy on her as you may need to hire someone (or two or three) to cover the role she plays in the home as caretaker/chauffeur/personal-assistant/home-manager, etc.

The better move to protect your children and their future is to first make sure that you are fully funding your retirement (so they don't have to take care of you in your old age) and that are not in credit card debt and that you have ample emergency savings. Then, consider setting money aside for their education. That's a whole 'nother kind of insurance for their future!

Carmen Wong Ulrich

Stock market insurance

2009-05-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

Can you buy an insurance policy that protects you against severe stock market losses? For example, let’s say you buy a lot of Manulife Financial shares (stock symbol MFC) but the prices fall dramatically this summer.

The short answer is no.

But then again, the ‘short’ answer is absolutely if we’re talking a prudent and well-managed hedging strategy.

Instead of signing an insurance contract application and paying premiums, you could pay for a modest position in a highly leveraged inverse Exchange Traded Fund that performs in the opposite direction to the share price for Manulife Financial.

Consider one such inverse ETF, namely the Direxion Financial Bear 3X (FAZ).

FAZ triples the inverse returns on an investment in the Russell 1000 Financials Index, which tracks financial-related securities in the Russell 1000 Index. Of these, about 26% are insurance company equities while the remainder is comprised of banking and other financial services stocks. If the underlying Russell index goes up by 1%, FAZ goes down by about 3%. The same percentages change relationship applies when the index retreats.

The inverse relationship between Manulife’s share price and FAZ’s unit value isn’t as predictable or as severe. This shouldn’t be surprising given that life insurers represent only 3.3% of the underlying Russell 1000 components.

One final word of caution: our thesis is that FAZ is can be used as a kind of insurance against the dramatic loss in price of a financial company stock like Manulife Financial. Prudent investors will only put a very small position in a leveraged inverse ETF like FAZ.

After all, insurance premiums represent a relatively small percentage of our annual financial expenses.

With the share price for Manulife Financial closing up 21% since May 1 and in the midst of the Great Recession, it does seem prudent to consider some form of stock market insurance.

What Insurance 'Bailout' Means for Your Policy

2009-04-23T02:37:00.000-07:00

Richard Fine woke up Thursday morning, sat down to write a check to his insurance company, Genworth Financial, and while listening to the news realized the very company to which he was about to send his money was asking the federal government for a bailout.

"I didn't expect to see my insurance company seeking a bailout. I didn't think insurance companies could fall prey to the same problems as the banks, but I guess we all should have known better after AIG," said Fine, 62, a business owner from Ridgewood, N.J.

Would You Invest Cash in the Bank Bailout?

The Treasury Department announced this week that Genworth, along with some of the country's largest insurers -- Hartford Financial Services Group, Lincoln National Corp, Prudential and Aegon -- would receive assistance through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the same emergency fund established last year to bail out ailing banks.

Life insurance companies are increasingly in trouble. Their ratings and stock prices have fallen precipitously in recent weeks.

The federal government, the insurance companies, and the state guaranty associations, which serve as safety nets in case an insurance company fails, insist no one should be worried. But for millions of Americans who depend on insurance to take care of their families in case they die, or rely on money they receive from annuities, news of the bailout has them concerned.

"Yes, I'm concerned. Life insurance and long-term care insurance protect you against something going wrong in the future. Long-term care can drain a family's savings. I have a wife and two kids in college and I would just as soon not drain what's left of our equity if I ended up in a hospital," Fine said.

Intervention, the government and the insurers say, is not a bailout for failing companies -- comparable to the assistance banks received last year -- but the newest tool in an arsenal intended to keep the insurers solvent and policy holders protected.

Life Insurance Companies Safe From Financial Crisis

2009-04-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

Korea - Life insurance companies around the world are going through difficult times following the onset of the global financial crisis ― AIG, the biggest insurer, practically collapsed. Life insurers here, meanwhile, are relatively better off due to strict regulation of derivate products, according to Korea Life Insurance Association Chairman and CEO Lee Woo-cheol.

``The life insurance industry is facing difficulties as the worsening economy has begun to affect it. They are having problems managing their assets amid interest rate falls, and monthly premium payments are falling. Some subscribers are canceling insurance policies and the solvency margin ratio has fallen. However, they are in much better shape compared with insurers in other countries,'' Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times.

Indeed, figures have worsened for life insurance industry. Their net income for the third quarter of 2008 stood at 761 billion won, plummeting by 948.3 billion won from a year ago. The solvency margin ratio, which represents their fiscal soundness to pay insurance money, fell by 29 percentage points.

However, life insurers here, though small in global scale, have successfully survived, thanks to strict regulation on life insurers' investment in derivative products.

Life Insurance Industry Needs Deregulation

Though regulations on derivative investments helped them withstand the global crisis, the life insurance industry needs deregulation from a broader perspective, according to Lee. This is true when one focuses on the imbalances in the financial industry, especially between insurers and banks.

Life Insurers Contribute to the Community

Life insurance companies around the world are actively engaged in social contribution programs, giving back part of their earnings to the community. Lee explained that life insurers here are running social contribution programs from various spheres, running their own programs as well as participating in joint programs by the industry.

Insurance Essential in Aging Society

Lee said in a country like Korea which is seeing an unprecedented pace of aging, people need insurance policies. ``The population aged 65 or older reached 7.4 percent in 2001, categorizing the country as an aging society. It is expected to become an aged society by 2020 with the ratio reaching 15.1 percent,'' the chairman said.

He pointed out, however, that the state welfare system here is not good enough to guarantee a stable life after retirement. He said that the life insurance industry makes up for the loopholes, providing insurance products such as whole-life, annuity and nursing insurances.

As insurance policies are safety nets for the family economy, the chairman advised people not to cancel policies if they can. ``It is better to keep insurance policies especially when the economy is bad. I think life insurance is the means of practicing love for one's family and respect for life,'' Lee added.

He recommended integrated insurance products, which protect against various risks in life such as disease, injury, and death or disasters at relatively small premiums.

Life insurers profit even as sales fall during recession

2009-04-22T02:59:00.001-07:00

Since year 2000, the only gain in U.S. life insurance sales was a small blip that lasted 4 quarters after the September 11 terrorist attacks back in 2001.

The life insurance industry has experienced a year-over-year revenue decline in every quarter since the fall of 2002.

Still, the life insurance industry remains highly profitable due to buoyant sales of other products.

Annuities now generate about 38% of total life insurance industry profits, while accident and health insurance sales contribute 26%.

Life insurance sales represent 32% of the industry’s annual cash gains, according to an analysis of U.S. life insurance industry profits for 2006. Miscellaneous financial products bring in another 4% of profits.

Recession Further Depresses Life Insurance Sales
Based on a historical study, the Insurance Information Institute’s presentation entitled Source of U.S. Life Insurance Industry Profits 2006 concludes that during a recession:

Policy loans increase.
Life insurance lapse rates rise.
Because of the severity of the current recession, the above two life insurance trends are expected to accelerate. That is, more consumers will take out loans on their life insurance due to the credit crunch while more policyholders are expected to cancel their life policies because they can’t pay their premiums.

While group life insurance sales contribute only 6% of industry profits, group life revenues will probably shrink further as companies cut back on their head counts.

Group accident and health sales should show a more significant drop, since about 18% of total life insurance industry profits came from these products in the early days of the current recession. Also, claims for disability income benefits typically rise during a recession due to such factors as stress, anxiety and depression. These in turn cut into life insurers’ profits.

Life Insurance Companies Will Remain Profitable
By focusing on annuities and similar pension products, U.S. lifecos are strongly positioned to profit from servicing the retirement needs of 84.2 million American baby boomers age 60 and over.

That 84.2 million number is from the U.S. Census Bureau age data of the United States for 2006, and it shows how powerful a force baby boomer spending is on the profitability of the American life insurance industry.

Profitability should continue to grow, even if life insurance sales diminish over the longer term.

Lloyds Banking Group considers sale of insurance assets

2009-03-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

by Gill Montia

Lloyds Banking Group is reported to be considering the sale of part of its insurance business.

The group, which has been created through the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, includes Lloyds TSB’s life insurance arm, Scottish Widows, plus HBOS’s Clerical Medical and Halifax Life.

Bearing in mind the group has already announced plans to make cost savings of over £1.5 billion by 2011, streamlining its life insurance operations could become a priority and according to reports, Deutsche Bank has already been instructed to carry out a review of the insurance assets of the enlarged business.

The sale of such assets could also bolster the group’s balance sheet, although it may not be easy to secure a buyer in today’s market.

High Street rival, Royal Bank of Scotland, has been blowing hot and cold over the sale of its insurance business for months.

The bank reportedly rejected an offer from CVC Capital Partners in December, raising speculation that a sale now would not achieve an acceptable price and that the auction would be abandoned for the second time.

Zurich, Generali, Ping An of China and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway have all shown interest at some point but eventually walked away.

Princeton gives highest awards to top students

2009-02-21T20:53:00.000-08:00

by Ruth Stevens

At a reception before the Alumni Day luncheon in Jadwin Gymnasium, President Shirley M. Tilghman (left) and Dean of the Graduate School William Russel (right) congratulated the winners of the University's highest awards for students: (from second from left) Pyne Prize winners Alexander Barnard and Andy Chen; and Jacobus Fellowship recipients Daniel Bouk, Hannah Crawforth, Peter DiMaggio and Jianfeng Lu. (Photo: Denise Applewhite)
Princeton University recognized the winners of the highest honors it awards to students at Alumni Day ceremonies Saturday, Feb. 21.

Seniors Alexander Barnard and Andy Chen shared the University's Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, and graduate students Daniel Bouk, Hannah Crawforth, Peter DiMaggio and Jianfeng Lu were presented as co-winners of the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship at a luncheon in Jadwin Gymnasium.

The Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction conferred on an undergraduate, is awarded to the senior who has most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership. The Jacobus Fellowship, which supports the final year of graduate study, is awarded to students whose work has displayed the highest scholarly excellence.

The previously announced winners of the top honors for alumni also were honored at the luncheon: Claire Max, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California-Santa Cruz, who earned a Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton in 1972 and was this year's James Madison Medalist; and 1993 graduate Rajiv Vinnakota, co-founder of the SEED School of Washington, D.C., the nation's first urban public boarding school for disadvantaged students, who was this year's Woodrow Wilson Award winner.

Pyne Prizes
Barnard, who is from Flagstaff, Ariz., is majoring in sociology. In December, he was named the recipient of the 2009 Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship. He will use it to pursue a master's degree in development studies at Worcester College at the University of Oxford.

Barnard has done extensive research on social activist movements and has been an activist himself. He is a co-founder and vice president of the Princeton Animal Welfare Society, which promotes veganism and creates awareness about the treatment of animals. He also has been a member of the Princeton Coalition Against Capital Punishment and the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which helps immigrants.

For the last two years, Barnard has focused his academic research on the "freegan" movement, which promotes efforts to live outside the conventional economy by limiting the consumption of resources. Instead of buying goods, participants procure much of what they need by making items, searching for discarded goods or getting them from communities existing outside of capitalism. Barnard has done more than 200 hours of direct observation fieldwork and has interviewed 15 to 20 highly involved freegans for his senior thesis titled "Pulling Sustainability From the Dumpster: Environmental Ethics, Animal Practices and the Individuals Behind the Freegan Movement."

"His thesis makes a significant contribution to the exploding field of environmental sociology by concretely linking the global animal commodity chain to local consumption practices," said Mitchell Duneier, a professor of sociology, who is Barnard's thesis adviser. "His arduous ethnographic fieldwork illuminates how everyday individual choices about what we eat and throw away are inherently political."

Barnard has been captain of Princeton's mock trial team and has twice received the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence. Also a musician, Barnard plays the trumpet and bass guitar, and has served as president and drillmaster of the Princeton University Band.

In recognizing Barnard at the Alumni Day ceremony, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman said, "While he does not hesitate to express his views both inside and outside the classroom, it is always in a way that elevates the conversation and leaves no stone -- or, rather, idea -- unturned. As his stellar transcript testifies, he is as much a scholar as an activist, one whose quest for understanding in the service of social change will make him a force to be reckoned with wherever life leads him."

Chen, who is from Los Angeles, is majoring in sociology and pursuing a certificate in East Asian studies. He is writing a senior thesis that explores the impact of economic liberalization on China's urban population. His preparation included traveling to China to conduct interviews, participant observation and archival research. Titled "The Dragon Divided: An Ethnographic Study of Urban Inequalities in Shanghai," his project demonstrates that China's rapid modernization masks serious anxieties and inequities among its middle and lower classes.

Patricia Fernández-Kelly, a senior lecturer in sociology and his thesis adviser, said that during her 30 years as an educator she has "met less than a handful of students more talented, hard working or congenial than Andy Chen. As a freshman at Princeton he was intellectually ambitious. He took part in seminar discussions and often contributed valuable insights that set the tone for the collective exchange. … By the time he wrote his junior paper, it was sheer delight to see how much he had grown in poise and intellectual acuity. Every time I meet with Andy, I marvel at the way he has worked without respite to shape himself into an exceptional human being, a remarkable young scholar and a creative spirit."

Chen has dedicated a significant amount of time to extracurricular activities. As founder and manager of the Student Design Agency, he led a team of 25 designers who have produced more than 500 posters, websites and other graphic materials in the past three years. He also has been a proponent of civil and responsible public discourse, creating the designs for the Princeton-initiated "Own What You Think" campaign against anonymous character assassination allowed by certain websites.

In 2007, he received a Martin Dale Summer Award from Princeton to hone his skills as a yoga teacher in India. He created an online photojournal of his experience and has offered free classes on campus for the University community. He has served as student administrator/webmaster for the Student Volunteers Council and as publicity chair of the Taiwanese American Students Association.

Chen also has been a participant and publicity chair with the Princeton University Gospel Ensemble. In addition he has been a peer academic adviser and a lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender peer educator. In 2008, he was one of eight students selected to receive Spirit of Princeton awards for their contributions and service to the University.

During the Alumni Day ceremony, Tilghman said, "Andy plans to develop his graphic skills, hitherto completely self-directed, at Yale this fall, laying the groundwork for a career that promises to do for the world what he has done so well for Princeton. Thank you, Andy, for giving visual expression to the things that matter most."

Jacobus Fellowships
Bouk, a doctoral student in the Program in History of Science, earned his bachelor's degree with high honors in computational mathematics from Michigan State University. His research agenda on science in American life focuses on the intersection of three established fields: American history, environmental history and the history of science. His dissertation, "The Science of Life Insurance: Cultures of Science and Commerce in America," probes the pivotal role that science played in building the American life insurance industry and generating knowledge that has influenced understanding of everything from human mortality to racial discrimination to the character of America itself.

Daniel Rodgers, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History and director of the Davis Center for Historical Studies, described Bouk's transition from mathematics to history. "His retooling was quiet, disciplined and dramatic," he said. "In workshops, in the Davis Center seminars and in job candidates' presentations, it is Dan whose questions will be the most acute and the most illuminating, the ones that stick in one's mind after the session is over."

Rodgers, who is Bouk's dissertation adviser, has called him "the intellectual leader of his graduate student cohort." Bouk served as president of the Graduate History Association from 2006 to 2008 and founded two forums for graduate students -- the Modern America Workshop's Graduate Works-in-Progress initiative and the Study Group for the History of Capitalism.

Crawforth, a Ph.D. candidate in English, came to Princeton as a Procter Visiting Fellow after earning two degrees -- in English and American literature -- at Christ's College at the University of Cambridge. Her dissertation, "'True Expounding': English Etymologies in Renaissance Poetry," is a pioneering exploration of the ways in which Elizabethan and Jacobean understandings of England's Anglo-Saxon linguistic heritage influenced the work of writers such as Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson and John Milton.

Crawforth has been spending time in the United Kingdom, consulting the manuscript holdings of several libraries for her research. The book that is already beginning to emerge from her dissertation will, she said, "be the first work to consider the literary impact of the new interest in the history of native English words that arose as a result of the Reformation and the influence of continental humanism."

Nigel Smith, professor of English and one of her dissertation advisers, described the project as "an extremely important, field-changing account of the genesis of the poetry in which Shakespeare's generation wrote." Of Crawforth, he said, "She is a future academic of considerable importance, and her demonstrated diligence and acuity is most deserving."

DiMaggio, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, summa cum laude, from the University of Rhode Island. His dissertation, "Discovery Through In Silico Approaches for Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics," focuses on the new field of proteomics -- the large-scale study of proteins in a living system.

Proteins are the principal molecular machines in all living systems. The ability to quantitatively analyze their expression levels is very challenging, since the entire complement of proteins produced by an organism is dynamic and changes from cell to cell. DiMaggio seeks to formulate and implement efficient algorithms for peptide and protein identification and quantification using tandem mass spectrometry data. Also, his work in optimal data clustering has important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of disease; he already has developed an algorithm that will enable scientists to target the molecules most likely to be effective in the synthesis of drug-related compounds.

Christodoulos Floudas, the Stephen C. Macaleer '63 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science, who is his dissertation adviser, described his "impeccable theoretical, analytical and computational ability, his great scientific maturity and persistence when attacking even an impossible problem, his naturally inquisitive and independent research mind and his amazing drive for perfection. Pete is clearly an extraordinary researcher with a great future lying ahead."

Lu, a Ph.D. candidate in applied and computational mathematics, earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Peking University in China. His dissertation, "Mathematical Analysis and Numerical Algorithms for Density Functional Theory," focuses on a popular framework for studying the electronic structure in fields including chemistry, material science and biology. His work sheds new light on a complex but powerful tool for analyzing the electronic structure of systems of large size.

His insights are so numerous and original that there are plans to turn his dissertation into a book -- something that seldom happens in the field of mathematics. Faculty members in the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics have described Lu as more of a collaboration partner than a student.

"I have no doubt that with the completion of his thesis, Jianfeng will already have established himself as the leading expert in a promising area at the intersection of applied mathematics, material science and theoretical chemistry… ," said Weinan E, professor of mathematics and applied and computational mathematics, who is his dissertation adviser. "The future of our field depends on having students like him."

Cancer patients facing costly treatment can benefit from frank talks with doctors

2009-02-14T01:05:00.000-08:00

By Francesca Lunzer Kritz
February 16, 2009

"So how much for that surgery to remove my breast and possibly save my life?" Cancer patients seldom ask that or other cost-related treatment questions in an oncologist's office. And, even if they did, many oncologists wouldn't know the answer or would want to separate treatment from expenses.

But a study released earlier this month found that even cancer patients who have health insurance are seeing their expenses mount as deductibles and cost-sharing continue to rise each year. And an earlier study found that about half of all personal bankruptcies are the result of heavy medical debt -- most declared by people with insurance. For those with no insurance, the situation is much more dire.

Such trends are pushing patients, doctors and oncology support staff to talk frankly about costs, make some treatment decisions with expenses in mind and look for government, national and community organizations that may be able to help with some expenses. A Harvard School of Public Health survey two years ago found that 22% of cancer patients with health insurance used up most or all of their savings on cancer-related costs; 5% decided to forgo some care because of costs.

"Recent research shows that the cost of cancer care is increasing at a rate of 15% per year -- nearly three times the rate of increase of overall healthcare costs in the country," says Dr. Richard Schilsky, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. "In addition," he says, "the newest cancer drugs can cost thousands of dollars per month of treatment, and many families report problems paying their cancer care bills."

The organization even recently released an online guide to managing cancer expenses. (Go to www.cancer.net and look under "New.") The guide includes a glossary of cost terminology (such as "co-pay" and "out of network care"), recommended cost-related questions (such as "If I cannot afford this treatment plan, can we consider other treatment options that don't cost as much?" and "Are there ways to change my treatment schedule, if necessary, to work around my job or child care?") and links to organizations that may be able to help with expenses. (See resource box for additional links.)

Doctors shy from topic

Neal Meropol, an oncologist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia who helped produce the online guide, says he'd like to see physicians begin to weave cost into their knowledge of cancer care while in medical school. If that happens, it could be a boon to patients. A survey of just over 160 oncologists, published two years ago in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that 31% felt uncomfortable discussing costs with patients. Also, 42% said they always discuss treatment cost, 32% sometimes did and 26% said they rarely or never did.

The growing need for frank conversations about the high cost of cancer care was underscored by the report published in early February by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health research group based in Menlo Park, Calif., and the American Cancer Society. The report found that even cancer patients who have insurance can find themselves bearing costs that are difficult to pay off.

Thomas Olszewski, 62, of Graham, Texas, was treated for prostate cancer in 1999 and needs yearly tests so that any recurrence can be detected early. But his insurance comes with an annual $3,750 deductible, and he still owes $500 from his last checkup. He now has his cancer checkups every other year, instead of annually. "I am afraid to go to the doctor," Olszewski says, "because I never know how much it will cost me."

Schilsky, also an oncologist at the University of Chicago Medical Center, says that, difficult as it is, some patient-doctor conversations should include whether the patient wants to continue care that could be a long shot and leave patients or their families saddled with debt -- particularly when the prognosis is poor and many treatment options have already been exhausted.

"The decision is up to the patient, but the doctor should facilitate that conversation. We treat whole patients, not just an isolated cancer," Schilsky says.

Along those lines, Meropol says a chemotherapy patient recently told him that a prescribed anti-nausea drug was just too expensive. The doctor then prescribed a less expensive but also somewhat less effective drug.

Resources are available

Arash Naeim, head of the geriatric oncology program at UCLA Medical Center, says he hopes that by having the physician bring up cost, patients will feel more comfortable discussing their needs and concerns, and doctors can then refer patients to financial and social work staff to see if resources might be available or if a payment plan can be worked out. Paying at least something regularly shows good faith that could garner added assistance from the billing office.

Jamie Drzewicki, 58, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., who was diagnosed with breast cancer more than two years ago, reached her annual health insurance limit of $100,000 a few months after her diagnosis and ended up owing about $75,000 for her treatment. She paid at least something regularly and, though she still owes $30,000, the hospital recently forgave $40,000 of the debt

Diane Blum, head of CancerCare, a national social service agency that offers counseling and financial assistance for cancer patients, says financial assistance from CancerCare and other agencies can be based on a patient's income as well as availability of funds. Some agencies have funds that cover a particular cancer, but stop giving out money once that allotment is used up. If that's the case, patients can apply to other agencies, and reapply to the closed fund the following year, if necessary, when coffers may have been refilled.

Blum and others also suggest that cancer patients cede the financial quests, at least at first, to a trusted friend or family member as they take in the news about the cancer and begin treatment.

There is no guarantee of assistance, especially now, when so many people are losing their jobs and their insurance and many will likely need help with costs, Blum says. But it can't hurt to try.

Just ask Maria D'Acosta, 59, of Carlsbad and her daughter, Paola Campos-D'Acosta, 30. Campos-D'Acosta left her job with a temporary employment agency in New York City after being diagnosed with breast cancer last summer. She had no insurance when doctors told her she'd need a mastectomy and chemotherapy to treat the Stage 3B cancer, and is now $100,000 in debt.

Help for mom, daughter

Social workers at Harlem Hospital, the city hospital where she had a mastectomy, recommended applying to Medicaid in New York state to cover her bills retroactively, and a friend referred her to the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Treatment and Prevention, affiliated with Memorial-Sloan Kettering Medical Center in New York City.

Just before coming to New York to look after her daughter, D'Acosta felt a lump in her own breast and mentioned it to her daughter's doctors. They insisted she have a biopsy, which showed the lump to be malignant. D'Acosta, who closed her interior design business last year, had dropped her insurance some months before, as business dwindled.

Now she too is getting her care at the Ralph Lauren Center for low-income women, where both women pay a $50 co-pay for doctor visits, with costs mounting. Family and friends are helping out.

But one concern they don't have, in a city filled with studios renting at $2,000 or more per month, is how to pay for their living space.

The women have been living in two cozy rooms near New York's famed Penn Station, free of charge, since November. They're at the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge, where cancer patients referred by their medical team can stay, first come, first served, for as long as treatment is ongoing. In addition to private rooms, the lodge offers communal kitchens, computer rooms, open areas, meditation rooms and even cooked dinners a few times a week.

"The cancer, that's a shock," D'Acosta says, "but we're blessed to be living in this place while we get our care."

Don't assume your income is too high to ask for help, says David Knowlton, a board member of the Healthwell Foundation, based in Gaithersburg, Md., which provides financial assistance for insurance premiums and co-pays for patients with many different conditions. Knowlton says grants might even be made to families with a yearly income of $80,000 or higher, depending on family size and other circumstances.

"This is a tough time for too many people," Knowlton says, "and funds are trying to help as much as they can."

health@latimes.com

New Tools Help Seniors Gain Their Financial Freedom Using Life Insurance Settlements

2009-01-24T00:35:00.000-08:00

Seniors 65+ can now access tools that provide instant estimates of the value of their life insurance, explore the tax implications of selling their policy in a life settlement and connect with authorized purchasers who compete to buy their policy.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) January 13, 2009 -- Calling it "a win for the consumer", the Life Settlement Network has announced several free and instant on-line tools that provide senior life insurance policyholders direct access to analysis previously unavailable. These new tools provide answers to common life settlement questions such as 'How much is my policy worth?' and 'Am I eligible?' without having to set up a consultation or appointment with a life settlement broker or life insurance agent. By providing a range of likely offers, interested seniors can determine if they have a marketable policy. After discussing their options with a financial advisor, senior policyholders can submit their case confidentially to all authorized funding sources - cutting the costs associated with selling a policy.

"Providing tools that help seniors determine for themselves if they are eligible and what their insurance policy might be worth eliminates the need for costly and time-consuming evaluations and taps into the natural resourcefulness of many of our clients," says the Life Settlement Network managing partner Chris Chidgey. He adds, "Creating efficiencies in this costly process means less compensation for the facilitators of the process and more for the senior - the value for the senior sky-rockets."

It has been estimated the cost of selling a life insurance policy in a life insurance settlement is as high as 50% of the settlement proceeds. In some cases, the policy changes hands multiple times before landing in a portfolio. By enabling seniors to determine for themselves if their policy has any value in the settlement market and what the range of likely values are, interested seniors and their advisors can do much of the qualification on their own. The tools provided are safe, secure and confidential and there is no obligation to accept an offer once a case is submitted.

Seniors 65 and older holding or paying premiums on unwanted, unneeded or under-performing life insurance should determine whether selling their policy in a life insurance settlement is likely to generate more funds than surrendering the policy for the stated cash value. Starting with a free and instant on-line life settlement quote using the life settlement calculator from the Life Settlement Network is a great first step.

Is it time for my mid-life crisis yet?

2009-01-19T03:40:00.000-08:00

by Scott MossJanuary 19, 2009

I must say people, this is a question that a whole lot of my friends have already asked themselves and answered with a resounding YES. You know the ones I'm talking about. They've been married 20 years, worked their way up the corporate ladder and achieved some significant financial success. They have bought the expensive car, house and boat. Maybe even a summer home on a lake somewhere.

This is always a tough call for me, though. I don't really want to have a mid-life crisis. Maybe there's something wrong with me. You see, I still like to chase my wife around the house, I don't want or need an expensive car, and I have trouble keeping up with the work I have to do at this house let alone a second. As for a boat, a boat means I have to put on a swim suit, and let's face it, no one wants to see that on a leisurely drive on the lake. That's how fish started walking. They see something like me in a swim suit on their lake and they've had enough. Legs sprout, and before you know it, they're running brokerage firms on Wall Street.

I don't know how to recognize one when it hits me, so I've developed a list of warning signs that your mid-life crisis is here.

1. Your secretary wears short skirts, she has an IQ similar to that of a turnip and you think she would be a nice trophy wife to show off to your friends. Before you do it, take a picture of all your stuff. Get it blown up to at least an 11-by-14-inch poster, and take a black marker and color over at least half your stuff. That will go to your wife, and then color over one-fourth of the remaining stuff. That will go to your lawyer. Whatever is left will no longer impress your secretary. She will run off with the pool boy.

2. You suddenly get the urge to try sky diving or swimming with sharks or drag racing. These are all OK, as long as your life insurance is paid up to date. Make sure your first wife doesn't pack your parachute, starve the sharks before you get in the water or loosen the front wheels of your dragster. First wives will get even. It's in their DNA.

3. If the car you're planning on buying costs more than the first or second house you bought. Spend no more than $40,000 on a car. That way, you'll have money left over for the incredible debt trophy wife No. 2 will get you in.

4. "I'm going to the Harley Davidson dealership and pick me up one of them hog things." First and foremost, if you go into the Harley dealership and say the above statement to any of the real bikers there, you will leave missing some teeth. If you've never had a Harley Davidson or any other motorcycle in your life, take a good hard look at the one you just bought. In a couple of hours it will be wrapped around a tree and you'll be in the hospital wishing you hadn't divorced your first wife because trophy wife has no desire to be married to a man who can't ride a motorcycle. It says it right there on her tattoo.

5. I think I will grow my hair out and put it in a pony tail. I should dye it jet black like when I was a kid, too. I'll look as cool as I did when I was in my 20s! Here's what I need you to do. Look in the mirror. Your hair is gray, live with it. It shows you've lived. Growing a pony tail is just a bad idea. If you're really thinking of dying your hair jet black, you might as well take it a step further and pick up the sequined jump suit and start growing those sideburns because baby, you're a hunk-a-hunk of burnin' love. We would like to book you to do your tribute show at the New Lenox Commons in June for two or three sold out shows.

I think I'll stay gray, drive my beat up car and continue to be crazy about my first and only wife. In the long run, I won't be as successful as some of my friends, but I'll get to keep all of my stuff.

Cash Flow Problem Hits Dongbu Group

2008-12-26T03:47:00.000-08:00

By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter

Dongbu Steel, the nation's mid-tier steel producer, has decided to dispose of stakes in its life insurance affiliate and commercial property to secure cash, after being hit hard by rising debt and falling sales amid worsening business conditions.

The cash-strapped steel maker held a board of directors' meeting Dec. 24 and decided to sell its 2.38 million shares in Dongbu Life Insurance to Dongbu Insurance, the group's de facto holding company, for 35.5 billion won, or 14,941 won per share.

The company also plans to sell its stake in the Dongbu Financial Center in southern Seoul, also to Dongbu Insurance for 16 billion won. Through the two transactions, the struggling steel maker will receive a total of 51.5 billion won in cash from its non-life insurance affiliate.

An executive of Dongbu Group, led by Chairman Kim Jun-ki, said it has become inevitable for Dongbu Steel to secure more liquidity to cope with the deteriorating business environment in the wake of the global credit crunch and economic downturn, dismissing a market rumor that the steel producer was suffering from a liquidity squeeze.

``Other major steel manufacturers at home and abroad are also rushing to dispose of assets for cash. It's simply untrue that our steel unit is facing a cash shortage. Additionally, Dongbu Insurance's stake acquisition of Dongbu Life Insurance is the first step toward the group's move toward a financial holding company structure,'' the official said.

Korean steel makers, like their peers abroad, are struggling with deteriorating business conditions as global demand has been falling rapidly as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown. The 2009 outlook is even bleaker as China, India and other major steel consumers will take the full blunt of the global downturn.

Dongbu Steel's move to sell assets for cash came two weeks after its major creditor, the Korea Development Bank (KDB), demanded the steel producer carry out a full-scale self-rescue plan to cut costs and obtain more cash.

The state-run bank has threatened that if the company does not restructure itself for cost reductions and greater efficiency, it may impose a creditor-initiated workout program or dispose of its stake in the firm.

Currently, the KDB has a 10.1 percent stake in Dongbu Steel. If the bank dumps company shares, it would deal a severe blow to the struggling manufacturer.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr

MURCHISON: Myths of the assembly line

2008-12-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

William Murchison
Saturday, December 20, 2008

A famous news photo from the late '30s shows toughs employed by the Ford Motor Co. beating up Richard Frankensteen, a United Auto Workers official, during the so-called Battle of the Overpass at Ford's Rouge River plant in Dearborn.

UAW chief Walter Reuther, walking with Frankensteen, got the same treatment. "Seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it," he later wrote. "I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairways, thrown down the first flight of steps and kicked down the second flight."

The UAW, whose sit-down strikes had already overwhelmed General Motors' and Chrysler's resistance to unionization, wanted Henry Ford on the dotted line. Three years later they got him. The plight of the car companies wasn't born at the precise moment Walter Reuther fell down the steps, but you could see the mythology shaping up.

Or perhaps not. As the '40s ended, the mythology changed from urban struggle to suburban dream. Organized labor, while hardly forgetting the dirty, bitter going of the '30s, bathed in the transcendent radiance of hope and opportunity. Everything, going forward, was going to be spiffy. Got that - spiffy! In 1948, Reuther wrung from the automakers an "escalator clause" pegging wage increases to the cost of living. In 1955, he won agreement that unemployed auto workers would be paid 65 percent of weekly wages for the first four weeks of unemployment and 60 percent for the next 22 weeks. Subsequently the figure climbed to 95 percent.

Comprehensive health care, tuition refunds, life insurance, profit-sharing, pre-paid legal service, bereavement pay -- off the UAW assembly line it rolled, contract after contract. Who paid? The auto-buying public paid. The automakers' contention that they pay workers $73 an hour takes into account the cost of pensions and health insurance for retirees. Still, no one disputes that Detroit's unionized active workers cost a good $10 an hour more than the nonunionized work forces that build Toyotas, Hondas and BMWs in the largely nonunionized South.

The heart of the auto "bailout" calamity is that the old model driven jointly by the UAW and the companies for years, pedal to the metal, finally collapsed: spark plugs exhausted, drive shaft broken, radiator rusted out. You can't -- apparently -- have domineering unions of the sort Walter Reuther managed during his tenure as UAW chieftain (which ended with his death in 1970). You have to have entities, both managerial and factory-level, deeply responsive to the realities of the marketplace. These realities are that no one today has to buy your car.

Getting to that place is the problem. The postwar, post-sit-down strike mythology of shared prosperity for union and companies still holds the UAW in thrall, and so also the media. The question is phrased: Do we "save Detroit" or don't we? The reality is that it's too late. The cheerful conspiracy between Detroit and the unions -- lay on the benefits and pass the cost to the auto-buying public -- begs for replacement by the more logical strategy of put-it-on-the-market-and-see-who-buys-it.

The bailout allows no latitude for reinvention. It's all about "saving Detroit" for a few more months rather than subjecting union and companies alike to the rigors of the competitive marketplace. You can hate all you want to -- maybe you should -- the thought of Detroit-related companies laying off workers or shutting down entirely, because down that way lies social and economic dislocation. A still more hateful prospect is general acceptance of the lie that all the industry needs is a new government-sponsored transmission overhaul.

The 21st century hasn't been kind to old industries, including my own, the newspaper business, as readers of news and information flee to the Internet. What do we want, we old hack journalists -- a bailout? Likelier a little space for reinvention that - woe and alack! - robs us of mores and memories but renews the survivors to fight another day.

Transportation office no longer insured

2008-12-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 12, 2008
By KIMBERLY GLEASON, Times Staff Reporter

Clay Community School Transportation Director Frank Misner had some unhappy news come out of his garage at the Clay Community School Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday.
"Indiana Insurance indicated last spring their concern with the transportation building. At that time, they still insured our building," Supt. Dan Schroeder said. "They came back this year and said they will not insure it liability wise, unless a structural engineer looked it over. The engineer said it had less than a year of useful life. The report was then submitted to Indiana Insurance and their response is they will not insure the contents or the building any longer."

The engineers' report suggested the old creamery building, which houses the transportation office and storage facilities for maintenance supplies, is buckling and is unsafe for future long-term use.

Schroeder recommended the school board declare an emergency for the purpose of using emergency Capital Project Funds so that facilities can be leased and alternate plans can be drawn up as to the current situation, the board voted 7-0 in favor of the emergency action.

The bus hut, where the repairs and maintenance are done on school buses, is insured.

To provide office space for Misner and his workers, the corporation is leasing a trailer.

"There was no plan whatsoever of discussing this," Schroeder said. "But now, because we can't have the building insured and a structural engineer says we shouldn't be inside of it, it is time to bring this discussion back to the forefront. We need room for maintenance and the complex."

As discussion commenced on the relative comparison put together by Tom Neff of Schmidt Associates, which is based off of another design similar in size in Tipton Community Schools to the current transportation building. The Tipton building was bid upon two weeks ago for $2 million.

"It isn't a building design, or anything specific, but taking the building costs and the bid amounts which were dramatically under projection and this is a good comparison," Neff said.

He said the estimate included the removal of other buildings on the location, compaction of soil, preparation of the location, grading and drainage. The location would be at the coal sight, which is next to the current transportation hub. The advantages would be the fueling station, communication lines and the location within the district.

"These are just projected costs, set up as a ball park estimation," Neff said. "The sight has to be set up to meet all the Indiana Department of Environmental standards. The costs may seem high. You are going to ask yourself and other people will ask you if it should be cheaper to do it locally? The problem is that when bond proceeds are used the wage scale waiver comes into play."

"I'm not here to sell you a bus garage, I'm only here to give you a comparison," he added at the end of the proposal

Building and Grounds Director Tom Reberger and Misner spoke to the board.

"These are hard numbers," Reberger said. "They just bid this other project two weeks ago. So they know what they are talking about. The problem with a commercial facility, you can't put up a poll barn, these have to be OSHA approved structures with EPA regulations. We can be shut down if we do not meet these codes."

Misner was honest about the current situation to the board.

"Unfortunately, we are a corporation that doesn't have a lot of money. We could do this cheaper, but to meet regulations, we have to play by the rules," Misner said.

"We have needed a new garage since I started, and we had this planned in the building project and it was taken out. Now we have a building that is functionally obsolete and we don't have a choice anymore."

Board member Forrest Buell asked Misner if driver owned busses would be cheaper for the corporation.

"When dealing with driver owned busses, it isn't cheaper, and to be honest you are dealing with a third party and not the person that lives down the road that you go to church with. The driver's care about the children and a third party person wouldn't care about them the way these drivers do. If a parent has a problem they can call me and we can fix it," Misner replied. "In the Indianapolis, area they are dealing with the problems of a third party and are having a lot of problems."

Board members agreed the bus garage does an awesome job with nothing and something needs to be done.

Misner and Reberger were encouraged to look into the matter and have a list of the essentials that would be needed in a new building.

The board also encouraged Reberger to look into leasing a building with the possibility of buying. Because of building renovation project at the elementary schools the furniture and equipment as well as the equipment housed in the old creamery building no longer has a central location. Currently vacant rooms in the corporation are being used for storage but they will not be assessable once the project starts.

Board members gave approval for a special meeting to be called if Reberger needs to talk to the board.

Reliance Life new biz to cross $1 bn by March

2008-12-07T03:50:00.000-08:00

Riding on the back of 100 per cent growth in new business, Reliance Life Insurance expects the first premium income to cross milestone figure of $1 billion mark by the end of the current fiscal.

"We expect 100 per cent growth in the new business premium during the current fiscal," Reliance Life Insurance Chief Executive Officer P Nandagopal told PTI.

Given the growth expectation, the new business premium of the company would be about Rs 5,500 crore (over $1 billion) at the end of March 2009.

The new business premium grew over 200 per cent at Rs 2,751 crore ($625 million) for the fiscal ended March, 2008, he said.

During the first six months of the current fiscal, the insurer has earned first premium income of about Rs 1,470 crore.

Normally, an insurance company acquires major chunk of the new business in the second half of the fiscal, he said, adding, with the expansion plan on the anvil and huge recruitment plan the new business is likely to register a good jump.

To support the growth plan, Reliance Life Insurance is set to hire 2,500 managers and close to one lakh advisers in the next four months.

"We are planning to add close to 2,500 employees and 90,000 advisers by the end of March next year," said Nandagopal.

With the fresh recruitment, the total number of advisers would cross three lakh while total staff strength would be over 28,000, he said.

Humanitarian Helpers Virginia and Michael Spevak

2008-12-01T03:06:00.000-08:00

By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 1, 2008; Page B06

Virginia Spevak and Dr. Michael Spevak, the husband and wife who were killed in their home in the Chevy Chase area of the District on Nov. 20, left twin legacies of community involvement and concern for others.

Mrs. Spevak, 67, known to friends as Ginny, was a former development office coordinator at Green Acres School in Rockville, where she also taught fifth- and sixth-grade science. She retired in 2001, largely to devote time to caring for a girl in the D.C. government's foster-care program.

"She's one of the people who lived her life in the most ethical way," said Nan Shapiro, a friend and Green Acres teacher. "She really did the things she believed in."

A few years ago, Mrs. Spevak and another friend, Prue Hoppin, began a program called Quilting for Good, in which volunteers sewed quilts and gave them to women who had no insurance for prenatal care. Last year, she traveled to New Orleans with friends from Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, where she was an elder and a deacon, to rehabilitate houses damaged by Hurricane Katrina. At her church, she also arranged an adult-education forum series on the criminal justice system, with emphasis on restorative justice.

She served as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the 1970s and 1980s and continued to speak out on development issues as a member of the Friendship Neighborhood Coalition.

Dr. Spevak, 68, a psychiatrist in private practice for more than three decades, specialized in dealing with troubled adolescents. He had been the primary psychiatrist for the District's Lorton prison facility and lectured on emotionally disturbed inmates.

He, too, was involved in development issues and was active in fighting suburban sprawl.

Together, the Spevaks transformed their house on Belt Road NW into a model home for solar power. Their solar electricity system was so successful that at times they produced enough electricity to send back to the Pepco power grid. They also were enthusiastic organic gardeners.

"These were people who were very willing to do whatever they could to show that there are better ways to live on this planet than what most of us are doing," said Peter Lowenthal, executive director of the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation.

Michael Bart Spevak was born in Schenectady, N.Y. He received his undergraduate degree in science from George Washington University in 1961 and his master's degree in plant pathology from Cornell University in 1966. After deciding to change careers, he received his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1970.

Virginia Anne Sager Spevak was born in Oxnard, Calif. She received her undergraduate degree in botany from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was working on a doctorate in botany and plant pathology at Cornell when she met the man she would marry. Their son, Eli Studer-Spevak, recalled that they were the only two students who showed up for a botany field trip, unaware that the trip had been canceled. They walked home together and never parted.

The couple lived in Rochester, N.Y., and Pasadena, Calif., where Dr. Spevak completed his psychiatric residency, before returning to the District in 1972.

Deeply devoted to his work, Dr. Spevak could be a bit eccentric. He occasionally shocked family members and colleagues by showing up in public wearing his Smurf-blue spandex biking outfit. "He taught me not to be self-conscious," his son told a crowd of more than 500 who gathered last week at Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church to remember the Spevaks.

They had their individual interests, their son said. Ginny Spevak was a quilter, a baker, a gardener and a conservationist who had mastered such skills as carpentry. Her husband's enthusiasms -- beyond his professional life -- were slightly less practical. He particularly enjoyed biking and running.

"Where their interests overlapped," Studer-Spevak said, "was in reforming the criminal justice system."

Survivors, in addition to their son, of Portland, Ore., include a daughter, Leah Spevak Kanach of Arlington County; Dr. Spevak's father, Sidney Spevak of Rockville; Mrs. Spevak's mother, Gen Pidduck Sager of Ventura, Calif., as well as Mrs. Spevak's brother and sister; and one grandson.

Confessions of a Liberal

2008-11-28T04:44:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Skeptic

The intelligent liberal black guy won. We voted in as president the big-city lawyer with the foreign-sounding name. Armageddon, or at the very least, socialism, atheism, gun confiscation, the Rapture and a national epidemic of erectile dysfunction must certainly be at hand.

Most of the off-the-tarmac right wing's favorite anti-liberal slanders are rooted in deeply held (and deeply wrong) assumptions about who liberals are and what we believe. Here are ten of them:

- 1. LIBERALS HATE AMERICA.

For the record: liberals love America. Love it. In fact, what makes us so liberal is that we have actually read, questioned, understood and believed those pretty words in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. We want to live in that country. We believe that our nation's founding documents express a uniquely powerful moral contract between a people and their government, and assume an audaciously positive vision of an educated people's ability to run their own affairs and shape their own future. When we get annoying and whiny it's usually because we believe so much in America's astonishing promise that we're disappointed when the country falls short. We know we can do better. And don't tell us to "love it or leave it," because we are committed for the long run to fix it and stay.

Conservatism, by contrast, tends to take a dim view of human nature, prefers enforced hierarchy to personal liberty and isn't completely comfortable with the notion that the American people can or should be trusted. This leads to a selective reading of the Constitution (and of the Bible), and, as we've seen during the Bush Reich, a far more hostile attitude toward personal freedoms. The proof however, is in the history and it's irrefutable. America's greatest moments of progress, generosity, and moral strength occurred when the country stuck most closely to its progressive ideals. Liberals love America so much that we freed the slaves, passed child labor laws, welcomed immigrants, built schools and colleges gave the vote to women, set aside national parks, took care of the elderly, enacted civil rights laws, rebuilt WW II Europe and put a man on the moon. All of these were progressive projects. And all of these were fought against tooth and nail by conservatives simply because they feared change. Conservatives will loudly obstruct social progress until it's forced on them. Then they'll insist they were 100 percent for it all along.

2. LIBERALS WANT TO LEAVE US DEFENSELESS IN THE FACE OF EVILDOERS AROUND THE WORLD.

The big disconnect on security issues begins with the fact that we have a far more expansive definition of "security" than conservatives do, and a broader sense of what the actual threats are and what can be done about them.

When conservatives discuss "security," they're usually thinking in terms of solving all our problems by sending in more guys and gals with guns and bombs. The flip side of this that they tend not to give much credence to real threats that can't be fixed by guys and gals with guns and bombs. As progressives, we know that the country's and the world’s financial crisis is a security issue. And in a world of superbugs and epidemics, universal health care is a security issue. And the energy crisis/global warming is a potential security issue (the Pentagon agrees on this). We also know that Shock and Awe, sending in the Marines, hiring more cops, building space lasers, and taking off our shoes at the airport won't address our most terrifying problems. Real-world security is far more complex and requires a much wider range of solutions than most conservatives are willing to consider. Real-world security requires equality and social justice.

3. LIBERALS HATE THE FREE MARKET.

The operative word here is "free." Liberals believe wholeheartedly in the amazing power of markets to deliver all kinds of important goods. But we've also noticed that some of the deepest human goods of all, a strong family, a caring community, a healthy environment, safe food, clean water and air and time to enjoy them, are assigned no economic value at all in unregulated markets. If we want to protect the value of things that money can't buy, then we need to put some restrictions on markets so they can't encroach into those areas. Besides, any 10-year-old who's played Monopoly (or any adult who's recently been within reach of a TV or newspaper) can tell you how unregulated free markets invariably end up. One person ends up owning the whole game board, and everybody else ends up broke. Game over. That's not an accident; it's just how capitalist systems work. Good regulation can go a long way toward preventing that.

Even conservatives don't really believe in totally free markets. Truly free markets can only work if there's also a free market in labor, which means open borders (it's fun to drop this suggestion with a wink to the border fence line dancers, the Minuet Men) and unfettered collective bargaining, neither of which are exactly pet conservative causes.

4. LIBERALS HATE OUR TROOPS.

Many of us liberals have actually been troops (unlike Bush's Chickenhawk hypocrites). We love our troops. We love them so much that we want them brought home safe and intact to their families as soon as possible. We want them alive because we love them. Tell me: Who was it blocked the new GI Bill because it might encourage troops not to re-up? Who refused to increase VA funding? Who is responsible for the torture chambers of Bagram and Abu Ghraib? Who oversaw the criminal negligence at Walter Reed? Who made combat soldiers buy their own body and vehicle armor? Who irradiated them with Depleted Uranium? Reality check: it wasn't the Liberals.

5. LIBERALS ARE ELITISTS WHO HATE DECENT WORKING CLASS AMERICANS.

...as opposed to those sainted, compassionate corporate men-of-the-people who fly around in private jets and pull down eight-figure salaries courtesy of corporate welfare while closing plants and cutting 12,000 jobs at a time. That must be the "real" populism, you betcha.

Liberals think that sending well-paid American jobs overseas is a crappy idea. We think the domestic minimum wage should be enough to cover the necessities with a little left over. We think it's insane that over half the personal bankruptcies in the USA are due to lack of adequate medical insurance. We think everybody who has the grades should have a shot at college. And we believe that a strong middle-class is absolutely essential for maintaining a healthy democracy because no democracy that has tolerated our current level of inequality has ever survived for long. We believe in paying our fair share of taxes, unlike Joe the Plumber.

You'd be surprised (or not) at how many conservatives making the “Liberal Elitist” accusation have never considered the role government has played in making their own life possible. Their dad or granddad got through college on the GI Bill. They financed their own education with Pell Grants and federally-guaranteed loans. They grew up in FHA or VA-funded houses, going to public schools, and collected fat mortgage interest deductions, which ensured their family's place in the middle class. They went to state universities and they're several thousand dollars richer every month because they're off the hook for Grandma's living expenses, thanks to Social Security and Medicare. They drink cleans water and eat pure foods because of government. They, or their parents, may have started businesses with help from the Small Business Administration, or relied on government advice and subsidies to keep the farm going. They work for businesses that depend on government contracts. But they'll sit there and unthinkingly insist that they made everything they had, hauled themselves up by the bootstraps, all by themselves, with no help from anybody, especially not the government.

6. LIBERALS ARE AGAINST "FAMILY VALUES."

This is one of the biggest disconnects conservatives make. Conservatives and liberals have very different ideas about what families look like, how they function and whose rules they should run under. Liberals are quite willing to recognize the conservative model as a legitimate and valid way to do family, even if we don't always agree with it. But when conservatives look at liberal families and see their patchwork of made-up and adopted arrangements, they see a chaotic free-for-all that doesn't follow any of their strictly mandated rules of family organization, and thus in their minds isn’t a "family" at all. We think the concept is flexible and therefore adaptable to a changing reality. They think it's unstable and scary and maybe dangerous.

So it comes as a considerable shock to conservatives when you point out that progressive areas of the country have significantly stronger families, by almost any measure you can imagine. They have lower rates of divorce, teen pregnancy, infidelity, drug abuse, domestic violence and juvenile delinquency than the more conservative Christian areas do. Massachusetts, the first state to offer gay marriage, also has the lowest divorce rate in the country. Massachusetts likes marriage so much it thinks everybody should have a shot at it. Looking at the statistics, it's possible to conclude that the conservative obsession with "family values" may reflect the fact that families in Red America really are beset by devastating problems that aren't nearly as common in Blue America. Maybe that's why they canonized Sarah Palin's dysfunctional brood. Rather than admit that maybe liberals know something that they don't, they'll usually try to fix the blame for their family chaos on liberals and our crazy anything-goes family arrangements. Liberals believe in family first. Our families are more successful and happy than theirs. This shouldn't be a matter of debate; but it will continue to be one as long they refuse to believe that our families are just as valid and sacred to us as theirs are to them. Maybe more so.

7. LIBERALS WANT TO RAISE YOUR TAXES.

If you are prosperous enough to be bringing in over $250K a year, there's no point in trying to finesse this. Your taxes probably are going up. Between Clinton-era tax cuts, the burst housing bubble and the hot stock market of the past 15 years, these folks probably made so much money that it's time to start giving some back to the nation that made their prosperity possible. (Refer back to #5: they almost certainly didn't make that pile without at least some government help.)

There's just no way to pay for a $600 billion (or $3 trillion, depending) war and a $700 billion (or $1 trillion) bailout. And that's just the current cost, because they're likely to soar in the future without somebody somewhere in this country paying more taxes. The bill for the war alone currently stands $5,000 per American household; the bailout may cost that much again, depending on how much of the money the government can recoup. The GOP went shopping on our credit card and now it's time to pay the bill.

8. LIBERALS ARE GODLESS AND THEREFORE AMORAL.

A lot of progressives are deeply spiritual and our politics are guided by our beliefs. Evangelical churches are finally getting involved with environmentalism, poverty, and human slave trafficking, all issues where liberals have been active for decades. It's great. It's good to have extra hands on board.

It's also true that a lot of progressives aren't dogmatically religious. Unfortunately, many conservatives equate "secular" with "having no moral code whatsoever," since they honestly believe that nobody can possibly behave themselves unless there's some outside authority keeping a hairy eyeball on them. (It's tempting to speculate about what people who believe this might try to get away with when they think nobody's watching; personally, I think it's an incriminating admission that they can't be trusted when God or his human agents aren't watching. Rejecting their God means you refuse to follow their rules which, according to their logic, can only mean that you don't recognize any rules at all. Call this out for what it is. Bullsh!t!

All non-religious progressives have things they hold deeply sacred: family commitments, community obligations, professional responsibilities, the Constitution, social and economic justice, the earth and its systems, the idea of democracy, the rule of law, fairness and the dream of a peaceful future. Those things form the basis of a natural moral code and it's not uncommon to find secular progressives who live more uncompromisingly moral lives than many overtly religious people do.

9. LIBERALS DON'T BELIEVE IN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

Again, there's a definitional disconnect at work here. Conservatives tend to use the rule of law to defend their version of morality and social status, which usually means light treatment for those at the top and harsher penalties for those at the bottom. Liberals tend to use the rule of law to maintain some semblance of fairness and equality, which means that those who have more should be given sanctions proportionate to their wealth and power.

10. LIBERALS ARE WIMPS.

You can believe this only if you don't know anything about the history or reality of American liberalism. The Constitution is itself a radically liberal document, the ultimate expression of Enlightenment principles, drafted by highly educated men who looked radical philosophers and France for inspiration. Some of the boldest Americans in history, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Teddy Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez, and of course Dr. Martin Luther King, have proudly called themselves "liberal" or "progressive."

Liberalism couldn't have survived and thrived in America if we were half as weak and indecisive as conservatives like to think we are. Our progressive forebears were not timid people. Nor did any of them seem to be bedeviled by a lack of conviction. "Mushy" or "feckless" are about the last words history uses to describe any of them. ("stupid" and "traitor" aren't anywhere on the list, either.) When you sign up to become a liberal, this is the legacy you take on. From then on you attempt to live up to it. It's not God's job to make the world a better place. It's yours. You are the change you've been waiting for. No one may walk the path but you. Liberalism has never been for the faint of heart, mind, or spirit and in this era of conservatism gone wild and completely rotten, it still isn't. Join me. A lot of work needs to be done. We can always use more hands.

Medical Malpractice in Queens Fluctuates as Economic Crisis Sets In

2008-11-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Everyone is worried what is going to happen on account of the current economic crisis. Now that the shock of it all has settled down, people are trying to determine what the short and long term effects are going to be. In order for people to be confident in any sort of investment, banks are trying to ensure people that their money is safe despite the crisis. People are not only worried about their daily budget, but also about medical insurance and other types of regulatory measures that affects the everyday family life.

People are very in tune with the current election, because healthcare is a big issue. The two candidates proposals on healthcare are quite different, therefore people are going to base their current healthcare program on the proposals of their desired candidate. The fact of the matter is that medical malpractice is what is driving the hike in medical insurance costs. Medical malpractice in Queens has seen a lot of variation in the number of cases of medical malpractice that has stemmed from the area. So whoever learns the election is going to have a big impact on the price people are going to pay for healthcare.

Medical malpractice Queens is a very serious issue that has some people so scared to receive medical care, which people are tending to opt out entirely. Not being able to receive quality medical care at a decent price is something of big concern in the United States. Other countries like Canada where healthcare is provided for all has a better standard of living because people are not worried about how they are going to pay for medical insurance.

Elderly people and young adults are the most apt to not having medical insurance because it can tend to be very costly and out of touch with their current needs. In order to instill some quality of care in our medical institutions, affordable healthcare must be present in our nation. Instances of medical malpractice in Queens stem from medical professionals paying the duty of care needed to sufficiently take care of their patients. This is a very big problem that is currently being addressed as the 2008 November election comes closer. In order to reduce the amount of medical malpractice in Queens, we need both affordable healthcare and quality medical professionals to make this epidemic subside. In order to get these two things accomplished we need a change in our government that is hopefully going to come from the new president starting in 2009.

If you or a loved one has been directly affected by an occurrence of medical malpractice in Queens, contact a lawyer as soon as possible. A medical malpractice Queens’ lawyer will be able to stand up for you in a court of law and get you started on your path to justice. Medical malpractice settlements commonly cover medical expenses, loss of wages, as well as for pain and suffering.

Paul Justice gives advice to clients who are looking for attorneys to handle injury related cases such as medical malpractice, automobile accidents. To know more about medical malpractice NY, malpractice lawyer and medical malpractice Queens visit http://www.nbrlawfirm.com

» by pauljustice30@gmail.com

Health insurance firms offering online therapy for insomnia.

2008-11-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

Cognitive behavior therapy -- offered online by insurers -- is more effective than pills, an expert says.
By Francesca Lunzer Kritz
November 3, 2008
Health insurers are sometimes better known for causing sleepless nights than for creating restful ones, but in the last few months, helping consumers get a good night's sleep has become a priority for most of the top-tier U.S. health insurance companies, including WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente and several Blue Cross plans.

Their new programs don't involve sleeping pills. Instead, insurers are advocating the use of cognitive behavior therapy. Traditionally, the therapy has been done largely through face-to-face sessions, but many of the programs are now available online.

Cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia is far superior to sleep medications, says Meir H. Kryger, director of sleep medicine at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, Conn., and chairman of the National Sleep Foundation, a consumer education group. "It can actually cure the insomnia -- not just treat it as medicines do -- without the side effects, such as daytime sleepiness or dizziness, that can occur with even the newest sleeping pills."

Why would health insurers, often tight-fisted for even life-saving treatments, be so quick to cover the cost of a few extra Zs? "To reduce the tens of millions they're spending on sleeping pills each year, as well as improve medical conditions that may be caused by a lack of sleep," says Helen Darling, head of the National Business Group on Health in Washington, D.C., which advises large employers on health cost issues.

About 50 million to 70 million people in the U.S. suffer from various forms of insomnia (such as having a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep, and waking up too soon), according to the National Institutes of Health. And for about 20 million of those sufferers, nighttime insomnia affects their daytime hours as well -- making it hard to stay awake or concentrate, Kryger says. Insomnia of all kinds has been linked to an increased risk of a variety of medical problems, including high blood pressure and depression, accidents and lowered productivity at work.

"Mounting evidence indicates that sleep may be as important as diet and physical activity [for a] healthy lifestyle," says Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, a division of the NIH. "Getting a good night's sleep is necessary for optimal cardiovascular and metabolic health. Insufficient sleep affects the way we see the world, mood, performance, vigilance, awareness, ability to perceive our environment and [how we] respond to challenges."

And use of sleeping pills has skyrocketed. A study this year in the journal Health Affairs found a 50% jump in sleeping pill use -- from 5,445 people per 100,000 in 1998 to 8,194 per 100,000 people in 2006. Though one version of Ambien, a popular sleep aid, is now available as a lower-cost generic costing about 50 cents per pill, newer drugs such as Rozerem and Lunesta cost about $4 and $5 per pill, respectively, or a minimum of nearly $1,500 per year for patients who take a sleeping pill every night. Online behavioral therapy programs cost less than $40 per user, and face-to-face counseling can range from about $300 to $1,800, depending on how many sessions a patient goes through and what level of specialist, from social worker to psychiatrist, provides the therapy.

Unlike sleeping pills, counseling is usually a one-time thing and costs do not continue year to year.

Sleep-related fears

Cognitive behavior therapy has been in use for decades and is part of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's clinical guidelines for treating insomnia. "The only problem with CBT is that there are not nearly enough trained practitioners in the U.S. to help the millions of people with insomnia," says Dr. Michael Sateia, head of the sleep medicine program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., and a former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

During cognitive behavior therapy, trained specialists work with people who have insomnia to eliminate their sleep-related fears and misconceptions. Some such worries are so encompassing that people simply can't sleep.

The therapy may include sleep-restriction exercises to encourage drowsiness and stimulus control. An example of the latter would be not going downstairs upon leaving the bed because a return up the stairs could increase wakefulness, says Lynelle Schneeberg, an insomnia therapist at Gaylord Hospital. The therapy can also include so-called sleep hygiene strategies that can help promote shut-eye, such as forgoing alcohol and exercise in the hours before bed and using the bedroom only for sleep and sex.

"Many people 'catastrophize' their inability to fall asleep -- they lie there and tell themselves over and over that they won't fall asleep -- and then they don't," Sateia says. "By using behavioral changes, we can help them understand that no disaster will occur if they don't fall asleep and encourage them to think and do other things rather than lie there anxiously."

For face-to-face therapy, two to four sessions are typically scheduled every few weeks, though six to eight sessions are also common, Schneeberg says. Online programs take about the same amount of time; the programs now in use by insurers offer five to six sessions that users typically access once a week, though they can go through the program faster if they wish. Both online and face-to-face programs begin with a health assessment. Although insomnia often has no underlying physical cause, it can be a side effect of a medical condition such as Parkinson's disease, depression or cancer. In a 2006 article published in the journal Sleep, Charles M. Morin, a sleep researcher from Université Laval in Québec, reviewed 37 studies on cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia and ultimately suggested that it be the first-line treatment -- over medication.

Further, Morin said in the article that the studies showed the therapy is effective for older patients and for people whose other health issues, such as chronic illness, may be contributing to their sleeplessness. Those two groups are notoriously hard to treat for sleep problems.

The lack of trained professionals has prevented the academy from pushing the therapy to the front of the list of treatments, Sateia says.

Web sessions

The online programs simulate many of the strategies used in face-to-face counseling. Overcoming Insomnia, for example, the program now in use by Highmark, Aetna and Kaiser Permanente, teaches users to evaluate their thoughts and beliefs and reminds them that "not all of our thoughts and beliefs are based on facts."

Users can repeat sessions as often as they like, which helps reinforce a positive attitude toward getting to sleep -- much as they'd be reminded to try to dispel negative notions in a face-to-face setting, says Richard Bedrosian, head of mental health at HealthMedia of Ann Arbor, Mich., which sells Overcoming Insomnia. The programs also teach relaxation techniques -- such as concentrating on breathing while turning attention away from worry about sleep.

Consumers don't have to go through their insurer to try the programs. Conquer Insomnia, an early version of the program now used by Kaiser, Aetna and Highmark, is available for $19.95 at www.myselfhelp.com. Conquering Insomnia, a version of the program being used by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, is available for $24.95 at CBTforinsomnia.com.

Curiously, while online sleep therapy is all the rage among insurers, few sleep specialists -- including Twery, Sateia and Kryger -- seemed to be aware of it. A study showing the therapy to be more effective than no treatment was presented at the Sleep Academy's annual meeting last summer -- but it didn't even make it to the meeting blog produced each day.

The NIH's Twery says the agency would be very interested in assessing and refining the programs. "There has been little education about sleep and its significance in the U.S.," he says. "Too many people think their sleep habits are just their own quirkiness and there's nothing they can do to improve them."

"We're on the ground floor . . . moving toward national awareness and strategies," says Janet Croft, a senior epidemiologist at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC, for example, will be meeting with the NIH and organizations such as the National Sleep Foundation to create a consensus on insomnia public education and treatment.

Sleep experts suggest that patients who are going to try online sleep therapy let their doctors know when they start the program as well as how effective it seems to be.

"If online therapy doesn't work for a particular patient," says Sonia Ancoli-Israel, head of the sleep disorders clinic at UC San Diego, "having the doctor in the loop can mean that another strategy, such as a brief course of medication or face-to-face therapy, can be started promptly."

Kritz is a freelance writer.

health@latimes.com

Fitch: Mortgage Holdings Could Imperil Life Insurance Firms

2008-10-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

Copyright 2008 SourceMedia, Inc.All Rights Reserved National Mortgage News

October 13, 2008

Pg. 9 Vol. 33 No. 4

711 words

Fitch: Mortgage Holdings Could Imperil Life Insurance Firms

Brad Finkelstein

CHICAGO-Fitch Ratings here has downgraded its outlook on the life insurance industry to "negative" from "stable" in large part because of their mortgage and mortgage-related investments.

"The dramatic downturn in the U.S. housing market, which has led to significant losses to mortgage-related investments, has prompted a financial crisis among major U.S. financial institutions, market illiquidity, and a wholesale repricing of credit risk. While less exposed to these market issues than many investment banks, commercial banks, or financial guarantors, life insurers are experiencing a significant deterioration in investment results, which has negatively impacted industry earnings and capital," the report from Fitch said.

Life insurers who are most likely to see downward ratings pressure in the next 12 to 18 months include firms with above-average exposure to mortgage-related investments.

On the other hand, Fitch said life companies are "relatively well-positioned to weather an environment of capital markets volatility and market illiquidity."

Furthermore, the rating agency said "a vast majority of life insurers avoided investments in collateralized debt obligations backed by residential mortgage-backed securities, and most have little or no activity in the credit default swap market."

Meanwhile more firms are disclosing their investments in one of the many companies impacted in recent weeks by the financial crisis. Both Standard & Poor's and Moody's downgraded Primus Guaranty Ltd., Hamilton, Bermuda.

"Unprecedented credit market volatility and the resulting failure of such firms as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual have clearly impacted Primus Financial," said Thomas W. Jasper, chief executive of Primus Guaranty. "However, at the end of September, Primus Financial had $820 million in long-term debt and equity capital to meet commitments under its credit default swaps contracts. Additionally, $75 million of capital is held at Primus Guaranty."

The company has $16.1 million in credit default swaps exposure to Washington Mutual. It has $80 million in CDS exposure to Lehman Brothers and $215 million in CDS exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Swedbank, Stockholm, has a secured exposure to Lehman Brothers of $1.35 million. But it is not taking any provisions because the underlying commercial mortgage loans are performing and the collateral is of good quality, the company said.
Aegon, The Hague, The Netherlands, has total general account fixed-income exposure to Washington Mutual of 125 million euros ($170.2 million) during this year. The company said it reduced its exposure to WaMu by 47%.

A.M. Best Co., Oldwick, N.J., has downgraded the financial strength rating of Shenandoah Life Insurance Co., Roanoke, Va., to B++ from A-.

It said the downgrade is because of the "significant exposure Shenandoah Life has to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae perpetual preferred stock and the expected reduction in the company's capital and surplus reflecting anticipated writedowns based on current low valuations. Furthermore, A.M. Best notes that Shenandoah Life continues to maintain a relatively high exposure to commercial mortgages, collateralized debt obligations, other structured securities and borrowing under the Federal Home Loan Bank program."

FPIC Insurance Group Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., had exposure of $4.1 million to Lehman Brothers ($2.5 million senior debt, $1.1 million subordinated notes and $500,000 in preferred stock); $2.1 million of senior debt of American General, a subsidiary of American International Group; $300,000 in Fannie Mae preferred stock; $2.1 million in WaMu senior debt; and $2.5 million in Morgan Stanley senior debt.

Zenith National Insurance Corp., Woodland Hills, Calif., said it had $100.7 million in investments (based on their fair value) in a number of companies, including AIG (both fixed income and equity), plus fixed-income investments in Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia. The decrease in the value of these assets between June 30 and Sept. 19 was $24.3 million.

Axis Capital Holdings Ltd., Pembroke, Bermuda, said it expects to realize a loss of $60 million associated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred equity.

http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com//

85% of Lithuanians don’t use insurance services on Internet

2008-09-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

The survey of clients conducted by the non-life insurance company BTA Draudimas revealed that 85% of the respondents do not use insurance services on the Internet.

68% of these people are not even aware of the possibility to insure themselves via the Internet. The results of the survey showed that 19% of respondents think that they would be unable to perform the procedures of insurance on the Internet properly.

Meanwhile, 13% of people stated that they managed no financial transactions via the Internet.

BTA Draudimas conducted the survey of its clients on September 1-15. It surveyed over 2,000 clients in the major cities and town of Lithuania.

"The survey shows that the residents of Lithuania are not well-informed about the opportunities to manage their affairs on the Internet. We do believe that the insurance on the Internet is indeed very beneficial and timely service for active persons," told Arnis Zekunde, CEO of BTA Draudimas.

Firstrand's poor results

2008-09-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

Integrated financial services group, FirstRand, reported a 13 percent reduction in normalised earnings from R10.1-billion to R8.8-billion and a return on equity of 20 percent.

The company released its June full-year earnings on Tuesday.

"As anticipated six months ago, the group has had to weather further tightening in its operating environments across its franchises," it said.

"Global and local capital markets will continue to see unusually high fluctuations, and conditions for the South African consumer will remain difficult."

FirstRand's disappointing results provided little surprise as the group had already warned in a voluntary trading update at the beginning of the month that its profits for the full financial year would be down as much as 10 percent.

At the same time, it warned that its numbers would be hurt by an expensive and unsuccessful entry into Australia by its subsidiary WesBank.

"WesBank took the decision in the year under review to exit its Australian operations.

"The process to sell the auto loan book has been finalised and the sale of WorldMark is on track and the group is optimistic that the net result of disposing of the lending operations should be largely offset by the eventual disposal of WorldMark," FirstRand said on Tuesday.

WesBank's overall profitability was impacted by significant increases in bad debts in its local retail lending businesses for the period under review.

"The compound effect of negative gearing has also resulted in asset growth slowing... Overall normalised earnings declined 38 percent to R573-million."

However, the performance of the Momentum Group reflected the remarkable resilience of the business "given the difficult trading environment," FirstRand said.

The Momentum Group increased normalised earnings 20 percent from R1.7-billion to R2-billion and delivered a return on equity of 30 percent.

This was a result of Momentum's strong market position with the high-end customer, it said.

In addition, its conservative capital management strategy immunised Momentum against volatility in equity markets.

"Sales via the FNB channels were strong, highlighting the success of its channel diversification strategy."

Turning to RMB, the group said losses in the Equity Trading division amounted to R1.4-billion, compared to a profit of R1.4-billion in 2007.

This included a loss of R1.9-billion in the international portfolio that was partially offset by a profit of R0.5-billion in the local businesses.

"The losses in the international portfolio occurred at the time of extreme disruption and dislocation in international equity markets," FirstRand said.

"There was a dramatic increase in volatility which necessitated additional capital to underpin the portfolios.

"There was a severe divergence in the correlation between the portfolio of small and mid cap stocks and the large cap indices that were used to hedge the portfolio."

FirstRand said this resulted in losses being incurred on both the portfolio and the hedges.

Looking ahead, the group said that given the current uncertain market conditions it "would not be appropriate to provide short and medium term earnings growth targets until stability returns to the macro environment and financial markets".

FirstRand is made up of a portfolio of financial services franchises including First National Bank, the retail and commercial bank; Rand Merchant Bank, the investment bank; WesBank, the instalment finance business; Momentum, the life insurance business; and Discovery, the health and life business.

Hurricane hit property owners in US assessing damage with more on the way

2008-09-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

Property owners along the Gulf Coast in the US are assessing the damage caused by hurricane Gustav as agencies predict high levels of damage.

Early assessment from insurance companies is that Gustav could be the fourth costliest storm on record and that many property owners have insufficient cover.

Insurance claims of $10 billion are predicted but the cost of repairs will be much higher as property owners either don't have enough insurance or none at all.

Following the costly toll of Hurricane Katrina, three years ago home insurance rates along the Gulf Coast doubled and many homeowners couldn't afford the new premiums. Owners of holiday homes often don't have enough cover.

Although life was spared and Gustav was kind to New Orleans where the new levees and floodgates held, the city has suffered considerable property damage.

Gustav wreaked havoc on homes, causing extensive damage to roofs, doors, and windows, the National Hurricane Center said. Property owners evacuated from New Orleans should be allowed back on Thursday once power has been restored.

While the hurricane delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans, the rest of Louisiana was hard hit. Gustav devastated parts of Cajun country, destroying roofs and entire homes, and flooding parts of the mostly rural, low-lying parishes across the state's southeastern and central coast.

As the tail end of the storm moved inland Mississippi also suffered with Hancock County taking the brunt of the storm's wrath causing flooding and extensive damages to roofs.

President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi and there is more bad news on the way for the US. Hurricane Hanna has developed near the Bahamas and Storm Ike, now between the Caribbean and Africa, could also become a hurricane within two days, according to experts.

SE Missouri Union Members Get Early Start on Labor Day

2008-08-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Southeastern Missouri doesn’t immediately come to mind as a hotbed of pro-worker political activism, but don’t tell that to the nearly 600 union members and their families who turned out for the Cape Girardeau Central Trades and Labor Council’s second annual labor picnic last weekend.

Council President Mark Baker, who also is a business rep for Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 702, says several local, state and national lawmakers and politicians joined the union families.

They all had a chance to hear Stewart Acuff, assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, discuss how critical this election is to winning passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and restoring the nation’s middle class.

Acuff told the crowd that workers are more productive than ever but wages are stagnant and workers are forced to take additional jobs to make ends meet—even as CEO pay is through the roof. There are 20 percent more people living in poverty than when George W. Bush took office, and nearly 50 million people have no health insurance. Acuff said. And Sen. John McCain is more of the same.

All this economic crisis and real family heartbreak directly tracks a 30-year assault on workers, our unions and our freedom to form unions and bargain collectively…But it doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to lose our middle class.

The Employee Free Choice Act will restore to America’s workers the absolute freedom to form unions and bargain collectively to bargain for an exit ramp from poverty, to bargain for a life of dignity for their kids and a place in the American Dream, to bargain for a larger, broader, stronger middle class.

Acuff noted that Barack Obama has vowed to sign the Employee Free Choice Act as soon as it hits his White House desk, but McCain has put the legislation on his “kill list.”

Baker says working families in this corner of Missouri have the same concerns as voters across the country—health care, the economy, jobs and the Employee Free Choice Act. Echoing AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka’s call that this election is about who is on the side of working people, not about race, Baker says he reminds union members that

this isn’t about arguing over race or social viewpoints, because that’s not going to solve the current economic crisis we are facing. Electing Barack Obama and working family candidates will go a long way toward doing that.

Forestry workers adapt to a new reality

2008-08-23T04:02:00.000-07:00

Katie DeRosa, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, August 23, 2008
Bruce Henderson, at 48, is leaving the only career he's ever known and going back to school to start over. Jack Miller is 55 and considering early retirement but doesn't want to see his pension cut. Tim McGonigle, 50, is caught somewhere in between, thinking he is too old to find a new job, but too young to retire.

The three men have one thing in common. They are out-of-work forestry workers struggling with how to move forward in the face of chronic layoffs and instability in Vancouver Island's forestry sector, an industry which experts say is facing the worst market conditions in decades.

A housing market crippled by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, a powerful Canadian dollar and softwood lumber export tariffs have piled up to create a volatile environment for many loggers who say they've been idle for most of the year.

Henderson, who lives in Campbell River, says he is tired of crossing his fingers that he'll be called back to work before his employment insurance or savings runs out.

"You just throw your hands up in the air. I'm going through stress every year for the same thing: 'When am I going to go back to work?'" he said. "I need to find something better, something that's going to give me steady employment and this is not steady employment at all."

After a 24-year career as a heli-logger, Henderson has decided to bow out of the industry altogether.

"It's hard to make a living at it now and it's just getting worse. So I needed to bail because I'm trying to feed my family."

Henderson hasn't worked since November. He previously worked for North Shore Scaling Ltd. but his outfit, which conducted waste surveys on logged sites, has been terminated.

Layoffs have been widespread across the Island in recent months.

In July, Catalyst Paper put 440 people out of work when it permanently shuttered its pulp mill near Campbell River.

In the same month, 530 people were left without jobs when Pope & Talbot shut down its Harmac operation in Nanaimo and in May, 190 got the axe after the Madill Equipment bankruptcy.

Earlier, Western Forest Products laid off a whopping 2,000 loggers and sawmill workers in June when it announced it would cut back more than half its logging operations and close its sawmill at Duke Point.

Industry experts estimate up to 5,000 forestry employees are out of work on Vancouver Island.

"This is as bad as its ever been," said Rick Jeffery, CEO of the Coast Forest Products Association.

The coastal industry's logging production is down 30 per cent and lumber production is down 20 per cent from last year.

Henderson decided to move from the slumping forestry industry into construction, which is begging for workers on the Island. In June he started a forming, framing and finishing carpentry course at Campbell River's Discovery Community College.

By the time he's done the 52-week, $17,000 course, he'll be able to set the foundation of a house, erect the walls and finish it with cabinets and floors -- what Henderson calls "the whole enchilada."

He was eligible for tuition assistance through the provincially run Community and Development trust fund and the North Island Employment Foundation Society.

Using $129 million granted by the federal government over three years, the Community Development ministry set up a three-pronged program in May that offers retirement and tuition assistance and alternative job opportunities.

The tuition assistance program offers up to $5,000 for forestry workers laid off for at least four months who want to upgrade their skills. The ministry has received almost 400 applications, and forestry workers are eligible for tuition funding over the next three years.

Ken Stratford, Victoria's Economic Development Commissioner, said forestry workers have valuable transferable skills that allow an easy transition into other trades such as construction. And the fact that many of the displaced loggers are 40 and older will not affect their ability to land a job, he said. With Victoria's low unemployment rate of 3.2 per cent, many sectors are begging for skilled workers, said Stratford. The average construction worker in B.C. is 51 years old, he added.

But Henderson said the transition between jobs is far from easy, as finds himself struggling financially. His tuition was mostly covered by assistance programs, but he still has to pay for books and supplies -- which totals almost $1,500 -- as he lives almost entirely on employment insurance.

"I have a grade average of 95 and I might have to drop out because I have to support my family and I can't do that on $176 [every two weeks]."

He said workers looking to retrain need to come armed with lots of patience and a "thick wallet" to ride out a long period of the student life, with lots of reading and little income.

"A lot of these guys are going to find this out the hard way and it's going to be brutal for some people."

Kent Larden is the manager of NIEFS, the federally funded organization that helped Henderson find his new future in the construction business. The number of forestry workers coming into his office to search for new careers has nearly doubled this year from last, he said. From March 2008 to the end of June there were 461 clients who reported they were from the forestry industry, a jump from 259 in 2007.

"So definitely we've seen an increase," Larden said.

"We get some clients who have seen the writing on the wall, that they felt this was going to happen and already did a lot of research and know what they want to do. And then you see others who say they don't know what they're going to do next."

PUSHED OUT

Some veteran loggers say that even though they are physically capable of several more years of work, they are being pushed out to make room for the younger generation of forestry workers. And they are finding seniority doesn't give them much clout in skirting layoffs.

Jack Miller, 55, of Port McNeill, has tackled nearly every forestry job during his 37 years in the industry and has clocked less than four months of work this year. He now works as a faller for Western Forest Products in what was a halted operation in Nimpkish Valley.

He was called back to work Aug. 18, but said he is always uncertain as to how long the job will last before he is laid off again.

He would be eligible for almost the maximum amount of the retirement fund offered by the ministry. The transition to retirement program gives up to $60,000 for forest workers 55 years or older who are ready to retire. (The closer the individual is to 55 years old and the longer they have been in the industry, the more money they receive.)

But Miller said $60,000 is a paltry sum to span the duration of one's retirement.

"If the provincial government had maybe met what the federal government had given, then you'd maybe be able to do it."

Bill Routley, president of Steelworkers Local 1-80 in Duncan, echoed the sentiment that the provincial government has "abandoned" its forest workers during the industry's darkest hour.

"When you look at what's happened in the steel industry and the auto industry, the provincial government works with them to do retraining," Routley said. "Our provincial government has said 'boo hoo' to our forest workers."

If Miller does takes the carrot the ministry is dangling, he said he risks losing 18 per cent of his pension for retiring before 60.

"They're trying to get that age group out and make way for the younger ones," he said.

Forests Minister Pat Bell could not be reached for comment.

STATE OF LIMBO

At age 50 and with 30 years in the industry, Tim McGonigle is not one of the younger ones, nor is he eligible for the retirement funding.

"We're too young to retire, too old to find new jobs," is how the self-described "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" from Lake Cowichan identifies the state of limbo he shares with many other laid-off forestry workers.

Jobless since June, McGonigle has done everything from setting chokers to running hydraulic logging equipment for Island Pacific Logging in their Honeymoon Bay division. He has put out some resumés for logging operations he heard were hiring, but he said "if nothing happens there, I will look to re-school."

When the industry was in a slump in the mid-1990s, McGonigle went back to school to take a pharmacy technical assistance course. He said he is considering doing an upgrade to open up pharmacy as a career option. He could also head east to Fort McMurray, Alta., where an abundance of lucrative jobs in the oilsands continually draw tradesmen.

"I'm hoping that the economists are right and the industry is just in a [temporary] downturn and there is a light at the end of the tunnel."

And while the fact that things seem to have hit rock bottom sounds like little comfort to those working in the industry, analysts predict the forestry sector will pick up again by 2010.

"It's always darkest before dawn," Jeffery said.

The industry has been doing a lot of work improving productivity, reducing costs and tapping into new markets such as using wood products for energy production, he said.

"My message to [forestry workers] is that there is a future in the industry, these are the most difficult times we've ever seen and we're doing everything we can to get through it."

kderosa@tc.canwest.com

BREAKING NEWS: SUICIDE MAN'S WIFE TELLS OF ORDEAL

2008-08-18T04:13:00.000-07:00

A Woman whose husband decapitated himself following a blazing row over money has spoken of years of hell married to the "abusive" businessman.

Swansea gym boss Gerald Mellin (pictured) committed suicide by tying a rope around his neck, attaching it to a tree, and accelerating down the road in his Aston Martin.

His cash-strapped and estranged wife Mirrielle spilled the beans to a tabloid newspaper about her marriage.

The 33-year-old branded her late husband a violent thug and said his suicide left her more than £320,000 worth of debt. She said: "On one occasion he bit my nose because I had asked him to leave the house. I was terrified.

"He purposely ran up debt before he killed himself. He bought designer clothes, had Botox and his teeth done, costing thousands of pounds. He was in the casino every night."

Earlier this month, the inquest into Gerald Mellin's death heard the Swansea gym owner had cancelled a life insurance policy which would have paid out to her.

Following his death, scores of tribute messages were left on the Evening Post's website.

Friends of Mr Mellin painted the Body Talk owner in a totally different light.

Steve, of Neath, added: "Hasn't she heard of not speaking ill of the dead?"

Armed with ambition: Hale man back to doing it all after drastic cancer surgery

2008-08-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

Hale resident Duane Caverly has never been one to sit around.

The married father of four worked in the maintenance department for Hale Area Schools for more than three decades before retiring in 2003. He was a volunteer firefighter in Plainfield Township for 38 years and fire chief for 28 years.

A farmer all his life, he serves on the Plainfield Township Zoning Board of Appeals, Plainfield Township Parks and Recreation Board, the Iosco County Parks and Recreation Board and the Iosco County Airport Board. And he's running for re-election to keep his trustee's spot on the Plainfield Township Board, a post he's held for 16 years.

But it was a fall from a ladder back in 2000 that changed his life.

He began experiencing pain and fluid build-up in his left shoulder. Tests eventually led doctors to discover a cancerous bone tumor in the upper portion of his arm. Caverly had surgery to remove the cancer and doctors inserted a metal rod from his shoulder to his elbow. The surgery worked - for a while.

About a year later, however, the tumor came back. Caverly lost complete use of his arm.

"I probably had 80, 90 percent use of my arm back when the tumor came back in the elbow," he said.

His doctor offered to remove the cancer and rebuild his arm, but there was a catch: She could not guarantee she could remove all the cancer.

Caverly opted for a more drastic measure, one that was likely to eradicate all the cancer: He had doctors remove his left arm.

Caverly still gets choked up as he talks about the decision and recovery period.

"There was never at any one time I didn't think I could beat it," he said. "It depends on how bad you really want to live."

After the surgery, Caverly contacted Wright Brace & Limb, a West Branch company that made a special prosthesis for him.

Joe Wright, who owns the business with his wife, Crystal, said making an arm for Caverly was challenging because, while many amputees have their shoulder left intact, Caverly did not. Caverly's prosthesis includes a fake shoulder with electrodes which are activated by muscles in his back and chest.

Each electrode and a switch Caverly operates with his chin allows him to control the wrist, shoulder, elbow and hand mechanisms, Wright said.

"In three days he was using it," Wright said remembering back to when Caverly first got his new arm in the spring of 2006.

Caverly's arm came with a price tag of about $75,000, paid for by insurance. The new limb gives him the freedom to pick up 20 pounds with his "hand" and apply a pinch force of 25 pounds between his two clamp-like "fingers."

The arm gets its power from batteries inside the elbow.

It's been the subject of amazement among children, including Caverly's own grandchildren.

"They're fascinated by it," said Caverly's wife of 46 years, Linda.

Caverly, 66, says he's never let his artificial arm slow him down. He estimates he still does "probably 90 percent of what I did (before the amputation)."

"I snow plowed this winter with the arm and everything. And I ride horses with my granddaughter."

He tends to 25 feed cattle and 200 acres of hay.

"I can drive the tractor. I can drive the baler. I can do it all," he said. "I basically do pretty much what I want to do."

He manages to fit in some fun, too.

"I go four-wheeling, ride a snowmobile," he said. "Maybe not as crazy as I did but I still do it."

A stroke in December delivered Caverly a bump in the road to progress but he's back at physical therapy, working to reclaim the control he once had. Caverly is working with Crystal Wright, an occupational therapist with Progress Physical Therapy, to perfect the control he has over his arm.

Sarah Hollinshead, Benjamin Sigman

2008-08-10T04:33:00.001-07:00

Sarah Pettersson Hollinshead, a daughter of Mary B. Hollinshead and Dr. William H. Hollinshead III of Rehoboth, Mass., was married there on Saturday to Benjamin Charles Sigman, the son of Tracy Sigman and Dr. Robert Sigman of Canton, Conn. Gary A. Calvino, a Universal Life minister, officiated at the home of the bride’s parents.

Mrs. Sigman, 31, received a law degree in May from Columbia. She will become a legal fellow in September at the Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental advocacy organization in New York. In January, she will begin clerking for Judge Sidney H. Stein of Federal District Court in New York. She graduated from Yale and has a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Her father works for the Rhode Island Department of Health in Providence as the medical director of the division of community, family health and equity. Her mother is an associate professor of art history at the University of Rhode Island in South Kingston.

Mr. Sigman, 30, is a senior associate in the New York office of Economics Research Associates, a Los Angeles consulting company. He graduated magna cum laude from Colby College and received a master’s degree in agricultural and resource economics from U.C., Davis.

His mother is the director of the Hartford chapter of the Alliance Française, which promotes the language and culture of France. His father, who retired as a vice president and a medical director for national accounts at Aetna insurance in Hartford, now works as a consultant to providers of managed-care health plans and medical practices.

Indian call-centre workers demand money

2008-07-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

“There's a traditional perception that debt collectors are tough, that they rough people up,” Manu Sharma, a smart Indian executive, said from his sleek office in Delhi's outskirts. “That's not how we work”.

Welcome to the touchy-feely world of outsourced debt collection, an industry in the throes of rapid expansion as India's call centres - famous for flogging computers, life insurance and mobile phones - now look to cash in on the global credit crunch.

Forget the old image of the debt collector as a menacing ogre out for his pound of flesh. Mr Sharma, who heads a 200-strong team that makes thousands of call to American homes every evening, is one of a new breed who are chasing - ever so sensitively - the growing horde of hard-up Westerners.

“Of course it gets emotional,” Mr Sharma says. “Over the years we've learnt that it's all about sharing life-changing experiences.” Western debt agencies have been drawn to young Indians for their mild manners, innate courtesy and deference - characteristics that have a disarming effect on even the angriest debtor, industry insiders say.

“Anybody calling up to chase a six-year-old bill is going to have a difficult conversation,” said Brandon Black, the chief executive of Encore Capital Group, an company based in San Diego that employs hundreds of Indian collectors and plans to increase staff by 50 per cent this year.

“But Indians don't engage in confrontation. They are very polite, very respectful, they don't raise their voice. This works.”

British banks such as HSBC, the country's largest, already use Indian call centres to remind credit card holders when they miss a payment. This could be just the beginning: Britain's growing band of debtors are likely to receive more long-distance calls as the levels of bad loans soar. Mark Hughes, of the investment bank Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey, said: “People dislike rude collectors and I don't think Indians fall into that category. Outsourcing to India will increase.”

With that charm comes a greater level of sophistication as the collectors devise ploys to make money on bad debts. Each morning Mr Sharma leads his team through a pep talk. Recent topics have included the likely impact on business of a recent hurricane in the US and a tax rebate scheme that put billions of dollars in the pockets of 130 million American families (potentially very good, if handled correctly).

New recruits are taught the basics in bite-sized pieces. “Establish rapport; create a solution; close the deal,” runs Mr Sharma's mantra. There are times that the workers, who make about £10 a day, can find the conversations a little surreal, says Mr Black. “We have workers calling up after sums that amount to several years' pay. It's hard for them to comprehend asking for $10,000.”

I feel your pain . . .

— The first rule for Indian debt collection workers is “establish identity, build rapport and express empathy”

— Suggested lines: “This isn’t just about getting the money back it’s about understanding your situation” or “I can’t imagine what you’re felling . . . but I do have experience of helping people in your situation”

— Create solutions while appealing to emotions. “Did you find a new job yet?” . . . “How much could you afford to pay back?” . . . “This isn’t about getting your debt back on track; it’s about getting your life back on track”

— Seal the deal — apply moral principles if appropriate. “This is the right thing to do” . . . “Can I give you an address to send a cheque” or “Can I take the details of a credit card with a spare limit on it?”

Permits threaten wedding industry

2008-07-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

The state of Hawaii is drawing the line on commercial beach weddings, which will require a permit fee of 10 cents per square foot.

The law has been on the books since 2002, but the state Department of Land and Natural Resources says it will now enforce it come Aug. 1.

"It's an existing system that's been in place, and we're asking you to comply with it," DLNR land division administrator Morris Atta told industry members at a state-sponsored Oahu meeting earlier this month. "We're also seeking your input on how we can improve it."

Wedding business owners, meanwhile, are worried that the state won't process their permits in time, saying that even one week is too slow for brides who need to know immediately whether a date is available.

Small wedding business owners, meanwhile, say they will be impacted by additional permit fees the most.

The timing couldn't have been worse for the wedding industry, which brings a significant percentage of visitors to the state, and is already taking a hit from a flailing economy.

Wedding business owners also want the state to clarify exactly where state jurisdiction of beaches begins and ends.

My Administration ’ll Be All-Inclusive - Akiotu

2008-07-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

Gbenga Adefaye, Editor, Vanguard Newspapers and Tony Akiotu, Executive Director, DAAR Communications, who has served as the deputy president, Nigeria Guild of Editors, for two terms, both aspiring for the presidency of the Guild, in these seperate interviews with Sulaimon Olanrewaju, share their plans on how to improve the profile of the body and the fortune of its members if they win the election slated for July 28. Excerpts:

Why do you intend to become the president of Nigeria Guild of Editors?
I see it as a call to service. Having served the guild creditably and efficiently as Deputy President for two terms and having also served as chairman of the organizing committee of All Nigerian Editors Conference for four consecutive years, the entire editors as at the last conference held in Bauchi in December 2007, pleaded with me to continue the good work I had done in the two capacities that I had served by mounting the saddle as the president of the NGE.

If you emerge as the president what do you plan to accomplish?
My plans are legendary. The plans are going to be driven by the tag I have given to my campaign, which is ‘Change 08’. Change is going to come in various ways. It is going to come by way of reforms; it is going to come by way of transformation of the Guild. The Guild has been in existence for over 40 years. There are quite a number of things that we have done and there are many things that we can still do. I have outlined some of the things we can do in my manifesto and have dedicated myself and my executive to executing these plans. One of them is the issue of mobilization. At the moment, we have a little over 200 people as members of the Guild. But having toured all the six geo-political zones in the country, I am convinced that there is no reason why the guild should not have a membership strength that is close to at least 500. The enthusiasm, the willingness to belong has never been lacking. What has been lacking is the administrative savvy and the political will to bring all these people under one umbrella.

During my tour, myself and my campaign team, we discovered that though the Guild is almost as old as Nigeria, very little information and awareness exist about it. I have always said to people that as an umbrella body that houses editors of television, radio, newspapers, wire services and online services, we need to work harder to get all of them belong. I am happy that I have succeeded in creating this awareness during my campaign tours. This awareness has led to scores of people wanting to belong. I am glad that the executive set a deadline of July 7 for all those who intend to belong to the Guild to complete all the formalities. I think this is a sign of good things to come in the guild. Now, having created that awareness and the much desired mobilization, I think there will be a need for us to determine who are those that should be regarded as members of the Guild and what should be their benefits. In the light of this, my executive and I will take a look at the constitution. We have a constitution that I think is overdue for review to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the NGE.

The document we have today, which is just a 5 page thing, is insufficient to meet the needs of a body like the Guild which has been in existence for over 43 years. Two attempts have been made to review the constitution. We had a committee that was led by the publisher of Media Review, Mr. Lanre Idowu, and another one by former Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello. My executive will take a look at these documents and see how we can harmonise them and get something that will be more acceptable to the Guild. Having gone through this process, we will then begin to implement the laudable programmes that we have for the Guild. One of them is the need for us to have a befitting national secretariat. I am really embarrassed, having put over three decades into this profession and having served over 15 years as a gate keeper in both radio and television, that we don’t have a place to behold, a place that I can invite my friends in other professions to come and say, “Come and join me in a workshop or conference or a social gathering.”

So, we have taken a look at having a secretariat that will serve as a resource centre in Abuja. Also of top concern to me is the matter of capacity building. Nigerian editors can be better exposed to training locally and internationally. We will partner with a number of non-governmental organizations and the civil society to organize workshops that will equip us with modern trend in our business. Internationally, there are organizations like the World Editors’ Forum, African Editors’ Forum and West African Editors’ Forum. These are bodies that have existed for years. The World Editors’ Forum has existed for 20 years; it was not until Cape Town last year that Nigerian editors started to avail themselves of opportunities to belong to these bodies. These are bodies that offer innumerable opportunities to our members by way of training, exposure and networking. But we do not belong to them. And because we do not belong to them, we have not been able to benefit from some of the far- reaching benefits that people get by belonging to these bodies. Also, on top of my priority will be the need for the Guild not to be aloof in matters of national issues and politics.

Under my watch, I will make the Guild more relevant in not only articulating positions on issues that affect the welfare of the practitioners but also to be a prominent voice in issues or matters that affect the Nigerian state. We will set agenda on national issues. We will also work with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to implement these, especially for young editors and journalists. Ethics has been an issue that has actually bothered me as a person. In over 30 years that I have been in active journalism, I have really been worried that politicians often try to hold the press liable for their failings. And they do this because they have an alibi.

There are some people, who by their training and calling are not journalists but have strayed into the profession. We have had problems with people like this because it is very easy for you, when you have had problems in other professions, to say because you have acquired communication skills, and able to write, to say you are a journalist. But people like that have given us a bad name. We are going to define not only who deserves to be called an editor but also who deserves to be a journalist. We will make sure that this process of accreditation becomes a continuous thing. People should carry the identity card of NUJ and the Guild.

But the issue of ethics which I consider as the heart of our profession, which keeps our practice going will be the very cardinal point of my executive. We are going to institute an award for ethical practice, and we are looking at constituting a panel to determine, over a period of time, organizations that have observed the ethic and ethos of our profession and our practice. At the yearly awards that we will have for past presidents and veterans and fellows of the Guild, the organizations will be honoured. We will do this to stimulate interest and to engender an atmosphere of healthy rivalry among editors as gatekeepers. We shall also institute an annual award for students and scholars of mass communication and journalism in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. These awards are to challenge the students.

Planning Ahead: Looking after Loved Ones should the Worst Happen

2008-07-12T01:34:00.000-07:00

It’s probably fair to say that nobody really knows what tomorrow may bring, and many people probably prefer not to think too much about the future, choosing to live as much for today as possible.

Whilst this attitude may be commendable in many respects, it could be argued that to live purely for today is essentially throwing caution to the wind, as any number of life’s little mishaps could come along and change everything.

Indeed, whilst nobody actually likes to consider worst-case-scenarios, it is always best to have plans in place should the unthinkable happen. And this is perhaps most important in a family situation where a spouse and children are relying on one person’s income.

Moreover, many people will go to extraordinary lengths to take care of their loved ones, often working long hours to ensure the best for them. And this is precisely why life insurance is a number one priority for those who have a family to take care of, as it will help immeasurably should the absolute worst-case scenario happen.
There are, of course, different types of life insurance policies, to suit individual requirements. In the broadest possible terms, life insurance can be split into two different kinds. ‘Term life insurance’ plans pay a lump sum if someone dies within a specified period of time, and these are designed more for the main breadwinner in a family, to ensure minimum hardship for those who rely on a regular income. Options can be added to such policies for an additional fee, such as critical illness cover should the policyholder suffer from a serious ailment that renders them unable to work.

Then there is what’s known as ‘permanent life insurance’ which is designed to last an entire lifetime and assures a cash payout at the end of the policy. The nature of such policies is that they obviously must always pay out, therefore the premiums are always much higher than a term life insurance policy, so it’s certainly worth thinking about what will provide the best cover given the individual circumstances.

And as with anything in life, it’s always worth shopping around to find the best life insurance deal before committing to anything. Of course, even if a life insurance policy has been in place for a number of years, at the very least it is still worth shopping around to compare life insurance policies to see how much could be saved, as many companies have reduced their premiums in recent years, due in part to advances in medicine and longer life expectancies.

Families will find it hard enough to cope with the grief of losing a parent or spouse, without the burden of a financial crisis thrown in as well. Life insurance offers that little extra peace of mind, and should the worst happen, the family will get through it with minimal disruption to the other aspects of their lives.

Daniel Collins writes on a number of topics on behalf of a digital marketing agency and a variety of clients. As such, this article is to be considered a professional piece with business interests in mind.

Sparring over healthcare

2008-07-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

Given that pictures are so important for TV it is perhaps funny that I sometimes form such strong mental images of the people I am going to interview. On my way to Ghent, to film ahead of today's European Commission proposals on healthcare, I imagined the Italian gentleman I was going to meet ahead of his hip operation. In my mind's eye he was a rather wizened, bent chap in his 80s, wearing a dark green checked suit and for some reason an alpine hat.

Paolo Bolaffio turned out to be rather different - a muscled, vigorous man in his 50s in shorts and a sports vest, who tells me he is an international sportsman, a three-time world karate champion, who it turns out has established his own school of the martial arts. But he's done his hips in, and an earlier operation hasn't helped.

So he's come to a clinic along Ghent's leafy millionaire's row to be put right. Now, in Italy, and I presume in most EU countries, you can get hip operations as part of the national health service or its insurance-based equivalent. Ever since 1998 the European Court of Justice has been making rulings, on the grounds of free movement, that patients have the right to get their money back for healthcare received abroad within the EU that they could, in theory, have got at home.

But Paolo tells me the Italian government couldn't tell him if he would get at least some of his money back. "I just went there and asked and they said they would have to think about it. They're still thinking. They say they have the summer time, vacations, and lots of things to do. That's the problem." And they didn't want him to have the op before they had made their decision.

"They said: 'You can't have the operation until we give you permission. If you do it first we don't feel like giving you the money'. So I told them the doctor said I needed it urgently. But they said: 'We don't care. You can only go once you have the permission, because of bureaucracy, and we'll tell you in August or September'." So he probably won't get any money, but he will have the operation.

It's exactly to make the rules clearer after all the court cases that the European Commission has been working on new laws. In fact they have been working on them for five years now. Their plans were meant to be unveiled just before Christmas, when I wrote a couple of articles about the ideas. But the directive was pulled at the last minute, apparently because of objections by the left and some nation states.

We will know the exact details later today, but it will still say that member states have to reimburse the cost of any healthcare that would be provided in their own country, but in the case of hospital care they can insist that the patient gets approval from the relevant authority if "member states can provide evidence that the outflow of patients resulting from the implementation of this directive has such an impact that it serious undermines the planning and rationalisation carried out in the hospital sector".

Whatever this means I am sure many governments will try to prove that their planning would be seriously undermined, so they keep control of the situation.
A lobby group for patients' consumer choice, Health Consumer Powerhouse, very much welcomes the plans. But one of its directors, Kajsa Wilhelmsson, says they have been watered down. For instance, a reference to getting your money back in three weeks has totally disappeared.

Get a Travel Insurance Policy To Protect Yourself From Trip Risks

2008-06-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking about traveling whether it is to another state or to another country, there are some precautions that you need to take; the most important of which is to purchase travel insurance in order to be protected in case any unexpected event or accident threatens to ruin your trip. Travel insurance will protect you from these unforeseen events and reimburse any costs that you may incur in due to them.

There are many things that can happen during a trip that can imply additional, non foreseen costs like accidents, emergency medical or dental bills, theft, luggage loss, cancellation, delays, etc. All these events result in additional an non expected fees and expenses that can add up to the overall trip costs if you do not have proper insurance and can even ruin your vacations if you are not covered.

There are many different travel insurance products but not all of them adapt to any circumstances. Thus, it is a good idea to contact good insurance brokers and tell them about your needs. They will be able to customize a product suitable for your trips’ particularities and will also find you an insurance company that is both reputable and competitive so you can get the best deal available.

If you do not want to resort to the services of a broker, then you can do some research yourself by looking for travel insurance quotes on the internet with your favorite search engine. You need to compare the results and contact the insurance companies informally. Remember not to sign anything till you have compared at least three different options because there are many unscrupulous agents out there searching for their next rip off victim.

Focus On the Coverage Rather than On The Price

When it comes to insurance, you should never purchase it focusing your decision on the price of the policy. Instead, you should concentrate on the coverage that the policy provides and only after selecting the proper coverage for your needs, you should then shop around requesting insurance quotes from different companies but specifying which kind of coverage you want.

After all, an insurance policy is useless if it does not cover what you want and purchasing travel insurance only implies that you will be protected against certain risks included in the policy. If just for the sake of bargaining you end up closing on a deal with a limited coverage that does not include a risk that you will be running you may end up with a useless policy or at least, you will be under-covered.

There are predefined packages that include travel and life insurance for those who travel frequently. These products can be advantageous as all the costs that are not related to the risk (i.e. administrative fees) are shared and not charged twice. However, if you have specific needs, if you run additional risks (visiting war-zone countries, epidemic zones, etc.) it is wiser to have your insurance broker customize a policy specifically for you.

About the author
Lara Sawyer is a professional loan advisor used to solving bad credit problems and helping people secure home loans, car loans, personal loans, unsecured credit cards, home equity loans, refinance mortgage loans and plenty of other financial products. Whether you want to learn more about Bad Credit Personal Loans and Unsecured Loans or find information about other loan types, just visit: http://www.fastguaranteedloans.com/

Husband sentenced over Nisha murder

2008-06-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

A cheating husband who had his special constable wife killed so he could start a new life with his mistress is being sentenced at the Old Bailey.

Nisha Patel-Nasri, 29, bled to death after being stabbed with a 13-inch kitchen knife at her home in Wembley, north London.

Husband Fadi Nasri wanted her dead to pay off spiralling debts of more than £100,000 with the couple's £350,000 life insurance policy.

The Lebanese-born limousine hire boss was secretly leading a double life and "spending money like water" on his Lithuanian mistress Laura Mockiene.

In May 2006, the day after he and his wife's third wedding anniversary, he left her at home alone to meet her violent end while he went out to play snooker.

She was stabbed by violent, powerfully-built nightclub bouncer Jason Jones, who was given the job by Nasri's friend, drug dealer Rodger Leslie.

Nasri, 34, of Alderman Court, Barnet, north London, Leslie, 38, of Chesterfield Flats, Bells Hill, Barnet, and Jones, 36, of Hathaway Crescent, Manor Park, east London, were found guilty of murder by an Old Bailey jury last month.

All three are being sentenced.

The court heard that Nasri had been meeting Miss Mockiene for weekly sex sessions in hotels and even took her on a secret holiday to the Egyptian pyramids in the months leading up to the killing.

But his business was in trouble and he could not afford the lifestyle, so he killed his wife to pay for it in what police called "the final betrayal".

Treasurer kept city finances shipshape

2008-06-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

KEVIN SWAYZE
RECORD STAFF

CAMBRIDGE

Frank Gowman's first stint as a city treasurer saw him working hard to justify a local government amalgamation, cracking numbers to make things look fiscally benign in a controversial merger between Sarnia city and Sarnia township.

"I was supposed to prove amalgamation was good," said Gowman, 56, who retires Friday after 18 years minding Cambridge's books. "I proved the taxes were going to go up (in the township) . . . The township opponents used my study as their main weapon against it." He left Sarnia as Queen's Park ordered the merger in 1991, when offered the job as deputy treasurer in Cambridge, close to friends and family.

Ever since, he's been on the other side of the amalgamation debate, consistently doubting promises that mergers mean tax savings for Cambridge residents.

He's consistently pushed for intermunicipal co-operation to save on taxes and improve services. Gowman cites the Waterloo Region self-insurance pool he helped set up as an example of how working together saved millions over the last decade. Over the same time, other Ontario towns and cities saw private insurance premiums soar due to natural disasters around the world, he said.

"I knew within the first week it was a good move," Gowman said of moving to Cambridge. He praises the positive, "team management culture" he sees getting things done inside Cambridge City Hall.

His career plan was always to take over from treasurer John McIntyre at his retirement. Instead the job was thrust in his lap in 1997, after a heart attack killed the city's first treasurer. Deputy treasurer Steve Fairweather has already been chosen by city council to replace Gowman.

Gowman was born in Brantford and lived near St. George for a about a year, before the family moved to Goderich, then to Cambridge for Grades 1 to 3 at Highland Public School.

After that, another move took him to Wallaceburg, where he attended high school.

He was studying math at University of Waterloo when he met Rosemary, whom he would later marry. The math teacher at Galt Collegiate Institute plans to retire on the same day as her husband.

Originally, Gowman thought he'd have a career in computer science, but in his third year he turned to accounting. All three of the couple's sons -- Richard, David and Paul -- took up the career torch in his stead.

"They didn't have a choice with me and a mom who was a math teacher," he laughed.

In 1976, Gowman started his first job as a junior chartered accountant at a private firm in Sarnia. In 1984, he took a job at Sarnia city hall as director of treasury services. Then he jumped to Cambridge.

"I've always appreciated the frankness and direction you have given to council over the years," Mayor Doug Craig said to Gowman last Monday, at the treasurer's last council meeting.

He praised Gowman and his department for helping keep council on track to retire the city's debt and financing the city's new $30-million city office building without any new debt.

While the four-storey office building earned Gowman warm words, it wasn't his favourite city project. His fear of heights prevented him from visiting his fourth-floor office while it was under construction. Now, four months after the building opened, he remains leery of some of the panoramic views from the windows.

Quick to laugh and full of self-effacing jokes, Gowman has the ability to make an eye-glazing city budget spring to life by comparing it to a family's household finances. What's good for one is good for the other, he said.

There's nothing wrong with debt, he said, so long as it's used judiciously as the tool it is. It's financially unhealthy to use it as a crutch to carry you from paycheque to paycheque -- or to feed interest payments that inflate the cost of civic projects.

In retirement, Gowman plans to continue his passion for curling, a sport he started at age 15 in high school. A skip at the Galt Curling Club, his teams have won provincial seniors championships.

Now, instead of walking to work, Gowman has time to go mountain biking on the trails near his Preston home, or play tennis at Victoria Park. He and Rosemary have no plans to sit on the front step and count the cars passing by.

"It's the choice, the ability to do what you want." Once, of course, he completes a year-long kitchen renovation Rosemary has ready for him to start next week.

kswayze@therecord.com

Ex-major leaguer is living history

2008-06-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

100-year-old Bill Werber still recalls days with the Babe
Scott Fowler, The Charlotte Observer
Comment on this story

Happy birthday, Bill Werber. The oldest living major league baseball player turns 100 today in a south Charlotte retirement community. In front of about 85 friends and family, with a plate of fried chicken and barbecue, he will celebrate hitting the century mark.
Check that.

"I'm not celebrating it," Werber said. "I'm tolerating it."

Werber is by turns merry and cantankerous. He boasts a full head of white hair, zips around in a motorized wheelchair and lives alone in an apartment at The Carriage Club retirement complex. He remembers stories about playing alongside Babe Ruth 75 years ago more easily than he remembers his daughter's address. A conversation with Werber opens a fascinating window into a world most of us never experienced -- a world where roads were unpaved, haircuts were 35 cents and baseball on the radio was king.

I ate lunch with Werber the other day, carefully timing the visit to occur before his afternoon nap. His daughter Pat Bryant instructed me to sit on his left side and speak slowly and distinctly toward his left ear. But any fears I had of a one-sided interview were quickly allayed.

"I'm still sharp," Werber told me early in the interview, grinning wickedly. And he is. Words like "bellicose" and "interlocutor" rolled off his tongue. He told me about his first-ever at bat in the major leagues, in 1930 for the New York Yankees, offhandedly remembering the name of the pitcher, catcher and plate umpire.

Werber took two strikes and then four straight balls, never lifting the bat off his shoulder.

"I was too scared to move," he said. "Paralyzed."

Ruth came up a couple of batters later and slammed a deep ball to right.

"I knew it was going into the right-field bleachers," Werber said. "But I said to myself, 'I'll show these Yankees how fast I can run.' So I put on a burst of speed and ran around the bases. The third-base coach was hollering for me to slow down, but I ran on in at full speed. I crossed home plate before Babe got to first base -- he took those little mincing steps, you know. When Babe came in to the dugout, he sat on the bench beside me. He patted me on the head and said, 'Son, you don't have to run like that when the Babe hits one.' "

Werber was a superb athlete, a third baseman who played in the majors for 11 years at the height of the Depression, ending his career in 1942. He was a good player, not a great one, who led the league in stolen bases three times. He won a World Series in 1940 with the Cincinnati Reds, when he batted .370 in the series and had 10 hits.

As a 5-foot-10 guard, Werber also was the first All-American basketball player Duke ever had, in 1930. But the NBA didn't exist then, and so if you were going to make a living in sports, baseball was your shot.

Werber grew up in what is now College Park, Md., home of the University of Maryland. He spent most of his life following baseball back in Maryland, working at the insurance agency his father founded. Although he never made more than $13,500 in any one baseball season, he cleared more than $100,000 in his first year selling insurance. His business sense allowed him to retire very comfortably, although it was not impeccable. He once told the patriarch of the Marriott family that he should never consider expanding into the hotel business.

When he retired, Werber moved from Maryland to Naples, Fla. He spent 28 years there until poor health forced him to move to Charlotte, near daughter Pat. He has spent the past 10 years living in a retirement home here. His left leg was amputated below the knee when he was in his early 90s, a complication of his diabetes. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski phoned Werber during his recovery, a call he still treasures.

Werber's secret to longevity?

"I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I married a lovely girl who never got mad," Werber said.

Kathryn "Tat" Werber died in 2000, after she and Bill were married 70 years. They produced three children. Bill Jr., at age 77, still runs the family insurance business in Maryland. Pat, 73, lives in Charlotte. Susie Hill, the youngest daughter, is 60.

The whole family has major Duke connections, and all remain huge Duke fans, none more so than Bill Werber, who skips his normal 9 p.m. bedtime whenever the Blue Devils have a late basketball tipoff.

He doesn't watch baseball anymore, though. The pro game moves too slowly now, he believes, and he doesn't like the excess hair sported by players like Johnny Damon.

Much like my own grandparents, Werber is not politically correct all the time. He has strong opinions about the national anthem. He believes it should only be sung by men with powerful voices -- "no trilling," Werber declared -- and only to the roll of drums. He has written baseball commissioner Bud Selig about that and other matters, he said.

"He always responds," Werber said of Selig, "but he never says anything."

Werber, on the other hand, has lots to say. He's opinionated. He's mesmerizing. And he's 100 years old today, surrounded by folks who love him and still sleeping every night all the way through.

His is a life well-lived, one brushed by men like Ruth but ultimately painted by those much closer to him.

In his apartment, Werber displays zero pieces of baseball memorabilia, but the walls are covered with pictures of his family.

sfowler@charlotteobserver.com or (704) 358-5140

Early retirement not recommended

2008-06-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

FINANCIAL MAKEOVER. Ending careers at age 55 would entail a major reduction in couple's lifestyle, experts say
PAUL DELEAN, The Gazette

A cancer scare got Ed and Chloe Kilgour thinking seriously about something they had kicked around casually over the years: early retirement.

"So far so good, there's no sign of a recurrence, but you're not considered cancer-free for five years," said Chloe, who underwent the cancer surgery last year, and like her husband of 20 years, is 48.

Since the operation, she's had 55 in her sights as a potential retirement date.
That would mean giving up some of her pension entitlement as a teacher, however, and she's not sure the numbers support doing that.

Because she started in the profession a little later than some of her colleagues, she would be entitled to 42.6 per cent of her five best years' salary at age 55, vs. 63 per cent at age 60 and 70 per cent at 63. ("But I don't want to work that long").

In 2007, she earned $68,973.

Ed, who works in management for a multinational company, made $87,000. His company provides generous benefits that include employer-only contributions to a defined-contribution pension plan and health and dental coverage for both partners that continues after retirement.

Through work, he pays $50 bi-weekly for supplemental coverage that includes long-term disability, three times his salary in life insurance and an extra $100,000 in coverage on his spouse, and up to 90 per cent coverage for dental and prescription costs. She pays for an extra $70,000 term life-insurance policy through her alumni association and long-term disability coverage through work.

The Kilgours (not their real name) have no children. They also have no wills.

"We're afraid of wills. We don't want to talk about death. Because we didn't have any children, it was never a priority," Chloe said. "Wouldn't it just automatically go to the other person anyway in case of death?"

Their bungalow, purchased on the West Island almost 20 years ago for $97,000, now is worth about $240,000, based on what others in the neighbourhood have sold for, Ed said. They would like to keep it as their retirement home.

The house is mortgage-free, but they still owe $46,000 on a lakefront cottage in the Eastern Townships they purchased four years ago. They figure it's worth $100,000 now, after several upgrades.

They own two vehicles, one paid for, the other a recent $22,000 purchase with four years of interest-free payments to go.

For an emergency fund, the Kilgours have about $5,000 cash in various bank accounts. They pay their Visa bill completely every month, but are carrying about $5,500 apiece on their individual lines of credit.

Both also have significant retirement savings, and have maximized RRSP contribution room.

Chloe's two RRSPs are worth about $90,000. She also has $11,000 in Canada Savings Bonds purchased by payroll deduction.

Ed has a locked-in retirement account (LIRA) from a previous job now worth about $130,500. His RRSP totals $164,000 and his pension plan is at $78,000.

In an unregistered account, he has two stocks and $50,000 in cash after selling shares of the company that employs him earlier this year. He figures about $20,000 of that is capital gain.

Homeowner's insurance for less

2008-06-09T05:16:00.001-07:00

By Kimberly Blanton

After years of rising rates, consumers are seeing the tide turn

After years of unrelenting increases in homeowner's insurance costs, consumers are ready for relief.

more stories like thisIt used to be that auto insurance was far more costly than homeowner's coverage in Massachusetts. But years of regulation have kept auto insurance prices in check. Meantime, homeowner policies have gone through the roof: Premiums rose 9.2 percent last year, on average, and are up 80 percent since 2000, according to the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and the Center for Insurance Research in Cambridge.

"Now it's your homeowner's that is $1,500 and auto is $500. It's changed the dynamic," said Glenn Montgomery, owner of Brownstone Insurance Agency in Boston.

Oddly, it is deregulation of the auto insurance market in Massachusetts that is bringing long-needed relief to homeowners. Insurers now competing for auto coverage are trying to attract new customers by offering breaks on homeowner's insurance for customers who agree to bundle the auto and homeowner's policies under one company.

For homeowners willing to do so, some companies are offering substantial discounts of up to 20 percent off the home policy. However, there may be trade-offs in terms of coverage as a result of being bound to a single insurer.

That means consumers need to be vigilant on a number of fronts. Agents advised customers to always shop around and get multiple quotes, three or even four if possible. And get them from more than one agent.

Massachusetts' property-casualty insurance system is unusual for its heavy reliance on agents, who each represent a fixed number of insurers. Consumers may often maintain a relationship with an agent for decades, but those who shop with a single agent effectively limit the number of insurers bidding for their business.

There are different types of homeowner's policies, from bare-bones coverage that pays for only certain listed damages, to mid-level policies that suit most homeowners. There are higher level policies that provide more extensive coverage and cost more.

Carefully compare the quotes you receive. Richard Powers of C.A. Powers & Sons Insurance in Boston said policyholders should ask agents for the backup documents that spell out the coverage. "Put them side by side to compare. You shouldn't depend on a phoned number of $500," he said.

Compare the types of damages to your home that each policy would cover, and what they exclude from coverage, especially if you live in a coastal area and may be subject to storm damages. See how much the company will provide to cover your living expenses while the house is being repaired. Make sure the personal liability and medical coverages are comparable from policy to policy.

If you're shopping for a home and curious what it would cost to insure, you can find out if the property has had any history of problems or claims that may result in higher premi ums. Choice Point maintains a database of claims called Clue, or Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, and buyers worried about a property might want to request the seller provide such a report before closing.Continued...

Loose change

2008-06-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

THE BUSINESS OF POETRY

Launched in 2007, The Australian Poetry Centre is housed in the suitably romantic surrounds of Glenfern, a National Trust property in Inkerman Street, East St Kilda. While there's a revival of interest in the spoken word, the centre's director, Teresa Bell, says, "A real shift needs to be seen in the mainstream support of publishing and selling poetry, which, of course, comes down to getting people to buy it." Poetry salons are held at Glenfern on the fourth Sunday of each month.

A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE

Centrelink advises that the collapse of finance companies such as Fincorp, ACR and Bridgecorp may result in higher rates of payments for victims on the age pension. Deemed income on investments is assessed by Centrelink, so those affected by failed investments should speak to a financial information service officer on 132 300. In some cases, revised assessments will be backdated to when the company first got into difficulty.

THE FRUIT-AND-VEG FACTOR

The cost of retiring has increased again. The latest figures from Westpac-ASFA show that the annual cost of a "modest" standard of living for a couple in retirement is now $26,339 a year. The "comfortable" standard is $48,648. Higher food prices are a major factor, with fruit (up 9.6 per cent) and vegetables (up 7.9 per cent) leading the charge.

STAKE YOUR CLAIM

As at November 30, last year, ASIC has identified $458 million waiting to be claimed from old bank accounts and life insurance policies. Amounts range from $1 to $3 million (from a company takeover). To start searching, see fido.gov.au.

Term Life Insurance, Providing Your Family With Financial Security

2008-06-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

When it comes to unexpected death, which is naturally everyone's favorite subject, term life insurance is the most economic approach to providing your family with financial security. Thanks to low monthly premiums, the amount of benefits offered through term life insurance is significantly higher than whole life insurance. But did you know that not all term life insurance policies are the same or that there are term options that you can include in the your coverage?

The insurance market is filled with various term life insurance companies, and each boasts it's own set of rules, regulations, and guidelines. And rates, levels and options vary from company to company as well.

What may seem like a “real bargain” may in up costing you more in the long run if you do not read the policy terms. Check out a few of the things that you will want to keep in mind when determining which term life insurance plan is right for you.

Annual Renewable Term – Annual renewable term life insurance is renewed every year. The premium is based upon one year of coverage, but the policy is guaranteed to be renewed for a certain number of years. Premiums increase with age. So, if you make it to the ripe old age of one hundred, expect your term life insurance premiums to skyrocket under this insurance plan.

Level Term – Level term life insurance features premiums that are the same amount throughout the length of the policy period. The longer the time frame of the coverage, the greater the premiums.

Conversion Privileges –Various life insurance companies offer an option on their term life insurance that allows the policy holder to convert their coverage into a permanent life insurance policy-these clauses are called conversion privileges Permanent life insurance builds equity for the insured in comparision with term life insurance which simply offers insurance without the option of cash annuity benefits.

Life Insurance Companies – Thoroughly investigate the life insurance company offering you coverage. This is particularly true if you are receiving online life insurance quotes from a third-party website. Visit each company’s website and take a look-see. Is the insurance company listed in your local Yellow Pages? Are there agents representing the insurance agency located in your area? And do they appear to be a viable entity that will be around for a long while?

Compare term life insurance policies and companies before you purchase something. Be as picky about the policy parameters and the insurer as life insurance companies are about insuring you. When it comes to life insurance companies, famous names are all apart of the game, but do not let their name recognition lull you into a sense of security. Treat finding the optimum term life insurance plan as you'd treat finding a really killer pair of shoes-shop.

By: David G. Petten

German sponsors inch across Olympics highwire

2008-05-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

The Olympic Games are never just about sport.

So German firms Adidas and Volkswagen, which have both signed up for the right to use the Olympic logo in China, are now busy with a balancing act that sponsors must carry off as the Games approach.

On the one hand, their involvement in the 2008 Beijing Olympics lets them burnish their brands in a fast-growing market: On the other, it is raising objections at home which they need to manage to preserve their image.

"It is not an easy situation for the sponsors," said Wigan Salazar, managing partner for public relations group Publicis Consulting in Germany. "They have to think about certain sections of the market but also the whole market."

In sponsoring the Beijing event despite protests over Tibet, both companies have their sights set on a global market prize for Germany. China, with about 1.3 billion potential consumers, is a battleground where Adidas fights with Nike, and Volkswagen is grappling with General Motors.

"For the first time we will sell more cars as a group this year in China than in Germany," Volkswagen chief executive offiver Martin Winterkorn told German daily Handelsblatt this week. China already accounts for nearly 15 per cent of its auto sales.

But the companies face pressure at home to defend their involvement, and Tibet has been contentious at a political level. Chancellor Angela Merkel rankled Beijing last year by meeting with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who visited Germany again at the weekend.

Adidas, which says its founder supplied kit to Jesse Owens during the 1936 Berlin Olympics - when he disgusted Hitler by winning four gold medals - is ready for controversy.

"No one in our company is surprised when there are demonstrations surrounding the Games," chief executive officer Herbert Hainer told magazine Der Spiegel earlier this month. "They will not be the last."

Critics used Adidas' annual meeting earlier this month to voice their concerns. Groups including Reporters Without Borders say companies sponsoring the Games are linking their brand with human rights violations in China, and some members of the German Olympic team are planning to wear protest armbands with the slogan "Sport for Human Rights" at the Games.

Mr Hainer sought to absolve the company from responsibility: "We will not let ourselves be held morally responsible for a situation which we did not create and for which we are not accountable," he told the meeting, criticising some protestors as "moralists who just spout rhetoric".

Adidas, Volkswagen and Puma, which is not an official partner but does supply kit to participants, say they have so far seen no damage to their brands from the protests.

But Adidas, which depends on Asia for about one-quarter of its €7.2 billion annual sales, says it cannot rule out a negative effect in the future. To limit any damage in mature markets, all are now navigating a delicate course.

Puma has noted that it was the official sponsor of both the Iranian and Israeli national teams for many years despite the conflict in the Middle East.

"They cannot stand by without commenting on the situation, as a sponsor they must clarify why they are doing it and explain why there are good reasons to sponsor the Olympics," said Mr Salazar.

Adidas' Mr Hainer has said the criticism of sponsors has been particularly loud in the German and French media, but other countries have focused on the positive aspects of the Games.

Volkswagen, one of Germany's most recognised brands and the first foreign auto-maker to enter the Chinese market, took the opportunity of its annual meeting last month to urge the host to open up its society. The group has rejected boycott calls, underlining the Games as an opportunity for China.

The German firms - which unlike the main sponsors including McDonald's, Coca Cola and Visa have marketing rights for the logo in China alone - are not the only targets of controversy about China's Tibet policies.

French retailer Carrefour, not an official sponsor to the Games, said its trading in China had suffered when it became a target of Chinese demonstrations, sparked by pro-Tibet protests in Paris.

Three corporate sponsors of the Olympic torch relay in Japan - Lenovo, Coca-Cola and Samsung - decided against sending vehicles to take part in the flame motorcade through Nagano, two of them citing security concerns.

But the stakes for the German companies are high: China is Germany's most important Asian trading partner and 90 per cent of German companies have expansion plans there, according to the German chambers of industry and commerce (DIHK).

Adidas is targeting €1 billion in sales in China by 2010: Volkswagen expects to sell at least one million vehicles in China this year.

Top global sponsors
May 20 - The Olympic Games are one of the most effective international marketing platforms in the world, reaching billions of people in over 200 countries and territories. Here are facts about the Beijing Games' top 12 global sponsors.

Atos Origin (France): Information Technology. French IT company Atos Origin is building the Olympics computer network. The International Olympics Committee (IOC) does not release details on how much sponsors pay, but Atos Origin is believed to have a combined cash and services payment deal.

Coca-Cola: Non-alcoholic beverages. It has clocked up 80 years of continuous Olympic sponsorship and backed the torch relay since 1996. On April 16, about 100 pro-Tibet activists protested outside its annual meeting. A company statement expressed "deep concern for the situation on the ground in Tibet," but said Coke believes "the Olympics are a force for good".

General Electric: Various products and services. It will provide power, lighting and security such as alarm systems, and ultrasound for doctors to treat athletes. Along with Vivendi, it owns NBC Universal, which has exclusive US TV broadcast rights. GE won the best 'grade' awarded to Games sponsors by US advocacy group Dream for Darfur in November 2007; a C-plus, largely for making contact with the IOC over Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region.

Manulife: Life insurance/annuities. Canada's Manulife Financial Corp, the world's fifth-largest life insurer, became a global sponsor after merging with subsidiary John Hancock insurance in spring of 2004.

Johnson & Johnson: Healthcare products. US-based Johnson & Johnson is sponsoring the Games for the first time as a global partner. It will supply consumer, pharmaceutical and other healthcare products.

Kodak: Film, photographics and imaging. In Beijing, Eastman Kodak Co. will run an imaging centre for photojournalists, a diagnostic centre to treat athletes' injuries, and provide thousands of Olympic identification badges. A sponsor since the first modern Games in Athens in 1896, the company has said it will end its long-running association after Beijing to redirect its marketing strategy.

Lenovo Group: Computing equipment. China's top PC maker Lenovo is the only Chinese company that is a global partner. It aims to showcase technological prowess in computer products and build its brand globally. Lenovo designed the high-tech Olympic torch, constructed to burn brightly even on Mount Everest.

McDonald's: Retail food services. Fast food giant McDonald's Corp. is building four Olympics outlets in Beijing to be staffed by 1,300 of its best personnel from around the world. The official restaurant for the last seven Games, it has been a sponsor since 1976. In 1968 it airlifted hamburgers to US athletes at the Winter Games in Grenoble, France. On Tibet, it said political issues need to be resolved by governments and global institutions such as the UN.

Omega: Time pieces and timing systems. Omega, owned by Switzerland's Swatch Group, has supplied time pieces and timing services for all but three Games since 1932. US actor George Clooney, who advertises Omega watches and has been outspoken over China's role in Sudan's Darfur region, has said he has raised the issue with Omega.

Panasonic: Audio/TV/Video Equipment. Osaka-based Panasonic, a global Olympics partner since 1988, will make Beijing the first Games to be produced and broadcast in high-definition (HD) television, and is also installing 2,000 surveillance cameras at venues. On Tibet, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, maker of the Panasonic brand, has said it would not comment "on political issues concerning any government".

Samsung Electronics: Wireless Communication Equipment. South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has been an Olympic TOP sponsor since 1997. On Tibet, it said the Games should not be a focus for demonstrations "and we hope that all people attending the Games recognise the importance of this".

Visa: Consumer Payment Systems (credit cards, etc.) Credit card network Visa Inc.,issuer of more than 1.4 billion cards, has been the official payment service at the last 11 Olympics, and a top-tier sponsor since 1986.

A further 11 China sponsors have rights to use the Olympic logo in China: China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier, Bank of China, the country's largest foreign exchange bank, and Sinopec Corp, Asia's top refiner, are all country sponsors for the Beijing Games.

The perfect 'absentee' employee

2008-05-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

You never hear complaints about him from his supervisors and he floods your inbox with great ideas. He is, however, never around. He is a telecommuter.

Telecommuter, teleworker, e-worker, WAHs (work at home), virtual work and mobile workers, telework or the ability to work from anywhere outside your office is being embraced by corporations large and small around the world.

The good
According to Rose Stanley, a work-life practice leader, from the nonprofit association, WorldatWork, trends in e-working will continue to increase globally. "A 2006 estimate by JALA International says there are 100 million workers currently under some type of telework programme (at least one day per month) globally with it forecasted to more than triple by 2030."

While the numbers may seem startling, experts are quick to note that e-working is an extension to concepts such as teleworking and telecommuting which were coined in the 70s by Jack Nilles.

A physicist and engineer from Lawrence University, Nilles demonstrated the first telework project in 1970s.

"At that time, those concepts were limited to certain flexible work practices, in particular working partially from home, say one day per week," says Jasper Lim MS researcher at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. These types of home teleworking were originally used to solve traffic congestion problems, he adds.

The idea was to reduce the need for office space and improve balance of work and family. But, says Lim, since the appearance of new forms of information and communication technologies (such as wireless networks) there are even more e-working practices. "For instance, people can now work on the train during business travel, checked their emails during vacation or even work during a trans-Atlantic flight."

Telework was also the beginning of outsourcing some difficult to staff positions. "IT professionals from India are hired remotely to work for a company based in Europe," says Lim. So as technology evolves, the way people work evolves.

Just as Lim suggests, Robert Smith, director of the US-based ITAC, agrees that technology has driven the tele-commute. Founded in 1993, Smiths' ITAC is an organisation dedicated to awareness, progress and success of work independent of location. He believes people can work from anywhere due to the increasing availability of portable computer and high-speed communication technologies.

"For example, the use of broadband in the U.S. home by teleworkers increased by over 60 percent during the past year resulting in 25.6 million home-based teleworkers with high speed access."

Large companies are finding that employees are more willing to work for flexibility [telework] than ask for more money, says Stanley. And teleworking is a boon to small companies too.

"However," says Lim. "the motivation for applying e-working in a company depends on a number of factors." He suggests that CEOs and CFOs need to ask themselves: Is any employee requesting e-working, such as family life issues? Are there benefits for the company in terms of cost reduction, in terms, for instance, of office space? Does the company care about society and environment - reducing traffic congestion, pollution?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy assists with traumatic injury

2008-05-07T04:30:00.000-07:00

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) was originally created to treat medical conditions caused by scuba diving. One condition, decompression sickness, or 'the bends,' can be painful and sometimes deadly. During a dive, nitrogen gas enters the body. If a diver surfaces too quickly and returns to normal pressure, the gas expands rapidly inside the body without being released fast enough. In divers, HBOT is also used to treat gas embolism, which occurs when gas bubbles enter arteries, veins and/or capillaries, resulting in poor blood flow.
Traditionally, HBOT uses a pressurized chamber to deliver 100 percent oxygen to the body. In our normal environment, the air we breathe is about 20 percent oxygen and 80 percent nitrogen. According to the United States National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, the air pressure inside a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber is two and one half times greater than normal atmospheric pressure.
For certain conditions approved by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), Medicare and some health insurers will cover HBOT. In private clinics, HBOT sessions can cost from $100 to $200 while hospitals may charge over $1,000.
HBOT has also been found to be effective for traumatic brain injury, strokes, cerebral palsy, autism, near drowning, near hanging, birth injury, genetic disorders like mitochondrial disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, among other conditions.
Paul G. Harch, M.D., a hyperbaric and emergency medicine physician, talks about hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Elitist Charge Not New for Obama

2008-05-03T02:59:00.000-07:00

Well before Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) remarks about small town voters growing bitter, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) labeled the Democratic presidential candidate an elitist because of one telling item on his resume. Inouye said, during an interview with the Honolulu Advertiser before the Feb. 19 Hawaii caucuses, that Obama may have grown up and graduated high school in the Aloha State, but most Hawaiians know little about him because "he went to Punahou and that was not a school for the impoverished."Obama jumped on the remark, scolding Inouye. "Shame on Danny for trying to pull that stunt," Obama said. "I went to Punahou on a scholarship. I was raised by a single mom and my grandmother." Inouye later apologized to Obama -- and Punahou.

Britain tries to be a nation of savers

2008-05-03T02:58:00.001-07:00

Contrary to popular opinion, Britain is a nation of savers as over two thirds of us try to set aside money each month.

However we have many other monthly priorities - including insurance payments, telephone bills and subscription payments - that take precedence over our best savings efforts.
Making regular savings contributions still only takes up a tiny 0.6% of all our of monthly direct debit payments, according to a detailed study of the UK's payment methods carried out especially for This is Money by payments organisation Bacs to celebrate its recent 40th anniversary.
Paying for non-life insurance remained the top priority for people when it comes to setting up regular direct debit payments, which make up over 15% of the 2.85m payments made in 2006, up to which the latest figures are available.
This has overtaken life insurance, which makes up just over 13%, in recent years.
Although direct debit remains the most popular payment method for insurance, the number of people paying for their insurance costs via debit and credit card has doubled in recent years.
Perhaps in a sign of the increasing levels of cheap credit available this century, more and more people were giving less priority to their loan repayments and more to their telephone bills and subscription payments in the last three years.
Between 2000-2006, the number of people making regular loan repayments from their monthly salary fell by 2.2% to 6.2% of all direct debt payments.
Mark Chambers, the managing director of Bacs, said: 'In 2007 alone, we were responsible for processing more than 5.5bn payments. That's an average of 90 payments for every man, woman and child in the UK, a figure which puts us in a unique position when considering the changing household payments landscape.'

$38M deal reached for Minn. bridge collapse victims

2008-05-03T02:57:00.001-07:00

By MARTIGA LOHN

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota lawmakers reached agreement on a $38 million compensation package for victims of a deadly bridge collapse, culminating months of work to provide relief beyond the state's legal liability.
The deal struck in a joint committee of the House and Senate will offer everyone who was on the bridge up to $400,000, with an additional $12.6 million pool for the people who suffered the most severe injuries and losses. Thirteen people died in the Aug. 1 collapse, and 145 were hurt.
"This is what we've been fighting for the whole time," Kimberly Brown, who suffered back, neck and knee injuries, told reporters Friday. "For everything that everybody's been through, thank God that they have figured out a way to help everybody."
The package is expected to be approved by the Legislature on Monday and sent off to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who called it "needed relief and support" for victims.
If victims agreed to take the money, they would have to sign away their rights to sue the state and other governmental entities in Minnesota. They would not be precluded from suing other parties in the collapse.
The deal came after months of hearings and negotiations among lawmakers.
"We believe this is going to be an offer which the survivors would be well advised to accept," one of the negotiators, Democratic Sen. Ron Latz, said at a news conference.
Victims said they were thankful for the compromise.
Jennifer Holmes, who lost her husband, Patrick, in the collapse, thanked lawmakers and said she plans to take the settlement to avoid the waiting and uncertainty she would face if she sued the state.
"There is no way possible that we can get that day back," Holmes said. "Or get back what we have been through in losing our loved ones or going through numerous surgeries that people are still doing. But this does help in making sure that we have a safe future."
Helen Hausmann lost her husband, Peter — the sole breadwinner for Helen and their four children, ages 8 to 17.
"It's been so hard," she said. "Every day, little things he used to do, you find yourself doing it alone. Things we used to decide, I decide by myself. It's so hard. You once were a family of six; you're a family of five."
The Hausmann family has been getting by on Peter's life insurance policy, and compensation from the state will be a big help, her attorney, Bill Harper, said.
"It will not make her whole," he said. "It is a remarkably positive step to keeping her nose above water as she pursues the other potential remedies."
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the collapse. Officials have focused on a design flaw involving gussets, the plates that help connect steel beams, and the weight of construction materials at vulnerable points in the bridge. Victim lawsuits are on hold until a final determination is made.