* Age “Rates do go up with age”

* Species Be aware that dogs tend to cost more than cats, in terms of insurance rates.

* Plan Pet insurance plans are “kind of like human insurance”

* State Since the cost of living can vary per state, your location may also come into play when companies set their rates.

* Number of pets Does your house look like the pet version of The Brady Bunch? If so, you could be in luck. Many providers offer a multiple pet discount.

* Where you work This one might surprise you, but your job could benefit your pet. Certain companies partner with pet insurance providers so that their employees can receive a more reasonable group rate.

Malcolm Tarling of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) suggested that first-time drivers should opt for a lower-priced first car, as insurers take the cost of the vehicle and any parts into account when setting up a policy.

“Be sensible,” he said. “There is no point spending all your money on the car of your dreams if you can’t afford to run it and if you can’t afford to insure it.”

Mr Tarling also explained that the best way for young drivers to save is to shop around. He said that while young drivers will nearly always pay more for their insurance than older drivers, payments can be reduced on some policies if the motorist agrees not to drive at night or pledges to sign up to PassPlus or another post-driver test training course.

Every Investor has previously stated that young drivers can save by purchasing their insurance policies online and ensuring they fill their forms out correctly the first time, as many insurers charge a fee of up to £25 to make an amendment such as correcting a spelling mistake.

Homeowners and renter’s insurance don’t cover everything though. For instance, water that comes into your house from the ground up…for that you’ll need a separate policy…for flood insurance.

If you have time, contact your agent. Review your policy. Make sure it’s up to date and that you understand your coverage. Some policies don’t cover hail or wind damage.

Also, do a home inventory. It can help the insurance adjuster understand exactly what you had so you can be fully compensated.

Next, make sure all of your important documents; financial papers, wills, contact numbers are in the same place so you can grab it and go.

And finally, if you’re ordered to evacuate, leave your home. Belongings can be replaced, you can’t be.

source

Iowa County is now a participant in the NFIP effective on June 9, 2008.  Residents of Iowa County will be able to purchase flood insurance up to the limits under the Emergency Phase of the program.  However, there is a 30-day waiting period before flood insurance coverage goes into effect.  For single-family dwellings, the building coverage limit is $35,000, and the contents coverage limit is $10,000.  Renters can also protect their belongings by purchasing contents coverage.  For commercial properties, the building and contents coverage limits are both $100,000.  Higher limits of coverage will be available after the initial Emergency Phase.

Lenders must require borrowers whose properties are located in a designated flood hazard area to purchase flood insurance as a condition of receiving a federally backed mortgage loan in accordance with the Federal Disaster Protection Act of 1973.

The NFIP is implemented through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  There are over 4 million flood insurance policies in more than 20,000 participating communities nantionwide.

Public Liability is designed to cover businesses from the threat that they will be sued from a member of public. The basic concept of public liability is, it will cover your business in the event that it causes injury or death to a third party, it will also cover you in the event that you damage a third parties property. Public liability insurance will cover you for claims made against you by members of the public and other businesses, but not for claims by employees. Premierline Direct includes public liability cover as part of its standard policy benefits.

Liability insurance will protect your business assets in the event you are sued. These days, with lawsuits clogging the courts, you’ll want to maintain a proper amount of liability insurance to protect the business you’ve worked so hard to build. Liability coverage will pay for damage and injuries to your customers, delivery people and others who might be hurt or have their property damaged while at your business. Professional liability coverage protects you if a client gets bad results from your advice and sues for damages.

Liability insurance is highly recommended for property and automobiles. Worker’s Compensation Insurance is state-required when you have employees. Liability insurance protects your company from any lawsuits resulting from negligence that may cause injury to a customer or employee. It also protects your company from someone who is harmed as a result of using your service or product.

Small business insurance is your best tool for keeping your risk level low. Since this isn’t a game for you or your employees, small business insurance isn’t a luxury but an absolute necessity. Small business insurance allows entrepreneurs to provide benefits and coverage options for employees in need of medical care. This is an important consideration for owners, whether the organization has twenty employees or just one. Small business insurance can cover anything from the risk of having a tornado hit your office to the chance that someone is going to sue you for the bad carburetor you installed in their minivan that caught on fire. Having a plan in place early on to cover you particular risks will allow you to adequately assess your risks and finance your business.

Choosing any random business health insurance provider could be as disastrous as going bungee jumping?without the bungee. Find several small business insurance providers that specialize in your kind of business, and get quotes from each of them. Choose your accounting system and software. Even if you plan on having an accountant, you still need to have a basic understanding of your business’s finances.

For example, commercial restaurant insurance includes coverage for buildings, employees, liquor liability insurance, loss of business income and more. Commercial vehicles used to haul for hire may be subject to the Federal Motor Carriers Act of 1980. Depending on the cargo hauled, the amount of insurance required varies from $750,000 to $5,000,000.

Product liability cover you against the supply of goods to another person who, by your negligence causes injury or damage. It includes lawyers fees, all costs and expenses of litigation, damages and costs for applicants who would be legally responsible. Product liability will cover you against the supply of goods to someone else which through your negligence causes injury or damage. It includes solicitors’ fees, all costs and litigation expenses, damages and claimants costs for which you would be legally liable.One thing to be reassured of when starting up a new business, nobody wants you to fail.

Term life insurance policies can vary by 50 percent for the same coverage. That?s why it?s best to compare quotes at InsWeb to find both the rates and policy that is right for your personal situation. Term life insurance provides financial protection over a set “term” or period. Getting some term life insurance quotes might be the right step especially if you want coverage over a long period. Term life policies have no cash value of their own. They don’t accrue interest and you can’t borrow money against them.

Term life policies are generally tax-free and may even allow for a partial payout upon diagnosis of a terminal disease. Term life will cover you if you die in a plane crash, and health insurance should cover medical expenses. Term insurance provides protection for a defined period of time?from one to 10, 20, or even 30 years?and pays benefits only if you die during that period. Term insurance is often used to cover financial obligations that will disappear over time, such as tuition or mortgage payments.

Term life insurance is pure, unadulterated life insurance. It is called various things by various companies: “whole life”, “universal life”, and so on. Term life does not build up ” cash value “. Cash value policies are designed to be held for life , and hence often cost significantly more than term policies. Term insurance covers you and pays your designated beneficiary in the event of your death or certain other catastrophic events. It is not an investment policy; it has no cash value.

Cash value insurance is much more expensive than term (particularly at younger ages), but typically provides insurance throughout lifetime at a level premium. A policyholder normally can receive the benefit of these cash values during lifetime in one of two ways: (1) by taking a loan against them, or (2) by cashing in the policy (the policy will no longer be in force, but the policyholder will receive the cash surrender value). Cash values are predetermined and will not vary over the life of the policy based the insurance company’s experience. Whole life is often referred to as ordinary life or straight life. Cash values are accumulated by crediting premium payments and interest to a fund from which deductions are made for expenses and cost of insurance. Interest rates are linked to an external index such as Treasury bills.

Universal life insurance allows consumers flexibility in when premiums are to be paid and the amount that they would be. Universal life policies also allowed consumers to permanently withdraw cash from the policy without the interest associated with the loan provisions in whole life policies. University development offices and other prospective nonprofit beneficiaries are well aware of this, and many encourage gifts of policies. What they and prospective donors might be less sure of—and consequently need your help in deciding—is how to properly value donated life insurance interests for tax purposes. Universal life insurance policies also accumulate cash values on a tax-deferred basis.

Universal life insurance is also called adjustable life insurance. Remember that, with permanent life insurance, some of your premium is invested.

Premium rates for these smaller coverage amounts tend to be higher per unit than those of larger coverage amounts (a unit equals $1,000 of coverage). Therefore, consumers interested in smaller policies should also review quotes for policies at the $100,000 coverage amount. Premiums on Term Life policies often increase regularly as the insured ages. Premiums can vary widely between companies for the same policy and spending an hour or two shopping around could save you thousands of pounds. Shaving just ?10 a month off a twenty-five year policy would leave you with an extra ?3,000 in your pocket.

Premiums ranging from $0.05 to $0.65 were collected on a weekly basis, often by agents coming door-to-door, instead of on an annual, semi-annual, or quarterly basis by direct remittance to the company. Additionally, medical examinations were often not required and policies could be written to cover all members of the family instead of just the main breadwinner.

But advocates question whether the plan will increase families’ access to health care, without limits on co-payments and deductibles.

The proposal involves Utah’s Premium Partnership for Health Insurance, or UPP, which now gives families up to $150 a month to help pay premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance - a kind of plan that is not available to everyone.

Starting in July 2009, the experiment would allow people enrolled in UPP to use the state subsidy to buy private health insurance. It would aim to provide health insurance coverage to 5,000 adults and 1,000 children - numbers included in the draft application but not yet final, said Medicaid director Michael Hales. The proposal is part of House Bill 133 - the state’s health system reform effort, which is centered on getting more Utahns on private insurance rolls.

Advocates for low-income families say the program may indeed reduce the ranks of the uninsured. But whether it succeeds in actually improving their access to health care is another question.

“The Legislature was trying to make a philosophical statement with HB133: ‘We want families in private health insurance,’ which is OK,” said Lincoln Nehring, the Utah Health Policy Project’s Medicaid policy director. “But I don’t think they really thought through the ramifications.”

Under the proposed changes to UPP, adults enrolled in the program would also have to enroll their children; their children would be blocked from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.

That’s a problem, Nehring said, since there are cost protections built into CHIP that don’t apply to UPP.  “There is not a limit on the out-of-pocket expenses they [UPP families] could potentially pay and that puts children at great risk,” he said.

Hales stressed that the proposal is only a working draft and that nothing is final. The proposal will be reviewed in July by the state’s Medical Care Advisory Committee, then sent to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in coming months.

The research, undertaken on behalf of swiftcover.com, found British drivers to be extremely confused as to what is and isn’t covered by their insurance. For example, while eating and smoking behind the wheel might not be a criminal offence, many drivers are not aware that they could be accused of negligence if involved in an accident while smoking or eating; resulting in a drastically reduced payout.

The main findings were as follows:

Driving other people’s cars
Hopping behind the wheel of your partner or friend’s car might seem like a perfectly acceptable thing to do - indeed a third (29 per cent) of drivers polled assumed that they would be insured through their own insurance. In fact, most car insurance policies only insure drivers if it’s included in the small print, and rarely offer more than third party cover.

swiftcover.com’s advice: Don’t just assume you’ll be covered - if you need to drive someone else’s car, check your insurance policy.

Eating, smoking and using a mobile behind the wheel
65 per cent of drivers eat whilst driving and 36 per cent still smoke. swiftcover.com’s poll found that over a fifth of British motorists don’t know whether they would be covered regardless if they were in an accident - in fact they could be caught for negligence if caught eating or smoking while an accident occurred, even if the accident wasn’t their fault.

swiftcover.com’s advice: Drive safe - drivers’ reaction times are 50 per cent slower when on the phone, eating or smoking, whilst the Highway Code recently listed eating and smoking as dangerous distractions.

Underrating your mileage
Not telling your insurer when you exceed your mileage can invalidate your policy. swiftcover.com’s poll showed that a quarter (25.8 per cent) of motorists didn’t know whether driving over their stated mileage would affect their insurance cover - whilst nearly a fifth (16.1 per cent) stated that it wouldn’t.

swiftcover.com’s advice: Keep a check and always inform your insurer if your circumstances change.

Petrol v diesel
Putting the wrong kind of fuel into your car is not something anyone wants to do - but thousands of British motorists each year get it wrong. Unfortunately, this can be a costly mistake - as many policies won’t cover this. Worryingly, 10 per cent of people assumed their policy would cover this.

swiftcover.com’s advice: Always double-check at the pump - an engine strip-down costs thousands of pounds, and this is not something you want to have to pay for.

Tina Shortle of swiftcover.com commented, “While choosing the lowest price car insurance policy is most people’s objective, it is also important to know exactly what is and isn’t covered. Drivers make a lot of assumptions about their policies, so it’s best to read all terms and conditions carefully and to regularly review the terms.”

The research was carried out via Survey Monkey in April 2008 and polled 386 drivers throughout the UK.