Many people either don’t know about supplemental insurance, or they just don’t fully understand it. Many are faced with large amounts of debt due to health. 60% of bankruptcies in the United States are health related. Many are forced to sell their homes, cars, personal belongings, and even use their kids college funds to have to pay for health related costs because their health coverage did not cover all costs associated with their condition. Fortunately, there are solutions to cover these additional expenses and vulnerabilities that every health insurance policy has.

What is Supplemental Insurance?

Most are familiar with major medical coverage that is used to cover co-pays, and other basic health needs. Supplemental Insurance is designed to cover expenses that health insurance does not cover. When there is a surgery, or hospital confinement, if an individual will likely pay a deductible, that can be anywhere up to $10,000, then pay 15%-20% coinsurance for the surgery. policies pay the policyholder directly, in cash for these occurrences. There are no co-pays, deductibles, coinsurance. All the policyholder is required to do is pay the monthly premium, and cash benefits are paid to them when they use their policy.

Why do I need this type of coverage?

Every single health insurance policy HAS gaps and vulnerabilities. Every insurance policy has deductibles, some of which are up to $10,000. Every insurance policy also has coinsurance, of 10%-20%, which is only active AFTER the deductible is met. Supplemental insurance is designed to cover gaps, and unexpected costs that most insurance policies do not cover. Let’s say we have a family, Dave is the sole proprietor of the family, Jane is a stay at home mom with their three children. Dave is diagnosed with colon cancer, and has to miss work for treatment. It is likely that Dave will have to travel quite a bit for treatment, chemotherapy, radiation, and check-ups. It is also likely Dave will have to travel to a specialist, far from home. Transportation is one of the hidden and unexpected costs of cancer that most don’t know about until it is too late. If you add up air fare, hotel stays, food, and various expenses, this can easily add up to thousands of dollars very quickly. Transportation is usually NOT covered by health insurance.

What is Supplemental Group Term Life Insurance?

Supplemental group term life insurance is an added benefit if you are already covered under a group policy through your employer. Usually group coverage is not as comprehensive as you may desire as policies are written according to what would benefit the group as a whole. As an individual with a family of your own, you may have different needs that are not covered through a group plan. If you find yourself in this position, buying a supplemental term life policy would be a wise decision.

An employee is eligible for supplemental term life insurance if he or she performs all of their regular duties on a full-time basis (check with your employer as some companies consider “full-time” as 17.5 hours or more while other companies require you work the full 40 hour weeks). Again, you must already be covered under your company’s basic group term life insurance policy. Spouses and dependent children are also eligible for coverage if you buy a policy of your own.

What are the Benefits to Adding a Supplement?

There are a couple of benefits to purchasing supplemental term life insurance. The first is a waiver of premium. If you become completely disabled prior to your 65th birthday, the insurance company will continue to keep your policy intact and active until you become 65 years old. The stipulation is that your disability must last for nine consecutive months before the benefit can begin. If your disability continues indefinitely, the insurance company will not collect any further payments of premium from you. An individual is considered “totally disabled” when that individual is unable to work at any occupation collecting wages because of injury or illness. You must also provide proof of continuing disability annually.

A second benefit to taking out a supplemental term life insurance policy is the Accelerated Living benefit. If an individual is diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only 12 months or less to live, that individual may apply for a percentage of their combined basic group and supplemental term life insurance policies. The percentage is usually paid in a lump sum. Check with your carrier, as the benefit is usually 50% of the active face value amounts or $50,000.00, whichever is less. While an employee and their spouse are eligible for the accelerated living benefits, children of the employee are not. In most cases, coverage is portable — which means you can take your coverage with you if you retire, reduce your hours or change jobs.

The only exclusion is the standard waiver of benefit payment should the employee or their spouse/dependents commit suicide within the first two years that the policy came into effect. Check with your carrier as in some states this exclusion applies to both sane and insane individuals while some states only the sane.

How Age Affects Your Policy

While premiums for supplemental term life insurance are literally just a couple to a few dollars per month, the rates are affected by age. The premium is based on attained age and then increases at various steps. You would have to check with your carrier for their specific criteria. Age 70 is a defining milestone for supplemental term life insurance policies.

Beginning at age 70, your coverage is reduced to 65% of original certificate face value.

Beginning at age 75, you coverage is reduced to 45% of original certificate face value.

Beginning at age 80, your coverage is reduced to 30% of original certificate face value.

One thing to keep in mind is that spousal coverage terminates at age 70. If the premiums are current, your spouse may choose to convert their individual coverage to a term life insurance policy of their own. Your dependents may also choose to convert their policies after their dependent status expires. They can obtain term life insurance policies in the amount of $25,000.00 or $50,000.00.

Supplemental term life insurance is a wonderful benefit as you can give your family an additional benefit of up to $270,000.00.

If you are not having collateral you feel difficulty to acquire funds as the lenders feel at risk to lend you. But you need not worry now as the banks have come forward with the provision of unsecured bank loans. These loans are the ultimate tools for you to meet your financial requirement when you are unable to offer a security deposit.

How these loans have been designed

These are relatively short term loans that banks offer without asking you to deposit an asset against the loan amount. It relieves you from the fear of losing your valuable assets. Moreover, the banks are very reliable financial organizations that put you at ease while borrowing these loans.

The generalized statistics of these loans

Unsecured bank loans are the best ones if you need an amount ranging from

Real estate can be a lucrative investment. Before you plunge into it, understanding the advantages and disadvantages is important. The advantages of real estate investment are discussed here.

1) Security of income
Most types of real estate investments such as offices, apartments, shops, factories and even vacant land are able to provide a regular source of income in the form of rent through leasing out the property. As rents are generally contractually fixed for a term of years, such as three years with an option to renew at the prevailing market rent for another three years, there is a certain degree of security of income at least during the term of the lease. Hence, whilst the stock market tends to be highly sensitive to short term changes with prices rising and falling generally across the board and sometimes very rapidly, property rental income and thus values tend to lag behind such short term market fluctuations.

2) Security of capital
Property offers one of the safest form of investments in terms of security of capital as it is durable, has a long economic life and for some types of properties is relatively scarce. Moreover, whilst a building may be destroyed by fire, the land on which it stands is indestructible and generally appreciates in value over time. In fact, because property is durable, there is added security in that while an investor in stocks and shares may lose all his capital if the company goes bankrupt, such a situation is unlikely to occur in property investment.

3) Value gain
It is a reasonable assumption that few other investments can benefit as much as real estate can from the input of management expertise. Imaginative and good management has a little effect on most other types of investments. The management of one’s overall portfolio of stocks is crucial but the stock market investor generally can have little effect on the individual publicly listed companies whose shares he or she has acquired. Sound management, on the other hand, can add considerable value to a real estate asset, while the lack of it invites disaster.

4) Estate building through refinancing
Building up an estate or property investment portfolio may be a vehicle for becoming wealthy. Once an investor’s equity has increased through capital appreciation and repayment of the loan taken, the original property can be refinance to free cash that can be used to buy a second property, or the increased equity in the original property may be used as a collateral of security for a loan to buy a second property. By refinancing a property investment and reinvesting these funds in more properties periodically, an investor can accumulate a large property portfolio over time.

5) Pride of ownership
The personal satisfaction derived from an investment is especially important in real property. For many investors, property ownership retains a mystical quality, with a value that defies measurement. Owning a private residential unit is generally regarded as a status symbol.

Real estate has created more millionaires than any other investment on the planet. Real estate investment clubs provide an excellent way to build your network. Clubs vary in type; try to find a club that emphasizes education rather than one that sells products all the time. The price to attend club meetings varies; some are even free the first time you attend. You may want to join more than one club to increase your networking opportunities.

At a local club in our area you can meet wholesalers, real estate agents or brokers, investors, hard-moneylenders, general contractors who specialize in rehabbing, real estate attorneys, accountants, and many other people who are interested in real estate. Their expertise varies, as does the length of time that they have been investing.

At a typical club, you’ll find people like you who have made real estate investing work for them and are eager to share their success. At almost every meeting there are individuals who stand and announce that association members helped “do a deal” and make tens of thousands of dollars.

Finding a real estate club in your area is easy using the Internet. Do a Google search or use www.creonline.com to find a club in your state. You may also want to contact clubs when you get ready to travel to a new area. Contact the club, tell them of your travel plans, and have them suggest real estate agents in the area. These agents, who have knowledge of the local areas, will be able to help you find a neighborhood that is experiencing growth. They will help you find properties that meet your criteria. They may know contractors, sub-contractors, rehabbers, or handymen who can provide the necessary repairs. Utilize the contacts you have to build your network in a variety of areas.

Soon you will know people, who know people, who are “key players” in real estate in the area you are interested in visiting. Real estate investment clubs can show their members how to profit in changing times. The associations you make through a club can help you leverage the success of others. Why reinvent the wheel if you can simply emulate the strategies of people in your network? Special breakout sessions for the beginning investor, information on short sales, and lease options, land lording and other topics are often available. These are often available to members at reduced prices. Attendance and participation at one or more of the real estate investment clubs in your area will allow you to network with other investors in the area, will help you build your dream team faster, will broaden your knowledge of real estate investing, and is fun. When time permits volunteer to work for your club-hand out name badges, “meet and greet” first time attendees at the door, help set up booths, make phone calls or type up rosters. All of these activities could help you on the fast track to financial freedom.

One of the most challenging issues that businesses face, regardless of their size, is ensuring payment for their goods and services. Despite this, many are unaware of trade credit insurance and how it can assist businesses by minimising exposure and risk.

Credit insurance protects the money due for goods and services that have already been supplied to a customer. As highlighted in the recent recession, declining sales and unforeseen circumstances can mean that even good customers with the best of intentions can struggle to meet their previously agreed payment terms. As a result, customers’ cashflow problems are passed on to their creditors, which in turn means that they may also struggle to meet their payment commitments.

This acts as a cushion against the impact of defaulting customers and the bad debts that would otherwise arise when a customer is unable to meet their payment terms (or in situations where the customer goes bankrupt). Effectively any payment risk is passed on to the insurer. This means that with a trade credit insurance policy in place, a large percentage (often up to 90%) of the outstanding debt will be covered.

Credit insurance providers can also help businesses plan ahead by alerting their clients to potential risks, should a particular company become uninsurable. In some cases cover may be withdrawn but the insurer will honour the cover provided up until a given date when the insurance was withdrawn. This helps prevent a domino effect of bad debt where one company cannot pay its debts which then has a knock on effect to their suppliers, and their suppliers in turn.

Credit insurance providers can also assist businesses in decisions about who to trade with, therefore helping them to trade more securely and reducing potential trading risks.

Furthermore, businesses that have a clearly defined credit insurance policy in place are often able to benefit from more favourable finance terms and funding requests from banks.

Most high interest credit cards are usually easy to get and really the interest rate only matters if you roll over your balances from month to month. People that have had bankruptcies, judgments or just have a bad credit rating, for what ever reason are the most common applicants for high interest credit cards. Many low interest credit cards will allow you to transfer balances from your high interest credit cards but you must have a decent credit rating. The most important thing about a balance transfer card is the amount of money it will save you, especially if you have a high interest credit card that you carry a balance on.

Credit

Beware some credit card companies will try multiple ploys to get you signed up and then if your late on a payment for some reason, charge large fees even if your credit card payment is only one or two days late. Those who want to apply for a major high interest credit card to re-establish or to establish new credit should consider the price they will ultimately pay. Even those who don not qualify for low interest credit cards should still shop and compare to get the best deal available.

Interest

Most major financial companies base the interest rates on your credit score, this tells them whether you pay on time and just how you use your credit. If you have a card with high interest rates you DO NOT want to carry a balance. If you do get a low interest credit card and make a payment late, the default interest rate goes into affect, sometimes up to 22 percent, making it very hard to ever get caught up. The difference between high interest credit cards and low could be hundreds and even thousands of dollars a year.

Getting your high interest credit cards paid off should be your top concern. When your credit score improves try to transfer all of your high interest credit card balances, some transfer cards even offer 0 introductory offers for balance transfers, thus making it much faster and easier to pay off your debt.

Travel insurance is designed to protect you from losses while you are traveling. There are many situations that could result in your need of travel insurance. Things like lost luggage, trips being cancelled, medical emergency expenses along with other situations you may not have thought of

There are several types of coverage for travel insurance and it will depend on the insurance company issuing the policy as to what you are covered for.

Some types of cover available for travel insurance are:

Trip Cancellation

Accident/Sickness Medical Expenses

Baggage/Personal Effects Loss or Delay

Medical Evacuation/Emergency Transportation

Trip Delay

Supplier Default

Trip Cancellation will cover you for non-refundable payments or any deposits paid for trips that have to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. This is the most common type of travel insurance.

Accident/Sickness Medical Expenses is another cover that could be overlooked but is very important when traveling. This will cover you for any costs you may have for illness or injury while you are traveling.

Baggage/Personal Effects Loss or Delay, this will cover you for any items that may be lost or delayed in getting to you while traveling. Things like your luggage not arriving with you and you need to replace certain item while waiting for your luggage to arrive.

Medical Evacuation/Emergency Transportation, as it says, this covers you for medical emergency transportation if you need to be transported to a hospital or medical facility while traveling.

Trip Delay will make sure you are not out of pocket if while traveling your trip is delayed.

Supplier Default, if a travel supplier defaults, this will cover you for any payments either full or deposits you have paid.

Many travel companies like tour or cruise lines will offer their own protection plans. You may find these plans will offer a very different coverage to other insurance companies who do travel insurance. It is best to compare what each will cover you for and don’t make the mistake of taking the travel company’s offer without making sure it is best for you. Make sure you are being covered for all you need.

If you want to protect your travel investment and no matter where you are traveling to, it is costing you money. Often times the deposits and prepayments have to be paid so early that unforeseen circumstances often happen, like an illness, death in the family, accident etc and your trip may need to be delayed or cancelled.

There will be financial losses to you as most of the money you have paid is non-refundable and without the protection of your travel insurance, you will be very much out of pocket.

Your private health insurance may only cover you in your own State or Country so it is necessary to make sure you have the medical insurance coverage for your travels.

A travel insurance policy may cover you for all your needs but this will vary from company to company and from policy to policy. Remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so read the fine print very carefully.

Make your list of what you want covered and also make sure you know the value of your possessions and for your valuables, take photos so they can be identified in case of loss or theft. With digital photos and cell phones with inbuilt cameras this is very easily done today.

If you do have to make a claim for a loss with your travel insurance company, if you have records for them, it will speed up the process for you.

Just to recap, this is a list of the most common risks that are covered by travel insurance

Most people consider boat insurance a necessity and are quick to put a policy in place when acquiring a boat. But, how many of you out there have even thought of insurance coverage for your personal watercraft (PWC)? The truth is that most automobile policies will cover your jet ski when it is being towed, so the mind set tends to be that additional coverage is not needed.

Yes it is! Each year there are dozens of accidents involving personal watercraft such as Jet Skis, WaveRunners or Sea-Doos. Education has caused a continual decline in accidents over the last few years, but the hard truth is that 24% of boating accidents in 2006 involved personal watercraft as reported by the U.S. Coast Guard. The reality is that the reporting agencies and the manner of reporting differ from state to state and even from lake to lake, so there is no way to definitively capture the exact numbers. A study done in California though confirmed the U.S. Coast Guard numbers by reporting that personal watercraft accounted for 18% of registered watercraft but were involved in 24% of the watercraft accidents. Those figures indicate that PWC are much more dangerous than their larger and more stable counterparts.

The reasons for this are quite obvious. First, they are smaller than the average boat. They are made to hold 1-4 people, with the majority of them only holding two. They are not easy to see. Secondly, they move and maneuver much quicker than a boat and the companies that produce these toys are always looking for ways to make them go faster. This is part of their allure. Speed is what encourages most people to buy them, but speed is also a killer. Just as in the case of automobiles, the speed of the craft has been shown to contribute to not only more accidents but to more dramatic injuries and fatalities. Finally, there is little regulation as to who can operate a PWC. Young people are at the heart of the majority of accidents. Putting a teenager or someone younger on a PWC is similar to putting them on a motorcycle. Water gives a false sense of security and safety, when facts show that hitting water at 30 mph with your head can be just as deadly as hitting the pavement. The difference is that on water you are liable to drown when unconscious, something you won’t do if on pavement. And yet, how often do you see someone wearing a life vest or helmet or both when driving a PWC?

So, don’t find yourself on the receiving end of a lawsuit or facing financially devastating medical bills without having adequate coverage for any PWC operators within your control. Be proactive in establishing safety rules, regardless of the lack of legislation. An accident can bring a quick end to summer fun so do what you can to prevent it; if an accident does happen, not having insurance will only compound its affect.

If you own a personal watercraft you know that they can be exhilarating and fun and yet you are probably fully aware of how dangerous they can be. This is why personal water craft insurance is a must. The kind of insurance available varies from company to company and the kind of insurance you will most likely need varies from state to state.

There are some good recommendations on the American Watercraft Association website to bring you up to speed on the issues concerning water craft and these can give you a pretty good idea of the types of coverages you should be seeking.

Going skinny on coverage could prove to be disastrous in the case of a huge lawsuit due to an injury involving you or your watercraft it is deemed to have been partially your responsibility. The liability of such a judgment going against you could bankrupt your family and there are some horror stories to prove that.

If you bought your watercraft on time and borrowed money most likely you were required to buy the basic coverage. Nevertheless, this might not be enough that therefore you should be checking into extended coverages, even such things as trivial as theft and emergency towing need to be considered seriously.

I was concerned about injuries to riders or water skiers I tow and once I had someone bump me in their boat and damage my watercraft, they didn’t have insurance and the derelict (opinion) was basically broke. This really upset me and prompted me to do what I should have done in the first place. I should have called an expert on insurance to help me.

Do not make that mistake, call an expert to explain to you what you need and why. I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.