Traderelic

Archive for August, 2011

The question of whether to insure one’s life or not gets into the mind of many people at least once in their lifetime, especially people with families and financial responsibilities to meet. The simple realization that it’s impossible to predict what will happen to you the next day is like a slap in the face for those who really care about their loved ones. Just imagine what will happen if you suddenly die in a car accident the next day, how your family will cope with all the problems once you are gone? That’s exactly the situation when having your life insured is a very good way to protect your loved ones.

People are often offended by the concept of insuring one’s life because it involves such a disturbing thing as death. Unlike all other types of insurance that provide benefits in unpleasant yet not tragic situations (car crash, illness, house damage, etc.) a person insuring their life clearly understand that he or she is not the one who will gain the benefits, which will be paid out only in case the policyholder dies. However, when you come to think of it from a less selfish perspective the purpose of this insurance type becomes very clear and rather positive. It’s not designed for the person buying the policy to get the benefits but rather their dependents and loved ones.

Let’s take an example of a typical family that can benefit from having life insurance coverage. One of the spouses is the main income earner in the household, there are two children being taken care of by the other spouse and the mortgage payments are to be made for the next seven years. A typical middle class family in our country. Now, what would happen if the main income earner would suddenly be diagnosed with a terminal illness and eventually die after an unsuccessful treatment? If there’s no life insurance coverage the family is left with no source of income, has to move out of the house because they cannot pay the mortgage and also have significant funeral expenses. This is certainly devastating from the financial point of view and will be tragic taking in consideration the emotional aspect of losing someone you love.

Now when you have life insurance the same situation changes for the better. The amount of benefits provided by a typical policy is set in a way so that the family of the policyholder would have the main income replaced for a period of several years, which is enough to find another source of income without the drastic impact and risk of going bankrupt. Moreover, you can link the life insurance policy to your mortgage account in order to make sure that the debt will be paid off no matter what happens to you. Funeral expenses can also be included to the coverage provisions. So, while being emotionally affected by the loss of a family member, your loved ones won’t be suffering financially and will have the necessary money to carry on living. Think about that if you really want your family to be happy no matter what.

Extra safety features are often very inexpensive upfront and mean long-term savings on insurance premiums.
Before getting these features, talk to your insurer to make sure you will get a discount.
We have provided a price efficiency rating to let you know the ratio of upfront cost to insurance savings. The higher the price efficiency rating, the sooner you will make up the cost with insurance savings.

Add On Headrest

Protects against whiplash, head, neck, and back injuries. This is essentially a foam pad that attaches to the front of your headrest. It will allow you to rest your head while driving, rather than having to keep in hovering 6-inches from the rest.

Right now, your options are either to hold your head hovering without rest or to sit completely erect at a 90-degree, L-shape.
The add on headrest is an elegant solution to that problem that will really save your neck in a crash. Independent studies have proved it!
Plus, driving is just more comfortable.

Price Efficiency Rating: 7 – Will become higher as more insurance companies do their own studies on its effectiveness in reducing injury.

Signal Mirrors

These side mirrors flash LED turn signals so that it is clearer to other drivers that you are turning. There will be fewer collisions this way. Plus, the LEDs are very energy efficient, long-lasting, and cute!

Price Efficiency Rating: 5 – Installation can be pretty costly.

Child Car-seats

Getting the right child safety devices in your vehicle can save you big insurance money. If you ask your agent to recommend a car-seat, they may actually be able to offer you a discount because they know your child will have a much smaller chance of injury and death.
If your child’s improved safety isn’t a big enough reward, the savings will be!

• Rear-facing seats are best, but never put them in front of an active frontal airbag
• Do not incline seats more than 45 degrees
• Connect all the straps and harnesses correctly
• Pay attention to the expiration date on the car-seat

Price Efficiency Rating: 5-9 – Getting the best seat money can buy is better protection for your child and saves you more in the long run.

Sensors and Cameras

While these futuristic features are commonly thought of as expensive add-ons for luxury vehicles, they are becoming quite inexpensive as people and insurers realize they have huge safety and savings bonuses. As more statistics become available, insurers are seeing the proof that these features really do prevent many crashes and collisions, which means bigger discounts and lower rates as you get into fewer incidents.

• Lane-departure warning
• Front-collision warning
• Blind-spot detection
• Electronic stability control

Price Efficiency Rating: 5 – Once costs come down, this efficiency rating may well soar to a 10! For now though, it may take a year to recoup costs. However, if it saves you from a collision, which it very well might, you’ve instantly got your money’s worth.

Car Insurance Quotes

If your current insurance provider doesn’t give you significant discounts for extra safety options, consider switching. Car insurance quotes will help you find a more affordable provider. You can even compare policy details and rates from the best insurance companies in minutes using online car insurance quotes.

Most of us aren’t very happy when the time comes to renew the insurance policy for the vehicle. A lot of drivers feel like they are overpaying for insurance and think that the insurance companies are to blame. However, when asked about the reason for the policies being so expensive very few of them state that their cars have an influence on the rates they are charged with. And that’s a very common and serious mistake. The car you drive is the main factor that influences your insurance rates. Even the type of car you choose to purchase has a significant impact on your premium. So how insurance rates change depending on the car type?

Insurance companies use a set of factors that determine the risk of insuring a particular vehicle. The most important risk-determining factors are repair costs, theft rates, damage to other vehicles, injuries to passengers and likelihood of accident. By using these parameters it’s really easy to classify mot common vehicle types with respect to car insurance costs:

Small vehicles

Smaller cars are usually cheaper, get stolen very rarely and aren’t expensive to repair. However, when it comes to safety and injuries to the passengers smaller cars get very risky. Simple law of physics make it evident that if a small and large vehicle collide the damage to the small vehicle will be greater due to difference in mass. So despite the lower price you are likely to get higher insurance rates with this type of vehicles.

Medium vehicles

Medium sized sedans and hatch backs are probably the optimal choice for those trying to get cheaper insurance. Of course the rates may vary greatly from model to model but in general these cars are cheap to repair, known for their overall safety, do not inflict too much damage to other vehicles and aren’t likely to be stolen. A typical mid class car will earn you the most competitive car insurance rates.

Large vehicles

Large SUVs and similar vehicles are certainly very comfortable, safe and won’t cause serious injuries to passengers. However, certain models of large cars are very likely to be stolen, require more expensive parts and usually cause serious damage to other cars and the infrastructure. Moreover, they also have larger engines which is another factor seriously increasing insurance costs.

Sports and muscle cars

This type of cars is definitely the most expensive from the car insurance perspective. Sports and muscle cars tend to get involved in serious accidents very often, usually have expensive repair parts, inflict serious damage to other cars and infrastructure, cause serious injuries to persons involved and tend to get stolen quite often. So if you’re driving a fast performance vehicle get ready to pay up for keeping it insured.

Luxury vehicles

Luxury cars are another type of vehicles that aren’t cheap to insure but that should be evident assuming the typical price tag for such cars. When you have a car that costs more than $100k with repair parts that sometimes cost like a small car and often become the target of auto thieves it’s really hard to imagine cheap insurance for such a drive.

As you sit at work, watching how the different tasks are performed, it’s not unusual to think of a way in which one particular task might be made easier or safer. If inspiration does strike you, what should you do about it? The first problem is your contract of employment. Most have a standard clause that requires you to hand over the intellectual property rights of anything you develop as an employee. The only way round this is to give up your job and develop the idea while self-employed. Be very careful to document how and when the work is done. If your ex-employer sees you have a very commercial idea, there could be a claim against you after launch.

The next major problem is the potential product liability claims should customers be injured when using your product. No matter whether you are proposing a launch with expected sales of ten or thousands of units per week, getting the right insurance can be difficult and expensive. Why should this be difficult? It all comes down to an assessment of the risk your product will injure people. That’s why the number of sales is not immediately important. If the risk of claims is high, the premium will also be high. Let’s say, for example, you develop a product to be used by first responders to the scene of an accident. In such situations, people are already injured and it’s entirely possible they will be suing those said to be responsible. If your device is used, it’s equally possible it could be accused of making the initial injuries worse, or of causing new injuries. If insurers believe there’s a good chance your product will be named in legal proceedings, the premium will be high. Remember, when you are dealing with personal injuries, damages can quickly run over $1 million for pain and suffering, loss of earnings and other consequential losses on top of the cost of medical treatment. So, before you approach an insurance broker or insurance companies directly, get advice on the level of risk your product will be involved in litigation. Extensive field testing by independent experts will help.

Now comes the application for insurance. As a startup, you are going to be asked for a full set of accounts and a detailed business plan. This is likely to include a listing of your personal assets. The reason is again simple. If the insurer does not believe you have adequate funding in place, you might cut costs on the raw materials for manufacture or in safety testing. This can directly impact the risk profile. If it’s not clear the business can survive, e.g. the marketing plan appears inadequate, the insurer will not accept the risk and start a policy running if this could expose it to risk for several years to come even though you have gone out of business.

Getting small business insurances can be a real challenge if you are a startup with a new product. You need to get a good business plan, expert reports on the safety of the product and a full set of accounts. Even then, you will have to contact many brokers specializing in small business insurance before you are likely to find affordable cover.