Insurance Present

Which Is Better Between Education Savings and Insurance?

Education is a really important matter. As parents, preparing the school fees for your children from an early age is a priority that can not be underestimated. The cost of education varies in different countries, and increasing every year. In addition, the selection of high school or college can also affect the quality of the education gained by your child.

However, the cost of education is not the only problem in life that must be faced. There are still many other purposes which is also important in every second of your life. Sometimes when you will use your money to fund your child's school, unexpectedly, you need to spend money also for other needs. Yes, it will not be a problem if you have lots of money, but unfortunately, is not the case with everyone.

So how to to prepare educational funds effectively and efficiently?

This is a very good question. However, before answering the question, for some people, having a child as a student who is educated at the favorite school is also a prestige of its own, right? Whatever the reason, it is clear, every parents still want the best for their children. Education is the future, without the education the world will seem dark. To start the initial anticipation of the needs of education can be done in various ways.

This time we will discuss about education savings and education insurance. As a good parent, of course you have to plan for the future education of your child. Currently there is a lot of financial products offered for your child's education, but the question is whether you know which one should you choose? How do you select the financial products? Ok, let's look it one by one.

Education Savings VS Education Insurance

Talking about the education, of course, common financial products that exist and have been very familiar with you is education savings and education insurance. Education savings, because it comes from the word 'savings', then this product is generally derived from banking institutions. Meanwhile, education insurance, as the name implies, issued by institutions engaged in the field of insurance.

Education insurance is an insurance product which is used for provide funds that can be used for children's education in the future by preparing early. Insurance can be regarded as an alternative (if not exactly equal) education savings which will finance your child's education from kindergarten to the university, it all depends on the type of insurance or savings that you will take.

In general, insurance education is divided into two parts, namely investment and protection. Investments aims to raise funds in connection with the cost of of children education in the future, whereas protection is ideally aim to protect and guarantee children's health costs when things are unexpected happens to them. So which is best? Generally, any financial products will have advantages and disadvantages, therefore it would be very wise if before deciding to use a financial product related to the education fund, you as a parent are expected to carry projections on these two things:

1. The value of children's education by calculating current costs

Let us take the example of an educational fund for college, assuming the current tuition fees at universities in the United States range from US $ 2.200 - $ 40.519 per year, depending on where your children will continue their education, then by knowing the needs of current funding, you can project the future needs.

2. See the historical data of the average increase in costs per year.
By knowing the data cost a few years back, then you can predict the percentage of increase in the cost for the education per year.

However, in practice relating to financial products that are offered to the society with the words of 'education', whether it's insurance or savings, it turns out many weaknesses are found.

The weaknesses is the protection and management results funds earned from investments in financial products is relatively small, so it can actually make the parents do not have enough money for their children to get an education.

This is very unfortunate, considering the efforts that have been made by a parent which has earmarked a fund over the years, but ultimately must be paid to the disappointment of the funds generated short of their expectations.

Because funding of education is a something definite, you can predict nominal needed in the future, and you can also specify the time period. Therefore, the most prudent to to prepare children's education fund is to invest in investment instruments.

You can buy financial products such as insurance or savings, according to the nature of its products. The purpose of buying insurance is for protection only (pure insurance), while the savings that you have can be used of short-term goals, and investment aims to achieve higher results with the risks that can be managed in the long term.

By allocating funds separately in accordance with the respective designation, then hopefully in the end you will get the maximum benefit from financial products owned.

Why Under 25 Drivers Should Pay More For Auto Insurance Compared To Those Over 25?

Under 25 drivers

When you asked some of car insurance agency, concerning the cost of insurance for the drivers younger than 25 years, then you will find that the price is more expensive compared to the insurance for the people aged over 25 years.

Then you think, how could this happen?

It is true that the driver with a young age and older age is more often have an accident, but you believe that age is not the only reason for the establishment of auto insurance rates.

You need more answers with evidence, rather than some unclear answers out there.

Most young drivers get their driver's license at the age of 18 or 19 years.

When you get your license, you may not have much experience on paper before test driving is performed. The longer you have your driving license, then you already have an important experience in driving.

It is the time required by the insurance company to declare that you are a good driver or even they could have doubted your driving skills.

The time required was approximately 6 years and you've aged 25 from the time you get your driving license.

However, if you got your license at the age of 24 and you do not have the essential experiences before, assuming you are a good driver, then you will see a slight reduction in insurance costs, but you probably will not see a dramatic decrease in of car insurance until you are 30 years old.

The Facts About Teen Drivers

It is surprising that is in 2013 teenagers aged 15 to 19 years only seven percent of the total US population, but they accounted for approximately eleven percents or $ 10 billion dollars for the cost of treatment of injuries due to motor vehicle accidents.

Center For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) states that in 2014, the total of 2.270 teens, 16 to 19 years old in the US were killed and as many as 221.333 were treated in intensive care unit due to motor vehicle accidents.

National Center for Health Statistics also stated that the main cause of death of teens aged 15 to 20 years old is motor vehicle crashes. For more detail about teen driving statistic, you can read it here.

Based on these facts, it explains why insurance companies will require that teens person under the age 25 years to pay more, because they also have a greater risk of having an accident while driving. You may deny it, but that's a fact.

The good news is that with online services like Uber, teenagers reduce the use of cars and they also delay ownership of their cars to use the service. Similarly, the incidence of accidents which often occur on prom night has been reduced because they share a large vehicle or limousine ride as they go and leaving the the prom night.

By having of car insurance, as young adults, of course, your expenses will increase. Some expenses such as paying the insurance premiums, as well as other routine expenditures such as the purchase of spare parts or buy lubricants and fuel.

Do You Ever Think If The Insurance Company Will Runs Out Of Money And Can't Pay Their Claims?

US Department Of Treasury

Many companies that have been running for a few years or a big company that has operated for decades suddenly closed down due to bankruptcy. Various questions arise, what causes these companies go bankrupt? While other companies can survive and developing rapidly with the income continues to increase every year.

Here are the factors that cause the company ran out of money:

Can't afford to meet customer needs
A company should be able to meet consumer needs so that the service or products offered can be accepted by the market. However, if it is ignored, then what is presented by the company will be useless, because it is not able to attract consumers, this due to does not fit their needs.
Overly focuses on product development
The focus on product development is a good thing and should be maintained. However, what happens if too focused on it? Besides being able to forget the key needs of consumers, the company that are too focusing on product development will lose sensitivity to what is going inside the company, the market situation, and others.
Excessive fear
The fear of bankruptcy, fear of loss, fear of not being able to serve consumers, fear because of the inability to overcome the problem, it is a natural thing as long as it is still in normal portion. However, if these fears exceed normal limits, it will hinder the company's performance and can lead to destruction.
Stop for innovation
Innovation is something that must be done by each entrepreneur. Without innovation, the products are sold for a long time will seem boring and outdated and for the people who become the target of marketing of a product, this would not be a good sign.
Not observing the movement of competitors
Not or less observing the movement of competitors, it will cause a company can not compete and lagging far behind. A company still must consider the measures undertaken by competitors.
The price is too expensive
Some people believe that high prices will create a company's products look nicer and more luxurious than the original. However, what happens if there is a new company that release products are similar to the company's product and sell it much cheaper?

What if the insurance companies fail?

So, you already buy an insurance and you want to know what if the insurance company ran out of money? The important thing to note is that if the insurance company bankrupt or liquidated then you as a insured have the primary right over the distribution of wealth from the insurance company.

The investment fund of an insurance client can not be used to pay the liabilities of the company to third parties, except the payment to the client. Only if there are excess funds, it can be used to pay to a third party.

Examples of real cases is AMI as mutual insurance in New Zealand. For more details about what had happened to AMI, you can read it here.

This company has insured many houses in Christchurch. With a low premium, of course, many customers are interested. Then bad event had happened at that time, a major earthquake hit Christchurch. Many properties were damaged and people are suffering enormous losses.

It is a risk, and insurance companies should bear the loss because of natural disasters such as earthquake. However, there are times when the company was not able to cover all the claims, because it takes a lot of fund. Because of this, the company was finally sold. Then the government pays the remaining claims.

Internal Audit In Insurance Companies

What is the purpose of audit on the insurance companies?

To minimize the risk of irregularities in business operations and to support operational speed problem resolution, as well as increasing labor harmony whole company, it would require a unit with the job description to take on the role of monitoring and / or control, known as Internal Auditor.

The purpose of internal audit is to provide facts about the actual state of the company. These facts include the financial, management and so on, summarized into a report.

Internal audit reports typically include degree of compliance with the provisions of SOP and monitor the implementation of risk management. This report can also be equipped with a trend analysis of the entire company's risk profile as well as suggestions for improvement. Report submitted to the Directors and other relevant executive.

Internal audit is as one of the functions of internal control system of a company that should be implemented effectively in order to secure the assets of the company, ensuring that all business activities comply with laws and regulations as well as company policies.

The Insurance Company Has Adequate Reserves

Insurance companies need to meet regulations, to manage the finances which can meet to pay claims. Thus, the risk of runs out of money becomes very small even though the risk is still there, as in the case of AMI, New Zealand as described above.

Although the the state have the guarantee fund and the fund is sufficient to meet the claims of consumers, but insurance companies still required, under the rules of state to have adequate reserves. Overall the industry, such as reports FIO Annual Report, US Department Of Treasury has reported a good condition of the premium to surplus ratio.

You can find information about the insurer's financial assessment through the web like A.M Best.

A.M Best Web

AM Best provides grade on the financial condition of insurance companies and also the prospect of their financial condition in the future.

State insurance departments organize reserves required for each type of insurance company. In addition, state agencies will also help to ensure that financial practices are done in wisdom and able to protect insurance policy holders with sufficient funds to pay their claims. Each department of the related insurance will take action to fix the problem if the insurance company can not meet the financial responsibilities.

National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is an organization that provides valuable information which is standard and has been widely adopted by countries with the aim to protect consumers from unfair accounting and bad financial practices by insurance companies.

NAIC can issue a Uniform Application for Certificate Of Authority which is the minimum statutory capital and surplus requirements.

Surplus Ratio

What is the surplus ratio and why it became important for insurance companies?

Surplus ratio is the ratio between Net Premiums and Capital & Surplus, or Net Premiums divided by Capital & Surplus. Surplus ratio is important because it is a benchmark of the financial health of insurance companies.

You can get annual report on the insurance industry from Federal Insurance Office, US Department Of Treasury.

P/C Sector Annual Premium-to-Surplus Ratio
Source: FIO Annual Report, US Depertment Of Treasury

If you look at the report, you will find that Net premium written / Average Capital and Surplus is 79% for the end of period of 2012, and this is a reasonably good condition.

Conclusion

The conclusion is that the insurance industry have strict regulations as well as the business is clear. The risk of general insurance companies for not being able to pay the claims of its clients due to runs out of money is very small.

Although there are companies in a minor percentage which has fallen because they did not hold up in dealing financial pressure, but there are many mechanisms that have been prepared to face this kind of problem, so that the company could continue to meet its obligations to clients.

How Much Money Should I Put In Savings For An Emergency

Tips and Information

So you ask about how much money you should savings for an emergencies? Once upon a time throughout your life, maybe you have experienced a bad events or unpleasant. The incident could be serious illness, vehicle collisions, accidents at home, your stuff is stolen, fire, and so on. You also realize, you have to spend huge amounts of money to overcome these events, yes, the events may appear suddenly as a part of the risk of life.

Until one day you actually experience it, and of course I do not expect you to experience it. You will realize how important you save money in situations like these, which may occur at any time in your life. Most people will use their credit card without thinking of the effect.

They hope to resolve the issue quickly with a credit card, but it turned out to create a new problem in their lives. Like a snowball, which will always bring trouble growing large.

Be aware of this case, although it is often underestimated by most people, but the difficulties that will be brought about is real.

Pay attention to your life today, whether you have a family? Say you have a child, then it becomes a serious consideration when you should set aside some of your money for emergencies.

Another example is when someone lives with a particular disease, then he certainly should have saved more for emergencies compared with healthy people.

Indeed, you might think that having savings is not that easy. When a lot of financial rules, economic conditions are not good in your country, the prices of basic necessities are increasing, high taxes, so the having money savings is difficult. Especially when you realize that your salary is only enough to support your simple life.

Strategies To Save Money For An Emergency

It can be complicated, but not impossible. The amount you should have in your emergency fund, may vary, so we suggest you read this note to determine the amount of money that should be there. So, here are some strategies for you to apply the most appropriate according to your lifestyle:

Establish a fixed monthly percentage: If you have your finances under control, you will find it much easier to "get a monthly fee" so that you can grow this emergency fund. There is no set limit but, depending on your budget and your accounts, it can be between 1% and 5% of your salary. Add it as an additional field in your budget.

Use an automatic transfer: Especially if you want to have this money in a particular savings account, you can set that, to just receive your fortnight, between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 go directly to that account. For this it is important to take into account how much you expect to have in this fund, and that, divide it between 6 or 12 months, depending on how long it takes to build this fund.

Open a specific bank account for the savings fund. Having the money saved will reduce the temptation to spend it on other things and at the same time, your savings will be earning interest.

If an emergency occurred and you have to use part or all of the fund, it is advisable to increase the percentage which is you save each month. Even if it is a minimal increase, it will take less time to recover what you had.

If your income increases, then you also have to increase the percentage allocated to the emergency fund. The efforts made by you from month to month will be rewarded with peace of mind to overcome the crisis without financial setbacks.

You can have two emergency funds, one for small or minor situations and another for major emergencies. The first emergency funds could be used to repair damaged equipment or for the treatment of colds or other minor situation. The second would be perfect to solve a prolonged illness, greater damage on the car or damage caused by natural disasters.

An emergency fund is an alternative among many preventive options that exist. Consider combining the emergency fund with other options, such as medical or housing insurance.

The creation of an emergency fund is simple and should always be adapted to your income. It requires commitment and discipline, because it must protect the money and not spend it for other purposes. Remember that the main beneficiary will be you and yours.

The emergency fund should be seen as an investment rather heritage and be covered in personal finance, That money should not be spent, but must be kept so that it is available at any time. It is very important to respect it.

What Is The Difference Between Critical Illness Insurance And Health Insurance?

Health insurance

Have you ever received an offer for a critical illness insurance?

Do you know what is critical illness insurance? What is the difference with health insurance in general?

Here a comparison to explain what are the fundamental differences between critical illness insurance with health insurance:

Critical Illness Insurance

Provide a guarantee in case of critical illness, such as cancer, kidney failure, and heart, etc.
Typically protection will be obtained after entering the critical phase.

Health Insurance

Generally does not include critical illness protection.
Protection granted since the beginning of illness and treatment

Generally, critical illness insurance is offered as an additional insurance (supplementary) for health insurance.

For those of you who have a family history of critical illness, you should equip health insurance with critical illness insurance. But before you buy, there are some considerations that you need to think about:

By buying a critical illness insurance policy means you pay premiums more expensive than regular health insurance policy. However, you have the flexibility to determine the amount of money insured.
Make comparisons of critical illness insurance products from several different companies, at least three products. Make comparisons to protection facilities that will be provided.
Make sure you are willing to pay a premium of monthly income so that the policy is not lapsed (off) because this could lead to termination liability of the insurance company to cover you when you should be treated.
Understand and learn more terms and conditions of critical illness insurance policy, particularly the criteria to be able to make a claim.

With these considerations, I hope you can determine whether to buy critical illness insurance or not.

The Field, Financial and Medical Underwriting Process Of Insurance

Tips and Information

With so many information about the importance of insurance, I am sure that you are already aware of this. But there is one question which causes you not yet to decide to immediately register your family to the insurance company, the question is "whether I have the qualifications to be insured"?

That's right is not it ??

Became the unfortunate thing if your family must be protected, but this was not done because of fear if your application is rejected.

So let me to explain the basic principles of selection to customers. The underwriting process (risk selection) in the insurance are conduct by:

1. The Field Underwriter

Marketers or insurance consultant is a field man who see physically to selects the health condition and the intention of the prospective customer.

Therefore, in filling an insurance submission file, the field underwriter always conducted interviews regarding:

Smoking behavior (frequency of smoking), including a history of being treated in the hospital or not? If yes, will be asked details about the name of the disease, when the last time the disease relapses, hospital name, year of hospitalization, and the actions taken by the doctor during the treatment.
Abnormalities experienced by prospective customers (e.g heart defects, stroke, increased cholesterol, etc.).
Whether the prospective customer ever conduct an examination of the heart / blood / urine / x-ray / USG / biopsy
Is there a family among prospective customers who has died because of had suffered from coronary heart / stroke / diabetes / cancer / congenital abnormalities.
Whether prospective customers ever used illegal drugs or addictive substances in the last 5 years.
Whether prospective customers drinking an alcoholic drink more than 750 cc per week?
Whether the prospective customer ever involved a criminal act?
Whether the prospective customer has a high-risk hobby?
How much income and regular expenses of the family?

All of this data is a guide for insurance companies in assessing risk in a person. All these data are considered fair / right by the insurance company (the principle of utmost good faith)

After that, the data is processed and the selection will be continued by the financial underwriter.

2. The Financial Underwriter

The insurer in this case is the insurer's financial team with the aim to see whether a prospective customer is able to:

Conduct regular premium payments related to income customers
If a potential customer choose the life insurance with death compensation above a certain amount, then the prospective customer will be required to include some data regarding the ownership of assets.

After the selection by the team of financial underwriter, then the next step is medical underwriter.

3. The Medical Underwriter

Medical underwriter is the person providing recommendations regarding the feasibility potential clients to be accepted based on their health.

The data from the marketers will become 100% of reference for the team in selecting the the health a prospective customer.

For example, a prospective customer had been treated and then underwent intestinal surgery, then the doctor of the insurance company will make recommendations to marketers to conduct medical check-ups to potential customers (costs will be borne by an insurance company). Some of the decisions of the selection of these risks is:

1.Standar
Immediately accepted as a client, and the policy will be issued in accordance with the benefits taken.

2.Substandar
a.Exclusion
The principle of insurance companies is pre existing condition, means an existing disease (before a prospective customer become the customer) but relapsed after become a customer, then the claim will not be covered. Except for seasonal diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, typhus.
Similar to car insurance, if part of the car is already damaged before insured, then after insured, that part will not be covered.

b.Extra loading / extra cost of insurance
The principle of an insurance is to give fairness to all customers, the cost of the risk of a healthy person and a sick person will be different. People who are sick will have a higher risk costs. Therefore required additional premium in order to obtain the desired benefits.

c.Restriction
Suppose someone wants to take a certain amount of compensation for death, but because the person had been sick before, then the companies only allow claims for compensation with a smaller amount (this process has done when submission process to become customer, not the process after become a customer)

d.Declined
The submission may be rejected by insurance companies because of several things, such as the condition with very poor health, living in areas prone to conflict (have a level higher risk of death compared to other regions), an unhealthy lifestyle and so on.

If the customer is accepted, it will be written in the insurance contract that is signed by the person who has the authority.

Health Insurance For International Students In USA

USA

Health insurance becomes important, of course, this also applies to students though. Well, if you, or your family or you are planning to study in the United States, so that your status as a foreign or international student, then you better have health insurance.

With the international scale level, Study USA Insurance HealthCare has three packages attractive plans offered to foreign students, such as F1 visa holders, among others:

Standard Plan, is $100,000,-
Preferred 300, is $300,000,-
Preferred 500, is $500,000,-

The lowest price for Study USA Insurance starts from $ 2.06 / day.

Why Do You Have To Believe In Study USA Insurance For Your Insurance Plan?

When you talk about trust in a company, then that comes to your mind of course, its reputation and also what support the company.

Study USA insurance managed by TIS (Travel Insurance Services) that has experienced more than thirty years in the world of insurance, but it is also guaranteed by the world's specialist insurance and reinsurance market, Lloyd's of London, which has services to over 200 countries and received A excellent rating.

Not quite up there, Study USA Healthcare has also been participating in the First Health PPO network, which is known to be quite good throughout the US Study USA, which is an insurance plan with a low cost for foreign students and their dependents, and otherwise meets the requirements of most leading universities in USA.

There are two types of plan, the indemnity plan that does not participate in the PPO network, and who plan to participate. The insured can use whichever plan he wants.

In addition, there are also some PPO plan that gives you the policy to visiting a doctor anywhere without reducing coverage.

As long as someone is registered as a student in class and attending universities or colleges or schools, in a full-time basis, then that person is already eligible to purchase insurance. The maximum insurance that can be purchased is up to 4 years, up to 364 days per year.

You will get the policy via email for Study Health Insurance - Student health insurance when you renew or purchase the insurance. The maximum policy that can be obtained is $ 100,000, $ 300,000, $ 500,000, depending on the plan you choose. You can also do online renewal.

For the $ 25,000 first, you have to pay 20% only, and the plan pays 80%. After $ 25,000, then the plan will pay up to 100% for the maximum policy in Study USA Healthcare.

How About Claims?

Claims are managed by Tokio Marine in HCC Medical Services Groups.

You will receive an ID card immediately when you make a purchase insurance. In the ID card is listed a number of important information regarding your data, such as ID number, name, address of the claims, and toll free phone service to call and verify coverage.

You just show the card to the provider then after they receive your card, they will agree for give the bill to the insurance company. Furthermore, the insurer will pay them directly for all eligible expenses.

But what should you do if they do not accept your card?

Then you have to do is pay the fee in advance, and then by sending details of the fee to the insurer for receive reimbursement, in both cases, you are still responsible for your deductible and co-insurance.

For hospitalization and surgery, both are included into larger expenses, so that the insurer will generally arrange payment directly to the hospital.

Being a student also has the risk, so protect yourself from any unforeseen circumstances with insurance.

Read :
Best Health Insurance Plan For Family Doesn't Have To Be Hard. Read These 3 Tips