Cheaper Car Insurance

On average that is a cut of about 4%, which will cost the insurer approximately $70 million dollars. The price cut affects policies that start or renew after July 1.

Auto Club CEO Robert Bouttier said that it is the 4th reduction within the last decade that the Auto Club has offered to it’s customers. Bouttier claims that in total that is $380 million worth of reductions.

The Californian Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, approved the latest cuts and include special discounts for home owners and various special rates for some group buys of insurance.

According to Auto Club, auto insurance rates have been coming down for the last decade and they want to be at the forefront of that push.

Insurance analysts suggest that rates have been coming down because cars are now much safer, people are driving less and there are less severe claims. California has some very tightly regulated Auto Insurance rates and changes in their price must be approved by the insurance commissioner. That has led to some of the most competitive Auto Insurance prices in the country.

Common Beneficiary Naming Mistakes

Naming a beneficiary for your life insurance policy and your last will and testament is one of the most important decisions in your life. For many people it is straightforward, for others with complex family situations in can be very difficult. Even for those with a close knit family, naming the wrong beneficiary can lead to hurt feelings and family squabbles after you pass away.

The last thing you want to do is create a mess for your family to clean up after you depart, which can potentially ruin their relationship with each other. So let’s take a look at the most common mistakes people make when naming their beneficiary.

Pushing people into a tax trap

Life insurance is tax free except when different people are playing the role of policy owner, the insured and the beneficiary. So for example if your uncle takes out a life insurance policy on your grandfather and you are named as the beneficiary, then the money could be declared a taxable gift. You could land the person with a substantial tax bill and run into financial problems at a later date if that is not fully understood.

The best way to avoid this is to make sure that the insured party also owns the policy and you will avoid paying any tax on the sum.

Believing your will determines who gets the life insurance money

The life insurance policy operates separately to any will you might have drawn. So that means any declaration in your will saying that the life insurance money should be split a certain way is irrelevant. The life insurance policy only uses the beneficiary list to determine who will get the money. So if that is out of date, the money may go to someone unexpected, regardless of your wishes in your will.

Not keeping the beneficiary up to date

Many people don’t keep their beneficiary list up to date. You might get divorced and have your first wife listed as a beneficiary, or your beneficiary might die, or you might have a falling out with your beneficiary. If you do not update the policy, your relatives might get a nasty shock when they realize they won’t see any of the money.

Skimping on details

If you wish to have a somewhat complex arrangement with your life insurance beneficiary list, make sure it is detailed very closely.

Say for example if you want 5 grandchildren and 3 children to take an equal share in the policy, how do you stipulate that without any doubt?

The two methods are per stirpes and per capita. Per stirpes means that the proceeds are divided by branch of the family and per capita means that it is done on a per head basis.

So in the example above of 5 grandchildren and 3 adult children, one of your adult children may be responsible for 3 grandchildren and the other 2 adults may be responsible for 1 grandchild each.

Now if you did it on a Per stirpes basis, the three children would receive an equal amount each because it is following the branch of the family. So the adult with 3 children gets the same as the adult with 1 child. You may see that as fair.

If you did it on a per capita basis, the adult with 3 children is getting 4 shares, while the adults with 1 child get 2 shares of the policy dividend. Is that more equitable or less equitable? You have to also consider other circumstances of the children involved, are they all well off, or are some struggling more.

Also, what happens should one of the children or grandchildren pass away? Sometimes complex and precise documents should be lodged when dealing with beneficiaries and an estate lawyer might be required.

Forgetting to tell people you have a life insurance policy!

It happens quite a bit – the family doesn’t realise the relative doesn’t have a life insurance policy, where it is and who the beneficiary is. Sometimes a benefit is never claimed and hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost to the family because the deceased never told them about the policy. Make sure your family knows about the policy and the beneficiary.

Giving money to young people without stipulations

When you name a young person as a beneficiary, often they aren’t equipped with the skills and life experience required to spend wisely. If an 18 year old suddenly inherits $1 million dollars, their first thought may not be about investing it intelligently, it might be about getting a sportscar.

You could even send them on a destructive path of partying and binging on drugs and alcohol or set them up to be fleeced by someone unscrupulous. Some people set up trusts so that the young person can obtain some spending money to make their life more comfortable, to help them with a home deposit but they don’t receive unfettered access until they are older. Sometimes trusts have requirements, so if the young person finishes college they get a set amount early as a reward.

Naming only 1 beneficiary

You may think that a certain member of your family is smart enough to handle all of the funds from the life insurance policy and hand out money to the other relatives. But after you are gone, their attitude may change, they might have a falling out with another relative or other relatives may resent them being named as sole beneficiary.

It is often a mistake to place a great deal of trust in the hands of a sole beneficiary, and it’s better to make your intentions for the money known by having multiple beneficiaries.

Additionally if you have a single beneficiary, if something happens to them, then the policy may be in chaos. If you pass away in a car accident and your sole beneficiary is in the car with you and passes away, you could be leaving your family in chaos. If you do not make up more complex arrangements for beneficiaries, at the very least you should have a secondary and final beneficiary listed.

Naming a minor as a beneficiary

Some people have a favorite grandchild who they want to see succeed in life, so think it may be a great idea to name them as a beneficiary. The problem here is that life insurance companies will not pay a minor when you pass away. A guardian will need to be appointed and that may be someone you don’t trust with the money, or someone you don’t like. Instead, you should find an adult who you know is trustworthy and is able to safeguard the money until the minor reaches adulthood and can claim it (at 18 or 21 depending on the location).

Making a beneficiary lose their welfare entitlements

If you have a beneficiary who is receiving government entitlements like some with a disability, they may lose that when they receive the money from the life insurance policy. The amount they can receive is shockingly low, with anyone who receives more than $2000 inheritance disqualified for medicaid and supplemental security income. In this situation you need to setup a trust which will manage the money in a way that helps the person in the long term and doesn’t dramatically affect their welfare entitlements if possible.

Insurance Fraudsters Busted!

Investigators in Florida have uncovered a complex insurance scam involving as many as 50 people on Thursday and have laid charges against 33. The highly complex scam involved a number medical professionals, clinic owners, massage therapists, chiropractors and recruiters who sought out people to play a role in the scams.

They staged car accidents and faked related injuries, with willing participants visiting medical professionals who had been paid off for a diagnosis of their injuries.

After a 3 year investigation, police moved in and arrested many of the individuals involved in staging the accidents and perpetrating the insurance fraud. Investigators estimate that the scam fleeced upward of $20 million from insurance companies.

William J. Maddalena, one of the FBI agents involved declared: “If you get upset about your car insurance premiums going up, this crime is one of the reasons why,” He continued: “Every time an insurance payout is made for a staged accident in Florida, we all feel the pain in the pocketbook.”

The arrests are part of a larger operation called “Operation Sledgehammer” which has seen the FBI and local authorities target insurance scammers in the Palm Beach, Broward and Miami areas. The scammers convicted have been ordered to repay $5 million so far and more convictions will undoubtedly be on their way.

The name for the operation comes from the fact that some of the scammers used sledgehammers to damage vehicles and make them look like they had been in an accident. The scam was highly complex because it involved people at every level including medical professionals who were prescribing fake treatment for fake patients. The recruiters found willing participants, paid them off and staged crashes around South Florida. Some of the charges include money laundering, staging financial transactions and accident fraud.

The scam has been running since as far back as 2006, netting a very large amount of cash in that time, and it used as many as 21 chiropractors to provide false injury statements. Some of the defendants have fled to Cuba to escaped prosecution.

The participants were trained by the recruiters and told which chiropractors to go to, how to file the police reports and how to file the insurance claims. The recruiters would then pay the participants, often using the funds in a separate money laundering scheme.

So if you are looking for one of the reasons why insurance premiums continue to claim, you can blame insurance scammers like the ones busted in Florida. Luckily for us the FBI and other authorities are on their trail!

Dangerous Dogs Liability Insurance

More cities are moving to enforce restrictions on dangerous dogs and in recent moves, some are making new insurance requirements for the owners of “dangerous dogs”.

In the suburb of Royal Oak in Detroit, officials have had enough with recent vicious dog attacks and have decided to enforce new rules on those animals. As reported by the Detroit Free Press, in October a Doberman pinscher left outside a grocery store attacked a man and severely injured him. Police have also been forced to shoot some pit bulls that mauled a small dog.

The city commission, Patricia Capello was behind the push for new dangerous dog laws which include secure yard requirements, obedience training, a microchip implanted on the animal and a $1 million liability insurance policy.

Capello suggests that despite the $1 million policy requirement seeming to be a bit high, it is required so that people don’t lose their homes, saying “It’s worth it to have the peace of mind that you won’t lose your home”.

With a dangerous dog there is potential for serious injuries or death to other people or animals, so that level of policy probably is the right amount. A liability insurance policy of that level is expected to cost around $110 per year.

Other suburbs like Farmington Hills already have a requirement for $1 million in liability insurance for owners of dogs with a history of bites or attacks, so Royal Oak is not going it alone in instigating this policy. In fact it is expected that many other suburbs with dangerous dogs will follow this policy. Waterford and Westland also require insurance policies, but not to the same extent.

There is also a chance for dog owners to have their pet reclassifed so it is no longer considered “dangerous” if it has a good track record with no instances of escaping their yard without the owner or biting any people (or other animals).

It is another thing to consider when selecting your pet – could there be additional expenses coming from insurance policy requirements if you choose a breed that is more likely to be dangerous. More suburbs and cities are likely to move to similar kinds of requirements as deaths and injuries to dog attacks continue to rise in the United States. Some pet insurance policies do contain an allowance for dog bites, so it is worth checking your policy to determine exactly how much you may be protected. Usually any liability insurance in a pet insurance plan will not reach the required $1 million in liability insurance so you may be required to have 2 insurance policies.

Wedding Insurance

When couples are planning there big day, there are many considerations to plan for. From the seating chart, to the wedding dress, wedding cake, event location and even the fonts on the invitation, there are many things to plan to make a successful wedding that the bride and groom (and their families) are happy with. The more complex that weddings become, quite often the more expensive they can become.

Some large weddings can now cost more than $25’000 and make for a substantial expenditure which has to be paid for by the married couple or traditionally, the brides father. When most couples think about wedding insurance they tend to think that insurance is only for a cancelled wedding, and that’s the last thing they want. So they tend to avoid giving it much thought and just skip insurance altogether, not thinking about all of the possible reasons that a wedding might be canceled – weather, accidents or any uncontrollable events.

Wedding insurance does not typically cover cold feet, so if one party does not decide to go through with the wedding, the expenses are still payable. It will cover accidents of most kinds, it will cover issues with the location of the wedding and contractors.

Wedding Insurance Cost

The price for wedding insurance really depends on the extent of the coverage and the total amount for the coverage. Even the most basic wedding insurance policies will cover loss of damage to attire (your expensive wedding dress gets damaged), wedding presents, wedding photos and wedding rings and can cost anywhere from $150 through to $500+ depending on the dollar figures insured.

General liability insurance can cover accidents at the event in which third parties are injured and you can obtain $1 million worth of general liability insurance for about $150-200.

Make sure you thoroughly read the policy details to determine precisely what you are covered for and ask the insurance provider about anything you don’t fully understand.

It is also advisable to get your wedding insurance well in advance of the date of the event. What happens if your bride to be spends $5000 on an expensive wedding dress and 3 days before the wedding, the shop burns down. Without insurance you would be out of pocket or waiting many months to be reimbursed by the shop. With wedding insurance you could make a claim immediately and purchase a new dress before the big day.

Wedding Insurance Coverage Details

Again, you should check the specifics of your policy to make sure you know what is covered, but here are some of the things you may not think of, that are covered by many wedding insurance policies.

The Wedding Rings
Even though it’s a cliche, it is entirely possible that the best man may lose the wedding rings! They could also be stolen or lost on the way to the wedding, so having wedding insurance which covers the cost of the rings is nice to have.

Wedding Transport
If your wedding day transport falls through for whatever reason, the wedding insurance should reimburse you for those costs. If the limousine breaks down on the way to the event, the cost of hiring another one will be reimbursed by the wedding insurance.

The Wedding Dress
The wedding dress may be accidentally damaged and when you are talking about dresses that potentially cost thousands of dollars, it pays to have them insured. In addition you might have hired wedding attire for the big day. What happens if you damage it, are you liable? You should check both the terms and conditions of the rental company as well as the insurance policy to determine if you

The Wedding Flowers
Many weddings also spend thousands of dollars on flowers alone with the right flower arrangements necessary to set the scene for the event. What happens if the florist cannot deliver the flowers, or they are damaged somehow? Wedding insurance means that you will be reimbursed if you need to spend money on replacements.

Wedding Reception Location
Wedding insurance also covers issues with the actual location of the wedding reception. If the building in which the reception was due to take place burns down or floods, you don’t want to be stuck with a large bill which comes up when you find a new location. What if the reception location makes a mistake and books 2 weddings for the same day? The coverage will make sure you don’t suffer any financial loss from mixups with the event location.

So there are some of the reasons why wedding insurance might in fact be a great idea for your big day. It will help ensure things go well and that any unforeseen events don’t leave you with substantial bills after the wedding day!

Health Insurance Policies

Health Insurance is very important protection for you and your family against expenses that arrive should you or one of your loved ones become ill. For that reason, it is extremely important to get health insurance right. You need to choose a policy with great coverage, that has all of the options you need and is affordable. Check out the below tips to help you obtain great value for money when choosing your health insurance.

Compare life insurance quotes

In order to get the best value for money, you need to consider as many providers as you can. There are many health insurance comparison web sites which have been setup for just this reason. They will allow you to enter a few details and obtain quotes from multiple health insurance providers. The comparison websites will list all of the details of the policy so you can make an informed decision about which one offers the best value for money.

Customize your health insurance

Nowadays you can actually formulate an insurance policy to suit you individual needs and save money. If you don’t want to have any more children you won’t need an insurance policy that covers pregnancy costs, for example. If you are in your 20s you won’t need a policy that provides insurance for hip replacements.

In this way you can remove the extras that a policy doesn’t need and really get down to the essentials and things you are worried about. It’s a fantastic way to save money on your health insurance.

Beware of costly and silly additions on a health insurance policy. If there are items associated with the insurance policy that you know you won’t need, speak to the provider and ask for a special deal.

Start health insurance early

Insurance companies like to reward customer loyalty and customers who join at a young age. Many companies will allow you to lock in a lower insurance premium if you join at a young age (below the age bracket of 30-40 in most cases). If you lock in that low lifetime insurance premium you will have a cheaper rate when you are 50, 60, 70 years of age. You can also be rewarded for staying with the same health insurance for a number of years with many companies offering a discount after 10 years of paying insurance premiums.

Choose an insurance plan with a higher excess

The excess is a payment you make to the insurance company when you decide to claim on your insurance policy. Usually the higher the excess, the lower the insurance premium, so you can save money in this way as well.

There are also co-payment options where you agree to pay a certain sum or percentage of medical costs when you claim on your insurance. That can also lower your insurance premiums, but you must be aware of precisely what co-payment obligations you have. Some plans will have a minimum fee attached to hospital stays on a per day basis, so a co-payment of $100 per day you spend in hospital.

Make sure there are limits on the co-payment amounts when signing onto an insurance policy because a per day hospital co-payment can quickly add up if you have a serious accident. Reading the policy in detail is the best way to make sure there are no hidden or substantial excess or co-payment fees in your policy. It is always a trade off between excess/co-payments and insurance premium savings, so find the right balance for you.

Pay in advance to lock in cheaper premiums

Most years there is an insurance premium rise, so avoid copping this rise, consider buying a years insurance in advance instead of doing monthly payments. Many insurance providers will pass on the rise in premiums immediately to customers who are paying every month, but customers who have paid for a year in advance won’t cop the premium rise until the expiry date on their policy.

If you look at the history of premium increases with your company, you may be able to determine what part of the year they raise premiums. If your insurance company usually increases premiums in March-April, then by buying your year long insurance policy in February, you will lock in a decent saving.

Consult your policy before having procedures done

You can save yourself some money by understanding exactly what your insurance policy covers and doesn’t cover. If you aren’t sure what costs you are up for, consult your general practitioner and contact your insurance company. There might be ways to save money by changing which facility you have the procedure done at or by changing some of the options associated with your hospital stay or procedure.

Make health insurance claims immediately

Make claims on your insurance policy immediately to get the ball rolling and prevent any personal costs to you. Most health insurance companies have a maximum claim period as well, so if you have a procedure and don’t claim it for 2 years, the insurance company will not pay you. You don’t want to be stuck with a large medical bill because you forgot to fill in the paperwork!

Home Maintenance

At this time of year many people perform their “spring clean”, when they go through the house and make sure everything is clean from roof to floor. Now is a great time to also perform some basic preventative maintenance on you house, and address any issues which may damage your home and cause you to eventually make an insurance claim.

There are actually many insurance claims that can be avoided by using preventative measures, thinking ahead and identifying potential problems early on. Here is a list of the easiest preventative measures that you could incorporate into your spring clean to save you a lot of money!

Check your yard for any trees or shrubs that are getting out of control
Anything that might knock against the wall or windows should be trimmed back. This will also help prevent mold problems in your home and prevent damage to the building during storms.

Check the batteries in your smoke alarms
Make sure all of your smoke alarms are functioning correctly and change the batteries if you need to. Use this time to consider buying more smoke alarms, which can not only save your home from destruction, but can save your life.

Wash the outside of your house
Hire or buy a pressure washer and wash the exterior of your home to remove dirt and mold. Check for any damage to the house while you do it and check the condition of the paint. If you have a timber home, look for any split timber or water damage to the exterior which can grow to be a problem.

Wash the inside of you house
Wash the walls, paying close attention to any indications of mold or dry rot. If you notice a mold problem, chances are there is an issue with your roof, drainage or cracks in your concrete, letting water into the structure of the house. The sooner you spot that, the better.

Clean your gutters
Clean out any leaf litter in your gutters and make sure the guttering is still in good condition. Make sure there is no evidence of water building up in the gutters, or corrosion. Check that the downpipes are draining correctly and that the water isn’t winding up in the basement.

Check the condition of the roof
Look for cracked tiles, loose tiles or damage of any kind to the roof. Eventually your roof might have to be replace, but with some simple maintenance you can avoid a common insurance claim that people make when their roof leaks.

Check the concrete around the house and in the basement
Look for any cracks or damage that indicates the house is moving. These cracks could be responsible for water damage and any issues need to be detected as early as possible. Check the basement for any problems and fill them with a concrete or silicon crack filler.

Clean your carpets
Hire an industrial strength steam cleaner and clean the carpets. It can help reduce any mold problems and make your house much healthier, reducing the chance of health insurance claims.

Clean ceiling fans
Check the condition of your ceiling fans. Again, removing mold and dust is beneficial for your families health and can reduce the risk of health or household insurance claims.

Umbrella Insurance

Umbrella Insurance is a form of liability insurance that will protect your assets and income in addition to any primary insurance policies you may have. That means that it provides cover additional to any property, automobile or watercraft policies you might have. Liability insurance is the portion of the insurance policy that covers for expenses associated with any injured parties and pays for their medical bills, rehabilitation and lost wages.

The term umbrella refers to the fact that the insurance covers all of your assets and income where other policies alone might not provide enough cover – it provides additional cover to all of the policies underneath it. It is different to “excess” insurance because it does not require that all other policies be exhausted before coming into effect.

Usually umbrella insurance is sold in increments of 1 million dollars. As an example of how other insurance policies with with it, if you had an automobile insurance policies which had a liability limit of $300’000, with the umbrella insurance, your total coverage is $1’300’000. If you had a home insurance policy with limits of $500’000, with the umbrella insurance policy it would become $1’500’000.

With some insurance policies, you might not be entirely covered if you acted in a way that voided the policy, but umbrella insurance will often provide coverage. So if you are involved in a automobile accident, and for some reason your primary insurance provider refuses to pay out, you still have $1 million of coverage from the umbrella policy.

In addition, umbrella insurance is particularly useful because our society is so litigious now, and any automobile accident or incident involving your home can turn into a large lawsuit. If you are sued for $1 million dollars and your automobile policy will only payout $300’000, then umbrella insurance can be used to cover the remainder.

The umbrella insurance coverage will provide for legal representation if the matter goes to court. Once you combine an injured person’s medical bills and any legal action they might take, it’s quickly apparent that the standard automobile insurance or household insurance does not include enough liability insurance.

In nearly every state of the United States, there are laws that hold drivers responsible for all bodily injury and property damage should they be at fault, so the risk is very real that you could lose everything without sufficient insurance.

Funeral Insurance

It’s often difficult to think about your own mortality and the people you are leaving behind. However if you think about those you are leaving behind for a moment, it’s much easier to get motivated and prepare for your own passing. Will your family be able to afford the various funeral expense, will they struggle to pay the expenses your passing will incur or are they financially secure? When you do pass away your family will be under enough stress mourning their loss, so adding a financial burden is a concern that many people wish to avoid.

Many older people have decided that they don’t want to place any additional financial stress on their family so have opted for a funeral insurance product. Funeral insurance is a payment that occurs on your passing to pay for funeral related expenses such as the cost if a casket or internment, and any related ceremonies.

This article will examine the risks and benefits of obtaining a funeral insurance policy, highlighting what you should be looking for in a policy to obtain value for money and examining if funeral insurance is good value for money at all.

Funeral Insurance is actually a very old form of insurance that can be traced back to ancient Greece when guilds called “benevolent societies” cared for surviving relatives and paid a death benefit to the family. The tradition went on in the middle ages and Victorian times with “friendly societies” taking up the cause.

In modern times, funeral insurance has been a part of many life insurance policies, adding sufficient compensation to cover the cost of the funeral in the life insurance payout. In recent years, companies have started heavily promoting funeral insurance as a separate policy at a substantially reduced price compared to life insurance, and with different eligibility requirements so older people could obtain it. Funeral insurance also pays out much quicker than many life insurance policies, which need sometimes need to establish cause of death before paying.

Before you buy into a funeral insurance policy you have to consider the value for money you receive. Under some funeral insurance plans you can end up paying more in premiums than the value of the cover, so you might pay $10’000 in premiums for a $5000 funeral eventually. Based on the average life expectancy, economists have calculated that taking out funeral insurance at the age of 65, your premiums will be much higher than the value of the insurance by the time you are 91. So you should think about your family history and current health situation before jumping into a policy.

With most insurance policies, you will only pay funeral insurance until age 90, then coverage becomes free. Most Funeral insurance premiums will be more expensive the older you are, so it’s inexpensive when you are 25 but much more expensive when you are 72. Some policies have fixed premiums for the entire duration of the policy.

It really pays to read the fine print of insurance policies because they can vary a great deal in regards to other specifics. With many policies the benefit amount increases over time but some have a fixed benefit throughout the entire policy. Some policies have a restriction on accidental death in the first couple of years of the policy. Some polcies are more expensive if you are a smoker or more expensive if you are a male (because they die earlier than females).

Instead of a funeral insurance policy (or in conjunction with one), there are other ways to cover funeral expenses that should be considered:

Prepaid Funerals will pay for a part or all of the funeral costs, at todays prices. That means if it costs $5000 to bury you today, despite possibly costing more in the future, you are still covered. There are a number of ways to pay for a prepaid funeral:

• Pre-purchased funeral items: you pay for small parts of the funeral individually. Buy a tombstone first, then buy a plot and so on.
• Contributory Funds: you make small regular payments that add up over time and contribute to the cost of your funeral, this may be a partial payment
• Prepaid Funerals: You choose the specifics of your funeral and make small payments over time

Funeral Bonds are also offered by insurance companies and some friendly societies. You can make a lump sum payment or pay by installments and the money is invested, to be paid out when you pass away. It cannot be accessed for any other purpose and can only be paid to the name you specify.

Life Insurance may also be an option instead of funeral insurance, depending on your age and ability to qualify. It will be more expensive than life insurance but if it is not cost prohibitive it can be of great benefit to a family after your death.

Doing the sums

So how does funeral insurance come up against these other options? Well it will largely depend on the specifics of the policy and your personal details. Taking a run of the mill funeral insurance policy with an increasing premium and payout, if you are aged 65 when you take out a policy for $6000 of funeral insurance (numbers rough estimate):

• If you die at 66 you will have paid $500 in premiums and will be paid $6000 by insurance (roughly +$5500 difference)
• If you die at 71 you will have paid $3830 in premiums and will be paid $7600 by insurance (roughly +$3800 difference)
• If you die at 76 you will have paid $9560 in premiums and will be paid $9770 by insurance (roughly +$200 difference)
• If you die at 81 you will have paid $20,300 in premiums and will be paid $12,400 by insurance (roughly -$7840 difference)
• If you die at 86 you will have paid $40,900 in premiums and will be paid $15,900 by insurance (roughly -$25,000 difference)

So as you can see, there quickly approaches a point where funeral insurance is not providing good value for money compared to other methods for paying for your funeral.  If you consider yourself somewhat healthy and have a good family history of long living it may be wise to consider other methods for covering funeral expenses.

Maritime Insurance

Marine Insurance is insurance aimed at protecting everything associated with shipping on local and international waterways. That includes insuring the ships themselves, the cargo, the shipping terminals, and all of the infrastructure involved in shipping property from origin to destination.

Cargo insurance is considered to be a part of marine insurance and is fairly detailed itself because of all of the logistics and possible risks involved in transporting cargo.

Marine Insurance can actually be traced all the way back to the ancient Romans with historians finding evidence of a maritime loan which was payable should a vessel not return to port. Risks to vessels at that time ranged from weather scuttling the ship, to pirates, to mechanical issues on the ship and even mutiny! In modern times, some of these issues are less likely but entirely possible. In modern times, maritime insurance developed in England where laws were developed to guide maritime insurance including the 1906 Maritime Insurance Act.

Maritime insurance covers a number of problems and accidents that can involve a ship. Maritime Insurance includes various types of collision damage such as collision with other ships, collision within harbors involving damage to infrastructure, collision with natural hazards like reefs and wreck removal. The wreck removal protection is particularly important because after an incident in a harbor, often the wreck needs to be removed immediately so normal shipping can continue.

Most maritime insurance policies only cover 75% of the insured parties liabilities in these circumstances, so many ships are required to purchase additional insurance to cover the remaining 25%.

Two important terms in maritime insurance are “total loss” and “constructive total loss”. Total loss refers to an incident where damages or repair costs exceed the value of the property. For example when a ship is involved in the collision and it is less expensive to buy a new ship rather than repair it. A constructive total loss refers to a situation where the repair cost and the salvage cost combined equal or exceed the value. The terms rely on the ship still being available to ascertain damages. In some situations the ship may have completely sunk.

There are additional specialist policies available under the maritime umbrella.

Increased Value insurance will add additional coverage to protect against the loss of ships which are worth more now than they were originally.

War Risk Insurance is more expensive and covers ships entering into territories that the Joint War Committee consider involved in a war. An example of this would be ships that enter the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War.

New Building Insurance covers damage to the hull while the ship is being constructed. If there is an accident in the shipyard that severely damages the hull this extension to normal maritime insurance will be required.

Cargo Insurance is available at a number of different levels, classified as A, B or C cargo coverage. C is the most limited and A is the most comprehensive. Additionally special clauses are required for certain kinds of cargo, like oil, coal, frozen food and meat. There are additional risks involved in transporting that kind of cargo and as a result, higher premiums.