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Archive for January, 2010

Many people have heard of mortgage protection through insurance policies but it may sound quite complicated to some. To answer the question right away: mortgage protection through insuring ones life is a form of personal insurance that pays off mortgage loans for people who were unable to pay it off in full due to death, terminal illness or disability.

The initial forms of mortgage protection insurance were directly linked to the current balance of your mortgage account and if your balance decreased so did the insurance coverage amount. However, these days the most popular form of such insurance is getting the insurance coverage amount equal to the initial amount of the mortgage loan without it decreasing over time, which makes it a quite inexpensive form of term insurance. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington likes acronyms when it comes to lawmaking and this new law is no exception. This is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and this November sees it finally come into force. Because it affects both employers and the insurance industry, this has been a hard-fought change and was only signed into law last year. Now it should prevent you from obvious discrimination. Sadly, it does not rule out discrimination by backdoor means. If an employer overhears you talking at the water cooler or routinely surveys local news including the obituaries, it is legal to use this information. But, overall, you should find some improvement. It covers two different situations with the same type of result. Firstly, it prohibits employers from asking you to go through a genetic test or making genetic information the basis of deciding whether to hire, promote or fire you. Secondly, it prohibits insurers from testing or demanding genetic information about you or your family in deciding whether to offer you coverage, in setting the premium rate and level of the deductible, or continue the cover. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the big dilemmas for any government when it bails out a business deemed “too big to fail” is how far it should go in managing that business. There is a temptation to actually start calling the shots whenever this is seen as necessary to protect the interests of the taxpayers whose money is bailing out the company. For example, if tax dollars are propping up a bank that has lent hundreds of millions to home buyers, should the government tell the bank to take a less aggressive approach to foreclosures? You only have to look at the public anger when top executives in these businesses started awarding themselves big bonuses, claiming their performance as managers justified these rewards. Even President Obama was moved to anger and Washington has appointed a pay czar whose job it is to moderate some of the pay excesses in the boardroom. There is support from the public for curbing excessive greed and reckless risk-taking by these businesses. There is less political will in Washington where lobbyists buy votes with campaign donations and other inducements. In a sense, this moves the dynamic back to the states. If Washington has a political logjam because of the power of vested interests, can local voters force change through? Read the rest of this entry »

Ensure proper protection for your home

People often underestimate the importance of flood insurance coverage until it’s actually needed. The important aspect about flood insurance is to realize that even if your mortgage lender does not necessarily require you to carry this type of coverage with your home insurance policy, it doesn’t mean that your house isn’t at risk of flood damage. The information provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency concludes that 25-30% of overall flood damage is delivered to areas with low to moderate risk ratings. And in case you don’t have flood coverage you may end up having so much to pay for that it would be easier to buy a new house. In order to avoid such losses all it takes from you is getting flood coverage. Read the rest of this entry »