Private medical care can cost the world. Do you really want to pay it yourself, and can you afford to?

Most people see medical insurance as an additional expense. But they would never think of driving a car that is not insured. How important is a broken fender compared to the cure for an illness?

For every person that will eventually require specialist medical care, the need arises to consolidate and plan for the future. Although health insurance is usually bundled with overall life insurance policies, the truth is that you can often find services tailored to your personal needs.

Granted, that it is not everyone’s choice investment option – and it shouldnt be – but these policies provide you and your family with timely death or injury related compensation and in some opt-in cases, regular and uninterrupted income.

It is unfair to compare the yeild of an insurance policyto other mainstream investments, for the simple reason that an insurance policy is basically exactly what it says it is, an insurance policy, and the income generated is just an added feature. Instead approach it as a non-exuberant, parallel saving schemewithout seeing market performance and you will see that it is a useful tool.

A particular point you have to consider is the elevated level of risk that we are all subject to today – whetehr we are travelling or engaging in the many pseudo lifestyle traits that we have unwittingly, and to an extent become accustomed to.

Evaluate cost versus benefits and ask yourself again if you would really prefer it if someone else were to pay for your healthcare charges. Although it is close to mandatory in many parts of the world. When adverse events might cause losses that can be quantified, we have to anticipate and manage them. This is true for the average motoring mishap, so why shouldnt it be an integral part of your future plan? Why do you think are we offered such proportionately high returns on healthcare policies?

However the risks you can’t handle or predict are best traansferred to a reliable insurance carrier rather than retained by you. When it comes to a Healthcare Plan, you have a lot of choices, but you have to choose which ones you would most require and abide by the decision you make.

Most common plans will cover the treatment of illness, disease or accidents, both inpaatient and outpatient, as well as provide compensation for dismemberment or death. But the compensation provided for conditions such as deteriotation of mental health or dental, vision and hearing impairments are usually vague, so before you purchase a healthcare plan, make sure you first go through the policy details and the extent of coverage.

Home, auto, life, and health insurance are certainly valuable investments, but failure to couple them with disability insurance will jeopardize your full financial security. For example, health insurance might cover the potential fiscal pitfalls of the medical bills that result from a disability, but the rest of your financial obligations are not going to come to a halt. Vehicle payments, mortgages, insurance premiums, and even savings for the future are all important expenses that cannot be ignored just because you are disabled. Unfortunately, the chances of becoming disabled might be greater than you think.

According to the 1994 Statistical Abstract of the United States, in the course of a year, odds are that 1 in 10 people between the ages of 25 and 64 will suffer a disability. When comparing that ratio to the odds of being victim of a house fire (1 in 122); injured in an automobile accident (1 in 160); or even of death (1 in 117), the advantage of disability insurance is clear. A February 2000 article in the New York Times reported that 1 in 7 people between the ages of 35 and 60 will become disabled for five years or more.

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Despite these glaring statistics, many people still take a substantial risk by ignoring the benefits offered by a disability insurance policy. In 2000, a survey by The Consumer Federation of America and The American Council of Life Insurers found that 82 percent of people do not have long-term disability insurance or believe their coverage is inadequate.

The alternatives to disability insurance all carry a degree of risk or have some sort of drawback. Social Security benefits are difficult to qualify for and the disability must prevent you from working in any occupation. Worker’s compensation benefits are limited and only cover job-related sickness or injury. Other options—relying on savings, family, and/or friends—are not guaranteed and have considerable downside.

Guard your assets—don’t leave yourself vulnerable by neglecting to protect your income.

When a disability leaves you unable to work for an extended length of time, you lose the ability to earn an income- the one thing you’ve always relied on to provide for yourself and your loved ones. Meanwhile, your living expenses continue-in fact, they’re likely to increase for a number of reasons.

You could need help around the house or have higher medical expenses, for example. That’s where disability insurance comes in. It’s designed to help you maintain your standard of living when you cannot work. If you don’t have much in the way of assets for a financial cushion, you need enough to cover costs and supplement your income until you can go back to work.

Individual disability insurance is truly a basic concept. It is an insurance product designed to replace anywhere from 60-70% of your gross income should a sickness or illness prevent you from earning an income in your occupation. All disability insurance quotes and coverage from every insurance company are very different; this is not a product to simply shop for the most competitive rate.

If you became sick or hurt and couldn’t work, how would you pay your bills? How would you maintain your living standard? If you’re like most people, your ability to get up each day and earn an income is one of your most valuable assets. Furthermore, your chances of becoming disabled at some time during your working career are probably higher than you would expect, so you also need more disability insurance information.

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To correctly determine the actual amount of coverage you would need if you became disabled, ask yourself how much monthly income would cover your living expenses. Would these expenses go up or down if you became disabled? These expenses must be carefully considered.

All disability income insurance policies have an “elimination period,” similar to the deductible for medical insurance. This is the length of time you must be disabled before you would become eligible for benefits, typically 30, 90 or 180 days. For this period you need to establish an emergency fund.

The policy has a “definition of disability” which defines disability relative to your ability to work and/or your ability to work in your current occupation. The definition of disability is one of the most critical features of a disability income policy, and is something you should review carefully before purchasing a policy.

Many insurers reviewed the terms of their travel insurance policies and/or the way their policies are applied to specific events after terrorist attacks in early this decade. The definition of terrorism and the nature of cover for terrorism may vary from insurer to insurer.

It is worth taking the time to understand how terrorism is dealt with in your travel insurance policy if you are considering buying travel insurance for a future trip or you already have travel insurance and are about to travel or are considering canceling a trip because of the threat of terrorism.

Speaking of not being covered, if a policy you are considering says that it covers acts of terrorism but then has a huge laundry list of exceptions, you might want to look elsewhere. If you are considering buying a policy you should find out exactly what it does and what it does not cover by asking for a copy of the document and reading it carefully, paying particular attention to the exclusions or contacting the insurance company directly.

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In your policy ‘exclusions’ are things you will not be covered for? A general rule with exclusions is ‘the more exclusions (or the wider the exclusion), the less the cover’. If your policy contains exclusion for ‘terrorism’ then just what violent acts are you covered for? The answer depends on what acts are considered to be ‘terrorism’.

Some insurance policies define ‘terrorism’ to include many acts, for example, as ‘a violent act or a threat of violence used by a person or organization to promote their cause or beliefs’. Sometimes ‘terrorism’ is defined to even include ‘military force to prevent terrorist attacks’.

You are covered for a larger range of violent acts if terrorism is an exclusion in your policy and only a small range of acts are defined as ‘terrorism”.

Travel insurance policies include different types of cover, for example, medical, luggage and cancellation. Most insurance policies have general exclusions for all of these types of cover and specific exclusions for only some of these types of cover.

Many travel insurance policies do not cover you for losses arising from terrorism and acts of war. For example, the policy will list ‘terrorism and acts of war’ in the general exclusions or include statements like ‘we will not pay for any loss that arises from civil war, foreign war, terrorism or any act carried out by a terrorism.

Some travel insurance policies only exclude terrorism from specific types of cover. This may mean that for any losses arising from terrorism: you are covered for death or medical expenses but you are not covered for other losses, for example, costs resulting from canceling your trip.

Even if your travel insurance policy contains exclusion for terrorism, it may be worth checking with the insurer in case they have reviewed the way their policy applies to a specific event.

It can be a daunting task, making sure you receive the right coverage for you and your car. There are three types of car insurance to choose from – comprehensive, third party fire and theft, and third party only.

Several factors influence the cost of car insurance quotes. Youth means inexperience in the motoring world, and can be a disadvantage whilst searching for inexpensive coverage. On the other hand, people over age 25 will often find that their car insurance premiums decrease greatly from their younger driving days.

An excess payment, also known as a deductible, is the fixed contribution you must pay each time your car is repaired through your auto insurance policy. Normally the payment is made directly to the accident repair garage when you collect the car. If your car is declared to be a write off, your insurance company will deduct the excess agreed on the policy from the settlement payment it makes to you.

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If the accident was the other driver’s fault, and this is accepted by the third party’s insurer, you’ll be able to reclaim your excess payment from the other person’s insurance company. If the other driver is uninsured, a policy’s minimum limits include coverage for the uninsured/underinsured motorist(s) at fault.

A compulsory excess is the minimum excess payment your insurer will accept on your insurance policy. In order to reduce your insurance premium, you may offer to pay a higher excess than the compulsory excess demanded by your insurance company.

You will find that the cost of car insurance quotes can vary widely from one provider to another, and it is therefore important to compare cover from a number of providers in order to find the most affordable cover. You can do this with ease, convenience, and speed online, and you can arrange your cover quickly and with minimal hassle, which means that you can start enjoying the protection of insurance right away.

One of the biggest advantages of term life insurance is its lower initial cost in comparison to permanent life insurance. Term life insurance policies have no cash value accounts, policy loan provisions or other features typically found in permanent life insurance policies. With term life policies, you’re generally just paying for the death benefit, which is the lump sum payment your beneficiaries will receive if you die during the term of the policy.

Paying for life insurance hurts! But few can do without it. The key is to buy life insurance only for losses that you can not replace, such as your income. Avoid narrowly defined life insurance policies that only cover specific loss of life, such as accidents, plane crashes or cancer. You’re better off with insurance for any loss of life for a small increase in the life insurance quotes.

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It is, as if by avoidance, we can delay having to face the fact that dying will happen to all of us. Our routines continue and we make new commitments while not knowing whether our deaths will be premature.

In contrast, imagine the security of knowing that by purchasing life insurance, we are setting an example of responsibility and caring. There will be cash to pay for a wedding or a down payment on a home or funds to finance an education. Think about it. A life insurance policy will provide you with the actual ability to have a positive influence on the future of those you love.

Spending only a few hours preparing for such a scenario might save your family needless trouble. Once, only fathers needed to worry about this, but today with two-earner families comprising the majority of families, both partners should actively participate in planning to ensure financial security for themselves and their children.

At the very least, each partner should have a simple will specifying who will receive assets and who will take guardianship of the children. Financial professionals advise naming one person to control the financial assets and another person to take physical custody of the children. Although this is a good short-term solution, you should consult a lawyer as soon as possible, particularly if you have a lot of assets or there is disagreement in your extended family about who should serve as guardians for your children.

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Adequate life insurance is also essential to protecting your family. The majority of people do not carry enough life insurance to ensure that their family will enjoy the same quality of life after their death. Simple term insurance is adequate for most people’s needs. Whole life policies rarely provide the same level of returns as other investments, such as stocks.

Many insurance companies have life insurance calculators on their websites which will help you determine exactly how much insurance you need. Be sure to take into account any insurance provided by your employer. If one spouse stays home with the children, they should also be insured since the surviving partner will need to pay for child care and household services.

Most people are unaware that it is not death, but disability that most frequently causes financial problems for a family. Check with your employer to see if they offer short and long-term disability insurance. If not, have your insurance adviser quote you for this essential coverage that will protect you and your family if you can no longer work.

Finally, long-term care insurance will cover nursing home or other types of ongoing residential care. Young people often overlook this coverage, thinking that it’s only for older people. However, head injuries, paralysis and other traumatic injuries often result in the need for long-term residential care.

Hold on a second Read
Hey wait a minute, heck no no, this ain’t my last post. I am here to stay

Jonathan tagged me to participate in this Blog Apocalypse, not that I feel too great about this but I decided to give it a shot anyway. This idea originated from The Urban Monk, and its like you are writing your last blog post, kind of making it believe that there will be no Blogging from tomorrow. I am participating primarily because The Urban Monk will donate $500 to charity and you can read all the rules on his website.

Well if this was my last post it would probably look like this…

“As they say all good things come to an end, I am a little sad and sorry to say that its all over. I have really enjoyed myself as long as it lasted.. I loved your visits and your comments which kept me going on this blogging journey and of course I made some good friends here too. I deeply appreciate your cooperation and I would like to thank you all for helping me out. So I have decided to put FortuneWatch on SALE. All proceeds collected from this sale would diverted to The Urban Monk to add to the $500 he is donating to charity. Thank you all once again, until then its good bye (sob sob) Robin”.

Now I am tagging Zakman , Jag , Rob , Sherry

Take care friends. Needless to say I will be back tomorrow

Wealth Creation to Wealth Protection Equals Financial Planning

… This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a good starting point.

Do you have life and Disability Insurance Of course this really only applies if someone depends on you for support. I’m a big fan of life insurance. And don’t just rely on the insurance that you get through your employer… The base coverage may not be enough for your needs, and it’s also tied to your employment — lose your job and you’ll lose your insurance. Also, if you’re young and in good health, you can probably get a term policy for less money by shopping around instead of buying additional group through your employer.

“Life Insurance is like a parachute, if you don’t have it when you need it, its too late”.

For the average person the odds of suffering a debilitating injury are considerably higher than the odds of dying young. What if you couldn’t work? How would you get by? Long-term disability insurance covers your butt in the event of that you suffer, well, a long-term disability.

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Health Insurance. When you’re young and in good health, you feel invincible. But even a relatively minor health problem can prove to be a major setback if you’re uninsured. And a major health problem can be catastrophic. Even when I was young and dumb (and otherwise uninsured), I carried a major medical policy. It costed peanuts for a policy that covered accidental injuries and illnesses requiring hospitalization.

Personal Liability Insurance policy. Carrying personal liability insurance is particularly important for homeowners and/or those with substantial personal assets. Standard homeowner’s, renter’s, and auto policies provide a degree of liability protection, but a personal liability umbrella policy picks up where these other policies leave off.

Have you made a will? Having a will greatly simplifies the process of disbursing your assets after your death, and can go along way toward easing unnecessary burdens on your loved ones during an exceptionally difficult time. Many a times people manage their lives quite well but leave things in utter mess on their death. If you don’t, the court will. Hopefully they’ll make a good decision, but there are no guarantees.

If you have specific wishes when it comes to health care decisions that might need to be made while you’re incapacitated, then you’ll want to arrange to have a like-minded person at the helm.

Grant power of attorney to someone you trust. If you’re ever incapacitated, someone is going to have to make financial decisions on your behalf. Wouldn’t you like to be the one who chooses who this will be? Same goes for health care power of attorney.

Keep everything updated, and re-assess your needs periodically. This is an incredibly important point. If you don’t re-evaluate your situation periodically, your hard work will be all for naught, as your needs will change over time. For example, lets say bought term life policies some time back but, after a number of major changes in your life, you might need to increase your coverage some time later.