In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, insurance companies are adding up the costs of what has been the most expensive year for natural disasters in the history of the world.
“It’s becoming more and more clear to everybody that we’re seeing crazier weather than we have in the past. The one-in-100-year storms are occurring seemingly once every year,” said Leonard Sharman, spokesman for The Co-operators, one Canada’s top insurers.
“Since the 1970s, the cost of natural disasters has gone up 20 times.”
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, that hasn’t translated into higher premiums for consumers. Data collected
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Life Insurance Awareness Month, the time of year that the insurance industry reaches out to educate the American public about life insurance. LIMRA, an association that provides consulting, research and other services to insurance and financial services companies worldwide, publishes their Facts of Life, a statistical analysis of the life insurance industry. Out of all the life insurance statistics they provide, I find the ethnic studies to be the most interesting. This is from their 2011 study:
- In comparison to other ethic groups, African Americans are more concerned about not putting a burden on others with their funeral expenses and leaving an inheritance for their family. They are more likely to own life insurance for these reasons than other ethnic groups.
- African Americans have a better understanding than other ethnic groups about how life insurance works, including how it protects the family and why families should own it.
- When buying life insurance, African Americans, compared to other ethnic groups, place more importance on being certain they understand exactly what they are purchasing and less importance on getting a fixed price that cannot increase.
- Hispanics are less likely to feel insurance agents are knowledgeable and consequently are less likely to buy from an insurance agent than other ethnic groups.
- Hispanics are more likely to cite paying for a college education as a reason to own life insurance.
- Hispanics are more likely to prefer to buy life insurance direct from a company via the Internet than any other ethnic group.
These statements are from several of LIMRAs life insurance consumer studies and are not based on my experience. While I find statistics like these to be fascinating, I believe that any time you group the experience of any ethnic group, you are liable to make broad generalities.
As people come to our Website and get life insurance quotes anonymously, we have no idea of the ethnic make-up of each visitor. When our visitors apply for a policy, all of our contact is via telephone or email, so we still dont learn the ethnicity of our visitors.
LIMRAs mission is to help their members improve their marketing and distribution effectiveness. I imagine the life insurance companies can use the data from these surveys to learn how to market to different groups. However, because of the relative anonymity of the world of online life insurance brokers, this is data that will never be used by usand I like it like that.
Driving can be stressful, so what you don’t need is a sat nav which gives you instructions in Jeremy Clarkson’s voice.
If you choose to use this new voice, being released by TomTom in October, your GPS navigation system will order you – amongst other panic inducing phrases – to “Turn right. Turn RIGHT. You missed it! For the love of . . . !”
“It’s not a gentle sat nav voice, put it like that,” stated Mr Clarkson.
Road users who are easily panicked by the tone of voice used by the famous Top Gear presenter may wish to switch to the new Stig sat nav voice.
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It’s a sad fact that some elderly people on Medicare skip taking their medications because they cost too much, or they cut back on basic needs such as food to offset the cost of their drugs. These findings from a new study published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship show that these practices are true for both cancer survivors and those without cancer.
The new study results were based on data from the 2005 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and Medicare claims. T
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The Association of British Insurance companies, the ABI, has issued a statement clarifying the position of Insurance and Claims for Riot Damage.
On current estimates insured losses and damage suffered by individuals and UK businesses are likely to be well over £100 million.
The ABI has reassured customers that they are covered for riot damage under their home and business insurance and claims will be paid by their insurer as quickly as possible. People with insurance should claim directly from their insurer as soon as they can.
When a riot happens a statutory police compensation scheme is activated to provide compensation to organisations and individuals for losses that they could not possibly have predicted.
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Yaupon Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company, announced today the submission of a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its propriety gel formulation of mechlorethamine hydrochloride . Yaupon is seeking U.S. marketing approval of its mechlorethamine gel for the treatment of early stage mycosis fungoides, a type of Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma . Yaupon’s formulation is a water-soluble, greaseless topical gel.
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Healthcare for all may be a good thing, but spending on staying sound will grow almost 6% each year through 2020 according to experts. Researchers estimate that doctor visits, clinical services and prescription drugs will be some of the largest growth areas, because of the comparably young age of the newly insured population.
The increase is partly due to a percentage of the 30 million people gaining health insurance through President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul joining government programs. Read more…
