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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.

More than one-third of all retirees receive income from an annuity in retirement, according to a new LIMRA study.

Most retirees who meet their daily expenses with income primarily from pensions and Social Security rely on annuities for 4% of their income, said Jafor Iqbal, associate managing director of LIMRA Retirement Research.

“But in the coming years, we expect to see fewer Americans retiring with pensions and more relying on their personal savings to fund their retirement,” Iqbal said in a statement. “Annuities will provide a reliable way to convert that savings into a guaranteed income stream.”

LIMRA found that the likelihood of taking income from an annuity increases with age. Only 19% of retirees under age 65 receive income from an annuity, but the number jumps to 49% when looking at retirees age 75-79.

Household income seems not to affect whether retirees receive income from an annuity.  About a third of retired households with incomes under $75,000 rely on income from an annuity; the retired households with incomes of more than $75,000 increased about 5%, LIMRA said.

Retirees with household assets under $100,000 are about half as likely to receive income from an annuity (22%) as those with assets of $250,000 to $499,000 (45%).  About 40% retired households with assets above $500,000 receive income from an annuity.

Only one-fifth of retirees who are receiving income from an annuity say they have received it from an immediate annuity.  The study found that all other annuity income recipients are taking withdrawals from their deferred annuities.

“All of our research has revealed that consumers are attracted to guarantees with their financial products – especially when the economy is performing poorly,” said Iqbal.  “This hold true for retirees as well.  Our study found that 40 percent of retirees receiving income from annuities say their annuity income is guaranteed for life.

The online survey was conducted in October 2010, using respondents age 55 to 79 who had been retired for at least one year and had not worked for pay within the past year, and had household incomes of at least $35,000.

It seems nowadays that having good travel insurance is more important than ever, with a recent study finding that the average cost of receiving medical treatment when falling ill on holiday has risen to its highest ever figure.

Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance found that the average figure is now £1,333, a considerable sum of money to most, and not something most holidaymakers would easily be able to afford on their own.

The study also revealed some interesting facts about medical bills in different countries, with the US perhaps unsurprisingly being the most expensive – with medical treatment on average costing £4,725.

Substantial Sums of Money

Thailand and the Dominican Republic were the second and third most expensive places to receive medical treatment respectively, and although the average figures here were a lot lower than for the USA (£1,937 and £1,178), they are still substantial sums of money that many individuals would prefer to avoid or be unable to pay.

On the other side of the spectrum, Greece was the cheapest place to receive medical treatment, with the average cost here being £422. However,

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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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Three leading Japanese casualty insurance groups have reported a combined net profit of 105.2 billion yen (US$1.36 billion) for the April-June quarter, down 5.4 per cent from a year earlier, on higher claims payouts stemming from overseas natural disasters.

The strong yen also ate into foreign earnings. But payouts related to Japan’s March 11 earthquake were covered by reserves set aside by the end of March and had no impact on first-quarter results, which all three companies had reported as of Friday.

MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc. (TSE:8725), Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. (TSE:8766) and NKSJ Holdings Inc. (

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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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Part D Premium Costs to Average $30 a Month

According to the HHS, the monthly premium for Medicare Part D will average around $30 a month. This is a slight drop from the 2011 average of $30.76.

The voluntary benefit pays for medicine for seniors and disabled Medicare patients who chose to sign up for separate drug insurance. The insurance is obtained through private companies such as Aetna, Inc., Humana, Inc. and UnitedHealth.

To keep costs low for patients, the government subsidizes the gap between the premium paid and the amount that insurers bid to the program.

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