Definition:

Life insurance is a policy that will pay money to a named beneficiary upon your death. Life insurance is a way to help protect your loved ones if you were to die suddenly. It provides money to help pay from medical expenses, funeral costs and living expenses. When you purchase the policy you determine the amount that you are covered. There are different types of life insurance available.

• Term Life Insurance
  Term life insurance is a policy that you purchase for a certain number of years. The rates are significantly lower than whole life insurance. You can purchase this at varying amounts for a set amount of time. Common lengths of time include 10, 20 and 30 year policies. If you choose term life, you should self-insure by the end of the policy. This means that you have enough in savings and your family is in a position in which it would not need life insurance to continue the same standard of living.
  
  
• Whole Life Insurance
  Whole life insurance is a policy that follows you throughout your life. You pay a premium for this insurance from the day you purchase it for your entire life. Whole life insurance is often sold as an investment, because you can draw the money out of it, that you have put in. In reality you are paying much higher rates for whole life insurance, and you are getting a poor investment in return. If you went with term insurance instead, and simply invested the difference in mutual funds, you would be much better off. Universal and variable life insurance is another form of whole life insurance.

The amount of life insurance you get depends on your situation in life. If you are single and childless the amount offered by your employer should cover your burial expenses for your family. If you are married or have children, you should increase the amount that you have.

So what makes a highly successful Linkedin member? Here is what I have discovered as not only habits, but also “secrets” of the treasure chest on Linkedin. 

1. They invest their time strategically by putting fresh content on Linkedin when it’s the best time to do so. Let me explain, for me weekends are times to prepare Linkedin content, but as you will notice most collaboration does not take place on weekends. So hold the great Q/A’s, the awesome discussion topics, or the great status updates until Monday and never late Friday. Think about what your audience is doing and be strategic. 

2. They use their status update to post something new every 24 to 48 hours and 80% of those updates include a link that gives a call to action. Such as signing up for your next webinar, promotions to visit your blog, or visiting your corporate website etc… 

3. They answer target specific questions that are related to their target market. This is great exposure for your business that Linkedin Pros are doing everyday! 

4. They change their Picture profile every two months. This creates dialogue and interaction with your network. This is another way to keep your brand in front of everyone. Pictures are worth a thousand _ _ _ _ _ (fill in the blank) 

5. They answer every Linkedin email/inmail. Maybe not timely, but they never waste an opportunity! 

6. They post their company events on the events application provided by Linkedin and use this as a way to measure interest and involvement for such things as conferences, webinars, or seminars. The events application has only been recently used by Linkedin Elite, but many are beginning to wise up to its amazing potential. 

7. These highly successful members have identified their target markets on Linkedin, their goals on Linkedin, and are executing their plan every single work day. Social Media can be measured, but most don’t understand how to begin measuring their Social Media efforts because they have never identified their goals for using the Linkedin space. Once you have identified your goals then you can build a measurable matrix to anaylize your efforts. 

So what habits have you found to be useful?

Three in five firms buy U.S. terrorism insurance: Survey

Takeup rates for U.S. terrorism insurance continued to increase in 2009, according to a Wednesday report by insurance brokerage Marsh Inc.

According to “Marsh Report: Terrorism Risk Insurance 2010,” 61% of firms surveyed by Marsh purchased property terrorism insurance in 2009, up from 57% in 2008.

In 2003, after enactment of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 that created the federal terrorism insurance backstop, the takeup rate stood at 27%. The federal backstop was extended through 2014 by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007.

Median premium rates declined to $25 per $1 million of total insured value last year, a drop from $37 per $1 million a year earlier, according to the New York-based unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.

Marsh found that utility, real estate, health care, transportation, financial institutions and media companies purchased property terrorism insurance at higher rates than other industry segments in 2009, with their takeup rates exceeding 70%.

Marsh also found that capacity in the stand-alone terrorism insurance market reached a theoretical maximum of $3.76 billion last year.

The study was based on property insurance placements incepting during calendar year 2009 for 1,382 Marsh clients.

A summary of the report is available at www.marsh.com and the full report is available with registration atwww.businessinsurance.com/whitepapers.

By James R. Hagerty

Everett Collection

As we reported Thursday, Congress is considering a proposal from Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) to extend the closing deadline on the tax credit of up to $8,000 for home buyers.

One risk of this proposal: It could help people who are trying to cheat Uncle Sam.

To qualify for the credit, buyers must have made a contract to buy the home by April 30. They are then supposed to complete the transaction by June 30. Because of the rush of people to close by then, mortgage companies and closing agents may have a hard time getting all the paper work done on time. So Realtors are pushing Congress for an extension. Sen. Reid has proposed to extend the deadline for closings to Sept. 30, so long as the buyers were under contract in April.

The danger is that this extension would also give more time to people who are merely pretending they were under contract in April and intend to backdate their documents.

Some real estate brokers see signs of dubious behavior. Glenn Kelman, chief executive ofRedfin Corp., a Seattle-based broker that operates in nine states, says he started to wonder if tax fraud was on the agenda after hearing from some customers who were very insistent on closing by June 30 even though they went under contract after April 30.

Schahrzad Berkland, an agent for Fidelity Pacific Real Estate in San Diego, who helps produce analyses of that market, found that the number of homes listed as pending sales agreed upon in April continued to rise over the past few weeks. Normally, that number should decline as some deals fall through. Ms. Berkland thinks some buyers are backdating to April.

Beware: The Internal Revenue Service wants to see the paper trail. A spokesman for the IRS says people claiming the credit are required to “attach a copy of the pages from a signed contract to make a purchase showing all parties’ names and signatures, the property address, the purchase price, and the date of the contract.”

Backdating a contract would be both wrong and risky. “That would be fraud on the federal government,” notes Mark Fiedler of Coldwell Banker Legacy, Rio Rancho, N.M. “As a broker, I would not participate in that activity, although there may be others who might. My license enables me to earn a living, and the FBI is not someone I want to cozy up to.” Besides, Mr. Fiedler says, the FBI is “busy putting people in jail for mortgage fraud right now, so let’s not overwork them.”

Terry Smith, an agent at ReMax Integrity, Fort Worth, Texas, also thinks backdating is a bad idea. She says the IRS could demand to see fax dates on contracts, dates of emails discussing the deal and the date that the buyer put up a deposit as “earnest money.”

And is there really honor among thieves? Kevin Duffy, an analyst at ReMax Unlimited in Cincinnati, says: “First you would have to have all parties in agreement to fudge the dates, then hope no one gets mad and turns the (other) party into the IRS.”

Even without cheating, the tax credit will be expensive for Uncle Sam. The National Association of Realtors estimates that 4.4 million people will seek the credit at a cost of more than $30 billion.

Please follow me for housing news on Twitter @jamesrhagerty

Recent Court Verdicts on Auto Accidents

Four random car accidents caused by a driver rear-ending the car in front spells out clearly the need for a personal umbrella policy. This type of collision almost always results in 100% liability against the car “at-fault”.

Eyes on the road or you may end up hurting someone pretty bad. And it’s a horrible sinking feeling to wonder if you have enough insurance after a crash. Worse, these cases typically take a couple of years to finally settle. (That can be a lot of sleepless nights.)

Worse, your credit can be severely impaired with a pending judgment and not sufficient insurance to back you up. 

My simple advice: buy as much liability protection as you can afford. You don’t have to have millions to have millions in liability protection!

Couldn’t you see yourself causing any on of these unfortunate accidents?

1.       Taxi driver collides with 29 year old business consultant. The 29 year old tore his right shoulder‘s labrum. He had surgery and 16 weeks of physical therapy. Taxi’s insurance company settled for $475,000 ($75,000 past pain & suffering, $400,000 future pain &suffering)

2.       39 year old engineer stopped at intersection in Long Island struck in vehicle’s rear end. Injuries required should and spinal surgery. The plaintiff claims he suffers from residual pain that ultimately made work unbearable. The other driver’s insurance company settled for $2,250,000.

3.       A 34 year old waitress from Saratoga County, was stopped in traffic waiting to make a left turn when she was hit in the rear. She had surgical ‘fusion of a portion of her spine’s cervical region plus two years of physical therapy. Fortunately, no ongoing discomfort. But the accident resulted in a $245,000 settlement.

4.       A 52 year old woman on disability was struck in the rear-ended by another car on the Long Island Expressway. Her prior back condition was worsened and she underwent surgery to remove cervical disks. For her past and future ‘pain & suffering’ and future medical expense, the insurer settled for $1,200,000

Take the time to call the office now to review your total liability insurance. If you don’t have a personal umbrella, you’re not protected.

By Ben Popken on June 14, 2010 1:51 PM

(Infrogmation)

You need gas. On the right is a BP. On the left is a supermarket gas station. Which do you choose, and why? If you skip the BP to go to the other, you might actually be putting more cash in BP's stained pockets.

Like this story? Check out, "BP Gulf-Sized Spilling Occurs In Nigeria Annually, But Nobody Cares."

Your corner BP station is mainly just a brand, a licensed franchise owned by a local businessman. The fuel that comes out of the pumps might have been bought from a totally different company. Only right before it gets put on the truck for delivery is the special BP sauce, additives, added.

However, if you opt for another place, like a supermarket gas-station, they could be a wholly-owned BP subsidiary, with BP getting all the cash. According to Facebook group Boycott BP these include Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, Wild Bean Cafe and Safeway gas.

This is not to say you shouldn't choose a different gas station if the BP one makes you squeamish. Just bear in mind that doing so is a political act, one that has deals damage to BP's brand in the long-term, rather than having direct financial impact on BP. No, the immediate business loss will be most acutely felt by the local businessman. Over the years, that same guy could own the same stations, and change it from being a Shell, an Exxon, or a Sunoco, depending on who's got the best deal.

Then again, if no one is buying BP gas, do you think many new gas station owners are going to be eager to sign up for a BP franchise? Which would mean a loss of future franchise fee income for BP, and that will end up hurting their bottom line. Just not today.

The Housing Bubble began in the Bay Area around 1996. That’s when home prices starting growing faster than inflation and faster than rents. By the late 90’s, people really took notice. By 2002, the movement took hold. By 2004, housing mania had become a full-blown religion.

 

Many things that were accepted as true in the bubble-times are no longer so. But for a generation that came of age during the bubble, these bubble-truths are the only real estate truths we know. Tearing them down is to tear at the core of our economic value system, directly challenging the reasons we’ve chosen to live the lives that we have. Losing one’s religion is a painful process.

 

A Necessary Education

“We need to go through this in order to get through this.” – Todd Harrison

And that’s the difference: knowing the answer is different that learning the answer. Learning is a process, a rewiring of our minds that helps us look at things differently moving forward. We might now know that housing prices don’t always go up, but we haven’t really learned it yet in a way that will change our behavior in the coming decades.

As the housing bust is about to enter it’s second phase, the education process will resume with full-force. When housing finally does bottom, perhaps 3-4 years from now, we will have learned – just as children of the Great Depression and children of the Vietnam eras – a new set of core values and beliefs going forward.

 

Here are 10 things we know, but have not yet learned:

1. Home prices do not always go up.

Okay…maybe we’ve learned this one.

2. Home prices to not go up faster than inflation.

Home prices do not outpace inflation over time. In the short-term there can be bubbles, but the long-term cost of shelter cannot go up more than someone’s ability to pay for it. Consider this chart of home prices since 1890, adjusted for inflation. You can clearly see that home prices to no better.

3. Investing is different than speculating.

Long-term value lies in the forced-savings of slowly paying down the principal over time, coupled with the benefits of rents that should pace inflation.

Expectations of anything less is speculating, not investing.

4. Wherever you live is not different.

There is no real estate decoupling. A higher-priced area is worth more, on a relative basis, than a nearby lower-priced one. But the relationship is still relative. If the lower-priced area sees an increase in demand, rising prices there will push up the entry-level prices in the higher-priced community. And vise-versa. And in reverse, which is happening now.

These adjustments take time…years in fact. But all market are effected by each other.

5. There is nothing wrong with renting.

Renters are not second-class citizens. They enjoy more mobility, less risk, and more liquidity. Across the Bay Area and most of the country, renters are also saving money each month.

If someone is going to be in the same house for decades, and slowly pay off the loan, and the price-to-rent ratio made sense at the time of purchase, then buying makes sense. Otherwise, renting is often the smartest, most financially-prudent decision a would-be homeowner can make.

 

6. You probably can’t afford to live in that big fancy house.

During the boom, anyone with a pulse could live in a big, new, fancy house. The man with the tie Mercedes said you were “qualified”…so it must have been true!

But, actually affording a home is different than qualifying for one, even with today’s stricter standards.

Affordability means different things in different income brackets. Here is one reasonable metric to consider: Home prices, in any given area, have historically averaged about 3.5 times that area’s median income. What you can afford is probably no more than perhaps 4 times your annual income. For some context, San Jose median prices reached about 13 times the median income during the peak of the boom.

And, if you need to use a product other than a 30-year fixed mortgage, you probably can’t afford it.

Consider this as well: if your home equity cannot be counted on as your retirement plan, you’ll probably need to save more money each month than you do now.

 

7. The mortgage interest deduction isn’t that big of a deal.

The extra costs of ownership (property taxes, special assessments, home repairs, maintenance) and transactional costs (transfer taxes, real estate commissions, loan fees, escrow fees, etc.) more than offset any perceived monthly savings.

 

8. Bigger isn’t inherently better.

Over the last 60 years, the size of our homes has grown while the size of our families have shrunk. During the boom, things got even more out of control.

But, big houses cost more to clean, heat, cool, furnish, and maintain. That’s a lot of time, money, and energy that could be put to more productive or fun uses elsewhere.

There’s probably only so much house that we really need, and the rest is for showing-off and storing all our stuff (most of which, we probably don’t need either).

9. Newer and fancier isn’t inherently better.

The remodeling and building trends of the boom years, convinced consumers that new fake-wood floors were better than old real ones, that everyone needs a fancy bathroom, and that any decent kitchen must have granite counters. This is utter hogwash.

Authenticity is the key to style and grace. Some homes just feel good…and the vibe usually because the house is comfortable being what it is. By contrast, many remodeled homes feel awkward and uncomfortable, perhaps because the house is trying to be more than it is. Keeping-up-with-the Jones’s is not a comfortable or healthy thing for people or homes to endure.

The eras of excess – the 80’s business boom, the 90’s tech boom, and the 2000’s housing boom – have trained generations of Americans to be great consumers. But now the Age of Austerity is here. Frugality is the new black. Social mood is shifting to where conspicuous consumption is scorned rather than celebrated and simple living is back in style.

 

10. Building and remodeling with “Green” materials often isn’t “Green” at all.

There was a new community of 20 or so homes built near where I live in the East Bay, made up of 4,000+ sq. ft. “Green” homes. This was the peak intersection of the housing bubble and green consumerism.

The simple fact remains most green consuming isn’t as green as not consuming at all. Tossing your old TV to get a more energy-efficient one still puts an old TV in a landfill. Usually the most “green” thing we can do to our homes is just leave the how they are.

Sure, there are great new technologies (like solar power) and promising trends (like xeriscaping), but ec0-friendly consuming is usually not as eco-friendly as no consuming…or simply consuming less.

 

• Sun exposure causes wrinkles, sun spots and is the number one cause of skin cancer.......
• A sunscreen with an SPF higher than 45 has not been shown to be more effective........
• 80% of a person's lifetime sun exposure is acquired before the age of 18.......
• Clouds don't block the harmful UVA/UVB rays of the sun.....
• One or two blistering sunburns before the age of 18 greatly increases your risks of skin cancer......