If the fates have been unkind to you, you’re one of those homeowners who have watched housing values flatten at about the same time your adjustable rate mortgage payment made a pole vault into its adjusted market rate. A homeowners’ insurance policy can offer some financial flexibility that can help offset the increase. One of the things you can do is ask for a quote from your auto insurance company for the policy on the house. You may be eligible to receive discounts of up to 15% off your premium for buying both products.

Increasing the deductible by just a few hundred dollars can make a significant difference in the cost of the premium. Most deductibles for homeowner’s insurance start at $250; if you raise your deductible from that to $1,000 you may save nearly 25% on your premium. There are also dozens of homeowner’s insurance discounts that go unrecognized by many consumers. Your insurance agent may not bring them to your attention – you may have to dig through the underwriter’s fine print. But though they seem ordinary, you may be able get a lower premium if your home has safety features such as dead-bolt locks, an alarm system, storm shutters or fire retardant roofing material.

Home owners should not overreact to a drop in housing prices and automatically change their homeowner’s insurance coverage. Instead, homeowners insurance policies should be evaluated as a whole, taking into consideration the cost of rebuilding the structure as well as replacing possessions.

Life insurance claims can be denied for several reasons. So yes, it is possible that your mother’s claim was denied. But the question is why? On most policies, there is a 2-year contestibility period which means that the claim can be contested for a number of reasons. For instance, suicide is often not covered within the first two years of the policy. Also, claims are also denied if the applicant lied on the application (or unwillingly gave up information).

I’d recommend calling the life insurance company to find out exactly why the claim was denied. You may be able to fight it. Good luck.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau reports that for 2005, the most stolen vehicles in the nation were:

1. 1991 Honda Accord
2. 1995 Honda Civic
3. 1989 Toyota Camry
4. 1994 Dodge Caravan
5. 1994 Nissan Sentra
6. 1997 Ford F150 Series
7. 1990 Acura Integra
8. 1986 Toyota Pickup
9. 1993 Saturn SL
10. 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup

In 2005, 1,235,226 motor vehicles were reported stolen which is 2,625 fewer than in 2004. Using the FBI’s average valuation of $6,173 per stolen vehicle, this amounts to over $7.6 billion in vehicle-value losses in 2005. Some of this is simply insurance loss, and some is insurance fraud. All of it drives insurance premiums up for every consumer, and results in higher premiums for cars more vulnerable to theft.

62.1% of all stolen vehicles are recovered. Where, you might ask, do the others go? In 2005, this amounted to 450,000 disappeared cars. The short answer is that they fuel a number of related insurance fraud and vehicle theft activities. Three prominent destinations include:

Exports. NICB Agents have recovered a significant number of stolen vehicles from foreign countries. It is not unusual for stolen vehicles to be shipped intact to other countries where prospective buyers can have them for a fraction of what they would legitimately cost and with no questions asked.

Owner Give-Ups. An owner give-up means that the owner has filed a false theft report. Owner give-ups are often motivated by economic factors; owing more on a car that it is worth, or problems with auto lease requirements sometimes makes feigned theft an attractive option.

Chop Shops. A good percentage of stolen vehicles end up in chop shops. These are places that dissemble stolen vehicles and sell their parts to individuals, dealers and body shops – where there has been a thriving underground market for years. Professionals can strip these cars in a matter of hours and leave the skeleton abandoned.

There are a number of things you should consider when buying life insurance. The first thing to ask yourself is what do you need life insurance for. Do you want it to protect your family in case somethinge happened to you or are you using it for estate planning, etc.? This will help you decide what type: term or permanent life insurance you need.

The second thing to ask yourself is how long do I need the policy for? After the kids are out of college? Forever? If you choose term life insurance you want to make sure the term lasts as long as you need it. 10 years, 20 or 30 years?

Next, you should determine how much is needed. Many experts suggest 5-10xs your income. I’d recommend taking a good look at how much you make and ask yourself, “what is the economonical value of my life?” Meaning in the next 20 years or 30 years how much will you make? You may think $500,000 is a lot now, but if you currently make $50,000 a year, that will only allow your family to maintain the same standard of living for 10 years (and that’s not including any raises or promotions you would have gotten in that 10 years).

People ask me these kinds of questions all the time and I tell them when thinking about life insurance the best kind is the kind that is in force when you die. If you can’t afford the policy or let it lapse or worse, it expires and you die, then the policy did you no good.

Progressive Corporation, the country’s third largest car insurance company, sees a trend in the industry that is turning car insurance into a buyer’s market. According to CEO Glenn Renwick the development of the online insurance market has provided consumers the means to shop more aggressively for insurance. The result has been a price competition among insurers that has resulted in a drop in rates.

“There is a power shift to the consumer,” according to Mr. Renwick. He noted that the industry has seen cycles when the growth in revenue has been due to rising premiums rather than in increase in drivers. That is not the situation today, as he referred to the current business climate having a ‘deflationary’ impact on pricing. He added that for customers seeking renewal in particular, pricing was an important factor.

That speaks to the growing sophistication of the auto insurance shopper. Said Mr. Renwick, “We want to make sure we don’t lose them to someone else at a price we would be comfortable with.”

With regard to his competition, the Progressive CEO noted that other insurers also are lowering rates, with part of the impetus being that the frequency of accidents has either stayed steady or dropped every year since 1999.

The fact that Internet sales provide no opportunity for negotiation doesn’t seem to be deterring shoppers. More auto insurance price quotes are being generated by “electronic agents,” which indicates that more consumers are using the Internet. “It is definitely a growing trend,” Renwick said.

As an agent, I get this question all the time. Instead of rattling off the different types of life insurance I’m going to sum it up in a few words….

The best type of life insurance to have is the kind that is in force when you die.

What does this mean? If you can’t afford a policy then don’t buy it. Find one that fits within your budget that you’ll be able to pay year after year and keep it in force. So many times I see policies lapse because people can’t afford them. Ask your agent to help you out with determining how much you need and how much you can afford. If you can afford more, great. If you can’t, then at least get something that you know you can pay for – something is better than nothing.

A Kentucky legal case has pitted a Christian ministry that has gone into the health insurance business against state regulators.

Medi-Share is a service of the American Evangelical Association and provides medical coverage to Christian families. Medi-Share excludes non-Christians because their lifestyles can result in unnecessary medical care. Participants can’t smoke, use illegal drugs or abuse alcohol. They’re also not allowed to enroll if they have pre-existing conditions like heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

The American Evangelical Association, is a ‘cost-sharing ministry’ and says it is careful not to use terms associated with the insurance industry in its publications so that people won’t be confused.

The state has had a long-standing legal dispute with the Medi-Share program, which helps Christians pay for medical care. The program, which is supported by contributions from churchgoers, is based on the Biblical belief that Christians should take care of one another’s needs.

The plan grossed $42.8 million in the 2005 fiscal year. That is from the contributions of 19,000 participating households, representing about 50,000 people. Martin Cothran, a policy analyst for the Kentucky Family Foundation, says that he pays $395 a month to Medi-Share for his family plan.

Kentucky, according to the Medi-Share Web site, is one of seven states that doesn’t require such organizations to operate under the regulations that govern insurance companies. But the organizations are required to publish a disclaimer saying the medical plan “is not issued by an insurance company nor is it offered through an insurance company.”

The disclaimer goes on to say “whether anyone chooses to pay your medical bills will be totally voluntary” and that the program “should never be considered a substitute for an insurance policy.”

Yes, your domestic partner can be named as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. None of the companies will deny coverage as long as a financial/insurable interest is evident. Domestic partners living together, sharing expenses, or having children together will qualify as long as the financial justification requirements are met. Ask your agent for help with this.

A.M. Best, a New Jersey based insurance rating agency, few people have stepped up for earthquake insurance despite the catastrophic losses (similar to hurricanes) that quakes can cause. Best looked at the earthquakes that caused the greatest damage in the United States. The massive Northridge, Calif., earthquake of 1994, for example, resulted in nearly $18 billion in insured property losses in today’s dollars, the report said. The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 would generate more than $29 billion in insured losses today.

However according to Best, a mere ten to fifteen percent of American homeowners carry earthquake insurance. In California, a state legendary for its quakes, “only 12 percent of 2005 residential insurance packages and 11 percent of commercial insurance packages included earthquake coverage.”

As tens of thousands of Southeastern homeowners have learned, a typical homeowners’ policy covers wind and rain damage but excludes water damage caused by storm surge flooding. In like fashion, standard policies cover fire damage that results from an earthquake but special policy riders are needed to cover damage from the shaking.

Speculation from a Best spokesman centered on cost and probability. “Part probably has to do with cost. Sometimes there’s a high deductible, so people wonder if it’s worth taking it on. Or there could be caps on coverage, again making people think twice.”

The costs incurred by a major shake could be themselves catastrophic. The study found, for example, that a huge earthquake in the Los Angeles area could result in nearly $550 billion in property losses. By their estimate, about $101 billion would likely be reimbursed by insurance companies at current participation rates.