A Georgia woman who learned through a tragic accident that there was no law in her state requiring day care centers to carry liability insurance is now leading a fight to force the requirement nationwide.

Jackie Boatwright suggests that parents ask day care centers they are considering a simple question, “Do you carry liability insurance?”

“People are under the assumption that child-care centers are required to have liability insurance,” Boatwright said. “They aren’t.” In 2001, Boatwright’s 14-month-old son, Juan, suffered severe brain damage at the day care when he was found headfirst in an unattended bucket of water that contained chemicals, including bleach.

Juan, now 6, is semi-comatose and ventilator-dependent. He occasionally opens his eyes and tries to talk. He lives in Lithonia with Boatwright and her 17-year-old son.

“Even though I hold a MBA, I never thought to ask if there was liability insurance,” Boatwright said. “I knew they had a state license and thought surely insurance would have been required to even get a license,” Boatwright said. “That state endorsement put my questioning at ease.”

After her son was injured, Boatwright led a successful legislative effort to require Georgia day cares to publicly post their insurance status. Now, failure to disclose the information can result in a $1,000 fine per infraction.

H.R. 5694, introduced earlier this year, would make Georgia’s “Juan’s Law” a model for the nation. If this law passes, states that don’t implement it will not receive federal child block grants for day cares. U.S. Rep. John Barrow said he introduced the national legislation as a way to make sure parents know what they’re getting when they pay people to take care of their children.

Still, there is no law in Georgia that requires child care centers to carry liability insurance. Surely national legislation along that line would make sense as well.

These plans offer a guaranteed level premium to age 100, along with a guaranteed level death benefit to age 100. Most often, this is accomplished within a Universal Life policy, with the addition of a feature commonly known as a “no-lapse rider”. Some, but not all, of these plans also include an “extension of maturity” feature, which provides that if the insured lives to age 100, having paid the “no-lapse” premiums each year, the full face amount of coverage will continue on a guaranteed basis at no charge thereafter.

Our continuing spot check on the Westernization of the Chinese economy shows that the insurance industry has gained serious traction. Annual premiums in the Chinese market are expected to double by 2010, driven by people’s growing demand and constant product innovation, said the state insurance watchdog.

During the 2006-2010 period, as Chinese people spend more money on cars, houses, education and travel, insurance demand will grow, according to a document released by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. The result will be an increase to $126 billion U.S. or one trillion yuan, an increase of 100% in five years.

With a 1.3 billion population and an aging society, China will see insurance play greater role in the improvement of social services during this period, particularly in the medical service and pension sectors, according to the Commission. In concert with this growth, the regulatory body also noted that China has vowed to create a healthy environment for the development of the insurance industry before 2010, with an improved legal system and enhanced awareness of insurance.

Insurance companies are being urged to explore markets, introduce more product varieties and improve existing risk-analysis systems. By 2010, China plans to build a modern insurance industry with a batch of large insurance companies with international competitiveness – again according to the Commission.

China’s current insurance premium total places them 11th in the world; the industry witnessed a 25 per cent annual increase from 2000 to 2005. Under its agreement with the World Trade Organization, China is expected to fully open its financial markets to foreign competitors by the end of 2006. Snoopy goes to Shanghai?

We’re seeing less and less of annually renewable term (ART) life insurance. Let’s look at what it is first. Annually renewable term is term life insurance policy which has premiums that are adjusted upwards each year to reflect the increasing probability of your death in any given year.

Currently, guaranteed level term policies are the most popular. This is a type of coverage has premiums that are designed to remain level for a period of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or even 30 years. So, why would one buy ART if after the first year the policy will be more expensive than if you were to buy a guaranteed level term policy? Most of the time these types of policies are purchased when the need for life insurance is only a year. Most of the time, this happens in some sort of business deal. However, even then, I would recommend buying a 10 year level term. It usually doesn’t cost more and you could always keep the policy if needed. Remember, we can’t predict the future so you never know what your future insurability will be.

A number of Texas Chambers of Commerce have followed the lead of a few New England cities and have begun to form health insurance co-ops to make health insurance affordable for small businesses.

In the southeast portion of the state the Greater Beaumont, Greater Port Arthur, Greater Orange, Port Neches, Nederland and Vidor chambers of commerce and Texas Coalitions Inc. have teamed up to create the Small Business Health Coalitions Program.

The idea for the coalition began with a 2002 Texas Comptroller’s Office study that found insurance carriers can charge businesses with fewer than 50 employees as much as 20 percent in extra costs, according to a coalition spokesman.

The state legislature responded and passed House Bill 897, which allows two or more small businesses to join together in order to reduce those costs and pay the lower premiums that are available to large companies.

Texas Coalitions initiated the state’s first such coalition in Austin after the law became effective in 2003. More than 60 businesses joined the program, almost half of which could not previously afford insurance.

According to Texas Coalitions member Rob Mullen, the Austin group now annually saves a combined $305,000 in premiums. “The uninsured is a real problem in Texas and you’re helping address that by making premiums affordable,” Mullen said. “Just think of a small business saving $10,000 a year.” More than 30 chambers across Texas now participate in similar coalitions. After enough businesses form a coalition, it takes between 60 and 90 days for coverage to begin.

Good question! If you have a pension, you will be faced with two common options when you start to collect your pension:

· The Single Life Option allows you to receive the highest possible monthly income throughout your life. The only problem is that your benefits will be paid ONLY as long as YOU live. At your death, your pension benefits die with you. That’s fine if your single, but what if you’re married? If still living, your spouse will be left with no monthly income from your pension plan.

· The Joint & Survivor Option pays a reduced monthly pension (typically 50% to 85% of the single life benefit) for as long as either you or your spouse is alive. This option guarantees a payment for the surviving spouse. What happens if your spouse dies first? Unfortunately, you will continue to receive the reduced income and you lose the gamble.

Most people select the Joint & Survivor Option because they do not want to leave their spouse without income.

This is where Pension Maximization comes in to help maximize their benefits. The concept is fairly simple: you purchase a sufficient amount of life insurance on yourself, naming your spouse as the beneficiary. The death benefit will replace the lost pension benefit if you die first. At retirement, you and your spouse opt to take the single-life benefit option in order to receive the maximum benefit, using a portion of the additional pension funds – usually much less than the difference between the amount for a single versus a joint and survivor benefit – to pay for the life insurance premiums.

Life settlement is a term for a financial transaction in which a person who holds an unneeded or unwanted life insurance policy sells that policy to a third party for an agreed upon price. The seller receives an immediate cash payment and the buyer becomes the policy beneficiary at maturation, which is when the seller passes away. The buyer assumes all premium payment obligations.

This business developed in the eighties, when AIDS patients were looking for a way to pay for their medications. Today, life settlement has developed into a secondary market in life insurance policies that is expected to grow to $160 billion over the next few years. It appears that the sharks are circling, as life settlement packages have become an investment vehicle for hedge funds and other financial high rollers, with potential returns of up to seventy percent.

Generally speaking, many policy owners who are the sellers in life settlement transactions are unfamiliar with this option until a financial professional mentions the option to them. The fact is that a life settlement contract is often arranged by a broker who earns commissions for identifying elderly sellers and steering them to investors.

Interest from investors such as Warren Buffett has generated a fair amount of discussion in print and in financial circles about this market segment; however as yet the industry has few rules and no regulation. It is a developing opportunity for speculation in yet another convoluted financial instrument.

This has been a hot topic among reporters lately and I wanted to share this article with you to help stress the fact that life insurance is cheaper than it’s ever been in history. This article, written by Sandra Block (a USA Today reporter) was posted in the Courier Post online:

Nobody wants to talk about life insurance. But if you have young children or others who depend on you, you should have it.

Millions of Americans have no life insurance, and millions more don’t have enough to provide financial security for their loved ones. That’s a shame, because if you’re reasonably healthy, you can buy a lot of life insurance without spending a lot of money. Average premiums for individual life insurance have been falling about 5 percent a year since 2000, and they’re expected to drop an additional 4 percent in 2007, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

“The rates are as low as I’ve ever seen,” says Byron Udell, CEO of AccuQuote, an online insurance broker.

Some tips for buying life insurance:

To save money, buy term insurance. There are two types of life insurance: term and permanent. Term provides a benefit only if you die during the period covered by the policy. Permanent life insurance remains in effect as long as you pay the premiums. Part of the premium goes into an investment account. You can withdraw some of that money or borrow against your policy.

Don’t rely on your employer’s life insurance policy. Many companies offer life insurance as a benefit, but it’s usually not enough to provide financial security for your family, Kalen says. Most workplace policies cover one to two times your annual salary. Financial planners generally recommend buying enough insurance to replace seven to 10 times your annual salary.

If you have health problems, don’t assume you’re uninsurable. Advances in the treatment of cancer and other diseases have led insurers to lower premiums for people once considered high-risk. In the past year, Hartford has reduced premiums for women who have been treated for early-stage breast cancer and men who have had surgery for moderate levels of prostate cancer. Prudential announced last week that it will lower premiums for people who have been successfully treated for heart disease.

A story out of Washington State has brought to light a little known practice in the real estate market that may well be costing consumers money. A report issued by the state’s Insurance Commissioner said that Washington title insurance companies are wining and dining real estate agents, lenders and builders at the expense of home buyers. Title insurance is a relatively minor part of mortgage closing costs, but still often amounts to hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. State law allows an expenditure of $25 per year for this sort of business solicitation.

The Commissioner’s 10-month investigation looked at 11 major companies doing business in the Seattle area. The worst offender was First American Title Insurance Company, which subsidized builder and real estate agent advertising, including more than $23,000 for a single King County real estate agent. The company provided gifts, food and drink, event tickets, ski trips and outings, including an agent’s $2,000 season tickets for University of Washington football games and a $7,000 “symposium” aboard a boat.

“Some of the companies on the lower end of the scale committed in the neighborhood of 100 violations during the 18-month period under review,” the report said. “First American easily surpassed those numbers on a monthly basis.”

Thomas Hartman, First American’s Northwest regional vice president, said in a written response to the Commissioner’s report that his company has, over the past several years, “consistently sought clarity and uniform enforcement of the rules within our industry.”

New regulations are pending.