Category: Insurance
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Hit and run
A hit and run of a pedestrian is a terrible crime that is too often ignored. The hit is often unintentional but the act of fleeing rather than helping is usually intentional. Often other crimes are connected. Police and prosecutors have a poor track record in these cases. Insurance companies vigorously fight claims made by…
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A business resurrection as consumer value returns to employee benefits
Going back since more than 20 years ago to the late 1990s, I was licensed as an insurance producer in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It was – and still is – tough to be called a small business compensation and benefits expert without also being an expert in insurance. I was…
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A workers’ compensation insurance primer for small businesses
In the past many small businesses avoided carrying workers’ compensation insurance. In the future, more small firms will carry this insurance. This blog post is meant for small employers who are facing this issue for the first time. This is a big risk facing the smallest unsuspecting employers. What is changing? State laws have always…
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‘Assurance’ though a web app is not insurance
‘Assurance’ based on technology is nice but it does not include the financial risk shifting of insurance or the legal force of a contract. I recall writing a blog post years ago about how health insurance was morphing into a web app. Consumers seemed unaware or unconcerned of the distinction between a legal contract that…
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The Latest on Sandy Recovery: Almost 4 1/2 Years Later
Superstorm Sandy hit us in October 2012 – almost 4 1/2 years ago. My world has never been the same. On the day before the storm I was a ‘normal’ small business person with decent cash flow, bills paid, a little money in the bank, adequate business capital, and good credit. All of that changed…
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How to handle the Trump mortgage insurance fiasco
If you are a first time homeowner with a variable rate mortgage then there’s a good chance that your payment will increase by the maximum amount this year because of rising interest rates. To help offset the burden on these already strapped homeowners, the FHA planned to reduce the mortgage insurance rate by 1/4 of…
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Stop wasting time on the worker’s compensation audit
Do you hate worker’s compensation insurance audits? You are not alone. This is an annual time-waster for many small business owners. There is an easy fix. Let me attach the worker’s compensation to you payroll system and a small amount is calculated and withheld each pay period. This eliminates the need for an annual audit…
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North American Life View: a first glance
I’m excited to review a revolutionary way for individuals to purchase cheap regular term life insurance that does not involve the obstacles or gimmicks that we have come to expect. It’s quite simple really, mostly just a leap forward in the insurance industry’s level of technology deployment to deliver what consumers demand. This blog post is…
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Big news in consumer life insurance
It’s funny how life works sometimes. Earlier today I put put out a blog post on the topic of business networking vs. paid referral services that said “…my primary source of revenue over the entire span of my working career as an independent accountant has been paid reviews or endorsements of some type…I do not do…
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Are we focused on the wrong highway safety issues?
Lately all of our public attention on highway safety seems to be focused on the issue of distracted driving, specifically smartphone use while driving. Yet the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s data indicates that other driver behaviors like speeding, intoxication, drifting, running intersections are seven times more likely to get you killed than distracted driving.…