One question that’s asked by nearly everyone eventually is “should I get a life insurance policy?”.

Life insurance pays out a benefit when the person insured dies during the time that the policy is in force. It can provide the cash needed to pay for burial, pay off mortgages and loans and give your family a financial cushion while they get back on their feet. When you’re young or have little discretionary income, it’s easy to tell yourself that life insurance is just for the well-off, but the truth is that life insurance is far more necessary for those who have no monetary cushion against life’s rougher times.

You should consider life insurance if:

- you have dependents

The moment you are responsible for another person in your life, you need life insurance. Whether it’s your children, a spouse or employees, if someone counts on your ability to earn an income, then life insurance is a necessity.

- you have a mortgage or other detbs

If you have a mortgage, you need life insurance to pay off the remainder of the mortgage if you should die before the mortgage is paid off. If you don’t have some sort of insurance to pay off your mortgage when you die, your heirs will have to deal with the debt.

- you own a business or are a key employee in a business

If you own a business, are partners in a business or are a key employee in a business, a life insurance policy can keep your business afloat while your employees or partners make arrangements to replace you or dissolve the business according to your wishes. If this is your reason for investing in life insurance, it could possibly be charged off as a business expense.

There are several types of life insurance available to you, and the type that’s best for you will depend on a number of factors. If your main concern is to ensure that your family is not saddled with a capital and interest mortgage in case of your death, then decreasing term life may be your most economical option. With decreasing term life, you pay for just the amount of coverage that you need. For example, if you take out a £150,000 capital and interest mortgage on your home, you can protect it with a decreasing term life policy that starts out with a payout of £150,000. That payout will decrease over the years as you pay off the mortgage loan.

Level term life insurance is the next tier of life insurance policy. Like decreasing term life, it pays out a benefit if you die under the terms of the policy – but rather than decreasing as your mortgage is paid off, it remains level. Generally, term life insurance is available in terms from one to forty years, and often comes with a range of options which can extend the policy at an additional cost.

Whichever type of life cover you need, it’s important to know exactly what’s right for your needs and what the various different companies and policies provide. If you are in any doubt about this you should consult an independent financial adviser who can look at your circumstances and match the best policy to your needs.

One of the things that can really throw a small operation into chaos is an accidental injury or a sudden illness. When the number of employees is few, almost everyone who works in the business is a key person. Even in countries where there is a pubic health service, waiting times for a consult or treatment are a real problem. This makes a health insurance plan a practical necessity for many types of business. The ability to buy expert medical help when it is most needed can keep the business safe and well. Yet, the premiums for medical insurance have been rising faster than inflation for the last two or three years. There are a number of reasons for this. The most important are the rising fees charged by hospitals and doctors, the cost of using many of the new “high-tech” diagnostic tools, the price of medications, and so on (not forgetting that insurance companies maintain their own profits to keep their stockholders happy). As a result, many smaller businesses have been forced to cut back on their cover, often coming down to provision against the more rare but catastrophic accidents and diseases. Cutting back on the cover or running the risk of doing without is acceptable so long as everyone is young and healthy. But you never know what tomorrow will bring. It only takes one traffic accident and a long delay before effective treatment gets the key person back to work. So small businesses are defending their interests by banding together. There are insurance groups forming within established chambers of commerce. New trade alliances and associations are being formed to approach insurance companies directly. The more businesses come together, the more powerful their buying power. If one business with twenty employees asks for a health plan, that’s small potatoes. If several hundred businesses, each with twenty employees, approach the same insurance company, they get listened to when it comes to discounts. When the association does its own negotiating, the members also avoid paying commission to agents which helps the bottom line even more. In the small business insurance market, the insurers prefer to pick off the businesses individually. That way, there’s no effective limit on the pace of premium increases. Once businesses pool their cover, it’s the same premium rate per plan member for all within the pool and so more difficult for the insurer to push up premiums without all complaining (and, potentially, everyone moving on to another insurer). There are various legislative proposals to force insurance companies to more actively support small businesses. These include making policies more portable between insurance companies, requiring the development of more clinics and other medical resources to improve access to care and treatment outside the emergency room system, and so on. All these efforts should be supported so that business insurance costs can be brought under more transparent control.

Generally, you do not meet with clients at your home office if you run a home-based business. In a home-based business your bigger concern is protecting the equipment (property insurance), not the customer liability (casualty/liability insurance). Depending on the scope of your home-based business, your homeowner’s policy might not be enough to cover the cost of your business equipment. A homeowner’s policy usually covers for a small amount, but it is often not enough to cover you business equipment losses. If this is the case, you will have to shop around for more substantial business insurance or increase the coverage of your homeowner’s insurance.

Even if you are not meeting clients in your home, you might have liability issues. If, for instance, you are selling food products wholesale or creating a product, your product will still have liability. You should get special product liability insurance based on what type of business you are doing. The pricing of this insurance will depend on the type of product, forecasted sales amount and history of business.

Finally, if you are a professional such as a lawyer or doctor working from your home, you might need to purchase professional liability insurance for your home-based business.

Insurance Solutions for the Home-Based Business

The easiest way to insure a home-based business is to increase the coverage of your homeowner’s policy to a suitable amount. With a small premium increase, you can increase your property coverage by thousands of dollars. This increased coverage will cover the cost of your business equipment as well as the personal property in your home.

The homeowner’s insurance packages are very limited. If you have expensive equipment, many clients visiting, or you are a potentially risky business, then you will have to purchase a home-business insurance policy. The home-business insurance policy offers you better coverage against business interruption and product and service liability, and provides more protection against customer liability and lawsuits. Some home-business insurance policies allow the home business to have full time employees. Overall, this solution is more comprehensive and more professional; however, be prepared to pay more than you would if you just extended your homeowner’s policy. Keep in mind that home-business insurance and homeowner’s insurance are two different insurance solutions.

If you have an outside office or storefront, you need regular business insurance. This is usually referred to as a business owner’s policy. This type of insurance covers many business risks and can be customized to fit your particular business needs.

What type of business insurance should I get?

Insurance can cover a variety of catastrophes including natural disasters, fire and theft. Providing good health coverage for your employees can help you retain them. However, these are not the only types of insurance available. You may be required to carry life, business interruption, or auto insurance depending on the nature of your business. Other types of insurance cover business liability or damage to your inventory.

Banks, investors, and other lenders may require a business owner to have good insurance coverage before processing a loan; this minimizes their risk of losing their investment. Investors and partners may also require a business to have a “key man” insurance policy—life insurance on the owner or crucial employees—so the business can survive in the event something happens to these people.

Types of Insurance:

Property Insurance covers property loss from fire, smoke, theft, explosion, vandalism, and other disasters.

Liability insurance protects your business in the event that your business activities cause harm to a person.

Crime Insurance protects against burglaries, robberies, and employee theft.

Auto Insurance protects against injury and the cost of repairing your vehicle.

Business Interruption Insurance protects against the loss of projected earnings due to a temporary shutdown of the business.

General Liability Insurance covers legal liabilities from accidents and other injuries dealing with your business, with the exception of a work-related injury.

Health Insurance protects the owner of the business in case of illness by providing payment for medical expenses.

Business Life Insurance covers against the death of a key participant in the business such as the owner or partner.

Disability Insurance covers you in the event you become disabled and cannot work..

For instance, your home property insurance may have a limit of a few thousand dollars for the contents of your home. If you have computers, other business machines, or especially, business records, a loss can be much larger. It would be tragic to have an accident or damage to your home that also destroyed your business assets, and then to find that you cannot make a claim to cover your business loss.

Another common example is for auto insurance. If you bought a personal insurance policy several years ago, you may not remember the mileage or use you claimed. If you claimed that your mini van was only used for errands and soccer games, and then had an accident while using that vehicle to transport business supplies, the insurance company may have a reason to deny the claim!

Many small business owners even allow employees to use their personal cars for business. But if an employee is involved in an accident while doing your business, can you rely upon their auto insurance to cover it? This is a risk you probably do not want to take.

Now you may be able to go back and adjust your personal auto insurance policy to include business use, or you may need a commercial insurance policy.

And if you do business, you are always vulnerable to liability claims. If you do not have proper business liability insurance, one cliam can ruin your business. Even if your business is innocent, the cost of lawyers can run into thoousands of dollars. When you have a liability policy, you also have an insurance company who will work on your side to fight claims.

You really need to look into the common types of business insurance. Commercial car insurance, business property and liability insurance, and if you have employees, workers comp insurance, are three policies you should look into.

If your business depends upon the talents of one or more key employees or partners, a key man life and disability policy can protect you from ruin in case of a death or accident. Personal group life insurance provides a benefit that will attract and retain quality employees too!

And of course, we can hardly talk about business insurance without talking about group health plans. Now if you are the only employee of your small business, you will not be able to get a group health plan. You must take out an individual policy or rely upon a spouse’s health plan.

However, if you have two or more employees, you can find group health insurance. You need to look into the need for a business health benefit plan. A good group health insurance plan can be the one benefit that qualify employees are looking for, but it can also be a major expense for your business.

When you begin your own business it is important that you include business insurance in your start up plan. It is important that you protect your assets with insurance and there are many types to consider. You need protection from all types of possible losses. This can range from auto insurances, key man insurance, liability, and asset protection insurance. You may need all of the aforementioned or maybe just one or two of them but here we will give you a brief overview of each type so you can decide whether you need to check further into them.

If you have any automobiles that are drive by for work related trips it is important that you are properly insured. If you are involved in an automotive related accident having your vehicle insured can really protect your other assets. This is especially true if you are carrying enough coverage. My personal feeling is that businesses that have any assets at all should have a policy with an absolute minimum coverage of 300,000/100,000. This means that your insurance company will pay out a total of $100,000 per person involved in the accident with the most per accident being $300,000. This type of coverage will hopefully allow you to settle with all involved and keep them from coming after your other assets.

Key Man insurance is usually held on the person that is the biggest asset to the company, hence the name “key man.” This is a life insurance policy that if this person were to die you would receive money to help your company stay afloat while trying to find a replacement or liquidating the company. This money can cover everyday business expenses such as mortgage payments or help you keep your payroll running smoothly during this unfortunate transition period.

Liability insurance is just that, it protects you from any liable law suits. This means that if someone comes into your store and slips and falls this is the insurance that is going to; hopefully, protect you from a long drawn out law suit. This type of insurance also protects you if your business requires you to do work on job sites. For instance, if you are a tree trimmer and you are trimming branches and one of them falls on a parked vehicle this insurance is what is used to reimburse the vehicle’s owner.

Asset protection insurance can have lots of different types of coverage. Most of the times it covers your buildings and contents in your buildings quite similar to homeowner’s insurance. Then there are more specific policies for niche markets. For example if you own a restaurant you can insure your perishable items so in the event of a prolonged power outage you will be reimbursed for your lost inventory.

When you own a business it is very important that you consider ever loss that you could encounter and try to make sure that you have the correct business insurance to cover it. Without the proper types of business insurance you are leaving your business’ assets unprotect against law suits.

In the absence of a significant catastrophe like a hurricane or earthquake, finding a job as an insurance adjuster can prove challenging. The field for independent adjusters can be particularly tricky and those looking to break into the industry need every competitive advantage available to them. Knowing how to write an industry-focused insurance adjuster resume can provide new and experienced adjusters alike with a particularly unique advantage.

Crafting a powerful and effective resume for work as a claims adjuster obviously requires first understanding what particular qualities hiring companies look for. Here are 5 keys to a great resume based upon the particular needs of adjusting firms and insurance carriers:

Key #1: People Skills

Insurance claims adjusters should possess excellent people skills and hiring companies will certainly take notice of a resume that paints a picture of superior interpersonal communication. You don’t have to be Dale Carnegie, but you should be able to demonstrate an ability to deal with a wide variety of people in various stages of stress, anxiety, and agitation. Emphasize in your resume the polite, professional, and cordial manner with which you have effectively dealt with people under the aforementioned conditions.

Key #2: Construction/Engineering Experience

If you are applying for a position as a residential property adjuster, you will most certainly want to highlight your experience with residential construction. Do you have a working knowledge of how a house is put together? Do you know the difference between soffit and fascia? If so, how do you know? Have you worked on a construction crew? Operated as a general contractor? Helped your uncle out with building his deck? Adjusting firms in particular do not want to devote significant amounts of time in training their adjusters in basic construction terminology. Allay their fears immediately by highlighting your facility with the property construction pertinent to the position you are applying for.

Key #3: Computer Skills

The days of hand-written estimates are essentially over for the professional insurance adjuster. Estimates are written and submitted electronically and if you know your way around a computer it will be greatly to your advantage as you put together your resume. Many companies will not even consider a new hire unless he or she is comfortable using Xactimate 24/25 or MSB Integriclaim (the most commonly used property estimating programs). If you don’t know these programs consider taking a course in Xactimate or IntegriClaim. If you are unable to take a course, at the very least you should express clearly in your resume an ability to use Windows-based software. If you are completely computer illiterate, you may consider taking a Basic Computing course before you seriously pursue a career in claims.

Key #4: Insurance Policy Knowledge

Knowing how to read and apply an insurance policy is very important for any adjuster and hiring companies know it. If you have worked in the insurance industry before and have a basic knowledge of insurance terms and concepts you shouldn’t fail to portray as much in your resume. Even if it is as simple as having read your own homeowner’s or auto policy (more than most do!), you will want to let your prospective employer’s know about your comfort level with insurance policy jargon and interpretation.

Key #5: Time Management and Personal Accountability

Working as a claims adjuster, especially if you want to be an independent, requires outstanding time management as well as personal initiative and accountability. In putting together your resume, be sure to think about various experiences in your professional history in which multi-tasking and personal accountability were required and met. Within reason and your own honest ability, project the most professional, capable, can-do image possible. This, as much as anything, will leave a positive and lasting impression on your future employer.

A Final Thought on Your Adjuster Resume…

As resumes and curriculum vitaes are submitted more and more in electronic form, there is a temptation to lower your standards for the appearance and grammatical integrity for your resume. After all, we don’t observe Strunk and White’s Elements of Style when emailing and text messaging – why should we really observe those old-fashioned standards when posting an electronic resume? Indeed, many optimistic job seekers are submitting 2nd to 3rd grade quality material to career sites on the Web. Is it any wonder that no one is giving them a second glance?

Keep your standards high! Take the time to write a well-considered, grammatically sound, and visually pleasing resume. And if you create your resume according to the 5 keys above, you will absolutely gain a competitive advantage as you look to launch or advance your insurance adjuster career.

If you own your own business, you’ll have insurance in place for your buildings, stock and vehicles, and you will be likely to have public liability insurance. You may also be insured for professional indemnity and legal costs – but have you considered insuring your most important assets – your key staff?

In the UK there are 3.9 million small, often family, businesses with up to four employees – if one of those key staff were to die or fall seriously ill, it could mean the end of the business, and this goes for limited companies, partnerships and sole traders.

If you are one of those people then you should seriously consider Keyman Insurance, and here’s why. Keyman Insurance financially protects businesses from the effects of serious illness or death of staff who are central to the success of the company. It does this by providing cash when you need it most, so you can cover loss of profits, inject more cash into the business, or take on temporary staff.

There are actually four different types of Keyman Insurance:

• to help your business recover during the time that your key person is away from work, or to train/take on somebody new;

• insurance against loss of profits;

• to provide protection for shareholders or partnership interests; and

• for people providing businesses loans or banking facilities.

1 Protecting your business if a key person is away from work

Your key people are the ones who are an essential driving force in your business – the people who if they were away from work for a long period, your business would suffer greatly. This could mean a reduction of sales and profits, or it could mean your business is shaken to the core. Look at the Directors, Partners, owners, think about your senior managers – every business is different but the key people will soon become apparent to you.

Insuring these people will ensure that if they are ill or die, you will have the cash you need to take on someone new, or train a replacement.

2 Keyman Insurance to insure against loss of profits

Losing key staff can have huge ramifications, if they are central to the success of the business then their loss could leave you facing bankruptcy. It’s a good idea to insure against this possibility.

3 Keyman Insurance for Shareholders or Partners

In this case, the insurance will protect the company if shareholders or partners become seriously ill or die. Families may want to sell their share in the company which leaves the remaining members open to newcomers entering the business. Keyman insurance schemes can be used to provide capital to purchase the shares from the original shareholders or their estate.

4 Keyman Insurance insuring Guarantors

Many small and new businesses are required to provide a personal guarantee or a charge on their personal property when they take out a loan. This especially applies to small and new businesses. If one of these guarantors becomes critically ill or dies, then the lenders may decide to recall the loan. Keyman Insurance can protect you by paying off the loan and taking all the pressure off the guarantor/guarantor’s estate.

Most of the UK’s top insurance companies offer Keyman Insurance as a natural progression from their Life and Critical Illness Insurance provisions. They can advise you further on what type of policy would be best for you.

So, the question is, can your business really afford NOT to have Keyman Insurance?

Have you ever stopped to consider how losing just one key employee could affect your business?  Think about the people who work for your and the importance of what they do for your business.  Some employees may be easily replaced, but even small businesses have at least one employee whose loss would have a serious impact on your business and profits.  Key man protection can insure your business against potential.

At a time when both your family and your business will be in turmoil, key man protection can help bring you some peace of mind.

As with any insurance policy, premiums must be paid to keep the insurance in place.  Insurance premiums are part of the cost of doing business.  Even if it were legal to operate a business without liability insurance, it wouldn’t be smart.  A claimant could attach all your business’s assets and leave you with nothing.  Liability insurance protects your assets and key man insurance protects one of your most important business assets.

Key man protection isn’t just for large corporations.  Many big corporations fare better after the loss of a key man than small business do.  If your business is in apparel and your key man is a designer, would you be able to continue without his services?  How hard would it be to replace this employee?  Key man insurance not only helps cover the costs associated with replacing an employee, it also covers the loss of profits they may occur.

Many employers provide life and disability insurance to their employees as a benefit.  You can understand the impact on a family if their primary income suddenly is gone.  Businesses can be like families, when a key employee is disabled or dies, how is the business affected?  It almost certainly will suffer a loss of income just like the person’s family.  Key man insurance is like life and disability insurance for your business.

Key man protection for your small or medium sized business is crucial.  You can’t foresee the future and your key man insurance policy could save your business in the event that you suddenly lost one of your key men.  Small businesses are less able to withstand a loss of profits than large businesses which have more assets and a bigger financial cushion.  Key man protection will prevent your business from losing those essential profits.

Any owner of a small or medium sized business who depends on just a few important employees should seriously consider providing the business with key man insurance.  It can make all the difference in assuring that your business can whether the storm in a crisis.

A key man is usually defined as some one whose knowledge and expertise and services are indispensable to the operation of a business or organization.  If this person were suddenly unable to do his job, the business would face substantial losses or fail to grow as expected.  Key man insurance is designed to protect business against this type of loss.

Premiums for key man insurance are determined in much the same way as for other life insurance policies.  The age of the employee, his health and family history are all considered.  Tax law treats key man premiums in much the same way as other business insurance.  It is a business operation cost.  No matter what size your business is, if it is dependent on one or two key employees, you need key man insurance.

If you are a business owner, or major stockholder, you are a key man.  You may not have considered this before, but could your business continue without you?  In order to protect all your hard work, you should have key man insurance on yourself as well as your employees.  You didn’t work all your life to leave your loved ones a business that is essentially worthless without you.  You also want to protect your employees livelihoods which might be severely disrupted by your sudden death or disability.

If you are part of a medium sized business that operates with a board of directors that all own a piece of the company, you should consider another type of key man insurance called director insurance.  If one of your co-owners died, do you know what would happen to his assets?  Would you and your fellow owners have enough capital to buy his shares?  Director insurance means that you will be able to retain the shares within the company.  It will give you the capital to buy back the other director’s shares rather than risk having them sold to outsiders.

One form of director insurance is called first to die.  This insurance pays on the death of any one director and a new policy with the same terms can be purchased after the claim is collected.  The premiums on this type of policy are typically lower.

Partnership insurance is another type of director insurance.  It provides the funds for one partner to buy the other partner’s assets in the company in the event of his death.  No one who owns a partnership style business should be without partnership insurance.  If your partner’s heirs want to sell his interest in the business and you don’t have the capital to buy them out, what will happen to your business?

Insurance is an essential part of doing business.  It protects your company’s physical assets like buildings and vehicles.  If provides for protection of your business assets if an employee or other person is injured during the course of business.  You already insure many of your business’s assets, shouldn’t you insure the biggest assets you have in the form of your key employees?

Key man insurance, director insurance and partnership insurance are all ways to protect both your personal and business assets from unforeseen loss.  Just as you have life insurance to protect your family from loss of income, you need key man and director insurance to protect your business.

To say that Keyman Insurance is overlooked by most UK companies is a serious understatement. 

For those of you reading this article who do not know what Keyman Insurance is, here is a brief explanation.  Keyman Insurance is a life assurance policy taken out by a company covering an employee’s sudden absence from the business due to death or illness. 

Over 90% of companies in the UK have 10 or less employees so at least one of these people is bound to be a key employee.  That is, the employee is key to the companies ongoing survival.  He or she could be a top salesperson, an IT professional who looks after the company website, a Director or just about anyone who strives to make the company the success it is today.  So now try to imagine what it would be like if that person/s were to die suddenly or be diagnosed with a critical illness.  What would happen to the company?  Maybe:-

There would be a drop in sales immediately which would lead to a drop in profits You may need to hire expert help on a temporary basis which would cost considerably The company probably wouldn’t run as well There would be a significant amount of stress placed on other members of the workforce Company confidence would be damaged

Clearly losing a key person is not something any company would want to go through but it is one contributing factor that can cause companies to collapse.

By having Keyman Insurance in place the company could survive the financial loss of a key individual.  The money from the policy could be used to provide compensation for the loss in profits as a result of the keymans’ death or illness.  This would allow the company time to train another employee to take over or recruit a new suitably qualified applicant.

There are many examples and case studies on the Internet as to what would happen if your business did not have Keyman Insurance but the best example would be your own if you were to let it happen.  To put things into perspective, 1 in 5 men will suffer a critical illness before retirement age.  If your business employs 10 people then there’s a 20% chance it could effect the running of the business.

Does Keyman Insurance have any place in your business?