There is something deeply annoying when people in a particular trade or industry start using jargon and letters to talk to us. What is wrong with the English language? Why must they hide the meaning? Why do they believe we will be impressed? The insurance industry is one of the worst offenders. By the time the experts have finished describing the different health plans and the lawyers have wrapped everything in obscurity, we seem left with a take-it-or-leave it choice. They seem to be saying, “close your eyes, trust everyone has your interests to heart, and pick something out of the alphabet soup.” Well here is a quick tour through two of the most common plans to help you decide.

The essence of all plans is a definition of the healthcare professionals available to deliver the care should you need it. The wider the choice you have, the higher the premiums you will be required to pay. With a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), a group of healthcare providers contracts with an insurance company to deliver services to the policy holders. Because the insurance company guarantees a high volume of business to the group, the rate for the services is lower than usual and so the premium rates charged and copayments are also lower. Access to the services is controlled by a primary care physician. He or she will refer you on to other members of the group for different specialist services. If you want to go outside the group, you will have to pay the difference between the HMO rate and the actual cost of your own choice doctor. Although this is the cheapest form of plan, the lowness of the fees charged by the group encourages members to see as many patients as possible every day.

A Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) also contracts with an insurance company, but the relationship is less restrictive and the rates are slightly higher. In this plan, you are free to choose any doctor within the group without having to get a referral. If you decide to see someone outside the group, you will have to pay the out-of-pocket expenses. Here, you are paying slightly more to have more control over your treatment options. So, for example, if your own doctor is not a member of an HMO, you would have to change. With a PPO, you can continue to see your own doctor.

All health insurance decisions are a balancing of costs and benefits. In this case, the choice between an HMO and PPO comes down to what you can afford and whether you prefer more control over the care you and your family receive. It is fair to say that the majority pick the cheaper option of an HMO and then complain about the restrictions. This does not mean the quality of the care is worse than in a PPO. It simply reflects most people’s preference to make their own informed decisions. Perhaps it is cynical but, whichever you pick, it is better than not having insurance. When the choice is offered through your employer, look carefully at the cost differences in copayments and out-of-pocket expenses. If you are paying privately, get the maximum number of health insurance quotes. When you see a wide range of offers, it is easier to find the best deal.

Before you tie your shoe-strings and take your bank check ready to get insurance, get yourself together and ask yourself – do I really need it? If the answer is “no” – just forget about it and switch onto a new subject. If you still insist you need insurance then please focus on the following articles and give us 100% of your attention.

My name is Ryan and I have been a lawyer for as long as I can remember myself. I gave millions of advices to people that needed my professional help. I don’t do it for money only; I do it because I want to help. I have always been frank with my clients. I offered them to get insurance when I knew they would need it. They were grateful to me because I was right. I want to tell you that there are lots of myths here and there. People spread rumors around and others believe them. I am here to put the record straight and tell you about the false ideas people got so far.

#1: My business is not to be sued. I don’t have enough of profit from the company so they will just leave me alone.

Anybody’s business can be sued and so can be yours. Even when you think you don’t have enough for others to take from you, you are wrong. There is always something to take. Let us give an example. Even if you have a tiny office your equipment and furniture can be seized and sold. Your bank accounts can be seized also and that money will be enough to pay the attorney.

#2: I am protected from liabilities because I am of a corporate format.

Wrong. The corporate format protects individual investors only from personal liability and debts of the corporation for the reasons that were related to the corporate events. All states have the same rules and these rules involved a so-called “corporate veil” that can be removed or adopted according to some circumstances. When a situation like this occurs you may be giving away even your personal assets – such as a house, car or all of your savings.

#3: If I become disabled pr die my family and business partners will carry on without me.

Wrong. Yes they will but not in terms of business. The business won’t survive if it is small and is left without a major member at least this is the biggest theory around it. Kids don’t like to follow their parent’s footsteps when it comes to business. Usually they are interested in other things. But not to disappoint you totally I have to say that I have known cases when the family business survived.

Small business insurance should be a part of your present. If you care about your business enough to maintain it – please get your small business insurance now. This is my biggest advice to you.

Once, the world was simple. If there were two opposites like either/or and day/night, it was easy to treat them as different and act accordingly. Then along came the idea of equality and some opposites were judged the same when it came to the treatment they deserved. At least, it’s now politically incorrect to suggest men and women should be treated differently. So the law imposes rules to prevent discrimination on the ground of sex (or gender if that is also different). Except that, when it comes to insurance, there are some very good reasons for treating men and women differently. Although the law may have changed, there are some fixed biological and cultural roles that seem permanently attached to women. We may now vote, own property and pursue our own careers, but we give birth and are expected to raise a family with the possibility of becoming a carer for elderly parents. In juggling between all these conflicting demands on our time, it’s easy to drop the ball of financial planning.

In a perfect world, we women would sit down calmly and set out a plan for our lives. This would list goals and some way to monitor progress so that, if we seem to be straying off track, we can steer back on course. There would be milestones: getting a job, saving for our own home, avoiding debt, planning a family. If our partner, children or parents come to depend on the income we bring into the household, we should think about insurance. How could we leave them without providing for them? If we are not a burden to them during our lives, we do not want to become a burden by leaving them. So we need enough coverage to clear the mortgage on the home, pay for the education of our children and buy in care for our parents. In this, it does not matter whether we are a single mother or one of a couple. Loss of our earning capacity affects everyone around us.

Then we come to the key difference. We live longer than men so the right life insurance policy is our way of saving for retirement. As we reach the end of our working lives, all the major debts should be paid off. Hopefully, we have made pension arrangements and can live simply. But there are always emergencies. In such cases, having a policy with a cash value or an investment element gives us a safety net. In the worst case, we can sell the policy for a lump sum. With the right policy, we can draw down cash or borrow against the anticipated benefits. This need for long-term thinking means we should take extra care when getting life insurance quotes. We should cover the range of policy types. It may then be appropriate to talk to an independent agent or broker to get advice. The aim is to ensure we have the right level of coverage at an affordable premium during our lives with adequate protection for our retirement needs. Rising above the selfish needs, we can also think about the flexibility to provide cover for the family we leave behind. This may involve planning to increase the investment element as we grow older, or adding coverage to boost the benefits we leave behind at the end of a long life.

It seems marketers live in a world designed by Rod Serling where everything bad is ignored, most things are satisfactory and an alarming number of service providers are outstanding. J.D. Power and Associates is one of the largest marketing information companies in the world. It produces regular ratings and reports on how we view an industry in general and how we rank individual companies within that industry. So, for example, a recent report finds us satisfied with our banks and it lists the banks we think are the best. OK. So there is always a slight time lag between the collection of data and the publication of the results of analyzing that data, but this seems a strange result. In the midst of a recession with a record-breaking number of banks failing, predatory terms for credit cards and other credit hard to find, you might wonder where J.D. Power found the people to answer their survey questions. Well, the results of their 2009 survey of our attitudes toward vehicle insurance providers is also out. You will be stunned and awed by the revelation that customer satisfaction is up significantly this year! Some 23,000 human beings claiming to hold policies were polled in March and April, 2009.

So what has apparently prompted this rise in the level of satisfaction with the insurance industry? Well, it seems the insurers – kind, caring and sensitive to a fault – have been reducing their premiums. In the earlier years of this century, we were all increasingly unhappy as those premium notices kept coming in with ever higher numbers written on them. But, come the recession and the insurers step on to the mound, they pitch premium reductions. According to J.D. Power, some 42% of all those insuring vehicles found their premiums fell during the twelve months period to April 2009; and that’s without having to change companies! Since we are all price sensitive, we now love insurers because they are saving us money. We all love their websites and find there are real improvements in the way the companies relate to us. That, of course, excludes claims handling which is the most important interaction. It seems no-one worries about the poor service on claims handling.

Which brings us to admit how we arrive at our prejudices. According to J.D. Power, we can all be bought by a few dollars of reduction in the premiums. Before the recession, the majority disapproved the quality of the service provided by auto insurance companies. Now we love them. Well, that’s the result you get when you ask questions about an industry’s image and design the questions to get mostly positive answers. Of course, we can like a company that reduces its prices. We can also admire the quality of its website and marketing materials. But if the questions do not focus on our experience when we try to claim following a traffic accident, the results of this hyped report are misleading. When you are shopping for the best auto insurance companies, do not believe the ads. Check out the companies on the website operated by your state’s department of insurance. Verify their financial stability with the ratings agencies. You do not want to pay your premium and then find the company is insolvent. Use reliable sources of information when looking for a policy.

Every year, thousands of people are killed on the roads. Driving is one of the most dangerous activities we do and traveling by car kills more people per passenger mile than any other form of transport. Put another way: if driving was a disease, we would treat it as an epidemic. Many different strategies have been discussed over the years on how to persuade people to drive more safely. Unfortunately, the US was built on the assumption that the car is king and few find it practical to rely on public transport for all their needs. Without a revolution in planning controls, the majority will be forced to continue relying on private vehicles to get around. However, there is a possible glimmer of hope. During the early part of this recession, the price of gas rose to $4 and more a gallon. Many people responded by driving less or driving more slowly to economize on fuel. As a result, there were fewer serious accidents and fatalities were reduced. This was one of the few good things to come out of the price increases. Could the same thing happen if insurance prices were adjusted?

Let’s start by assuming you are the safest driver on the planet – you have never had an accident. Should you be rewarded with a discount on your premium? Well, that depends on how the insurer would find out about your driving style. It’s all very well to avoid accidents. You might actually drive too fast but, with the reflexes of a cheetah, avoid crashing into other road users. Just relying on your failure to make a claim is not enough. Today, we have the technology and, with the enthusiasm of a camel scenting water and running into the oasis, insurers are offering behavior-based insurance cover over the internet. The idea is to vary rates depending on when your vehicle is driven, how many miles it travels in a week, and how it is driven. It is a customized policy reflecting more directly the risk you will be involved in an accident. So how will the insurer know? The answer is that everyone has a device fitted into their vehicles. This monitors how and when you drive. Safe drivers with low mileages at off-peak times of the day receive up to 25% discount. Those who drive too fast and brake too sharply can find their premiums rising up to 10%.

Yes, we are back to the spy-in-the-car debate. This is a privacy issue for many and they can simply ignore the offer. But for those who have nothing to hide and do not mind proving it, there are significant savings on their auto insurance premiums. All the die-hards will find their own premiums rising as the group of safe drivers stands up to be counted. But there is one further step necessary to force a change of behavior. There are already too many drivers on the road without auto insurance policies in force. We need effective enforcement of the law to remove uninsured drivers from the road. Combine price increases with active policing and our roads will get safer. With this technology now available in the majority of states, we can all vote with our feet and have the devices installed. Let’s make earning discounts our New Year Resolution.