Life Insurance Series - Choose the Best Life Insurance Policy

One of the most powerful and simplest ways to protect your family financially is by buying insurance. It may be a difficult and tedious process to choose the best type of insurance policy. This is a life long financial commitment and it can support the family of the policy holder in case he dies.

You can decide which policy you want to go for such as universal life, whole life and employer life and you must enquire about them before buying. The internet is one of the best places where you can find this information from. You can also get free quotes online to compare premium and other costs associated with the policy as not all of them are same for all of these.

Term life insurance is one of the plan in which death protection is offered for one or more years. This is one of the cheapest policies available. Another type of policy is whole insurance and this is one of the permanent policies available to people.

For married people, the typical policy is joint term life insurance policy in which children are protected in case of the either one or both parents die. For investment purpose, whole life insurance is considered to be the best one. For covering the employees of the companies, group insurance plans have been introduced by various insurance companies.

As the income sources and other factors impact your life, it is highly recommended that you must review the terms and updates on your policy from time to time. Having an insurance will keep you tension free and you will not have to worry about the education of your children, their marriages and other financial situations. All of us earn money and it is very important to utilize this hard-earned money in a better way.

For more information, visit lifeinsurance-quotes.org.uk. They offer information on life insurance quotes, including finding life insurance quotes for several different companies.

AIG Auto Insurance

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a world leader in insurance and financial services. AIG has operations in more than 130 countries around the world. AIG is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the stock exchanges of Ireland and Tokyo. The network of worldwide member companies of AIG offers their customers a wide variety of products and services. The worldwide member insurers and agents network of AIG serve individual, commercial and institutional customers. The global businesses AIG also include financial services, asset management and retirement savings. The businesses include aircraft leasing, financial products, consumer finance and trading and market making.

Different AIG Insurance Businesses
AIG companies provide a wide range of Accident & Health insurance coverage for individuals and their families. AIG Auto Insurance provides coverage to every driver and vehicle regardless of driving record or type of vehicle. The vehicles may be classic car, recreational vehicle or motorcycle or any other. AIG Life Insurance provides whole life, variable life, and universal life and term life insurance policies with vast variety of products in term and permanent life insurance. AIG group has a banking and loans business that deals with products like personal loans, home equity loans, mortgage insurance, money market accounts, certificates of deposit and many other private bank services to protect and grow the customer’s money. AIG Travel Insurance offers a gamut of global travel insurance products providing assistant and support worldwide during, before or after the trip. AIG Retirement Services offer a range of products that include fixed annuities, variable annuities and mutual funds.

Auto Insurance Products and Services
When an insured person meets with an automobile accident, Auto insurance and Motor Vehicle insurance provides the financial coverage. The claim may be due to theft, vandalism or collision involving a motor vehicle. AIG’s insurance policies include property, liability and medical coverage. Property coverage compensates for damage to or theft of a vehicle. Liability coverage provides for the policyholder’s legal responsibility to compensate for others for bodily injury or property damage. Medical coverage pays for the cost of rehabilitation, treating injuries and in a few cases loss of wages and funeral expenses if there is a loss of life. Auto and RV insurance provides coverage for cars, motorcycles, RVs, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and watercraft.

AIG Auto Insurance Coverage
AIG Auto Insurance generally provides coverage for most of the vehicles of daily use such as sedans, SUVs and convertibles. Their motorcycle insurance provides coverage to motorcycles and ATVs including scooters and the high performance bikes

Their comprehensive motorcycle program is tailor for covering every rider and every bike virtually at affordable cost.

Commercial automobile insurance products from AIG are insurance for school buses and charter buses, loss portfolio and insurance for lessors. Commercial vehicles that come under this coverage are small business vehicles, box trucks and pickups.

Personal Auto Insurance offered by AIG through agents and brokers who have the professional expertise to help you pick the right protection for your and your family.

Benefits of AIG Auto Insurance

1. Provides security to individuals and businesses
2. Flexible options and plans
3. Customer Focused claim service that is fair, fast and accurate.

AIG recently completed the sale of US Auto Insurance business to Zurich Financial Services for $1.9 billion which is the largest AIG business sale.

How to Review Your Homeowners Insurance Renewal Statement

For most of us, our home is our single largest and most important investment. Many of us have poured thousands of dollars and countless hours into maintaining, improving and (hopefully) paying off our homes. Many people own their homes free of any mortgage. These assets are pure equity. Certainly its worthwhile to invest 15 minutes a year to be sure it's properly insured.

Thankfully, the insurance company offers you a perfect reminder and opportunity in sending out your annual renewal statement. Even if your insurance is paid by your mortgage company as part of your impound account, the insurance company still mails you a statement of renewal every year to update you with your current coverage limits and deductible.

Here's a few important steps you can take to be sure that HOME SWEET HOME is properly protected.

1. Check the basics. Check your name, address and any other description of the insured property. Make sure there's been no change of vesting or ownership that needs to be updated. Check your address to be sure no numbers are transposed.

2. Check the mortgagee clause. Here's where you can be sure that the current mortagee on your home is listed correctly. Check the lender, address and your loan number. Be sure there's no old information there. Maybe you had a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) or a second mortgage that no longer applies. Be sure to get them removed.

HEADS UP: Whenever you have a significant claim, the mortgage company will be one of the payees on your claim settlement check. Just that alone can be an inconvenience. But it becomes a major hassle when one of the institutions listed no longer has a vested interest in your home. The insurance company is bound by contract to include the mortgage company on all settlement checks beyond a stated threshold.

*3. Check the coverage on your home (dwelling or building). This is without question the single most important coverage to examine, consider and adjust whenever necessary. Having been an agent during the two raging firestorms in San Diego, CA in this decade, I can tell you that underinsured homes are just NO FUN! Two of my clients lost their homes in the 2003 fires and fortunately they were both adequately insured. (we call all our homeowner clients once a year to review their coverages and suggest improvements and adjustments) But I can tell you that there were literally hundreds of people in the area that were not so fortunate. Many were underinsured by over $100,000! Contractors were giving rebuilding bids on homes for $400,000 with insurance policies with limits less than $300,000. See if that doesn't tweak your financial well-being just a little. Here's the solution.

Get an accurate rendering of the square footage of your home. Check county records, take a look at zillow.com, call your favorite Realtor, or get a tape measure and do your thing. Usually you don't include the garage in this calculation. Once you get your square footage, then you need to determine the building cost per square foot in your area for a home like yours. Call a local contractor for a quick estimate or you can call your insurance agent. Average costs in San Diego run about $200 per square foot. With that, a 2000 square foot would take about $400,000 to rebuild. Custom homes can be significantlly more. For a more complete discussion of this, check out: How Much Homeowners Insurance Do You REALLY Need?

Your contents coverage is usually 75% of the amount you have on your home. For example, if you have $400,000 on your home, you'll have an additional $300,000 to cover your personal property (furniture, clothing, dishes, TV, collections, shoes, tools, etc) Usually this is enough, but think through it anyway. If you have antiques, art, collections of any kind then you may need more. Ask your agent for help if you need to.

4. Look at your Personal Liability Coverage. This is the coverage you need when you get sued. Little Johnny runs across your front yard and trips on one of your sprinklers and ruins his chances to become America's Next Top Model and his parents sue your for $250,000. Make sure you don't scrimp here. It's not too expensive to get $500,000 or even $1 Million of liability coverage. If you have $100,000 or less, you could be setting yourself up for a mess just waiting to happen. Put a really big checkbook between your assets and someone who sees an injury as a lifetime paycheck. You might even consider a Liability Umbrella.

5. Check your 'special limits'. This is a REALLY BROAD subject that I just can't do justice to here in this post. Simply stated, there's limits on many things such as cash, computers, cameras, jewelry, furs, goldware, silverware, tools, etc. Call your company and ask for a review. You can increase many of these limits for just a few dollars a year. Sometimes the available increase isn't enough. That's the perfect time to consider a Personal Articles Floater (or it's called many different names) It's a policy that's designed to place stated amounts of coverage on many items from jewelry, business tools, iPods, hearing aids, cameras, musical instruments and on and on. If you have more than 'the average Joe' of ANYTHING, then check this out FOR SURE!

6. Check your deductible! This can be a tremendous cost-control tool in your insurance spending. Simply stated: The larger your deductible, the greater your savings. Usually you can save close to $100 per year just by going from a $500 deductible to $1000. Pick the largest number you can stand without losing sleep at night and ask your agent or company the savings you'd realize by changing. If you have a $250 or smaller deductible, it's definitely time to change it UP! Keep in mind that you usually hit a point of 'diminishing returns' once you get to $4000 or more. This means that you'll save less and less for each additional $1000 you choose. It might make sense to go from $1000 to $2000 if you save $85 a year by doing so, but not from $5000 to $6000 if you only save another $21 by making that jump.

Monitoring your insurance costs and coverages can result in a lot of savings AND peace of mind. Be sure you keep notes and file your thoughts and changes from year to year. These recoreds will make your annual call quicker and easier each year.

Feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions.

Till next time...


It's a Good Life !

SAFECO Auto Insurance

The Safeco insurance is one of the leading insurance companies. It is very well known for its quick customer service. Safeco Auto Insurance Company’s mission is to make the experience of the processes of buying, selling and managing insurance easier. The aim is to quote and issue insurance policies within minutes. The company sells their products through a national network that consists of independent agents and brokers who are well versed in giving you the options and advice. The company also believes that diversity is the key to creating a dynamic work environment. Safeco helps you breeze through the claims process too. When you are involved in an accident you can trust them to be there to help you. Safeco is dedicated to providing fair, fast and friendly claim service. You will also get step by step guidance in going through the claims process.

History
The vision of insurance executive Hawthorne K Dent resulted in pioneering of a whole new approach to insurance. Dent started the General Insurance Company of America defying all convention. This Seattle based insurer after initial hiccups, started earning praise for the competitive prices it offered and the superb service.

In the year 1953, taking advantage of computer automation tools, the company started a new business named Selective Auto and Fire Insurance Company of America, in short Safeco.

By the late 1960s, Safeco ventured into life insurance business with the name Safeco Corporation, after its parent company.

In 1997 Safeco took over American States Financial Corporation to become a leading writer of insurance for the small and mid sized businesses.

Safeco had swiftly reached a $1 Billion loss in 2001, but in 2002 the company earned profits of $300 million plus.

In 2004, Safeco sold life and investment operations to focus on property and casualty insurance and surety fully.

By 2005 Safeco has reached a record annual net income of $880 million.

In 2007, Safeco reached its second best ever annual net income becoming an indispensable choice for the customers, shareholders and agents. This was achieved through innovative thinking and customer focus.

Safeco applies the philosophy of diversity with regard to customers. They design products that would really appeal to a broad spectrum of customers. That is the reason the company represents their products all over the country in many different languages and cultures to protect their lives and their possessions. The company supports inclusive causes throughout the communities they work in to promote diversity. Safeco welcomes employees from various backgrounds and perspectives. This step is to encourage new ideas in their business activities that give them the competitive edge to enter new markets. The company strives to create an inclusive work environment that is built around mutual respect, understanding and co-operation that bring out the best in them.

The Safeco Advantage
To purchase Safeco Auto Insurance online, you can receive a quote within 10 minutes. You can purchase the policy instantly. You an also talk to an agent of Safeco by clicking on the appropriate button on their site. Their representative will contact you within 2 days and will answer your questions about their auto insurance policies. Their web site has the contact information such as customer service phone numbers, emails and addresses of various offices.

New Saturated Fat Review Article by Dr. Ronald Krauss

I never thought I'd see the day when one of the most prominent lipid researchers in the world did an honest review of the observational studies evaluating the link between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Ronald Krauss's group has published a review article titled "Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease". As anyone with two eyes and access to the medical literature would conclude (including myself), they found no association whatsoever between saturated fat intake and heart disease or stroke:

A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.

Bravo, Dr. Krauss. That was a brave move.

Thanks to Peter for pointing out this article.

Phil heath youtube video - "Phil heath is my dad :D (joke)".

new Phil heath youtube video, well kind of, just found this video on youtube of a amateur odybuilder posing, video title says "Phil heath is my dad :D", i think the poser is meaning in relation to him having such good genetics, and muscle shape like phil heath.

though the guys shape also has a look of dexter jackson as well.

can the real phil heath stand up, phil heath arms, phil being known for some of the biggest arms in bodybuilding:



going to be looking at the phil heath diet and phil heath workout in some upcoming posts as well.

The Dirty Little Secret of the Diet-Heart Hypothesis

The diet-heart hypothesis is the idea that saturated fat, and in some versions cholesterol, raises blood cholesterol and contributes to the risk of having a heart attack. To test this hypothesis, scientists have been studying the relationship between saturated fat consumption and heart attack risk for more than half a century. To judge by the grave pronouncements of our most visible experts, you would think these studies had found an association between the two. It turns out, they haven't.

The fact is, the vast majority of high-quality observational studies have found no connection whatsoever between saturated fat consumption and heart attack risk. The scientific literature contains dozens of these studies, so let's narrow the field to prospective studies only, because they are considered the most reliable. In this study design, investigators find a group of initially healthy people, record information about them (in this case what they eat), and watch who gets sick over the years.

A Sampling of Unsupportive Studies

Here are references to ten high-impact prospective studies, spanning half a century, showing no association between saturated fat consumption and heart attack risk. Ignore the squirming about saturated-to-polyunsaturated ratios, Keys/Hegsted scores, etc. What we're concerned with is the straightforward question: do people who eat more saturated fat have more heart attacks? Many of these papers allow free access to the full text, so have a look for yourselves if you want:

A Longitudinal Study of Coronary Heart Disease. Circulation. 1963.

Diet and Heart: a Postscript. British Medical Journal. 1977. Saturated fat was unrelated to heart attack risk, but fiber was protective.

Dietary Intake and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese Men Living in Hawaii. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1978.

Relationship of Dietary Intake to Subsequent Coronary Heart Disease Incidence: the Puerto Rico Heart Health Program. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1980.

Diet, Serum Cholesterol, and Death From Coronary Heart Disease: The Western Electric Study. New England Journal of Medicine. 1981.

Diet and 20-year Mortality in Two Rural Population Groups of Middle-Aged Men in Italy. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1989. Men who died of CHD ate significantly less saturated fat than men who didn't.

Diet and Incident Ischaemic Heart Disease: the Caerphilly Study. British Journal of Nutrition. 1993. They measured animal fat intake rather than saturated fat in this study.

Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Men: Cohort Follow-up Study in the United States. British Medical Journal. 1996. This is the massive Physicians Health Study. Don't let the abstract fool you! Scroll down to table 2 and see for yourself that the association between saturated fat intake and heart attack risk disappears after adjustment for several factors including family history of heart attack, smoking and fiber intake. That's because, as in most modern studies, people who eat steak are also more likely to smoke, avoid vegetables, eat fast food, etc.

Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women. New England Journal of Medicine. 1997. From the massive Nurse's Health study. This one fooled me for a long time because the abstract is misleading. It claims that saturated fat was associated with heart attack risk. However, the association disappeared without a trace when they adjusted for monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat intake. Have a look at table 3.

Dietary Fat Intake and Early Mortality Patterns-- Data from the Malmo Diet and Cancer Study. Journal of Internal Medicine. 2005.

I just listed 10 prospective studies published in top peer-reviewed journals that found no association between saturated fat and heart disease risk. This is less than half of the prospective studies that have come to the same conclusion, representing by far the majority of studies to date. If saturated fat is anywhere near as harmful as we're told, why are its effects essentially undetectable in the best studies we can muster?

Studies that Support the Diet-Heart Hypothesis

To be fair, there have been a few that have found an association between saturated fat consumption and heart attack risk. Here's a list of all four that I'm aware of, with comments:

Ten-year Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease in the Honolulu Heart Program: relationship to nutrient intake. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1984. "Men who developed coronary heart disease also had a higher mean intake of percentage of calories from protein, fat, saturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids than men who remained free of coronary heart disease." The difference in saturated fat intake between people who had heart attacks and those who didn't, although statistically significant, was minuscule.

Diet and 20-Year Mortality From Coronary Heart Disease: the Ireland-Boston Diet-Heart Study. New England Journal of Medicine. 1985. "Overall, these results tend to support the hypothesis that diet is related, albeit weakly, to the development of coronary heart disease."

Relationship Between Dietary Intake and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality: Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Follow-up Study. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 1996. "...increasing percentages of energy intake as total fat (RR 1.04, 95% CI = 1.01 – 1.08), saturated fat (RR 1.11, CI = 1.04 – 1.18), and monounsaturated fat (RR 1.08, CI = 1.01 – 1.16) were significant risk factors for CHD mortality among 30 to 59 year olds... None of the dietary components were significantly associated with CHD mortality among those aged 60–79 years." Note that the associations were very small, also included monounsaturated fat (like in olive oil), and only applied to the age group with the lower risk of heart attack.

The Combination of High Fruit and Vegetable and Low Saturated Fat Intakes is More Protective Against Mortality in Aging Men than is Either Alone. Journal of Nutrition. 2005. Higher saturated fat intake was associated with a higher risk of heart attack; fiber was strongly protective.

The Review Papers

Over 25 high-quality studies conducted, and only 4 support the diet-heart hypothesis. If this substance is truly so fearsome, why don't people who eat more of it have more heart attacks? In case you're concerned that I'm cherry-picking studies that conform to my beliefs, here are links to review papers on the same data that have reached the same conclusion:

The Questionable Role of Saturated and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Cardiovascular Disease. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 1998. Dr. Uffe Ravnskov systematically demolishes the diet-heart hypothesis simply by collecting all the relevant studies and summarizing their findings.

A Systematic Review of the Evidence Supporting a Causal Link Between Dietary Factors and Coronary Heart Disease. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009. "Insufficient evidence (less than or equal to 2 criteria) of association is present for intake of supplementary vitamin E and ascorbic acid (vitamin C); saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids; total fat; alpha-linolenic acid; meat; eggs; and milk" They analyzed prospective studies representing over 160,000 patients from 11 studies meeting their rigorous inclusion criteria, and found no association whatsoever between saturated fat consumption and heart attack risk.

Where's the Disconnect?

The first part of the diet-heart hypothesis states that dietary saturated fat raises the cholesterol/LDL concentration of the blood. This is held as established fact in the mainstream understanding of nutrition. The second part states that increased blood cholesterol/LDL increases the risk of having a heart attack. What part of this is incorrect?

There's definitely an association between blood cholesterol/LDL level and heart attack risk in certain populations, including Americans. MRFIT, among other studies, showed this definitively, although the lowest risk of all-cause mortality was at an average level of cholesterol. The association between blood cholesterol and heart attack risk does not apply to Japanese populations, as pointed out repeatedly by the erudite Dr. Harumi Okuyama. This seems to be generally true of groups that consume a lot of seafood.

So we're left with the first premise: that saturated fat increases blood cholesterol/LDL. This turns out to be largely a myth, based on a liberal interpretation of short-term feeding studies. In fact, it isn't even true in animal models of heart disease. In the 1950s, the most vigorous proponent of the diet-heart hypothesis, Dr. Ancel Keys, created a formula designed to predict changes in blood cholesterol based on the consumption of dietary saturated and polyunsaturated fats. This formula is extremely inaccurate and has gradually been dropped from the modern medical literature. Yet the idea that saturated fat consumption increases blood cholesterol/LDL lives on...

This is it, folks: the diet-heart hypothesis ends here. It's been kept afloat for decades by wishful thinking, puritan sensibilities and selective citation of the evidence. It's time to put it out of its misery.