| State orders insurer to cut rates further
VERO BEACH Cincinnati Insurance Co.'s proposal to roll back their homeowners property insurance coverage by 3.2 percent statewide was rejected by officials with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, who instructed the company to instead decrease rates by 31.3 percent. "They will have to make a new filing with us," said agency spokesman Bob Lotane on Wednesday. "The simplest way to put it is, they are going to have to get their math right." .
Johnson and Miller: Invest in kids' health
Sometimes a dollar is just a dollar, but in the case of the Children?s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), one dollar equals $3.64. The fiscally responsible approach to funding a program in Texas should include the overall impact on the taxpayer at local, state and federal levels. For example, for each state dollar invested in CHIP, Texas receives $2.64 in federal matching funds (which come, of course, from Texas taxpayers). And the reverse is true — if we do not put up the dollar, we actually lose our $2.64 to other states. So far, Texas has forfeited more than $900 million in Texas federal matching funds by not fully funding CHIP. These funds have been returned to the U.S. Treasury and spent by other states. Most recently, the state sought to ?save? money in 2003 by removing 180,000 children from CHIP coverage.
Time to trim the tax on wireless service
Florida's cell-phone taxes, fees and surcharges are at an astounding 19 percent, with our state having the third-highest wireless tax rate in the nation. This enormously high tax rate must be lowered to level the playing field for Florida with the rest of the nation. Legislation introduced by Rep. Ron Reagan and Sen. Mike Haridopolos would allow for Florida's unfair 9.17-percent Communications Services Tax to be lowered by 1.17 percent this year, saving Florida's 12.5 million wireless consumers an estimated $185 million the first year alone. .
Uganda: Go Slow On Health Insurance - Employers
UGANDA risks increasing the high cost of doing business further if the Social Health Insurance scheme is hurriedly implemented, the Federation of Uganda Employers' (FUE) outgoing board chairman has warned. The Government expects to raise billions of shillings through the scheme and provide better health care services. .
Second Home Buyer's Guide
Vacation homes in popular areas saw their valuations rocket with the broader residential market during the real estate boom. Now that the market has cooled and the investment speculators have gone home, buyers can expect to find a wide selection and prices that are flat or slightly lower -- at least in some regions. While those factors have tilted the balance in favor of prospective buyers, notably in areas with a glut of new condos, prices in many of hottest markets haven't seen remarkable declines from their highs. Consequently, beachside bargains may be scant – and those seeking deals may have to travel to slightly less fashionable destinations to find true values. But for would-be buyers yearning to relax at their own retreat, rather than to turn a quick profit, conditions have improved.
•Insurer's handling of fire has Ossining condo owners fuming
Ask some distraught people in Ossining and they'll tell you emphatically that integrity went up in smoke on April 7, 2005, when a basement electrical fire destroyed, or badly damaged, six townhouse condominiums. Since the fire, they haven't been able to return to their homes. That's two full years ago Saturday. And the way things are going, it could conceivably be another two years before life is back to normal at Building G of the Cedar Garden Townhouses. The Cedar Garden condo owners blame the delay on their insurance carrier, the Insurance Company of Greater New York, whom they claim has scandalously low-balled the estimated cost of reconstruction. No one from GNY Insurance could be reached for comment yesterday. I tried their marketing and legal departments in New York City without luck.
The wrong loan: Is it common?
After being in this business, the mortgage business, for over 18 years, I am now more convinced than ever that the majority of people take the wrong loan. Some are just overpaying because their interest rate is too high for their situation and others are simply in the wrong plan. The amazing part about it is that for the vast majority of people, this will be their biggest obligation in their financial life. And to make it even more ridiculous, most of the same people will have the right auto loan, the wrong insurance, little or no reserves for emergencies and decent jobs. What is missing is fairly evident: people do not get nor do they seek a good education when it comes to their finances. Although I am not in the insurance business, it frustrates me that so many people have the wrong insurance.
The great corn gold rush
NEW YORK – Drive down the empty back roads that lead to Gerald Tumbleson's Martin County, Minn., farmhouse, and you'd never know you were riding through one of America's newest boomtowns. It's February, and Tumbleson's cornfields lie fallow under a foot of windswept snow. Tractors sit idle as local farmers await a thaw that won't come for weeks. The clearest evidence of life is the manure stench drifting from Tumbleson's pig barn.
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Snyder's Drug Stores, Inc. to Improve Operational Efficiency With ...
DALLAS and DUBLIN, Ireland, March 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trintech Group Plc , a leading provider of financial software and services specializing in reconciliation workflow, revenue enhancement, transaction risk management, and compliance, today announced that Synder's Drug Stores, Inc., has selected ReconNET On-Demand and the DataFlow Transaction Network to streamline reconciliation processes across their enterprise. The DataFlow Transaction Network will capture, format, balance, and load daily bank data into ReconNET. ReconNET, accessible via the Internet, will be used to automate the verification and reconciliation of the company's bank .
Police Find More Pieces Of Stolen Heavy Equipment
NewsChannel 9 first told you about Chattanooga's Auto Theft Division cracking a major ring, with the equipment parked at a Catoosa County, Georgia farm. But detectives say an organized ring stole those pieces out of Whitfield County, Georgia Hamilton County, Chattanooga and Manchester, Tennessee. Detectives seized one piece of equipment today and two people called in machinery they recently bought. Right now, this investigation is building serious steam. Chattanooga auto theft detectives confiscated a skid steer off a Catoosa County, Georgia homesite late this morning. They believe it is stolen and connected to a ring where they say Dale Ramey is a central figure. Tony Iglesias saw officers take his brother's piece of equipment valued at about 35 thousand dollars. Police say the owner had no idea his machine was stolen property.
Spring flooding could be disastrous without right insurance
As the last remnants of the winter snows melted away the past few weeks, residents along area rivers and creeks noticed a swelling in water levels. While those levels are nearing back to normal, hydrologist Mike Gillispie with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls said that with the early spring rains, the potential for flooding is still there.
Most of the time, Gillispie said, in the past most (flooding) has occurred anywhere from mid-March to mid-May.
But no worries, flood damage is covered in home owners insurance, right? Wrong.
Thats a big misconception, said Kelly Sunde, an American Family Insurance agent at 57th Street and Marion Road. People often think that their home owners covers flood damage and thats not true. They have to buy a separate policy.
Vacation Homes Boom in Spain May Bust as Banks Recoil (Update1)
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Vacation home prices in Spain, a leading indicator of Europe's property market, may face a slump that's worse than the real estate decline in the U.S., based on the loan terms banks are imposing on developers. Property magnate Fernando Martin, the former Real Madrid soccer chairman, and Barcelona-based Promociones Habitat SA are paying five times more to borrow than U.S. developers such as Centex Corp. in Dallas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Even UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, which was bankrupt last year, pays a lower risk premium on its loans. ``Banks are imposing terms on real-estate firms similar to those for defaulted loans,'' said David Malpica, who helps manage $5.6 billion of real-estate and distressed debt assets in Europe and the U.S.
High Point and Prudential Announce 5 Year Extension of ...
RED BANK, NJ -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 13, 2007 -- High Point Auto Insurance, a leading provider of personal automobile insurance in the State of New Jersey, and Prudential Financial announced the extension of the existing distribution agreement between High Point and Prudential Insurance Agency, Inc., an affiliate of Prudential Financial that manages retail agency sales of High Point individual personal lines property and casualty products by Prudential Agents. The original agreement commenced on November 1, 2003 as part of the Palisades Group's purchase of Prudential Financial's New Jersey property and casualty insurance companies. Upon purchase, the Palisades Group renamed the companies the High Point Companies. Since the sale, High Point has sold its products through an extensive network of over 300 Prudential Agents throughout the State of New Jersey.
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