Members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) recently adopted guidelines that protect insurance consumers from discriminatory underwriting practices in the sale of life insurance.

The changes to the NAIC Unfair Trade Practices Model Act limit an insurer's ability to refuse life insurance because of lawful past travel or, under specific circumstances, lawful future travel.

Specifically, future travel cannot be the basis for a coverage decision unless travel to a specific destination at a specific time is found, based on sound actuarial principals and actual or anticipated experience, to create a risk of loss greater than that for individuals who do now travel to that place at that time.

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In this recessionary climate, consumers are rethinking their expenses and risk as health, mortgage and personal assets insurance issues loom large. New findings suggest that consumers are paying more than they should for insurance coverage.

In his new co-authored research paper entitled, "Why Do People Buy Too Much Insurance?," NYU Stern Professor Zur Shapira, an expert in managerial risk taking and organizational decision-making, with co-author Professor Itzhak Venezia, finds that 19 to 25 percent of insurance customers overpay for insurance by purchasing policies with low or zero deductibles.

The study found:

• Consumers overestimate the benefits of full-coverage policies that cover every damage, even if it is very small or the chance of it occurring is highly improbable, which leads them to purchase unnecessary, expensive policies

• In most cases, consumers should purchase policies with deductibles, which would save them money while providing ample coverage

• Consumers are more prone than insurance professionals to underestimate policies with deductibles

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On May 21, 2008 President George W. Bush signed a law that prohibits discrimination against anyone whose genetic information shows a predisposition to illnesses such as cancer or heart disease.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, passed by overwhelming majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, bans health insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genetic information.

"In other words, it protects our citizens from having genetic information misused, and this bill does so without undermining the basic premise of the insurance industry," Bush said.

The law bars health insurers from rejecting coverage or raising premiums for healthy people based on personal or familial genetic predisposition to develop a particular disease such as cancer, diabetes, heart ailments or others.

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According to a survey by one of our carriers, ING, Americans in every demographic group say that their death or the death of their spouse would be a much greater threat to their family's future financial situation during this time.

This is yet another reason why now may be a time to re-evaluate your life insurance needs. Keep in mind that term life insurance rates are the lowest they've been in history. The survey demonstrates the central role life insurance plays in a comprehensive financial plan, including the important role of wealth protection. Inadequate life insurance can be swiftly disastrous to families that don't properly anticipate and assess the impact death of a spouse or partner can have on short- and long-term finances.

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Google recently unveiled Google Health, a long-anticipated health information service that combines the company's classic search services with a user's personal health records online. The password-protected service, which can be found at www.google.com/health/, stores a user's basic medical history and gathers relevant information connected to their health conditions.

How do you feel about this? Frankly, I'm a bit scared. It's hard enough the get stuff corrected in the MIB (Medical Information Bureau) if there is a mistake. How will this be used by insurance companies and underwriting groups when you apply for health, life or even disability?

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Here's a story about a woman who got approved for a life insurance policy and one year later she died of an aggressive form of breast cancer. The company tried to deny the claim even though she cleared the medical exam. They said she much have been sick before they agreed to insure her. This took place in Mass. and although the company settled, her husband is pushing for a law that would "force an insurer to prove a person misrepresented his well-being or should have known he was not in good health based on active symptoms of a serious change in health in order to deny a claim." According to the article, under current standards, the responsibility rests with the insured person to prove he didn't know he was ill.

Please note...in most states, "good health" is clearly defined in insurance laws but in Mass. the courts have relied on precedent set in cases dating back to 1920 that put the burden on policyholders to demonstrate that they were in good health when the policies were issued.

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This article was written by Elaine Silvestrini for The Tampa Tribune. What are you thoughts on this? If I were to buy life insurance policies for my employees, I'd have an obligation to give the death benefit to the deceased's family to help them in their time of need. What are your thoughts?

Here's one for the next episode of Law and Order: two elderly women have earned themselves multiple murder convictions with the goal of collecting insurance money.

Olga Rutterschmidt, 75 years old, was convicted of murdering Kenneth McDavid, 50, while her co-defendant, Helen Golay, 77 years old, was convicted of murdering McDavid and Paul Vados, 73, while both received convictions on counts of conspiracy in both killings as well.

What do these verdicts mean for the future of these two women? Life in prison without possibility for parole as prosecutors opted not to try for the death penalty.

Even though Rutterschmidt's lawyers are trying to portray Golay as the mastermind behind the murder for insurance killings, Deputy District Attorney Truc Do says they were equal partners.

According to the Texarcana Gazette, "Vados and McDavid were run over by cars in dark alleys, incidents that authorities said were staged to look like hit-and-run accidents. The women collected $2.8 million on insurance policies they bought for the men."

Though the killings happened in 1999, it wasn't until 2005 that the two women were arrested when the investigation in McDavid's death yielded a link to the Vados murder.

As long as these two women won't be free to do this again, lonesome men and the insurance industry can rest easy. Hopefully the harsh sentence levied by the justice system will deter any others who would consider such a grotesque scheme.

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I saw this article in Kiplinger's Personal Finance and thought it was very well written; therefore I wanted to share it with you. As the reporter, Erin Burt, says, financial planning doesn't have to be complicated. She provides an easy-to-follow strategy will help you meet your needs today and tomorrow.

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I just came across the Insurance Information Institute's (I.I.I.) My Financial House – Personal Finance Software.

The software program enables you to get a picture of your current circumstances, and allows you to clearly set, and attain goals for where you want to be five or 10 years from today. In addition, the software allows you to enter information about the current estimated value of their property, 401(k) and college savings plans, stock portfolio, and other assets such as life insurance policies.

It can also help you work more effectively with financial advisers, identify gaps or overlaps in their financial circumstances, and guide heirs and beneficiaries when filing a life insurance or other claims. This is good stuff!

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According to MetLife's Sixth Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study more than half of working Americans (52%) are now obtaining the majority of their financial and retirement products through the workplace – up from 46% a year ago. Growing financial concerns among employees are creating a greater interest in advice and guidance at the workplace – 44% of employees would like access to general financial planning advice at work, up from 30% last year. Nearly half (49%) of all employees also want their employers to provide retirement advice.

Also among the study's key findings:

Benefits, Loyalty, & Retention – Employers underestimate how important benefits are to employee loyalty; benefits are increasingly important factors in employees' decisions to remain with their employer.

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I'm reposting a recent article from the Omaha World Herald. I know that I've written about this topic in the past, but it's always a good thing to hear it more than once and from different perspectives.

Term and permanent life insurance policies offer different paths to the same goal: Making certain your loved ones can meet their financial needs should you die.

"We think you ought to buy life insurance if you need the death benefit," said Jeff Sharp, a shareholder in the business consulting and wealth management firm SilverStone Group in Omaha. "You don't buy life insurance primarily as an investment."

What if you knew that the things you're doing are more likely to result in health risks and health care expenses down the road? Would you change your lifestyle? CIGNA developed an online questionnaire that will assess your health and predict what effects your current lifestyle will have on your future health.

The system, called the Trend Management System, analyzes an individual's responses and clusters them into four main categories: low risk, risk-taking, biometric and psychological. It is programmed to recognize 34 dangerous risk combinations and predict – with an accuracy rating of 83 percent – how likely an individual is to face health problems that could lead to high health care costs in the next few years.

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The Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) has just published the print version of Insuring Your Business: A Small Businessowners' Guide to Insurance. The book is designed to help businessowners decide what kinds of insurance they need for their business.

It has sections devoted to:

• property insurance
• liability protection
• life insurance for key employees
• workers compensation

There are also chapters focusing on insurance for specific types of business such as construction contractors, food service businesses, home-based businesses, nonprofit organizations and small retail stores.

Sounds like a good read for many business owners.

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