Personal Finance Tips

Insurance is a defensive measure used against future conditional losses to hedge the possible risks of the future. It is a legal contract that protects a person from contingent risk of losses through financial means and provides a means for individuals and societies to handle some of the risks faced in daily life.

These contracts of insurance are called policies and are provided by insurance companies. The Insurance companies charge a regular amount from the customers, which is paid back, either in part, or entirety, to the customers in case of a definite loss. This regular amount charged from customers is called Insurance Premium.

REASONS OF INSURANCE:

Sometimes in life it is not possible to avoid the losses. For example People may become ill. They may die of illness or accidents or their homes or other property may undergo damage or theft. So in all these cases and they have to face the loss of income or savings. So insurance is a manner of financially insuring that if such an incident comes about then the loss does not affect the present well being of the person.

DOCTRINES OF INSURANCE:

1 There should be a certain definite loss taken place at a known time, in a known place and from a known cause. Therefore the time, place and the cause of loss should be clear enough.

2 The incident that represent the cause of the claim should be accidental or beyond the control of the beneficiary.

3 The size of the loss must be significant from the perspective of the insured. Insurance premiums should cover both the estimated cost of losses, plus the cost of policy, regulating the losses, and providing the principal required to logically assure that the insurer would be able to reimburse claims.

4 The amount of premium should be affordable.

5 The possibility of loss and the cost of compensation should be calculable or estimable

TYPES OF INSURANCE:

Below are some kinds of insurances.

LIFE INSURANCE:

Life insurance policy insures the life of the insured. The insurance company is legally bound to provide a monetary benefit to a decedent’s family or the beneficiary after the death of the policyholder. The proceeds are paid to the beneficiary either in a lump sum amount or an annuity

MEDICAL INSURANCE:

Medical insurance is also called medclaim. Under this policy the insurance policy pays the amount to the insured for his health purpose. This amount covers the cost of medical treatment.

DISABILITY INSURANCE:

There are two types of disability insurance.One is simple disability insurance and the other is total disability insurance. In case of simple disability insurance,a financial support on monthly basis is provided by the insurer to the policy holder if he is unable to work due to an injury or an illness. But permanent disability insurance provides the reimbursement if a person becomes permanently disabled.

GENERAL INSURANCE:

It includes automobiles insurance, business insurance, property insurance etc.

Automobile insurance:

In UK this insurance is called motor insurance. It compensates the loss or damage occurred to the vehicle. But in United States auto insurance policy is essential to legally operate a vehicle on public roads.

Business insurance:

Business insurance protects the businesses against risks of losses and damages and compensates in case of loss

Property insurance:

This type of insurance protects the property against the risks like fire, theft etc. This category also includes fire insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance etc

Fire Insurance:

It is an insurance covering the damage to the property caused by fire.

Flood Insurance:

This type of insurance pays the policy holder in case of any loss or damage to the property due to flood. It protects the property against the flooding.

Earthquake Insurance:

This insurance compensates any damage to the property caused by earthquake.

IMPORTANCE OF INSURANCE:

Insurance plays an important role in sharing the risks of people in an affordable form.It helps the people to quickly recover from damages and losses.

The majority of people who commit insurance fraud don’t think they’re hurting anybody directly. In fact, they think they’re hurting major corporations who have enough money that they don’t care anyway. This is not the case. In the United States, insurance scams cost an estimated $875 per person annually. It adds up to approx. $80 billion per year, and with the rapid growth of technology, it’s getting harder and harder to catch.

There are different types of insurance fraud.

One of the leading forms of insurance fraud is in our health care system. Health care fraud results in over $30 billion per year in the United States. There are two kinds of health insurance fraud: member fraud and provider fraud. An example of member fraud is when you deceive your insurance company by purposely not declaring something, where an example of provider fraud is if you were to bill for a service that was never rendered.

One fast-gorwing form of insurance fraud is automobile insurance fraud. Staged rear-end car accidents are a common form of this type of fraud. This is when a scam driver will stop suddenly in front of a car deliberately so they other car rear-ends them. Another popular scam is when there’s already an accident, you add damage purposely in the hopes to collect more money. Often times, this works, which is why it’s important to take photographs of the damage.

Another form of insurance fraud is when the beneficiary tries to collect the benefits while the insured is still alive. This is called life insurance fraud. The best thing you can do in this scenario is to know your insurance broker. When you go in to pay your premium on the insurance, don’t pay in cash. make sure you understand your policy, and if you don’t, bring it to someone who does.

And last but not least, I want to talk about fire insurance fraud. This form of fraud is very common because it’s hard to prove. If you lose your house to a fire, who’s stopping you from declaring stuff you didn’t have in the first place? There is no real way to prevent this kind of fraud. This will haunt you in your taxes and that’s about it. The best thing you can do is report it if you hear of anyone making false claims.

As I mentioned previously, the best thing you can do if you’re a victim of fraud or if you hear of any sort of fraud taking place, is to report it. You can report fraud to the National Fraud Information Center at 1-800-876-7060. I hope this article has opened everyone’s eyes a little bit to how this serious crime is affecting each and every one of us.