There are several challenges facing the life insurance industry in 2012, but executives also see opportunities they plan on taking advantage of according to the press release found on MarketWatch.com.  LOMA completed interviews of top executives in the life insurance industry about their predictions on sales, distribution, technology advances, regulation, and social media for the year 2012 and their outlook was generally positive.

The interviews were collected and for LOMAs annual industry forecast which is published in their monthly publication, Resource Magazine which does happen to be award-winning.  These interviews offer insight into what challenges the life insurance industry may face.  

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Taking a skiing or snowboarding holiday is seldom an inexpensive affair, and choosing to hit the slopes can, for many families, mean they are putting the vast majority of the annual holiday budget into one getaway. But if you take the time to carry out some research and planning, youll find that a fun packed and low cost ski holiday is not so unobtainable. By organising your break independently, you may well find you have not put the summer holiday in jeopardy after all.

Key to a cheap skiing holiday is selecting the right resort at the right time. Generally speaking, ski holidays are most inexpensive at the beginning of the season, although you can find some cheap deals at the end of the season too.

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November 17th is the Great American Smokeout, where people come to together to urge smokers to quit their habit because of the severe health effects it has on our bodies, as well as the people around us.  The known health risks keep piling up, but cigarette smokers continue to light up due to its addictive qualities.  Not only are smokers putting their health at risk but they may be facing higher health insurance and term life insurance quotes.

According to the article The Value of Not Smoking by Aaron Cave found on Money.MSN.com, a smoker in New York could save approximately $3325 a year.  This amount of money could purchase a quality life insurance policy for up to $2 million dollars.  Q

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Landlord insurance clients need to be on the alert for property fraudsters trying to make a profit at everyone else’s expense. A financial advisor has been jailed by Leeds Crown Court for five years for attempting to defraud financial institutions out of £3m. She used fake identities to rent properties and then applied for loans, including cash advances. She made sure she used addresses with no loans charged on them and she even attempted to sell some properties without the real owners’ knowledge. The prosecutor said “This is sophisticated, repeated and professional offending by a defendant adept at using disguise and subterfuge”.

Identity theft is a massive problem and property owners can find themselves involved in enormous inconvenience if they fall foul of it. Have you

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Bolstered by millions of dollars of aid from Washington, California managed to hold its healthcare safety nets together last year despite the fallout from the recession. Now, however, with emergency federal aid schedule to end this year, it is unclear how much longer California’s financially strained government will be able to head off cutbacks. Driven by poverty and expanded eligibility, enrollment in Med-Cal. The Medi-Cal programs is jointly funded by federal and state governments using a complex formula that varies from state to state.

The Medi-Cal expansion – coupled with growth in the Healthy Families program for children in low to moderate-income families provided much-needed coverage and peace of mind to families while they looked for jobs and struggled to pay the bills.

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If you’re considering making efforts to compare caravan insurance, then it probably indicates that you’re aware of the potential savings and cover improvements that you may achieve by doing so.

Here are a few things you may wish to look at, although the detail of things to compare may be dependant upon the specific type of caravan you have:

• the cover provided – each individual policy may have different nuances in terms of what it covers, for example, you may find one policy that covers your caravan but which does not consider your awning to be part of your caravan, by contrast, another policy may include awnings cover;

• the price – of course, some people may consider that, to compare caravan insurance, you only really need to look at the price but focusing on that exclusively may lead to cover that is inadequate for your needs;

• exclusions and conditions if you’re making comparisons, it’s also important to look at the exclusions and conditions of the policy, directly alongside the cover it is providing – that’s because those elements of the policy documentation may make a significant difference to whether or not you would be eligible to claim;

• your responsibilities – policies may understandably ask you, the policyholder, to undertake certain things as part of your responsibility to help keep your caravan safe and secure (an example may be the obligation to use hitchlocks and wheel clamps on touring caravans) and you may find these are more demanding in some cases than others;

• discount opportunities – some insurers may be willing to reward responsible and sensible behaviour (e.g. reducing overall ri

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• Mark King
• guardian.co.uk,

Young Marmalade, which specialises in car insurance for younger drivers, has cut premiums by 17% during the four months to the end of July, bucking the trend of soaring premiums.

AA Insurance said premiums for drivers between 17 and 22 have risen, on average, by 80% over the past two years, while the latest Confused.com/Towers Watson car insurance index, which tracks more than 4m quotes, shows the average 17- to 20-year-old male now paying £4,006 a year for comprehensive cover, compared with an average premium cost of £858.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, says: “Most young people can’t get their heads round why their first car insurance premium should be 10 times greater than what they might pay for an old banger. B

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A few months ago we warned unoccupied property insurance clients to be on the look out for fraudsters who might use an innocent owner’s property to make a quick profit. Another case was reported recently, this time in London. The conmen posed as agents and advertised a flat for rent. Those applicants wishing to proceed paid deposits of £2,000 each and were given a date when they could move in. When they tried to do so they discovered that several people had fallen for the same trick and were all trying to move in to the flat. The so-called agents had disappeared with more than £20,000 in deposits on the same property.

Scams such as these can be successful due to the high demand for rental property in the capital. The

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