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A judge was once asked for a definition of obscenity. His reply was that he would know it when he saw it. So, to the courts, it’s acceptable to leave a concept undefined so long as anyone would know what it means. When we come to fraud, it’s a similar problem. There are so many different ways in which someone dishonest can separate a willing victim from his or her money. It can be the most simple of lies or a complicated web of deceit that lures even the most wary of people into handing over cash. For that reason, we are left with a list of components. There must be a deception of some kind. This deception must be made dishonestly, and it must cause financial loss to the person deceived. After that, it’s down to common sense. So here’s the question for you. Let’s say you ask advice from someone who seems to be an independent professional and then act on that advice by buying a product. Later you discover the professional received a substantial part of the price as a commission and that there were other, better products you could have bought at lower prices. You have suffered a loss by relying on the advice. Had you known the professional was being paid to sell that product, you would probably not have relied on the advice.

Now let’s apply that to agents and brokers who sell insurance. You ought to realize these people are being paid a commission. How else can they make the business pay? It’s basic common sense. That probably means the brokers are not dishonest by failing to explain a big slice of the first year’s premium payments will go to them. But suppose these agents know there are better products at lower prices, but none of these insurers will pay them a commission. Is it dishonest not to tell you? They know you would not buy one of their products, so it’s a lie by remaining silent. That’s why New York stockbrokers and the brokers who sell mortgages are obliged to disclose their commissions.

Welcome to Regulation 194 which has just been approved by the New York Court of Appeal. Agents and brokers have just lost the case and will now be obliged to tell residents of that state how much they will earn a commission from any sale they recommend, and whether there are any terms and conditions that will make their commission higher or lower. That now puts all agents and brokers advising and selling financial products on the same footing. This is transparency in action. Now you might reasonably ask whether similar laws are in operation in other states. After all, government is supposed to protect consumers from any criminal practices. Well, remarkably, these rules are not so common. There are no federal rules requiring disclosure. It’s expected you will protect yourselves. How are you supposed to do that? Well with the internet, you can get free health insurance quotes before you go see an agent. Armed with this information, it’s obvious who’s offering the best value. If you fail to do this before seeing an agent, you are asking to pay a high price for your health insurance plan.

Everyone is used to the idea that, if you don’t own a big ticket item, you can still get one even though you don’t have the cash to buy. This may involve a loan or some other credit arrangement, or you can rent. We have moved from a society in which people used to save until they could afford to buy, to one where you can satisfy your wishes instantly with a good credit score and proof of your identity. When it comes to vehicles, it’s either been a case of talking nicely to neighbors to borrow their car in an emergency or go to a rental agency. Now we have moved beyond the carpooling arrangements into car-sharing. This is both good news and bad. At a community level, there are an increasing number of self-help groups who are making their vehicles available to each other. At the top end of the market, established renters like Hertz are making vehicles available on demand. New organizations like Zipcar also leave vehicles in designated places and anyone with a card can get in and drive them away.

The established renters are simply using the existing fleet in a more flexible way to generate money. Satisfactory insurance cover is already in place. But problems have been emerging in the less formal market. If you put your own vehicle into a pool and anyone can drive it, what happens to your own insurance cover? The answer is simple. If you do this on a regular basis and you are paid, this is a commercial use. As a private owner, this invalidates your policy.

Now states like Washington, Oregon and California are producing laws to clarify the insurance situation. In Washington, for example, we now have HB 2384 which requires all organizations offering car-sharing services to carry a minimum of $180,000 liability cover, and at least enough comprehensive and collision cover to pay fair market value should the shared vehicle be a total loss. This protects vehicle owners who can make additional money during tough times without losing their own auto insurance cover. It also imposes tough new requirements on the sharing organizations to ensure the vehicles are properly maintained and safe to drive. The public not only need auto insurance cover, they need to know the vehicles they drive away are safe.

You may be wondering what to do now that you were cited for speeding. It is not necessary to immediately contact your car insurance company although it is not a bad idea to give them a heads up if you have a decent relationship with them. The ticket alone may not impact your coverage, but when it is combined with other factors it can lead to higher rates.

Type of Car

Sports cars are often targeted by police who are on the lookout for speeders. For this and other reasons, drivers of these cars probably already have higher than average premiums. Adding speeding tickets to the mix is guaranteed to result in increased rates.

Speed

How much you were driving over the speed limit is important. If your ticket is for a speed that exceeds the limit by a small amount, it is possible that your insurance provider may view it as a minor infraction and not penalize you for it. This is particularly true as long as it is a random occurrence. However, speeds in excessive of 20mph over the limit cannot be overlooked. Speeding in school or construction zones will be viewed as especially reckless.

Accidents

Speeding that contributes to the cause of an accident will result in higher rates and possible loss of coverage. Drivers who speed in poor driving conditions and are then involved in an accident, with or without another vehicle, are seen as high-risk drivers by insurance companies and are rated accordingly.

Other Tickets

If you have more than one speeding ticket, you raise your chances of receiving an increase in your premiums. The documented speed on each ticket contributes to the insurance company’s decision. Not only do you lose any safe driving discount you may have received, you are now rated as a high-risk driver. The more tickets you receive in a short amount of time, the more likely your insurance provider will simply cancel your coverage because of the risk you pose to them.

Rate Increases

Rates do not increase overnight. Just because you do not see an immediate change in your premiums, do not assume you are scot-free. It may just take a few months for the ticket to catch up with you or your insurance company may wait until your annual renewal. Your insurance provider will have a policy in place that details how this is handled. Rate increases that result from speeding tickets stay in affect for up to three years, which is the amount of time the ticket stays flagged on your driving record.

The greatest potential impact of a speeding ticket is that your car insurance coverage is dropped entirely. And if you are dropped by one carrier, it may be difficult to get another one to accept you as a customer. When you do get a new policy, you should expect to pay substantially higher premiums.

It’s a sad fact of our modern lives that the majority of relationships end rather sooner than the participants expect. In the case of a marriage, this is all the more embarrassing because there are words exchanged suggesting we will stay together until parted by death. The latest figures show that half those marrying have been married before. Ignoring the surge of people marrying in states which have legalized gay marriage, the overall percentage of people marrying has been falling. Nevertheless, it’s highly material to insurance companies to understand your household arrangements. When it comes to insuring vehicles, most companies give an additional 5 to 15% discount to people in a stable relationship. There are further discounts for multiple vehicles on the same policy and when you bundle auto and homeowners policies. So, with the premium rates depending on your family arrangements, you have to make a full disclosure when applying for the policy. If there’s any change in those arrangements that would be relevant to assessing the risk, you have to give notice. Failure to notify entitles the insurer to cancel your policy.

So let’s take this step by step. In most states, there are laws requiring you to give notice within thirty days of a divorce being finalized. However, even though the laws may be limited to divorce and termination of civil ceremony relationships, the same duty applies when any previously stable relationship ends. So who will move out and what will the new address be? What property will be taken? If this includes a vehicle, where will it be parked when not in use? Will only one person now be driving each vehicle? Will they now be driven more or less? Will they be driven at different times of the day and night?

All these and other factors affect the way your auto insurance rates are calculated. Even a change in your credit score because of a change in your level of debt can affect the rate. Finally, as soon as possible, change the ownership on the vehicles. The question of vicarious liability as a co-owner can add to your problems during separation. It would be unfortunate if your partner was driving after separation without full cover and had an accident. You might be included in the legal action to recover damages. Auto insurance requires careful management so make a full disclosure to your insurers.

A couple of decades ago getting an air ticket was a very exciting moment in anybody’s life. In fact, your destination didn’t even matter, as far as air travelling was always an adventure. At times you could turn up at the air port and find an empty seat for a very cheap price. Now even the thought of going through airport security is enough to dampen enthusiasm. What happened with this promise of adventure? What went wrong with the magic? Well, frankly speaking, it was never that exciting. For all the life of an air hostess was sold as being high status and an excuse to party all round the world, it’s always been hard, demanding work and not that well paid. The passengers considered the international flights to be better than the domestic ones, because many airlines stocked up with alcohol and let passengers drink themselves into a dazed state. At that time travelling by air was a novelty, something you did quite rare, only on special occasions. Only when something becomes a routine does it become boring or worse. Now, of course, everything that can spoil the pleasure of flying is done.

First of all the shrinking baggage allowance should be mentioned. Every time you need to use air port service, it seems the allowance has just been cut again. However, it is worth noting that your experience can vary dramatically depending on who you meet when checking in. Some members from the staff will allow you to have some extra pounds. But others obviously find it amusing to watch you pull out your credit card for a painful surcharge – it’s either that or unpack in front of the queue and throw the least desired things into the nearest bin. New problems appeared even with carry-on baggage. Many airlines never weighed the bags. Now size is dictated and weight controlled. Some people find the extra charges on baggage work out more than the cost of the ticket.

Then we get to the procedure of security screening, and your “junk” is at risk of physical examination. Most people find it demeaning to take off their shoes and explain what all the metal bits are when the detector cries in a crazy fashion. But the worst part is the random search. Of course no airport will say how many they pull for these searches nor how they choose the victims. It’s an additional humiliation to be endured in the most graceful way. In this case anything less than complete obedience can trigger intense hostility from the security staff who have the power to deny you access to the flight if you upset them. If not diverted behind the screen or into a private room, you then have to put the shoes back on and redress under the watchful eyes of all those waiting behind you. Is there anything more humiliating than this?

So even if you’re an optimist and find cheap flights to somewhere exciting, you still have to go through several humiliating ritual procedures before you get anywhere near the airplane. At times you may discover a whole raft of charges that you can’t afford and have to turn away voluntarily. We can only hope that the terrorist threat will diminish and eventually disappear and we can go back to the time when a cheap flight was something to look forward to with a positive attitude.

None of us chooses when to be born. And it’s pure accident whether people are born into a time of low or high birth rates. Today, the birth rate is only just enough to maintain the population at its current levels. Despite this, the unemployment rate among the young remains stubbornly high. This is mainly due to the fact that too many Boomers are staying in their jobs. Go back a few years and people were lining up to retire from 55 onwards. The young were very happy about it because there were always enough jobs waiting for them. Now times are different. And it takes a closer look at the changes in the job market and its implications for life cover. If you go back to the 1950′s, the job market was dominated by men. The only things women were expected to do were marry and have children. With this division of labor there were always all types of jobs available. The rest went to the men, regardless of ability. That was mainly due to the lack of any automation. Before the computers came along, people used their hands and brains in every job. Then there was a slow change as technology sneaked into the workplace. Now, it took less people to do low-skilled jobs and it was cheaper to replace them with machines.

Outsourcing made the problem even worse. As companies looked for ever more profit, they moved their labor-intensive jobs to countries where the wages were lower. At a certain point, there were not as many jobs around. Now we are dealing with the fallout from the recession. The first sign of this was that everyone who had 401(k) portfolios was looking at big losses as the stock market crashed. Then employers began looking at their retirement packages. Many companies realized they were faced by a workforce that was going to live longer and make ever larger claims for medical expenses during retirement. So they didn’t think much about cutting the pension benefits and, where life cover had been part of the remuneration package, refusing to continue paying the premiums. Suddenly, Boomers found their security removed. They had been planning an early retirement based on a good nest egg saved in the 401(k). But today they are forced to stay working for as long as they can.

And it’s not as easy as it may seem, since many Boomers now find they no longer have the skills to do even the simple tasks relying on using the latest packages and apps. The young will certainly see it as good news, but they are likely to compete for those jobs with people all around the world. With so many jobs now based on teleworking, employees can be based anywhere there is an internet connection. Unfortunately, the unions have lost their power to defend local jobs. The trend of outsourcing is the new corporate policy. All this should force Boomers to review their life insurance provision. If their employers have canceled the company policy, individual replacement must be found. That’s why you should get life insurance quotes from all the companies to see how much it will cost to repair the damage.