EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In order to accelerate industrialization, create employment opportunity and boost up the economy of Bangladesh, a huge amount of capital investment is required both in private and public sectors.
All information included in this study is taken mainly from project appraisal manual of Rupali life insurance company, Internet etc. Certainly there are some drawbacks in their project appraisal process which is mentioned in chapter seven. In order to improve the project appraisal process some suggestions have also been made in the report.
Chapter One
Introduction:
Rupali life insurance company as the prime Development Financing Institution (DFI) of the country extends financial assistance the local for setting up customer expectation, life insurance policy .
The insurance products has five divisions and twenty-one departments in its head office located in Dhaka at Motijheel named “Bhima bhaban”. Besides, there are three zonal offices in different divisions namely Chittagong, Rajshahi , Khulna , Barisal, feni , Comilla, Sylhet.
Objectives of the Study:
1. To complete BBA degree.
2. To get an idea about the history of BBA and nature of operation and function of development operation department..
3. To enrich personal skill and knowledge.
4. To implement personal theoretical knowledge to improve development procedure in practice.
5. To form some essential guidelines for Rupali life insurance company procedure.
6. To have some recommendations for improving the company sector.
7. To determine the limitations of the. Rupali life insurance company
8. To evaluate the trend, growth rate, and acceleration of industrialization.
9. To mis-match of the practical knowledge with theoretical knowledge.
CHAPTER TWO
OVERVIEW OF INSURANCE PRODUCTS , TYPES , PURPOSE & FUNCTION.
PURPOSE & FUNCTION.
To provide certainty
To provide Security
To provide Protection
To prevent losses
Distribute risk and losses
To improve efficiency
Overall socio economic development
Specific function of insurance:
Financial welfare and betterment
To help co – ordinate
To create capital
Economic development
Social welfare
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF RUPALI LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
INSURANCE IN BANGLADESH
Marine is the oldest form of insurance, which was introduced in Northern Italy sometime between the 12th and 13th century. But the insurance business got an institutional shape in the United Kingdom after establishment of Lloyds Insurance Company in late 17th century.
The coffee houses of London played a vital role in developing trade and commerce in the UK. The merchants and traders used to gather in these coffee houses for their business transactions. Edward Lloyd opened one such coffee house in 1680. In late 17th century this coffee house virtually turned into the most famous Lloyds Insurance Company of the UK.
During the British rule, some insurance companies started functioning in India. These companies were of various origins including British, Australian and also Indian.
After independence, Bangladesh government nationalized the insurance industry in 1972 by the Presidential Order No 95, known as the Bangladesh Insurance (Nationalization) Order1972.
A total of 60 insurance companies are operating in Bangladesh till date. Of these companies, 57 are private, twostate-ownedandoneisforeign.
Insurance Directorate, under the Ministry of Commerce, is the regulatory-body of the country’s insurance sector.
Sector: Apparels and Textile
Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in trade, commerce and industry over the past three decades, but still much remains to be done to achieve its desired objectives in view of economic globalization. The present trend of world trade liberalization has had a huge impact on government policy for a transition from a predominantly agrarian economy to an industrial and service economy. Economic growth has accelerated with an annual average rate of f 4.7 per cent in the 1990s-an achievement of integrated effort both by public and private sector. GDP growth of 5 per cent or more has been marked for four consecutive years (1995-1998). Industrial output grew at an average rate of 7 per cent during the 1990s.
Bangladesh has identified sixteen priority sectors and industries with a view to giving them special incentives and support. These include agro-based industries, electronics, infrastructures, oil and gas, software, textiles and tourism. To attract the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this sector, significant structural shifts in the economy has been already done by the present and past few governments. Apart from the four reserved public sectors-defence, forestry, nuclear energy and security printing (currency notes)-privatization has been immensely encouraged of all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) comprising gas, steel, jute, chemicals, and textiles. In this regard a Privatization Board has been set up and some pragmatic changes have been made to strengthening the legal basis of privatization programme.
Private sector is the major source of investment and playing an important role in nation-building activities. Approved investment in FDI projects including joint ventures, registered nearly $4.5 billion in 1997 and 1998. The United States, Japan, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, India, China, United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland etc are the major nations of our private Foreign Investors. The government is further pursuing more active policies to draw much more investment both from domestic and foreign private investment.
• Export Policy
• Import Policy
• Industrial Policy
PRODUCTS OFFERED BY RUPALI LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
Auto Insurance produscts Coverage
Cover ages are simply the kinds of auto insurance coverage that you have on your vehicle. Each type of auto insurance coverage will protect you in the case of a certain type of claim against you.
Liability – Auto Insurance Products
There are two kinds of auto insurance liability coverage:
1. Auto Insurance – Bodily Injury Liability
This auto insurance coverage protects you in case of an accident involving injuries to others. The auto insurance coverage will extend to you or family members named on the policy. This auto insurance coverage will also cover those same people when driving someone else’s car (as long as it is with permission).
When do you need Bodily Injury Liability auto insurance products?
You’ve had an accident, it’s your fault and someone got hurt.
State required minimum levels of auto insurance products usually focus exclusively on bodily injury liability coverage. This is because they want to ensure that an innocent bystander who is hurt by you while driving will receive compensation. With this in mind, you’ll generally want more than the required minimum auto insurance coverage – particularly if you have personal assets you want to protect.
In most cases (unless you are very wealthy) you shouldn’t expect a claim or lawsuit against you for more than your auto insurance coverage unless the injuries sustained were very severe. But you have to be aware that it could happen and juries are quick to apply punitive settlements where injuries are severe. Therefore, buy a reasonable amount of auto liability insurance; keeping in mind your own circumstances as well as reasonable medical costs for an injury so that you are appropriately insured.
Auto Insurance – Property Damage Liability
This auto insurance products property liability coverage is for damage to other people’s property caused by you (or your vehicle when someone else is driving with your permission).
In the vast majority of cases this damage will be to another car. However, this auto insurance property liability coverage will also pay for damage to public property (lamp posts, telephone poles) or other personal property like fences, buildings or other structures.
Keep a reasonable amount of auto insurance property liability coverage without over-doing it. You can make some calculations to determine what auto insurance you are comfortable carrying. What is the cost of a current ‘high-end’ car? You might consider enough auto coverage to be able to pay for repairs to an SUV, for instance. But also consider your own driving record. If you’ve been driving for 25 years and you’ve never had an accident you might be comfortable with a lower amount of auto insurance property liability coverage.
And keep in mind the cost. You are always balancing what you have to pay now in consideration of what you have in damages and/or claims if you have an accident. Remember that the auto insurance company is also playing those odds. They operate so that they end up with a profit regardless of the number of claims.
• Business Insurance
If you have your own business, you should be thinking about business insurance. It’s not just for a big business – it can be for your home business.
With business insurance, your concerns are really three-fold:
• Protect your business assets against damage or theft.
• Protect yourself against liability claims from your clientele.
• Protect yourself from employees (if you have any) who may have a legitimate claim for at work injury against you.
Let’s start first with the home business scenario. With a home business, one of the biggest issues is to protect your home business equipment. Often, this will mean insurance on your technology (computers or other equipment) and business assets (like your fax machine). If you run your business from home, you may think these items are covered. However, a standard home insurance policy will not always give you enough protection for expensive assets like computer equipment or specialized machinery.
The answer can be a homeowner’s endorsement for your equipment. This allows you to simply add to your existing homeowner’s policy, rather than having to negotiate a completely new policy specifically for your business. Be sure to check the details if you take this approach. You’ll want to be sure that your business is covered properly, even if you are taking advantage of your homeowner’s policy.
The biggest challenge is if you also require liability protection for your home business. Most homeowner policy endorsements to cover your equipment will not give you liability insurance protection. If you are providing a service to clients, liability insurance can be essential. A client could sue you if a project goes wrong. If you are selling a product, a client could sue for damage caused by the product. Liability insurance will protect your personal assets in both these cases.
What if you have employees? Again, an endorsement to a homeowner’s policy is not a possibility. Once you need business liability and employee liability, you will need your own separate policies.
If you need to consider more comprehensive insurance for your business, you are likely looking at a Business Owners Policy (BOP).
o Car Insurance Business
Technically, this has nothing to do with your business. However, if you are using your car for business purposes, you will need to insure that you have this coverage. In order to properly ensure your vehicle, if it is used for business – either transportation of product and supplies or for you to visit clients – you have to upgrade your car insurance.
Most insurance companies will distinguish between three types of “primary usage” of a vehicle:
• “Commuting” means you mainly use your vehicle to drive to and from school or work.
• “Pleasure” means you typically drive your vehicle for fun with no regular commuting or business use.
• “Business/commercial” means you mainly use your vehicle for business purposes such as, sales, service and delivery calls or other work-related driving.
Most of us will not need “business/commercial” coverage, because we only use our vehicles for driving to work. The “commuting” level of coverage will be sufficient. The Business use designation is really for the person who is making intensive use of their vehicle for business purposes.
Be aware that insurers do vary in how they define these levels of coverage. Some insurers will actually include commuting with your vehicle under “business use”. Some insurers will also take into account your yearly mileage when they quote you a premium. It pays to have an idea of your yearly mileage and the distance to and from work, if you want to get the right coverage for your vehicle usage.
In most cases, business use will mean a higher premium. Why? You are driving the car more, in the vast majority of cases. This raises the risk to the insurer, and correspondingly, raises your premium.
So, why would you bother getting this insurance? The biggest reason is that you want to be covered in case of an accident. If the insurance company determines that you had an accident while the vehicle was being used for business, they can deny your claim. It’s really that simple.
In some cases, particularly if the business owns the car or vehicle (as opposed to the individual driver owning the vehicle) there may be discounts available to the business through fleet insurance or multi-policy discounts. Also, keep in mind that if the car is owned by the business, the business must insure it. It is not a personal responsibility in this case. However, if you own the vehicle and you use it for business, then it will be your responsibility to properly insure it through your personal insurance policy.
Critical Illness Insurance
Critical Illness Insurance is not the same thing as Long Term Disability (or LTD) insurance. It resembles “Death and Dismemberment” insurance, in that it pays out the full amount of the coverage as soon as you are diagnosed with a critical illness covered by the policy. It also pays a set amount; which you can count on regardless of the outcome of your illness.
So how is Critical Illness Insurance a benefit to you? If you are covered by Critical Illness Insurance and you have to collect for a covered condition, your policy will be paid in full. Better yet, this money is typically paid in a lump sum. This way you can use it for what’s most important to you. For example, you can use your benefits to cover unconventional treatments, traveling costs, specialized treatments, for the kids’ college tuitions, or to pay off your mortgage. It’s up to you.
Many consumers feel that Disability Insurance offers adequate protection in the event of a critical illness and that Critical Illness Insurance is unnecessary. However, since disability insurance is geared to your current wages, it will only give you a percentage of that wage. You may find that this is simply not enough.
LTD usually pays a regular monthly benefit based on a percentage (often 67%) of your monthly-earned income before you become disabled. Before benefits are paid, a doctor’s diagnosis must confirm the disability and the insured individual must complete the waiting period; which is typically 90 to 120 days from the onset of the disability – depending on the policy. Depending on how you pay for your LTD, your benefits may or may not be tax-free.
Given the waiting period required, you may never collect LTD. The only coverage that would provide benefits during a shorter period would be your short-term disability insurance. Short Term Disability (or STD) has similar restrictions to LTD. Benefits are typically based on a percentage of your wages. STD insurance also has a waiting period.
Critical Illness Insurance differs because it usually pays out a one-time lump sum benefit. There are approximately 23 critical illnesses covered under the Critical Illness Insurance policy – including cancer, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis. You will still need a doctor’s diagnosis to confirm the condition, and you may have to complete a survival period; which lasts typically 30 days from the initial diagnosis. However, no other disability, permanent or otherwise, is required to qualify for benefits with Critical Illness Insurance.
Therefore, the biggest advantage cited for Critical Illness coverage is that it provides cash upfront. Furthermore, you decide what to do with the benefits and you aren’t restricted once you’ve received them.
According to the May 20, 2002 edition of National Underwriter, two thirds of the costs to cancer patients relating to their illness in 2000 were for indirect expenses. These expenses included nursing care, medical care, day-to-day living expenses, and travel costs in order to receive treatments, home health care, child care and other expenses not covered by other health plans. The costs of these kinds of indirect expenses are considerable.
This is why Critical Illness Insurance can be an excellent addition to your current insurance coverage. It provides money up front, so that you can focus on health and recovery, rather than worrying where the next mortgage payment is coming from.
o Home Insurance
Home insurance does what it says it does: it insures your home, whether that is your apartment, your condominium or your house.
The biggest question with home insurance is how much do you need? Well, keep in mind that you aren’t just insuring the structure (and in the case of a condo, you aren’t insuring the structure at all), but you are also insuring the contents of your home.
Surprisingly, many people will find that they may actually need more insurance for contents than they need for the structure, especially if they have expensive belongings like antiques, high-quality jewellery, high-end electronics or other costly personal belongings. In the case of a disaster, the whole-scale replacement of those contents can be a significant cost – and much more than most people expect. It’s a critical area where people underestimate their needs particularly with regards to the replacement value of their goods.
In addition to covering your home and contents, home insurance also provides liability coverage in case someone is hurt on your property. In a litigious world, it pays to have liability coverage. Government does not mandate it, but you should have it. Such liability insurance will cover you if someone is hurt on your property or in your home. If you live in parts of the country where you have winter ice and snow, you probably know how easy it is to slip and fall on a walkway or set of stairs. Liability covers you in just such a case. Do keep in mind that liability covers you for visitors to your home. You should check your policy to see if it also covers family members or those living in the home, if they have an accident on the property.
Usually, when you buy a home, insurance is a condition of your mortgage. However, if you rent you may not have though much about home insurance. You should. Unless you are living in a furnished apartment, you should budget for this. In the case of a disaster – say fire or flood — you would need temporary lodgings and money to replace your things. Renter’s insurance can cover that.
For those of you who are in the process of buying a home, you should also consider title insurance. It’s a new insurance product and can save you a considerable amount of money if there’s ever a problem with the title of your property. Unfortunately, this happens even on new properties in new subdivisions (it happened to us!). For a relatively small fee (in comparison to the cost of your property), you have coverage to ensure your title is accurate. Title insurance covers all costs associated with fixing a title problem, including Lawyer fees.
o Disability Insurance
Disability insurance is a specialized form of health insurance. Disability insurance protects you in the case of loss of income. If you lose your ability to work, either from temporary or permanent disability, a disability claim can be made.
While most people consider disability insurance a ‘luxury’ the fact of the matter is what would you do if you couldn’t work for the rest of your life? How would you cope financially? Everyday we read of accidents or other mishaps which leave a person paralyzed or worse. Disability insurance is the insurance that would guarantee you an income in the case that you could not work.
You may get some money if you are hurt in a car accident, because of personal liability insurance. However, there are no guarantees and you could be waiting years for a lawsuit to be settled.
Let’s think a less disastrous situation. Even if you aren’t worried about a catastrophic accident or illness, what if you broke your leg in three places skiing and couldn’t work because you were in traction? What if you tore a ligament, while playing on that weekend co-ed baseball team, and had to have surgery. You’d be out of commission for awhile. Disability insurance can also replace lost income on a temporary basis, while you heal from the hazards of being a “weekend warrior”.
Even if you have medical coverage a long illness without earnings can be financially devastating. Statistics vary, but you have anywhere from a 1 in 5 to a 1 in 3 chance of having either an illness or accident which prevent you from working for 90 days or more; between the ages of 40 and 65. Your chance of dying in the same period is about 1 in 7. Some statistics claim that the average long term loss of your ability to work is 5 years. That’s a long time.
This is why, if you are the sole breadwinner in your family, you should be considering disability insurance. If you get laid up or seriously injured your family’s ability to cope financially would be jeopardized.
o Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is basically a limited time health insurance specifically for when you are travelling.
Most people do not need this kind of insurance, although your travel agent will always try to sell it to you. Why? Because they make a good commission on the sale of this product.
If your health insurance already covers you for travelling abroad do not buy travel insurance. It’s pretty much that simple. Having said that, there are times when you can make use of this product. If your current health insurance does not cover you when you travel abroad, you should be considering coverage.
Keep in mind that travel health insurance is a very expensive type of health insurance, and dollar for dollar, you can do better. You might even want to call your current health insurance company to see if they can provide you travel insurance at a better price than what is offered through your travel agent.
Why is travel health insurance a bad deal? In most cases, if you are covered by other health insurance any claim to your travel health insurance will be sent back and you will be referred to your primary health insurance FIRST. This is what happened to me – I bought travel insurance and then found out that they only pay what is not covered by my existing health insurance! The travel insurance didn’t pay for my care abroad upfront – they only looked at a claim after the fact. Then I had the fun of trying to get my travel insurance company to recognize that there was a currency difference and get the right amount from them. Further, by the time I finally got my travel insurance claim (partially) paid by my own health insurance company, I was too frustrated to try to get the difference from the travel insurance. The difference was too small to warrant my time.
In my case, the travel insurance company won. They got their premium and they didn’t have to pay.
So, when DO you buy travel insurance? In most cases, travel insurance is only warranted if:
• The travel insurance company will pay any costs, upfront and not require you to pay first – but this will cost you BIG time.
• You do not have a health insurance policy, which will cover you outside the country. Check your policy ahead of time, so you don’t succumb to marketing by the travel agent.
• You do have travel insurance coverage for outside the country, but your insurance will not ensure that it will fully cover your costs. This point comes into play only if you cannot afford to pay the difference. In most cases, it’s not worth the additional cost of an additional travel insurance coverage for the difference.
Car Insurance
Car insurance (which is the same as auto insurance) covers all types ofroad-worthy vehicles, whether you drive a car, a truck, or an SUV. Motorcycles also fall under the car insurance category if you drive on public roads. Car insurance requires you to have a valid driver’s license for the type of vehicle, as well as a valid license plate on the vehicle itself, from your state or provincial government.
You should also be aware: your government requires certain minimum levels of car insurance be carried by a driver; largely to protect other people. Like it or not, it’s the law to carry this minimum car insurance.
So what can you do to ensure you have the right level of car insurance and no more? Make sure you understand:
• The car insurance coverage offered
• What you can and cannot opt out of
• The ‘extra’ car insurances which are best for you
• How to get a car insurance quote from a company
• How much ‘risk tolerance’ you have
Some of these points a car insurance company or car insurance agent can help you with. They will know all the required minimum car insurance coverage’s. Don’t necessarily take anyone’s word for granted – sometimes, a car insurance coverage can be made to sound as if it’s mandatory, and it’s not. Check your regional government site if you are getting more than one story.
Then, you need to understand your own needs. What ‘extras’ you choose and how much risk tolerance you have for car insurance is your own homework. This site will help with that.
Finally, when getting ready to purchase car insurance it will be up to you to get quotes from more than one car insurance company. While you can work with car insurance agents, most agents only work with a limited number of car insurance companies. There’s no way to be sure that you’ve really got the best car insurance quote unless you do some legwork yourself
Health Insurance
While some countries have government health insurance plans most people in the US will have to buy their own health insurance.
Health insurance is a definite must have. The news is full of stories about the cost of health care. We’ve all heard of people who went bankrupt trying to pay for health procedures out of their own pockets because they didn’t have, or have enough, health insurance. For these reasons, as well as the ever increasing levels of health costs, health insurance is a basic necessity and you should be budgeting for it.
A significant majority of people get their health insurance through work. Employers often have programs where employees get health insurance fully paid as part of their benefits package. Many employers even provide some level of coverage for part-time employees. It’s an important consideration in any new job that you are interested in.
However, employers are not required to provide insurance. But don’t despair. Group health insurance plans are available even for those buying health insurance on their own. Perhaps a club or other group you belong to has a group plan you could join. Costs are often significantly less than buying individual health insurance. It’s worth looking into
Be aware that the sooner, you get health insurance, the better. In some states, your age can be a factor in higher cost health insurance. While you generally cannot be turned away or charged more because of your health status it is legal in many states to charge you higher health insurance premiums based on your age.
Don’t have the money for health insurance? Depending on your income level your state may have free or subsidized health insurance. Most states have some level of Medicaid available for those who cannot pay the full costs of health insurance.
So, you’re convinced about health insurance. Now you need to know a bit more about your coverage options. Health insurance usually comes in one of two choices:
Health Insurance Policy Choices
This is a big question. If you are shopping for health insurance on your own you will have a wide range of factors to consider. Even if your employer provides you with health insurance, you may have multiple plans to choose from. How do you decide what’s right for you?
The most important thing, before deciding on health insurance, is to ask yourself the right questions:
State policies on insurance vary widely. Some states require that insurance companies cover everyone, regardless. This means that the risk is spread over everyone, and your premiums will be the same as everyone else’s even if you are young and healthy. In this case, your options for a lower price policy will be limited.
You might have to look for a job which has health insurance as a benefit in this case, if you can’t afford premiums.
What am I expected to pay?
It’s not just about the premiums you pay for health insurance. It’s also about the costs that you incur when you use health services. What is the deductible? What percentage of the health expense (minus deductible) will I be reimbursed? These are also important considerations, especially if you or your family members are frequent users of health care services.
Does this medial insurance plan cover the services I (or my family) use?
If you have seen a Chiropractor for years you will likely want this to be a covered therapy. Not all health insurance plans cover alternative health practitioners – check the fine print.
Not all health insurance plans cover preventative medicine. If you’d rather take action before you get sick check your coverage.
Also, be sure that the medial insurance will cover you for your pre-existing health conditions. If it doesn’t, or it has a waiting period, be sure you understand how that will impact you and your family.
Health insurance plans may also restrict your ability to change doctors, see doctors outside of the plan or get access to specialists. Read the fine print.
If you are interested in starting a family it’s critical to understand whether the health insurance covers the costs of prenatal care and delivering the child. Unfortunately, in today’s litigious society some health insurance plans have moved away from providing these kinds of coverage
Managed Care Health Insurance
Managed care health insurance plans are the new “hot” trend in health care. These types of plans attempt to keep the costs of health care low, while ensuring that participants in the health insurance plan get the right care for the right condition in a timely fashion.
A majority of Americans participate in some form of managed care health insurance plan. Costs to you are normally lower as well, which has fed their popularity. Managed care health insurance plans include:
• health maintenance organizations (HMOs),
• preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and
• point-of-service (POS) plans.
A managed care health insurance plan provides comprehensive health services to members, as well as financial incentives to those who use the providers in the insurance plan. This can mean money in your pocket, but only if you are using the health providers and health treatments covered!
While many people are very happy with their care from their HMO, it is wise to speak with others about their experience with any particular HMO. The same holds for PPOs and POS health insurance plans. Are your preferred professionals covered? Are your preferred treatment options covered? You have to keep in mind that this kind of plan typically restricts your choice of professional in addition to any restrictions on treatment options for a condition.
What’s the Difference between Group Health Insurance and Individual Health Insurance?
It’s always you who is healthily insured (this includes your family, as long as you purchase the right coverage). However, you can be healthily insured as part of a group. This is group insurance. The advantage is that, as part of a group, the risk to the health insurance company is spread over the group. Normally, this means that you pay less than what you would pay for individual health insurance. That’s why group health coverage is so popular.
So, with group health insurance you are still covered as an individual (or family), but the risk to the health insurance company is spread around the group. However, another reason, that health insurance is usually cheaper, is that a group guarantees the health insurance company more business. Anything that reduces their risk or increases the amount of money they collect in premiums means savings to you.
Even for very tiny groups, group health insurance policies are often subject to different rules, are more competitive and offer lower prices than individual health insurance policies. As a member of a group, the health insurance company basically considers you ‘pre-qualified’ and that reduces their risk.
For instance, if you get health insurance through your job that means you are healthy enough to work. For a health insurance company, this is a big plus. They can afford to offer you a lower premium because you are less likely to cost them as much money. Unfortunately, if you are applying for health insurance on your own the health insurance company doesn’t have that same assurance – and so the premiums you pay will reflect this.
So, it’s well worth it to find a group – whether it is through an alumni association, a trade association or through a professional association. You can also consider the American Association of Retired Persons if you are over 50 and trying to get health insurance. They offer an excellent plan.
Note that even some credit card companies will offer health insurance group coverage.
If you have to buy health insurance individually, and you are self-employed, a significant percentage of your health premium should be tax-deductible. This will help to reduce some of the impact of the higher premium, but you won’t see it until tax time.
Fee For Service Health Insurance
Fee for service health insurance plans assume that each time you see a health professional you will pay the fee. This approach gives you maximum flexibility. You are not ‘locked in’ to a particular doctor. You have your choice of physician or professional. Once you’ve seen a doctor and paid the bill you submit a claim report to the health insurance company. However, you must pay for treatment yourself, up-front (or negotiate a payment plan with the physician or institution).
While fee for service health insurance does not restrict the patient regarding doctor selection, it may still restrict the types of treatment that will be reimbursed. Always check the fine print on your policy before seeking a new or novel treatment.
Health Insurance for the Self Employed
Are you self-employed? Welcome to the world of entrepreneurs! This is one of the fastest growing areas of today’s job market.
While it has advantages to be your own boss, it also has disadvantages. One of those disadvantages can be trying to negotiate individual policies for your health and dental coverage.
Except, you might not have to do that.
One of your best options is to join a group or association of self-employed people or professionals in your area. These groups often have access to health and dental plans on a group basis that can reduce your premiums, while giving you the kind of insurance you want.
If you can get your insurance through a professional group or association, it could save you a lot of money on your premiums and you are likely to be able to afford better coverage.
Still, always shop around! Talk to representatives of more than one organization. Speak to other self-employed people in your area. Do they belong to any local professional groups or associations? Do they have medical or dental coverage through these groups? Find out what kind of benefits they receive and, if possible, talk about the costs. If you are speaking to another self-employed person, be sure to ask them if they are happy with the kind of health or dental coverage they have. Don’t forget to ask how long they’ve had this coverage. Sometimes problems only arise with an insurer over time.
Here are some other things to do on your way to finding the right insurance for you:
• Check with your State Department of Insurance and make sure the insurance company you are considering is licensed in your state.
• Check the complaint index that most State Insurance Departments compile.
• If you decide to sign up for coverage, READ THE PROPOSED POLICY FIRST! Read the Policy and Outline of Coverage word for word and ask questions if it does not make sense. Hopefully, the agent who calls on you will be ethical and knowledgeable. However, you have to be prepared that the agent may not be working in your interest.
If you don’t like your options regarding dental and health insurance, you could consider a dental or health discount plan. In this case, you are really becoming a member of a ‘buying group’ and with the negotiating power of the group behind them, the discount dental or health plan has arranged for lower fees for service for medical and dental care. Usually, the cost of membership is lower than the cost of insurance premiums and you’ll see your savings right away. There are no co-payments and no deductibles. You’ll simply pay a lower price for the work you have done.
It can be a good option for those who are self-employed, given the costs that can be associated with negotiating an individual health or dental policy.
Is This a Health Insurance Plan I Can Live With?
It’s up to you to do some research. Health insurance is important to you and your family day in and day out. It may be costly or inconvenient to change health insurance plans. So, check everything out.
You want a health insurance company that’s stable. It’s not in your best interest to find out that you need a major surgical procedure and then find out that your health insurance company is insolvent.
You also want a good health insurance plan that covers the right care. Check with neighbours, family members and friends. Who are they insured with? What kind of plan do they have? Are they happy with it?
You particularly want a health insurance company that treats clients fairly when they are making a claim. With health insurance you could be making claims on a fairly regular basis depending on your deductible and the type of insurance plan. You’ll be happier if you have a health insurance company who deals promptly and courteously with claims.
You can also check for the health insurance company’s rating (or plan’s rating) with both government and non-government organizations. Take a look at the National Committee for Quality Assurance which issues a Consumer Assessment of Health Plans report for every health insurance plan and facility.
Has the health insurance plan, you are interested in, received any accreditation? You can check the website of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations .
Your doctor can actually be a very good source of information. They deal with the various health insurance plans all the time. Ask them what their experience has been with any particular plan. You may find out that they are not covered under the medial insurance plan you are considering – and they may be able to recommend another health insurance plan under which they would be covered.
A very good indicator of the ‘good service’ of a health insurance plan is the rate at which people drop out of the plan. You can often get information on ‘disenrollment’ through your state government. This is well worth checking either on your state government’s website or by making a few calls.
Short Term Health Insurance
Sometimes, we need short-term health insurance. You may have just graduated from school, or left a job, and need to get your own insurance on a temporary basis while you job hunt. Maybe you’ve actually got a new job, but your employer’s group health has a waiting period. These are good times to consider short-term health insurance if you can get it where you live.
Short-term health insurance is just what the name implies: health insurance for a short term, usually 30 days to 180 days, although some plans will offer coverage for up to 12 months. If your short-term needs look like they may run longer than your coverage, you may be able to renew. However, you can’t count on a short-term plan to provide insurance for more than a year.
Short-term plans usually provide all the same basic kinds of benefits that you would expect in any health insurance plan. However, also like other plans, you may have to cope with benefit limits, deductibles and co-payments. In most cases, you’ll be allowed to pick your own doctors, hospitals or health-care providers. Most of these plans rarely require a physical exam and coverage can start as soon as your first premium is received. However, because of the easy application and acceptance, most plans also won’t cover any previous medical conditions.
To keep the premiums on these kinds of plans down, you won’t likely get all the benefits of a permanent health insurance plan. Aside from the restriction on pre-existing conditions, you’ll also find that most won’t cover routine medical exams, preventative care, dental or optical or pregnancy and childbirth expenses. Having said that, you will be able to guarantee yourself and your family “continuous health insurance” which can be important later when you are able to get permanent health insurance through a new employer.
One other caveat: short-term health insurance is exempt from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. In other words, they are not subject to COBRA. As a result, most carriers don’t have to guarantee renew ability. They also don’t have to waive pre-existing conditions, even when other plans would.
What about Long Term Care?
This is a relatively new type of health insurance, which has been developed in response to consumer demand. In some ways, it resembles Disability insurance. You will only collect on this policy if you need long-term care, and your policy premiums are paid up, just like with Disability insurance. And, as with Disability insurance, you hope you never have to collect on it.
This insurance is geared towards taking care of you if you become unable to take care of yourself. Many more people are living longer and are requiring long term care related to chronic conditions or terminal conditions. However, just like Health insurance or other medically related insurances, you are best to be thinking about getting this coverage long before you would ever need it. The older you are when you negotiate your policy, the higher your premiums will be because you will pose a greater risk to the insurer.
Why long-term care insurance? The costs associated with a quality nursing home or in-home care providers are rapidly becoming very expensive. Many of us would exhaust our savings long before our need for care would finish. As with any medical emergency, the depletion or elimination of our savings is a significant burden for our families or loved ones.
Long-term Care insurance recognizes the high cost of nursing home or in-home care. It provides money for you to handle those costs. In fact, you can expect to pay between $40,000 and $100,000 per year for nursing home care. How long would it take you to exhaust your savings with those kinds of costs staring you in the face? In-home care can be just as expensive depending on what level of care you or your loved one requires. Health insurance normally does not cover this. So this is money out of your pocket.
Is it for you? If you have very little money and will likely qualify for Medicaid, the answer is no. If you have so much money that it will be no financial burden to pay for the cost of quality care at any level, the answer is no. However, if you are a middle-class family who wants to have some choice in the type of care that your members receive when elderly, convalescing or dying, then you should consider this insurance.
LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES & THEIR TYPES
LIFE INSURANCE
Life insurance is a critical part of your long term financial planning. Every person with dependents should have life insurance.
Life Insurance is particularly important if you are the sole breadwinner for your family. The loss of you and your income could devastate your family. Life insurance will ensure that if anything happens to you, your loved ones will be able to manage financially.
But don’t ignore life insurance if you are the ‘stay-at-home’ spouse. Your value to the family will include child care and many other functions which will potentially become ‘paid’ functions if you are gone.
While called “life insurance,” what you are being insured against is your death. The benefit (in most life insurance policies) will only be paid out if you die. Some life insurance policies accumulate a cash value – and this would be the only exception in which you could receive a ‘benefit’ from a life insurance policy without dying. However, the cash value is many times less than the death benefit, and life insurance is (in fact) a savings plan and insurance rolled into one.
Many life insurance policies carry restrictions around the circumstances of your death. Usually if you commit suicide your loved ones will not receive any death benefits (This is one area where “cashing in your chips” won’t leave you with a big bank roll).
Other Types Of Life Insurance
Life insurance makes money for organizations. It’s the last insurance most of us ever want to collect on.
The chance of paying out is relatively low and it should be no surprise that other institutions want to offer this to you.
Here are two types of life insurance that you may have been offered:
1. Mortgage Life Insurance
The short answer is that you likely shouldn’t get Mortgage life insurance. Your bank will make significant efforts to have you buy it, but tell them you are fully insured through your other life insurance coverage. Why would you do that? Because mortgage life insurance through your bank is notoriously expensive for the amount of coverage. Whatever you pay to have your mortgage of $150,000, completely insured through the bank, it will be more than a comparable term policy 9 times out of 10. Just get more term life insurance if you need it.
2. Credit Card Life Insurance
Credit card insurance is very expensive coverage for very small amounts. Instead of doing this get more term life insurance. If you don’t have term life insurance, get a small policy – you’ll find that it’s very inexpensive in comparison to the cost of the coverage through the credit card.
Now, the credit card company will try to sell you the credit card life insurance because “you don’t pay if you don’t have a balance”. Well folks – THEY don’t pay you a benefit either if you don’t have a balance.
Why Do I Need Life Insurance?
You need life insurance in order to ensure that your loved ones can cope financially with your loss. That’s the bottom line.
The reasoning behind life insurance is most evident when you consider sole breadwinners, but applies to everyone who has dependents, even stay-at-home spouses. If you (as the stay-at-home spouse) were to suddenly die, your family would have to find other ways to: ensure care of children; get the family home cleaned; handle dry cleaning and laundry; do grocery shopping; and many other tasks which you currently handle. While your services appear to be ‘low cost’ because no one is paying you directly, if your family has to replace you with paid help you will quickly see your ‘value’.
In addition, funerals are expensive. An average funeral can set you back between $8,000 and $10,000 considering the funeral home services, casket, burial plot and headstone. This is part of what you want to insure yourself against. You can bundle in these costs when you consider a life insurance policy’s total benefit amount that you insure yourself for.
While you can buy life insurance policies which are a small amount suitable only to cover funeral costs, you will generally need much more life insurance than that. Many of these life insurance policies look good because of low prices, but you have to look closely. For the dollar amount of coverage you get, it is generally a more expensive life insurance policy.
Some people who are single or have no dependents might want to consider ‘funeral coverage’ only. For the rest of us, we should be looking at more substantial life insurance.
Life Insurance Articles
Life Insurance for Children
It is common to want the best for our children, but be mindful of sales pitches and be sure to consider your needs and the needs of your child before making a coverage decision. One of the best reasons to insure a child is to cover the expenses of an untimely death. You may wish to consider term life insurance policies as they can cover the face value of funeral expenses.
Donating Your Life Insurance to Charity
You can pass on your life insurance as a “legacy” and this can be a win-win situation because you support the cause you believe in and get a tax break on the money you donate. Charitable donations are tax deductible if the organization has legitimate non-profit status. It’s important to name the charity as the owner and beneficiary to ensure the tax break. You must also determine whether to donate a term life or whole life policy. If you donate term life proceeds to a charity, you will get to deduct the cost of your premiums from the taxes. If you donate a whole life policy you will get to deduct more from your taxes.
Top Ten Tips to Save on Life Insurance
With a bit of work and consideration of alternatives you can save money on life insurance. The first and foremost is to shop around, but there are many ways to help save money. Find the best ways to save money on life insurance in a convenient list form. Life Insurance for the Overweight
If you are overweight, you may have a difficult time buying life insurance. The more you weigh, in relation to your height, the higher the chance of health problems you could have and as a result the more you will have to pay. You can be denied life insurance on the basis of being obese even if you have no other health problems. There are companies that specialize in insuring those with health problems.
Permanent Life Insurance
By holding the “permanent life insurance for life,” we mean for life. There are usually up-front charges which considerably impact the savings component. Eventually, the savings will begin to pay off, but it can take 10 to 20 years for things to begin moving your way.
So what are you really getting? Well, it works like this: part of your monthly payment pays for the actual life insurance (This will normally be close to the amount you’d pay for term life insurance). The rest of your payment (minus management charges; which are a fee over and above the cost of premium) is applied to the savings component. Therefore, in order to actually build savings, your premiums are higher than term life insurance by the amount of your savings contribution, plus fees to the life insurance company to ‘manage’ your money.
Now, if you want someone to manage your money, wouldn’t you want a specialist? Maybe a bank?
Originally, the cash value that you built in your permanent life insurance was designed to continue to pay your premiums when you get older and premiums become REALLY expensive. This was a selling point because you banked money to pay high premiums to keep life insurance in force after retirement – when you don’t make as much.
Another of the big selling points has been that you (as the life insurance policy holder) could access those savings if you need them. Sounds good, right? Well, it doesn’t always work as planned. If you want to use those savings for something other than life insurance payments you will likely pay income tax on them; which negates any “tax shelter” status and could even push you into a higher tax bracket (with higher taxes).
Rules to borrow against a permanent life insurance plan can be very complicated, can cost interest, and what if you don’t want to pay it back? It’s supposed to be “your money” after all.
Life insurance companies make good money on these policies. There are generally incentives to life insurance agents to sell them. Insurers profit from people who buy these plans young and then drop them early.
Universal Life Insurance
This universal life insurance policy is really best-suited for a person who wants tax sheltered investments outside of their 401(k) or RRSP. Most of us are not maximizing our contributions in these retirement vehicles, so we aren’t in the market for universal life insurance coverage.
If you are maxing out your retirement savings then you might consider a universal life insurance policy. But remember – you will pay administration fees.
If you think you might be in the market for universal life insurance you should likely seek some independent financial advice – not advice from a life insurance agent who has a vested interest. A financial advisor can look at your total financial picture and let you know if this product makes sense for you.
INCEPTIVES & BENEFITS OF LIFE INSURANCE POLICY FOR CUSTOMERS .
Advantage of insurance individual point of view :
Family needs
To protect personal assets
To increase savings
To increase investment
Eliminate dependency
Profitable investment
Family needs
Advantage of insurance in businessman point of view:
To remove uncertainty
Sharing risk
To protect business
Labor welfare
To increase business efficiency
Expand international business
Advantage of insurance in economic point of view:
Increase savings
Formation of capital and increase of investment
Protection of national assets
Industrialization
Economic development
Protect of inflation
Increase of employment facilities
Increase per capita income and national income.
Advantage of insurance in social point of view:
Ensure social security
Social development
Personnel and family security
Social education and development
Spread of social benefit
PROBLEM IN MANAGING LIFE INSURANCE FOR CUSTOMER
Divination problem
Problem after liberation
Problem of economic base and effective price
Problem of planning and administrative
Lack of skilled staff
Limitation of insurance knowledge
Lack of training
Insufficient service
Delay to payment of claims
Lack of motivation of public
Traditional method
Lack of policy and planning
PROSPECT OF LIFE INSURANCE POLICY IN BANGLADESH.
As a developed country , we consider that most countries industrialization , commerce . trade , investment , production etc a lot of problem and risk existence. If we developed our country than industrialization , trade , economic are various sector to need risk distribution. In this sector , we an realize that prospects of insurance industry in present and future in Bangladesh . When a country developed at this time insurance industry are also developed. Moreover , capital of formation , unemployment , income growth ,economic development to create importance of insurance industry.
RECOMMENDATION ( FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF PRESENT / CURRENT SITUATION IN LIFE INSURANCE INDUSTRY).
Spread of insurance education
Taking of publicity
Increase of training facilities
Formulation of effective principles
Modernization of insurance business
Spread of Islamic insurance
Uphold the interest of policy holders
Importance to the economic development.