Schools and colleges don’t offer licensing courses. The best places are either your local agents association (www. piaa.org) or the state insurance website for the state you are in. There ARE “insurance schools” where you can get training courses for testing.

Keep in mind, once you have your first life/accident/health license (one license, you have to pass all parts of the test) for the state you live in, many other states are “reciprocal” and do not require testing for a non-resident license. You’ll have to check with each state’s website to find out what is required for the non-resident license.

According to study partially funded by the nation’s largest insurance companies — fraud fighting bureaus are seeing a significant spike in cases.

“The troubled economic climate confronts many fraud investigators with the severest challenge they’ve faced in years. But a positive outcome could be greater efficiency in combating schemes as fraud bureaus find better ways to fight crime with the resources they do have,” says Dennis Jay, the coalition’s executive director.

Surprisingly, agents and brokerages are considered the biggest offenders, accounting for the most instances of insurance fraud in the past year. Seven of 10 fraud bureaus report a spike in agent cases, according to the coalition. Nearly 40 percent of fraud bureaus say their producer caseload was much higher. The survey of 37 state fraud bureau directors was conducted last October.

After insurance agents, anxious drivers continued ditching unwanted vehicles for insurance payouts in one of the defining fraud trends of the troubled economy. Seven of 10 fraud bureaus report more vehicle abandonment and vandalism cases, the coalition’s survey shows.

More homeowners literally are burning up for insurance payouts as well. Nearly two thirds of fraud bureaus report increased home arson cases. This uptick is generally isolated to regional or local hotspots, the coalition’s survey notes.

Business owners struggling to stay afloat are resorting to insurance-related crimes with 60 percent of state fraud bureaus reporting bogus liability claims. “Reports of increases in slip-and-fall claims from insurers and self-insurers-especially grocers, department stores and restaurants-began surfacing in early 2009 and seem to have continued,” the coalition’s survey says.

Bogus health plans are spreading rapidly around the U.S. as well, taking advantage of the large market of uninsured Americans. Most fraud bureaus report a spike in fake health plans, with nearly 40 percent saying their caseload was much higher due to health insurance misrepresentation.

Prescription drug abusers also are on the loose. More than 60 percent of fraud bureaus report more cases involving diversion of painkillers and other addictive prescription drugs such as painkillers. Drug diversion has spread with alarming speed around the U.S. in recent years, with insurers paying billions of dollars for illicit prescriptions.

Many fraud bureaus are being forced to manage this spreading crime trend with smaller budgets and staff, the coalition’s survey reveals.

Some 63 percent of fraud investigators report lower budgets for 2009. “This is somewhat surprising, given that a majority of the fraud bureaus were created with dedicated funding, specifically assessments on insurers,” the survey notes.

Nearly a quarter of state fraud teams also lost staff positions this year, and a third of these agencies were forced to leave vacant positions unfilled.

To most people, health insurance is a card with numbers you take to the doctor’s office and a little booklet of paper that lives in your filing cabinet, closet or dusty corner of your home. To McKinley, health insurance and the historical reforms that go along with the inequality of healthcare in America are topics of healthy discussion, worthy of further study and catalysts for education and action.

McKinley moved to South Florida after directing corporate communications and marketing strategy for several FORTUNE 500 companies and public relations agencies. A founder of Communicatia, Ink (an independent communications company he founded while working as a business reporter and newscaster in Nashville), McKinely is an emerging subject matter expert on health insurance and regulatory issues.

Right…you can sell in the states you have licenses.

Between 2007 and 2009 the questionable claims (QC) filed for suspected staged car accidents rose by 46%.

The reason behind these staged accidents is to try and get compensation from innocent individuals and the practice is widely used by gangs, who practice preplanned auto accident scenarios involving 2 to 4 cars.

Some common scenarios used in staged car crashes include drivers moving in front of unsuspecting drivers and slamming on the brakes, while another car pulls up beside the innocent driver so they can’t carry out any evasive moves, causing them to rear end the car in front.

The states identified as having the highest numbers of stage auto accidents are Florida (with a huge 3,006 reported cases), New York (1,680 cases), California (1,619 cases), Texas (792 cases) and Illinois (433 cases).

New York City, Tampa, Miami, Orlando & Houston were the cities recognized as having the highest number of staged car accidents.

These staged/fraudulent accidents severely impact on the lives of the innocent parties as, if they cannot prove their innocence, they can have their licence revoked or have to pay out large amounts of injury compensation.

To avoid being caught by one of these compensation scams, please contact an attorney immediately if you feel that you have been targeted in one of these fraudulent car accidents and they will be able to help protect you and your rights.

www.unifiedinjury.com

The first step that occurs in the title insurance underwriting process is the engagement of the title insurance company in the first instance. In many instances, the home mortgage lender will engage the title insurance company as that entity will have a great deal at risk if it issues a loan that is tied to a piece of property that ends up having a defective or clouded title. On the other hand, there are instances when the seller will contact the title insurance company in the first instance. The buyer can even be the person that initiates the underwriting process in the first instance.

At this juncture, a title insurance underwriter actually will do hands on research to make certain that there are no liens or clouds on the title. This process is undertaken in most cases at the local county courthouse in the office of the register of deeds.

The register of deeds’ office will contain the original copies of deeds and encumbrances and releases that have been placed or removed from a particular deed. In this way, by taking a direct look at these vital, crucial documents, the investigator or underwriter will be able to ascertain whether or not there are any encumbrances, liens or defects to the title.

When you purchase Tampa real estate – or real estate anywhere for that matter – it is vital that you be able to obtain clear title with no encumbrances or defects. If the underwriter or investigator does find problems with the title, he or she will then embark on a course to clear the title. This generally involves making sure that a previously satisfied lien on the property be released. (The most common problem is a lien that has been satisfied but that the release of which has been overlooked for one reason or another.)

Ultimately, when the research has been concluded – technically called a title search – and when any problems have been dealt with, the title insurance company will issue a green light and a title insurance policy that will clear the way for closing. Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases there are no problems associated with the title. Moreover, if a problem is discovered, it can be dealt with in the advance of the scheduled closing doubt.

In those isolated instances when this cannot occur, when the title defect cannot be rectified before the scheduled closing date, the general practice simply is to reschedule the closing date a bit farther down the road. The typical real estate sales contract actually may provide for such a possibility. Of course, it is incumbent upon the seller to be able to convey clear title in order to the sale of the real estate to be consummated and the closing to be held in the end.

Lance Mohr is a full time licensed broker associate with Keller Williams Realty. He has over 10 years of experience helping families buy and sell real estate, as well is being a real estate investor. If you have any questions about the Tampa Real Estate or New Tampa real estate market please visit my website at http://www.tampa2enjoy.com

Asymmetric information deals with situations where one party in a contract has more or better information than the other. The situation where the person with Alzheimer buys health insurance is likely to be a problem of information asymmetry, if the insurance company is not aware of his condition. He has more or better information on his health condition than the insurance company. If the insurance company accepts the person under a health insurance poilicy without knowing the fact that the person suffers from Alzheimer, this will result in a situation where the person will pay an insurance premium which is too low for his health condition and will not sufficiently compensate the insurance company for the risk. This is called an adverse selection resulting from information asymmetry for the insurance company.

Moral hazard, on the other side, is a situation where a party does not have to bear the negative consequences of the risk resulting from his or her action. This is best characterized in an unfair game of throwing a coin with the result “tail, I win, head, you lose”. The bank offering mortgages to home buyers who are likely to default on their payments is an example of moral hazard: they make money by selling the mortgage to a government agency, but the bank does not assume the risk of the borrower no longer being able pay the interest rates and the default risk on the mortgage payment. The bank only takes the profit but not the loss. The loss is taken by the government agency. This will cause the bank to behave recklessly because they are only exposed to the upside, not to the downside; “tail, I win, head, you lose”.

If you are pregnant, are considering becoming pregnant, or have someone on your health insurance plan that is pregnant or will become pregnant and especially if you live in the state of Florida then this is “The Maternity Insurance Article” for you. The aim of this article is to explain some of the maternity options available to you and to debunk some common myths concerning maternity insurance, maternity riders, maternity discount plans, and other types of maternity coverage.

First of all, if you are a Florida resident and you are pregnant and do not have maternity coverage then you will not be eligible for maternity coverage under an individual health insurance plan. Those with the foresight to plan ahead and purchase some type of maternity coverage before they become pregnant are rewarded while those who wait until they are actually pregnant are of course not afforded individual maternity coverage. (If you are pregnant and have access to a group plan through you or your spouses’ employer then now is the time to seriously inquire about your enrollment options as many group health insurance plans usually cover maternity just as they do any other illness). Naturally, sick people always want health insurance and people with a pregnancy in the family always want some form of maternity insurance.

If you are not pregnant and would like to add on additional maternity coverage to your individual health insurance plan then there are a few things that you should know. Most individual health insurance policies will allow you some measure of maternity coverage in the form of a rider for an additional cost. It is quite common for a maternity rider to have a waiting period of at least 12 months before they pay out any type of maternity benefit. Still some other maternity riders, such as the one that Golden Rule/United Healthcare offers in Florida allow full benefits to be paid up to a set amount after 12 months and 50% of the benefit paid out beginning immediately.

So how much does a pregnancy in our example state of Florida really cost anyway? How much of a maternity benefit should I be certain to have? How much can I anticipate paying out of pocket for the pregnancy and related expenses? These are all important questions and the answer may be, “Not quite as much as you at first think.” According to FloridaHealthFinder.gov the statewide average charge for a normal delivery is $1,689 while the statewide average charge for a cesarean section is $14,458. As you can see there is quite a range in the cost depending on if there are any complications present during the pregnancy.

The important thing is to know the options that are available to you and to obtain maternity insurance and health insurance before you need it!

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