Allahabad Bank ties up with Tata-AIG Life Insurance

Allahabad Bank, a leading public sector lender, signed an MoU with TATA AIG Life Insurance on date for providing mortgage term insurance facilities to the housing loan customers of the bank.

This arrangement is in addition to the existing Griha Mongal Scheme of the bank providing similar coverage to the housing loan borrowers of the bank under Tie-up arrangements with LICI.

Shares of the company gained Rs 3.4, or 6.33%, to settle at Rs 57.1. The total volume of shares traded was 583,469 at the BSE. (Wednesday)

New insurance provision gives €30m boost to CIE

The company's latest annual report, to be published next week, also shows group sales rose 5pc to a record €785.5m last year.

One of Ireland's largest surviving semi-states, CIE's assets include Irish Rail, Dublin Bus, Bus Eireann and Rosslare Harbour.

The company is heavily subsidised by the Government, receiving €320m last year in capital grants and other subsidies as it continues to invest substantially in infrastructure.

Before subsidies, CIE's main businesses all recorded higher day-to-day losses last year, while exceptional profits on asset sales fell €21m to €8m, largely linked to 2006's €26m gain on the sale of a site in Cabra.

The poorer operating results and lower exceptional gains resulted in annual losses after subsidies of almost €1.5m last year, well behind 2006's profit of close to €22m.

CIE closed the year €28.2m in the black, beating 2006's result by more than €6m after it took a €29.7m gain by releasing some of its reserves. This reflected the company's lower exposure to future claims.

That lower exposure is linked to the Government's Insurance Reform Programme, which includes the Personal Injuries Assessment Board and increased vigilance against fraudulent claims, an Irish Rail spokesman said.

Company's reaction to 2007's performance in view of the losses made before the insurance gain, a spokesman said the company was "pleased that going forward, the success of our actions will benefit the financial position of the group".

Bus Eireann was the group's most financially viable business last year, returning operating losses of €35.5m on turnover of almost €283m.

Irish Rail, meanwhile, sustained the heaviest losses, returning a day-to-day deficit of €278m on sales of €230m.

That €278m includes a €3.9m profit at Rosslare Harbour, which is held by Irish Rail, as well as a €57.4m loss on the DART suburban rail service and a €224m loss on national train services.

The Irish Rail company also includes 'road freight', where losses slipped back to €121,000 last year as CIE pared back activities ahead of the division's closure this spring.

CIE's third key wing, Dublin Bus, made operating losses of €86m on revenue of €200m.

The group company, including tours and 'central business', made operating profits of almost €8m on turnover of close to €72m, the accounts show.

Other features of the accounts include a €657,000 of remuneration to board members, virtually unchanged from 2006's levels.

State Launches Health Plan For Uninsured

Andrea Bryant, a 57-year old waitress from Manchester, became the first person in the state to apply for Connecticut's new, affordable health care plan.

Bryant filled out an application Monday morning for coverage under the Charter Oak Health Plan at the Town Line Diner, where state officials had gathered to launch the plan. It is open to those who don't qualify for existing state programs and aren't insured through an employer. Individual premiums will range from $75 a month to as high as $259 a month.

"I know I can afford this, and I'll be able to go to a doctor now," said Bryant, who has been without health insurance since her husband died two years ago.

Charter Oak enrollments open today, and the state expects to serve a projected 19,200 adults during the first year, rising to 47,200 in its third year. The state is contracting with three private insurers — Aetna Better Health, AmeriChoice of Connecticut and Community Health Network of Connecticut — to coordinate benefits and medical providers.

Big Brother Home Insurance Bill Makes a Happy House, Says Confused.com

No Flood Risk. Despite the house being built on the site of the old water tank where Moby Dick and The Dam Busters were filmed, there’s little risk of flood at Elstree Studios. In fact there’s more threat from contestants’ tears, belly flops into the pool, and the deluge of attention-seeking applicants still clamouring to get on the show.

• Residents are Non-Smokers. But there’s a giant ashtray in the garden!!! Well, since the local council classes the house as a workplace and not a home, and with Big Brother himself liable to a £2,500 fine every time a housemate lights up indoors, there’s no smoking inside. Therefore, for ;>home insurance quote purposes the residents are non-smokers.

• Highly Secure Home. With private guards and 24/7 CCTV monitoring, the place is always going to score highly with insurers on matters of security. As an interesting aside, it’s a pity former contestant Jade Goody didn’t learn any security lessons from her two appearances on the show. In May of this year, burglars stole over £50,000 in jewellery from her Essex home – this despite being burgled twice before!

• Buildings Insurance. The amount of buildings insurance required is equal to the build value (£500,000 in the case of the Big Brother 9 house).

• Contents Insurance. Cover was set at £50,000 because, even though what you see looks pretty high-end, there are nowhere near as many contents as you’d find in a regular house containing a lifetime of accumulated items. Accidental damage cover was also included as there hasn’t been a contestant capable of repairing anything since DIY expert Craig Phillips won Big Brother 1 way back in 2000.

Cheapest Quotes Returned

HomeInsurer.co.uk - £170.42
Broker King - £228.24

So whether Big Brother 9 becomes home sweet home or a house of horrors for the contestants, it could definitely be a happy house for whoever pays the home insurance bill.

Maryland Offers Health Plan Subsidy for Micro Firms

The state of Maryland has launched a new health insurance program targeted to businesses with two to nine full-time employees.

Through the initiative, an employer will receive a subsidy for the insurance in the form of lower premium payments. The business can then pass the savings along to employees in the form of lower payroll deductions for the health insurance.

"[Gov. Martin O'Malley] campaigned to help small businesses, which make up a disproportionate number of the uninsured in our state, said Nicole Stallings, chief of government relations and special projects at the Maryland Health Care Commission. "And we expect that this program would insure about 10,000 Marylanders." The 10,000 will move the state closer to its goal of insuring 100,000 Marylanders who are without insurance.

A handful of similar programs have launched in other states, but Maryland's program is unique because it allows a business to offer private coverage and offers "substantial subsidies with general availability guidelines," said Stallings.

The initiative allows a firm to have up to nine full-time employees at the time of initial application, but will allow a firm to remain enrolled with adjustments if the firm grows. "We certainly didn't want to discourage small businesses from growing," she said.

However, once a firm reaches 20 employees, it is no longer eligible for the program. A business must be in existence for at least 12 months and its average employee wage must be under $50,000 annually to qualify for program participation.

Program enrollment opens in September for policies that will take effect beginning in October. Stallings recommends that firms should enroll in this program right away, because it's capped at $15 million. If enough businesses qualify, the funding will run out. She expects about 1,500 firms will participate.

There are about 64,000 firms in the state with fewer than 10 employees, and about 37,000 of those firms do not offer insurance.

Stallings noted that Gov. O'Malley has said he intends the program will be ongoing, but she acknowledged that the state is facing budget constraints.

The Maryland Health Insurance Partnership is working with insurers Aetna, CareFirst, Conventry Health Care and United Health Care on the plan, which was crafted with input from Jonathan Gruber, a health economist who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Car insurance fraud runs at £5m a week as owners try to clear debts

Fraudulent motor insurance claims have soared by more than 70 per cent in the past four years, making the car the No 1 insurance fraud target. The Association of British Insurers will announce today that fraudsters are submitting dishonest motor claims of £5 million a week.

Insurance companies and fraud experts say that the credit crunch has forced families struggling to meet their hire purchase payments to take desperate measures.

Gabrielle Stewart, technical director at Absolute, a firm that detects fraud on behalf of major insurers, said: “There will always be greed, there will always be people who want something for nothing. At the moment, however, people have genuine financial problems. Low-income families and those with poor credit records are stuck with mortgages which they can no longer move on to cheaper rates, they are living beyond their means and they cannot take out personal loans. Some are going to extreme lengths, such as making fraudulent motor claims, when they fall behind on their hire purchase payments.”

Four years ago, insurance companies identified 14,000 people who had made false motor insurance claims. Last year the number was 24,000.

One man who claimed his car had been stolen admitted that he had pushed it over a cliff after it was pointed out that a local newspaper had carried a picture of his wrecked car three days before the alleged theft. He said he needed the insurance money to pay HP debts.

Motor insurance scams add about £40 a year to the premiums of law-abiding drivers.

As for insurance fraud as a whole, which includes motor, household, travel and liability cover, insurance firms uncovered a total of 91,000 fraudulent claims last year, amounting to £557 million. Four years ago the figure was £263 million.

Insurance for investment

Providing an insurance cover to investors in mutual funds has become a fad. Though the idea was initiated by DSP ML back in 2005, others were quick to follow.
Recently Birla Mutual Fund came up with 'Birla Sun Life Century SIP'. Investors who invest via the systematic investment plan (SIP) in 18 of the equity schemes of this asset management company (AMC) will be entitled to a life insurance cover and the insurance expenses (premium) will be borne by the asset management company (AMC).
The caveat: the investor must be between 18 and 45 years of age when applying for the scheme and the minimum SIP amount must be Rs 1,000.
So how much will the insurance cover be? The amount of insurance cover for the first year will be 10 times the SIP investment made by the investor. For example, if an investor has a monthly SIP of Rs 5,000, he will be entitled to a coverage of Rs 50,000 (Rs 5,000x10) in the first year. In the second year, it goes up to 50 times and 100 times from the third year onwards.
However, the insured amount is limited to a maximum of Rs 20 lakh.
Reliance Mutual Fund has come up with an insurance scheme which benefits the fund house as much as the nominee of the insurance policy. Termed as 'Reliance SIP Insure', the AMC will make the required unpaid SIP payments (up to Rs 10 lakh) should the investor die during the tenure of the SIP.
As a result, the investor's long-term financial planning and objective of investing are continued as per the targeted time horizon even if he dies. Sounds great but this holds only if the SIP is for a period of at least three years with a minimum monthly payment of Rs 2,000. Here the age at the time of investment should be between 20 and 46 years.
DSP ML covered five schemes and investors between 18 and 43 were eligible with a minimum SIP of Rs 2,000. But the tenure was quite long: 6, 11 and 16 years. Under this plan, the monthly SIP instalment amount multiplied by the number of months remaining for the scheme to end would be given to the nominee. That was the variable plan. Under the fixed plan of 21 years, an amount equal to 240 times the monthly instalment would be paid anytime during the tenure should the investor die.
Kotak AMC in 2007 launched its Kotak Star Kid Plan whereby only a child could be made the nominee and this insurance was solely applicable to Kotak 30 and Kotak Tax Saver. The SIP tenures were 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. In the case of death, the balance SIP amounts to be invested would be paid to the nominee with the maximum insurance benefit restricted to Rs 10 lakh.
The age at the time of entry is higher than the other schemes, at 23 years. But then again, since it is targeted at one's child it seems fair enough. But it does have a maximum age limit for entry: 45 years, irrespective of how many children you have by then.