Insurance and Credit

It is important to understand the difference between the kinds of mortgage insurance that people may discuss with you as you are in the process of purchasing your home.

There is frequently some confusion among homeowners about the types of insurance they are discussing when they are talking to their bank.

Lenders feel they have to protect themselves when a lender has a small down payment. The borrower is so little invested in the property, that once the mortgage payments become difficult, or the value of the property goes down, he may abandon it. With a small down payment, the dollars invested doesn’t give the borrower much incentive to protect it.

The lender then requires that the buyer take out an insurance policy on the mortgage, but the beneficiary of the policy is not the buyer, but the lender. Note that the bank is the beneficiary, not the borrower or his family.

If you are concerned, as a responsible homeowner and family man, that your family will not be able to continue to afford the mortgage and live in their home if anything occurs to stop your flow of income, you may think about taking out mortgage life or disability insurance.

With this type of insurance, your family will not have to worry about keeping up the mortgage payments in case anything happens to you, the primary breadwinner.

If the insured party dies, mortgage life insurance pays off the loan, and if he is disabled, mortgage disability insurance will make the insurance payments during the period he cannot. Decreasing term mortgage life insurance is the one most people buy, since mortgages go down and therefore it is not necessary to keep the initial loan amount as the policy principal. There is no need to continue paying the premium on a $200,000 mortgage as the mortgage gets lower and lower with each mortgage payment.

For those who are concerned about them and their family being able to stay in their house in case of a medical disability, mortgage disability insurance will pay the monthly mortgage for the disability period.

Take sure you are clear on the terminology that your bank uses when you are discussing mortgage insurance. Lenders may offer these types of life or disability policies, and even make some income from them, but it is important to understand which kind of policy they are offering to you; if you have a low down paymentloan, you may not be getting the kind of protection you think you are.

Registered insurance adjusters and agents are required to maintain their professional standing by meeting the requirements of their industry. This includes maintaining proficiency in best practices and knowledge of regulatory changes through the completion of regular Insurance Continuing Education (CE) training. Each state has their own licensing requirements, but all require some form of continuing education to maintain a license.

In general, states require a certain number of Insurance Continuing Education credits be earned every two years. Providers of insurance CE training must themselves be certified to provide such classes by the state in which the insurance agents they train are licensed.

Insurance CE training has historically been offered in a traditional classroom setting or in hotel conference rooms. The licensee attends lectures which are followed by an exam. Once an exam is passed the results are submitted to the states licensing board where the credits are recorded. A minimum number of credits must be passed within a two year period in order to renew their license.

Classroom training has its merits. Agents and adjusters can meet one another, compare notes, and network. Points in the lectures can be clarified through discussion and Q&A. Most of us are familiar with the classroom environment and are comfortable learning in this way; however, there are several significant disadvantages to the classroom training approach:

The cost of classroom training is high due to the need to hire a professional trainer, rent a classroom, hotel room or a conference room. In addition, students need to consider the cost of travel, lodging and meal.

Most classroom training is delivered during normal working hours when the professional could be productively at work.

Completed course credits usually need to be reported by the trainee to the licensing board.

Time spent away from the field is lost. Many agents report a backlog of work awaiting them when they return to their desks. In a competitive field like insurance, this often represents costly missed opportunities.

To address these deficiencies, online insurance continuing education courses provide a number of advantages not found in the classroom, including:

The cost of training is lower than a classroom based course. Often it is a percentage of the usual cost.

The trainee can access learning modules at any time when it is convenient. Work day productivity is not interrupted.

Students can move through the lessons at their own pace or revisit previous modules to reinforce a concept.

Insurance professionals who are licensed to work in several states can fulfill their CE requirements at one time and place.

Insurance professionals who are licensed in more than one state can receive their accreditation all at once.

Many insurance CE providers report achieved training credits to the licensing board automatically, in the states where this is allowed.

Reporting of training credits to the licensing board is done automatically by some online insurance CE course providers upon exam completion (where this is allowed by the individual state).

Companies that sign up for online CE training in bulk can monitor the training requirements and status of every licensed employee via the Internet.

Online training courses are typically delivered via slide presentation using a computers web browser. Most people know how to use a web browser and therefore require no additional training.

Some online insurance CE providers offer multimedia support. Finding a provider that can provide audio training in addition to the slide presentations can be beneficial in that these audio lessons can be downloaded to a CD or MP3 player and listened to while driving.

If you are an insurance professional and are considering using an online provider to complete your insurance CE, you may be able to find special deals that offer unlimited courses for a fixed price. This can save you a lot of time and money, not to mention the convenience of being able to study at the location and time of your choosing.

I had no trouble getting good advice when I started asking questions of a Chicago insurance company.

My first question, since I’ve never been in a position before where I needed a significant amount of insurance coverage is why I would use a broker instead of an insurance agent.

The difference is that my broker is a representative of many insurance I found out that the significant difference between a broker and agent is that a broker will represent several insurance corporations while the agent works for only one. My broker has the freedom to help me out in the event of a claim and an agent will do his best to help out the company he works for.

My next question was if I would I be able to save money on insurance and the answer is simple.

I could save money up front, but if I don’t spend the money now, it might end up I don’t have significant coverage at the time of a claim. I might even have to pay for something I didn’t get proper coverage on. It is important to research the various ways of saving costs without any compromise on an important item that should be properly insured.

The jewelry is an issue for me, I asked if it is completely covered under homeowner’s insurance. I did not realize that most household policies only cover about $1,000 and requires that I pay a deductible amount to claim. The recommendation is to purchase “valuable articles” policy separately to ensure that your most precious individual items are properly covered for the correct appraised amount.

House insurance should be coverage on how much it will cost to replace it if it burns down or in some other way is destroyed. This surprised me since my home is insured for only how much it would sell for on the market.

Have the Chicago insurance company state replacement cost directly on your policy even though it might be in excess of the limits on your insurance plan.