Will a DUI Affect Car Insurance in Wisconsin

For a car insurance quote: https://www.bestinsurancequote.io

 

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/will-dui-affect-car-insurance-wisconsin/

Flooding not covered under your regular homeowners insurance

he combination of melting snow and heavy rainfall will bring Michigan’s already swollen river levels up — which means that flooding is possible. A flood watch is in effect for all of West Michigan through Wednesday.

To  be covered from flood damage, property owners must purchase a policy from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Regular homeowners insurance won’t cut it.

“People may think they don’t need flood insurance, but considering that even just an inch of water can require a property owner to replace carpet, drywall, floor boards, moldings, doors and other belongings, it may be a coverage that they want to purchase from the federal government program,” said Lori Conarton, communications director for the Insurance Alliance of Michigan.

Flooding can occur in any season in Michigan, and NFIP estimates that 90-percent of all natural disasters involve flooding. Small amounts of water can cause tremendous damage.

Property owners should also be aware that coverage for water back up in basements — such as drain and sewer back up — is excluded from the flood insurance policy. That is optional coverage through most insurance companies. Coverage and limits vary by company, so check with your agent or company about specifics. Some insurers include full coverage for sump pump failure while others specify items that are covered.

Vehicles damaged in floods are covered by the comprehensive portion of your auto policy. Comprehensive coverage is optional in Michigan, so you should check with your insurance agent to make sure your covered.

Read More: http://www.wzzm13.com/news/local/michigan/flooding-not-covered-under-your-regular-homeowners-insurance/520592237

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/flooding-not-covered-regular-homeowners-insurance/

In eastern Wisconsin, we’re using fewer health-care services and still paying more

People who get health insurance through their employer are going to doctors and hospitals less, but they and their employers still are spending more money on health care.

The reason: Prices keep going up.

From 2012 through 2016, health care spending for commercial insurance plans increased by an estimated 17.3% per person in eastern Wisconsin, compared with 15% nationally, according to an analysis of insurance claims by the Health Care Cost Institute.

The cost of living in the same four-year period increased by roughly 5%.

In short, health-care spending increased at roughly three times the inflation rate, even though people were using the same amount or fewer health care services.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that our health-care spending problem is really a problem of prices,” said Hannah Neprash, a health economist and an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.

That admittedly isn’t a surprise to anyone who has gotten a hospital bill.

But the analysis by the Health Care Cost Institute suggests that although health systems and physicians in eastern Wisconsin and nationally may be working to control costs and become more efficient, they also haven’t been reluctant to raise prices to maintain their profit margins.

From 2012 through 2016, prices in eastern Wisconsin increased by:

• 22.85% for inpatient hospital services.
• 16.76% for outpatient services
• 16.71% for professional services, such as physician fees.
• 30.3% for inpatient surgery.

None of this bodes well for controlling health-care costs — which account for a significant part of workers’ total compensation and take a chunk out of their take-home pay.

The increases also suggest that the ability to rein in health systems’ prices is limited.

The willingness of health system CEOs to raise prices while acknowledging that health-care spending is on an unsustainable trajectory may be a vestige of the days of cost-plus reimbursement.

“That mentality lives on — the mentality that we have a certain level of costs for providing the services we provide and we are entitled to be compensated for those costs,” said Chapin White, a senior policy researcher in health economics at the nonprofit think tank RAND Corp.

“It is consistent with the noble mission of serving your community.” White added. “But it also is defying basic economic reality.

“We need to be able to have some control over how much we spend on hospital care as a society, and employers who are providing health benefits should not be on the hook for financing hospitals at whatever level hospitals think is appropriate.”

That mindset may be seen in the increase in what commercial health plans spent on inpatient surgery.

The number of inpatient surgeries fell 12.59% from 2012 through 2016, while prices increased 30.03% in eastern Wisconsin, based on the Health Care Cost Institute’s data.

As a result, total spending on inpatient surgery increased 13.66% in the four-year period.

“Here is a place where the entire payer community should be focusing,” said Dave Osterndorf, a consultant and chief actuary at Health Exchange Resources in Glendale.

Prices for surgeries done at a hospital historically have been high — and yet health systems still raised prices, he said.

The same trend can be seen nationally: The number of inpatient surgeries decreased by 16.01%, but prices increased 29.96%.

The price increases suggest that hospitals raised prices to offset — or, in this case, more than offset — the drop in the number of patients.

The Health Care Cost Institute’s data also show that one of the characteristics of the market in eastern Wisconsin is that the prices of physician and other professional services are far above the national average — 58.7% higher.

“We have a lot of specialists in this marketplace,” Osterndorf said.

At the same time, the higher cost is partly offset by lower utilization of those services.

That could indicate the physicians do a better job in managing complex patients, Osterndorf said.

A 2014 study done by consulting firm Milliman for the Greater Milwaukee Business Foundation on Health also found that physician fees in southeastern Wisconsin were almost 50% higher on average than in other Midwest markets for commercial health plans.

Brian Potter, senior vice president of finance and chief operating officer of the Wisconsin Hospital Association, said the Health Care Cost Institute’s methodology is not transparent.

He also noted that the study conflicts with one done by Milliman that found payments to hospitals from commercial health plans in southeastern Wisconsin increased an estimated 8%, compared with 14.4% nationally, from 2012 through 2015.

Hospital care accounts for 30% to 35% of commercial health plans’ total costs.

Without question, health systems provide certain valuable services at a loss — a requirement to maintain their nonprofit tax status — and always have a long list of needed services that they would like to provide.

And some hospitals lose money. For example, Wheaton Franciscan-St. Joseph and Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, both part of Ascension, and Aurora Sinai Medical Center lost money in 2016, the most recent year that information is available from the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

Other hospitals, though, are quite profitable. Froedtert Hospital reported net income of $138.7 million and Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center and Aurora St. Luke’s South Shore reported net income of $172.7 million in 2016.

Health systems also spend heavily on services to generate additional revenue and protect their market share, and those services often increase their costs.

Economists are increasingly focusing on the pricing power held by some health systems and other health-care providers, citing the effect that consolidation has had on prices.

In other sectors of economy, companies typically can’t simply raise prices. Whether the same constraints exist in health care is a question.

“They really don’t get rewarded for holding prices down,” Osterndorf said.

Few people pay attention to price once they reach the deductibles in their health plans. And most of the cost of health care for workers is hidden in the form of lower wages.

“That is a diffuse and invisible price tag,” White said.

Speaking last summer at the annual symposium held by the Center for Sustainable Health Spending, White cited a study in Indiana that found that the prices that private health insurance plans pay for outpatient services can be four times or more than what Medicare pays for the same services.

The Health Care Cost Institute’s national data are based on medical claims for 39 million people under the age of 65 who get health insurance through an employer.

The medical claims are from insurance companies including Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare.

The data, which came only from eastern Wisconsin, contain medical claims for about 31% of the people who get health insurance through an employer in the state.

UnitedHealthcare has the largest market share by far in eastern Wisconsin, particularly in the southeastern part of the state, and is a reasonable benchmark for the prices that commercial health insurers pay for medical services.

The trends in eastern Wisconsin also are largely in line with other parts of the country.

“You can pick most states and see the same things,” said John Hargraves, a senior researcher at the Health Care Cost Institute.

Price increases apply only to commercial health plans because Medicare and Medicaid both dictate the prices they will pay. And the Health Care Cost Institute is permitted to use the claims data but cannot disclose any specific prices negotiated between commercial health insurers and health systems.

“It’s hard to get your hands on useful price data for private health plans,” White said. “There’s just a lot of mystery in prices and price trends.”

The Health Care Cost Institute’s data, while not definitive, has become one of the best sources for trends in health care spending for employers and employees.

Neprash, the health economist at the University of Minnesota, described the Health Care Cost Institute as a “uniquely detailed source of data.”

Several states — including Minnesota, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon and Maryland — have claims databases that are tracking and reporting costs and prices. Maryland, for example, has a new website that discloses prices for specific services at specific hospitals.

Wisconsin also has a claims database but for now is tracking only the utilization of services.

Other studies also have pointed to higher prices as the reason the United States spends 50% more than any other developed country on health care.

The studies — including a 2004 paper titled “It’s the Prices, Stupid” — counter the widely held belief that the U.S. spends more on health care because people use more health care.

Americans overall use fewer services than people in other developed countries.

“It’s a story about prices,” Neprash said. “It’s not about how much health care we use.”

Read More: https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/health-care/2018/02/19/eastern-wisconsin-using-fewer-health-care-services-and-still-paying-more/339497002/

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/eastern-wisconsin-using-fewer-health-care-services-still-paying/

Car insurance rates hit all-time high – study

National car insurance premiums are at an all-time high, shooting up 20% since 2011, according to insurance search engine The Zebra.

The Zebra released the findings in its annual State of Auto Insurance Report. The report showed extreme pricing volatility in recent years and raised questions about how the industry is reacting to changes in weather, driver behavior, legislation and technology.

“Insurance companies leverage thousands of data points to determine car insurance rates – things like your age, driving record, and even your credit score,” said Adam Lyons, founder and executive chairman of The Zebra. “Today, we’re also seeing extraordinary forces like overnight tech innovation and devastating natural disasters impact rates.”

The report examined more than 52 million auto insurance rates across all US zip codes. Among its key findings:

• Car insurance rates in the US are higher than they’ve ever been. The national average annual premium is $1,427 – a 20% hike from 2011. Some cities have an average annual premium of more than $6,000.
• The most expensive state for car insurance was Michigan, followed by Louisiana and Kentucky.
• The most expensive city for car insurance was Detroit, followed by New Orleans and Hialeah, Fla.
• Care insurance rates have shown significant volatility. In some states they’ve increased more than 60% since 2011, while others have seen increases as little as 1%. Ten states actually had net decreases, some by up to 20%.
• Rate changes from one year to the next were as high as 9% nationally and up to 45% in some states.

Read More: https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/breaking-news/car-insurance-rates-hit-alltime-high–study-92566.aspx

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/car-insurance-rates-hit-time-high-study/

Why Free Life Insurance at Work Might Not Be Enough

How To Buy Life Insurance (And Live To Tell About It)

 Bob MacDonald , Forbes Councils

Are you considering or being pressured to buy life insurance? Join the crowd. Life insurance is one of the most ubiquitous financial products to ever be sold. While life insurance can be a valuable tool in any financial plan, knowing if you even need it — along with the right amount and type to buy — can be challenging. There are questions such as: How do I know if I need life insurance? If so, how much life insurance do I need? What type of policy should I buy? How do I know if I am getting the best value and price for the life insurance I buy?

Purchasing life insurance is often tedious, intimidating and complicated, but it does not have to be that way. The insurance companies may offer multiple confusing policies and throw around a lot of jargon that sounds like a foreign language, but in reality, the concepts are simple. Once you understand the true basics of life insurance, your decision can be straightforward and result in the best buy for you.

Shutterstock

What you should know about life insurance:

The purpose of life insurance (and, really, its only value) is to offset the economic cost of dying. If you have a spouse or young children who would be faced with financial hardship in the event of your death, life insurance proceeds can solve that problem. If you are a key person or partner in a business, life insurance can help to stabilize the business in the event of your death.

If insurance companies try to convince you that a life insurance policy is anything other than a way to replace your income or long-term economic value to a family or business in the event of your death, they are doing so for their benefit, not yours. Life insurance is not an investment — it is not a way to make money or an effective tax hedge.

There is an uncomplicated way to decide if you even need life insurance. Ask yourself: If I die, will anyone I care about suffer an economic adversity that I want to prevent? If the answer is no, then you don’t need life insurance. If, however, you want to protect others from the potential economic cost of your death, the right type of life insurance is the best way to accomplish that objective.

If you need life insurance, what type should you buy?

Life insurance companies have more confusing policy options than a Chinese restaurant. But when it comes down to it, all insurance companies pine to sell you some form of what they call “whole life” or “permanent insurance.” (Both are subtle marketing terms used to suggest you should buy and keep paying premiums on the policy for your whole life.) This type of policy has been the backbone, best selling and most profitable product of the life insurance industry for years. So-called “whole life” may have been a reasonable option in the 20^th century when the consumer had few other financial options, but that is not the case today.

Read More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/02/05/how-to-buy-life-insurance-and-live-to-tell-about-it/#2eb704b073a1

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/buy-life-insurance-live-tell/

Life insurance can be a bargain not to miss

Getting married, buying a house and having kids are all good reasons to purchase life insurance. But if other financial priorities keep getting in the way, there’s an economic consideration if you’re a Millennial (no matter how much you hate being called one): Getting life insurance now is probably a lot cheaper and easier than you think.

Most people, but especially young people, overestimate the cost of life insurance, a study found, and a large portion of people in their 20s and 30s mistakenly think they can’t qualify. That’s according to the 2017 Insurance Barometer Study by Life Happens, a nonprofit supported by insurers and brokerages, and LIMRA, a global life insurance research and consulting group.

Do you need life insurance?

To decide if you need life insurance, ask this question: “Would someone be financially worse off if you died tomorrow?” says Rachel Podnos, a certified financial planner with Wealth Care LLC in Washington, D.C. If anyone depends on your income or would be stuck paying your debts, then the answer is yes.

Getting married, having children and buying a home are common triggers for buying life insurance.

You might also think about getting life insurance if you have private student loans. While federal student loans are discharged when the borrower dies, rules vary by lender for private student loans. Parents who cosigned private loans would be on the hook for the debt if you die and the lender required payment.

Read More: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2018/02/10/millennials-life-insurance-can-bargain-not-miss/309448002/

 

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/life-insurance-can-be-a-bargain-not-to-miss/

Giving New Life To Life Insurance

Life insurance companies are under pressure. Their traditional business model is stagnating. Since 2014, premiums for US life insurers have fallen at an average annual rate of 4%, the industry’s return on equity has been flat and persistently low interest rates continue to depress returns (see Figure 1).

Insurers have been slow to adjust to these new realities. Despite their efforts to trim expenses, many are still suffering from bloated costs. Operating expense ratios, which measure noncommission operating expenses as a percentage of direct revenue, have deteriorated at leading US life insurers for the past five years.

Distribution costs have grown at an average annual rate of 5% since 2010. Life insurers rely on agents for more than 90% of their policy sales. All told, agent commissions and distribution expenses account for about 60% of a typical insurer’s operating expenses, and a lack of growth in agent productivity has contributed to a rise in overall costs (see Figure 2).

Life insurers have tried for years to contain costs, but they have little to show for it. By stinting on investments in operational improvements, they may have actually hindered their ability to do things more effectively. Meanwhile, costs in areas such as oversight and compliance have continued to creep up.

To make matters worse, life insurers aren’t pleasing their customers. The average Net Promoter Score^® for US life insurers is 4.5%, according to Bain & Company’s survey of insurance customers in 20 countries (see Customer Behavior and Loyalty in Insurance: Global Edition 2017). Life insurers rely on a sales-led, agent-based approach to marketing, resulting in limited knowledge of their customers. Their customers, in turn, can display minimal connections, or loyalty, to the brand.

---

---

One way insurers are trying to address these problems is by expanding their use of digital channels and data analytics. But they are late to the party. Life insurers are saddled with cumbersome and costly processes and legacy systems, and they have long underinvested in IT. In 2016, insurers spent 3.2% of their annual revenue on IT, less than half the 6.8% spent by banks. Some 70% of life insurance executives surveyed by Willis Towers Watson believe they lag behind other financial services sectors in the adoption of digital technologies.

When it comes to technology, insurers are running to catch up with their customers. They’re also trying to fend off challenges from insurtech upstarts that aren’t encumbered by outmoded systems. Insurance customers, particularly those under the age of 35, are increasingly turning to mobile apps to research policies, get advice and buy products.

Leading insurers have begun to realize that digital is only a piece of the solution. To meet the challenges of the marketplace they need nothing less than a total transformation of the way they do business. Their tardiness in digital is symptomatic of a larger problem. They are steeped in organizational cultures that have been slow to embrace change.

Life insurance is rooted in actuarial science. All insurers have to calculate and manage risk; that’s an essential part of what they do. But this risk-containment ethos can permeate the entire company, resulting in overly cautious and internally focused organizations. Insurance executives surveyed by Bain & Company give their companies relatively low grades for creating an environment that sets high expectations, holds people accountable and rewards innovation (see Figure 3).

---

Start with a bold vision

 

Leading life insurers recognize that organizational and cultural issues are at the heart of their lingering cost problems, distribution challenges and uneven customer experiences. They know that lasting transformation will be possible only if they overcome inertia and fundamentally change behavior. These companies approach transformation as a multipronged process:

• They begin by laying out a bold vision to shake up the organization and the way it operates. Many set an ambitious goal to cut costs by as much as 25% within two to three years. They plan to use the savings to invest in the technologies and talent that will enhance the customer experience, lift productivity and improve profit margins.
• Once they have articulated their goals, companies construct an operating modelthat instills accountability, weeds out underperformers and rewards initiative. They create new, customer-facing positions and fill them with high achievers. They reorganize their go-to-market capabilities around customer segments instead of functions. They also overhaul their technology operations—shifting centralized resources closer to actual business owners.
• As their new operating framework takes shape, insurers begin to attack their legacy cost base in earnest. They use technology to simplify and streamline entrenched processes, from sales to underwriting to fulfillment. They take a hard look at customer transactions that require multiple handoffs from department to department, including some that may still feature handwritten and printed forms that are transported from place to place in manila folders.

One company’s transformation experience

For one leading life insurer, the first step in the transformation process was to candidly assess its position. It faced slowing top-line growth, stagnant productivity, a major technology deficit—and a lack of progress in areas it had already established as priorities, including digitalization and the customer experience.

The company was encumbered with legacy technology, and it didn’t set clear performance expectations for employees. That resulted in limited accountability for underachievers and insufficient incentives for those who excelled.

The company began its transformation by laying down a marker. It aimed to increase earnings by about 40% in five years. The company knew that it wouldn’t be able to meet its earnings targets from the projected growth in its core market. It would have to cut operating costs by 20%. Achieving these ambitious objectives would require something more than business as usual, something more radical and long-lasting than the incremental approaches that emanated from the standard annual budgeting process.

The company defined a set of guiding principles that were critical to ensuring that the transformation aligned with its long-term goals:

• put the customer first (easier said than done);
• reduce complexity throughout the organization;
• accelerate digitalization and automation;
• stop doing activities that no longer add value, and invest in those that do; and
• make tough decisions and hold people accountable for performance.

These principles gave the leadership team license to think broadly as it transformed the business.

The company then set about building an organization that would focus on serving the customer and would encourage agility and innovation. It shifted from a model that was organized around functions, such as underwriting, marketing and sales, to a structure based on business units that focused on major customer segments, including retail and corporate. It moved the IT development staff from the corporate level into the business units—fostering much closer collaboration on technology. The central IT group, meanwhile, narrowed its focus to infrastructure management, software development standards, and tools and training.

The company conducted a broad review of its talent and developed a robust performance management system. It raised productivity expectations and enriched its talent pool with internal transfers and external hires. The company successfully managed this process, so that by the end, close to 40% of roles were filled with new talent—both internally and externally sourced.

As the company tackled its operating model, it also accelerated changes in marketing and distribution. Over the years, complexity and inefficiency had crept into the distribution system, with overlapping sales organizations supporting multiple brands and channels. The company followed a traditional sales-led model, where agents bore the primary responsibility for interacting with customers. The company, which had a large sales management organization, was expending significant resources to recruit, train and support these agents.

When the company conducted a zero-based review of the outlays to agents, it found that its support model no longer aligned with the agents’ needs. Agents wanted more sales and technical training, as well as technology, to help them become more productive in an increasingly digital world. Having a state-of-the art customer relationship management (CRM) system meant more to the agents than attending company-sponsored sales conferences in exotic locales.

Read More: http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/how-to-breathe-new-life-into-life-insurance.aspx

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/giving-new-life-life-insurance/

The Golden Rules Of Buying Indexed Universal Life Insurance

Getting an indexed

Shutterstock

universal life insurance policy tailored for you can be a daunting task. Why? Because universal life insurance was designed to be flexible, which means there a lot of options to consider. In fact, if you took some time to shop online, you’d likely end up empty-handed.

To help you get a handle on the topic, I reached out to Tom Murphy, President of Murphy Financial services, who specializes in indexed universal life insurance.

Below are four golden rules to remember when considering indexed universal life insurance.

Rule #1: Shop your broker, not your companies.

This is where the internet can get you in trouble. There are tons of calculators and companies to be found on search engines that will try to persuade you to make a hasty decision, typically by pitching the cheapest rate. The most important item to remember about IULs, however, is that one size does not fit all.

“The fortunate thing for consumers is they have many strong options when shopping for permanent life insurance such as an IUL. The unfortunate thing is they have many options,” says Murphy.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tom. This is why it’s more important to shop your independent agent versus trying to shop all the companies on your own. Find an independent agent who specializes in indexed universal life insurance, not just term or whole life, and let them shop for the best options that meet your specific goals.

Having a strong independent agent can have a drastic impact on the quality of your policy.

Read More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/01/29/the-golden-rules-of-buying-indexed-universal-life-insurance/#28f743c180b9

from Best Insurance Quote https://www.bestinsurancequote.io/golden-rules-buying-indexed-universal-life-insurance/