Can you insure the weather, please?

Most of us have already some experience with some insurance products - for instance life insurance, long term care or disability insurance. The financial safety of our daily life is at least a bit guarded by these options. While there are so many different types of insurance available, the whole selection might seem to be a bit conservative. But the world of insurance is more colourful than you would ever expect There are even some special policies that look quite bizarre One of them is events insurance.

Imagine yourself planning a marvelous wedding ceremony full of romance - taking place on the beach, with roses all around and guest count going into hundreds. But in the worst case scenario, it may happen that just before the ceremony begins, you step on your veil, slip and end up with a broken leg. For such cases, there is a special insurance product available, just to limit the damage to the minimum. Almost all imaginable attributes of an event can be secured by the insurance, and it doesn't make a difference if it is a birthday party, a wedding or a bar mitzvah you want to insure. The most common insurance types are liability and cancellation insurance, but you can adjust the insurance according to your specific needs. But what to do if you have dreamed of an outdoor party and the weather shows you its unfriendly face? No problem, if you purchase the policy in advance (around two weeks), you can ask also for this protection.

And there are many more possibilities concerning your events insurance. You can even retake your pictures, if the first ones were destroyed by an unskilled photographer, but you had purchased the right insurance. Also, all the gifts, jewelery and rental property can be covered And think about a case of a bride running away from the altar... Yes, trust me; you can cover cold feet too

Event insurance is sold by some of the most famous insurance companies in the world. Allianz offers it via Fireman's Fund subsidiary; Axa adds fireworks and Christmas light insurance, some other offer the option to cover alcohol related accidents. Prices often start below $100 for the basic coverage.

Briefly, you can cover your events from A to Z.

Photo source: Teozilla

Disability Insurance: Disability Insurance

When you hear the word 'disability', you probably think of mobility loss as an effect of a sudden work or sport mishap. But as we can see from the statistics, the reality is quite different: twice more people become handicapped because of a serious sickness (cancer, diabetes or heart disease) than due to an accident.

Your chances of becoming handicapped

Twice more people under 65 years of age become long-term handicapped than decease due to an accident or illness. But naturally the older is the person, the bigger his/her chances of becoming handicapped are:

* out of every 100 children up to 14 years, 3 are classified as handicapped
* 4% of young people between 15 and 24 years become handicapped
* 7% of adults between 25 and 44 years become handicapped
* 17 in 100 adults between 45 to 64 become handicapped
* 40 in 100 adults 65 and over become handicapped
* 53% of adults older than 75 become handicapped

The current numbers tell us that right now, about 14% of Canadians are classified as handicapped, which is some 4.4 million in real numbers.

What are the advantages of disability insurance?

Different kinds of insurance were created to fit the different needs and situations one might meet. For example life insurance provides adequate amount of money for people who suffer not only from an emotional trauma, but also a change of financial situation after the loss of a close person. In the opposite case, after someone turns (completely) handicapped, the first problem is his/her not being able to keep earning a sufficient salary for themselves and the whole family. Moreover, there are even higher expenses connected to the extra medical and other care the person suddenly needs, which means even more of a financial issue for the family of the person who was once able to support him/herself and now needs specialized care. Thus we can see that a good disability insurance can help you solve even more problems than a life insurance. Being classed as handicapped doesn’t always mean that the person is not able of some kind of employment (see the various definitions of disability), but it has been reported that around 15% of those filing for bankruptcy have done it due to illness or accident. Disabled people can sign up for some government benefits, but this is only a limited option. The coverage group plans don't help to maintain your current wages either, as they usually cover between 50% and 60% of the previous net income.

If you are thinking about applying for disability insurance, first think about the resources you would have in case you couldn't earn a sufficient amount of money.

You might decide to:

* place the confidence in your spouse/family
* spend your savings or retirement funds
* sell your property/other assets
* live on credit
* be sufficiently covered by disability insurance that would supplement the missing income

Illustration: credits to World of Oddy

Canadian Universal Health Insurance: the Common Prenotations

During the many years I've been an professional insurance broker, I've had more than enough of occasions to answer questions concerning the ups and downs of both the US and Canadian health care system. Although non of them is hundred per cent, I absolutely hate some of the lies that are spread about the Canadian system. Let's have a look at some of them.

"The health system in Canada is much more expensive than the system in the USA."

To begin with, there's this faulty assumption about the cost. It is often claimed that the Canadian system costs more than the US system, but in fact while Canada spends only 10% of its GDP, covering 100 percent of its population, the USA spends over 15 percent GDP, while at least 15 percent of Americans is not covered at all and even more Americans are left with not enough coverage. For example in 2005, the US government spent US$6,401 per capita on their health expenditures - that's almost twice the sum spent in Canada that year - US$3,359. (picture:pills by erix!)

"In Canada, it's up to the administration to make a decision who gets the treatment."

That's totally wrong: the only people in charge of these decisions are in fact the physicians. On the other hand, the situation is quite different in the States, where in fact it is up to your insurance administrators to determine what treatment you are allowed to get, never mind what you doctor thinks.

"The plan only covers the bare basics, so you end up paying a lot on any extras anyway."

Every province has its own rules concerning what is and what is not included by the public health insurance. The least you can count on is that the physician's fees and all the hospital procedures will be included in the insurance - which are generally the most costly items. Other stuff like medical equipment, dental & vision care would generally not be included. Because it's not too hard to average the cost of these extras, since all those big troublesome items are already covered by the national health insurance, number of insurance companies offers some additional low premium insurance that takes care of all these extras. For example the FlexCare Program from Manulife. All in all, to get the same level of service in the USA as in Canada, the Americans have to pay much much more. The system is simply running better in Canada.

"The biggest problem with the Canadian system are the long waits. In fact, Canadians rather travel to the US for their treatment."

The situation doesn't differ that much from the one in the States, because the waits associated with some specialist treatments (up to four weeks some selective surgery takes even longer. On the other hand, all urgent treatment, you will get it fast one way or the other. And, unlike in the US, noone cares whether you're rich or poor. For example, if you cannot get urgent care you need (i.e. surgery) and you cannot get it as fast as it is medically required, you will most likely be sent to the US - at the expense of the state insurance. If you spoke to a Canadian who rushed to the the US for their treatment and had to pay for it themselves, they most likely didn't need the treatment as fast as they wanted it.

"In Canada, the physicians work for the government. Also, you've no choice: you get your physicians picked by the government!"

Not true. The provincial government doesn’t act as an employer, since the physicians in Canada own their private practises just like their colleagues in the States, but constitutes the only insurer that the physicians have to deal with, therefore the paperwork is kept to the necessary minimum. Don't worry: you get to choose your doctor yourself.