It is a balance between taking care of yourself financially and also making sure that the business is able to thrive in the future with someone else

at the helm.

Why You Need a Succession Plan

No matter what type of company you own, employees and customers alike depend on you. They trust you to bring them goods and services, or their livelihood is tied up in working for you. Because of this, the company cannot come to an end when you are ready to step down. You want to maintain the name and the reputation of the business beyond yourself. There are so many benefits to coming up with a succession plan. Any transition is hard but if there is no plan in place, people get nervous and fear the unexpected. It is at this point that a transition becomes even more difficult. There are all types of things going on and no one knows what to expect. When you have a plan, the transition may still be a little tough but it is manageable.

Financing the Plan

In some instances, it can take up to five years for the plan to be complete. Don`t put off getting started if you know that you want to leave the company soon. It is going to cost to set up these plans and, from the very beginning, you want to have a lawyer by your side. You will need help with estate planning and also help ensuring that you are financially protected with the transition occurs. There is no reason for you to walk away from the business at a loss. You will also need to start a search to find the next person (or group of people) that are going to take your place. It takes time and money to look at all the options and make a decision on the right person. It takes money to train this person and ensure that they are going to be prepared to take over. Many companies hire professionals to help them with this decision. While this added expense can add up quickly, in most cases, it is necessary to ensure that things run smoothly and the business owner is protected.

Options Available for Succession

Sometimes business owners look to hand their companies over to a family member. This person may or may not have been a part of the business in the past.Just because this is someone that you are related to it does not mean that you just make the transition without legal advice. Other options include selling the business to someone else in the company or selling to a third party. No matter which option is considered, it will take money and planning to make it a possibility. As the expenses accumulate, it is important to remember that in this case you are spending money saving money simultaneously. Look at each dollar spent planning and executing a succession as an investment.

Common belief #1: My license plate sticker expires on my birthday, but i have until the end of the month to renew (or in my ex-wife’s case 10 months later haha)

Reality: Apparently not. While you may get a grace period of a few days, we actually have to renew the sticker on the date of our birthday …
Common belief #2: Pedestrians have the right of way (this is for all those who live in the core and have to do double takes)

Reality: Sometimes but not always! Jaywalking is not a legal means of entering the intersection and they could be charged. Another no-no is stepping out into the road during a the countdown on a crosswalk timer …What do you know!

Common belief #3: Speed trap! Warn others but don’t let the cops see because its illegal!

Reality: There actually isn’t a law saying you cannot do that. In fact, I would encourage more people to warn others of speed traps because it will slow traffic down!

Common belief #4: Left lane of the highway is for the fastest traffic (uh oh … i think i tweeted about this lol)

Reality: this is more of a common courtesy than law. Speed limit in Ontario is posted and for the 400 series highways it is primarily 100 km per hour. And as for trucks? Unless there are signs saying otherwise, they can drive in any lane on open stretches of highway

Common belief #5: Can’t make a lane change in an intersection

Reality: there is no law saying you cannot. If you do it safely with a turn signal, you’re all good.

Finally: #6 On ramp etiquette I want in!!!  you have to make room for me!

Reality: its up to the driver entering the highway to merge safely with traffic.

There you have it … hope these help you be better drivers, keep you from getting tickets and help to keep your premiums lower!

According to Wikipedia, an insurance credit score is a numerical point system based on select credit report characteristics.  

I am in the business and I understand this but what does it mean? It means that some insurance companies perform a “soft credit check” on you in order to determine your “risk” factor. The higher the credit score, the better the risk you are, the lower the worse.

This is a huge deal in the marketplace.   According to Canadian Underwriter Magazine  this is a issue left to government and that the push to have every insurer use this as standard policy when underwriter your home and auto insurance  isn’t happening yet.

Okay, so what’s the big issue? Who cares if they perform a soft credit check on me – i have good credit!

The big issue is that not everyone does have good credit. We cannot fully understand why their score is like that so how can an insurer justify “amending” their insurance rates based on their score? Conversely, someone could have the best credit in the world and be the lousiest driver / homeowner, costing the insurer hundreds of thousands in claim money.  Credit scoring is a tool to assist and guide rates but in this ever tightening market for home and auto insurance, it may be more of a misleading tool than helpful one.

At the moment, some insurers will perform credit checks and others won’t. Your agent/broker will know which ones are and have to ask your permission to do so (often they may not).

We no longer live in a world where we can simply assume that our best interests are protected. We have to become more and more knowledgeable about what affects us and our family and our credit rating …

Real or fake?

The holiday season is a wonderful time for slowing down to appreciate family, friends and oneself.

Remember that vigilance is still require expecially now. Something as beautiful as a Christmas tree could suddenly spark and cause major damage.

Stay safe this holiday season and I wish you all the best in 2012

For example, below is an article found on the investment executive website about Critical illness insurance. We are in the business. We know how important the coverage is for our clients and non-clients. We as a society are programmed to say no, but did you know:

Critical illness insurance can help families avoid financial & emotional duress
Nov 01, 2011 09:40

Despite the prominence of cancer, stroke and heart disease in Canada, a new poll by TD Insurance found that 65% of Canadian parents with children still living at home don’t have critical illness insurance.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, about one-in-two Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime, and 1.6 million Canadians currently have heart disease or are living with the effects of a stroke.

“The good news is that thanks to medical advancements, many people are surviving critical illnesses and living longer, fulfilling lives with their families,” says Dave Minor, vice president, TD Insurance.

“But recovering from a serious illness can be expensive and other forms of insurance may leave a gap in your coverage. Critical illness insurance is designed to fill this gap and reduce the impact that an illness has on a family’s overall financial health.”

“Suffering from a serious illness is an incredibly difficult time for the patient and their loved ones,” says stress and wellness expert Beverly Beuermann-King. “There is so much to deal with – making decisions about care, remaining financially stable and meeting the family’s day-to-day needs, all while coping with a myriad of emotions.

Critical illness insurance can help families get through that time. It lets the family focus entirely on fighting and recovering from an illness together, instead of worrying about how to make ends meet.”
Minor says families should consider critical illness insurance as an integral part of their household’s overall financial health. “No one plans to get sick, but it’s important to ensure your family is covered in the event that something unexpected happens.

Everyone’s situation is different, so it’s important to speak to an expert so that they can recommend a policy that works for you and your family.”

TD Insurance commissioned Environics Research Group to conduct a custom online survey of 1,000 Canadian adults. Results were collected between March 5 – 13.

Those that have access to a group health and benefit plan have life insurance for them and often their dependants that is inexpensive and thus reasonable to them. I believe that this coverage is an excellent supplement to whole life coverage because it either takes the place of a term policy or compliments it (i will write more about this another day).

Many people don’t think something is necessary until it is brought to their attention – i am one of them. In fact, i didn’t have life insurance coverage until my late 20′s , when as per the norm i purchased a house with my then wife.

The bank requested coverage for my mortgage – in the form of mortgage insurance, and I as a life insurance trainee, knew not to get that coverage but the reasons were vague.

i now know that the mortgage insurance coverage offered on these types of contracts are limited to the amount of the mortgage and decrease over time while the costs increase. I also know now that the beneficiary is always the lender and that the coverage is actually not guaranteed because the policy is underwritten (i.e. you are qualified for the policy) at death – not cool!

So what does one do? Let’s say you are young and have no assets. You don’t need coverage right? Maybe, maybe not! Think for a second. You are young now but one day you will meet a partner, probably settle down, buy a house, perhaps get married and have kids.

Does it not make sense to plan ahead and get some products while you are at your healthiest and thus at their cheapest? We shop around for everything  - some even go to great lengths to save $0.02 at the gas pump (maybe $5 on a tank)!

The same goes with Life insurance coverage  - get it when you don’t need it because it will likely be cheaper!

Term and Whole life – mutually exclusive or combined?

To put it simply, term coverage is a contract that spans a limited term. You can have term 10, term 20 etc (10 years, 20 years long).  Whole life insurance is coverage that spans your whole life (sometimes until age 100 where they cut you a check for the balance and say congratulations!)

Term insurance is much cheaper because it protects you for a limited time, usually in the years where the chance of death is slim to none. Whole life on the other hand assumes that death will occur in the later half of the policy where is costs more to insure a person (higher chance of death) and thus attempts to spread the premiums over the lifetime of the policy.

Using these two types of policies, you can ensure long term goals for yourself (and partner or kids if you have), and meet short term life insurance obligations.

For example:

if you have a $300,000 mortgage …  you can quite easily get a $300,000 term insurance coverage. Over time, your mortgage goes down and after 20 years the coverage can stop. But in that 20 years, your responsibility increases, you have kids, a bigger house, cottage etc.  What about when all that is done and you no longer have insurance?

Here is a quick solution to consider:

$50,000 whole life coverage + $450,000 term life.

The term life is nominally more expensive, will likely be renewable and convertible to whole life (for that day you need more whole life and can afford it). The whole life would be much cheaper at younger ages vs older ages and ensures that if you qualify, you have coverage to help with funeral costs when your time arrives thereby lifting the burden from your grieving family.

Remember, that no matter which way you structure your life insurance policies, you can never guarantee that you will be healthier than you are today!

2. Gross Earnings – commonly used by manufacturers, this coverage is straight forward – it insures for the earnings lost as a result of an insurable claim. Earnings are calculated as revenue minus expenses that cease while the business isn’t operating (like light, gas – items that do not have contractual obligations. This form of business interruption insurance usually ceases when the company opens its doors for business again. Manufacturers would use this coverage in conjunction with extra expense to sub-contract out assembly line product etc to a competitor while they rebuild their shop

3. Profits Form – Provides indemnification for the loss of profits and ongoing fixed expenses. This form of business interruption continues for up to a year after the doors re-open in order to assist the business in re-acquiring their clientele and profit levels. This type of coverage is commonly used by sales and highly competitive businesses where an extended downtime could cost market share and client loyalty. There is a forth called Actual Loss Sustained but it ties in with the profits form. As the name suggests, the coverage indemnifies the actual financial loss sustained as defining in the policy wording that would come with the policy.

Business Continuity or Disaster Planning is like an insurance policy in case the unthinkable happens. You ask yourself, “What if?” quite often when speaking about the lottery or when catching up on your favorite celebrity  -  but what about the most important “What ifs?”:

- What if I couldn’t open my doors yesterday to do business – what would i do today?

- What if I had a heart attack yesterday – what would i do once i recovered? What would happen to my business and family?

- what if a fire swept through the building and destroyed all my stock – what now?

- what if a fire started in the night? Can my family escape? where do we live?

There are many what ifs in the world and i am more than certain that we can go nuts just trying to get our head around them all – which is why we simply assume that everything is going to be okay because… “it won’t happen to me!”

This article is not only intending for the world wide audience of Insurance Help readers (all 2 of you lol) – in fact it is directed to myself as well!

I was comfortably having a life without thinking about what if a guy is speeding and runs a red light and totals my jeep… then it happened and i have struggled this year from physical to mental pain and everything in between.

When planning for disaster, your team should come up with a generalized game plan to cover off many scenarios. From ordering product, communicating to clients to a hiring process intended to find a replacement for key personnel, your plan should cover off the basics and ensure that when the unthinkable happens, your team can get it together confidently knowing what the plan is and how they are going to execute it.

True or False: Its all about Colour…. Myth: Insuring a black or red car is more expensive than other colours:

FALSE! Colour doesn’t actually matter to us! The rates are based on the car’s year, make, model and drivers listed … so go ahead, grab that lime green or hot pink car!

True or False: When one door opens…. Myth: a 2-door car costs more to insure than a 4-door

FALSE! Well sort of false! (welcome to the world of insurance!) The rating for cars is based on claims history of that vehicle, accident frequency, repair costs, theft, vandalism and safety ratings… basically, it comes down to what kind of car – some 2 door cars will be cheaper to insure than some 4 door… so do your research before buying!

True or False: RUN! Its the Parking Ticket Dude! … Myth: Parking ticket = Increase in Insurance rates

FALSE! Well sort of … Getting a parking ticket doesn’t mean that your rates will be affected … if you don’t pay your parking tickets (or get them thrown out), then you can lose the ability to get your license and thus get a license suspension and thus have your rates affected …

True or False: DUDE! Where’s My Car!  … Myth: If you loan your buddy your car and it gets totaled, his insurance will cover it.

FALSE! When you loan out your to someone, you have to realize that you are also taking responsibility for their actions. One of the major advantages to a vehicle is that you can be responsible for it and when you loan it out, you are trusting that person to be responsible with your stuff. You can be held financially responsible if they cause an accident…

True or False: Me and My buddy are the same!  Myth: Your rates and your friend’s rates should be the same-ish…

FALSE! Each person is unique as are their insurance rates. Age, driving record, type of vehicle and location are all considered

And Finally:

True or False: No Points… YES!!! Myth: I bargained away the points on my license so that it won’t affect my rates…

FALSE! Any conviction will affect your rates in some way – points are not considered unless they result in a suspension of your license.

Good Luck and happy driving!

As i deal with the physical damage to my body and slowly get myself back to where I was, i find that some things aren’t healing back to where they were. For example, my left hand is always “asleep”  or when i try to perform everyday functions such as interacting with my children, i find that i have to pause often to stretch out the pain in my back …  very frustrating! Further, I cannot service my clientele to the levels i had previously set for myself and i have also experienced a significant decline in my ability to generate new revenues. Bills are piling up, my personal life is difficult to manage with my decreased abilities and my overall mood has turned dark… but how dark, i didn’t know until recently…

I’m certain that anyone reading this who has been in an accident can relate to some of my struggles – some less some worse. In fact, i just read an article in Men’s Health about a guy who had a sudden stroke and is working tirelessly to regain control of his body. I saw a video about a motivational speaker names Nick Vujicic, who has no arms and no legs but shows us that life is still worth living and that we must continue to try to pick ourselves up from each fall…and to never give up.

I looked at these people and thought to myself – it isn’t so bad. No matter what life was throwing at me, it wasn’t so bad. My problem is that I was in a bad place. My emotions were overpowering my mind. I cried in the middle of exercise, i cried at night. I slept often because i simply could not open my eyes. I would force myself up for my kids but ultimately, i even had to sacrifice time with them because I could not handle it.

I knew i had physical restraints, i could feel that and do my best to treat that, but where was this all coming from? Turns out, it was Depression. Depression was impairing my ability to function at even the most simple level. Fatigue, hopelessness, despair and longing to simply end it all were daily aspects of my life.

After speaking to my family doctor and my treating professional, it was recommended to me that I consult a psychiatrist. After completing my assessment, i was officially diagnosed as depressed and it was recommended that i start on anti-depressants to assist me with my rehabilitation. The medication is supposed to lower the emotional response, allowing me to stay in control of my mind.

So, here I am, moving forward with rehabilitation of my body and my mind.  The medication is working to lift the “fog’ from my mind and allowing me to have more control… I can start the arduous journey of rebuilding my life sanely…