• employers may refer to a collection of various health and welfare related benefits as medical insurance – in fact, the term may cover a variety of different things;
• sickness benefits – if you are too ill to work, the law typically requires that your employer continues to pay you a salary for a specified, though limited, period of time. After that period has passed, the level of payments may reduce and stop altogether. Some employers may provide a group income protection scheme, whereby up to 75 percent of your income continues to be paid for a specified period;
• life insurance – your employer may provide a life insurance scheme whereby your next of kin or other specified beneficiaries, may receive a lump sum should you die prematurely. This is sometimes called a death in service benefit;
• • critical illness cover – unfortunately, none of us are immune from serious or critical illness. If it strikes, it may have a number of undesirable effects on our life and the lives of those around us. Some organisations may pay employees a lump sum should they be diagnosed with one of a list of recognised major illnesses. That might help to ensure that you are able to concentrate on trying to recover your health rather than deal with financial crises arising from the fact that you are unable to work and earn income;
• private health insurance (or corporate health insurance) – some employers may offer what they term PHI. Once again, that may mean different things to different employers but typically means that if you need medical treatment, you may be able to go and have the treatment on a private basis rather than through the NHS;
• taxation – depending upon your personal circumstances and the exact nature of the medical benefits being provided by your employer, you may in some cases find that you will need to pay extra tax in recognition of the fact that you are receiving a benefit in kind;
• balance – in spite of some potential increased tax issues, the above forms of benefit are typically highly regarded by employees and it may be possible to calculate a monetary value of the benefits you are receiving. That may allow you to consider your total employment package on a basis other than simply looking at your salary;
• medical centres – some large manufacturing or heavy industrial centres may have on-site medical facilities able to offer emergency treatment for accidents and sometimes, trivial complaints. These are not typically included in medical benefits definitions.

Protection against liability of any description could be considered a primary requisite of owning your business or practice. If you have knowledge and skills that are in demand and you earn your living from providing these skills, it could be advantageous for you to consult a professional Indemnity Insurance broker.

Your business needs protecting against various adverse factors that could severely and negatively influence your stability. For many professions, it is mandatory for them to have the protection of public liability insurance and to be protected against any claims made against them, by clients, or a third party. For any business, a mistake is always a factor and if it is legally determined that you have been negligent, regarding services you have provided, either fully or partly, then without the protection of the right insurance, you could find yourself in a dire predicament.

A professional Indemnity Insurance broker will help determine your precise needs, but you must be aware that when related to public liability insurance, any clam will only be subject to cover, if a policy is affective. Therefore, if you are in the process of retiring or selling your business, take advice regarding a mutually agreed extended period. This is also a factor in the event of your changing insurers and arranging for acceptance of pre-policy occurrences.

Irrespective whether you are seeking the most economical professional indemnity insurance, it must be of a specialist nature. Therefore, advice and guidance from a qualified and experienced insurance broker is advisable. If you prefer to approach an insurer directly, then determining whether they are a member of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) could be to your advantage.

In any situation involving any form or treatment or service to a client, it is crucial, from an insurance aspect, that detailed records are maintained and the exact degrees of responsibilities are clearly defined.

Find professional indemnity insurance at Specialistrisks

For most newly qualified solicitors, the general rules of practice are known but all the ‘legal’ and ’corporate’ factors are usually dealt with by the firm you work for. Joining a firm means you don’t have to concern yourself about finding premises, insurance and a client list.

If you are however, one of those extremely brave souls that decides to strike out on their own, to hang their brass plaque proudly on the outside of an office, there’s an absolute must for solicitors professional indemnity insurance.

This insurance is not a nice to have – but a requirement. Every solicitor in private practice must take out professional indemnity insurance and maintain it throughout the whole period of practice.

PII is cover for any civil claims that arise due to your work, i.e. professional negligence.

Professional indemnity insurance for solicitors, especially for those in sole practice, provides financial security in the event of a claim. The insurance will pay certain related defence costs and also cover the cost of any compensation awards made against you.

All solicitors should be aware that standard PII covers civil claims and not those brought by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Some insurers will provide cover for defence of and costs for such events, but it will require additional premiums.

Your insurance must also be arranged with a qualifying insurer. Although the Solicitors Regulation Authority does not vet or regulate insurers, your chosen provider must be an ‘authorised insurer’ as defined by the Solicitors Act 1974.

For any newbie, insurance needs to be high on the list of things to do to set up a practice. Find out more and get quotes from Specialistrisks.

What does GAP insurance cover?

There are some misconceptions out there as to what GAP insurance actually covers, but the truth is that it’s designed for one purpose.
This type of coverage will pay you the difference between what you still owe on your car loan, and what your insurance company determines the value of your car to be if it becomes a total loss. That’s what GAP insurance does.
Let’s say your car is involved in an accident and it’s declared a total loss. Your insurance provider determines that the actual cash value (ACV) of your car is $9,100.00. You still owe $11,000.00 on the loan, however. As its name implies, GAP insurance pays you’re the difference between the two figures; in this scenario, $1,900.00.

What is not covered by GAP insurance?

Things not covered under GAP insurance are:
• A rental car while you wait for your car to be repaired
• It will not make a loan payment if you are unable to
• It doesn’t cover the remaining value of your car if it’s repossessed
• It won’t cover any extended warranties you have on your car
• It won’t cover any roll-over amounts you have rolled into the original car loan
• If your car is stolen with the keys left in it
• Damage resulting if you were driving drunk

These are some of the the things GAP insurance doesn’t cover.

The in’s and out’s

If you take all of the above into consideration you can see why in some cases, this coverage is good, and in others it may not be.
For instance, it you still have a substantial amount to pay on your car loan you might want to get GAP insurance. On the other hand, if it’s almost paid off, you might want to drop it.

The best thing to do is read up on what GAP insurance will and won’t cover. This way you know whether to ask about it when you’re calling to get your GAP insurance quote.

If you are still unsure about whether you need specialist buy to let home insurance or not, some of the reasons why it may be a sensible idea include:

• it allows you to protect your biggest investment;
• you may be able to enjoy greater peace of mind;
• it may provide you with cover for unexpected loss of income;
• you may be able to use it to protect the contents of your property.

Essentially, your buy to let property may become an important form of income for you, and it therefore makes sense for you to protect it financially. Standard buildings and contents insurance may not be able to do this for you, and a specialised policy may therefore be essential.

So how exactly should you go about carrying out a detailed landlords insurance review? Some of the steps you may want to consider include:

• start by listing all of the elements of cover that you think you may need from your let property insurance policy. Just get a pencil and paper and list down anything you can think of which may be important. This may include landlords building insurance, cover for malicious damage to your property by tenants, subsidence cover and a range of other types of protection that may be important to you;
• the next stage may be to come up with an idea of the budget that you want to spend on buy to let home insurance. Although you may not want to be too strict with this because in the end you want to find the most suitable policy for your needs with the appropriate level of cover, it is sensible to have a rough idea of what you may want to spend;
• after doing this, start to look through different insurance policies to get a better idea about the types of cover that they may provide;
• you may want to compare the prices of a few let property insurance policies, but just remember that the cover is typically the most important feature and not the price that you pay.

These are all potential steps that you may want to take when you decide to carry out a landlords insurance review, so use it as the basis for your review and hopefully it may help you to find the most appropriate insurance for your needs.

Protection insurance services can be designed around your circumstances, to suit your preferences bases on your job circumstances, and the amount you are willing to pay for the cover. If you are employed in a job that you know is highly secure with a very small chance of you being made redundant in the foreseeable future, you can opt out of redundancy cover. If you are employed in a job which comes with a certain level of risk associated with accident and injury, then opting for accident and sickness cover will be sensible. On the other hand if your job doesn’t, then it makes sense financially not to opt for these levels of protection.

There are three primary forms of personal insurance. Mortgage protection helps you pay your mortgage, and other related expenses such as home insurance whilst out of work, loan insurance provides you money to pay back any debts, and income protection insurance is not debt specific, but helps with general living expenses, or anything else you wish to spend money on.

All in all, personal insurance which protects you from sickness, accidents and unemployment can be a real life saver if bad things happen, and there are plenty of protection insurance services available which offer excellent levels of protection for only a couple of pounds every month. They give you the financial support you need in tough times to help surpass them, and are highly recommended for anyone in employment.

Protection4me is one of the UK’s premier providers of protection insurance services. Get a quote today.

Being able to accurately define your requirements by using the services of a provider of landlords insurance online, prior to making a purchase, may be essential if you are to ensure that you actually get the best let property insurance for you.

No two landlords may have identical properties and their buy to let insurance requirements may be different, so what may be best for them may not be best for you (and vice versa).

Comparing some buy to let quotes online may therefore give you the information you might need to make an informed purchasing decision.

Areas where you may find that different levels of cover are on offer may include:

• provision of loss of rental income compensation if your tenants have to vacate your property because it has been damaged by an insured risk and you have to carry out repairs to make it inhabitable again;
• the level of public liability cover on offer – some policies may be able to offer as much £5m in situations where a court awards damages against you to a member of the public injured as a result of some aspect of your property;
• whether or not events such as subsidence or malicious damage by tenants are covered as standard;
• not all policies may offer cover to categories of tenants such as students or DSS recipients and you may find this to be too restrictive for your letting business.

Checking out the circumstances of when you may need unoccupied property insurance may also be a sensible precaution.

As a landlord, you may understandably be aiming for your property to be occupied by tenants for the maximum period of time. There may be times, however, when this might not be possible. Perhaps:

• you are carrying our renovations or refurbishment on your letting property;
• you  may be having difficulties finding new tenants or they may be delayed in moving in;
• there may be legal issues (divorce, probate etc.) which may be preventing you from letting out your property.

Whatever the reason and irrespective of whether or not this is within your control, you may need to consider unoccupied property cover if the period that your property is unoccupied extends beyond the limits specified by your policy.

This may typically be between 30 to 45 days though if your property has been unoccupied since you took out your buy to let cover, you may have up to 90 days before the cover of even the best let property insurance may cease to provide you with protection.

Type of caravan

• naturally, insurers take into account the particular type, use and purpose of your caravan;
• typically, in other words, insurers might have special categories of insurance based on whether yours is a residential parkhome, a static caravan more or less permanently berthed somewhere, a touring caravan, a trailer tent or folding caravan or even a motorhome;
• in a similar fashion to the insurance classes used by motor insurers, your caravan insurance price might well be determined in the first instance by which of the use categories into which it falls.

Age and value

• the price of insurance for caravan owners is also likely to be influenced by the age and value of the trailer or home;
• if your caravan is new, for example, it is likely to attract a higher valuation than one which is older;
• valuation is important, since this is likely to be the major determinant when the caravan cover provider considers any total loss claim – if your caravan is completely written off during a fire, for example;
• an up to date valuation is important when determining the total sum insured, which in turn might decide the amount of compensation you receive after a total loss and, thus your ability or otherwise to replace the caravan;
• some tourer insurance policies, apply a potentially simpler and more direct policy of replacing your caravan as new after a total loss if you have been the sole owner and it is less than a maximum number of years old (typically three years, but in some cases even older);
• other policies might offer similar compensation, irrespective of the number of previous owners if the caravan is less than, say, three years old;
• it is not only new or nearly new caravans where the replacement value is important;
• in the case of parkhomes and larger static caravans in particular, recent refurbishment or refitting might have added considerable value to your home or investment. Whatever the age of the caravan, you might want to ensure that the increased value is also reflected in the total sum insured.

Claims record

• one of the further critical determinants of your caravan insurance price is likely to be your claims record. Indeed, if you have a history of previous claims, some insurers may have no interest in arranging cover for you. Specialist caravan insurance providers, however, may be able to point you in the direction of those that do.

Insurance has received the full-on treatment from today’s hugely creative ad-men. There does seem to be a huge competitive spirit for each insurance company to find that theme, logo, slogan or jingle that immediately implants in the consciousness of the insurance buying public.

These 30 second bursts of advertising genius are instigated by old-school big-name insurance providers and the slew of comparison sites. Every kind of insurance is being covered, except perhaps marine cargo insurance, and is being represented by animated characters, stuffed cuddly creatures, famous comedians and stars of stage and screen.

The next time you have to buy a new policy or renew an existing one, your choice may well be influenced by what you have seen and heard. Will a Russian Meerkat called Sergei send you in the right direction or maybe you’ve always been a fan of the zany characters Paul Whitehouse brings to life. Perhaps it will be the lure of nectar points and the strains of YMCA that will dictate your choice or a large Italian opera singer with a twirly moustache. The spirit of the British bulldog may embody your company of choice or it could be that you have a passion for green love hearts. You might want to save money on a comparison site that will see you cavorting with gorillas or living it up in Las Vegas or finally, it might be sympathy for the poor insurance salesman confronted with the vagaries of odd members of the insurance buying public. Cake, we’ve got cake!

At the end of the day, all of this is simply there to do one thing and that is to sell you insurance. The reason we don’t see adverts for marine cargo insurance is that members of the public don’t buy it. It is highly unlikely therefore, that we will ever see Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow advertising insurance cover for precious ship cargos. For that you will have to rely on tradition.

Go to boat-quote for marine cargo insurance.

Is it Compulsory?

Technically, public liability insurance for market traders, and most other trades for that matter, is not required by law. However, few businesses decide to forgo public liability insurance because the risks are too great, and an injured member of the public will have no issue with making a legal challenge in this day and age.

Is it Worth It?

Absolutely. For market traders, there are numerous risks which may occur, and all of these are liabilities which could potentially injure a member of the public in some way. For example, the supplier could supply faulty products, a supply box could be left out in the open where a member of the public could trip over it, the stall itself could injure a member of the public in some way, in other words, the liabilities are endless.

What Does Liability Insurance Cover?

Market trader’s public liability insurance can protect you against the following things which may arise from a legal challenge or any injury or illness sustained by a member of the public.

• Any compensation or damages awarded by the courts can be paid out of the public liability insurance itself.
• If a legal claim is made and you lose then the insurance will pay for any and all legal costs involved; this includes your legal costs and the claimant’s legal costs.
• Any loss of earnings which could arise out of the whole incident.
• Any potential lost of future earnings which could arise out of the whole incident.

Where Can I Find the Best Prices?

When it comes to public liability insurance there is no way to give an accurate price because each individual’s situation is different. This is why online comparison sites are a great tool to finding a best deal because it’s easy to enter relevant and accurate information, which will then bring up a selection of potential insurers which can then be investigated further.

Market traders public liability insurance cover is available from Specialist Risks