Term life insurance

There are two main types of life insurance...

Whole-of-life insurance
The older type, such as whole-of-life or endowment insurance, has a mix of insurance and investment. On death, your estate is paid the value of your life cover, together with the value of a number of somewhat confusing 'bonuses', e.g. 'reversionary bonuses' and 'terminal bonuses'. These policies have the advantage that their premiums remain constant for the life of the policy, but they are a costly way to buy life insurance.
Today, few advisers recommend whole-of-life insurance, owing to its lack of flexibility. Costs are sometimes unclear and in some instances may be high - partly because the various components of life insurance, investment, and administration cannot be separated out. As an investment, you cannot easily evaluate a whole-of-life policy, and you also have no control over the investment strategy.
You may also have encountered a variant, called 'endowment insurance'. This is like whole-of-life in many ways, but there is very little life cover, and it matures on a fixed date. It was very popular up to the 1970s and 1980s as one of the few long-term savings options available to New Zealanders.
However, in recent years, the growing number of flexible, low-cost personal superannuation products have become the preferred alternative.
If you already have a whole-of-life or endowment life insurance policy, depending on how long you have had the life insurance, you may be better off retaining it in some form. You should discuss this with your financial adviser or life agent.

Term
The other main type of life insurance is called 'term' or 'temporary' life insurance. It has no cash value, and remains in effect only for as long as you continue to pay the premiums - this is why it is called 'temporary.'
Because there is no investment component (only death cover), these policies also tend to be cheaper. However, you will pay more each year as you get older, and men may also pay more than women, as they are more likely to die younger. There is also a 'deadline' age, after which the policy can no longer be renewed.
There are many variations of this type of insurance available, so it pays to talk to an insurance expert about which is right for you.
Because you are covered only for as long as you pay the premiums, it is very important that you do so. If you forget, and lose your cover, you may not be able to get it back - or only if you pay a substantially higher premium. This is because the life insurance company will want to assess whether you are now a higher risk before reinsuring you: if they think this is the case, they may require you to undergo some tests.

How much cover do you need?
Insurance brokers have their own systems to help work this out, and the basic process is really quite simple. The first stage is to establish what lump sum you would like your survivors to receive. This is likely to be a function of many things, e.g. are there debts and mortgages you would like repaid? what about funeral costs and estate settlement costs?
Ask yourself if you want an investment pool available to generate income for a surviving spouse or partner - and, if so, how large should it be? In general, this can be worked out by estimating household expenditure, then subtracting the level of income you expect the surviving spouse to be able to earn. A good rule of thumb is to assume that your spouse or partner will need 75% of the combined income you were receiving prior to your death.
Also, how long would your spouse or partner need the money to last? Adding these two amounts gives you the total lump sum that needs to be available on your death. Next, what assets will be available that could be cashed in? These could be term deposits or other readily saleable assets. The difference between these two amounts is the amount that needs to be funded by life insurance.

Cancelling policies
If you have an life insurance policy and wish to cancel it so you can take out another policy, there is one golden rule to remember - do not cancel until you have a replacement in place!
This is because your health may have changed for the worse since you took out the original policy, which may make it more expensive, difficult or even impossible to obtain replacement cover. If this were the case, and you had retained the old life insurance policy, you could always go back to it - but it's too late once you've cancelled!
You should also get a financial adviser or broker to look at the net benefits of any change. These may not make the change worthwhile. For example, if you have had a whole-of-life policy for some years, you may be better off having it 'converted' to an endowment policy. This is generally because you will have paid most of the costs in the first few years.

Note: the comments in this article are general in nature, and should be treated merely as a guide. They should not be relied on in making financial judgments. The advice of a professional should always be sought.

Source : http://www.inform.co.nz/term-life-insurance/

Read More....

Trauma insurance on New Zealand

Hearing that you have a major health problem like cancer, or experiencing a sudden event like a stroke are two of the hardest things that a person can face. And that’s before the financial problems enter the picture. Trauma insurance can be used in these situations to lift the financial burden – meaning you can focus on getting better.

Do you need trauma insurance?
The one thing that trauma insurance provides is choice. If you have a lump sum of money available you can make choices – do you pay off the mortgage, make alterations to your home, take a long holiday? Trauma insurance can help reduce the financial shock of a major health problem, which will help you get back on your feet.

How do you choose the right trauma insurance plan?
If getting quality, affordable NZ trauma insurance is your aim there are some things to know.

Choose the right trauma insurance plan
This insurance goes by lots of names - some insurers call it "trauma" insurance, others "living assurance", "critical condition" or "serious care" (to keep things simple, we just call it "trauma" insurance). To make things more confusing you can also insure yourself against becoming totally and permanently disabled (TPD) - and some companies offer this as an optional add-on to their Trauma plan, others as a stand alone plan.

What does trauma insurance do?
With this type of insurance you can choose a lump sum that will be paid to you if you suffer certain major health problems - such as cancer, heart attack, paralysis, major burns, and so on. The actual health problems are listed by each plan – the number of conditions and how each is defined will depend on the plan.

What does TPD insurance do?
With this type of insurance you can choose a lump sum that will be paid to you in the event that you're unable to ever work again - totally and permanently disabled.

Do you need it?
Trauma insurance was actually developed with the help of a pioneering cardiac surgeon. He realised that while modern medicine can work wonders, his patients were experiencing major financial hardship after suffering health problems (“curing a person physically and killing them financially” is apparently how he put it…). The upshot is that advances in modern medicine mean you're very likely to live a long life after suffering a major health problem – but the financial problems that this can cause are huge.
The kind of life changing health events we're looking at can be sudden and will certainly have an impact on the way you (or you and your family) live. Although it's hard to say exactly what costs you might face, or exactly how much they'd be - it's important to consider the financial "what-ifs".
A couple of the most common reasons people have for getting trauma and TPD cover are to take care of debt, to provide for family and to cover readjustment costs (like home alterations etc), but the actual amount of cover that's right for you (or whether you need it at all) will come down to your circumstances. This is not an exact science – there's no magic formula for choosing the 'right' amount of trauma insurance - and the right amount of cover is important to discuss with your adviser.


Here you’ll find a run-down on NZ income protection insurance, FAQs, tips, and more. Or, if you're ready, you can receive tailored income protection quotes & advice.

Do you need income protection insurance?
Along with your health, your ability to earn an income is probably the most important asset you have right now. What would you do if a serious illness or accident stopped you from working for the next couple of years - or longer? How long would you last if you were unable to work, and who would this affect?

How do you choose the right income protection insurance plan?
If getting quality, affordable NZ income protection insurance is your aim there are some rules to follow (and some traps to avoid).

Choose the right income protection plan
It won’t be news to you that your ability to earn an income is crucial, and for this reason income protection insurance is often the most important insurance that a person can have (along with health insurance it's the most likely 'personal' insurance that you'd need to make a claim on).

Consider these questions...
- How dependent on your income are you?
- Do you have sources of income other than your job?
- Who would support you if you couldn’t work?
- What would be the financial impact of this?
- Is anyone else dependent on your income?

Income protection can help you answer these questions with confidence. When you set up your plan you’ll have a number of options – we’ll look at these below.

How much to protect?
The first thing to consider is how much of your income you’ll need to protect. This is the amount paid if you need to make a claim, and you can choose this percentage when the policy is set up. Usually this will be a maximum of either 55% or 75% of your before tax income.

Why 55% or 75%? In brief,
the difference comes down to the kind of plan that is used – if you make a claim the 75% option pays a sum that is designed to be taxed, while the 55% payment is not designed to be taxed. In much the same way, the premiums for the 75% option are intended to be tax deductible, while the 55% premiums are not. Which is better will depend on your situation – and your adviser can outline the differences and make a recommendation for you.

How long to wait?
Your income protection insurance payments won't start until after your ‘waiting period’ (also called a no pay period). You can choose the waiting period (though there is often a minimum of 1 month). A plan with a waiting period of 1 month will have much higher premiums than a plan with a waiting period of 3 months.

If you have savings that you could rely on if you were unable to work, or have extensive sick leave, then you might be able to extend your waiting period - lowering your premium. Also if you’re in a two income household then this will also have an impact on how long your waiting period needs to be.

Don’t forget that while a longer waiting period will save you money, it’s important to be realistic – a waiting period that is too long can lead to major financial problems if you can’t get by during that time without an income.

What length of cover?
You will usually have a choice of how long your benefit (the money paid if you need to make a claim) will be paid for - there's often a choice of 2 years, 5 years, or till age 65. Simply put, if you choose a pay period of 5 years, and need to make a claim, you will receive payments for 5 years. After that the payments will stop - regardless of whether you're able to work or not. If you selected the "until 65" pay period, your payments would continue (as long as you're disabled of course) until you're 65.

Which plan to choose?
Choosing the right income protection plan requires a certain level of expertise and experience. For example if you're self-employed with a fluctuating income the type of plan that suits you will probably be quite different from the plan that suits an employed person with a steady income.
Also, make sure you understand what your plan does and doesn't do. Different policies have different definitions (or policy wordings). For example, policies A and B might have quite different definitions of "disability" or "pre-disability income" - which could mean that plan A is harder to claim on than plan B. So keep in mind that premiums will vary depending on the quality of the plans you're looking at. Is a plan you're looking at only cheaper because it's harder to make a claim? It’s worth paying an extra couple of dollars a month to make sure you have cover that gives you decent protection. Your adviser can easily outline the important differences between plans.

Why Its Needed ?
Income protection - protect your largest asset
Is it your home? Perhaps a business? Surprisingly, in the majority of cases it will be your ability to earn an income.

Our income is our greatest asset, yet we often take it for granted. Given the likelihood that illness or injury can strike at any time, this is not a prudent attitude. While ACC will cover a large number of injury claims, it is increasingly limited in its extent, and will not cover sickness.

It makes sense to ensure that you are insured in exactly the same way you would insure any other asset. This type of insurance is called ‘income insurance’. It pays you a regular income in the event of sickness or accident, generally as a percentage of salary.

Surprisingly few working New Zealanders insure their income in any form. Historically, we have relied on ACC, together with the mistaken belief that a serious or prolonged illness will never strike us. Obviously, this is not the case, yet for some reason, we don’t view our income-earning ability as an asset – possibly because we have always been educated to view assets as ‘things’.

As an example, imagine you earn $60,000 per annum. Over a ten-year period, you will generate $600,000 before tax. If you ask yourself the question, “would I insure an asset worth $600,000?” the answer is almost certainly going to be “yes”.

In a nutshell…

Income insurance comes in a number of forms, and can also be called ‘disability insurance’, ‘salary continuance’, ‘sickness and accident’ or ‘income protection’. Despite the different names, they all share a number of features in common.

As with other types of insurance, you pay a regular premium. In return, if you are off work through injury or illness, the insurance company will pay you a regular income until you are able to resume work. If you are only able to take up part-time work, many policies will pay you a ‘partial’ benefit.

However, you cannot ‘double-dip’ by claiming on two policies. In addition, benefits may be reduced if you receive other insurance or compensation, such as ACC.

Policies vary!
The two main types of policy are ‘sickness and accident’ and ‘income protection’.
Sickness and accident policies are the more restrictive. They will pay out only for a maximum of two years, and are usually cancellable by the insurer. Premiums are not tax deductible: however, as a result, any benefit is not taxable.

Income protection policies, on the other hand, are generally guaranteed to be renewable and non-cancellable. They also have longer benefit periods available – up to 65 years of age. However, the premiums are generally much more expensive.

When comparing policies, it’s important to understand clearly on what grounds any payment will be made. Income policies can cause considerable confusion as to exactly what is covered, what is classed as ‘disability’, and when you would be expected to return to work. Some policies will pay you until you resume your normal occupation. Others, require you to take up any occupation for which you are reasonably suited by education, experience or training. Therefore, you could be required to take a job paying less, and not even in a field you necessarily enjoy or want to work in.

Generally, any payment will be limited to 75% of your pre-disability salary. This is to prevent what insurance companies call ‘malingering’.

Spoiled for choice
Income insurance can be confusing because of all the options available...
- How much do you want to be paid?
- How long do you want to wait between suffering the illness or accident and when your income payments commence? (This can make a big difference to your premiums)
- How long would you like any benefit to last?
- Do you want to receive a partial benefit if you make a partial recovery?

Furthermore, even if two people choose exactly the same waiting period, benefit period and amount of benefit, one policy may still pay more than another. The biggest determinant is your occupation. Generally, all jobs are grouped into four main occupational classes, and it’s not difficult to see why a truck driver would pay higher premiums than an office worker.

Your gender will also have an influence. Women pay more than men, reflecting the trends that show they make more claims. This is quite the opposite of life insurance, where men pay more than women because they have a greater chance of dying earlier.

Finally, most policies have a few additional features that you can ‘add on’ – for a cost. You may choose to have premiums waived should you be receiving a benefit, you can have the level of cover indexed to inflation, and you can have the amount of any benefit increased each year in line with inflation.

Visit : http://www.inform.co.nz/trauma-insurance-advice/

Read More....

Mortgage insurance on New Zealand

Who would pay your mortgage if you suddenly passed away? Or what if you were unable to work due to sickness or accident?

Do you need mortgage insurance?
A mortgage is a major financial step, and part of this step is making sure that your home is protected even if life throws an unexpected twist (like illness or death) your way. Mortgage insurance is one way to make sure your home stays in your or your family’s hands – and doesn’t go back to the bank.

How do you choose the right mortgage insurance plan?
If getting quality, affordable NZ mortgage insurance is your aim there are some rules to follow (and some traps to avoid).

Choose the right mortgage insurance plan
If your mortgage isn’t covered by insurance, or if you’re planning to take out a mortgage in the near future, have a think about the following questions:
- If you died, would you leave behind enough resources to pay off your mortgage?
- Would you have enough money to meet your mortgage repayments if serious illness stopped you from working?
- If you answered no to either of these questions, have you thought about how your family would repay your mortgage if you die, or if your health lets you down?

How does mortgage insurance work?
Most mortgage insurance packages offer a range of different options. You can choose the mix that best suits your needs and your budget. There are basically 3 types of cover:
1. Life Cover – which pays off your mortgage if an insured person dies or is terminally ill.
2. Mortgage Repayment Protection – this pays your regular mortgage repayments if the insured person is not able to work due to sickness or injury for longer than 4 weeks.
3. Trauma Cover – this pays a lump sum (usually either all or part of the mortgage) if the insured person suffers a Trauma condition (like life threatening cancer, paralysis, stroke, etc).

Is mortgage insurance the right option for you?
Mortgage Life Cover and Repayment Protection, aren’t dissimilar to ‘normal’ life insurance and income protection. Price wise (for equal levels of cover) they are usually pretty much the same. However, the biggest difference is that mortgage insurance options aren’t as flexible – the levels of insurance tend to be based very closely on your mortgage (for example the ongoing repayments insurance will usually equal your regular repayments, and the life insurance component will usually equal your outstanding mortgage balance). Also, in many cases the money paid if you claim will go directly to your lender. For some people, this has a couple of downsides:
- You or your family have less choice about what the money is used for.
- It can cover your mortgage, but can’t be used for any other purpose (e.g. pay off other debts, provide a ‘replacement’ income, cover funeral costs, and so on).
If your only concern is your mortgage, then mortgage insurance can be a great option. If, in addition to your mortgage, you have dependents and other financial responsibilities, you should consider ‘normal’ life insurance and income protection. Or get your adviser to outlines the pros and cons of both - and then choose.

Visit : http://www.inform.co.nz/mortgage-insurance/

Read More....

Life insurance on New Zealand

Do you need life insurance?
Life insurance is really simple - it's only important if your death is going to impact on someone else financially. If your death isn't going to impact on anyone financially you probably don't need life insurance.

If you're still reading, then you probably share one of these common reasons for having life insurance...
- You have debt, and don't want to leave this burden on your family.
- You have a family who is dependant on you; in the event of your death you want to provide for their living costs, education, and so on until they are able to provide for themselves.
- You don't want to leave funeral costs to family members.

How do you choose the right life insurance plan?
If getting quality, affordable NZ life insurance is your aim there are some rules to follow (and some traps to avoid).

Choose the right life insurance plan
Choosing life insurance is really about getting three things right – the amount of insurance (the lump sum that you choose to insure); the type of plan (e.g. should your premiums be ‘stepped’ or ‘level’? Should your plan pay out only on death – or if you suffer a serious health problem as well?); and the right insurer (you need a stable insurer that’s well priced and offers you as much flexibility as possible). We’ll look at each of these points:

How much to get? Choosing the right level of cover is important. Too much insurance is a waste of money, but too little can leave the people you care about in hot water. Think about these points:

- Your current debts (mortgage, loans, hire purchases, etc) – for most people clearing these is a priority.
- Your dependents (children, spouse, relatives) – if you suddenly died, what would happen to them? Will they need a replacement income to make up for yours? If so, how much will be needed and for how many years? Also, don’t forget costs like childcare – if your partner decides to return to work, how would childcare be paid for?
- Other costs – for example would providing an education fund be a priority for you? Or would you need to leave an additional amount of money to help your partner with their retirement savings?

The exact amount of insurance that's right for you will depend on your circumstances – make sure you discuss the points above with your partner or family (and remember your Inform adviser is here to help with this too).

What kind of plan to get? You’ll have a number of choices when setting up your plan. One will be whether to have a 'stepped' or 'level' premium. The difference is straightforward: ‘stepped’ premiums increase with age, while ‘level’ premiums don’t. Level premiums do start out higher than stepped premiums, but because they don't increase with age can be a very smart long term choice. Stepped premiums can be deceptive. They look cheap, but because they increase in price every year they do become expensive over time. Your Inform adviser can show you the exact differences, but as a rule of thumb, if you’re planning to have the insurance for longer than 8-10 years then make sure you find out about level premiums – you could save yourself a lot of money in the long term.

What if I don’t die, but become ill or disabled? These days a good life insurance plan will offer an option so that you can have all or part of your life insurance paid out if you suffer a serious health problem (like cancer, stroke, or heart disease). This will cost more, but is a wise thing to consider. The reason? A major health problem can have a financial impact even greater than death (think about what would happen if you were too ill to work – not only is your income gone, but suddenly your family has to support you too). It’s also statistically far, far more likely that you’ll suffer a major health problem than suddenly ‘drop dead’ (according to the NZ Health Information Service only 3% of deaths in NZ are classed as ‘sudden’. Most follow a long period of illness, and so financial problems can start early).

Which insurer should I choose? As you’ll know there are a ton of life insurance companies out there. Your insurer needs to be financially stable, reputable, and competitively priced of course. It’s a real advantage to have options like level premiums and early payment for major health problems available (even if you choose not to use these options now, you might at some point in the future). It’s also important for your plan to be flexible – many insurers offer (at no extra cost) the ability to increase your insured amounts if you experience certain life events like having a child, increasing your mortgage, getting a new job, etc. Discuss this with your adviser and make sure your insurer offers you more than just a payment if you die.

What about 'whole of life' life insurance? This is basically life insurance with an investment component - kind of like having a life insurance and a savings plan wrapped into one. The premiums for this are huge; part of them going to pay for the insurance and part building up as savings. The idea is that your life insurance builds up value over time - if you don't make a claim you have savings that you can access. There are some cases where this kind of insurance is worth having, they really are very, very rare. So usually our advice would be to keep your investments and insurance separate - there are much better places to put your money.

Read More....

Income Protection Insurance on New Zealand

Do you need Income rotection insurance?
Along with your health, your ability to earn an income is probably the most important asset you have right now. What would you do if a serious illness or accident stopped you from working for the next couple of years - or longer? How long would you last if you were unable to work, and who would this affect?

How do you choose the right income protection insurance plan ?
If getting quality, affordable NZ income protection insurance is your aim there are some rules to follow (and some traps to avoid).

Choose the right income protection plan
It won’t be news to you that your ability to earn an income is crucial, and for this reason income protection insurance is often the most important insurance that a person can have (along with health insurance it's the most likely 'personal' insurance that you'd need to make a claim on).

Consider these questions...
- How dependent on your income are you?
- Do you have sources of income other than your job?
- Who would support you if you couldn’t work?
- What would be the financial impact of this?
- Is anyone else dependent on your income?

Income protection can help you answer these questions with confidence. When you set up your plan you’ll have a number of options – we’ll look at these below.

How much to protect?
The first thing to consider is how much of your income you’ll need to protect. This is the amount paid if you need to make a claim, and you can choose this percentage when the policy is set up. Usually this will be a maximum of either 55% or 75% of your before tax income.

Why 55% or 75%? In brief,
the difference comes down to the kind of plan that is used – if you make a claim the 75% option pays a sum that is designed to be taxed, while the 55% payment is not designed to be taxed. In much the same way, the premiums for the 75% option are intended to be tax deductible, while the 55% premiums are not. Which is better will depend on your situation – and your adviser can outline the differences and make a recommendation for you.

How long to wait?
Your income protection insurance payments won't start until after your ‘waiting period’ (also called a no pay period). You can choose the waiting period (though there is often a minimum of 1 month). A plan with a waiting period of 1 month will have much higher premiums than a plan with a waiting period of 3 months.

If you have savings that you could rely on if you were unable to work, or have extensive sick leave, then you might be able to extend your waiting period - lowering your premium. Also if you’re in a two income household then this will also have an impact on how long your waiting period needs to be.

Don’t forget that while a longer waiting period will save you money, it’s important to be realistic – a waiting period that is too long can lead to major financial problems if you can’t get by during that time without an income.

What length of cover?
You will usually have a choice of how long your benefit (the money paid if you need to make a claim) will be paid for - there's often a choice of 2 years, 5 years, or till age 65. Simply put, if you choose a pay period of 5 years, and need to make a claim, you will receive payments for 5 years. After that the payments will stop - regardless of whether you're able to work or not. If you selected the "until 65" pay period, your payments would continue (as long as you're disabled of course) until you're 65.

Which plan to choose?
Choosing the right income protection plan requires a certain level of expertise and experience. For example if you're self-employed with a fluctuating income the type of plan that suits you will probably be quite different from the plan that suits an employed person with a steady income.
Also, make sure you understand what your plan does and doesn't do. Different policies have different definitions (or policy wordings). For example, policies A and B might have quite different definitions of "disability" or "pre-disability income" - which could mean that plan A is harder to claim on than plan B. So keep in mind that premiums will vary depending on the quality of the plans you're looking at. Is a plan you're looking at only cheaper because it's harder to make a claim? It’s worth paying an extra couple of dollars a month to make sure you have cover that gives you decent protection. Your adviser can easily outline the important differences between plans.

Why Its Needed ? Because it protect your largest asset
Is it your home? Perhaps a business? Surprisingly, in the majority of cases it will be your ability to earn an income.
Our income is our greatest asset, yet we often take it for granted. Given the likelihood that illness or injury can strike at any time, this is not a prudent attitude. While ACC will cover a large number of injury claims, it is increasingly limited in its extent, and will not cover sickness.
It makes sense to ensure that you are insured in exactly the same way you would insure any other asset. This type of insurance is called ‘income insurance’. It pays you a regular income in the event of sickness or accident, generally as a percentage of salary.
Surprisingly few working New Zealanders insure their income in any form. Historically, we have relied on ACC, together with the mistaken belief that a serious or prolonged illness will never strike us. Obviously, this is not the case, yet for some reason, we don’t view our income-earning ability as an asset – possibly because we have always been educated to view assets as ‘things’.
As an example, imagine you earn $60,000 per annum. Over a ten-year period, you will generate $600,000 before tax. If you ask yourself the question, “would I insure an asset worth $600,000?” the answer is almost certainly going to be “yes”.

In a nutshell…
Income insurance comes in a number of forms, and can also be called ‘disability insurance’, ‘salary continuance’, ‘sickness and accident’ or ‘income protection’. Despite the different names, they all share a number of features in common.
As with other types of insurance, you pay a regular premium. In return, if you are off work through injury or illness, the insurance company will pay you a regular income until you are able to resume work. If you are only able to take up part-time work, many policies will pay you a ‘partial’ benefit.
However, you cannot ‘double-dip’ by claiming on two policies. In addition, benefits may be reduced if you receive other insurance or compensation, such as ACC.

Policies vary!
The two main types of policy are ‘sickness and accident’ and ‘income protection’.
Sickness and accident policies are the more restrictive. They will pay out only for a maximum of two years, and are usually cancellable by the insurer. Premiums are not tax deductible: however, as a result, any benefit is not taxable.
Income protection policies, on the other hand, are generally guaranteed to be renewable and non-cancellable. They also have longer benefit periods available – up to 65 years of age. However, the premiums are generally much more expensive.
When comparing policies, it’s important to understand clearly on what grounds any payment will be made. Income policies can cause considerable confusion as to exactly what is covered, what is classed as ‘disability’, and when you would be expected to return to work. Some policies will pay you until you resume your normal occupation. Others, require you to take up any occupation for which you are reasonably suited by education, experience or training. Therefore, you could be required to take a job paying less, and not even in a field you necessarily enjoy or want to work in.
Generally, any payment will be limited to 75% of your pre-disability salary. This is to prevent what insurance companies call ‘malingering’.

Spoiled for choice
Income insurance can be confusing because of all the options available...
- How much do you want to be paid?
- How long do you want to wait between suffering the illness or accident and when your income payments commence? (This can make a big difference to your premiums)
- How long would you like any benefit to last?
- Do you want to receive a partial benefit if you make a partial recovery?

Furthermore, even if two people choose exactly the same waiting period, benefit period and amount of benefit, one policy may still pay more than another. The biggest determinant is your occupation. Generally, all jobs are grouped into four main occupational classes, and it’s not difficult to see why a truck driver would pay higher premiums than an office worker.
Your gender will also have an influence. Women pay more than men, reflecting the trends that show they make more claims. This is quite the opposite of life insurance, where men pay more than women because they have a greater chance of dying earlier.
Finally, most policies have a few additional features that you can ‘add on’ – for a cost. You may choose to have premiums waived should you be receiving a benefit, you can have the level of cover indexed to inflation, and you can have the amount of any benefit increased each year in line with inflation.

Read More....

Health insurance on New Zealand

A major health problem can put your life on hold. To get back to living you need to get quality advice and treatment – and you need to get it quickly.

Health insurance on New Zealand
As you’ll know, NZ’s public health system still provides good services for emergency situations (like a car crash) but for other health problems - even very serious ones, like cancer treatment – you can spend months or even years on a waiting list. If you have health insurance you won’t need to wait; you can access high quality treatment quickly and focus on getting better.

How do you choose the right health insurance plan?
If getting quality, affordable NZ health insurance is your aim there are some rules to follow (and some traps to avoid).

Choose the right health insurance plan
Making the right health insurance choice is not always easy, and it’s not a matter of just comparing premiums and brochures. Your Inform adviser can explain the finer points of the different plans on the market - but to get you started, here's a look at health insurance ‘must haves’ that you need to know about.

Get major medical health insurance.
The first thing your health insurance plan must do is pay for 100% of the cost of treatment in hospital. These days private hospitalisation costs can be huge (easily many tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes even more). Your plan needs to offer 100% cover for these. If it doesn’t, then keep looking.

But there’s a bit more to it
Your health insurance also needs to cover non-surgical hospitalisation (cancer treatment like chemotherapy for example), and it needs to cover it well. It’s a little known fact that most health insurance plans on the market don’t cover this area adequately - so you need to check this point carefully.

Don’t forget specialists and tests.
Some health insurance plans will also pay for test and specialist costs that occur before and after your hospital treatment. These usually cost less than hospital treatment, but they can certainly add up, so your health insurance needs to pay for these as well.

What about cover for GPs, dental costs, etc?
There are two traps here. First of all, many health insurance plans do cover these expenses, but don’t properly cover the costs that really matter: hospital costs (this is kind of like insuring your car against getting a scratch, but not against a major crash). It means that if you face really expensive treatment, your health insurance is next to useless.
The other trap? Some good major medical plans do include optional add-ons for the smaller costs, however these will easily double the cost of your health insurance. And once you read the fine print you’ll pretty quickly see that the cost of the insurance is more than you could usually possibly claim (to give a simplified example you might be paying $500 a year, but can only claim $450). So these add-ons just don’t make sense.

Watch out for limits and maximums.
Broadly speaking, plans can cover your costs in two ways. One is to give a long list of various medical treatments and procedures and assign each one a dollar value (for example: Surgeons fee - $6000 per operation, Laparoscopic disposables - $4500 per operation). The dollar value is the maximum that the plan will pay. The other option is to give a total amount that the plan will pay (for example: Surgery - $250 000 per annum). Because future medical costs are so hard to predict, we feel that our clients have better protection with the second option.

What about pre-existing conditions?
A pre-existing condition is basically a health issue that you know about (or suspect), that occurred before you start your health insurance. NZ health insurance plans are usually not designed to cover pre-existing or recent health problems, so treatment relating to the pre-existing condition will usually be excluded from your health insurance (this means that the plan won’t pay for costs relating to this issue). Some pre-existing issues will be permanently excluded from the health insurance, while others can sometimes be covered after a period of time. Or the insurer might charge a higher premium to cover the issue. There is a lot of variation here, so while it’s always personal, it’s important to discuss pre-existing or recent health issues with your adviser – as this might have a big impact on the health insurer that’s right for you.

When is the right time to get health insurance?
Are you young and relatively healthy? Then you may think you don't need health insurance - in fact this is the time you ought to be looking into it. Why? It's all about your future insurability. If you suffer a sickness or an injury before getting covered, that condition can be permanently excluded from your health cover for the rest of your life.

How do you make sure your claim will be paid?
This is not as simple as choosing the ‘right’ insurer, in fact it’s more about choosing the right adviser. Your adviser can make sure you give the correct info when applying for the insurance (reducing the risk of accidentally leaving off important health details). They will help you select an insurer that they know pays claims fairly and quickly (advisers see the insurers’ claims processes every day, so know which insurers are fair and which aren’t).

Also, your adviser will help you with making a claim. They’ll give advice on the best way to complete the claim paperwork, they’ll liaise with your medical specialists if need be, and they’ll be in communication with your insurer. Basically they’ll be on your side, and working on your behalf.
More on health insurance options
Consider an excess. The excess is the part of the medical bill that you pay (for example if your medical bill is $10 000 and your excess is $250, your insurer will pay $9 750 and you pay $250). Most plans will offer a wide range of excess options (the higher your excess the lower your premiums will be). This gives you more control over what you'll pay for your health cover
What is the additional 'Specialists & Tests' option? Many good plans offer this add-on, and the way it works is pretty straight-forward. Most good health insurance plans will pay for specialist consultations and test costs that occur before and after your hospital treatment. However if hospitalisation is not needed, the cost wouldn’t usually be covered. Some plans also give an option so that visits to specialists and recommended tests are always covered - whether or not they relate to hospital treatment. This is often referred to as the 'Specialists and Tests' option.
What about all the other optional extras – chiropractors, alternative treatment, and so on? First of all, choose a health plan on the strength of how it performs in the must-have areas above, not on the number of bells and whistles it has, otherwise you run the risk of choosing a health insurance plan that will leave you high and dry if you face a large hospital bill. For the smaller costs, an idea that works for our clients is to start your own ‘health fund’ (which can be just an interest bearing bank account). Pop a bit of money into this regularly and dip into it for your smaller medical expenses. The best part? If you don’t use that money it’ll be yours -not the insurance company’s!

Source : http://www.inform.co.nz/health-insurance/

Read More....

Steps to Build a Warehouse in Indonesia

Steps to Build a Warehouse in Indonesia requires 14 procedures, approximately takes 160 days, and costs 173.27 % GNI per capita to build a warehouse in Indonesia.

Bellow Step to Complete Build a warehouse in Indonesia :

1. Request Pre-approval letter from Zoning Department
Time : 1 day
Cost : IDR 1,482,000

2. Receive inspection from Zoning Department
Time : 1 day
Cost : no charge

3. Obtain Pre-approval letter from Zoning Department
Time : 20 days
Cost : no charge

4. Request and obtain notarized copy of Land Ownership certificate *
Time : 1 day
Cost : IDR 25,000

5. Request and obtain the preparation of the Environmental Management Plan (UKL) and Environmental Monitoring Plan (UPL)
Time : 8 days
Cost : IDR 15,000,000

6. Request and obtain the approval for the Environmental Management Plan (UKL) and Environmental Monitoring Plan (UPL)
Time : 10 days
Cost : no charge

7. Request and obtain building construction permit (IMB)
Time : 21 days
Cost : IDR 9,104,200

8. Request and obtain the building completion and compliance minutes
Time : 28 days
Cost : IDR 62,500

9. Obtain building usage permit (IPB)
Time : 49 days
Cost : no charge

10. Register with land and building tax office
Time : 11 days
Cost : no charge

11. Register the warehouse with the regional office of the ministry of industry and trade
Time : 9 days
Cost : IDR 100,000

12. Obtain electricity connection *
Time : 8 days
Cost : IDR 12,500,000

13. Obtain water and sewerage connection *
Time : 8 days
Cost : IDR 2,000,000

14. Obtain phone connection *
Time : 4 days
Cost : IDR 500,000

*It takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

Read More....

World Rank Tax Profit

The taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures of administrative burden in paying taxes.
The country data appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in December 2009. The total tax rate measures the amount of taxes and mandatory contributions payable by the business in the second year of operation, expressed as a share of commercial profits.
Rank Tax Profit rate show on table bellow :

No.	Country	tax rate (% profit)
1.	Congo, Dem. Rep.	339.7
2.	Gambia, the	292.3
3.	Sierra Leone	235.6
4.	Comoros	217.9
5.	Central African Republic	203.8
6.	Burundi	153.4
7.	Argentina	108.2
8.	Uzbekistan	95.6
9.	Tajikistan	86.0
10.	Eritrea	84.5
11.	Belarus	80.4
12.	Bolivia	80.0
13.	Colombia	78.7
14.	Palau	73.0
15.	Algeria	72.0
16.	Brazil	69.0
17.	Italy	68.6
18.	Mauritania	68.4
19.	Puerto Rico	67.7
20.	Benin	66.0
21.	France	65.8
22.	Congo, Rep.	65.5
23.	Chad	65.4
24.	Marshall Islands	64.9
25.	Sri Lanka	64.7
26.	China	63.5
27.	India	63.3
28.	Nicaragua	63.2
29.	Tunisia	62.8
30.	Equatorial Guinea	59.5
31.	Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	58.7
32.	Kyrgyz Republic	57.2
33.	Belgium	57.0
34.	Spain	56.5
35.	Austria	55.5
36.	Ukraine	55.5
37.	Costa Rica	55.0
38.	Guinea	54.6
39.	Sweden	54.6
40.	Hungary	53.3
41.	Angola	53.2
42.	St. Kitts and Nevis	52.7
43.	Venezuela, R.B.	52.6
44.	Mali	52.2
45.	Togo	50.8
46.	Mexico	50.5
47.	Jamaica	50.1
48.	Panama	50.1
49.	Kenya	49.7
50.	Estonia	49.6
51.	Cameroon	49.1
52.	Czech Republic	48.8
53.	Slovak Republic	48.7
54.	Japan	48.6
55.	Honduras	48.3
56.	Germany	48.2
57.	Australia	47.9
58.	Yemen, Rep.	47.8
59.	Greece	47.2
60.	United States	46.8
61.	Niger	46.5
62.	Russian Federation	46.5
63.	Bahamas, the	46.1
64.	Senegal	46.0
65.	Guinea-Bissau	45.9
66.	Philippines	45.8
67.	Grenada	45.3
68.	Tanzania	45.2
69.	Burkina Faso	44.9
70.	Romania	44.9
71.	Finland	44.6
72.	Turkey	44.5
73.	Côte d'Ivoire	44.4
74.	Iran, Islamic Rep.	44.1
75.	Seychelles	44.1
76.	Liberia	43.7
77.	Gabon	43.5
78.	Portugal	43.3
79.	Syrian Arab Republic	42.9
80.	Egypt, Arab Rep.	42.6
81.	Papua New Guinea	42.3
82.	Poland	42.3
83.	Uruguay	42.0
84.	Taiwan, China	41.9
85.	Morocco	41.7
86.	Norway	41.6
87.	Antigua and Barbuda	41.5
88.	Azerbaijan	40.9
89.	Guatemala	40.9
90.	Armenia	40.7
91.	Dominican Republic	40.7
92.	Albania	40.6
93.	Bhutan	40.6
94.	Netherlands	40.5
95.	Zimbabwe	40.3
96.	Peru	40.2
97.	Haiti	40.1
98.	Fiji	39.3
99.	Guyana	38.9
100.	Djibouti	38.7
101.	Lithuania	38.7
102.	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	38.7
103.	Latvia	38.5
104.	Nepal	38.2
105.	Madagascar	37.7
106.	Thailand	37.4
107.	Indonesia	37.3
108.	United Kingdom	37.3
109.	Cape Verde	37.1
110.	Dominica	37.0
111.	Swaziland	36.8
112.	Afghanistan	36.4
113.	Solomon Islands	36.4
114.	Sudan	36.1
115.	Uganda	35.7
116.	Slovenia	35.4
117.	Ecuador	35.3
118.	Bangladesh	35.0
119.	El Salvador	35.0
120.	Paraguay	35.0
121.	Mozambique	34.3
122.	New Zealand	34.3
123.	Serbia	34.0
124.	St. Lucia	34.0
125.	Lao PDR	33.7
126.	Malaysia	33.7
127.	São Tomé and Principe	33.3
128.	Belize	33.2
129.	Trinidad and Tobago	33.1
130.	Vietnam	33.1
131.	Ghana	32.7
132.	Croatia	32.5
133.	Nigeria	32.2
134.	Kiribati	31.8
135.	Israel	31.7
136.	Pakistan	31.6
137.	Rwanda	31.3
138.	Jordan	31.2
139.	Ethiopia	31.1
140.	Moldova	30.9
141.	South Africa	30.5
142.	Lebanon	30.2
143.	Switzerland	30.1
144.	Brunei Darussalam	29.8
145.	Korea, Rep.	29.8
146.	Kazakhstan	29.6
147.	Canada	29.2
148.	Denmark	29.2
149.	Bulgaria	29.0
150.	Iraq	28.4
151.	Suriname	27.9
152.	Iceland	26.8
153.	Montenegro	26.6
154.	Ireland	26.5
155.	Tonga	25.5
156.	Singapore	25.4
157.	Malawi	25.1
158.	Chile	25.0
159.	Hong Kong SAR, China	24.1
160.	Mauritius	24.1
161.	Cyprus	23.2
162.	Bosnia and Herzegovina	23.0
163.	Mongolia	23.0
164.	Cambodia	22.5
165.	Oman	21.6
166.	Luxembourg	21.1
167.	Lesotho	19.6
168.	Botswana	19.5
169.	Samoa	18.9
170.	West Bank and Gaza	16.8
171.	Kosovo	16.5
172.	Zambia	16.1
173.	Kuwait	15.5
174.	Georgia	15.3
175.	Bahrain	15.0
176.	Saudi Arabia	14.5
177.	United Arab Emirates	14.1
178.	Qatar	11.3
179.	Macedonia, FYR	10.6
180.	Namibia	9.6
181.	Maldives	9.3
182.	Vanuatu	8.4
183.	Timor-Leste	0.2

Read More....