Buying insurance policies has always been potentially expensive. When you see the premium rate expressed as an annual sum, it can look a little daunting. Yet, when you are old enough to put wheels on the road, there’s mandatory liability cover in all but three US states. This is where dreams would fade were it not for the willingness of insurance companies to be flexible on the payments. First they dropped to 6 monthly payments. Some went for quarterly. And then the final act of liberation – the monthly instalment plan. Now you could buy your policy on the same basis as your home, the furniture and white goods in it, and the car you wanted to drive. Everything had come down to the total amount you could afford to pay every month and still have something left over to buy food. This has some major benefits. You can buy insurance with no down payment. Just use the internet search engines to find cheap auto insurance quotes offering the lowest premium rates, pay the first instalment in advance and you are legal on the road.

But there is more to it than that. Ignoring the supposed advantage of easier money management, it also frees you to change your auto insurance policy whenever you find a better deal. If you have paid six or twelve months in advance, this locks you into the policy. Yes, companies do allow you to change, but usually subject to cancellation charges – sometimes eye-poppingly high. The freedom to change insurers can be important if you change the make and model you drive. The existing insurer may be less competitive on the rates for the new vehicle, but the charges may take up the saving available by switching to a competitor. However, because insurers prefer stability, they offer discounts on 6 or 12 monthly payments to give them your cash in their hands. Paying on a monthly basis is always more expensive. As always, it’s your choice.

There are two quite different problems coming together at the same time. One comes from the general downturn in the economy. The other is connected with the system of regulation for the insurance industry. On paper, the companies have an easy ride. They collect in the premiums, receive the claims, pay out on the claims and keep the balance as profit. Except the worst recession in decades caught them off guard. It all comes down to what insurers should do with the money they have collected in. Their answer was to invest most of it in the stock market. That way, they earned dividends and got capital growth until it was needed to pay out on the claims. But some invested in these new securitized bonds based on mortgages and other loans. So, when both the property and the capital markets were hit, insurers found themselves with big losses. Under normal circumstances, this would not have been a problem, but the insurance industry has to play by different rules. They are regulated by the insurance departments and commissioners for each state. To protect all you people who buy policies, the key rule is that the companies must have enough capital in reserve to pay out on the claims you make. When the stock and bond markets collapsed, many companies either broke the rule or were too close for comfort. So companies have been moving cash around between states to keep themselves legal and putting up the premiums to collect more.

It’s ironic that a rule designed to protect consumers should be pushing up the premiums so fast. Who would have thought the auto insurance industry would lose so much of the money they had invested. After all, they employ all these clever people called actuaries to measure the risks for writing policies. You would think they would have seen the risks of some of the investments they were making. Yet, like most of the other investment managers, the insurers were taken by surprise. The result is that, overnight, many were close to not having enough money to pay out on your policies. That was and remains a serious problem. That’s why the auto insurance industry is asking you all for more money.

According to the latest figures, it is estimated that out of a population of about 305 million, some 45 million people in the US do not have health care cover. They are entirely dependent on the emergency rooms and the public hospital system subsidized by local, state and federal bodies. Why are so many people without insurance? The answer is, as everyone is all too painfully aware, that the premiums have been rising faster than inflation for the last five years and more. Now that unemployment is rising at a fast rate, more people will be unable to afford the instalment payments. The Administration’s own estimate is that someone is driven into bankruptcy every thirty seconds. If fewer people pay their health plan premiums, the premiums must rise for everyone else. Treatments remain expensive and have to be paid for. If the hospitals cannot collect any money from their uninsured patients, the costs for all the insured must rise. Businesses are now passing on these increased costs to the members of their health plans. In effect, this is a pay cut. That is why this Administration wants to see a more fair system with affordable care and cover for everyone.

This means a halfway house. The current Administration would probably prefer to move to a single payer system of health insurance immediately, but there is too much invested in the current private insurance market. So the government is proposing a state-based system for all those without private insurance, allowing those with insurance policies to change over if they wish. Health care coverage for children is already here. The budget has $634 billion earmarked for preventative medicine and the provision of more affordable services. This is going to put a lot of pressure on private health insurance companies to respond with their own cost-cutting measures. Failure to stay competitive with a growing efficiency in public provision could lead down the slippery slope into a single payer system. That this is the standard model in most of the rest of the world, does not make it right for the US. Or does it? We can only wait and see what happens.

But since we are talking about your health, there are other things to consider. Since jobs are at risk, now is the time to think about what would happen to your health plans if unemployment comes. Could you afford to pay for the COBRA cover? The reason for asking is that a recent survey found most families could not. So, if you cannot start a savings plan to provide enough cash, what would you do? Well, now is the time to do some research. There are a number of private medical plans available. Spending time online can identify some good cover at affordable prices. One of the starting points is the company currently supplying auto or home insurance. If you bundle policies together, you can get reasonable discounts for personalized solutions. You should also talk with local agents. Although they are driven by the commission, you can often get good ideas about how to save money with higher deductibles and more limited coverage. Then it’s for you to decide, making plans with a clear head now rather than when under pressure when the job is lost.

Health insurance is not something you should leave to the last minute. Planning now saves time and money later on. Although insurance companies can change the detail of their policies, what you research and agree now will stand up for months to come. be recession-proof, stay ahead of the game and keep your family safe. Indeed, health insurance should be the one New Year’s resolution you make and keep the longest.

Let us begin with a sad fact. As unemployment spreads and family budgets shrink, there are more drivers than ever before driving without insurance. The odds are now shifting. Go back ten years and the chance of being in a traffic accident with an uninsured driver was low. Today, you need additional cover. Ironically, we are starting with a possible increase in your premium to recognize the false economy of driving without this cover. Look carefully at your own financial position and decide how much you need to cover you without having to dip into any savings. The older your car and the lower its value, the less need for collision cover. Indeed, you should self-insure by increasing the deductible. It is usually worth covering anything up to $1,000 out of your own pocket. Finally, you should consider placing both car and home insurance with the same company. This can usually save at least 10% on the joint premiums.

It is too easy to pay the auto insurance premiums automatically, renewing every year, assuming there is a loyalty bonus and that the policy is still good value for money. This is not a safe assumption. There are good long-term rates available with first-year discounts as an incentive to switch to a new company. When your own family budget is under stress, use this and any other online sites to search for the best value-for-money policy you can find that will give you the protection you need when you put wheels on the road. Auto insurance keeps you legal and keeps you safe.

Consumer groups argue that using credit history is pretty unfair because many of the “defaults” that appear on these histories are the result of predatory terms operated by credit card and other lenders. Even the most minor and technical of infringements can result in retrospective penalties designed to boost the lender’s profits. Such blemishes are not truly representative of a person’s overall responsibility in managing debt. Indeed, the use of histories by a wide range of individuals and organizations increases consumer distress as they are increasingly denied access to credit and other services. There are many consumers who pay less because they have good scores. Which is better – that the risk is divided equally among all policy holders or that those who represent the greatest risk pay more? Politically, can states insist that all the most creditworthy people pay more?

The bill is also about to eliminate the current territorial rating system that imposes higher premiums on city rather than rural drivers. The plan would call for equal treatment so that no matter where the car is garaged and driven, the same basic premium will be paid. Auto insurance is a for-profit business so there will always be arguments that the market will decide what represents a fair premium. With a recession looming, everybody wants cheap auto insurance. If this law passes in Connecticut, perhaps other states will follow suit and make the US a more affordable place for drivers.

The strategies break down as follows. Sharing cars as a way of getting children to school and parents to work has been around for a while. All it requires is some give and take about when people are going to make their journeys and travel suddenly becomes cheaper with shared costs. Except, whoever is doing the driving needs to be sure their policy covers paying passengers. Some insurers take a narrow view that paying passengers turn the deal into a business like a taxi. This is a trap to force car sharers to pay more to insure. Always shop around to get the best cover to ensure that everyone in the car is covered for their medical costs should there be a traffic accident. The more interesting developments are coming in the car rental business. Instead of the classic temporary holiday or full-time business uses, there is now a new car pooling system. Cars are stored in garages around cities. When you want to use a car, you go online and make a booking. The system tells you where the nearest car is to be found. You pick it up and drop it off at the nominated garage, paying only for the hours you have the car in your possession. The guys who work out statistics reckon that the average person spends about $8,000 a year on car ownership. That’s the purchase price, any sales tax and loan interest, the loss of value as the car ages, the cost of insurance, maintenance and repair, and so on. Most car pooling schemes charge around $15 an hour with the cost of gas and insurance included (with you paying the cost of getting to and from the nominated garage).

Except you need to be careful about the terms of the auto insurance included in the package. The rental company is interested in protecting the capital value in the cars so, before you sign up, check the cover for personal injuries. It may be worth paying an extra few dollars to top up the cover for medical expenses and loss of earnings. That said, if you give up your own car, there are big cash savings so long as the auto insurance cover is adequate. And, no desk agents giving you a hard sell every time you pick up the car!

To understand, we need to look at how insurance companies work. They charge most policy holders with a vehicle or a home a monthly premium. This brings in a small mountain of cash every month. That money is invested until it’s needed to pay out on claims. Some goes into fixed-income products. The rest goes into shares. As you may have noticed, the Dow and other stock exchange indexes have been in free-fall. The result is that State Farm has lost the capital value of the investments and, in many cases, no longer receives any income as interest or dividends. This might have been manageable except for this little thing called global warming that no-one believes causes hurricanes and other weather catastrophes. The last two years have seen an big increase in weather-damage claims. Put the loss of investment income and the unexpected rise in claims together and you turn a $5.46 billion profit in 2007 into a loss in 2008.

Should this make you worry? Well, look at it this way. The insurance industry is suddenly making a loss. Shareholders in general and the policy holders in State Farm are not happy. Senior officers of the companies want their bonuses. The for-profit companies are tempted to raise the premiums across the board to get their earnings back into profit. Except with a recession threatening to turn into a depression, that’s not going to work. Make the policies unaffordable and people stop buying. That’s why State Farms just dropped its auto insurance rates in Georgia by an average of 1.5%. For the record, this means the current premiums are 12% lower than five years ago. Since State Farms insures around one quarter of all vehicles on Georgia’s roads, this is a good deal. So the next time you’re shopping round for a cheap car insurance policy, you may be pleasantly surprised that the premium rates from an increasing number of insurers have fallen in other states. The next bill may not be quite as painful as you fear.

Those of a more conservative and risk averse disposition might argue that starting up now is reckless and, in some cases that would be true. Anyone who drew up a business plan before the crisis hit would undoubtedly be courting disaster now. But if someone looks with a clear and steady eye at the world as it is and responds to current demand in the prevailing market conditions, there has never been a better time to start up. Property values are dropping fast in the commercial rental market so getting business premises is cheap. There is an abundance of talented people lying unemployed who would be grateful for the chance of paid work. If the plan calls for raw materials, there is a drop in demand so all producers are dropping their ex-factory and wholesale prices to keep some money turning over. If your business model fits market conditions, you should make money. It is the same with existing businesses. If owners are prepared to respond to the change in conditions and are not caught up in legacy costs of high pay and benefits packages for employees, there is no reason why the business plan cannot be modified to fit current conditions and let the business expand.

That said, whether it is to be a start-up or a refit of the plan, one of the key elements is going to be the right small business insurance policy. Whatever the business, it is likely that margins will be tight. There is great price sensitivity during a crisis and customers with low levels of disposable income are not going to buy high-prices goods and services. Realistic prices are required. Thus, if anything should go wrong, there might not be adequate cash around to make good the losses. Small business insurance covers against all the standard risks and perils. It provides deep pockets to cover losses when the events insured against occur. It may be adverse weather, a key person falling ill or an expensive court case alleging negligence. With the right policy in place, the business can come out of the difficulties relatively unscathed. Make sure you have affordable terms to keep your business going.

So what does the business owner need to get peace of mind? The first step is to ensure the personal assets are protected. If the business is not incorporated, there will have to be personal liability insurance protection in place. That way, if something does go wrong, it will not affect the family. Some restructuring may also be necessary, moving any investments and assets from the business to a holding company and making sure that any loans made by family members get paid before the general creditors. If the worst happens and either the business fails or the owner is injured or falls ill, this will mean unemployment. Again, some provision against this possibility is desirable. Looking at the looming recession, keeping the cash flowing is best. That means keeping the tax liability to a minimum and paying by instalments. This allows you to keep payments flowing into retirement savings plans, which gives you a write-off. Looking at everyone in the family and their needs finishes the picture. Outside the business which will always be risky, all the other investments should be safe and conservative, making sure the succession planning is in place to pass the management responsibilities over when retirement is possible.

Making all this real depends on a range of different business insurance. Because the business is the family’s biggest asset, it should be fully protected. The lives of the owners need to be protected by term insurance for succession purposes, and everything that can be done to make the business successful should be done. Survival through the recession is not enough. If owners do want to retire in ten years time, the business must be ready to pass on to the family or sell on the open market. In all this, remember the planning should be fully co-ordinated, taking everyone’s interests into account. Keeping the small business insurance valuations up to date is essential to ensure agreed payments are made quickly should a claim be made. With all this in place, retirement is only a few years away.