Facing a car insurance fraud even in the role of a victim means that you will have to pay. Your rates will go up because of an expensive claim, but you can risk your and your loved ones’ lives too. That’s why learning about insurance fraud protection is very important, making you prepared for illegal insurance scam that may harm you.

Insurance fraud is as old as the concept of insurance itself. Back in Ancient Greece ships were sunken on purpose to receive insurance benefits from the government. Later on, insurance scam was widely spread in England and then in the United States. With the development of automobiles and car insurance respectively, fraud users have gained a very big market rich with possibilities. Many organized crime groups as well as individuals are using flaws in the sophisticated insurance system of today to use it in their own interest, making you vulnerable to their activities. However, there are certain measures you can take in order to minimize the chance of becoming an insurance fraud victim.

First of all you have to learn what insurance fraud is all about and what schemes are usually employed. And the range of schemes is very wide. It can be a set-up accident with a car intentionally stopping in front of you to cause a collision, or an entire play with many people involved to testify your fault.

Learning what are the most common types of insurance fraud is actually the best way to be protected against such things. Here are some of the most widely used schemes of fraud to be on the lookout for:

Intentional accidents: The scam car will take its place in front of the victim car in traffic and suddenly hit the brakes when there’s not way to avoid collision. This usually causes rear-end accidents, with the scam driver receiving car damage coverage money and sometimes medical cost coverage as well.

Additional damage: The scam driver leaves the accident site, whether intentional or not, and causes additional damage to the car in order to claim that it was caused during the accident and raise auto insurance coverage in his or her favor.

Fake helpers: In such a scenario fraud hunters will let you into the traffic at first and then head in to make a collision with you, claiming that they didn’t let you in the first place afterwards. Another form of “help” could be directing to doctors, repair shops or lawyers that will charge you much more than in typical situation.

Because things like these can happen to anyone and in any place, it’s very important to pay attention. Be on the lookout for traffic participants who may be following you o analyzing your driving style for some time. Keep the safe distance in front of you to have room for emergency stop. In case the accident takes place, make sure to not everything, tape or shoot all the damages and record all the information regarding the other car and people in it. This information will be very helpful when dealing with your auto insurance company and can be proof of fraud if it takes place.

Since God knows men were claiming they are much better drivers than women. This doesn’t mean this statement has to do anything with reality though. There was no debate around this subject but some men actually did take women’s side on the matter. They confess their wives and girlfriends are driving more carefully on the road.

So let us analyze the situation and try to point out the traffic violation circumstances and both sexes being involved. Who do you think is more likely to end up with a fine – men or women?

To clear everything up we addressed this question to the independent experts who happens to be an insurance company worker.

“Men in general have certain driving habits that could lead them to an accident on the road. Nowadays especially, when teens start driving from the early age of 16, young boys try to make a big impression while on the road. They are not careful enough. Young girls protect themselves more. Insurance companies have to be very thoughtful when quoting rates for young people of 16 to 25. They can create problems for everybody.” – the insurance company employee says.

There is a database that we actually did check upon the research. This is what it showed – in 2008 women resulted having no traffic violations against only 64% of men. The official numbers also provided for us also show that if women ever have any traffic violations on their record it is only as many as one or two, while men usually have more than 3.

Traffic STATS were making their own calculations for AAA statistics back in 2007. This is the information they came up with. It is a fact that men have a higher risk of having a fatal income during their road driving experience. According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and the National Household Travel Survey the number of men that died on the road is significantly higher than those of women – 175,094 for men against 82.371 for women.

Traffic STATS also reports that men are generally more willing to provide risk on the road by making deliberate forbidden stunts and creating risky situations for other drivers involved in the situation.

Age really does matter most of the time for everything. When you are young – you don’t want to listen. You think you know better than anyone else around you. You want to prove people wrong by doing some things your own way. This is a very bad attitude to have while your roadway trip. Kids at the age of 16 that just got their license are more likely to die during an accident on the road than those men who are over 25. The same is for women. Young girls that are 18-22 have more road accidents than ladies over 25. It is also true that most things come with the experience.

There is also such opinion that men show much aggression while they are in charge on the road. They express it directly while women can express it indirectly if they decide to.

It is important to remember that auto insurance is not just a leaf that you can carry around in case you need it one day. Your attitude towards the car is much more important than anything. There is no guarantee that you will end up in an accident but it is better to be protected. Don’t think men need auto insurance more than women. Both do!

As soon as President Obama took control of the White House, the combined majorities in both chambers were used to enact the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. As has become the norm, the Republican party opposed the law. So, now that we have one year of experience, it’s interesting to revisit the Act to see whether this allegedly socialist measure has worked for good or the evil predicted by the GOP. The purpose was to help the millions of children whose parents had fallen on hard times and could no longer afford private family health plans. In effect, the recession was creating an underclass of children who were potentially uninsured. By making an immediate transfer of funds to individual states, local governments were able to expand their own medical coverage programs to admit more families in need. The current estimate is that about 2.5 million children were allowed into either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. This was achieved by a simple change.

All but two of the 50 US states have used the additional federal funding to cover a family of four where the parents earn up to $48,000. This is significantly more than the national poverty level and allows more people into the state schemes albeit, in all but nineteen states, the parents must pay a small monthly premium and some out-of-pocket expenses. Despite increasing the family income threshold, the extent of the coverage has actually reduced in fifteen states. The politics of entitlement is always a complicated affair. The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act process has required some states to dismantle some of their bureaucratic barriers. Fast track or express lane procedures have been put in place to avoid long waiting lists and delays. With streamlined enrollment, children have been added to the programs on the basis of immediate need, with the follow-up work of verifying family status and income being completed later. The President’s wish to make the children the main focus of attention has been respected.

At an administrative level, there is an improved system for the exchange of information between states, and between states and the federal agencies. The intention is to create a full Electronic Health Record for every child so that, no matter where the child presents with symptoms, his or her records can be made available. If this system can be implemented, the expectation is that the quality of pediatric health care will improve and medical costs will be reduced as the flow of information will improve diagnosis without the need to go through detailed tests every time. There is a budget of $33 billion allocated to cover development of an improved health care delivery service for children.

This is a good report card for the first year of additional and targeted funding. Even though some state governments have resisted the federal plan to increase accessibility to Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program, the number of children newly admitted is encouraging. So, if none of the quotes you receive when you use this site’s search engine offer you cheap health insurance, do not give up. Federal and state funding is available to ensure that your children get the medical treatment they need when it is needed. Of course, this is not going to help if your family earnings are too high. In such cases, the only cheap health insurance available may have more limited coverage. If you have to pay, shop around to find individual doctors or clinics who quote the lowest prices for different treatments. Money can be saved if you take the time to use the internet search engines.

Let’s leave the politics of healthcare reform to one side and focus on a proposal to change the law to allow free market competition between insurers in different states. A policy consistently mentioned by the Republican party is to break the state monopolies in the insurance market. Since the 1800’s, the individual states have claimed the sole right to regulate the sale of insurance within their own borders. Each state has asserted the right to license insurance companies and to set the terms on which they can conduct business. This has led to a patchwork of different sets of regulations with each state creating unique laws. In turn, this forces an insurance company to set up separate subsidiaries to trade in each state. No licensed company can sell a policy to someone who has a residence in another state. There was a brief moment in 1944 when a decision of the Supreme Court allowed the possibility of federal supervision. But the lawmakers in Washington immediately changed the law to retain state control. Why is this a bad thing? The national insurance companies have divided up the states between them and choose not to compete against each other. This keeps the number of insurance companies in each state artificially low and, because there is no real competition, premium rates are higher than they should be for weak policy terms.

You are reading this article on the internet. When online, you can buy more or less any product or service across state or national boundaries. Although there are some restrictions, e.g. some states limit your right to import drugs from foreign countries, there is an almost free market where you can search for the cheapest price and buy whatever you need. There is no possible economic justification for retaining this historical privilege for insurance companies. All it does is preserve their ability to maximize their profits at your expense. For example, in Minnesota three insurance companies dominate 80% of the market for health plans. There is no doubt that, if more companies entered the market, the premium rates would fall. During his run for President, Senator John McCain was in favor of free markets for health plans. President Obama supports it and the proposal is in both versions of the healthcare reform bills currently stalled in Washington. But because the Republican party’s only policy is to oppose everything the Democrats propose, it seems even this simple change in the law may be lost. What will the result be? The anticompetitive behavior of the insurance industry will continue and you, the consumer, will suffer.

Could the law change tomorrow and allow everyone access to cheap health insurance wherever it can be found? The problem is that the states have different sets of regulations and compliance leads to different costs. The playing fields are not level. So, premiums are significantly lower in those states which have the fewest consumer protections. It would not be fair competition if people living in Minnesota, which has strong consumer protections, could all get health insurance quotes from states with little or no consumer protections. The only way in which there could be a free market is to have a single set of federal regulations for the sale of health insurance plans. Sadly, the political parties do not want to talk about this even though we would all benefit. In the US, the political elite’s interests do not match the needs of the ordinary citizens.

Looking around the news, there is a story that the insurance regulators from five US states have just agreed a $2 million settlement with two Nationwide Life companies for failing to properly supervise the sale of annuities through one of their agents. This raises two questions. What exactly are annuities? and What can go wrong with them? An annuity is a variation on the traditional life insurance policy. As with any permanent policy, you pay a premium which is invested to build up a cash value. But, depending on the terms of the contract, you can receive payment of a lump sum or, more usually, a regular income from the insurance company before your death.

For most people it’s the same as saving for retirement, except you buy a pension that pays out after you retire. To ensure the maximum control over annuities, they can only be bought through life insurance companies. In every US state, there is a Department or Office of Insurance to regulate local insurance companies. As you will understand from the news story, if an insurance company acts against the interests of its policyholders, the states can step in to fine the company and order the company to pay compensation to the policyholders affected. In the case of annuities, this is particularly important because the premiums are usually deductible from income before tax. The states therefore have a direct interest in ensuring annuities are not used for unlawful tax avoidance purposes.

Annuities are more complicated than the traditional life insurance contracts and it is always a good idea to have independent advice before buying. In theory, this ensures the fees and charges made by the insurance company are reasonable and that the minimum guaranteed amounts are a realistic investment return on the premiums you pay. During the first phase of the contract, all benefits are deferred, i.e. assuming your life continues, no benefits are paid. But when the trigger occurs – this may be a specific date or an event – the investment fund begins to make payments either to you or the person you nominated to receive the income. This payment can continue for a set period of time or during your lifetime. There can also be benefits paid to your dependents on death. None of this should prevent you from getting life insurance quotes for annuities through sites like this. Getting information about financial products is always useful. But never buy an annuity unless you are sure you understand exactly what the life insurance company is offering.

In the news story, a financial advisory firm in Kansas acted as the agent of two Nationwide Life companies. It sold annuities and then later persuaded its clients to transfer to a new set of annuities specially created by the Nationwide Life companies. In all cases, this transfer caused a loss of investment value to the clients and resulted in them paying $10 million in fees. When complaints were made, the Nationwide Life companies have reinstated the original policies, refunded the fees and paid a penalty to the state regulators. As an aside, this is what should be happening on a regular basis to all the brokers who missold sub-prime mortgages before the housing bubble burst. If you think you have been missold a life insurance product through life insurance quotes obtained online or as a result of bad advice, complain to your local state’s Department or Office of Insurance. If your complaint is upheld, you will be compensated for all your losses.

More or less every site offers advice on saving money when buying insurance. One of the standard tips is bundling auto and homeowners policies with the same insurance company. If you check around the companies, the discount varies between 10 and 15% and, if you agree an increase in the deductible from $500 to $1,000 this increases the discount to 25%. At this point, many people are sold on the idea. A saving of up to 25% looks like a good deal and frees up cash in the family budgets for a whole range of other basic necessities. So is it worth it? The first question is whether you are getting the standard auto and homeowners policies. If you are starting off in the same position as the stand-alone policyholders, you have more protection. But there can be problems with limitations and exclusions if the company produces a single policy to cover both home and vehicle. You must read such a policy very carefully before deciding whether it represents good value for money. Secondly, what are the rules about overlaps between the two policies? Suppose, for example, you have a traffic accident while carrying your laptop and other property potentially covered under your homeowners policy. Is all the damage and loss covered under the auto policy or are you expected to file separate claims for damage to the vehicle and loss of household contents? This could make a big difference if there are separate deductibles on the auto and homeowners policies.

So, assuming you do bundle, how should you protect your interests? First off, never assume it’s enough just to buy the policies. When it comes to the homeowners policy, always make a full inventory of the contents of your home. You can do this by making a simple list and taking a few pictures using your cellphone. But it’s better to take a more professional approach. Go room by room, make a full inventory and record the purchase price and current value. Where you have the original receipts and invoices, put everything together in a file. If you want to store information outside the home, you can use a site like http://www.knowyourstuff.org/ which offers a free and secure service. Why bother? Because it gives you a realistic basis on which to decide how much contents insurance to buy, identifying any individual more expensive items that should be separately insured. More importantly, it saves time and effort should you have to make a claim. The faster you can make a comprehensive claim, the quicker you can rebuild your home and restock it with the “stuff” you have lost. Hopefully, your homeowners insurance pays for alternative accommodation while repairs are underway. Finally, never do any major repairs before the loss adjuster arrives. You bought all this coverage and you want the adjuster to see the full extent of the loss. That said, you should take emergency action to prevent the condition of the property getting worse like sealing broken windows and securing doors. This is the time to use your video camera to record the damage before and during emergency repair.

Homeowners insurance is always a balancing act between buying coverage against the most obvious perils and not making small claims to keep your record clear for the sad day when a big claim comes along. If you have bundled the policies, it’s more likely you will have to make a claim and this can produce a premium hike on both policies.

The Andorra economy has been used to a decade of steadily rising real estate prices, with many of the local population buying new property off-plan and selling them again at higher prices to outsiders later on.

But 2007 has seen a hiccup in this wealth creating enterprise, with prices not expected to show a double digit rise again for 2007, as they did in 2006 and 2005.

But a different kind of buyer has become apparent in 2007, quite different from the traditional 2 and 3 bedroom ski apartments which have dominated the Andorra property scene in the recent past.

The new buyers are more likely to be buying a house at over a million Euros, than an apartment at 300,000. And it is these buyers who have helped to sustain a property market that might otherwise have been seeing a dip in fortunes.

The real estate big spenders have come about in Andorra as a direct result of fellow tax haven Monaco’s rising property prices.

Many looking for a tax haven initially look at Monaco, but soon come to realise that one to two million Euros is going to buy a one or two bedroom apartment, while in Andorra – which has the same tax benefits as Monaco – offer good apartments for between 300,000 and 400,000 Euros, and houses starting for under a million. And many opt for Andorra because of that.

One UK company who specialises in tax haven properties agrees that there is a direct link between the high prices of property in Monaco, and the high spenders moving into Andorra, commenting that Monaco property prices have risen in recent years to the extent where it challenges London for having the most expensive real estate in the world, adding that Andorra has consistently seen double digit property inflation, but is still considerably less expensive than Monaco.

The property buyers tend to head for different areas of Andorra, with the ski apartment buyers tending to purchase in the key ski resorts of Soldeu and Arinsal.

Those looking for residency for tax reasons go more for the year round villages and towns which have a resident community. Outside of the capital (la Vella) these tend to be La Massana and the upcoming village of Anyos, Ordino and Arinsal, although Arinsal’s nightlife during the ski season early December to late April tends to steer many newcomers to La Massana and Ordino.

As long as Monaco’s real estate prices remain high, Andorra looks set to benefit as Europe’s second most popular tax haven for 2008.

More information about Andorra is available at YourAndorra.com

For those readers considering residency in a tax haven, PropertyAndorra.com offers details about the Andorra residency system and gaining residency in Andorra

As well as general information about Andorra YourAndorra includes ski information and 2008 ski holidays to Andorra

What your beliefs are and the way you think are the two defining factors that will determine whether or not you will have success as real estate investor. These two defining factors are what is known as a mindset. A mindset is universally defined as a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.

Two examples of individuals having incredible mindsets are Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods has a mindset and a core belief that every golf ball that he hits will go in, and every tournament that he plays in he will be victorious. All of his golf shots don’t go in and he doesn’t win every tournament, but is there any wonder why he has of this writing won 54 golf championships at the age of 30? It has to do with his mindset.

Michael Jordan is known as the best basketball player that has ever lived. But did you know that he was cut from his high school basketball team as a sophomore because at 5 feet 9 inches he was deemed to undeveloped?

Of course that did not deter him. He practiced even harder grew to 6 feet 6 inches and within the next two years became a high school All American. He went on to establish a distinguished career, which included hitting the last shot to win the NCAA college basketball championship, winning 6 NBA titles, 5 league MVPs and a slew of other accomplishments.

Why was he such a winner? Why did he dominate? Simply because of his mindset, he believed that he was a winner so he won, he believed that he was destined to dominate so he dominated. So let me ask you, what is your mindset when it comes to your real estate business? Do you have super goals or mediocre ones? Do you promote your real estate business a little or a lot? Are you finding truly motivated sellers?Are you building momentum for your business or are you slacking off?

Whatever your case may be there is always room for improvement. For example, instead of being happy with doing a couple of deals in a year, develop the mindset and take the action necessary to do 50, 100, or even 300 deals a year.

Don’t say that it can’t be done because there are real estate investors who have achieved those type of numbers. Remember it’s all about your belief system and the way that you program yourself to think. If you think that you can, and act on that belief chances are you will accomplish your goal.

So the message is simply this, when it comes to your real estate business, make sure that as a real estate investor and entrepreneur you develop a superior mindset that will enable your business to prosper and grow exponentially.

Omar Johnson is a successful Real Estate Investor and author of the home study course The Real Estate Investor’s Guide To Finding The Motivated Seller for more info http://www.findingthemotivatedsellers.com

Is flipping houses legal or not? At seminars, I’m often confronted by people who insist “Flipping” is illegal.

What they don’t understand is that the part that’s “illegal” isn’t the transaction, it’s the mortgage fraud that some people commit in order to get the deal funded.

When you Option a house and sell it, the end buyer is responsible for their own financing, no “fudging” on your part, and no possibility of fraud.

The Buyer agrees to pay a certain amount, and has a down payment and credit to match, and knows the deal. The haven’t been misled, and you haven’t helped anyone commit fraud.

Here’s what some people consider “flipping”:

They’ll buy a house, or even just contract it, and then turn around and sell it to an unsuspecting homebuyer or Investor, often from out of town or with no Real estate experience, and usually with no money down or for very little down.

Next, they’ll bribe an appraiser to give a fictitious appraisal, much higher than the true Comparable sales. They’ll work with a mortgage broker who will show the borrower how to submit false documents to the mortgage lender to qualify for a loan they often can’t afford.

Then last but not least, they’ll forge the closing statements from the Title Company to show a down payment and/or closing costs coming from the borrower, in order to get the bank to fund the deal.

Is this what you consider “Flipping”? Bribing appraisers and falsifying loan documents and paperwork? If so, then you’re right, it is illegal.

But when you “Flip” a house by selling it for retail price to a retail buyer, who works with a legitimate appraisaer and Mortgage Broker and gets their own financing, with no “funny stuff,” there’s nothing even slightly illegal or grey about it. It’s simple and easy, with no B.S.

Some people are just simply SOOO lazy that can’t be bothered to buy houses at a discount- instead, they falsely jack up the price, bribe an appraiser to confirm it, and try to pass them off onto an investor or homebuyer who commits mortgage fraud to get them funded. THAT is illegal.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a whole lot of pity for the Buyers in those fraudulent transactions. They are the ones buying houses without enough common sense to even check the value first!

Here’s something else you should learn from this: These supposed “victims” (who all volunteer to commit mortgage fraud and know what they are doing, by the way) buy these properties at grossly inflated values based on appraisals someone else ordered for them. (I know, it’s hard to imagine they were taken advantage of, huh?)

NEVER believe what someone tells you about a property without verifying it for yourself. That means you have to do your Due Diligence- check every assumption- about the property BEFORE you buy it, not after.

While house flipping has gotten a bad reputation in the last few years due to a few bad apples, it is still a great way to get into Real Estate Investing if you know what to watch out for. Done properly, house flipping is legal, moral and ethical, and is a great way to invest in real estate wiothout tenants, rehabs, or risk.

Jason Loucks has mastered the art and science of retailing properties for Cash NOW through his “7 Day Sale” system. To get your Free “Secrets of the 7 Day Sale” Audio, that explains how you can sell houses in just 7 Days, just visit: http://www.7daysaleguy.com

The lawmakers in Colorado are debating a change in the law to correct the gender discrimination currently requiring women to pay more than men to insure their health. The facts are uncompromising. In some 90% of all private health plans, women have premium rates 60% higher than men. This is so even though the statistics show women enjoy better health than men and make fewer claims. This is so even though the men used for comparative purposes are significantly older. And, if you feel you need any more confirmation of the basic unfairness, even men who smoke pay less than female non-smokers. As one of the women promoting the bill commented: insurers often refuse coverage because the applicant has a pre-existing condition. The way the premiums are loaded, it seems being a woman is a pre-existing condition.

The people who are paid to speak on behalf of the insurance industry usually fall back on the tried and trusted defense that women have medical needs specific to their gender. The most often quoted example is maternity and prenatal care. Ignoring the fact that men also have problems specific to their gender, such as erectile dysfunction, women are still quoted premiums 60% higher on policies excluding reproductive health needs. In other words, the discrimination persists even though the scope of the medical coverage is identical. So what’s going on? The answer, in this instance, is slightly complicated. If we start with auto insurance, it’s common knowledge that young men are statistically more likely than any other group of drivers to crash into another vehicle or some stationary object. Thus, where the policy discriminates between different groups of drivers, young men pay significantly more than women who tend to drive more safely. Not all auto policies do discriminate. By spreading the risk among a big group of drivers, the good subsidize the bad. But, most auto insurers do set different premium rates for different groups of drivers distinguished by gender and age. In medicine, it’s a fact that men fall ill and die, whereas women tend to recover from illnesses. This is one of the reasons why women have a longer life expectancy than men. But it also explains why women cost more. They survive for longer with chronic problems requiring continuing treatment. Thus, if the premium is a reflection of the likely costs of treatment over a person’s lifetime, it may appear slightly more reasonable to charge women higher premiums. Except this ignores the general rule that private health insurance stops at 65 as Medicare kicks in. The major long-term costs tend to occur after 65.

Colorado looks as though it may join the one or two other states with equality provisions. There’s no evidence from these other states that men now have to pay significantly more. For now, insurers simply make less profit. As a woman, it’s particularly important to research exactly what the different companies offer. Because of this, searching for cheap health insurance is a greater challenge. Always refer to the websites of the companies making the best quotes to see if there are additional discounts available or special policies for women. If there seems to be no cheap health insurance available, talk directly with the insurers to see whether the difference between the male and female premium rates can be reduced. Not everyone is lucky enough to live in a state committed to equality. It is for you to protect yourself as best as possible.