Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Cavalcade of Risk # 38

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #38. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, financial, health, personal, and other types. While every post submitted was a great article, I only included those submissions that had actual (or implied;-) content on risk.

My thanks to Hank Stern for the opportunity to host the Cavalcade of Risk a second time. Besides being fun and educational, hosting a Cavalcade leads to a nice traffic increase for the week:-) It's easy to become a host. Just contact Hank at the Cavalcade of Risk site or send him an e-mail.

And now for the Cavalcade. For your convenience, I have grouped the articles into five categories of risk: Insurance, Health, Business, Investment and Personal. Within each category, the submissions are listed in the order received. If more than one submission was made by a blog, I chose to include the latest submission.

Insurance

Super Saver submits Collision and Comprehensive Car Insurance - When I Consider Dropping Them posted at My Wealth Builder with his guidelines on when the premium cost may be higher than the risk of loss.

Similarly, Phillip Brewer writes When to drop collision coverage on your car posted at Wise Bread, which offers a stepwise approach to eventually assuming the entire risk of collision damage.

George Wallace presents When the Night Wind Howls in the Chimney Cowls posted at Declarations and Exclusions, presenting risk management options for residents who choose to live in wildfire regions.

Paidtwice presents High Deductible Health Insurance vs A Traditional Plan - For Us posted at I've Paid For This Twice Already..., commenting "When faced with a choice between a high deductible insurance plan and a traditional plan, it pays to crunch the numbers and see what really will work the best for you. This is our family's situation and what we decided. Feel free to weigh in with your experiences or comments! Is the risk worth the potential reward?"

Spencer Hill shares When Does a Term Life Policy Have Value? posted at Hill's Personal Finance, noting "A secondary market exists to sell that unwanted term policy to institutional investors. The process is called a life settlement. " This market may offer a way for business to reduce the cost of providing life insurance for key executives.

Bob Vineyard, CLU presents I Am Not a Carpenter posted at InsureBlog, saying, "A major part of risk management is simply knowing what you don't know, and not being afraid to look for answers. Here's a recent experience with someone who didn't understand this."

Jay Norris submits Protecting The Insured posted at Colorado Health Insurance Insider, saying, "A lot of our clients are worried about the risks of forgetting something on their health insurance application, and for good reason."

Jon Coppelman presents Risk Transfer and Furniture: Betting Against the Red Sox posted at Workers Comp Insider. "Back in March, a Boston-area furniture store offered to refund their customer's payments if the Red Sox won the World Series. They lost the bet - or did they? It appears that they purchased insurance for what may well total $30 million in losses. The Insider speculates on the fan affiliation of the insurance underwriters."

Health

Zagreus Ammon presents Risk and Primary Care Income posted at The Physician Executive, observes that primary physicians may assume less risk for each patient, but assume greater aggregate risk if one normalizes for the number of patients. He asks if compensation is proportional to risk assumption, are primary physicians being under compensated?

David E. Williams presents Interview with Steve Harden, President of LifeWings (transcript) posted at Health Business Blog, which shares an interview transcript on "Applying the lessons of aviation to reduce risk in the hospital."

Lowering the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease posted at Health Articles reports, "According to experts like Dr. Grace Petot, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, people can change their lifestyles to lower their risk. Boost your fruit and vegetable intake for a start."

Business

Noric Dilanchian writes A Whirlpool of Legal Risk at Dianchian Lawyers & Consultants, submitting "In Queensland, Australia a software company did not like the Whirlpool forum discussion about its product. Whirlpool is an online forum for geeks. The company sued Whirlpool. The court of public opinion throttled the company back into silence. There's Web 2.0 lessons here for companies on when not to sue. There's also a checklist of hints on how forum owners can minimise the risk of potential legal action."

Charles H. Green presents The Subprime Mortgage Crisis Viewed in the 12-Year Rear View Mirror posted at Trust Matters. "It took a long time mess up the mortgage market as badly as it has been. Charles takes a long look back to 1995, traces what went wrong" and why risk management failed to protect the parties involved.

Investment

Leon Gettler presents Fear and loathing on Wall Street posted at Sox First, commenting, "Less than a day after the Fed cut interest rates to stave off recession, and Wall Street is in the grip of fear and loathing. It means volatile times ahead."

Silicon Valley Blogger contemplates Deciding To Sell Or Keep Your Employee Stock Options posted at The Digerati Life, offering a strategy to manage the risk inherent with estimating the future value of stock options.

Numerian presents As Wall Street Awaits its Destruction posted at The Agonist. "Is this financial Armageddon? It’s at least as serious a financial crisis as has ever been seen in anyone’s lifetime. The vast credit creation, money making machine that has been Wall Street finance in the past two decades has been shut down. Other parts of the financial industry, like commercial paper and now overnight cash deposits, are being affected."

Logan Flatt, CFA says "Growth Investing" Nothing More Than Rank Speculation posted at PowerWealth.com. "Thanks to decades of promulgation by the financial services industry, it is now common for many people not unlike Mr. Authers to mistakenly use the terms 'value' and 'growth' to describe two contrasting styles of investing. However, there are not two styles of investing. Instead, there is investing and there is speculation. "

FIRE Finance shows analysis on Investing - The Mistake Of Timing The Market posted at FIRE Finance. The data show that market timing significantly under perform the indices making it a risky proposition for most investors.

Personal

Lisa Emrich presents New Freedom Initiative -- Medicaid, Employment, and Affordable Housing for Disabled Persons posted at Brass and Ivory, writes about a risk management decision she must make to maximize benefit from a Virginia disabilities program.

Pedestrian (and cyclist?) risk increases during clock roll back posted at Bike Hugger reports that a study shows "pedestrians are 3 times more likely struck and killed after the switch to Standard Time."

This concludes the 38th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. To become a future host, please contact Hank Stern at the Cavalcade of Risk site or send him an e-mail.

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Clara Natoli

This is not financial or risk management advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

2 comments:

H G Stern said...

WoW! Terrific job...and up early!

Thank you so much for hosting, and for doing such a great job!
 

Lisa Emrich said...

Great job! Thanks for including my post.