Cavalcade of Risk #159 - Early Edition

Welcome to the 159th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.   This will be My Wealth Builder's ninth time hosting this esteemed Carnival.  Cav editions that were previously hosted by My Wealth Builder include #150 Sesquicentennial Edition, #107, #103 Risk Management with the Stars Edition, #94 Alert Level Edition, #76, #64, #38 and #19 Valentine's Day Edition.

As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. Thank you to all bloggers who submitted a post to this Cavalcade. I enjoyed reading each one. While every post was a great article, I selected only those primarily related to risk.

Here are the articles of the 159th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk:

Is it better to risk the loss or buy some insurance?  FMF presents Insurance You Need and Don't Need posted at Free Money Finance, saying, "The Wall Street Journal lists insurance you don't need, some you might consider, and policies you must have. The list begins with the types of insurance you can skip."

Sometimes it may be better to accept the risk of loss.  Teacher Man offers his opinion on Is the Extended Warranty Worth It? at My University Money, saying, "What you are being sold using catchy terms like “layers of protection” is an extended warranty. These products differ widely in what they cover, but the basic idea is that for a yearly fee, the place where you are buying the product will fix your purchase if it breaks or malfunctions. As with most financial products, the devil in the details, but the vast majority of the time, you should politely decline the offer."

Here's a profession where insurance may be very important.  What if your daily commute to get to your workspace entailed climbing 1500 foot towers – sounds like something you might want to be trained for, right? At Workers’ Comp Insider , Julie Ferguson talks about the risks involved in working for the fast-growth, high pressure cell tower industry in The high price for fast phones: Cell tower deaths

But what about when you can't get insurance you need and want? Jeff Rose presents Declined Life Insurance - Now What? posted at Life Insurance By Jeff, saying "Have you thought that you were super fit and that you would get approved instantly only to have a curve ball thrown at you to realize either something came back on your medical exam or you found out that you’re uninsurable? If this is the case I want to give you a few tips on how you can get approve for life insurance even if you’ve been declined."

Even when there is insurance, getting back to normal is a challenge. In Getting Your Life Back in Order After a Fire Or Other Disaster Roger at The Amateur Financier learns that having insurance is only one part of recovering from a disaster.  He offers  a guide to how you can recover from (and prepare for) fires or other disasters, minimizing the trouble that they cause in your life."

Surprise, health care insurance costs are going up. Jason Shafrin presents Healthcare Costs to Rise by over 7 percent in 2013 posted at Healthcare Economist, saying "The Healthcare Economist reviews the latest trends in health insurance premiums."

Here is one government solution to reduce health care costs. Louise presents Colorado Governor Committed To Improving the Health of Colorado Residents posted at Colorado Health Insurance Insider, saying " "Hickenlooper addressed an international conference of wellness experts yesterday in Aspen, and said that although he has concerns about the downsides of becoming a “nanny state”, he believes we need to take some significant measures in order to improve the overall health of the Colorado population – if for no other reason than the significant economic impact of poor health and obesity. Even though Colorado is still the leanest state in the US, the percentage of obese adults has been steadily increasing over the past two decades, and it climbed above 20% last year for the first time."

Perhaps, this is another government solution :-). Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents Helmets? We don't need no steenkin' helmets! posted at InsureBlog, saying "Motorcycle riding is inherently risky to begin with, but what about going bare-headed? InsureBlog has the latest on a new Michigan law that seems to encourage that."

This concludes this edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.  The 160th edition will be hosted by Jay Norris at Colorado Health Insurance Insider.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.
This is not financial or risk management advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Cavalcade of Risk Sesquicentennial

Welcome to the 150th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. Thank you to all bloggers who submitted a post to this Cavalcade. I enjoyed reading each one. While every post was a great article, I selected only those primarily related to risk.

Barbara Friedberg presents WHAT'S THE BEST AGE AT WHICH TO EXPERIENCE A STOCK MARKET CRASH posted at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance. A fascinating look at the impact on your portfolio of a stock market crash. The risk varies depending upon the age at which you experience the crash. Rob Bennett wrote this thought provoking guest article.

Emily presents The Costa Concordia Tragedy and the Need for Travel Insurance posted at PT Money Personal Finance. Emily uses the cruise ship tragedy as a springboard for a discussion on the necessity of travel insurance.

Thomas Jensen presents Top 10 Myths About Life Insurance posted at Penge Snak!. Life insurance is among the most misunderstood financial concepts out there. But when you break it down to its components, it’s not that complicated at all: Life insurance just replaces the future income of the people in the risk pool who don’t make it to life expectancy. They do that by taking their premiums and saving it on their behalf – paying claims and investing the difference. This post explores the top ten myths about life insurance.

Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents Can you hear the risk? posted at InsureBlog. InsureBlog's Henry Stern explains why the risk of getting hit by a car -- as a pedestrian wearing ear buds -- may be overblown.

Echo presents Health And Dental Insurance: Not Really Insurance posted at Boomer & Echo. Our health and dental insurance plans aren't really insurance - they're just benefits. Insurance is intended to cover catastrophic financial loss.

Jared Wade presents The Risks of Social Media: Developing a Social Media Crisis Response Plan posted at Risk Management Monitor. Social Media Influence highlights the recent bad press Carnival Cruises and McDonalds have received. Fortunately, they also have some advice for companies who suffer such a fate. Enter the social media crisis response plan. They have created a flow chart to help guide your decision making after the worst occurs.

Jaan Sidorov presents A Thousand Dollars Says Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel Is Wrong About The Long Term Prospects Of ACOs posted at The Disease Management Care Blog. Dr. Jaan Sidorov wants to bet former White House golden boy Ezekiel Emanuel MD that he is wrong about the future of U.S. health insurance. Writing in the New York Times, Dr. Emanuel predicts "accountable care organizations" will drive health insurers out of business. Dr. Sidorov draws on the published medical evidence and demolishes all of Dr. Emanuel's assumptions. While Dr. Sidorov wonders why his challenge hasn't been answered, he's not surprised that the White House is in such deep trouble over health reform.... not with advisors like Dr. Emanuel!

Jason Shafrin presents Does Obamacare Limit Profits for Health Insurance Companies in Your State? posted at Healthcare Economist. One of the provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a ACA, a.k.a. Health Reform, a.k.a. Obamacare) is that it limits the profits of health insurance companies. Even though this is a national law, it may not be applied in your state. The Healthcare Economist investigates.

Nancy Germond presents Beware of Pumping and Pedaling posted at Insurance Writer. If you knew what some women are doing behind the wheel, you'd be very, very scared.

Louise Norris presents Retiree-Only Health Insurance Plans and the ACA posted at Colorado Health Insurance Insider. I don’t know what percentage of the population is covered by retiree-only health plans, but it seems that group might be more likely than others to have children who are young adults. I’m sure Sandy and her husband aren’t the only parents to have found out that the ACA doesn’t apply to their retiree-only health plan.

This concludes the 150th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. The next edition will be hosted at Insurance Regulatory Law.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance , check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

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

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Cavalcade of Risk #107

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #107. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. Thank you to all bloggers who submitted a post to this Cavalcade. I enjoyed reading each one. While every post was a great article, I selected only those primarily related to risk.

In this carnival, the posts naturally fell into two categories: Provider Related and Customer Related, where providers are those that create or offer risk management products and customers are those looking to manage specific risks. I have organized the Cavalcade by these categories to enable more efficient browsing by readers.

Provider Related

If you've wondered about how insurance companies manage risk, determine premium costs or make a profit, the following posts offer some insights:

Nina Kallen presents This is insurance posted at Insurance Coverage Law in Massachusetts. Simply, insurance is about "pooling risk." It's the profit part that introduces complexity.

Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents From the P&C Files: Rate Increases Looming posted at InsureBlog, saying, "Oil spills and volcano ills look to push the cost of managing risk even higher"

Jason Shafrin presents California Health Benefits Review Program posted at Healthcare Economist, saying, "How do mandates affect health insurance cost? This is the job of the California Health Benefits Review Program."

Jaan Sidorov presents A Primer on Insurance Exchanges posted at Disease Management Care Blog. In his post, Jaan Sidorov MD visits a linchpin concept of health reform, the “health exchange” by summarizing a New England Journal of Medicine article by Obamacare golden boy John Kingsdale of the Massachusetts Commonwealth Connector, one of two exchanges up and running in the U.S. He also discusses when this means for brokers and finds that the two concepts are not that far apart in either service OR price. In the end, Dr. Sidorov concludes, it looks like you get what you pay for.

Louise Norris presents Owning Fast Food Stock Not Such a Bad Thing posted at Colorado Life Insurance Insider. "An insurer's chief responsibility to us as policyholders is to remain financially solvent and profitable in order to be able to pay claims as they arise. Investing in profitable stocks is a good way to go about that, and the fact that some of those stocks are in fast food companies is irrelevant."

Here's an example on how a business might create it's own risk management program:

Nancy Germond presents Supply Chain Risk Management a Must as Global Sourcing Intensifies posted at AllBusiness.com - Risk Management for the 21st Century, saying, "With catastrophes like earthquakes and political unrest, and the added complications of overseas supply acquisitions and just-in-time inventory, supply chain risk management is more important now than any time in history."

Customer Related

If you're considering purchasing insurance, here are some perspectives on which types to purchase and the levels of adequate protection:

Crystal presents The Necessary Insurance Coverages posted at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff, which describes the types and levels of insurance carried by her family.

FMF presents The Eight Money Ratios, Part 4 posted at Free Money Finance, saying, "Here are two ratios to help you determine if you have the right level of life and long term care insurance coverage."

Jeff Rose, CFP presents What is a Term Life Insurance Policy? posted at Jeff Rose, saying, "In order to protect your family’s financial situation, life insurance is necessary."

Consumer Boomer presents How to Compare Life Insurance Policies posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, "Let’s look at closer look at all the options when we compare the different types of life insurance policies and which might be best for your situation."

In addition, here are some perspectives on non-insurance risk.

Everything Finance considers the minimizing risks when hiring a company in The Importance of Bonds to Consumers posted at Everything Finance, noting how consumers are protected when a company is licensed and bonded, i.e. one that has purchased a surety bond.

Finally, Kim Luu discusses the risks of sharing personal information in Is Your Facebook Friend a Spy or IRS Agent posted at Money and Risk, saying, "People rarely think about the risks that social media platforms bring to their personal and business life. It can range from losing your job to losing your life."

That concludes this edition. I hope you enjoyed the posts that were included. The next edition of the Cavalcade of Risk will be hosted at Wisdom from Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.

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

Copyright © 2010 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Cavalcade of Risk #103 - Risk Management with the Stars Edition

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #103. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. Thank you to all bloggers who made a submission to this Cavalcade. I enjoyed reading every one of the articles. While every post was a great submission, I only included those I judged primarily related to risk management.

To create a theme, I decided to make use of the previous Cavalcades of Risk hosted by My Wealth Builder: #19, #38, #64, #76, and #94. For this Cavalcade of Risk, I gave each returning blogger a score from one to five based on participation in previous editions hosted by My Wealth Builder. Thus, bloggers whose submissions were included in all five previous editions received five stars.

Five Stars

Only two blogs received a top score of five stars and both have submissions for this edition:

Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents Mysterious Insurance Tricks posted at InsureBlog, saying, "InsureBlog has the story of a risky business use of life insurance."

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Extra Insurance Coverage Through Credit Cards: Use Those Perks posted at The Digerati Life, saying, "Where you can get some extra insurance." In this case, the extra insurance doesn't cost extra :-)

Four Stars

For the two blogs with a four star designation, there was only one submission:

Jay Norris presents Colorado Ski Resorts and Health Care Reform at Colorado Health Insider with this excerpt, " This is just a guess, but I assume that many seasonal ski resort workers would still pick the ski resort job if they were given the option of having a seasonal job elsewhere that provided health insurance, versus having a seasonal job at a ski resort with no health insurance benefits. They are there specifically because they want to work on a ski mountain – they get a free ski pass, and can hit the slopes any time they aren’t working, which is what a lot of them do. "

Three Stars

Of the three blogs with three stars, there were two submissions:

Nancy Germond presents Disability in America Is Increasing posted at AllBusiness.com - Risk Management for the 21st Century. She offers some options that may help bring those on disability back to work.

Super Saver presents Stuff Happens at My Wealth Builder saying, " A couple recent incidents have made me realize how unpredictable life can be."

Two Stars

Among the six blogs with a two star score, there were three submissions:

FMF presents Free Money Finance: Five Things to Know about Permanent Life Insurance posted at Free Money Finance, saying, "Some important facts about permanent insurance." There is a difference between RICH and really, really RICH.

Wenchypoo presents Health Insurers Hedge Bets with Fast Food Stocks posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, asking, "Isn't this what that Goldman-Sachs guy did with the sub-prime derivatives, or Bernie Madoff did against his own supposed "shareholders"? Why don't WE ALL just go to the dark side for fun and profit? It's been said that a doctor a day keeps the apples way, and now I guess it's true. Health insurers seem to be "cornering the apple market" as it were. Thank God I can grow my own and not be part of this crap!" I guess good risk management may not necessarily be congruent with good public relations perceptions :-)

Jason Shafrin presents The Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research on Health Care Spending at Healthcare Economist asking, "Will more comparative effectiveness research reduce spending? Perhaps not."

One Star

Out of 43 blogs with a one star score, there was only one submssion:

Jaan Sidorov presents Disease Management: A $2.3 Billion Industry That Speaks to the Wisdom of Markets at Disease Managment Care Blog reviewing an article on “disease management” and its role in reducing costs in health insurance. He says, "It appears the DM industry is alive and well and may be a good example of the debate between those who favor central scientific planning of insurance benefits and the messy way markets sort things out."

Future Stars

There were five newcomers to a Cavalcade of Risk hosted by My Wealth Builder:

Keith Morris presents Why Healthy and Young Need Health Insurance posted at LifeTuner, saying, "I have a friend in her early 30s who recently was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She did not have health insurance because she worked as a freelancer and could not afford it. In addition to an operation to remove the tumor, her future is filled with rehab and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills."

Joel Ohman presents What car insurance companies do not consider credit scores? posted at Car Insurance Comparison, saying, "When car insurance companies attempt to underwrite auto insurance policies without using credit scores, is it sustainable?"

Mike Piper presents Using Annuities to Protect Inheritance posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, "Can a single premium immediate annuity actually increase the amount you leave behind to your heirs?"

Consumer Boomer presents Questions to Ask Before You Buy Insurance posted at Consumer Boomer.

LivingInVol presents Let's play Russian Roulette! posted at Living in volatility, saying, "Russian roulette is a game only a maniac would play. But is there a price at which you would dare to play? Let's explore the idea..." After reading this, tonight's $252 million Powerball jackpot seems small :-)

That concludes this 103rd edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. The 104th edition will be hosted at Healthcare Economist. Please submit your blog article to the next edition of using the carnival submission form.

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

Copyright © 2010 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Cavalcade of Risk #94 - Alert Level Edition

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #94. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. Thank you to all bloggers who made a submission to this Cavalcade. (For reference, the number seem to be 1/2 normal, meaning either Blogcarnival is malfunctioning, holiday shopping is taking priority, or there is just less risk in the world today :-) I enjoyed reading every one of the articles. While every post was a great submission, I only included those I judged primarily related to risk management.

For your reading entertainment, I have grouped the articles into five levels of risk, using the Homeland Security designations: Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red.

And now on to the Cavalcade ...

Green Alert - Low Risk

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog presents Insurance You CAN NOT Do Without posted at The Canadian Finance Blog, saying, "A look at a few insurance policies that you CAN’T do without."

For our situation, we've learned that the necessity of insurance also depends on life stage. Since taking early retirement in my forties, I have dropped life and disability insurance. I do continue my retiree health insurance, which will continue to be important as we grow older, along with the requisite vehicle and homeowner's insurances.

Jeff Rose presents Why Term Life Insurance is the Best Choice posted at Jeff Rose, saying, "Life insurance is the foundation of a smart financial plan, particularly when there are family and loved ones who depend on a person’s financial support ."

Blue Alert - Guarded Risk

Nancy Germond, ARM, AIC, ITP presents Wage and Hour Suits Heat Up for Heath Care Organizations posted at AllBusiness.com - Risk Management for the 21st Century, which offers some tips to reduce the risk of employment litigation for hourly workers. An important read for employers who let workers continue "off the clock."

Steve Faber presents Preventing Identity Theft - The Next Level posted at DebtBlog which shares a number of tips to reduce the risk of identity theft happening.

Yellow Alert - Significant Risk

June Tree presents Leveraged ETF Investing: More Risk With More Reward posted at The Digerati Life, saying, if "you feel that you can afford to take on some risk to give your portfolio that extra nudge, then there’s a way to leverage by simply relying on the right stock picks you make. By using a little money to make a lot of money, you’ll be able to 'leverage' what you already have. This is possible with a type of exchange traded fund called a leveraged ETF."

My experience is been there, done that, and won't do it again. To me, tracking risk is a major issue of these Ultra ETFs.

Jason Shafrin presents Taiwan’s National Health Insurance System posted at Healthcare Economist, saying, "How does the Taiwanese government handle health care risk for their population. With their innovative National Health Insurance Scheme. The Healthcare Economist gives more details on Taiwan's NHI."

Financial Tales presents A Tale of Two Titans; Financial Tales posted at Financial Tales, which shares an interesting approach for determining an investor's risk tolerance. It's a simple test of choosing among the returns from four different portfolios, over a 21 month period.

Orange Alert - High Risk

Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents Food Pyramid Update: Brew vs Cancer posted at InsureBlog, saying, "Summary: Hey guys: Want to reduce your risk of prostate cancer? Beer's the way!" The post also notes that it would take 17 beers to get the risk reduction benefit, which would probably significantly increase my risk of falling down :-)

Louise presents Reform Worth the Costs at Colorado Health Insurance Insider, saying, "Because individual policies are medically underwritten in Colorado, and because our family is healthy, the individual option is quite a bit less expensive than a group policy would be. If the health care reform bill makes it through the senate and ends up becoming law, that will probably change. We’ll still have a few more years of the status quo, but in 2013 we’ll likely see significantly higher premiums for those of us who are healthy and buy our own health insurance. The difference in premium between a group plan and an individual plan for our family will likely be much less than it is today, due to both the increased benefit mandates and the end of medical underwriting that is expected in the individual market."

Unlike Louise, I have low confidence in politicians developing good, cost effective, sustainable long term health care solutions, but that would be a topic for a different carnival ;-)

Red Alert - Severe Risk

Super Saver presents Avoid Risking Catastrophic Downsides for Low Upsides at My Wealth Builder, saying "I've learned to never do anything that is unsafe, even if the risk of danger is extremely small. The reason is that there is very little upside, e.g. a few seconds saved, versus a catastrophic downside, e.g. losing a limb or life."

That concludes the 94th edition of The Cavalcade of Risk. I hope you enjoyed reading this carnival as much as I enjoyed editing it.

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

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Cavalcade of Risk #76

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #76. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. Thank you to all bloggers who submitted an article to this Cavalcade. I enjoyed reading each one of them. While every post submitted was a great article, I only included those I judged primarily related to risk management.

For your convenience, I have grouped the articles into five categories of risk: Insurance, Health, Business, Investment and Personal.

And now on to the Cavalcade ...

Insurance

Nancy Germond, ARM, AIC, ITP presents Managing Contractual Insurance Requirements a Necessity posted at AllBusiness.com - Risk Management for the 21st Century, commenting that managing contractual insurance requirements for vendors and sub-contractors can be a complex task.

Wenchypoo presents *WARNING! WARNING! BOOK DANGER!!* posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, saying, "This book unwisely advocates the use of whole life policies as the next ATM--insurance is a RISK TOOL, not a savings account!"

Speaking of life insurance, here are some thoughts for those considering a policy. Patrick presents How Much Life Insurance Do You Need? to replace your income should you pass away and FMF presents Seven Life Insurance Mistakes You're Probably Making that one should avoid.

Health

Cesarean Risks at Colorado Health Insurance Insider highlights the importance of truly informed consent, and points out the ways that women are swayed (manipulated?) towards opting for repeat c-sections in the name of safety, without being truly informed about the risks on both sides of the issue.

Jason Shafrin presents Adaptive Partial Drug Approval posted at Healthcare Economist, saying, "Should the FDA move towards a model where drugs are approved quicker, but undergo more intensive post-approval monitoring? The Healthcare Economist weighs in."

The Bad and the Ugly of Disease Management ROI and How Al Lewis of the Disease Management Purchasing Consortium Wants to Fix It at Disease Management Care Blog offers a better method to analyze if programs are really reducing the incidence of disease and providing claimed savings.

David Williams presents Hygienic door handles: the final frontier of bathroom automation? posted at Health Business Blog, saying, "Risk mitigation reaches the bathroom door handle!"

Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents DNA vs PAP posted at InsureBlog, saying, "Will replacing traditional PAP smears with a simpler DNA test reduce the risk of cervical cancer? InsureBlog's Henry Stern has the surprising answer."

C. Ladsila, writing at the Health Related Fitness blog, discusses a new study casting doubt on the efficacy of BMI (Body Mass Index) as a primary gauge of one's risk of developing heart disease.

Business

An Immodest Proposal posted at Aaron Rogier makes "a bold suggestion for supplanting that paradigm used to warrant financial markets." Specifically, Aaron believes the current financial crisis may have been prevented if people had rigorously inspected the knowledge used to construct risk models.

Andrew Reynolds presents Economic Capital - a common currency of risk posted at Banking and Risk Management in Australia, which discusses how economic capital is used by financial institutions to determine risk.

Personal

Ask yourself: Do you feel lucky today? at Worker's Comp Insider shares how fears and risks are not necessarily related. Julie Ferguson takes a look at your odds and relative risk of danger - from shark attacks to cardiac events. You might be surprised to learn who the most dangerous person in the world is.

While identity theft isn't fatal, it is a fear of many people. Silicon Valley Blogger presents Prevent Identity Theft: Some Credit Report Monitoring Services and Options and Nickel presents How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft and E-mail Scams.

This concludes the 76th Edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.

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

Copyright © 2009 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Cavalcade of Risk #64

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #64. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. While every post submitted was a great article, I only included those submissions I judged primarily related to risk management.

My thanks to Hank Stern for the opportunity to host the Cavalcade of Risk a third 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 to the Cavalcade ...

Insurance

Wenchypoo presents Uninsured By Choice--Are They Nuts? posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, which links to an article at MSN Money describing reasons people turn down their employer sponsored health insurance. Similarly, Bob Vineyard, CLU presents I Want Care, I Want it Now, and I Want it Free posted at InsureBlog. What's the risk of going without health insurance? Here's the true story of one man's experience, and what can be learned from it.

If you prefer to be insured, Silicon Valley Blogger presents Get The Right Coverage! Insurance Policies You Need and Those To Avoid from The Digerati Life. In case you're thinking of moving to Singapore, KCLau presents some insurance options in Case Study: Financial Goals of a Malaysian working in Singapore posted at KCLau's Money Tips.

Interested in reducing car insurance costs? LAL presents Keeping on top of insurance posted at LivingAlmostLarge, noting "it made sense to keep the insurance company aware of our newer, improved driving records." For other ways to reduce premiums, see Clearing Up Insurance Myths by Khan at Higher Education and Career Blog, who interviewed Dick Hospital, the Vice President of Underwriting for GEICO Insurance, to help dispel some of the most commonly held insurance myths.

Unfortunately, health insurance keeps getting more expensive. In a recent poll 41% of those surveyed blamed insurance carriers for the rise in health care costs. Louise Norris at Colorado Health Insurance Insider and Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters provide their perspective on the reasons in their respective posts of Who Americans Blame For Rising Health Care Costs and What's that light in the tunnel? Also along the lines of higher costs, FMF presents Five Insurance Traps posted at Free Money Finance, noting five risks that can cause insurance premiums to increase or even loss of coverage.

Finally, has the risk not being able to self fund long term care expenses recently increased, especially after retirement savings have taken a major hit (as in the past few weeks)? In What About Long Term Care Protection, the Long Term Care (LTC) Blog recommends long term care insurance as one way to minimize that risk.

Health Care and Health

Jason Shafrin presents Insured use emergency room more often for primary care issues than uninsured posted at Healthcare Economist, saying insured individuals are more likely to use the emergency room than uninsured individuals.

David E. Williams presents Will credit crisis reduce health care spending growth? at Health Business Blog. The credit crisis also poses serious risks for hospital finances, but may spell good news for health care cost control efforts.

Marc Onigman, of the aptly named Sleep blog, discusses recent research in Daylight saving time affects heart attack risk: study suggesting a causal link between changing to daylight savings time and the increased risk of a heart attack. On the other hand, Dr Isis from On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess subjects that same study to a royal fisking in The Transition to Daylight Savings Time and the Risk of Myocardial Infarction..., reaching some very different conclusions.

Financial and Business

Nancy Germond presents Don't Forget Management By Walking Around saying "I went 'old school' on risk and took a walk down memory lane. I think with Excel and e-mail and wikis and teleconfering, managers have forgotten one key component."

Sun presents How Safe Are My Banks? posted at The Sun's Financial Diary. "In most cases, money in the banks is safe as long as the banks are members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the total amount of money with a specific bank is under the FDIC insurance limit."

Raag Vamdatt presents Equity Investment is Risk Free - Here's the Proof posted at RaagVamdatt.com. "The riskiness of stocks depends on how long you keep invested. If you invest for the long term, equities are virtually risk-free. This is a very bold statement to make. So, let's analyze past 18 year's data, and see how risky stock investment actually is."

This concludes this edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. I hope you enjoyed reading these posts as much as I did. The next CoR will be hosted at Managed Care Matters on November 19, 2008.

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

Copyright © 2008 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

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

Carnival Highlights For The Week #13 - Self Employed Edition

In reading the Carnivals this week, I looked for articles that were related to home businesses, being self employed or earning side income. Here are my picks for the week:

The Personal Development Carnival is hosted at Live The Power.	My Carnival selection is Attitudinal Service, at Trusted Advisor Associates, which writes good customer service is intellectual. However, great customer service comes from the heart and soul.
The Carnival of Personal Finance #99 is organized by Money, Matter, and More Musings.	My Carnival choice is by Tips for Running a Successful Seasonal Business by GreatFX Business Cards. The secret is managing three areas: budget, revenue, and time.
The Investor's Blog Network (IBN) Carnival #6 is hosted by The Digerati Life.	My Festival pick is by Online Stock Trading which covers Online Stock Trading Mid-Day Trading. It provides a few tips and insights to help reduce the chart watching stress during the day,
The Carnival of Family Life #53 celebrates is one year anniversary at it's founder, An Island Life.	My Carnival choice is Family Business: Cons To Beware posted at Inklings, which gives a quick overview of home business pitfalls and ways to combat them.
The Festival of Frugality #73 is presented by Money Smart Life.	My Festival pick is Save Money While Still Dining Out at Saving for Wealth, which shares money saving gift certificates to reduce the cost of business dinners. OK, this one is a bit of a stretch for the theme:-)
The Cavalcade of Risk is hosted at Getting Green.	My Carnival choice is Managing Risk in a Home Business at Families.com, which shares that they are multiple risk in a home business, including financial, business model, hiring and time management.
The Carnival of Taxes #18 is hosted by Don't Mess With Taxes.	My Carnival choice is Estimated Taxes and Avoiding Underpayment Penalties posted at Five Cent Nickel. How to pay estimated taxes is another "learning opportunity" of being self employed.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding ideas you can use.

This marks the final edition of Carnival Highlights for the Week. Based on a discussions at Money, Matter, and More Musings on what readers do not like in Personal Finance blogs, I am discontinuing this segment for now. It seems many regular personal finance blog readers dislike round up articles because the readers have already seen many of the highlighted articles. My site analytics also show these articles have relatively low readership.

My apologies to those readers who have enjoyed this segment. I hope you will equally enjoy the new segments that will replace Carnival Highlights for the Week.


Check back on Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Highlights For The Week #11

Here are some of the posts I like from Carnivals of the past week.

The Investors Blog Network (IBN) Festival #5 The Investors Blog Network (IBN) Festival #5 is organized by The BioHealth Investor.	My Festival choice by Breaking the Shackles of the 9 to 5 on the Anatomy of a Stock Trade: Entry Techniques. This is a good post on the technical trading aspects on buying, managing risk and exiting a position in a stock.
The Festival of Frugality #71 is hosted by Money, Matter, and More Musings.	My Festival pick is Frugal vs. Cheap posted at Money Walks. This post is an excellent discussion of the concepts with examples showing the difference.
The Cavalcade of Risk # 24 is at The Digerati Life.	This is an excellent Carnival, with many great articles. I narrowed my Carnival selections to the following two. The first is by Brazen Careerist tells us that You Don’t Need To Love Risk-Taking To Start Your Own Business. I like the key points in this post: Start with existing skills and assets, be flexible, find a partner (mentor), focus on what's important and have a positive attitude. The second is by Personal Finance Advice which tells us about Understanding Disability Income Insurance. This post is an excellent detailed introduction to disability income insurance, which is more likely to be needed more than life insurance during one's working years.
The Carnival of Financial Planning #2 is hosted by The Skilled Investor Blog.	My Carnival pick is Stocks Vs Real Estate, Winning Investment Strategies posted at The Digerati Life, which compares six areas of consideration when comparing the stocks to real estate. Her post convinced me that the real estate investment practice of personally buying and renting property to a tenant should be considered a small business instead of an "investment," since it may require frequent effort to have a positive return.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding ideas you can use.
Check back on Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Round Up For The Week

Here are the Carnivals from this past week that I am reading :

The Carnival of Personal Finance #87 is hosted by 2 Million - My Journey To Financial Freedom.	My Carnival choice is from Money $mart Life with Why We Should Save As Much Money As We Can since you don't know what the future will bring. I agree, the consequences of over saving are much better than the consequences from under saving.
The Festival of Frugality #61 is hosted by Hustler $$$ Blog.	My Festival pick is How to stop nickel and diming yourself into the poorhouse! by Kirby on Finance, which proposes a systematic way to eliminate $2-$3 "splurges." This is another good way to "buy only what one needs."
The Carnival of Family Life is hosted by Colloquium.	My Carnival choice is Kids And Money posted at No Credit Needed Blog, which describes the system used to teach their daughter about managing money. This system is similar to many others about which I have read. I will use a version of this when our daughter is old enough.
The Cavalcade of Risk #19 - Valentine's Day Edition is hosted by My Wealth Builder.	My Cavalcade pick is Tontines - A Way Out of a Pension Jam at Pension Risk Matters, which reports on a 350 year old risk management tool that can provide guaranteed income for retirees. Tontines appear to address the issue of potentially over saving or under saving for retirement. I like the idea and will study it further for my own retirement use.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding tips you can use. I have moved my Carnival reviews from Tuesday (Ideas You Can Use segment) to Saturdays since several Carnivals that I read publish after Tuesday. In the Saturday review, I will be adding a bit more commentary to the review to fit into the Reflections and Musings theme.

Check back every Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Cavalcade of Risk #19 - Valentine's Day Edition

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #19 - Valentine's Day Edition. I am honored that I was offered the opportunity to host this excellent Carnival. My thanks to Hank Stern for contacting me and taking the risk on me to be more actively involved:-)

Starting with Valentine's Day, I submit that it is a risky day, especially for the young. In my youthful days, I recall that the day was often the test of the status of a developing relationship. In a such a relationship, one doesn't quite know if the feelings are mutual or not. Thus, Valentine's Day offers the risk of over delivering, under delivering or hopefully meeting expectations. Sometimes, Valentine's Day activities were the difference between a ROYAL flush or a royal FLUSH :-)

On to the Carnival ......

As background, all the submissions were excellent. However, I included only posts that had some element of risk in the content. In addition, I limited the Carnival to one submission per blog. For blogs with multiple submissions, I selected the one I liked best. Enjoy!

Multiple Hits by Cupid - Is The Risk Over Managed?

Ben presents How To Lower Your Homeowners Insurance Premiums Without Even Trying posted at Money Smart Life. Here are the words every policy holder loves to hear, "We recently changed the way we price homeowners insurance to ensure your premium reflects the risk your policy presents to us. As a result, your policy premium has decreased."

David Williams presents What you don't know can't hurt you posted at Health Business Blog. As a doctor friend said, “If someone thinks they’re completely healthy it just means they haven’t had a full workup.” What I think he meant is that if you go looking with the latest tools and diagnostics you’ll find something, even if it’s not really there.

Cupid Misses the Mark - Is The Risk Under Managed?

Bob Sargent presents Poor Timing? posted at Specialty Insurance Blog. The Governor of Florida and the Legislature have passed legislation solving, they hope, Florida’s property insurance challenges, but after a mild hurricane season and increasing competition in the insurance market are they buying at the peak?

Egon presents Busting the Top 6 Life Insurance Myths posted at InsuranceHelpHub.com. Term life insurance has many advantages. But understanding term life insurance and its benefits means sifting through the myths surrounding it; and there are many myths about life insurance. These life insurance myths and misconceptions can result in too little coverage causing financial hardship for families suffering the loss of a loved one.

Leon Gettler presents Bigger risks ahead, says regulator posted at Sox First. The global economy is doing fine but industries are now confronting huge risks and issues. Britain's regulator, the Financial Services Authority, is warning businesses that the impact of a shock to the financial system is much greater now than two or three years ago.

Cupid Hits The Bull's Eye - A Good Level of Risk Management

David E. presents Accidents Happen – Be Prepared and Then Move On posted at Worldwide Success. Dealing with accidents is not much different than dealing with any other risks. Risk management is an important discipline in managing a project, a business, an investment, and your personal finances. Being successful requires managing risks well. Be prepared so that when an accident happens you can minimize its impact.

Bob Vineyard, CLU presents Cancer Insurance posted at InsureBlog. A vaccine to prevent cancer in young woman? Who could hate that? Believe it or not, it's a risk assessment issue, and InsureBlog's Bob Vineyard shares why it's an insurance one, as well. (Be sure to catch the lively debate in the comments section, too!)

Silicon Valley Blogger presents A First Look At Asset Allocation posted at The Digerati Life. The choice one makes for investment allocations can signficantly increase or decrease one's risk. Proper asset allocation allows one to choose a desired risk profile ranging from conservative to agressive.

Spencer Hill presents Why Long Term Care Insurance? posted at Hill's Personal Finance. Funding a potential long term illness or disability without depleting your savings and investments can be done in many ways. Its best to start planning for this event around age 50 or about 20 years before long term care might be needed. After your plan is in place it is best to review it every 5 years or when significant changes in the law take place.

Marc Mayerson presents Insurers' Duty to Defend their Insureds Against Intentional Torts posted at Insurance Scrawl. This post shares both sides of whether litigation insurance applies, to suits against the insured alleging an – or only – intentional tort.

Joe Kristan presents IN THIS CORNER, THE VILLANOVA MAULER posted at Roth & Company, P.C.. Joe responds to questions from the tax professor Jim Maule about President Bush's health care ideas. The answers are a mix of accounting, risk management, and cost effectiveness.

Michael Cannon presents Paduda Cuts (Closer) to the Heart of the Matter… posted at Cato at Liberty. Sick people don’t need insurance. Insurance doesn’t make sick people healthy. They need medical care. They may even need subsidies. So why not try to provide them those things, rather than wreck the markets for both health insurance and health care?

Julie Ferguson presents Working and surviving in extreme cold posted at Workers Comp Insider. Here are various resources and tips for minimizing the health and life-threatening risk that extreme temperatures pose for people who have outdoor work responsibilities.

More Risky Propositions

TC presents Simple Living - best buys for DIYs posted at InvestmentsLoans.net which shares how to minimize the risk of paying too much for items in an auction.

Bill Losapio presents HOLY BULLION! BIG News in the Gold Market posted at LWilliamLosapio.com, which discusses the risk of price manipulation if one invests in gold.

Fedor presents Understanding Currency Trading Dynamics posted at forexblog. One shouldn't take the risk of being in the business of currency trading if one expects to lose money as a beginner.

Andrea Dickson presents Womanhood microscopic and other hot stock tips posted at WiseBread Financial. Penny stocks almost always lose money for the investor. We should keep friends and family from believing they can beat the odds.

Rita Schwab presents US Malpractice Law - Understanding the System posted at MSSPNexus Blog. It is a brief summary of how the US medical malpractice litigation system works.

Jeffrey Strain presents The Best Place To Hide Money: Conversation With A Burglar posted at Personal Finance Advice. Burglars will always find some of one's valuables. Here's how one can minimize the loss and damage.

And From Around The Blogsphere

Here is a selection of additional articles posted during February.

Dr Susan M. Mangiero reports on a 350 year old risk management tool that can provide guaranteed income for retirees in Tontines - A Way Out of a Pension Jam at Pension Risk Matters. Tontines appear to address the issue of potentially over saving or under saving for retirement. I like the idea and will study it further for my own retirement use.

David Dobbs, host of Smooth Pebbles, writes that taking regular midday naps is associated with reduced risk of death from heart disease in Naptime! Read this and have a coronary ... or take a nap. It's your decision.

We've all read about assessing risk, and managing risk, but what about the psychology of risk? Vaughan at MindHacks looks into risk, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and security in The Psychology of Risk and Security.

My submission is Lessons From The Poker Table posted at My Wealth Builder which reapplies strategies to manage risk in gambling to personal finance.

In closing the of Cavalcade of Risk #19 - Valentine's Day Edition, I leave you with one final thought: Don't risk the fallout from forgetting to acknowledge Valentine's Day with your special someone :-)

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Nicolas Raymond

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Request for Submissions - Cavalcade of Risk #19

A new beginning for me. I will be hosting my first Carnival, the Cavalcade of Risk #19, on February 14, 2007. The Cavalcade of Risk is a Money & Finance Carnival that was started on June 7, 2006 to cover the topic of risk management related to the insurance business. The Carnival has expanded to include any articles on the topic of risk - insurance risk, investment risk, market risk, medical risk, and even personal risk.

The submission deadline is Monday, February 12. You can submit your article using the Blog Carnival Submission Form.

For more New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Darren Hester

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC