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Despite state law and regulation for all driver’s to carry adequate liability insurance, there are still those drivers on the road with no insurance coverage at all. Due to this negligence on the part of irresponsible drivers, many states now also require the additional purchase of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

Drivers without insurance policies are 10 times more apt to get in their automobiles to drive after indulging in alcoholic beverages. They are also 3 times more apt to be found guilty of driving negligently. Around 15% of all drivers do not have any insurance. Therefore, it is hardly amazing that 10% of motorists have found themselves in accidents with such uninsured drivers. What are the steps to take if you have this experience and how can you achieve some level of protection?

At the time of the accident you probably won’t know that the other driver is uninsured so you’ll need to respond in the normal way. Take notes of the other car’s make, model, license and registration number. Also be sure to note the other driver’s name and address (although he may not give his correct details).

Take notes about the scene of the accident, too, like where road signs were located, or what the lighting and weather were like. Write down what damage there was to the other car and whether that car had its lights on. More information is better than less. Get contact information from any witnesses present. If you have a camera handy, take pictures of the damage, and also try to get a picture of the other driver, since police might need it.

If you carry comprehensive auto insurance, then your insurance company will pay for all of the repairs to your car. However, you may lose any discounts that you receive for not filing claims and may have to cover a deductible before the insurance company pays for anything. If you are hit by an uninsured motorist, then you will have to pay the deductible unless your policy specifically waives that requirement.

Drivers that have their cars insured may carry just the minimum legal limit and this may be less than what is necessary to cover any damages in an accident which is their responsibility. Unless you have underinsured motorist insurance, in incidents where the at-fault driver cannot cover the left over expenses out of pocket, these expenses could be left with you.

The most advantageous approach is to drive defensively, always wear a seatbelt, and to purchase uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage with your vehicle insurance policy.

Bankruptcy is a scary procedure to undergo, and some wonder if they should simply allow a mortgage foreclosure to take place instead. This is not a decision which can be made easily, and is really not an either/or case. A foreclosure occurs when a mortgage lender is not paid its monthly payments. Stopping the action can only be done by paying the lender.

A mortgage loan is sort of like a car loan and if a person does not pay his car payment, he will lose the car through repossession. If a person does not make their mortgage payments, they face the loss of their home through foreclosure.

For someone who cannot pay his or her debts, bankruptcy is a legal action they can take. While the filer is in bankruptcy, this action will stop civil proceedings against hem. A foreclosure can be halted through these means because lender is required to cease all their legal actions against the debtor. Still, the lenders are not left out in the cold, because they will file for relief from the stay. Bankruptcy does not allow you to keep a home that is not paid for to the mortgage lender, and it will not stop foreclosure. Bankruptcy only slows down the process and does not eliminate the situation.

Even though it doesn’t stop foreclosure, bankruptcy can also be beneficial in that it will allow a person additional time to make payments, or make it easier to pay the lender. Because bankruptcy makes a lender suspend foreclosure, a debtor will have extra time to get the money to pay the lender. In addition, since bankruptcy can discharge many other debts completely, a person in debt might have more funds available to pay their mortgage. Another benefit is that a chapter 13 bankruptcy filing will allow a debtor to pay their mortgage catch up through a court ordered payment plan.

However, not everyone qualifies for filing of bankruptcy in the first place, and those that do must pay sufficient legal fees. Legal bills can be quite high, and high enough that they outweigh the costs of catching up with the mortgage.

If you think that bankruptcy may help you stop or avoid foreclosure, talk with a licensed lawyer. Bankruptcy is a complicated legal process that should not be handled by yourself alone. The material offered in this article should serve only as a general guide, and for more specific information, you should contact a licensed lawyer in your state.

Getting information on what you’ll be charged to process credit cards will help you manage the expenses associated with this important part of your business. Most merchants don’t give too much thought to this after they’ve setup their accounts. Business owners that are overpaying can very easily reduce their fees and those just getting setup for the first time can use the information in this article to make sure they’re not overpaying.

Each business owner will pay a discount rate which is a percentage of the gross volume processed. If the discount rate is 1.7%, the merchant will pay $1.70 for every $100 of volume. So, for merchants processing $10,000 or more per month, each .1% represents $10. So a discount rate of 1.3% vs. a discount rate of 1.9% will save that merchant $60 per month on just the discount alone which is an annual savings of $720. This can add up quickly, so it’s important to keep this rate low.

Your discount rate will depend on which type of merchant you are. If you’re a supermarket, for instance, you’ll pay significantly less than a website dedicated to travel reservations. You’ll also have a lower discount rate if you process mostly check cards vs. corporate cards, for instance.

You’ll also have a per transaction fee for each transaction. The lower your average ticket or average transaction, the greater percentage of the overall fees the per transaction fee represents. For instance, if your average ticket item is $10, a $.25 per transaction fee represents a 2.5% “effective rate”. If you add a traditional discount rate of 1.3% or so, your total effective rate would be 3.8% which is high, or at least higher than it could be.

If you have a per transaction of $.17, the same $10 transaction would have a 1.7% transaction rate which would reduce your overall effective rate on those smaller ticket items. Your goal should be to get your effective rate as low as you possibly can.

Business owners will typically have a monthly fee, usually in the form of a statement fee, customer service fee, or monthly account maintenance fee. This fee is usually about $10 per month.

There is also a monthly minimum that is usually charged on merchant accounts as well. This is a $25 minimum fee based on the discount rate. Any given month, the $25 worth of discount fees is charged. So, if you process $1000 per month at 1.7%, you’ll be assessed $17 worth of discount fees. If your minimum is $25, you’d pay the extra $8 worth of fees to equal the $25.

These are the main fees associated with any merchant account. Of course, there are more fees that will apply to certain types of accounts, such as an internet-based account or a wireless account which may have additional fees. There are also some per instance fees such as insufficient funds fee, chargeback, retrieval fees, AVS fees, batch header fees, and other misc. fees. Your sales representative should know and be able to explain any and all of these fees.

Be sure to work with a merchant service provider and a sales representative that you can trust. The industry is a lucrative one and attracts both the honest and dishonest sales reps. Having said that, make sure you review the “fine print” and pricing pages for the application before you commit to work with a merchant services provider.

Insurance is a form of risk management and can be defined as the transfer of a given risk to an insurance company in exchange for a premium paid by the insured at regular intervals. Life in today’s world couldn’t exist without insurance as it protects a person financially should an adverse event like illness or accident happen whereby the underwriter pays out a fixed sum agreed at the beginning of the insurance. The insurer works out the risk involved in given situation and the chance of it occurring and bases a premium to be paid by the insured on this which is normally paid on a monthly basis and can be arranged for just about anything including death.

There are also insurance policies that will cover an event but also have an element of investment, whereby the premium is invested by the insurance agent and the sum assured is paid out should the event happen but if it doesn’t then at the end of the arrangement any profits, after the agent has taken out their fees, are paid to the client. With so many insurance companies providing so many assorted kinds of Insurance Policies and plans, policies are becoming more affordable for all kinds of individuals.

Some kinds of insurance are obligatory, while others are optional and a provider or organization may actually refuse a person to carry out an activity if they are not insured. Cover can be used for anything including life protection, automobile cover, health indemnity, home insurance, property indemnity, disability indemnity, travel cover, pet indemnity, cycle cover, recreational vehicle protection, sports protection and so on.

There are also specialist insurance policies for flooding, ski ing, extended care, flying, kidnap, extended warranty and many others. In short, insurance can be purchased to cover any kind of a risk.

Insurance policies are plans that are provided by an insurance firm to the insured. Providing all specified elements of the contract are met by the insured, should the event, to which the insurance has been taken out, happen then the sum agreed, in this legally binding contract, will be paid to the named recipient.

When you approach an insurance provider to purchase an insurance policy, the company provides you with a quotation that contains all the aspects like premiums to be paid, the benefits and so on. Once the application has been returned with the premium installment by the insured, the insurance provider will make a final check before it is agreed and a copy returned.

The policy becomes payable if the insured event takes place during the life of the policy (if there is one) and at that time the insurance company may initiate their own investigation to ensure that everything in the policy has been complied with. Whereas in the early days insurance could only be purchased directly from the insurance provider, today there are other options including brokers who can source many assorted companies to get the most competitive quote available.

However, it is important to make sure before you take out any policy that it actually covers exactly what you want it too and at the agreed limitations plus it is always worth checking to see if any costs are hidden in the fine print and that the company has a good record for paying out without any hassle. Another, very fast method of arranging insurance nowadays is via the internet and there are a large number of comparison web sites available to make the task simple. With the advent of the internet it is just as easy to source your insurance policy online and comparison web sites can be as useful as a broker locating a policy at the price that suits your budget.

There are many television programs on today regarding financial planning. These programs usually give good advice that can be used in your life to improve your financial situation.

Usually the advice they give can be quite helpful. It is rare that these programs will mislead you.

Because much of financial planning is just good sense of judgement and practical knowledge the advice given is rarely that difficult to understand. Sometimes the accountants and fancy financial advisors may intimidate you. It can make it seem much more difficult than it really is.

So why do so many people turn their lives into a financial nightmare? When it’s so easy to find a good financial planning program today, often at no cost to the consumer, why are so many people in debt? Whey can’t they turn their lives around?

Some people only submit to the advice of a credit counselor or other advisor during crisis time. When the crisis passes they slip right back into their old financial ways. There is no way to really improve your financial situation doing that. You must be determined to get with a program and stick with it for the long haul.

Plant a seed in good soil, nurture it, and it will return a bumper crop. A farmer isn’t going to be successful if he only goes to work when he feels like it. And you will only be successful with a financial planning program if you apply it consistently.

Take control today by determining that you will only spend what you have. No more credit purchases. Work to pay off your credit card balances. If possible, transfer for balances to a lower interest credit card.

Then concentrate on paying off your debt as fast as possible. Sell anything you own that’s not an absolute necessity and use the cash to reduce your credit burden and interest payments. Put all your other cards under lock and key - they are only to use in an emergency. You’ll turn your life around in a hurry.

I learned something new last week: I always thought CEOs understood what a CFO’s role was. Well, not all of them do. For example, a couple months ago I contacted the founder of a new company in my area. I have great personal interest in what the company does, and I thought it would be a chance to do something fun. The local newspaper wrote a feature article about them and they were really starting to generate national attention. My first meeting with the founder and sales manager went very well and they expressed interest in my taking on the role of CFO.

We decided to move forward: After the appropriate non-disclosure agreements were exchanged, I obtained from their Dallas lawyer their business plan, which I suspect had been quite expensive to produce. I was appalled; Numbers didn’t add up. What few assumptions expressed in detail were so optimistic they should have been represented as waiting for miracles. Nothing made sense. I’d seen this kind of fluff before, mainly in China in the early ’90s, where state-sponsored businesses had goals, but no coherent plans on how to reach them - simply because as subsidized businesses they didn’t know how to build and articulate plans that would enlist investment or outside participation. Let’s be clear: Objectives are NOT plans. The team near my house realized their business plan needed help, but what became patently obvious was that their expectations of their incoming CFO were really what was out of whack. CFOs can drive business goals, but they can’t work miracles.

In subsequent communications, I asked more tough questions about their technology, the target customer and marketing strategy. I had obviously struck a nerve. The response was something along the line of, “We don’t need people to question our vision.” I was disappointed. I would have expected the response to be “Glad you asked. Let me explain our strategy.” Certainly, a knowledgeable investor would ask questions at least this challenging or even more probing. While keeping an eye on product development is important, it’s not the only thing. Today, attracting and keeping investors is a key role of the executive team. The CFO must be objective at all times and is compelled to ask senior management the difficult questions, because sooner or later an investor will ask them too. Clearly, this particular CEO didn’t get it, and wasn’t going to win an investment round.

The investment pie has shrunk and will no doubt shrink even more. Times are tough. Conservative investors play their cards close to their vest. To win the game, you cannot falter, not once. During the boom of the late 1990s, business plans were done in pencil on post-it notes. No more. . . Getting investors to take the bait - big investors who can get the job done, not mom and pop speculators - means having a bullet-proof business plan with the full credibility of an experienced CFO behind it.

I spoke at length recently with a private venture capital group who has all but abandoned funding start-ups, (odd for a VC) and has instead shifted to emerging technologies, small but with proven track records, and more importantly, credible executive staffs who can potentially get big. They have no interest in risk, no matter what the upside. In their view, if you aren’t already making money, at least a little, they’re not interested. A business on a solid footing, with real operations, financial controls, the foundations of enterprise, is what they look for. They’re no longer interested in creating a company out of thin air, only adding to what is already there.

Stock declines are a sign of the times. Equity markets have been chewed to ribbons by broken lending models, huge deficits, dead credit and sky-high energy prices. Taxpayers are saddled with a clean-up none can afford and the economy, while not totally stopped, is grinding to a screeching halt. The country, every sector of the economy, must reinvent itself. Detroit must re-tool, airlines conserve even more, companies drive toward novel ways of limiting transportation and energy costs. They all need money to do it. In the middle of this situation, how are you going to move your own ball forward? Do you have what it takes? What makes you stand out? Everyone is looking for investment. You will have to scramble for each and every penny. Why makes you so deserving?

It’s obvious: Executives must consistently look to the future in order to successfully grow and reach the next level. This is nothing new. Experts at Thomas Financial Services (www.thomasfinancialsvcs.com) know what to do. Building core infrastructure in basics like financial systems, business planning, forecasting and accounting will make all the difference. You’ll become strong and efficient when your plan works the way you want it to. Customers will see the difference, investors too.

The corporate landscape is littered with the bodies of start-ups that failed to plan, or to execute a plan. Don’t be one of them. Stay focused on the long-term. CEOs need to remain synchronized with an experienced CFO in order to win with investors. You’re never too little to succeed, and never too big to fail.