Author Archives: Dave

How An Insurance Loss Assessor Can Help Following A Disaster

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If you run a successful small business having good insurance cover is crucial, and you would assume this would cover you sufficiently following a fire, flood or burglary. This isn’t always the case and when you require your business to return to normal as quickly as possible this will need to be addressed.

We all know that insurance companies will try and wriggle out of paying the premium when it comes to insurance claims – and when you are expected to deal with nuances of the claim yourself it can be nigh on impossible to get the kind of money you need to take your company forward following the disaster. In addition to this the insurance company will have appointed a loss adjuster to the case to investigate your liability and the extent of the cover as it relates to the claim.

If this all seems a little unfair then I would suggest you may be right. However a small business can use a secret weapon to combat the insurance company – know in the industry as an insurance loss assessor. An insurance loss assessor will be working for, and representing, you and your company. Working solely with you and your business in mind the insurance loss assessor (who will probably work on a no win no fee basis) will carry out the same research as the loss adjuster, will complete all the relevant paperwork for the claim and negotiate on your behalf. Because they are working for you (and on a no win no fee basis) you can rest assured that they will get the best possible financial payment for your business.

The insurance loss assessor will provide a true statement of what you have lost in the disaster and negotiate the settlement with the insurance company – getting you and your business what you are rightfully owed. Insurance loss assessors tend to specialise in fire insurance claims, flood insurance claims, theft insurance claims and business interruption claims. They do have access to a multitude of other professional in specialist areas so can accommodate virtually any claim you need them to.

When you have poured your life in to creating a successful business you don’t want to disappear into the dust following a disaster.

Business Insurance Claims and the Importance of Insurance Loss Assessors

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Running a small business can be stressful at the best of times – there just never seems to be enough time in the day – but if your business is the unfortunate victim of some kind of disaster it can be devastating financially and emotionally. It is crucial that you are prepared for such an event as fire, flood or water damage in order to give you business the best possible chance of survival following such a catastrophic accident.

Many small businesses assume that by having their insurance in place that if an event like this should befall them they will be fine. Whilst comprehensive cover is crucial you may also want to know about insurance loss assessors and how they can help you if there is a disaster at your work premises.

The phrase ‘insurance loss assessor‘ is usually mentioned in the same breath as ‘loss adjuster’ and often people assume that they are different names for the same job – which isn’t strictly true. A loss adjuster works for the insurance company and is appointed as soon as you have a made an insurance claim. Let’s say you have had a fire at your work premises, that has left you with little or no stock and has destroyed a good portion of your building – the first thing you will do is make your fire insurance claim. The loss adjuster appointed by the insurance company will investigate fully the events surrounding the fire. They will interview you, any potential witnesses, they will speak to the police (and if necessary hospital and fire departments) – all this is to check your liability in the accident and whether your insurance will cover the damage. As the loss adjuster works for the insurance company (also a business let us not forget!) they will try and keep the payout as little as possible – which will not aid your business to move forward if the figure is too low.

Enter the insurance loss assessor – essentially carrying out similar tasks, but for you. The insurance loss assessor will be employed by your business to act on its behalf in the fire insurance claim. The knowledge that the insurance loss assessor will bring will give you a fighting chance in receiving adequate compensation following the fire. Not only with the insurance loss assessor deal with all the paperwork surrounding your fire insurance claim they will also deal directly ion the negotiation of the claim with your insurance company.

Just by being aware of what an insurance loss assessor can do for your company will give you an advantage should you ever be the victim of such a catastrophic disaster as fire.

Know how to consolidate your credit card debt

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If you are a living in Austin and have the habit of using multiple credit cards, to pay for the increasing cost of living, and at the same time you are finding it hard to pay more than the minimum payment amount on your credit cards; you should take advantage of debt consolidation Austin companies.

How a debt consolidation company works

When you enroll yourself with a debt consolidation Austin Company, the company representative will analyze your financial situation and help you prepare a budget, so that you can save more and pay off your debts within a shorter period of time without much hassle. He may offer you to opt for either a debt consolidation program or take out a debt consolidation loan.

Austin debt consolidation programs

The debt consolidation company may suggest you to go for a debt consolidation program, where you will not be given any financial assistance from the company. However, the company representative will give you extensive information on consolidating your debts. He will also work out a repayment schedule in accordance with your financial situation.

Austin debt consolidation loans

If you do not want to go for a debt consolidation program, you can try to get debt consolidation loans to pay off your credit card debt. The company representative will do negotiation with your creditors, on your behalf. You will get a new consolidated loan, at a lower interest rate. Thus, you will have only one lender and have to make a single payment each month. As you will enjoy lower interest rate, the monthly payments will also become reduced and you will be able to save money. The representative may also negotiate with your creditors to waive off the penalties for late payment and over the limit charges. Thus, it becomes much easier to handle your debt.

Benefits of debt consolidation

Advantages of Austin debt consolidation are:

  • You have to manage only a single account and a single lender. So, it becomes much easier to maintain your payment each month.
  • You can renew your payment time. This will provide you more time to repay your debt.
  • As the interest rate gets reduced, your monthly payment amount also becomes lower.
  • You can waive off penalties for late payments and over the limit charges.
  • The creditors will stop making harassing calls to you.
  • As you make payments, your credit will improve.

Before going to take help of a debt consolidation Austin Company, you should check with its authenticity and reliability with the local union and the Better Business Bureau (BBB). You should also resist the temptation to purchase things on credit and incur further debts in order to have a financially secure life.

Cash bonuses in the spotlight.

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cash bonuses in the UK

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor of the Conservative Party spoke out yesterday against Britain’s Retail banks paying ‘significant’ cash bonuses to employees in finance jobs. He believes there should be a drive to plough profits back into new lending and rather than paying out large bonuses, the money should go into the banks balance sheets explicitly to support new lending. Osborne, who named no individual institutions, is believed to have been alluding to the four big high street banks, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays.

He called on the Treasury and Financial Services Authority to work together and stop retail banks ‘paying out profits in significant cash bonuses’. Osborne’s reaction comes after Gordon Brown said that he would crack down on unreasonable bonuses, the Prime Minister said “We are continuing to act on unfair and excessive bonuses being paid in the banking system that your money helped save.” Liam Byrne, chief secretary to the treasury said ‘We have stopped short of banning all bonuses for retail banks because it is unworkable, but we are presently negotiating with RBS and Lloyds on the payment of 2009 bonuses.”

Osborne’s call for a ban, which is the strongest attack yet by the Tories on banks suggested the bonuses be paid in shares to employees in banking jobs and that they should not be cashed for at least three years and he claimed that billions of pounds in ‘subsidised profits’ threatened to worsen the credit crunch.

With the tax payers bailing out the bank to help increase lending again, Osborne argued that the move wasn’t intended to leave Britain in a position where credit was being rationed while banks return to their big bonuses.

An argument that will continue to grow and develop I am sure, but who is right? Do we run the risk of losing invaluable financing and accounting staff in the haste of a total ban of bonuses or is it ludicrous to think that any member of banking staff should receive bonuses after the tax payers bailed the banks out last year?

The challenges and trends of Public Sector Employment in today’s environment.

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Man sitting in front of Big Ben

Not surprisingly, as the financial crisis continues to grip the UK, there is an increasing shift on demand from private to public sector jobs in finance. An inevitable trend which sees finance jobs in the realms of Central and Local Government, Health, Housing, Education and charities, a preferable role with added security. Commitment to investment and borrowing from the government to protect and increase the scope of public sector jobs makes it more of an enviable sector to be in. Differences continue to divide the private and public sectors and some of the challenges that will always remain in public sector recruitment continue to be the complexity and importance of the accounting positions in the sector and the demand of specialist knowledge and capabilities within those roles.

Salaries, benefits and the general tone of working have always segregated the sectors but a continuous push from the public sector to become more in line with the private sector is starting to make a difference. Targeting candidates from industry and banking due to their results-focus and business intelligence provides more commercial awareness and increases business efficiency and performance for the public sector. Adopting a more commercial structure and identifying the transferable experience an individual has into non-profit environments are key factors to ensure public and non-profit organisations get as much value for money in a time when government reviews and motions are becoming increasingly more demanding.

However transferable and relevant a private sector individual has to the public sector still won’t deter from a greater need for understanding and empathy with the ‘product’ of the non-profit sector. Nor will it be acceptable for individuals to see public sector recruitment as the safest avenue, gaining employment in this sector requires a high level of commitment to integrating within the team and meet the public sectors demands and expectations and attaining highly accountable targets. There are certain roles within the private sector that lend themselves better to public and non-profit sectors than others and individuals from the private sector who have highly technical finance skills within a banking background find themselves well equipped with highly regulated organisations like government departments for example. For a true insight into getting into public sector roles based on your experience to date contacting a specialist recruitment agency will provide you with the vital information you need.

The Risks of Driving Uninsured

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CCTV cameras for ANPR technology

An ever increasing number of people are currently driving without car insurance on UK roads. As financial pressure grows on UK household’s people aren’t shopping around for the best car insurance deals; they’re simply not buying any.

The implication of this growing trend is very worrying for the car insurance industry and injury compensation companies alike.

The penalties for driving without insurance include:

  • £200 fine
  • Your vehicle being seized
  • Six penalty points added to your license

With the methods of catching uninsured drivers increasing, and more and more of them being caught (up to 500 a day, according to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau also known as the MIB), it’s becoming harder to get away with not having insurance.

There is even a database that shows which parts of the country contain the highest number of uninsured vehicles (Greater London – 13%, Merseyside – 12%, Greater Manchester – 10%, West Yorkshire – 7%, and the West Midlands – 7% are the top five, if you’re interested) so police know where to concentrate their efforts.

The MIB has begun a campaign to point out the risks faced by driving uninsured. It’s not just when people get caught that they run into problems. Anybody involved in an accident whilst they’re uninsured risks being taken to court over road traffic accident claims, and if you don’t have an insurer to pay compensation, you’re going to be paying out of your own pocket.

With the number of No Win No Fee companies around, having to pay compensation on a injury claims is a real possibility and one that could result in enormous financial difficulties for all those involved.

When all of this is considered, skipping insurance to save money suddenly doesn’t seem like such a good idea.

Your Workplace and You – Making the Right Decision

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Office Space - Hatred of Office Eqipment

When looking for a new job, it’s important to know what it is you want. This doesn’t cover just the industry and pay grade (though of course you don’t want to be looking for accountancy jobs when you’re interested in software engineering), but what you expect from your workplace. What might seem like the best job in the world could turn into a daily trip to hell if you don’t like the people you work with.

Some aspects that you might want to consider are things such as the size of the company. Whereas a larger company may offer more benefits, and possibly higher pay, you may find that you’re a small cog in the machine, often ignored or overlooked. If you are comfortable with that, or if you believe you possess the tenacity to make yourself heard, then that’s fine. If not, you might want to consider working in a smaller company, where it will be easier to get to know everybody and make yourself heard, but you may have more responsibilities and a larger workload, coupled with fewer benefits.

Once you have decided what you want from your workplace, do some research on any companies you apply to. This can involve talking to friends and family, or looking online for past and current employee stories. If you find something on a major news site, be very sure to check if its positive or negative.

Remember to make the most of your interviews. Ask probing questions, and pay attention to how people treat each other. If you have a chance to get to know the current employees then make the most of it. These are some of the best opportunities you’ll have, as only you know what you’re really looking for.

Though it may seem a little daunting to try and base your opinion on what could be a single interview, you’re not alone in your search. Websites such as bestcompanies.co.uk can help you discover if your potential employer has a good track record, and they operate in multiple sectors, from finance jobs to careers in creative design. Not every company is listed in these sites, but if yours is, it’s a very good sign.

Hopefully, these tips will ensure you don’t end up working for a nightmare company. It’s another item in a long list of factors that you have to bear in mind when looking for jobs, but it is an important one.

Get paid what you are worth in the recession

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salary

It is a common thought that talking about money with your boss or in an interview is a tricky subject and you would think this is even more the case during these hard times. It seems that most people currently looking for jobs are scared of talking money for two reasons, one being that their not currently worth as much as they had thought or secondly, someone less experienced will come along and work for less.

But you can talk about money during an interview; you just need to be clever about it.

Before going to an interview, you should know what your salary expectations are, in line with the current trends. To get a reasonable figure you should research on the internet, talk to finance and accountancy recruitment specialists and read up on salary surveys. Once you have a figure in your head you can be clear about your expectations when asked. This position will allow you to know how to be flexible when the subject is brought up.

Going into interviews especially for finance jobs, you shouldn’t be in the mindset that the employer is the one completely in charge. Some people can feel this way if they have been made redundant and are desperate for work. If you can keep cool and have the relevant background and experience then you will be in a strong position. The fact that a company is looking for new employees in these hard times and you have made it into the interview stage, shows that they really need someone with your skills in their organization.

One common problem facing the recruitment world at the moment, is a lot of experienced people are aiming for junior roles just so they can get back into the workplace. But organizations want to know that their new employees will be committed to the company and feel these experienced individuals will probably jump ship as soon as the market starts to improve. If you are in this position, you will need to convince the employer you are in it for the long term. To help this you should talk about how you hope to progress through the company and your long term goals within the organization.

Once you have been offered a role, you will be in a stronger position to negotiate on your salary. The key here is to not appear greedy, show you are pleased in securing the job and explain how your proposed salary fits in with the current market place. If they do not offer exactly what you want, you should bear in mind that a slight in reduction in the expected amount isn’t that bad in this climate.

Good luck in your job hunting.

How to Clear Your Credit Card Debt

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clear your credit cards

Prior to the worldwide economic slowdown we were encouraged to use our credit cards as a source of easy flexible credit to help fund luxury purchases. This free spending culture is perhaps best epitomised by the slogan ‘whack it on the plastic’. However for many people this led them to build up large credit card balances on which they were only able to pay the minimum monthly repayment on. If you are in this situation you probably can’t see a way of ever reducing this debt. But with the following suggestions and professional advice a debt free future can be secured.

So how can you work your way towards a clear credit card? The first step is perhaps the most obvious- stop using the credit card. The more you spend, the more you have to pay back. With every purchase you are only digging yourself into a deeper hole. If necessary cut up the card to ensure you will not keep using it.

Next switch your balance over to a credit card that offers a better interest rate than your current card. This will help slow down the rising cost of your debt. Ideally you are looking for a card that offers a 0% interest rate for a selected period. During this time you will be better able to clear your credit as your won’t be accruing extra debt in interest.

If you have any savings it may be worth using these to pay off your credit card. There is no point saving money in one place and be obligated to a debt in another. Pay off that credit card and once you are debt free you can concentrate on saving again.

However if you don’t have any savings then the only way you will have a clear credit card is to pay off more than the monthly minimum. Even if it’s only a small amount extra each month it will help you to slowly reduce that debt. The best way to arrange this is to sit down and make a list of all the money coming in and all of your outgoings. How much do you have left once the bills have been paid and you’ve budgeted for food etc? This will give you a guide to how much you can afford to pay off on a monthly basis. To ensure you stick to this budget see if you can set up a direct debit to pay off the card.

It’s not always easy to clear your credit but with careful planning and a prudent approach to your spending you can soon bring your credit card balance under control.

Common Road Accidents That Can Be Avoided by Driving Carefully

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road traffic Accident

Accidents happen all the time. Unfortunately they are a way of life, yet some of them can be avoided. It seems that more and more people are making personal injury claims due to road traffic accidents.

It would be fair to say that the majority of us don’t drive to the same standard that we did when we passed out test. Over time we have become lazy and less cautious of the dangers that lay in front of us. So what can we do to become safer drivers? We need to remember some of the things we were taught whilst learning to drive and combine it with a little common sense.

1. Accidents at junction. The two main factors for this type accident include:

a.      A lack of awareness from the person pulling out of the junction. Very often they don’t look long enough and refuse to slow down enough at the junction to register the flow of the traffic.

b.      Unfortunately responsibly also lays in the hands of the other driver in regards to their speed. The two combined can cause a fatal mistake for some.

2.      Over Taking
With so many other road users such as caravans, lorries, cyclists and tractors it becomes all too easy to be impatient with these slow moving travelers. Many drivers find themselves taking unnecessary risks to overtake and gain a few seconds over this type of traffic. It’s worth while remembering that you should not be over taking on a corner or on the brow of a hill. You also need to remember at all times, that when over taking ‘what if some one is doing what I’m doing on the other side of the road?’

3.      Always look right
Roundabouts are always another popular place for an accident. By not looking properly and becoming impatient whilst waiting for a gap an accident is on the horizon for many car drivers. Consider these two factors with the thought that people using the round about might not be in the correct lane and you should approach the roundabout with a little more care.

These three tips alone could help you avoid any un-necessary collisions with other road users. Just remember to be considerate and un-agitated and driving will become more of a pleasure than a chore.