Posts for 'Insurance' Category

The Dutch financial group ING announced yesterday that it would completely separate banking operations from the insurance ones, as part of the restructuring program "Back to Basics". The decision comes following the completion of the reorganization plan announced early this year, recently agreed with the European Commission. ING is going to divest, in time, all insurance and investment management operations, through IPOs and sales or a combination between these two.

The end of the separation process is scheduled for 2013 and will take place over several stages. Nor the insurance and pensions divisions of Romania will be exceptions to the effects of this restructuring, being the subject of a possible sale.

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A Barry County judge has ruled that Michigan regulators must stop their practice of denying auto and home insurance rate filings that are based in part on credit scoring. Friday's ruling by Circuit Judge James Fisher is a victory for the insurance industry in an ongoing dispute with the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation. But it may just be temporary because the overall case likely is headed to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration implemented rules to ban the use of credit scores in rate setting in 2005. Insurance companies sued to keep those rules from taking effect. Insurers and regulators have been fighting in court since.

Insurance premiums are among the best expenditures to examine when you're trying to save money. And the Internet can be an efficient tool for shopping for policies.Many in the industry emphasize personal service as a differentiating factor, and it can be useful for some people.

But if coverage is identical and the insurance companies are financially sound, you can choose by price. And prices on identical policies can vary dramatically, sometimes by hundreds of dollars per year.That makes insurance low-hanging fruit for savings.

This is especially true for term life insurance. Term insurance involves little or no service during the life of the policy. "There's no service, unless you're changing your address," said Byron Udell, founder of comparison site  which has been online since 1995.

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The Treasury Department is looking at ways to aid insurance companies as part of the rescue package announced earlier this month.

FOX Business Network’s Peter Barnes reported the Treasury has an internal task force looking at ways to help insurance companies. The assistance is expected to come as part of the economic stabilization legislation announced in October, since insurance companies are consider financial institutions and are thus covered under the package.

Sources told FOX Business Network that the assistance to insurance companies could be between $50 billion and $100 billion, and would be in the form of buying distressed assets. A formal announcement on the aid may not come until after the election on Nov. 4.

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