Finance Triggers

In order to protect one’s family, life insurance is highly recommended. There are different types of life insurance. Some types work better for some family’s needs than others. Knowing the differences is important to get the right coverage.
One kind of life insurance is term life insurance. This kind of life insurance policy lasts for a shorter period of time than other kinds of life insurance. With this kind of policy, the benefit amount will only be paid in the event of the death of the insured. If at the end of the term stated in this life insurance policy the insured survives, the policy is no longer in effect and cannot be carried over. The insured is not assigned a penalty for not renewing the policy. However, the insured may opt to take out a new life insurance policy. With term life insurance, the amount of the insurance premium will increase. This increase is due to the greater risk of illness and death for the insured. Usually, this sort of life insurance policy is tax free.
A second kind of life insurance is permanent life insurance. Unlike term life insurance, this kind of life insurance policy lasts for the duration of the insured’s life. This kind of policy also may build a cash value with it. Permanent life insurance premiums remain constant but generally cost more than term life insurance premiums. For permanent life insurance to remain in force, premium payments must be paid. If a payment is not made, the policy lapses.
There are different kinds of life insurance that fall under the permanent life insurance category. These would include whole life insurance which is the most basic form of this kind of life insurance. Universal life insurance is another kind which has some flexibility with the insurance premium amount. There is also variable life insurance, which has an investment component.

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It’s been nearly twenty years since Sandra Bullock starred in a little movie called The Net that foreshadowed the threats of identity theft on society.  Ok, perhaps that movie took it to the extreme, but it can cause a lot of agony regardless.  As of last year, the average victim of ID theft is spending over 40 hours to resolve the situation.  That is a full week or work!  The worst part is that an individual can take all of the necessary precautions, but due to corporate negligance their information is still out there for the taking.  Companies like American Express, various national retailers, and banks are laxed in corporate internet security, allowing their customers information to be tapped like a keg at a frat party.  The worst part is that nearly 50% of all victims are unaware that their indentity has been stolen.  How often do you check your credit card statements? Your bank statements? Credit reports?  Chances are that you don’t do it often enough.

What’s even more unfortunate is that our children aren’t even safe from identity theft.  In 2003 alone, over 6,000 reports were filed for indentity theft of a minor.  Last year, that number more than tripled to over 19,000 cases.  Essentially, the person stealing the identity takes the childs social security number and uses it to apply for loans, credit cards, or even government assistance.  Often times the cases go unnoticed until the child is much older and begin receiving collection calls, or possibly not until they reach adulthood.  This can and had led to issues with applying for first time credit cards, car insurance, student or car loans.  A recent third party study  on child identity theft initiated by Equifax found that over 80% of parents are unaware that this type of identity theft even exists.  For the study, a sample scan was performed on 40,000 minors, and 10% of those sampled were found to have been victims of some form of identity theft involving the illegal use of their social security numbers.  To further illustrate the issue, 84% of the parents surveyed indicated that they are either only somewhat familiar, or totally unfamiliar with these issues.

Simple tips for protecting yourself against identity theft are as simple as committing passwords to memory, using caution when shopping online, and shredding important documents before discarding them.  However, the problem with identity theft protection for children still persists.  The number one prevention against child identity theft is awareness.  Several states like California, Connecticut, and Colorado have mandated credit checks on foster children prior to adoption.  Unfortunately, because their information is often pass on through adoption records they are easy targets for identity theft.  The state of Maryland has taken further precautions to protect all children.  The Maryland Child Identity Lock bill will allow parents to freeze the credit of all minors under their supervision.  Unfortunately the major credit agencies don’t generate routine credit reports for minors under the age of eighteen, making visibility more difficult.  Though they are offering voluntary premium services for parents to enroll that will allow them to track things like the usage of their childs social security numbers.

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