First Help Insurance

New research from the UK manufacturers organisation, EEF, indicates that the downward trend in sickness absence rates in the sector has plateaued.

According to the latest EEF/Westfield Health report, the overall rate among manufacturers employees remained unchanged in 2011 compared with 2010, at 2.2%, and the average number of working days lost to absence held stead at 5.1 days per employee.

However, EEF members are concerned at a divergence between short and long-term absence rates, with almost 40% of firms questioned seeing an increase in long-term rates last year, mainly as a result of a jump in staff off work due to stress, anxiety and depression.

In addition, the issue of presenteeism (whereby staff turn up for work when unwell) has become a hot topic for discussion, with 55% of companies expressing concerns in this area.

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Your daily habits have a tremendous impact on your health and well-being. While routine habits may seem small in the grand scheme of things, they can significantly prolong your life if you develop them health-consciously. Literally adding years to your life is within your grasp. Here are 10 daily habits that will extend your lifespan and vitality.

1. Dont skip breakfast

   Eating a healthy breakfast to jumpstart your day is a great habit for living a longer life. For people who want to maintain a healthy (and stable) weight, the key is eating breakfast every morning.

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A new insurance consortium, Xin, has been launched by Lloyd’s syndicates, specialising in helping businesses protect against the on-going threat of a terrorist attack in Asia.

Amlin, Markel, Canopius and Argenta have set up the Singapore-based consortium to provide terrorist insurance protection to businesses operating in South East Asia and the Asia Pacific region.

The consortium’s underwriters believe there is a need to raise awareness of the availability of such specialist cover in a region, which is considered significantly under-insured for terrorist attack

Amlins managing director of Singapore operations, Simon Clarke, comments: “Our vision is to be the number one specialist terrorism insurer in the Asia region and to provide competitive insurance solutions for what can be and often is a catastrophic and devastating loss event for any business.

He adds: Our mission will be to explain why this cover is needed and why it plays a vital part in risk mitigation for any business, large or small.

With the decline of the economy over the last few years, experts are not predicting a great return if any on 2012 CDs. It is expected that savers interested in CDs online will continue to struggle in reducing their risk and at the same time produce an adequate return.

If you are interested in investing in CDs online it is suggested that savers invest in long term CDs. In purchasing long term online CDs investors are able to cash them out early.

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AXA Commercial Lines has introduced a new approach to processing delegated authority schemes business that should deliver significant benefits to brokers.

The traditional method used by insurers tends to lump together a mass of policy information and records it as one entry, whereas AXAs new solution receives and records individual policy information.

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The vast quantities of personal, identifiable information collected by the leisure and hospitality industry have made the sector a chief target for cyber attacks, according to Willis.

The brokers cyber risk unit reports a 56% rise in cyber claims over the past year, with an increasing proportion of victims in the hospitality industry.

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New research from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has found that nearly one in five technology firms surveyed in the Thames Valley area have suffered a data security breach in the past 12 months.

While just over half of respondents had a crisis strategy in place in case of a serious security breach, a quarter had no such procedure.

RBSs corporate institutional banking unit is currently running a series of events across the country on IT security in conjunction with Sophos, and the partners have drawn up ten board-level tips for firms as follows:

1.

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Lower bond returns have put pressure on insurers who rely on them to pay benefits.

When I bought my first insurance policy three years ago, I wanted it to do three things: Pay off my house; cover other expenses for family, and not cost myself hundreds a month in premium payments.

So I found a cheap policy for an amount my family could live with if I died, and I signed on the dotted line.

I didn’t find out what determined my rate, and my broker didn’t tell me.

If I had asked, I would have found out that, because of falling interest rates, my new policy was more expensive than it would have been if I bought it before the recession.

Life insurers invest premiums in the bond market and, when bond returns fall, the amount available to pay benefits declines and premiums may rise to compensate.

Life insurance premiums are calculated based on three factors, says Helena Smeenk Pritchard, a former insurance manager who now teaches financial professionals how to sell and discuss life insurance.

These are mortality, interest rates and company expenses.

Mortality covers health and age and has the biggest effect on premiums, but interest rates also have a significant impact on how much new policyholders pay, Smeenk Pritchard says.

The cost of insurance rises as people get closer to death, but payments are the same from month to month. So,

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