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South Africa Cuts Interest Rates; BlackRock Cans 500; Empire Co. Posts 13% Profit; KB Toys Files for Bankruptcy; Citi and UBS to Buy Back $30 Billion in Securities; Bank of America to Cut 35,000 Jobs

• South Africa’s central bank cut a half-percentage point from its benchmark interest rate, marking the country’s first interest rate reduction in more than three years, Bloomberg reported. The growing global crisis, rising unemployment and falling commodity prices are hampering growth for the emerging economy.

• Asset manager BlackRock Inc. cut 500 jobs, Chief Executive Laurence Fink said Thursday. Many of the job losses were part-time employees, Reuters reported. BlackRock is the largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager.

• Second-quarter profit rose 13% for Empire Co., owner of Canada’s second-largest supermarket chain. Net income rose $53.6 million and revenue increased 7% for the three months through Nov. 1, Bloomberg reported.

• KB Toys Inc. yesterday (Thursday) filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in four years and plans to hold going-out-of business sales at its stores immediately. The 86-year-old company said in a filing that its debt is “directly attributable to a sudden and sharp decline in consumer sales,” an indication of how poor this holiday season has been for many retailers.

• Light, sweet crude for January delivery yesterday (Thursday) rose $4.46 to settle at $47.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil spiked 12% earlier in the day approaching $49 a barrel.

• Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG yesterday (Thursday) agreed to buy back a total of nearly $30 billion in risky auction-rate securities that the Securities and Exchange Commission said the banks marketed to customers as safe. Tens of thousands of the customers bought the auction-rate securities before the $330 billion market froze in mid-February, the SEC said.

• Bank of America Corp. said yesterday (Thursday) that it plans to cut up to 35,000 jobs over the next three years. The bank said the reductions are aimed at eliminating redundancies resulting from its merger with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. , as well as the recessionary environment.

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Investment News

Money Morning
http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/global-investing-roundups-684053.html

Estate planning is the process of accumulating and disposing wealth before death of an individual or estate owner. The most important goal of estate planning is to make sure that the greatest amount of the estate passes to the estate owner’s intended beneficiaries while paying the least amount of taxes. In this article, we will discuss the important role of insurance in estate planning cycle.

1. Creating wealth
Before one can build their wealth through investment vehicles, he or she must know how to save. In this stage, life insurance is always the first stage of estate planning cycle so it can guarantee there are funds around for the beneficiaries in case of sudden death. Most of the time, this stage applies to people just starting a family and have little savings. The type of life insurance used generally is term life insurance because it provides larger amounts of insurance with affordable premiums.

2. Wealth protection
a) In the later stages of a person’s life, when debt is diminished and wealth has been created, protection and conservation of the asset becomes more important. In this stage of the estate planning cycle, term life insurance is no longer provides enough protection. Therefore universal life insurance may be considered, since all investment funds up to maximum amount allowed each year that have been deposited in the universal life policy is tax exempt upon the death of policy insured.
b)Universal life insurance now becomes more important because all unrealized capital gains from stock accumulation, and the appreciation of rental property will have to pay upon the death of the owner. Since life insurance is tax free and is considered as a liquidate asset, it can be used for various purposes such as funeral expense, and paying income tax without selling estate asset at a cheap price if the person dies in the economic down turn.
c) Life insurance also helps to pay off liabilities of estate testator and acts as an emergency fund in case there are no other liquidate assets around.

I hope this information will help. If you need more information or insurance advices, please follow my article series of the above subject at my home page at:
http://medicaladvisorjournals.blogspot.com
http://lifeanddisabitityinsuranceunderwriter.blogspot.com/

Kyle J. Norton
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/estate-planning-part-15-life-insurance-and-the-estate-planning-cycle-736376.html

Secured loans are availed by placing an asset as collateral, which serves as a security against the loan amount, i.e., in the event of too many delays or frequent defaults – unintentional, incidental, or intentional – the lender can take over the pledged collateral. To reap the benefits of a secured deal, the borrower must pay his EMI’s (Equal Monthly Instalments = Principle + Interest) on time and in full.

As secured loans are very safe for the lenders, the loan requests get quick attention. Other encouraging characteristics are:

Competitive APR (APR = Nominal Rate + Loan Processing Charges) depending upon the repayment method – fixed or capped or flexible

Negotiable payback terms and loan conditions – early pay offs, extended repayment period, grace period, hidden charges, payment holidays, penalties, payment protection plan (PPI), etc.

Generally, a secured deal has:

An amount range of £5,000 to £75,000

An APR range of 7.9% to 19.9 % Variable (typical rate is 13.55 % APR Variable)

A compensation term range of 5 to 25 years

However, a person with an impeccable credit history may get a better deal.

Two major affordability parameters that play a very crucial role in loan approval procedure are:

Credit history – good or average or bad

Debt to income ratio (DTI = Debts/Income) – current financial standing

Depending upon the above-mentioned parameters, loan seekers are categorised as prime customers, near prime customers and sub-prime customers. The sub-prime customers are further sub-divided as light (low adverse credit), medium (medium adverse credit) and heavy (high adverse credit)

Opting for a secured loan is a great idea when one:

Has a big monetary requirement

Has a bad credit history/record

Has been denied an unsecured loan

With the advent of the incredible Internet technology, one can easily shop around from the comfort of his home. The online presence of numerous financial companies has made personal loans more accessible and the entire loaning process very convenient.

Go through the list of FAQ’s, as one can find most of the answers there

For personalised information, send an email to the company or call their toll free number

Get a couple of free no obligation quotes to get a fair idea of the market

In nutshell, browse, select and apply for a loan online.

Eric
http://www.articlesbase.com/loans-articles/secured-loans-safe-and-costeffective-loans-111574.html

The last thing that’s on your mind when you go to your local dealership to pick up your brand new car is what would happen if you wrote it off driving away from the dealership. Many people think that with fully comprehensive insurance they won’t have a problem. In many circumstances this could not be further from the truth. Many new cars will lose twenty percent of their value as soon as you drive off the forecourt, unfortunately comprehensive insurance will not cover this depreciation and you may find yourself in the situation where you need to find a few thousand just to replace your car ‘like for like’. This is exactly the situation where Guaranteed Asset Protection or GAP Insurance will protect you against this possible loss.

So how exactly does Return to Invoice GAP Insurance work? Basically as a result of your car being written off, RTI GAP Insurance will pay the discrepancy between your Motor Insurance Payout and the amount that you originally paid for the car. Let’s say you bought a new car for £19,995 and two years later your motor insurance company writes your vehicle off due to it being in an accident. Unfortunately they only offer you £10,000 as a settlement. If you have RTI GAP Insurance (Subject to the overall policy claims limit that you select when you take the policy out) GAP Insurance would pay the £9,995 difference between your Motor Insurance payout (£10,000) and the original invoice price you paid for the vehicle (£19,995).

Many people regard GAP Insurance as just another way for the dealership to get a hold of a little more of your hard earned cash. Admittedly dealerships can charge premium rates for their policies, but don’t let that put you off this insurance product. Search around on the internet and you will quickly find plenty of companies that offer Gap Insurance at rates far lower than you may have been offered by your dealer.

With over five hundred vehicles every day being involved in accidents and up to half a million vehicles a year being declared a total loss in the UK, RTI GAP Insurance is a great way to cover yourself and keep you away from that dreaded negative equity.

As with other ‘peace of mind’ insurance products, there is a good chance you may never need to make a claim, but for those who do find themselves in the position that their car has been written off and the insurance company payout falls short of their expectations, GAP Insurance can be the answer to their prayers. Everyone knows someone who has a horror story about losing money when they’ve had a car accident and in these times of the global credit crunch, new cars seem to be losing their value quicker than ever, just one more reason to consider GAP Insurance when you buy a new car. Before you sign on the dotted line in the dealership however, make sure you do your homework, search the internet and you will probably save yourself between forty and seventy percent for a similar policy.

Dave Foord
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/get-car-gap-insurance-to-avoid-negative-equity-675467.html

A menstrual cup is a bell shaped barrier which serves as a form of period protection and is worn inside the vagina. Instead of absorbing menstrual fluid, it serves as a storage vessel until the cup is ready to be removed. A menstrual cup is more discreet than a sanitary napkin and can take up to twice as much fluid than an ordinary tampon without changing or risk of leakage.

Because of the larger storage potential of the menstrual cup, it is a welcome asset for women with active lifestyles involving traveling, hiking or even marathon running. Menstrual cups are made from either latex or hypoallergenic silicone which means that the wearer can be safe from unwanted irritation and allergies. There is also a washable menstrual cup. This reusable variety is designed to last anywhere from 10 to 15 years making it both economic and environmentally friendly. Because menstrual cups store menstrual fluids inside the body, it eliminates dampness and can also serve to reduce odor often caused by even trace amounts of menstrual fluid leakage which cannot be avoided as flawlessly with tampons or sanitary napkins.

Though innovative, the menstrual cup is not novel. The first bell-shaped menstrual cup was patented in 1932, making the basic design almost eighty years old. However restrictions in advertising and social taboos on discussing menstruation made it difficult for word to spread until the market of internal period protection was overtaken by the tampon. Never-the-less, women can rest assured that the product has the backing of decades of research, testing and development.

In the United States, menstrual cups are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No reported cases of toxic shock syndrome have been attributed to the use of menstrual cups. There have been reports of yeast infection but such incidents were caused by poor maintenance of the washable menstrual cup. Otherwise, the menstrual cup has proven to be completely safe for everyday use.

divacup
http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/a-background-on-menstrual-cups-676328.html