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So if you own a business, own investment properties or practice a profession you have a one in three chance of being named in a lawsuit THIS YEAR!

It used to be that people didn’t worry about frivolous lawsuits when they weren’t at fault. That’s not the case any more. Remember the woman who was awarded over $2 million in a suit against McDonalds’ because she spilled hot coffee on herself? It’s these kinds of awards that prompt people to file spurious or questionable lawsuits. The challenge is that most lawyers handle these cases are on a contingency fee basis which means clients don’t pay a dime unless they win or settle the lawsuit. When there are no upfront costs to file a lawsuit, there’s nothing preventing them from making a frivolous claim.
So with that being the mindset of the general public it’s obvious why you need to protect yourself.

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What Is Asset Protection and How It Works

Now if you have read anything on asset protection there are two basic questions you should be asking yourself:
Does it work? Is it legal?

So now let’s talk about what asset protection is. How it works? And answer these two questions.

Essentially asset protection is a legal way to put your assets beyond the reach of those who would like to take them from you by filing a lawsuit. Here is an example you are likely familiar with that demonstrates its effectiveness and legality.

Remember the O.J. Simpson case? O.J. went to trial in 1995 and was acquitted of murder charges. His story is a perfect example of how and why asset protection works. Now there’s a whole criminal side to O.J.’s case. So let’s put aside the moral issues surrounding O.J. We’re just talking about asset protection here. The point here is that the nation was able to see for the first time how an alleged murderer was able to have a judgment entered against him and no one was able to collect any money. So let’s outline what happened here. By the way, do you know how O.J.’s doing now? Do you have any doubts he’s living all right?

He moved to Florida because the golf was better, the private schools were nicer and frankly the people in Los Angeles didn’t want to talk to him anymore. But no one’s collecting any money from O.J. As we go through this, you’ll see how O.J.’s team of experts used many different asset protection strategies effectively.

What happened after he was acquitted from the criminal charges? The Goldmans sued him on a wrongful death case in civil court and obtained a judgment for $33.5 million. Yet have they collected anything? All they got was his Heisman trophy. The piano he said belonged to his mother. But what happened to his money? Well he was lucky. O.J. had pensions, or retirement plans through the NFL and the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG), and both pensions were exempt from judgments by law in California.

So what did he have in his pension accounts? He had about $4.2 million, which throws off about $25,000 a month. That’s how he pays his greens fees for golf and how he sent his kids to private schools.

What about his house? He had a nice home near Beverly Hills. What happened there? The house was worth $3.5 million. He had a first mortgage for $1.5 million. The question everyone asked was what happened to the rest of the equity? Why didn’t they take it?

Well, he had what are called friendly liens placed on it. By the time they got to the house all the equity was encumbered in favor of his attorneys. His home was leveraged to the hilt so by the time the Goldmans got to it there was nothing left for them to take. There was also the homestead exemption, which in California is up to $125,000. It varies from state to state.

Now that he’s living in Florida he has a boat, an office, a car. People wonder how he has all these things.

He leases these things. You see, by law no one can seize a leasehold interest.

So back to the two questions we started this example: does asset protection work and is it legal? Well, how’s O.J. doing so far? He’s doing just fine. What about its legality? Remember this was the most publicized trial in U.S. history. It was under total scrutiny from the media, the public and legal professionals everywhere. People were itching to put this guy behind bars or at least force him to pay in dollars for what he allegedly did. They couldn’t because his assets were protected within the lines of the law.

Another question critics of the O.J. case bring up is this, if most of the money he has is protected from judgments and bankruptcy, why doesn’t he just go bankrupt and release this $33.5 million judgment against him? One reason is you must submit a list of all your assets when you file bankruptcy. If you leave something of substance off that list, you can be indicted for bankruptcy fraud. There is only one logical explanation why O.J. doesn’t file bankruptcy; it is because he likely has money offshore. This is the part you probably won’t find in any books or news articles. O.J.’s mother lode is purported to be in the Isle of Guernsey, probably $5-10 million. Now he’s not going to go bankrupt and leave this off the list and then have some angry girlfriend tell on him and get him indicted and sent to prison.

The Nuts And Bolts for Effective Asset Protection

Now to be truly effective, all asset protection strategies must meet three criteria.
Liability Protection. You must be legally protected from any liability. Control of the assets must be totally anonymous and private. You see, if assets can’t be legally tied to you then they can’t be taken when someone comes after you. So to achieve this protection you have to set up your asset protection and privacy plan in a jurisdiction that supports these criteria. The third and most important criterion for effective asset protection is that it must be done at the right time. You must act ahead of time to protect what you own BEFORE it comes under attack. Once a lawsuit is expected or has been filed, the law will not allow you to move your assets.

So as we talk about different types of asset protection we will come back to these important criteria.

How to Achieve Asset Protection

What is the best way to achieve asset protection? It can be summed up in three words: Don’t Own Anything.

Now you might think that this flies in the face of the American Dream which says you need to own your own car, home and everything else that is a prerequisite for a happy and successful life. Now we are not talking about not eliminating debt on those assets. It’s great to be debt free. You just don’t want to own those things in your own name because if you technically don’t own the assets, but merely control them, then the assets are well protected, and you still have the use of them. You see, you don’t want ownership. Ownership is a liability. What you want is use of the assets. In fact it was John D. Rockefeller who summed up this philosophy when he said “Own nothing and control everything.” So to really start to understand the mindset around asset protection you need to think like a Rockefeller.

One way to achieve this protection is through the formation of corporations to hold the assets. Why corporations? Under the law, a corporation is an artificial “person” completely separate from the people who own it and control it. This is different from an individual or sole proprietorship. With an individual or sole proprietorship the owner bears full and complete responsibility for his actions. But a corporation is an independent entity. A corporation’s liabilities and taxes are separate from those of its owners, officers, and directors. Therefore a corporation gives you the greatest personal liability protection and this meets our first criteria we talked about.

Another reason corporations are advantageous is because they enable you to compartmentalize your businesses or assets. You can place different assets under separate corporations. Now you still have complete control over everything, but if one asset runs into trouble, it won’t jeopardize the other assets. Without incorporation, all your eggs are in one basket and if something happens to that one basket you could be totally wiped out. For that reason some people choose to have separate corporations for their larger assets such as a home, rental property, boat, or RV, to separate out any liability.

Because of the corporate formation laws in certain jurisdictions, you can form corporations that can provide total privacy. This is why almost all successful people choose to incorporate. It permits you to manage your assets anonymously. Your private corporate life is never made public. And there’s only a couple of states in the U.S. and a few places around the world where a corporation can be formed, while you own and control your corporation, your identity and ownership can remain a total secret. This meets our second criteria mentioned.

Let’s talk about the jurisdictions that allow you to form corporations anonymously. One of the jurisdictions is Nevada. Nevada was really just a desert with very few residents until the mobs came in and started the casinos. The mobs did not want anyone to know who owned the casinos and they made sure the law allowed ownership to be untraceable. The mobs had since gone and Wall Street had taken over. Nevertheless, the corporate formation law has not changed. If you know how to structure it, you can still incorporate in Nevada and no one will be able to trace the ownership of the corporation back to you.

Another jurisdiction is the Bahamas. An international business corporation formed in the Bahamas can remain anonymous if you structure it properly. You can use the Nevada Corporations to protect fixed assets such as homes, boats, planes, and some liquid assets. You can use a Bahamian corporation for large amount of liquid assets such as cash, stocks, and bonds. For most people, a Nevada corporation will be sufficient for their asset protection, however, for maximum asset protection, a higher net worth individual is going to want to utilize both types of entities.

You may be asking why Nevada and the Bahamas are so unique. Well the answer to that comes back to our criteria of privacy. You see both these jurisdictions allow their corporations to use two unique features when setting up their corporations: bearer shares and nominee officers. Bearer shares are shares of stock that are legally owned by whoever holds or “bears” the actual stock certificates. This also means that anyone who doesn’t hold the stock certificate in his or her possession is not the legal owner, and can so testify in court. So you may be driving a Lexus or BMW owned by a corporation, but if you don’t have the bearer shares or stock certificates for that corporation, it’s not really your car. You’re just using it. And this eliminates your liability.

The other feature is nominee officers, which ensures your complete privacy and anonymity, the second criteria we talked about for asset protection. A nominee is simply a trusted person you appoint to stand in and provide their name and signature in lieu of yours. Both Nevada and the Bahamas allow the use of nominee officers and directors in their corporations so your name will never appear on any of the corporate documents if you so choose. Your identity can be kept completely private.

Now the corporations you form there cannot and should never be used to evade federal income tax since all U.S. residents and citizens must pay federal income tax on their worldwide income. There is no state income tax in Nevada and there is no income tax for international business corporation in the Bahamas.

Other states allow lawsuits to pierce the corporate veil and enforce personal liability for the debts and actions of the corporation on its owners and officers but Nevada has one of the strongest corporate veils anywhere. Nevada law clearly makes the actions of a corporation’s representatives exempt from personal responsibility except in cases of outright fraud and even then they have to prove intent to defraud which is very difficult to do.

Here’s an Example on Implementing Asset Protection

So now you have some understanding as to how these corporations limit your liability and provide you with the privacy and anonymity you need for maximum asset protection. Let’s now talk about how asset protection can work for you.

Let’s look at an example here. Let’s assume you sell a product and someone wants to sue you. A customer was slightly injured by a product that he bought from you so he goes down to the local injury attorney and tells him the story. The lawyer says great! We’ll sue him. Let me do some research and we’ll talk tomorrow

The lawyer then orders a preliminary asset search on you. When this report comes back, on the top of the page is your name, underneath that is your date of birth, your home address, your phone numbers, listed and unlisted, any children you have and their names and ages. Below this is the Nationwide Asset Sweep listing all property you own, any vehicles, brokerage accounts, bank accounts and tax information.

When this disgruntled customer returns to the attorney the next day the attorney is going to say one of two things:
“Great, all the assets are right here. He has deep pocket. Let’s draft a complaint and sue this guy” or “I can sue this guy but there are no visible assets to go after…I can start proceedings if you want but I’ll need a $15,000 retainer to cover my initial attorney’s fees and expenses.”

Based on human nature, 99% of all litigation will stop right here. Contingency fee lawyers need a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They’re not interested unless there is the potential for a big reward

So you want to be in the second category where you are not at risk.

So to start off, let’s assume you have a home worth $500,000 and you have $150,000 in stocks and bonds in your brokerage account. On your home you have a first mortgage for $300,000. You have $200,000 in equity in the home and $150,000 liquid assets exposed. So what do you do?

First you would form a Nevada corporation anonymously.

Do you transfer title of the home into the Nevada Corporation then? No, for a few reasons: One is you want the home to stay in your name. It becomes the decoy. You see, the first things a competent injury attorney will ask are:
Does he own a home? Does he have a job or own a business?

If you are living a six-figure lifestyle and you don’t own a home he’s going to assume your assets are hidden and may want to go looking for them. However, if you own your home and it’s mortgaged to the hilt, well, that’s not so unusual. That’s pretty common these days. The other reasons you want to retain title to your home is for tax deductions on mortgage interest, capital gain tax exemption when you sell your home and the protection you already get from homestead exemption in your home state.

So if you don’t transfer title, what do you do? You can place a friendly lien on the home for $220,000 and record it in favor of your Nevada Corporation. You may be asking, “What is a friendly lien?” A friendly lien is a legal lien placed on a real property and it doesn’t necessarily represent a cash loan from the Nevada corporation you form. The Nevada corporation may have rendered professional advice or services creating the debt owed to the corporation. At any rate, it serves your purpose of encumbering any remaining equity in your home.

Now, you can then transfer the $150,000 in your stock and bond portfolio to a Bahamian corporation under your management with a brokerage account in the Cayman Islands. You still retain control over all the assets yet any equity is now invisible to the predatory eyes of an attorney.

If you don’t have enough cash, stocks and bonds to want to go overseas, you can open a bank account and/or an online brokerage account under the Nevada corporation.

For your vehicles, if you owned them outright you would add the private Nevada Corporation as a lien holder on titles with the department of motor vehicles.

So between the Nevada corporation and the international business corporation you have effectively eliminated your exposure to liability and your assets would no longer show up on one of these asset searches, keeping you safe from lawyers.

As powerful as these strategies are in protecting your assets from lame lawsuits, they must be put in place long before any legal challenges surface. Any asset transfers you make after a legal challenge will be considered fraudulent conveyance and will be set aside by the courts. Therefore, if you feel you are a potential target for lawsuits because of your profession, the nature of your business or your investment property holdings, the time to act is now.

Carlos Lee, MBA, is a senior consultant for Asset Protection Consulting Group.

Visit Asset Protection Consulting Group to find additional information on how to bulletproof your assets.

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Strategies that are effective and legal for putting one’s assets safely out of reach

In today’s increasingly litigious world, the shielding of assets has become a prominent issue for financial planners, business owners, and high-net-worth individuals. Asset Protection details methods that are both legally and morally legitimate for protecting one’s assets from creditors, lawsuits, and scams.

Bringing economic common sense and legitimacy to an area that is drowning in gimmickry, two of today’s top lawyers examine the fundamental issues in this growing area, avoiding dense legalese to make the book accessible to anyone. Asset Protection covers everything readers want to know about:

• Establishing an effective asset protection program
• Today’s most popular, established strategies
• Newer strategies that are still being resolved by the courts

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Insurance can at times be somewhat of a minefield for many people; with so many different products available, choosing the right one and making sure that we are properly covered can be a challenge. Although this may be the case, it is also an essential part of our everyday living.

Buildings Insurance

Your home is likely to be your most valuable possession so it is important to ensure that adequate buildings insurance cover is set in place.

Buildings insurance covers the structure of the building plus anything you would normally leave behind when you move. This will include things like patios, drives, fences, walls and permanent fixtures like kitchens and bathrooms. Accidental damage caused by fire, storms, or burst pipes, for example will also be covered.

Having buildings insurance cover in place is not if fact a legal requirement although nearly every mortgage lender will insist that cover is taken out as they look to protect what is their asset too, albeit temporarily.

Many lenders will offer a block building insurance policy arrangement. The cover provided and premium rate are agreed between the lender and insurer, but instead of issuing each borrower with an individual policy number a master policy is set up, with both the lender and insurer having copies.

These premiums are not always the most competitive in price so it is advisable to shop around for quotes also.

The amount that each property will need to be insured for will of course vary. The valuer will provide a figure for the re-instatement value of the property, ie the cost of rebuilding in the event of total destruction. There is no specific link between this figure and that for the valuation for mortgage purposes, or the price that the purchaser has agreed to pay.

Contents Insurance

Contents insurance offers cover on the household goods and possessions inside your property and will often include the garden too if applicable. In other words, contents can be defined as everything that you would normally take with you when you move.

The lender will not insist that you take out a contents insurance policy however in many cases it is advisable. Not doing so could see you unable to replace your belongings in the event of disasters such as fire, flooding or burglary.

Many policies offer cover on a new for old basis which means should anything happen to your possessions such as the TV or washing machine; you should be able to replace the damaged goods for a new model.

Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI)

Mortgage Payment Protection insurance (MPPI) is also known as accident, sickness and unemployment (ASU) insurance and, as the name suggests, it covers your mortgage repayments if you have an accident, fall ill or lose your job.

Most policies will provide cover for a period of 12 months. Your policy should cover the full amount of your mortgage and linked expenses such as other insurance policies and pension plans.

Many providers of payment protection insurance will offer modular coverage. For example, you can choose unemployment only option if job loss is your main concern or an accident & sickness only module depending on what you feel is more important to you.

You will not be able to claim money against your policy immediately after you make a claim. Typically, you have to wait three or four months – what is known as the deferral period before you begin to receive insurance payouts.

Often however, for an additional charge, some insurers will provide back-to-day-one cover that covers you from the first day you make a claim.

Payment is made 30 days after you made your claim and you need to have been off work for at least a month. In addition most policies have an excess period, usually 30, 60 or more days that is excluded from the payout should you make a claim.

Life Insurance

Life cover pays out a lump sum when you die, or earlier if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. This lump sum payment may be used to pay off an outstanding mortgage or simply passed on as part of an inheritance.

There are two types of life insurance: Level term and decreasing term.

Level term insurance will often run alongside an interest only mortgage. It lasts for a set period and pays out the set amount you chose at the outset in case of death during the term.

Decreasing term insurance often run alongside a capital repayment mortgage. It offers a smaller payout year on year as the outstanding mortgage debt falls.

With both types of insurance there are many factors that the provider will take into account when calculating the premium. These factors will include; your age, weight, whether you a smoker or non a smoker and your medical history amongst other things.

A Five Point Plan When Taking Out Insurance

1. By speaking to a specialist adviser before you buy insurance could pay off. Ensure that you adviser is able to offer a range of policies from a variety of different providers.

2. Shop around for mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI). Dont just agree to take out the policy offered by your lender without doing some research of your own. Policies offered by the lenders are not always the most competitive in the marketplace.

3. Dont forget to budget for your monthly insurance payments. For MPPI & Life insurance, the younger & healthier you are, the lower your costs, however payments can still easily add up to over 50 per month.

4. Never forget to find out what your excess is, or how much you need to pay before your insurance will pay out. Many policies have exclusions so dont forget to find out what these are too.

5. Many people fail to adjust their insurance policies accordingly when their circumstances change. If you insurance policies are not reflecting your current commitments then you could find that you and your dependents are underinsured.

James Copper
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/the-essential-guide-to-insurance-107576.html

Before we discuss Asset Protection and UV flashlights individually, let us address the basic question that “How important are UV flashlight in Asset Protection?”. The answer is, the role of UV Led flashlight is very crucial in asset protection. Whether the asset protection is for an individual or a business entity. UV flashlight helps to protect the authenticity of the document by minimizing the chances of altering the document in any way. Since the purpose or asset protection is so crucial, all the measures taken to see it through are also very crucial and UV flashlights being one of them does have a vital role to play.

Asset protection refers to a set of legal techniques and a body of statutory and common law that deals with protection of assets of individuals and business houses alike, from civil money judgments, creditors like, trusts, partnerships and international entities. Asset protection helps to reduce the risk of loss from unexpected dangers of businesses and individuals. This law has guarded and protected many families against business failures and lawsuits.

This procedure of asset protection involves many documents, attachment related to assets in question. These papers are prepared by a professional lawyer who specializes in Asset protection. Since Asset protection is a very delicate and critical issue, and therefore it is quite likely that the documents are tampered or altered in the process. To protect the sanctity of papers from being violated in any way, UV flashlight comes into picture. It acts as an important tool that protects these documents.

A UV flashlight is a critical tool in detecting fraudulent documents where hidden graphics may have been imprinted. A UV flashlight is used to view the hidden graphics that are only visible with the help of UV light. This procedure authenticates the document. Likewise ultraviolet lights are also used by medical examiners to detect the presence of proteins at crime scenes. UV flashlights have several practical uses other than the ones mentioned above, like, pinpointing refrigerant leaks etc.

There are multiple varieties of UV Flashlights available in the market manufactured under many brand names. You have to choose that one that goes best with your basic requirements. There are some UV Flashlights that run on a single AA battery, with say, 10 hour run time, single UV LED with coated glass optics, wavelength 395 nm, while the other model many run on 3C’s, Xenon Lamp and 6 White UV LED bulbs, wavelength 390 nm etc. You should carefully check out all the specifications and your goals and requirements before finalizing the type of UV Led Flashlight.

You should also check out the pricing of UV led Flashlight and other options available before getting yourself one to use it towards asset protection.

Groshan Fabiola

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.

To read more click here.

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