Best Cheap Insurance Quotes

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I thought I would write a quick post about the Civil Rights Movement and its effect on the services afforded to poor urban communities by the financial industry including insurance and banking.

“Redlining” was a process used by financial institutions to exclude investment in particular sections of an urban area. Look at the picture – that is a redlined map of Philadelphia from the 30′s as an example. Overwhelmingly, the excluded investment areas consisted of poorer white, immigrant, and African American neighborhoods. You wanted to build a business, a home, a daycare, or any business in a “redlined” neighborhood chances are that was not going to happen. Not because of your character, credit, or any other reasonable financial reason. Rather, because of a line on a map drawn, most often, because of the color of your neighbors.

Fires are a major risk during the winter holiday season. I have posted an article of winter holiday fire safety tips for your home and business.

In addition to that article there are many places online to seek out fire safety tips and checklists. For example, the National Fire Protection Association has “Project Holiday” on its website. The site features full-size color posters for download addressing candle and cooking safety (most home fires in the United States are the result of unattended cooking) and videos addressing those topics and Christmas tree safety.

Robb Mandelbaum’s piece today in the New York Times “You’re the Boss” section today is an excellent read for many small to mid-sized business owners seeking to “game the system” once the Affordable Care Act is fully in place. The article explains in cogent detail why a business owner cannot bust up a large company into smaller companies to avoid application of penalties associated with failing to provide health insurance after 2014.

The current debate in Congress over the debt ceiling and federal spending is raising the possibility of a reduction of the United State’s credit rating from “triple-A” to “double-A.” How? Well, the argument is that the Treasury could not make payments on existing debt. And, just like your household, when you cannot pay and are late or miss a payment your credit is damaged. The Treasury Department has stated: “If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, the government would default on its legal obligations – an event unprecedented in American history.”

What would this mean? How would this affect your business?

I just finished an article discussing why it can be helpful to look at packages of business insurance products created for a specific industry.

Many insurers build on their experience with specific categories of business insurance customers to create packages of commercial insurance tailored to your business.

For example, Nationwide has one of the best websites that illustrate this point. It’s “popular industries” page lists a number of specific businesses and provides information, checklists, and FAQ’s specific to the industry category.

This can be both an educational and cost saving way to purchase insurance for your business.