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The Tanning Tax and Employer Mandate originally appeared on About.com Business Insurance on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 12:13:53.

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President Obama Signs Health Care Reform Bill originally appeared on About.com Business Insurance on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 14:26:34.

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When you write about business insurance it can be a bit stiff and stodgy. Insurance is about guys in suits in big companies making arcane decisions based on underwriting and math.

Warren Buffet makes insurance exciting. The head of Berkshire Hathaway, the owner of GEICO, has a cameo appearance in a video going viral on YouTube.

“Lizard Ballad:All for You” features real GEICO associates and a cameo appearance by Warren Buffett. All are employees of GEICO “and fanatics for providing outstanding customer service – all for you.”

The best way for a business to lower its premiums is to reduce its risk.  Safety programs, controls, employee education and training are all ways to control risk and premiums. Lower risk equates to lower premiums.

Sometimes this principle hits a little too close to home. At the risk of my kids reading this, I wanted to relay a business insurance premium horror story. One of my firm’s own making.

Our term life insurance rates and coverage options came in this morning. Readers, I admit, within the last 12 months, members of our firm have used nicotine containing products. They have made efforts to stop and one partner stopped over five years ago. Some quit several months ago successfully.

Spring will be here soon!

This got me thinking about all of the small business owners with small seasonal fleets: landscapers, tourist rental, contractors, and others. The start of the warm weather is a good time to review commercial auto and fleet insurance for your business.

First, make sure your policy reflects the vehicles and equipment the business owns. If a purchase was made over the winter, it is easy to forget to include the new vehicle on the business policy.

A good safety and risk management plan is the best way to limit risk, protect your workers, and lower business insurance premiums. Bad practices can lead to higher premiums and unsafe conditions for your workers.

In the last one hundred years, worker safety has improved exponentially and often business insurers were at the forefront of such change. But, sometimes, it takes a disaster for safe practices to be adopted.

Today, is International Women’s Day. In the U.S., the holiday is not officially recognized. But, in 1911, a tragedy of epic proportions in New York, occurring very close to this holiday, gives this day a special significance for our female workforce and provided the impetus for this day to be celebrated in the beginning of the century.

On March 12-21, the 2010 Paralympic Games come to Vancouver. A complete schedule of events can be found here.

The founding sponsor for U.S. Paralympics is The Hartford, one of the largest insurers in the U.S. As The Hartford’s website declares, “The Hartford’s Group Benefits Division is the only one of its kind to support world-class U.S. Paralympic athletes. For more than 15 years, we’ve been raising funds on their behalf and cheering them on. It’s humbling, not just because of the great athleticism we witness, but also because of the character we encounter.”

Filming a movie involves risks that most moviegoers do not appreciate.

The insurer that insures approximately 80% of the films put out by Hollywood, has put together a list of the most “risky” films for 2009. Fireman’s Fund insurance has insured the film industry for over 80 years. It lists “Twilight” and “2012″ as two of the movies the company insured for 2009. According to Wendy Diaz, entertainment underwriting director at Fireman’s Fund, “air and watercraft stunts, strenuous dance sequences, air balloon explosions, and simulated natural disasters,” are all a part of the “film’s overall risk.”