Life Insurance Vs. Life Assurance

People spend a lot of money on complicated financial products and it is sometimes difficult to keep track of what products perform what tasks. Many people are not aware of all the financial products that are available or Star Wars only know of them vaguely. They may not know how much they cost or the potential benefits they offer. How can consumers make informed decisions on what products they would be willing to buy if they do not have this basic information? This problem can often lead to consumers buying unsuitable of overpriced products simply because they feel they should have some financial protections available but dont have the details to make an informed choice.

One of the common questions many consumers have is regarding the difference between insurance policies and Strawberry Shortcake policies. Put simply, insurance policies cover the costs of an event that might happen while assurance policies will pay Monster Old Maid on the occurrence of an event that is certain to happen. Insurance policies only last for a specific period of time. If the event occurs within that time, they pay out, otherwise they are Addams Family pinball Therefore, if no claim can be made within the term of the policy, they have no remaining value.

Guaranteed Payout

An assurance policy is different. Assurance policies always pay out. For example, a life assurance policy will generally pay out upon death or upon reaching the age of 65. How does this policy work? Well, they combine two elements; an insurance element, which will pay out if, the person dies early. This will then be used to pay for the funeral or support his family. But then there is another payment made every year and this is the investment portion. The insurance company invests this part of the premium on behalf of the policyholder and when they reach the age of 65, they pay this out. Life assurance policies are therefore often used both as a method of life insurance and as a method of saving for retirement.

Do You Need Money Now?

If you wish to cash in the investment portion of a life assurance policy early this is generally possible. However, there will usually be hefty penalties added to this so it is unadvisable to cash in early if you dont have to. The distinction between insurance and assurance is also becoming more blurred as more companies offer both Star Wars of policy or add features of one type of policy to their other type to make them more attractive. The distinction is still important so that you know what to ask for and know what kinds of facilities are available for insuring your life and providing for your future.

Joseph Kenny is the webmaster of the insurance site href="insure121.com">insure121.com/ where you will find information, news and links to the leading providers of insurance in the UK. If you found this article interesting you may find more articles of the same nature in the href="insure121.com/Insurance_Guide/">insurance guide located on site

Sharing Couldn't Be Easier - How Windows Sharepoint Services Will Benefit Your Small Business

Sharing Mego action figures business data in small business used to be a nice thing to have; however in todays business environment it is rapidly becoming a necessity in order to compete in the marketplace. Never has the demand Monster action figures collaboration inside your small business, across multiple locations, geographic regions or with partners and clients been needed as it is today. Many small businesses continue to struggle with the concept of collaboration and how to do it effectively.

When collaboration in the workplace occurs effectively, productivity inside the business skyrockets, suddenly you can do more with fewer resources, both human and technical and the workforce is happy because they can work from virtually anywhere. The flipside of effective collaboration is exactly the opposite, productivity goes way down, dependence on technology support skyrockets, and the added cost is reflective in your human capital and expenses. Your team becomes frustrated and even may leave your firm when the tools are not available to do their jobs effectively, wherever and whenever they need to perform their tasks.

Introducing a new way to share business data! It is not that new actually; Windows SharePoint Services is starting to catch on in the small business market, larger corporations have been using document management systems for quite some time. Just like having your 1986 Fleer baseball cards hosted in house took a little time for the small business market to embrace, now SharePoint Services is making its way into the SMB market.

The added value of SharePoint Services is that many small businesses already own the solution; they just dont realize that they do. Windows 2003 Server or 2003 Small Business Server have SharePoint Services included, however many businesses never implement it, this could be the result of poor IT services or just a lack of awareness of the solution and the power it brings. Small Business need strong outsourced IT services that will introduce new solutions like SharePoint Services to them and help them to understand how these new solutions will benefit them and their business.

How can your small business get ready for Windows SharePoint Services?

First of all, it is important for small business today to be on the same page and moving in the same general direction, without this, no technology solution will ever work. Your team needs to be on the same page as the management and understand the companys end goals and value proposition, once you have this done, then you can begin to mold a technology solution to meet your business needs.

SharePoint Services is a Captain Midnight to enhance collaboration in the workplace. In order to have the technology work for your business, you need to foster an environment that promotes collaboration. Without this environment, no technology tool will ever work. Business owners today need to make sure that the lines of communication inside their business are flowing in both directions.

Once you have your people factors settled, then the technology can be allowed to enhance that. Still in this day, many people are nervous Remco Movieland Drive-In what technology can do. The younger workforce has been collaborating and using technology for quite some time, however many people that have been in the workplace for a while, have concerns about technology. The message in your firm needs to be that this technology solution will aid in the employees overall success and when we are all successful, the company is successful.

Windows SharePoint Services offer some of the following benefits to a small business:

Document Libraries are repositories for your team to work together on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and whatever else you need to work on. Inside the document libraries you can secure your information and set rights on what people can do or see, control document versions plus so much more.

Shared calendars are available inside Windows SharePoint Services where you can post corporate events, important dates, meetings or whatever calendar information you need to post. With the calendar and many other features inside SharePoint you can also view this information inside your Microsoft Outlook application on your desktop.

Has anyone on your staff missed an important meeting? With SharePoint you can put announcements right on your main page, so that everyone can see what is happening in your business. New product launches, important information or any other announcement that you may have in the past, broadcasted out via email to your entire team.

Have online feeds sent right to your SharePoint site. SharePoint can link into any RSS feed service. This is great if you want to show items such as road reports, weather conditions, stock prices and any other information you need to see when released. SharePoint will become the portal for your small business to get the information you need.

Another powerful tool inside SharePoint Services is the ability to control workflow process. Does your business suffer from workflow challenges? How does your business suffer when your team skips steps in the process? What if you had a tool that would increase productivity and results by managing workflow? Would your business prosper?

The most important tip to a successful implementation of Windows SharePoint is to keep it simple. SharePoint needs to slowly introduced to your team, include them in the implementation and planning of your site, promote buy-in from all departments in your business. When the entire team is involved, your rollout and adoption of SharePoint Services will be a success.

There are many additional benefits to Windows SharePoint Services; I encourage you to visit the Microsoft SharePoint website. Also, a strong information technology consultant can provide you with additional information on the benefits of SharePoint Services to your small business.

SharePoint will be the way files and information is stored in the future, dont delay, understand how this new technology will affect your small business, prepare for the future, provide the tools for your team to become successful. Do more with less and watch your small business explode.

Stuart Crawford is the Director of Business Development for IT Matters Inc., Calgary, Albertas award winning Microsoft Small Business Specialist. He can be reached at href="mailto:scrawford@itmatters.ca">scrawford@itmatters.ca or via their website href="itmatters.ca">itmatters.ca IT Matters is a leader in the Calgary marketplace with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services