The ASA Institute for Risk and Innovation has gathered 22 research notes focused on operational risk and written primarily by the institute's research associates. The collection is divided into four sections: business practices, business preparedness, business security, and emerging trends. The collection is introduced by Annie Searle, author of "Advice From A Risk Detective" (Tautegory Press, 2011), who also wrote three of the research notes. From the back cover: "Annie Searle, with support from her colleagues, leverages her expansive knowledge to compile a thought-provoking overview of business continuity planning and operational risk considerations. "Reflections on Risk" looks at the often neglected considerations and necessary controls that organizations of all sizes should consider in order to be more secure and resilient. This is particularly important at a time of rapid change and expanding use of information technology." --John Carlson, Executive Vice President, BITS "The apprenticeship opportunities that Searle's firm provides graduate students has produced a volume of notes that adds to the broader discourse around operational risk." -- Simon Beckett, Publisher, Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning

Nonfinancial Defined Contribution (NDC) schemes are now in their teens. The new pension concept was born in the early 1990s, implemented from the mid-1990s in Italy, Latvia, Poland and Sweden, legislated most recently in Norway and Egypt and serves as inspiration for other reform countries. This innovative unfunded individual account scheme created high hopes at a time when the world seemed to have been locked into a stalemate between piecemeal reforms of ailing traditional defined benefit schemes and introducing pre-funded financial account schemes. The experiences and conceptual issues of NDC in its childhood were reviewed in a prior anthology (Holzmann and Palmer, 2006). This new anthology published in 2 volumes serves to review its adolescence and with the aim of contributing to a successful adulthood. Volume 1 on Lessons, Issues, Implementation includes a detailed analysis of the experience and the key policy lessons in the old and new pilot countries and general thoughts around the implementation of NDCs in other countries, including Chile, Greece and China. Volume 2 on Gender, Politics, Financial Stability includes deeper and new analyses of these issues that found limited or no attention in the 2006 publication. The key policy conclusions include: (i) NDC schemes work well (as documented by the experience of Italy, Latvia, Poland and Sweden during the crisis) but there is room to make them work even better; (ii) Go for an immediate transition to the new scheme to avoid future problems; (iii) Identify the legacy costs and their explicit financing during the transition as they will hit you otherwise soon; (iv) Adopt an explicit stabilizing mechanism to guarantee solvency; (v) Establish a reserve fund to guarantee liquidity; (vi) Elaborate an explicit mechanism to share the systemic longevity risk; and, last but not least; (vii) Address the gender implications of NDC with deeper analysis and open political discourse.

The federal crop insurance program began in 1938 when Congress authorized the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. The current program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency (RMA), provides producers with risk management tools to address crop yield and/or revenue losses for about 130 crops. The federal farm safety net also includes the farm commodity support programs, which provide price and income support for a much narrower list of "covered and loan commodities" such as corn, wheat, rice, and peanuts. In purchasing a crop insurance policy, a producer growing an insurable crop selects a level of coverage and pays a portion of the premium -- or none of it in the case of catastrophic coverage -- which increases as the level of coverage rises. The federal government pays the rest of the premium. This book provides a primer on the federal crop insurance program and briefly summarises changes to the program by the 2014 farm bill.

"Insurance is often confused with risk management, yet it simply finances part of the risk with another entity, i.e. the insurance company. In reality, it is up to the organization's executive team to proactively manage risks." - Ed Kempkey You don't need a full time risk manager to gain the benefits these best practices offer. Balancing Risk exposes five myths that often prevent organizations from implementing risk management programs, and provides straightforward concepts and metholodologies upon which to build your plan. The step-by-step process includes examples you can follow as well as a simple system to easily document and measure your success. - Increase operational effectiveness and efficiency - Enhance the identification of opportunities and threats - Establish a reliable basis for decision making and planning - Improve stakeholder confidence and trust

A guide to health insurance and the Affordable Care Act for consumers. This book describes the health reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including essential health benefits, the health care exchanges, and premium subsidies available for certain individuals. The book also describes the main features of health insurance plans in the U.S., including characteristics of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and typical cost-sharing mechanisms, including deductibles, coinsurance and copayments. Practical examples of the operation of deductibles, coinsurance and copayments are provided.

A condensed version of Jon's original book, HOW TO WIN THE HEALTH CARE GAME, this work offers notes and highlights for a quick study of the fundamentals for efficient purchase of health insurance that maximizes savings.

Die Versicherungsbranche steht vor gewaltigen Veranderungen. Die wesentlichen Treiber dafur sind der Kostendruck aufgrund von geandertem Kundenverhalten und gestiegenem Wettbewerb, Veranderungen verursacht durch Regulierung, die Rahmenbedingungen des Marktes mit einer langfristigen Niedrigzinsphase und geringem Wachstum und der Innovationsdruck aufgrund von gesattigten Markten. Spricht man mit Top-Managern der Branche, hoert man aber, dass die Versicherungen sich mit der erfolgreichen Umsetzung von Veranderungen schwer tun. Ein Grund dafur ist zum Beispiel, dass die Branche sehr langfristig ausgerichtet ist, denn viele Kunden binden sich mit Vertragsabschluss langfristig an das Unternehmen. Daruber hinaus lebt die Branche davon, Risiken abzusichern und nicht, diese bewusst einzugehen; das muss man aber tun, wenn man Veranderungen erfolgreich managen moechte. Dieses Buch verdeutlicht, dass die Versicherungsbranche veranderungsfahiger werden muss, um im globalen Wettbewerb bestehen zu koennen und prasentiert Beispiele erfolgreicher Veranderungsprojekte. Wichtige Themen sind dabei der Vertrieb der Zukunft, die erforderlichen Fahigkeiten fur das Management in der Versicherungsbranche und der Umgang mit digitalen Medien.

Dieses Standardwerk ist unverzichtbarer Ratgeber zur UEberprufung Ihres Anlageportfolios, getreu dem Motto: "Vermoegen optimieren, Steuern minimieren". Schwerpunkte aller Kapitel sind deshalb der Vermoegensaufbau sowie die Sicherung und der systematische Ausbau des Ersparten. Neben den zahlreichen AEnderungen im deutschen Steuerrecht im Jahr 2014 wird auch die Auswirkung der Finanztransaktionssteuer behandelt. Schwerpunktthemen sind des Weiteren die Geldanlage in Kunstgegenstanden, Aspekte der nachhaltigen Geldanlage und die "Ausrichtung der Portfolios in Zeiten von Krisen und Deflationsgefahr".

"Wir sichern Generationen." heisst es im OEffentlichkeitsauftritt der Deutschen Rentenversicherung. Doch was heisst die gesetzliche Rentenabsicherung, fur die rund 81 Millionen Burger in Deutschland heute und vor allem in 20, 30 oder gar 50 Jahren? Bei vielen Burgern bildet die Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV) und deren gesetzlichen Leistungen eine feste Planungsgroesse. Der Versicherte erhalt Schutz - ob bei Erwerbsminderung oder im Alter. Fur viele Hinterbliebene entsteht ein zusatzlicher finanzieller Anker. Mit der Einfuhrung des Alterseinkunftegesetzes im Jahre 2005 wurde die steuerliche Betrachtungsweise der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung neu geregelt. Auf Grundlage derer, entstand das Drei-Schichten-Modell. Das vorliegende Buch betrachtet die Erwerbsphase und auch die Rentenphase, mit zahlreichen Praxisbeispielen, innerhalb der gesetzlichen Vorsorgeschicht I - der Basisversorgung. Was das fur die Beitragsaufwendungen und die daraus resultierenden gesetzlichen Rentenleistungen bedeutet und warum die gesetzliche Rentenversicherung Grundlage fur viele Beratungen ist und bleibt, zeigt Ihnen das vorliegende Werk. Das Buch richtet sich dabei sowohl an Berater der Finanzbranche, als auch alle Interessierten, die tiefer in die Materie der Deutschen Rentenversicherung einsteigen moechten. Es bringt Klarheit in teils nebuloese Sachverhalte und verspricht anwendbare Antworten aus der Praxis. Der Leser erhalt ein verlassliches Kompendium, das umfassende und praktische Informationen bereithalt. Bringen Sie Licht ins Dunkel und beantworten Sie Ihre und komplexe Fragestellungen von Kunden souveran. Nutzen Sie den Mehrwert an Kompetenz und entdecken Sie neue Moeglichkeiten durch eine AEnderung der Perspektive. Die neuen Regelungen ab Juli 2014 (Mutterente, Rente ab 63 etc.) werden dabei berucksichtigt.

Traditionally, organizational risk managers focused on cost containment, aiming to attain the highest level of protection at the lowest possible cost. More recently, the growing embrace of enterprise risk management is prompting organizations to look at risk management as a source of value creation and competitive advantage. The leading enterprise risk management (ERM) frameworks - ISO 31000 and COSO - present compelling rationale but leave the "how-to" operational questions largely unanswered. Building on the idea of "risk profiling," Banasiewicz presents his vision for how the promise of ERM can be turned into an operational reality by thoughtfully leveraging quantitative & qualitative, numeric & text data. He outlines a step-by-step process for transforming readily available and informationally-rich, though not always well-utilized data into objective estimates of downside and upside risks. The overall focus of Risk Profiling of Organizations is on showing how otherwise diverse organizational exposures can be looked at as different parts of a single whole.

Managing Risk: A Guide for Physicians and Practices is one component of Daktori's Financial Fellowship Program and is approved for up to 7.5 hours of Category I Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits in all states for all specialties. The monograph helps physicians avoid liability traps arising from casual events that meet the legal definition of the doctor-patient relationship, contribution to diagnosis, miscommunication with patients and staff, poor layout of the office (especially high risk communication areas), drug therapy dangers, and non-medical liability risks for the practicing physician. Additional sections have been added on HIPAA risks, telemedicine liability and more. Free Daktori newsletter subscription (register at www.daktori.com/contact) and complimentary consultation with one of the authors also included with purchase. If continuing education credit is desired, please see included instructions.

In general, insurance is a highly regulated financial product. Every state requires licenses for insurance companies, and most states closely regulate both company conduct and the details of the particular insurance products sold in the state. This regulation is usually seen as important for consumer protection; however, it also creates barriers to entry in the insurance market and typically reduces to some degree the supply of insurance that is available to consumers. Rather than requiring consumers who may be unable to find insurance from a licensed insurer to simply go without insurance, states have allowed consumers to purchase insurance from non-licensed insurers, commonly called non-admitted or surplus lines insurers. Although any sort of insurance could be sold by a surplus lines insurer, most such transactions tend to be for rarer and more exceptional property and casualty risks, such as art and antiques, hazardous materials, natural disasters, amusement parks, and environmental or pollution risks. This book discusses surplus lines insurance, and property and casualty insurance.