Saturday, February 20, 2010
You are likely aware that March 1, 2010, is the deadline for contributions to an RRSP account to get a deduction from your 2009 income tax. You may also be aware of the Tax-free Savings Account that was introduced last year. Should you use one, both, or neither? The answer depends on your personal circumstances and [...]
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
My shared passions of insurance and education clearly met yesterday morning. The plan was to write a blog entry about various components of disability insurance, along with another one adding to what I have written about travel insurance. With a shift of focus, though, the subject of informal learning became first and forefront. Blogs can [...]
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I was trained to use the telephone to make appointments for face-to-face meetings where relationships are developed and business is conducted. But that is not always how the potential, or current, client wants it to occur. With work, family, and other commitments, time is precious. I’m seriously rethinking my approach. As insurance and financial advisors, we have an [...]
Travel insurance is not confusing for most. They pay for their trip and the travel agent recommends they purchase it. A decision is made to buy or not to buy. But, what are you getting or giving up, and what other options are available? With business trips and winter vacations in mind, I hope this [...]
Filed in Insurance, Travel Insurance
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Also tagged baggage, delay, emergency medical, hospitalization, living benefits, pre-existing, travel insurance, trip cancellation, trip interruption, vacation
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Well, perhaps not really a rumour, as I’ve often talked about having two passions! From this website and blog, you definitely know me as being in the insurance industry. You may also know that I love to talk about distance learning, both as a lifelong learner and as an educator. It may come as no [...]
Filed in Biography, distance education, Education, Uncategorized
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Also tagged Chartered Life Underwriter, disability, e-learning, educator, insurance guy, learning technologies, life insurance, living benefits, money guy, PhD, Registered Health Underwriter, researcher, Tony Ratcliffe
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You recently heard about the sentencing of Bernard Madoff for his massive fraud, identified as a Ponzi scheme. While certainly not of the same size, an international fraud involving residents close to home was reported yesterday on the front page of the Edmonton Journal by Karen Kleiss. For a quick review of what a Ponzi scheme entails, and to [...]
In previous entries, I wrote about some of the financial planning basics that I address with clients. You may have worked through some of it, but my experience tells me that procrastination and a busy life often puts it to the side to be dealt with later. There may be a quicker way to get this [...]
You spend time worrying about risk management for your company, but do you periodically review your personal financial risk management needs? Knowing that the answer is often, “no,” here are a number of areas that you may wish to consider and discuss with an insurance/financial advisor. Buy-Sell Agreements As a shareholder or a partner in [...]
Filed in Financial Planning, Insurance, Uncategorized
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Also tagged Alberta, business overhead expense, buy-sell, critical illness, disability income, disability insurance, financial advisor, group benefits, key person, living benefits, long-term care insurance, Lunch 'n Learn, personal financial risk management, travel insurance
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This article was originally published as a page on my site. I have decided to remove it and replace it with a blog entry. Here it is, slightly edited: I like being asked the question, “Do I need insurance?” This means that the person is not politely walking the other way once it is known [...]
I am pleased to announce that I completed my Registered Health Underwriter (RHU) designation this past week. As you may know, I have become quite passionate about the living benefits. This program provided further depth into the topics of disability income replacement, critical illness and long-term care insurance, and group benefits. These are topics that [...]
Filed in Financial Planning, Insurance, Risk Management, Uncategorized
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Also tagged critical illness, disability income replacement, disability insurance, group benefits, health insurance, living benefits, long term care, Registered Health Underwriter, RHU
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Tony’s Distance and E-learning Blog