trade with forex

There is a new sense of energy in the FX markets today but the rally has been contained to only a few major currency pairs. The biggest gains are being enjoyed by USD/JPY and USD/CHF but AUD/USD and NZD/USD also recovered nicely. Euro and sterling on the other hand are struggling to gain any type of momentum – upside or downside as the lack of market moving Eurozone data keep movements in these currencies limited.
At a time when the rest of the world economies are on shaky ground, U.S. economic data continues to surprise to the upside, making the dollar extremely attractive to global investors. Consumer confidence surged to its highest level in 5 years. Thanks to the improvement in the labor market and the persistent rise in stocks, the Conference Board’s measure of consumer sentiment rose to 76.2 in May, up from 69. Greater consumer optimism should hopefully translate into stronger consumer spending in the second quarter. The Richmond Fed manufacturing index also rebounded to -2 from -6. While this was the second month in a row that manufacturing activity contracted, the improvements is a breath of fresh air for the sector. Finally, house prices increased 1.12% in March after rising 1.32% in February. This represents deterioration but for the first quarter, house prices are up 10.17% vs. 7.25% in Q4. As U.S. economic data continues to improve, expectations for tapering asset purchases by the Fed will continue to build and this sentiment should fuel further gains in the dollar.
Meanwhile, the IMF’s report on central bank purchases of gold is getting some attention this morning and even though gold is lower, it is lending support to the beleaguered AUD and NZD. Investors have been eager to see whether the 18% decline in gold prices year to date attracted central bank buying and according to the International Monetary Fund, aside from Canada and Mexico, every major central bank has been hunting for bargains. Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbajian collectively increased their gold holdings by 75%, cementing Russia’s status as the world’s number one buyer of gold. These 3 former Soviet Republics have been buying all the way down and while their demand has limited the slide in gold, it has not stopped it.
For most central banks, buying gold is part of their overall forex portfolio diversification strategy and the further gold declines, the more demand we expect because central banks are not as sensitive to short or medium term swings as traders or even investors. The outlook for gold hinges on the outlook for the U.S. dollar and for the time being, expectations for a reduction in asset purchases by the Fed should keep the dollar bid. According to the CFTC’s latest positioning data, fund managers and speculators are grossly short gold and we believe that the prices could head lower.

Insurance policy

In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the insured, known as the policyholder, which determines the claims which the insurer is legally required to pay. In exchange for payment, known as the premium, the insurer pays for damages to the insured which are caused by covered perils under the policy language. Insurance contracts are designed to meet specific needs and thus have many features not found in many other types of contracts. Since insurance policies are standard forms, they featureboilerplate language which is similar across a wide variety of different types of insurance policies.

The insurance policy is generally an integrated contract, meaning that it includes all forms associated with the agreement between the insured and insurer.^[1]:10 In some cases, however, supplementary writings such as letters sent after the final agreement can make the insurance policy a non-integrated contract.^[1]:11 One insurance textbook states that generally "courts consider all prior negotiations or agreements ... every contractual term in the policy at the time of delivery, as well as those written afterwards as policy riders and endorsements ... with both parties' consent, are part of written policy".^[2] The textbook also states that the policy must refer to all papers which are part of the policy.^[2] Oral agreements are subject to the parol evidence rule, and may not be considered part of the policy if the contract appears to be whole. Advertising materials and circulars are typically not part of a policy.^[2] Oral contracts pending the issuance of a written policy can occur.^[2]

Contents     [hide]  1 General features 2 Structure 3 Parts of an insurance contract 3.1 Life insurance specific features 4 Manuscript policies 5 References

General features[edit]

The insurance contract or agreement is a contract whereby the insurer will pay the insured (the person whom benefits would be paid to, or on the behalf of), if certain defined events occur. Subject to the "fortuity principle", the event must be uncertain. The uncertainty can be either as to when the event will happen (e.g. in a life insurance policy, the time of the insured's death is uncertain) or as to if it will happen at all (e.g. in a fire insurance policy, whether or not a fire will occur at all).

• Insurance contracts are generally considered contracts of adhesion because the insurer draws up the contract and the insured has little or no ability to make material changes to it. This is interpreted to mean that the insurer bears the burden if there is any ambiguity in any terms of the contract. Insurance policies are sold without the policyholder even seeing a copy of the contract.^[1]:27 In 1970 Robert Keeton suggested that many courts were actually applying 'reasonable expectations' rather than interpreting ambiguities, which he called the 'reasonable expectations doctrine'. This doctrine has been controversial, with some courts adopting it and others explicitly rejecting it.^[3] In several jurisdictions, including California, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania, the insured is bound by clear and conspicuous terms in the contract even if the evidence suggests that the insured did not read or understand them.^[4][5][6]

• Insurance contracts are aleatory in that the amounts exchanged by the insured and insurer are unequal and depend upon uncertain future events. In contrast, ordinary non-insurance contracts are commutative in that the amounts (or values) exchanged are usually intended by the parties to be roughly equal. This distinction is particularly important in the context of exotic products like finite risk insurance which contain "commutation" provisions.

• Insurance contracts are unilateral, meaning that only the insurer makes legally enforceable promises in the contract. The insured is not required to pay the premiums, but the insurer is required to pay the benefits under the contract if the insured has paid the premiums and met certain other basic provisions.

• Insurance contracts are governed by the principle of utmost good faith (uberrima fides) which requires both parties of the insurance contact to deal in good faith and in particular it imparts on the insured a duty to disclose all material facts which relate to the risk to be covered. This contrasts with the legal doctrine that covers most other types of contracts, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). In the United States, the insured can sue an insurer in tort for acting in bad faith.

Structure[edit]

Early insurance contracts tended to be written on the basis of every single type of risk (where risks were defined extremely narrowly), and a separate premium was calculated and charged for each. This structure proved unsustainable in the context of the Second Industrial Revolution, in that a typical large conglomerate might have dozens of types of risks to insure against.

In the 1940s, the insurance industry shifted to the current system where covered risks are initially defined broadly in an insuring agreement on a general policy form (e.g., "We will pay all sums that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages..."), then narrowed down by subsequent exclusion clauses (e.g., "This insurance does not apply to..."). If the insured desires coverage for a risk taken out by an exclusion on the standard form, the insured can sometimes pay an additional premium for an endorsement to the policy that overrides the exclusion.

Insurers have been criticized in some quarters for the development of complex policies with layers of interactions between coverage clauses, conditions, exclusions, and exceptions to exclusions. In a case interpreting one ancestor of the modern "products-completed operations hazard" clause, the Supreme Court of California complained:

“

The instant case presents yet another illustration of the dangers of the present complex structuring of insurance policies. Unfortunately the insurance industry has become addicted to the practice of building into policies one condition or exception upon another in the shape of a linguistic Tower of Babel. We join other courts in decrying a trend which both plunges the insured into a state of uncertainty and burdens the judiciary with the task of resolving it. We reiterate our plea for clarity and simplicity in policies that fulfill so important a public service.[7]

”

Parts of an insurance contract[edit]

• Declarations - identifies who is an insured, the insured's address, the insuring company, what risks or property are covered, the policy limits (amount of insurance), any applicable deductibles, the policy period and premium amount. These are usually provided on a form that is filled out by the insurer based on the insured's application and attached on top of or inserted within the first few pages of the standard policy form.
• Definitions - define important terms used in the policy language.
• Insuring agreement - describes the covered perils, or risks assumed, or nature of coverage, or makes some reference to the contractual agreement between insurer and insured. It summarizes the major promises of the insurance company, as well as stating what is covered.
• Exclusions - take coverage away from the Insuring Agreement by describing property, perils, hazards or losses arising from specific causes which are not covered by the policy.
• Conditions - provisions, rules of conduct, duties and obligations required for coverage. If policy conditions are not met, the insurer can deny the claim.
• Endorsements - additional forms attached to the policy form that modify it in some way, either unconditionally or upon the existence of some condition. Endorsements can make policies difficult to read for nonlawyers; they may modify or delete clauses located several pages earlier in the standard insuring agreement, or even modify each other. Because it is very risky to allow nonlawyer underwriters to directly rewrite core policy language with word processors, insurers usually direct underwriters to modify standard forms by attaching endorsements preapproved by counsel for various common modifications.
• Policy riders - A policy rider is used to convey the terms of a policy amendment and the amendment thereby becomes part of the policy. Riders are dated and numbered so that both insurer and policyholder can determine provisions and the benefit level. Common riders to group medical plans involve name changes, change to eligible classes of employees, change in level of benefits, or the addition of a managed care arrangement such as an Health Maintenance Organization or Preferred Provider Organization (PPO).^[8]
• Policy jackets - A policy jacket is a cover, binder, envelope, or presentation folder with pockets in which the policy may be delivered. Historically, standard boilerplate provisions common to an entire family of policies were often printed on the jacket itself; then the underwriter would type up the declarations form and insert that form along with insuring agreement and endorsement forms into the jacket to assemble a complete policy. They are increasingly rare because jackets do not feed through automatic document feeders and must be manually copied or scanned in order to produce a complete image of the entire policy text.

Life insurance specific features[edit]

• Incontestability - in the United States, life insurance contracts may not be contested by the insurer at any point after the contract has been in force for two years. The insurer has the burden to investigate fully anything they wish to make sure the insured is an acceptable risk within those two years. Any material misstatements on the insurance application (which generally forms a part of the contract) cannot be used as a reason for the insurer not to pay the death benefit, as long as it does not constitute fraud on the part of the insured. The insurer's only recourse if there is no fraud is to adjust the death benefit to correct for the insured's age or sex if they differ from what was stated on the application.

Manuscript policies[edit]

For the vast majority of insurance policies, the only page that is heavily custom-written to the insured's needs is the declarations page. All other pages are standard forms that refer back to terms defined in the declarations as needed.

However, certain types of insurance, such as media insurance, are written as manuscript policies, which are either custom-drafted from scratch or written from a mix of standard and nonstandard forms.^[9]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^a b c Wollner KS. (1999). How to Draft and Interpret Insurance Policies. Casualty Risk Publishing LLC.
2. ^ ^a b c d Porter K. (2007). The Legal Environment of Insurance, §5.17. AICPCU.
3. ^ Rahdert MC. (1998). Reasonable Expectations Revisited. Conn. Ins. Law Journal.
4. ^ Hadland v. NN Investors Life Ins. Co., 24 Cal. App. 4th 1578 (1994).
5. ^ St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Albany County School District No. 1, 763 P.2d 1255 (Wyo. 1988).
6. ^ Standard Venetian Blind Co. v. American Empire Ins. Co., 503 Pa. 300, 469 A.2d 563 (1983).
7. ^ Insurance Co. of North America v. Electronic Purification Co., 67 Cal. 2d 679, 691-692 (1967).
8. ^ "Pricing Medical Expense Insurance," in Medical Expense Insurance, (Washington: The Health Insurance Association of America, 1997), 89.
9. ^ Dart Industries, Inc. v. Commercial Union Insurance Co., 28 Cal.4th 1059 (2002).

What does Marketplace health insurance cover?

All private health insurance plans offered in the Marketplace will offer the same set of essential health benefits.
These benefits include at least the following items and services:

• Ambulatory patient services (outpatient care you get without being admitted to a hospital)
• Emergency services
• Hospitalization
• Maternity and newborn care (care before and after your baby is born)
• Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment (this includes counseling and psychotherapy)
• Prescription drugs
• Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices (services and devices to help people with injuries, disabilities, or chronic conditions gain or recover mental and physical skills)
• Laboratory services
• Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
• Pediatric services

Tax Break Can Help With Health Coverage, But There's A Catch

There are two kinds of financial help for people planning to enroll in the online health insurance marketplaces that will open this fall. One could put people at risk of having to pay some of the money back, while the other won't.

That's one big difference between tax credits and subsidies, both of which are intended to help people with lower incomes pay for health insurance through the new health care law.

People with incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,490 to $45,960 for individuals in 2013) may be eligible for tax credits to reduce the cost of their monthly health insurance premiums.

In addition, people with incomes between 100 and 250 percent of the poverty level ($11,490 to $28,725) may qualify for cost-sharing subsidies that will bring down their deductibles, copayments and coinsurance. The subsidies also reduce the maximum amount they can be required to pay out of pocket annually for medical care.

Instead of waiting until tax time to claim the credit for the premiums on their return, people can apply to get it in advance, based on their estimated income for 2014. In that case, the state health exchange, or marketplace, will estimate the tax credit and send it directly to the insurer.

But there's a catch. When April 15 rolls around, the Internal Revenue Service will reconcile the amount of the advance payments sent to the insurer with the taxpayer's actual income. If a person's income is higher than the estimate, the taxpayer will have to repay the difference.

But there's some good news, too. If a person's income is lower than estimated, the taxpayer will get a credit.

People who quality for the cost-sharing subsidies won't face the same financial risk. The federal subsidies, which reduce consumers' out-of-pocket costs, will be paid directly to insurers. They could cover thousands of dollars of costs, depending on a person's health care usage.

But with the subsidies, if a person's income changes during the year, he or she won't be responsible for any extra costs.

"It's not a reconcilable tax credit, so consumers aren't on the hook if their income changes," says Christine Monahan, a senior health policy analyst at Georgetown Health Policy Institute's Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

So check out both options for cheaper premiums, but be well aware of the differences.