About Takaful

Takaful is a system of mutual co-operation and solidarity for financial assistance and protection based on teachings of Quran and Shariah. As Islamic and financially viable alternative to conventional insurance, Takaful policies allow the policy holders to enjoy the same level of cover provided by conventional insurance and at the same time to assist the unfortunate few in the time of their need. All premiums paid by policy holders are invested and profits are shared with the policy holders.

Looking after your Assets

Employee Benefit Schemes, of which Group Life & Disability Insurance forms an integral part of, enhances your competitive position in the labour market to attract the best candidates. It is also a tangible evidence of your concern towards your employees� welfare and caters for a motivational, yet crucial, part of your retention drive.

What are the Covered Benefits?

AMAN�s Group Takaful Scheme is designed to provide protection to a large number of lives in one individually tailored scheme, ensuring maximum protection at the lowest possible rates with minimum under writing requirements.

The major benefits that can be included in the scheme are:

• Group Life Assurance
• Permanent Total Disability
• Permanent Partial Disability
• Temporary Total Disability
• Medical Expenses Reimbursement
• Repatriation Expenses

Group Life Assurance: Under this benefit an agreed amount of money is paid to dependents if an employee passes away (God Forbid) due to natural or accidental causes. The sum assured may be a fixed amount, based on the employee designation or a straight multiple of employee�s monthly salary.

Permanent Total Disability: Pays out full sum assured if an employee is deemed permanently and totally disabled.

Permanent Partial Disability: Part of the sum assured is paid, based on a disability scale and the exact amount depends on the extent of the disability suffered.

Temporary Total Disability: Paid as compensation to an employee�s income for a period of up to 52/104 weeks in the event of an accident or illness preventing the employee from attending to his duties.

Medical Expenses Reimbursement: Under this benefit, re-imbursement is made for the medical expenses incurred by an employee on the treatment of an accidental injury sustained.

Repatriation Expenses: Reimburses expenses paid for the repatriation of the mortal remains to the home country of the deceased employee.

child education plan

The child education policy is a life insurance product specially designed as a savings tool to provide an amount of money when your child reaches the age for entry into college (18 years and above). The funds can be used to pay for your child's higher education expenses. Under this policy, the child is the life assured, while the parent/legal guardian is the policy owner. If you opt for a payor benefit rider, the education policy also provides assurance that, in the event of the policy owner's untimely demise, the child will have access to the funds to help finance his or her studies.

The cost of higher education is increasing. The need for access to higher education and the cost will put a financial strain on you and your family. That is why it is important to start planning for your child's education as soon as possible, because the earlier you begin, the more time you allow your money to grow. The child education policy will provide the funds needed by your child to pursue further education and assures that whatever happens in the future, your child will still have the means to pursue some of his/her goals in life.

When choosing a policy, always:

Consider how much money you want to set aside for your child’s education. Make sure that the premium is affordable. Choose a policy that gives you flexibility so you can gradually increase the savings in the future. Ensure that you opt for the payor benefit rider.

Endowment policy An endowment policy combines a savings component with protection coverage. Endowment policies may be either participating or non-participating. Non-participating policies do not participate in the life insurance fund’s profits but all insurance benefits are fully guaranteed. Participating policies have a portion of insurance benefits guaranteed, however the total amount of benefits at maturity is not guaranteed because it depends on the insurance company’s life insurance fund’s performance. Investment-linked policy An investment-linked policy combines the elements of investment and protection based on your requirement as the policy owner. It offers flexibility as you are able to increase or top-up your monthly premium contribution as your income improves. You may also be more aggressive with your investment. An investment-linked policy will allow you to choose the types of funds your money will be invested in. However, like any other investment, there are risks involved and there is no guarantee on the returns, which may be higher or lower than the amo

Car Insurance

Whenever you get behind the wheel of a car, you are capable of causing damage to other people’s property, and injuring or killing yourself, other drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Because most people don’t have the money to pay for the losses they might cause while driving, governments throughout the developed world require drivers to carry a certain amount of insurance (“Liability”) to cover any losses (property damage, injury, death) they might cause others to experience. Some governments, including those of every province and territory in Canada, also require drivers to carry coverage for their own medical expenses and loss of income resulting from driving-related injuries (“Accident Benefits/Bodily Injury or AB/BI”).

There is other insurance that you can purchase voluntarily for your car, including coverage for damage to your car (“Collision”) and protection against theft, vandalism and other perils (“Comprehensive”).

How Insurance Works

While it may seem complex, insurance is really quite simple: The payments (or premiums) of the many pay for the losses of a few. Your premiums go into a large pool, if you will, at your insurance company. The claims of the few are paid from that pool. Because there are more people contributing to the pool than there are making claims, there is always enough to pay the claims – even large single claims like when someone is permanently disabled as a result of a car collision, or many smaller claims like those resulting from a natural disaster. (The 1998 ice storm that hit parts of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick resulted in an estimated 700,000 claims for damage totalling $1.4 billion.) However, large disasters (such as the ice storm) do come close to emptying the pool.

Insurance for insurance companies

Even when the pool comes close to emptying, there is another pool from which insurance companies can draw to pay claims. Some of your premiums are used by your insurance company to buy reinsurance – insurance for insurance companies. Sometimes losses are so big – like those resulting from an earthquake – that there is no way that an insurance company can cover the costs. Reinsurence is an extra layer of protection against large losses.

Annual replenishing

Your insurance is an annual contract, so the pool operates for only one year at a time. Your premiums and the premiums of others are based on how much money the insurance companies think they will need to pay the coming year’s claims. Your premiums do not build up over the years – unlike the premiums for some types of life insurance.

How premiums are calculated

Within reasonable limits, some of which are prescribed by law, your premium is calculated to reflect the probability that you will make a claim – that is, that you will draw funds from the insurance pool. Those who are unlikely to draw from the pool pay less than those who are more likely to draw from it.

Insurers take many factors into consideration to determine the likelihood that you will make a claim. A common misconception is that a policyholder who has never made a claim should pay less, little or nothing for insurance. While it is true that past claims history is important, a more reliable indicator of how likely a person or business is to make a claim is the statistical group to which he/she/it belongs.

Industry earnings

Insurance companies generally do not make money on the premiums gathered from policyholders. In 2005, insurance companies paid more than $21 billion in claims while taking in $35 billion in premiums. The difference between the premiums and claims, in this case $14 billion, is used by the companies to pay salaries and taxes ($6.2 billion in 2005), and to cover the overhead costs (such as electricity bills) of running a business. It is also used to pay the administrative costs of settling a claim.

Insurance pays for …

Insurance pays for only those types of losses described in your contract. It is very important that you read your policy and/or talk to your insurance representative about what you are covered for and what you’re not. Insurance will not pay for every problem that you may encounter, nor is it a maintenance contract. Insurance is generally intended – and priced accordingly – to help policyholders cope with the financial consequences of unpredictable events that are "sudden and accidental." If, for example, you live on a floodplain by a river, flooding of your property in the spring is not sudden or accidental; it is inevitable and, therefore, uninsurable.

life insurance

What is the definition of term life insurance?

Term life insurance coverage is an affordable and practical solution to help protect your loved ones. If the policy is in force at the time of your death, then your beneficiaries will receive the coverage amount you select.

Term life insurance can be personalized to your needs. You select the term length you need as well as the coverage, or face, amount of the policy. For example, you can choose a 25 year term life policy, in order to maintain your family's standard of living until your children are out of school. Others might only seek a 10 year policy in order to protect their spouse until retirement.

The benefits of term life insurance

Term life insurance is often considered to be the appropriate coverage for instances where estate creation is needed because it is designed for a specific period of need (i.e. the number of years left on a home mortgage or business loan, or until your children are through college and no longer dependent upon your income or assets).

And, since term life insurance costs are so competitive, you can purchase the amount of protection required to help meet all of your specific goals.

Instantly obtain life insurance quotes and information. Check the market on your own before you talk with anyone! Also, check out Return Of Premium Term Life Insurance that gives back all of your payments.

Length of Time of Life Insurance Policy

The longer your policy remains in force, the more likely it is that the company will pay a claim, therefore the more expensive it is. That is why whole life insurance policies have the highest premium - it's insurance for your whole life, no matter when you pass on. When you have a whole life policy you have assurance that you will have coverage as long as you live. As long as you pay your premium, the company will guarantee that benefits will be paid to your heirs. That is why a 5 or 10-year term life insurance policy is the least expensive. The company is less likely to pay a claim on that term life policy.

Business Insurance All Home-Based Businesses Need

Business Insurance All Home-Based Businesses Need

Home-based business insurance is often overlooked. Many home-based business owners own their own homes, and assume that their home insurance also covers their home-based business activities.

Not only is this not true, but your home-based business activities can void your home insurance. Home insurance covers people's homes. Using the home for other purposes that your insurer is not aware of, such as operating a home-based business, may invalidate your policy.

What kinds of home-based business insurance do you need? The answer depends very much on exactly what kind of home-based business you're operating.

While many home-based business owners rely on their home insurance to cover damage, loss and theft of property, all home-based businesses should have contents insurance in addition to the contents and or property insurance provided by the owner's home insurance. For one thing, look around your home office and make a quick estimate of how much it would cost you to replace the equipment surrounding you. Most homeowner's policies have a limit of about $2000 for claims in the event of a loss. How much of your home office equipment would you be able to replace for that amount if it was stolen?

For another, does all the business equipment you use stay in your home all the time? Business equipment will only be covered by your homeowner's policy while it is on your premises. If you have a laptop computer or a PDA that you use outside of your home, you'll need separate contents and property insurance for it.

Another type of insurance that all home-based businesses should have is additional general liability insurance. If your aunt is visiting and falls and breaks her leg, your homeowner's policy will cover it; if a client is visiting and falls and breaks her leg, it won't. General liability insurance covers injuries to clients and employees on your business premises and elsewhere.

On the next page are some other types of home-based business insurance that your home-based business may need.

Insurance for home-based businesses

Related pages

As a home-based business you need to make sure you have the correct level of insurance to protect yourself. One of the most common mistakes made by home-based business operators is to assume that home and contents insurance covers their business risk - in many cases it doesn’t.

Insurances to consider are:

• Public liability cover for persons visiting your business at home (e.g. customers and suppliers)
• Workers compensation for any employees working from your home
• Fire, storm and theft cover for the loss of any stock and equipment
• Professional indemnity insurance if you're in a service industry, especially if you're contracting to government
• Personal accident or illness
• Costs arising from interruption to your business
• Marine policy if you send products via freight carriers or post.

It’s important to note that many policies don't cover tools of trade, office furniture or computer equipment used for your business, unless you've specifically advised your insurer and they've agreed to cover you.