Manage Your Business Owners Policy

It's Easy to Manage Your Business Owners Policy Keep on top of your BOP. We'll help you make any necessary changes to your business owners policy as your company and its operations change. As a busy businessperson, you'll appreciate that the insurance  Agency has made it easy for you to speak directly with insurance professionals who can help you with your business owners policy.

Insurer introduces new celebrity scandal insurance policy

Excess and surplus lines carriers are known for insuring the weird and the wonderful, and last week another eccentric exposure received coverage—celebrity scandal.

Celebrity Product RecallResponse is a new product from Lexington Insurance, the E&S carrier for American International Group. According to the company description, it’s designed to cover a company against a celebrity endorser’s “fall from grace, scandal or unexpected death” with stand-alone policy limits of up to $5 million and endorsement limits of up to $1 million.

Policy costs also depend on factors such as the size of the company, specific products associated with the endorser and the endorser himself or herself. The risk of the endorser is evaluated based on past behavior and previous endorsements, among other factors, Lexington said.

When the policy is activated, it covers the costs for the removal of all promotion and marketing materials—such as billboards and TV commercials—as well as the recall of actual products bearing the endorser’s name or image.

“In this age of social media and instant news, reports of indiscretions by celebrities or high-profile athletes can spread worldwide instantly, with swift, adverse implications for products or brands associated with the individual,” said Lexington Insurance CEO Jeremy Johnson.

Celebrity Product RecallResponse is triggered by “significant media coverage” of the endorser’s actual or alleged criminal act or other conduct deemed “distasteful,” defined as actions likely to result in “public contempt for the individual and a significant adverse impact on a company’s product.”

Along with the policy, customers are given access to AIG’s RiskTool Advantage, which helps companies assess exposure and prepare a recall plan.

Double whammy: Sandy and then an insurance scandal

Relief finally might be on the horizon for some Sandy victims denied federal insurance payouts because of documents that allegedly were forged. It's about time.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the National Flood Insurance Program, says it is deeply troubled by allegations that engineering firms doctored reports to underpay homeowner insurance claims. So FEMA has decided to broker a blueprint for reaching settlements with hundreds of frustrated homeowners and to reform its insurance program. Both steps are welcome and overdue.

The controversy stemmed from lawsuits filed by homeowners and mushroomed when a federal judge found a report on a Long Beach house was c
hanged to blame damage on structural defects in the house, not flooding. The federal government hires private companies to handle claims against the insurance it underwrites. The judge also warned that the Long Beach case might be only one of many. Now some 1,500 lawsuits disputing flood insurance claims, many from Long Islanders, are pending. And the state attorney general's office is continuing its criminal probe, recently raiding the offices of a Uniondale firm accused of rewriting engineering reports.

FEMA should have acted when first warned early last year, instead of waiting until the judge's findings 10 months later. Now, seeking to restore public faith, FEMA has removed incentives for engineering companies to lowball settlements by penalizing them for underpayments as well as overpayments.

But the best balm for battered homeowners would be for FEMA to conclude settlement talks as quickly as possible and get the money to those who are owed it

AIG unveils celebrity scandal insurance policy 2015

It's a whole new world.

American International Group released on Thursday its Celebrity Product RecallResponse, an insurance product aimed at helping companies hedge against a celebrity's "fall from grace, scandal, or unexpected death," the company said. The product is provided through Lexington Insurance, AIG's excess and surplus carrier, and is available with stand-alone policy limits up to $5 million, or by endorsement limits up to $1 million.

 "In this age of social media and instant news, reports of indiscretions by celebrities or high-profile athletes can spread worldwide instantly, with swift, adverse implications for products or brands associated with the individual," said Jeremy Johnson, CEO of Lexington Insurance.

 

The insurance policy would be activated by a number of different scenarios, Johnson said. For example, if a professional athlete endorsing a water bottle brand becomes embroiled in a substance abuse scandal, the policy would be triggered and all the promotional and marketing materials would be removed from the market, he said. These materials range from billboards to TV commercials, Johnson added.

Policy costs also vary widely because of all the factors taken into consideration, Johnson said. Some of those factors are the size of the company, the specific products subjected to the endorser and the endorser himself. The endorser is evaluated based on his or her past behavior and previous endorsements, among other factors.

ideal insurance 2015

What can you expect from Ideal Insurance? We believe that providing you with just one contact, a dedicated account handler, to see you through the whole business insurance process benefits all parties concerned. You have just one point of contact throughout the policy for inception, midterm changes & queries and then again at renewal. This gives us a complete understanding of your needs, and allows us to tailor your insurance package to benefit you and approach the relevant insurance underwriters on your behalf. We are happy to either, come out and see you at your business, or we have a friendly office where you can come and meet the team and your personal account handler to discuss your business needs. By allowing Ideal to manage your insurance policies it leaves you the time to do what you do best...and run your business! We have excellent relationships with a vast panel of insurers which allows us to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the most appropriate policy for you. If you are a new venture or perhaps not exactly sure what you need to be covered for then please call and speak to one of our account handlers who be more than happy to advise you further. Once you become a customer of ours you will then benefit from further discounts on other policies whether it is your own personal insurance or additional commercial products to

What can YOUR Insurance do for your business?

We want to give you the chance to tailor your own business insurance so you are only paying for the cover you need. Our small business insurance packages can also include product liability insurance and employers' liability. We will always work to get you the cheapest deal we can as long as your insurance needs are covered.
If you are a tradesperson looking for a straight forward public liability policy then great - just choose your policy via our comparison site. If you need to add on additional cover, such as employers' liability or tools cover you can do this online as well.
We also provide policies for hotel, restaurant, pub and guest house owners. You can get quotes online and compare prices from our panel of providers or if you are unsure about buying online, just speak to one of our specialist business advisors on 0800 107 8949. YOUR Insurance are an established broker, so you can sit back and let us to source you the right policy for your business.

How Much Is the Health Insurance Penalty for an Individual 2015 ?

Will you have to pay a tax penalty for not having health insurance? How much is the health insurance penalty? Will it be cheaper to go without health insurance and pay the penalty, or to buy health insurance?

One of the more controversial parts of the Affordable Care Act is the individual mandatethat requires Americans to have health insurance. Although a small number of Americans are exempt from the requirement to have health insurance coverage, the rest of us face a penalty, the shared responsibility payment, if we're uninsured.

Each state has a Health Insurance Exchange to help people find insurance, and subsidies are available to help low income people pay for health insurance. But, if you’re accustomed to going without insurance and don’t qualify for a subsidy, you have to squeeze this new expense out of your budget or pay the individual mandate penalty.

If you’re thinking about going without health insurance in hopes of saving money, the cost of the penalty will eat into your savings. Knowing the amount of your penalty can help you budget for it.

If you're trying to calculate the penalty for afamily rather than an individual, learn howhere.

Calculating the Health Insurance Penalty

First, take a look at the Individual Mandate Penalty Table below. Then, read on to learn how to use it correctly so you don't pay too much.

Individual Mandate Penalty Table

	Year 2014	Year 2015	Year 2016	After 2016
income based penalty	1% of income above filing threshold	2% of income above filing threshold	2.5% of income above filing threshold	2.5% of income above filing threshold
minimum penalty amount	$95	$325	$695	$695 + inflation adjustment

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The penalty you’ll pay is either a fixed minimum amount, or a percentage of your income. Using the table, calculate the penalty as a percentage of your income first. Then, compare that to the minimum health insurance penalty for that year. Your individual mandate penalty will be the larger of the two.

• Tip: Don't pay the government too much. Only pay the health insurance penalty on the portion of your income that's above the filing threshold. Subtract the filing threshold from your income before you calculate the penalty. (You’ll see examples of this below.)
   
• Tip: The filing threshold is the amount of income that requires you to file a tax return. People with incomes below the filing threshold don’t have to file an income tax return; those with incomes above the threshold must file.
  
  You can estimate the filing threshold using the 2014 filing threshold figures of $10,150 for single filers and $20,300 for married couples filing jointly. Or, you can get the actual filing threshold for the year in question from publication 501 at the IRS forms and publications page.

Situations That Might Decrease Your Penalty

• Couldn’t find affordable health insurance?
  If you can't find health insurance that costs you less than 8% of your income, you may be exempt from the penalty. (The government can increase that 8% figure in the future if the cost of health insurance increases faster than average incomes increase.)
• Did you have health insurance for part of the year?
  Only pay the penalty for the months you went without health insurance. For example, if you went without health insurance for seven months of the year, you would only pay seven-twelfths of the yearly health insurance penalty.
• Do you have a large penalty?
  The penalty amount is capped at the national average cost of a bronze-tier health insurance plan for that year. This amount changes every year, so the IRS announces each year's new average figure several months before people start preparing their tax returns. For your 2014 taxes, the amount is $204 per month or $2,448 per year.

Example A

Stan is a single 24 year old tax filer who made $45,000 in 2015 and was uninsured all year. Although his employer offered health insurance costing $280 per month, Stan felt he couldn't afford the $280 each month, so chose to go without insurance. We'll estimate using the 2014 filing threshold amount of $10,150, and the 2014 national average cost of a bronze-tier health plan of $2,448 per year, although Stan would use the 2015 amounts if they were available. Here are Stan’s estimated calculations:

Step 1

$45,000 - $10,150 = $34,850
Stan’s income - filing threshold for single filers = portion of Stan’s income used to calculate the penalty.

Step 2

$34,850 X 0.02 = $679
The portion of Stan’s income used to calculate the penalty X the penalty percentage for 2015 which is 2% or 0.02 = Stan’s percentage-of-income penalty.

Step 3

Check the table. Compare the minimum penalty for 2015 with the percentage-of-income penalty you just calculated, and Stan’s individual mandate penalty will be the bigger of the two.

Since $697 is larger than the minimum health insurance penalty of $325 for 2015, Stan will have to pay a penalty of $697 when he files his taxes on April 15, 2016.

Stan's penalty is less than the national average cost of a bronze-tier health insurance plan, $2,448, so that penalty cap doesn't affect Stan's penalty amount. Stan’s employer offered health insurance that would have cost Stan less than 8% of his income, so Stan isn’t exempt from paying the penalty.

• Tip: If you can’t remember how to work with percentage calculations, here’s apercentage calculator.

Example B

Mary is a single 45 year old who was uninsured for eight months in 2016. The rest of 2016, she had health insurance. She earned $75,000. We'll use the 2014 filing threshold figure and the 2014 national average cost of a bronze-tier health plan to estimate Mary’s penalty, but Mary will use the 2016 figures when she prepares her taxes. Here are the calculations:

Step 1

$75,000 - $10,150 = $64,850
Mary’s income in 2016 - filing threshold for single filers = portion of Mary’s income used to calculate the penalty.

Step 2

$64,850  X  0.025 = $1,621.25
The portion of Mary’s income used to calculate the penalty X the penalty percentage for 2016 which is 2.5% or 0.025 = Mary’s percentage-of-income penalty.

Step 3

Check the table and choose the larger of the two penalties. The minimum penalty for 2016 is $695. Since that's less than Mary’s percentage-of-income penalty of $1,621.25, Mary has to choose the larger percentage-of-income penalty.

Step 4

(8/12)  X  $1,621.25= $1,080.83
Mary only has to pay eight-twelfths of the penalty ($1,080.83) since she was only uninsured for 8 months.

Step 5

Make sure Mary doesn't pay too much.  The penalty is capped at the national average cost of a bronze-tier health plan.. We'll estimate using the 2014 national average for a bronze-tier plan, $204 per month:

$204  X 8 months = $1,632.

Mary's penalty is capped at the national average cost of 8 months of bronze-tier health insurance. Since Mary's percentage-of-income penalty for 8 months, $1,080.83 is less than the 8-month cap of $1,632, the cap won't lower her penalty amount.

Mary will have to pay an individual mandate penalty of $1080.83 when she files her taxes.

If either Mary or Stan had calculated penalty amounts that were bigger than the national average cost of a bronze-tier health plan, their penalty would have maxed out at the national average cost of a bronze-tier health plan.

The fee you pay if you don't have health coverage

If you can afford health insurance but choose not to buy it, you must have a health coverage exemption or pay a fee. (The fee is sometimes called the "penalty," "fine," "individual responsibility payment," or "individual mandate.")

Find exemptions that may work for you

Select the button below. We’ll ask you a few questions and show you all health coverage exemptions that may apply to you.

The fee for not having coverage in 2015

If you don’t have coverage in 2015, you’ll pay the higher of these two amounts:

• 2% of your yearly household income. (Only the amount of income above the tax filing threshold, about $10,000 for an individual, is used to calculate the penalty.) The maximum penalty is the national average premium for a bronze plan.
• $325 per person for the year ($162.50 per child under 18). The maximum penalty per family using this method is $975.

The fee for not having coverage in 2014

If you didn’t have coverage in 2014, you’ll pay the higher of these two amounts:

• 1% of your yearly household income. (Only the amount of income above the tax filing threshold, about $10,000 for an individual, is used to calculate the penalty.) The maximum penalty is the national average premium for a bronze plan.
• $95 per person for the year ($47.50 per child under 18). The maximum penalty per family using this method is $285.

Did you have to pay the fee with your 2014 taxes? You still may be able to get 2015 coverage if you:

• Aren’t currently enrolled in coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace for 2015,
  
• Paid the fee with your 2014 federal income tax return, for not having health coverage in 2014, and
  
• Were confused or didn’t know about open enrollment dates for 2015 coverage, and need another opportunity to enroll in coverage for the remainder of 2015.
  

This special enrollment period will start on March 15 and end April 30, 2015. Look for more details soon!

cut your car insurance costs

There are a number of different things you can do to help cut the cost of your car insurance premium, including:

• Paying a higher voluntary excess (the extra amount you’d pay in the event of a claim)
• Limiting who drives your car to just yourself, or you plus a named driver
• Parking your car in a garage or driveway away from the street
• Keeping your mileage low (doing less than the AA average of 12,000 miles a year for new cars)
• Fitting a security device such as an alarm, tracker, or immobiliser

For more ideas on how to reduce your insurance costs, read our car insurance guides .

you’ll need to have ready before you start

Before you start to compare car insurance quotes, you’ll need to be able to tell us:

• Your car registration number – if you don’t have it to hand, simply click 'find a car'
• Your expected annual mileage figures
• Where your car’s parked during the day and night
• What you use your car for, e.g. commuting, business use
• Your main driving licence details

Insurance Auto Auctions

With operations throughout the United States, Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc. (IAA) is one of the auto salvage industry’s top chains. The company was among the first to conceive of and undertake industry consolidation through acquisition, expanding from five branches with an annual vehicle volume of 30,000 units in 1991, to 46 locations and 443,000 vehicles per year in 1996. Fueled by well over a dozen acquisitions, lAA’s sales increased from $38 million in 1990 to almost $282 million by 1996, catapulting the company to a leading role in its highly fragmented industry. Though it boasted top dollar and unit volume, IAA lagged chief rival Copart, Inc. in terms of number of outlets and profitability. In fact, lAA’s net income was on a downward trend in the mid-1990s, declining from nearly $11 million in 1994 to just over $3 million in 1996.

Founder and longtime CEO Bradley Scott relinquished day-to-day leadership of the company in March 1996, but continued to serve as chairman of the board. His successor, Jim Alampi, was recruited from a chemical distribution company. Scott’s retirement capped a half-decade of turnover in lAA’s upper echelon; as of 1996, all but three of the company’s top eleven executives joined the chain after its 1991 initial public stock offering. Around the same time, IAA reorganized into three geographic divisions and moved its headquarters from Southern California to a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc. provides live and live-online auto auction services in North America and internationally. It engages in facilitating the sale of total loss vehicles; and remarketing lightly damaged, high mileage vehicles for dealers, fleet lease companies, rental companies, and financial institutions. The company also provides services for selling agriculture equipment, construction equipment, emergency equipment, forestry equipment, fleet trucks, heavy trucks and trailers, material handling equipment, marine vehicles, and RVs; services for non-profit organizations to process and sell donated vehicles as a source of funding; and resources for charity vehicle donation programs

With all of the disruptive factors at play, ‘business transformation’ has become a strategically significant topic. This is healthy, demonstrating that senior leaders are aware of existential challenges.

Commentators suggest that while there is a general understanding of the requirements and processes involved in business transformation, several factors are causing a relatively low rate of success, including:

1. underestimating the complexities of execution, and
2. the need for clear focus on customer demand and engagement.

We’d be interested in your thoughts here.  To expand the conversation, a number of sessions at the  2015 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference (#ICTC2015) will focus on business transformation in the insurance community.

Complexities corralled by disciplined methodologies

According to Robert T. Vanderwerf, Transformation Strategy Leader at KPMG, transformation drivers for organizations  include globalization, economics, technology shifts, and regulation.  “When four or five significant drivers are changing at the same time, the business environment becomes highly complex,” Vanderwerf said in a 2014 Forbes article on steps for successful business transformation.

In the transformation environment, managing complexities requires a disciplined approach, with clear objectives.  As an example of success, A.T. Kearney provided a case study of a European bank which undertook a multi-year transformation of its operating model.  It used Lean methods  to address gaps between current a desired states.  The results at mid-project were impressive, with processing times for mortgages decreasing 33% .

In a similar fashion, Industrial Alliance Automobile and Home (IAAH) working with EIS Group, used Lean methodology in the implementation of new core systems – policy, claims, and billing.  The result was a complete refresh of technology, including conversion, in two years.

This case study will be presented at #ICTC2015 by Pascal Lavoie, CIO IAAH and Phillipe Lafraniere, SVP EIS Group.  In addition, IAAH is a finalist in the 2015 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards, which will be presented at #ICTC2015

Business transformation and customer engagement

The Forbes article notes that “Business transformation needs to be aligned with customers’ needs—in fact, it needs to anticipate them.”  However, an accompanying piece, How to Decode Customer Demand,  points out that customer demand is not a singularity: “a major trigger such as customer demand may have a different underlying reason, depending on the industry, company or geography.”

The insurance industry faces unprecedented challenges in meeting consumer demands  In addition to traditional channel issues – broker, agent, or direct distribution – consumers now cross multiple touch points – traditional and digital.

Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner, will be articulating these challenges at #ICTC2015 during her keynote, The Digital Conundrum: Digital is Binary, Consumers are a Continuum which will be based on an extensive survey of insurance consumers.

In addition, there are over 20 session focusing on technologies and business practices required to provide a rich, integrated, consistent customer experience.

What do you think?

Given the challenges that insurers and distributors are facing from new competitors and evolving demands in the existing insurance market, business transformation may be one of the most important issues confronting insurance executives.

I look forward to comments you have.  In addition, I look forward to welcoming you to #ICTC2015, March 9-10, 2015 at the Metro Toronto Convention centre. Details and registration  informationare available

Power to the People: Technology Awards are Yours to Give

Since 2010, Insurance-Canada.ca has presented awards for the the use of technology in the Canadian P&C industry.  We’ve made some adjustments over this years. This year we’ve taken the next step, and put one of the awards in your hands.  It will be interesting to see what you will do with this.

What’s the purpose of these awards, anyway?

We set up the ICTAs (Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards) in 2010 to “celebrate organizations in the Canadian Property and Casualty Insurance industry whose implementation and use of technology shows a significant impact on a process or group of processes used in the sale, processing and servicing of insurance in Canada.”

In other words, it is not the technology that wins, but the effective use of technology to improve the business.

The first insurer award winners were:

• York Fire and Casualty, who implemented real time endorsements using technology from iter8 (now part of Quindell).

• Pembridge Insurance, who used Brovada technology for broker access

• Sun Life Financial, for enterprise  data management, using IBM technology, and

• State Farm for a mobile application

Let’s see, broker real-time access, data privacy controls, mobile applications.   Looking back 6 years, these have had significant impact

Since then, we have celebrate over 50 organizations – insurers, brokers, service providers, and technology providers.  And raised a toast to the awardees and to the industry that benefits from the pioneers.

Processes can be improved … even awards processes

For the first two years, it was the Insurance-Canada.ca staff that selected the winners.  In 2012, we recruited a jury comprised of leaders in the insurer, broker, and analyst sectors to make the decisions.

At the outset, we were a little skeptical that these very busy people would have the time tor review all of the applications and go through the negotiation process.  We tried to ‘help’ by providing summaries and making recommendations.

Bad idea.  We’ve learned to stay out of the way when these folks get together.

All of the jurors then and since have been very active participants in evaluating,  arguing for, and, ultimately, selecting the best of the nominees.  They deserve, and have, our deepest gratitude.

And next …

This year, we have added one more twist:  The Peoples’ Choice ICTAs (PICTAs).  We had an exceptional group of 27 nominees this year.  In addition to the work of the jury (now completed, with the results being held for release at the 2015 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference), we have set up an information and polling site for you to review nominations and vote for the candidate of your choice.

Think of it as crowd-sourcing an award.  If you have not done so, have a look at the nominees and exercise your franchise.

This will be open until Close of Business, March 5, 2015.  At that point, the miracles of technology will supply us with an overall winner and two runners up.

All of this will be revealed …

.. during the awards ceremony at the end of the first day of the 2015 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference – March 9, 2015, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. 

While we hope you’ll join us for all of the conference, if you are not able, you can stop by to hear our Keynote presentation, from Gartner’s Kimberly Harris-Ferante, attend the Awards Ceremony, and have a drink with the the jurours, the winners, and our sponsors at the Awards reception.  Information and registration is available here.

What do you think…

Will your vote match that of the jury?  Will the overall results show different trends from those of the jurors?

Will you do better than your co-workers in predicting the results?  (Not that we’re encouraging side bets.  Just saying.)

It will be interesting to see.

Most Expensive Insured Celebrity Bodyparts

We’ve all heard of insuring the most valuable possessions in your life, namely your house, car and even your life. However, there are a number of celebrities who have taken insurance to the next level by putting a premium on their most valuable body parts. It’s no surprise Madonna, the queen of reinvention was one of the first to start the body insurance trend. And the most precisest Mariah Carey’s Lusty Legs($1 billion). Here’s our list of 15 celebrities who have insured their prized assets. For details

#15 Gene Simmons iconic tongue

Body part: Tongue

Insurance amount: $1 million

Gene Simmons (born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-born American rock bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and actor. Known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bass guitarist/co-lead vocalist of Kiss, a hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s. With Kiss, Simmons has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide.

Tech billionaire buys record-setting $201 million insurance policy

A mystery tech billionaire has just purchased the most valuable life insurance policy ever. It's worth $201 million.
The policy was sold by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based SG, a global advisory firm specializing in complex financial solutions for wealthy clients.
According to Guinness World Records, the $201 million policy beats the previous record for a life insurance policy—a $100 million policy for an unnamed American entertainer.

Pagadesign | E+ | Getty Images

SG won't disclose the buyer's name. The company said the single policyholder is a well-known billionaire living in Silicon Valley who is involved in the tech industry, and $201 million would be paid out upon the buyer's death.

Dovi Frances, SG's president and founder, said no single insurance company holds the $201 million risk. He said the policy is split between 19 different companies and none hold "more than $20 million or so" of risk.

10 most and least expensive cars to insure 2015

Chances are it's the price of gas, not auto insurance, that's driving you to the poor house.
But if you want to cut your auto insurance premiums to the bone, stay away from small, fast cars.
"It's a common denominator among vehicles that have the highest losses -- a lot of smaller, sportier vehicles, says Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
"Contrary to the idea that smaller cars can help you avoid crashes, the data shows that small cars get into more accidents," he says. "If you feel like you have a vehicle that can zip in and out of traffic, chances are you'll do that."

10 most-expensive cars to insure

The 10 vehicles that account for the highest dollar amount of losses for insurance companies (starting with the most expensive) are:

1.	Subaru Impreza WRX 4WD	6.	Honda Civic Si
2.	Scion tC	7.	Dodge Charger
3.	Hyundai Tiburon	8.	Nissan 350Z
4.	Mercedes CLS class 4dr	9.	Chevrolet Cobalt
5.	Suzuki Forenza	10.	Suzuki Reno

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based on 2005-2007 models

Each year, the institute, and its sister organization, the Highway Loss Data Institute, analyze the actual insurance losses associated with the most popular vehicle makes and models. Since insurance companies use similar kinds of data to set premiums, the rankings give consumers a window into how their vehicle choices affect their auto premiums.

10 least-expensive cars to insure

The 10 vehicles that account for the lowest dollar amount of losses for insurance companies (starting with the least expensive) are:

1.	Buick Rendezvous 4dr	6.	Subaru Outback 4WD
2.	Pontiac Solstice convertible	7.	Ford Five Hundred 4WD
3.	Buick Terraza	8.	Volvo V70 station wagon 4WD
4.	Honda Odyssey	9.	Chrysler Town & Country LWB
5.	Mazda MX-5 Miata convertible	10.	Chevrolet Corvette convertible

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based on 2005-2007 models

And, once again, the data suggests that small cars and speed are an expensive combination for insurers -- especially with a young driver behind the wheel. (To compare insurance policies and quotes, visit Insureme.com, a Bankrate company.)
"Sporty cars tend to be driven in ways that lead to more crashes," says Rader. "They also tend to be driven by younger, riskier drivers." And smaller cars also tend to be more affordable, which makes them more attractive to those same younger drivers, he says