Insurance Books

The bar must be raised for financial planners . . .this book does the trick.

I purchased this book over a month ago. I expected to receive additional supporting materials which would greatly aid my understanding of the various formulas used throughout the book. The additional supporting material has yet to be posted. As such, currently, i feel i have been overpromised and underdelivered.

To many people, the book's topic is an inherently dreary and offputting one. How to estimate retirement income for a group of people, who typically are still in the workplace?

To do so, the book invokes such common ideas as numerical simulations. Here, of a general diffusion process, specialising to Brownian motion. Who could have imagined, decades ago, when such ideas were introduced in physics, that they would one day have use to actuaries and the like? A neat side note is that one of the book's problems involves using Excel's ability to simulate Brownian processes.

A key chapter compares defined benefit and defined contribution pensions. From the vantage of the pension provider. Who needs to understand as accurately as possible the ultimate costs of both, in order to determine what to offer employees.

As a student utilizing this text for class, I found it extremely insightful, as well as challenging in content. The book is subdivided in to various topib headings related to corporate finance, everything from debt and equity offerings to derivative risk management. After a chapter introduction outlining and reviewing pertinent academic information, there are several case studies on real companies. The book closes with three case studies which incorporate multiple topics highlighted in the book.

This is definitely the book of classic cases in Finance. Using Harvard case method, it covers a wide range of fundamental issues faced by today's finance executive or CFO. A must for MBA second course in Finance or advanced undergraduate. However, this textbook is lacking in a few pedagogical aspects. Firstly, in every section (key topic), there is no comprehensive chapter of important theories and key concepts (e.g. formulas) for students to brush up before embarking on the cases. Moreover, there are no check figures or guidelines (at the back) on how to tackle the problems. The format of the pages are rather dry and uninviting plus there are so many typo erroes in the financial statements. More importantly in this 1997 edition, the authors have decided to leave out the Carrefour case, which was an excellent example of cash flow management. Lots of important lessons missed out, especially from a multinational which has been very successful in today's global retail hypermarket industry. Our professor had to make photocopies from an earlier edition for our MBA. May be the authors can put back this case in future editions.....

We used this case book in our MBA course for corporate finance. The real cases are exciting. The topics are very broad and ranging from cash budgeting to financial risk management. Most of the cases are supported with good background material like charts and income statements. The book is excellent for class discussions, but not for the ambituous reader who wants to teach himself corporate finance. There are simply no right or wrong answers why there's no solution provided. It's a great book to work with, but deadly boring if you want to read it page by page.

It could have been because my teacher asked us very ambiguous questions, but this book was not very helpful when trying to apply its basic examples to broader concepts. It spent too little time on important topics (how doctors and hospitals force a nursing shortage, etc.) and too much time on special topics. I'd recommend purchasing the old version over the newer version though. It's just the same.

Book was received on time in great condition. I will definitely use this seller again.

As with all economics textbooks and the subject of economics in general, this book is a bit dry. That said however, it's quite thorough in its coverage of how consumers, producers, and insurers make decisions about health and health care. It gives explanations that are rather simple to understand and goes in depth as far as would be considered normal for a 300 level elective course. I should probably note that my instructor is one of the book's authors, so take my review how you will.

I love this book. It is so informative, well written, and easy to read. It is also on the cutting edge, especially in light of all the publicity that HMOs are getting these days. You simply have to read this book!

This book is brilliant. It is chock-full of useful information about HMOs. It is presented in a style that is entertaining and easy to read. If you or a loved one receives health care through an HMO, you simply have to read this book. It could save your life!

This book is too general to help the average person with a health insurance problem. It is not a comprehensive legal guide to the issues. You will need more information.

I found this book to be useless. If you have attended any investment seminars like USAA, John Hancock, Fidelity etc. you get the same information. Medicare and AARP free booklets likewise give the same information. I was terribly disappointed.

I am a consumer who is thinking of buying long-term care insurance. I've read a number of books, and this is the best in terms of completeness. I would especially recommend it to people who have already read one or more books covering the basics of long-term care insurance and elder care.

Updated resources for agents and consumers

The third edition of Long-Term Care, by Jason Goetze, is now available. Published by Dearborn Financial Publishing, this book is intended as the bible for the continuing education of the serious LTC agent. It is common knowledge that many CE courses in LTC are not worth the money or the time spent on them. At best they sometimes rehash the same old cliches. At worst they provide misleading and inaccurate information about LTC. CE instructors

would do themselves and their students a service by studying Goetze's book, which is comprehensive and exact. Agents may not be able to get satisfaction from their formal CE classes, but by reading this publication they can rest assured that they have done right by themselves and their clients.

Although Stiglitz makes it extremely readable and more elegant in his Economics of the Public Sector, I found it more effective to learn the subject due to the deeper treatment of the models and theories.

Perhaps slightly lacking on the theoretical side (but I guess this was Prof Rosen's objective), this book offers a broad yet detailed overview of public economics. Many parts are in narrative style making for a pleasantly clear read.
Certainly a good and clear text for an exposition on the topic, especially if complemented/expanded on by a good lecturer.

This book is not as challenging as Stiglitz, and the author does not have Stiglitz's dazzling facility with economic theory. But Rosen is properly less trusting of the political process, gives greater scope to political and ethical philosophy, is open to a wider range of ideas and has more references than Stiglitz, is less prone to rush to judgement, and is less beholden to the Clintonista viewpoint. This is the better book upon which to ground a sound understanding of public economics. Compare Rosen with Stiglitz on the Coase Theorem, the Flat Tax, the economic role of the stock market, and Social Security reform. Too bad Rosen's fairness cannot be combined with Stiglitz's brilliance.

I have prepared several security surveys throughout the last couple of years and have always found that they were missing something. Once I started looking through this book I was given clear direction on the useful information required when conducting a security survey.
This book describes all the main sections required for a security review: Scoop of the project, organization assesment and requirements, physical security, internal controls, data system and records, emergency planning, and proprietary information, business impact analysis, survey questionary, etc.
This book goes into details on planning and analysis but does not give detailed techniques on aquireing information or what an effective security system looks like. It assumes the reader has a strong security background and is able to handle the details of investigation, interviewing, testing and evaluation. This book only touches on these topics.

Like many textbooks, this work is relatively well organized and easy to reference. My initial impression after my first reading of Mr. Broder's work is that this will be both an outstanding reference source amidst difficult projects and a good place to seek general guidance in previously unexplored facets of risk analysis, specifically risk analysis related to physical security.

Part I of the book addresses risk analysis including a relatively thorough explanation of what risk, vulnerability and threats are. It goes on to explain common risk measurements and offers example formulas/systems for prioritizing loss after quantifying its potential. He very briefly touches on how to conduct an audit, assuming that the reader has a thorough understanding of common Security needs and the audit process. He spends a fair amount of time (in comparison to other topics covered) on the Survey Report which is fine for a consultant but in the Corporate world this is not very useful. The company you work for, unless it is completely new or wants to overhaul and/or start over from scratch in regards to security, will have its own style of report. Still, this was a good chapter to include since some of the readers will be in a consultative role.

The second part of the book gives the reader an overview of emergency management and continuity planning. This is the real gem of the book. While I purchased this book with the hopes it would help me with conducting risk analysis surveys and reports for my employer, the reality is the author is expecting the reader to already have some experience (as I do) and does little to expand on common practices. That said, this second chapter launches right into very practical information for Security and Risk Managers.

Broder spends a great deal of time addressing mitigation and response planning, addresses business continuity and does a relatively thorough job of providing an overview of impact analysis. He again provides information more useful for a consultant than a corporate professional, including a small chapter on documentation of your plans. Even if you are a consultant, the majority of your clients will have their own emergency plans that they will want your work to mirror in terms of appearance and organization. Broder wraps up the book with a difficult area that has spawned at least a hundred books of its own, Executives and planning for kidnap, ransom and Extortion. This is the one area of the book where this is truly an introduction, rather than an overview, of the subject.

Appendices include a variety of worksheets to help you conduct surveys, signs of theft/fraud, communicating with the media, security system specifications and a few other very basic tools Broder hopes will help you utilize his concepts.

I am giving this book 4/5 stars as it is an excellent work, very useful and overall very difficult to criticize.

I bought the book to use as a reference while doing my very first risk analysis. It helped me a lot with my project. I found it easy to read and use as a reference. I used the format in the book as a guide when writing up the risk analysis I did.

If you haven't done one before and are looking for a good reference guide, this is a great resource.

This book is all about facing risks as individuals- which is fine, but it also makes sweeping political judgments based on the assesments. On the section about banning the use of Alar on apples and the politics behind it, he writes- "instead of NRC's estimated cancer risk of 1,462 deaths per million from pesticides on apples, the researchers found only 0.07 per million." Well, that may sound like decent odds for me when deciding to eat an apple, but is it really acceptable to for the unlucky person who does get cancer? The author points out several times that alar is not a pesticide, even while presenting numbers on the cancer risks of pesticides. Alar is a growth regulator,"so they are more colorful and crisp at harvest." I can understand the usefulness of some pesticides, but why should we accept ANY risks from a growth regulator? This isn't family values, or traditional values conservatism, but Dickensian, bean-counting, pure economic right-wing bias. I don't want bias from the left or right, or political interpretations, I just wanted straight facts. This book doesn't leave the findings to stand on their own. Are most popular books about risk assessment thinly disguised pro-corporate propaganda? I hope not.

Enhanced with an extended bibliography and an exhaustive index, True Odds: How Risk Affects Your Everyday Life by James Walsh is a very straightforward and practical look of the real odds that threaten people's lives or health. Rejecting anecdotal evidence and media scare tactics for solid, statistical, reliable information on what really are the greatest threats facing life in the modern world, True Odds comes very highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader as being a realistic source of information concerning everything from crime and accident rates to having sufficient money saved upon retirement.

Aims to discuss risks in everyday life at a level "between dense technical volumes
and daffy oversimplifications". Structured around 16 particular topics, from
concrete concerns of individuals (violent crime; cell phones and brain cancer; secondhand smoke) to more general topics (moral hazard of insurance; lotteries are a tax on the stupid). A main focus is on the interaction between scientific data, media reporting, legislation promoted by interest groups, and regulation by government agencies. By presenting these case studies from recent history (1975-1995), the author provides an insightful overview of the real-world interplay of the scientific, psychological and political aspects of dealing with risk. This book is implicitly a well-justified polemic in favor of rational quantatitive risk assessment and against the media scares, extremist environmental lawyers and inflexible "command and control" bureaucracy that waste billions of dollars whose diversion from more rational use causes unnecessary death and suffering.

Though serious, well researched and an engaging read, I do have some quibbles. The
lack of explicit citations makes it unhelpful as scholarship. By mixing several
styles (historical case studies, discussion of scientific methodology, polemic) the
book appears somewhat unfocused. And the unusual typography (a typical page has
seven two-sentence paragraphs separated by white space) reinforces the impression
that the author was assiduous in collecting information but put less effort into
organizing a coherent narrative. Finally, the subtitle is misleading: a reader
seeking a straightforward, detailed and explicit analysis of risks in everyday life
would be better served by Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Really Dangerous in the World Around You.

For those interested in pricing and underwriting of group insurance this reference is a must. The previous editions have been used as the basis for seminars for years. I am using it myself as a tool for my underwriters. The techniques can be applied for Life and Disability Insurance and I am recommending it for my company reference library.

Required reading for anyone considering Exam 5 of the SoA.

The book is great for an intorduction...period. Nothing technical, no details and no insight. That is why I would have a different title than plain "annuities". I was a little mislead.

Excellent book on annuities with focus on US market.

The book talks about fixed and variable annuities, concepts and definitions are really clear.

Taxation is also dealt and what is really good about the book is the way it is presented, examples, illustration etc.

The entire life cycle of annuities (from distribution to claims / disbursement), history of annuities, need for regulation - in one word, the book covers everything about annuities.