Speaking at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) annual conference in Aberdeen, Mr Salmond said he would challenge such a policy.

UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said increases were difficult but sometimes necessary.

Mr Salmond also unveiled a £5m investment fund for small businesses.

In his speech, the first minister said: “In terms of the pre-budget report, the SNP MPs join with others to challenge the policy of increasing the tax on jobs in the middle of a recession.

When businesses are saying to me the priority demand is to reduce the deficit, then they can’t then in the next breath exclude the means of doing that
Lord Mandelson
Business Secretary

“It cannot be right to increase the tax on jobs as the country is still in the throws of recession.”

Speaking ahead of the conference, Lord Mandelson said: “If you were to choose some alternative way of raising taxation, for example, VAT, there would be many sectors of the economy who would be coming to me and saying please don’t do that.

“Nobody likes increased taxation and you don’t introduce it unless you have to.

“When businesses are saying to me the priority demand is to reduce the deficit, then they can’t then in the next breath exclude the means of doing that.”

‘Finding savings’

Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne, who also addressed the conference, said: “I am working night and day to try and avoid Labour’s National Insurance rise, not just on small businesses and large businesses but on many many thousands of people in Scotland because it is also an income tax rise.

“What I am looking for are the ways to avoid it and that means finding savings elsewhere.

“But I am only going to be able to give that commitment when I am absolutely clear that I can afford it because the last thing people want from politicians at the moment are promises that they can’t keep.”

Small businesses truly are the lifeblood of the economy and are doing all they can to ensure the country fully recovers from the recession this year
John Wright
FSB national chairman

Mr Salmond also announced the creation of a £5m investment fund for small businesses.

He said the fund would offer more than 430 growth businesses in the east of Scotland access to loans of up to £50,000.

The government said the fund had the potential to generate increased turnover of £34.56m in small and medium-sized enterprises and could create approximately 1,300 new jobs.

The initiative will be supported by £2m in European Regional Development Funding and £3m of funding from the 12 local authorities who will deliver the scheme.

It will operate in Fife, Aberdeen, Angus, Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian, Moray, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Lothian.

FSB national chairman John Wright said: “Small businesses truly are the lifeblood of the economy and are doing all they can to ensure the country fully recovers from the recession this year.”

The federation, which has over 20,000 members in Scotland, exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed and all those who run their own business.

Term Life Insurance will afford coverage to you for a specific period. Once this period is up, you can no longer qualify for benefits under the policy if you die. For example, if you buy a 20yr level term life insurance policy, after 20 years, the policy ends and so does your obligation to pay any premiums.

Alternatively, a whole life insurance policy will last until the day you die. You will continually pay premiums on this policy for the rest of your life. The advantage of a whole life policy over a term policy is that a portion of your premium is invested and that investment will grow over time. It will provide you with a return if you ever decide to cash the policy in while you are alive. If you do not cash in this investment portion, it will become part of the insurance settlement to be paid to your beneficiaries. Be sure to read the fine print of your policy however, as the invested portion of the policy is not always returnable to the beneficiary.

When exploring the differences between these two types of policies, it is important to understand that whole life policies are far more expensive than term life policies. It is a good idea to obtain quotes for a term life insurance policy as a comparison to whole life policy so that you can actually compare the cost verses value of either type of policy.

It is also important to choose companies that have a high financial rating. Rating companies such as AM Best and Standard & Poors routinely rate insurance companies based on financial performance, customer service, and their ability to pay claims.

With a term life insurance policy and with universal or whole life policies it is important to remember that they are designed to benefit the people you leave behind in the event of your death. The most important thing you can do in considering either type of policy is to calculate the cost incurred by your family in the event of your untimely death. This cost will include the loss of your income, the payment of your debts, as well as your funeral expenses. Remember that although term life policies are less expensive than whole life policies, the least expensive product is not always the best choice. This is also true when comparing one term life insurance policy against another term life insurance policy. Two policies with similar face values may have a cost that is vastly different from each other. This may have much to do with the rating of the insurance company involved. You may find that a lower rated company with lower ratings, customer service and the ability to pay claims issues the least expensive policy. “Many of our clients ask us what the major difference would be when purchasing insurance through a mutual life insurance company,” noted Bagni.

As with any insurance decision, be sure to consult a qualified and educated broker or agent. Get more information today at Paramount Life Insurance. They offer a FREE benefit analysis to all of their clients. Whether you are looking for a term policy or a universal life policy, we will find you the solution that makes good business sense. Get real time life insurance quotes today.

A mutual fund is a capital market investment product that gives you a return based on the amount of risk that you are taking. Your investment is exposed to the risk of the capital markets, and there are no guarantees that your invested amount will be totally safe or preserved.

As of August 1, 2009, investing in mutual funds does not require you to pay any fees to the fund management company at the time of investment.

Life insurance on the other hand is not an investment product, but rather a protection product that will compensate your family or survivors in case something happens to you. You can be assured that the insurance company is contractually bound to meet its obligation to your beneficiaries in case something happens to you.

To get this protection and security, you pay a premium. Generally speaking, basic protection does not cost that much. Sometimes you might choose a policy where you pay a higher premium amount in order to get an assured or estimated return on this money at the time the policy matures, in addition to all the protection benefits associated with the policy.

There are yet other types of life insurance policies, called Unit Linked Plans, that have a mutual fund like investment product attached to them. So along with paying for risk cover against your life, you get an investment product where you can choose the type of fund to invest in.

Please understand that such type of hybrids can be recreated by you by simply combining a pure life insurance product along with a mutual fund. And, you will pay lesser in fees if you do this on your own, because these hybrids have much higher fees.

Both mutual funds and insurance products should be seen as long-term in nature, i.e., products that you will hold for an extended period of time rather than get in and out of every other month. They can also be seen as ways to create a pool of capital or asset for future use.

In mutual funds you can use your capital to either generate current income, through dividends, or capital appreciation for use in your later years in life like in retirement.

With a simple life insurance policy, you are not generating any current income, but your family is contractually guaranteed some monetary compensation in case something happens to you.

Or, some types of endowment insurance policies offer you a minimum amount of capital at the expiry of the policy, based on the amount of annual premium that you would have paid during the life of the policy.

If you are looking to invest and already have adequate life insurance coverage, then you are probably better off investing through mutual funds.

You can have the flexibility of choosing from a variety of funds and taking risks according to your risk appetite, and retain the ability to changes funds conveniently. You can stop adding to your investment in the fund if you so choose.

However, if you don’t have life insurance coverage and are also thinking of getting some capital appreciation, then a hybrid (life insurance with an investment product attached to it) or an endowment policy might be suitable for you.

Keep in mind that unlike a mutual fund where you can choose to stop adding additional capital to your portfolio, in life insurance you have lesser flexibility and you might be forced to pay your premium at regular intervals across the duration of the policy.

You should not buy insurance and then stop paying the premium as your “sunk cost” (money you have already paid) might not be recoverable if the policy were to lapse.

Ultimately, you need to decide what your needs are and whether the product you are looking at meets your needs or not. Remember, as a simple rule consider mutual funds for investments, and life insurance to protect your financial dependents in case something were to happen to you.

This tool / content is provided by iTrust

While iTrust takes every care to ensure validity and accuracy of the content that it provides, neither iTrust nor its affiliates or their directors, employees, agents or representatives, shall be responsible or liable in any manner, directly or indirectly, for any errors, inaccuracies or discrepancies in the content that it provides, or for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on the content, or inability to use or access our service or for any loss or damages whether direct or indirect, incidental, special or consequential including without limitation loss of revenue or profits or any loss or damage that may arise from or in connection with the use of or reliance on iTrust’s content or inability to use or access our service.

It may release a flood of emotions. And if one buys insurance for a child, then it is all the more difficult. By buying life insurance for a child, they may feel that they are imagining something may happen to the child and hence financial protection and insurance are necessary. However it is important that this should be included in your financial plans. We know that the premiums become bigger as we grow older. Our health deteriorates as our systems weaken and fall prey to illnesses. But the premiums are relatively less when the person to be insured is younger. The insurance company has experience that younger the person is, further away is he from ill health or death, hence he can be charged a smaller premium as he has longer time to pay it.

When we buy insurance we are planning for any eventuality or unexpected happenings but we don’t really expect it to happen. Life is unpredictable for everyone, young or old. It is always better to have a planned financial security so that in the event of something drastic happening even the young ones need not worry about financial security. They will have enough insurance cover to settle such happenings.

If, by chance, a child has some accident or some unfortunate illness in life, he can draw upon the insurance money. His parents will not have to shell out the money and they can then take care of him with a financial strain-free mind. The insurance policy will guard the child against the unforeseen or unexpected events that my happen in his life. In some cases even a life may come to an end and the insurance money will cover the death expenses. This is not the only reason to buy insurance for children. There are other reasons as well. The child will complete his education, grow up, and have a family. If there is some unfortunate turn of events, this person may find it difficult to buy insurance at this stage and pay for it. If he already has insurance, which his parents bought when he was a child, then he can have a carefree life. Sometimes the situation may be such that it may be totally difficult to buy insurance or may be just plain uninsurable case.

All insurance companies are out to do business and make money. They have to finance their staff, settle claims and meet their needs. They offer policies on the assumption that the premiums will be paid on time. You have to fill a form, which gives your medical history. If you have a history of cancer, diabetes, accidents with severe trauma or any other such conditions you may not get insurance policies. The cost of insurance will be higher, if at all it is available to you if you have any such condition. In such cases childhood insurance certainly helps. That is what it is bought for, to protect you against the worst scenarios in life.

A young and healthy child has a low premium. They don’t change or go up whatever happens. So it is a wise decision to buy insurance for a child when he is young. It does not put too much strain on your pocket and it can make a whole lot of difference to the child later on in his life. And once the child grows up and becomes independent the parent can always ask him to pay his own premiums. It is possible that it is the best gift you can give your child.

As one would expect, a Life Settlement is a financial transaction between the policy owner and an entity called a Settlement Provider. The policy owner sells his policy to the Settlement Provider. Thanks to the emergence of this relatively new financial transaction a person in possession of an unneeded or unwanted life insurance policy can sell his policy to a Settlement Provider for more than the cash value offered by the life insurance company.

People sell their policies for a variety of reasons. They range from premiums being no longer affordable to a beneficiary predeceasing the insured. Sometimes the policyholder owns multiple policies and wishes to eliminate one or more of the policies.

Maybe the insured needs money for long term care, ongoing medical bills or wants to replace the policy with a survivorship type of policy.

Estate planning may dictate a change in insurance coverage or the insured may wish to transfer the cash into higher paying investments. Charitable or family gifting arrangements may now be the best means to distribute assets or cash.

Some folks may have experienced bankruptcy forcing a complete revamping of their financial plan. Others may have become unemployed or under employed. The circumstances are as numerous and diverse as the population.

Businesses utilizing a key-man policy may find it is no longer necessary because the business has folded or the individual is no longer integral to the business’s success.

All in all, the sale of the policy allows the policyholder to maintain a desired standard of living and live out his final years with dignity. Personal welfare and comfort rank high on the policy sale consideration list.

Generally speaking, people with universal life policies make up the bulk of current policy sellers. However because the industry has matured in its ability to perform accurate financial analysis and predictions, term insurance owners are now able to come to the table and receive consideration for what was once considered a worthless form of insurance.

Heretofore, their only options were to let the term-life policy lapse or convert at a premium increase. The only party benefiting from this travesty was the original insurance company. They received premiums for a certain number of years and because of the lapse, they faced no obligation to pay the face amount. Profit in its purest form.

This meant the policyholder simply lost everything no matter how much money he now needed to pay medical bills, living expenses or meet long term care obligations. Thanks to the secondary market, Life Settlement, the opportunity for term life insurance owners has improved. They too now enjoy a liquidity almost on par with whole life policy owners.

Since they can be sold with a life settlement as long as the policy still can be converted, their face value can be lower. This has transformed them from a worthless program to one gaining value in the eyes of the Settlement Provider.

Life Settlement is, and will remain, an individual choice. It may not be right for everyone but it is an important option on the personal welfare menu that could possibly increase the return on a policy owner’s life insurance program.