Month: August 2021

suryachoudhary published in Technology

IoT in Insurance: How Connected Things are transforming the Industry

IoT in Insurance

Insurance companies can make use of IoT for aiding communications with clients and for streamlining underwriting and claims management, along with fraud detection. IoT in insurance is also useful in risk management and default prediction. For example, insurers previously relied on driver information such as their age and address while calculating premiums. However, with telematics data available, agencies can now access their driving behavior, vehicle health, and other metrics that may finetune the specifics of the policy.

Benefits of IoT in insurance

The advantages of implementing IoT in insurance are far and wide. We have narrowed down the top benefits of IoT for insurance businesses to these three areas:

Lower Costs

New and emerging insurance companies can really benefit from implementing IoT-powered solutions as they help in reducing business costs and drive profits by cutting the day-to-day running expenses. IoT in insurance primarily achieves this goal by streamlining operations and processes to increase the ROI through effective and hands-on management.

One of the many ways in which IoT boosts cost-effectiveness is by stimulating the productivity of staff. Given that salaries and wages form the greatest cost component of operating an insurance business, making the best of available human resources is the recipe for cost optimization. As such, employees can use IoT to overcome barriers and bottlenecks that may be limiting their potential. As a result, everyone, from a policy underwriter to a claims adjustor can contribute to the growth of the business.

Better Use of Resources

IoT networks optimize the use of resources in multiple ways. For a start, you have sensors capturing remote data and offering a wealth of data that was not accessible previously. Plus, once data gets involved, it is only about cleansing and filtering it to make it more actionable in multivariate ways. Switching to a data-driven model also unlocks the possibility of introducing automation to schedule and monitor the business processes from a top-level view. And once you have enough data at hand, you can also prevent wastage, say, compare efficient routes, idle times of vehicles, etc.

In a nutshell, IoT in insurance streamlines the use of human, technological, and data resources to derive maximum value.

Customization Capabilities

As seen above, IoT in insurance can capture high volumes of data that will unlock the potential for personalizing products and services. It helps insurers align their offerings in line with real-world conditions and as per the customer requirements. Apart from guiding businesses on what they should do, it also prevents them from doing something that could gather flak.

For instance, someone who does not even own a vehicle would naturally not be interested in automotive insurance. But if your marketing efforts are pushing this in their faces, then it would put your agency in a bad light.

Additionally, it also contributes to the post-sales customer experience by enhancing support and service. Executives can pull up customer information to offer appropriate and more relevant solutions to the customers.

Concluding Thoughts

In a nutshell, technologies like IoT in insurance have made several elements of business operations easier and more effective for insurers. It has brought about a host of advantages and opportunities for insurance businesses. It has helped insurers improve their customization capabilities, make better use of resources, and decrease operational costs. The merger of the Internet of Things and insurance is profitable for the customers as well.

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pragyanegi18 published in Business

4 Important Things to Know Before Taking a Home loan

A home loan is an investment towards a valuable and non-depreciating asset. It lets you fulfil the dream of owning a house of your own. Applicants for a home loan can experience a maximum tenure of 30 years to repay the loan amount. When you compare home loan details, you will notice that banks will try to shorten your duration of repayment or increase the interest rate on the borrowed amount. 

Here is a list of what can be said is the best home loan advice ever, to help you clear your loan amount in an efficient way.

Consider pre-paying the loan

Pre-payment is often associated with a down payment of the loan amount, but here’s the difference. You can opt for pre-payment of the loan amount if you have surplus funds in your hands at the moment. It will help significantly reduce the EMI amount that you otherwise had to pay on a monthly basis. You can opt for two things here – reduce your EMI amount and keep the time period of repayment the same. Or, you can reduce the time period of repayment and pay the banks a larger EMI amount every month to waive off your loan faster. But remember to be careful while opting for the latter option. Make sure you increase your EMI amount only if you have a source of income that exceeds the salary you received when applying for the home loan. 

Increase EMI amount with time

While you compare home loan rates, check out the banks that will let you increase your equated monthly instalment amount flexibly. This is an appropriate option if you are sure that you can keep up with the updated higher EMI. If you can increase your equated monthly instalments paid per month to a larger amount than what was agreed upon at the time of taking the loan, you will surely get benefitted from it since your tenure will reduce significantly and the repayment process will speed up. 

Consider home loan tenure

This factor is somewhat synonymous with the previous factor but only because they are interrelated. As long as you have a fixed income and an appetite for low risk, you can stretch the time period or tenure of the loan to as much as 40 years. It is agreeably quite a long time, but you can save up on your finances while you keep an amount fixed to be deducted as home loan repayment. Make sure the bank you choose provides a low interest rate along with it too. If you have an outstanding CIBIL score, you will be able to benefit better from the bank with a lesser interest rate. On the other hand, as mentioned before, decreasing your time period means increasing the EMI amount. Only go for this if you have enough funds to repay it quickly, bearing in mind more an enormous expense to incur every month.

 

Never miss out on EMI

Sometimes, managing our funds becomes extremely stressful along with utility bills, household needs, family needs, or the like, especially in the case of a single applicant. Sometimes, not paying an EMI for a month seems like the easier way out until you can balance your finances and just repay it next month and adjust according to the bank policy. This is strongly disapproved of because firstly, there is a penalty amount that you will incur if you don’t pay the EMI timely. The general percentage of the penalty rate is 2%, but it differs from bank to bank and you will be held responsible for all of it. Then there is another problem and that will be reflected in your CIBIL score. Your hard-earned score will immediately go down and will be noticed by financial institutions as well. You will eventually feel the problem reflect on your financial goals because this will reduce your eligibility to get a loan for any other future purposes. Hence, the best option is to remove an amount of money and reserve it just for the EMI payment. Consider the money to belong to the bank and you will not require the usage of your EMI amount for any other needs. 

You can check out a variety of the best home loan repayment options from any web portal of your choice, including the MyLoanCare home loan guide to get a thorough understanding of the prospects of your home loan. Long story short, these are some of the best advice out there to help you a clear ongoing home loans quickly so that you can proceed to save up and invest in other valuable assets.

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ScottSomerville published in Business

6 Labor Laws Your Employer May Be Breaking

There are many employees who firmly believe that their employers have a strong influence on labor laws. But truth be told, there are many companies who violate wage and labor laws regularly. Ultimately, it is your duty to ensure that your rights are being respected. As shocking as it may sound but there are some businesses who deliberately withhold the earned wages just to save a buck or they might do it because of real prejudice. However, there are also some businesses that unintentionally violate the rights of their workers. But at the end of the day, unintentional or not, breaking the law is breaking the law and some kind of action should be taken against such companies to stop them from their unjust behavior.

6 Labor Laws Your Employer May Be Breaking

In some cases, labor law violations have become so common that they have gone from becoming infractions to permanent practice. Therefore, it’s better that you do your research regarding the company before you accept the job offer. There are also some recruitment agencies like cybersecurity consulting that takes this issue really seriously and recommends workers to only those organizations that have a good reputation. Let’s now look at the six labor laws that your employer may be breaking.

#1. Reluctant to Offer You Minimum Wage

There are some organizations that hesitate to pay their employees even the minimum wage. You should know that the minimum wage in the United States at the time of this writing is $7.25/hr. This figure might be higher in different states. Wage violations usually occur among those workers who are tipped. According to labor standards, employees who are able to make approximately $30/month in tips are eligible for a minimum cash wage of $2.13/hr. Also, remember that an employer cannot deduct more than $5.12 from an employee’s hourly wage if the individual is tipped often.

#2. Treating Independent Contractors Like Employees

Another violation that is quite common is employee misclassification. But what does it mean? Well, in the last few years, businesses have started to recruit independent contractors more frequently. However, they treat them like employees. They won’t let them work according to their own preference. Moreover, they will not pay them for any overtime work. Also, the companies will not offer any kind of benefits to them as well. The thing is that if the organization is treating you like an employee, then they should also provide you with all the benefits. And if they are not doing that then your rights are not being respected.

#3. Not Being Paid for Work Breaks

You may not know this but employees are entitled to work breaks. If your boss wants to work during a scheduled break then you should also be compensated for that. Unfortunately, not many companies pay employees for a break. In addition, you may be a bit surprised to know that shorter breaks that you take during your working hours are also compensable.

#4. Deducting Some Amount from Your Wage Illegally

Wage deductions are legal and some might surprise you. In some states, employers can deduct your wage in order to pay for the property damaged in the workplace, or for buying tools. However, keep in mind that these deductions can never lead you to a payout lower than the minimum wage. If that happens then this will be an illegal act and you would have all the rights to talk to your manager about it. Also, it is best if an employer lets you know about the wage deduction beforehand.

#5. Having Inaccurate Records

It is essential for a business to keep accurate records. After all, it helps in making investigations on different matters a lot easier. Moreover, it aids in maintaining a legally compliant business. Employers are responsible for keeping the right records of their employees that should highlight certain information such as wages paid. If there is going to be a change in the salary, then employers must inform their workers about it. They should also give you a week’s notice before making any changes to your pay.

#6. Preventing Employees from Sharing Particular Information

Employees need information in order to advocate for their best interests. This means that should have open communications about pay inequities and wages in the workplace. Employers shouldn’t prevent employees from sharing information related to salaries. There are some companies who discourage their workers to disclose such information but times are now changing and you can share your pay rates with fellow employees if you want to.

Conclusion

Minding the labor laws is important if one wants to have a workplace filled with satisfied employees. Yet, there are some employers who don’t pay heed to this. However, now that you know about these laws, you can always have a conversation with your employer if you think your rights are being compromised.

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