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Ask any expert to name the best and worst travel insurance companies, and you'll probably get a noncommittal answer. "It depends," they'll say, careful not to sound like they have a favorite -- or a least favorite. But ask Michael Blank, and he'll tell you about his experience with Seven Corners Travel Insurance. Blank recently set sail on a Celebrity cruise to the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. Along the way, both he and his wife contracted severe sinus infections, which sent them to the ship's infirmary. A doctor treated the couple with antibiotics and billed them $313. Blank completed a quick online claim form. "Seven Corners paid right away," says Blank, a pharmaceutical research and development executive in Philadelphia. Actually, that's the way it's supposed to work. The best travel insurance policies for your upcoming fall and winter trips offer extensive coverage. They also pay their claims promptly, according to customers, t

The 8 Best Health Insurance Companies to Use in 2019 We are committed to researching, testing, and recommending the best products. We may receive commissions from purchases made after visiting links within our content. Learn more about our review process. Trying to find the best health insurance can be a confusing process. There are several criteria to keep in mind when you make your decision including financial strength, customer service ratings, claims service, plan prices, policy offerings, coverage benefits, and provider choices. There is no one “best” health insurance company, but the best one for you will depend on the type of health insurance you need, your budget, and what is available in your area. Many health insurers offer the option of a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) or Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) Plan. An HMO has its own network of doctors who have an agreed-upon price for the health care services they provide, while a PPO is made up of pre-approved physi

The aging of the Baby Boomer generation means that their children and grandchildren who are currently Gen Xers or Millennials. Some estimate this coming transfer of wealth to be in the $30 trillion range. If you are a financial advisor working with clients who suddenly come into a significant inheritance, how do you help them invest this money to ensure they have a solid retirement nest egg? Take Time to Plan Those inheriting a significant sum of money should take a step back and come up with a plan for the money. As their financial advisor, you need to ensure that clients don’t rush into doing something ill-advised with this new found wealth. Does the client have debts to pay off? Are they on track with their savings for retirement and other life events such as college for their kids? This is the time to do a financial plan with the client to determine what their priorities are and how this money fits. Retirement should be a priority for most clients. Given increasing longevity and th

There are several key differences between how men and women invest, according to a new white paper published by Spectrem Group, High Net Worth Men vs. Women. This paper examines the different approaches taken by each gender when it comes to handling money and investments. The paper is based upon data culled from 1,875 high net worth males and 1,277 high net worth females across the U.S., and it uncovered four main differences between how men and women dealt with their assets. Read on for how they differ—the insights can shed some light on how financial advisors can target their services toward one gender vs. another. 1. Women tend to be more conservative. While both genders indicated that they would be focusing their short-term money in stocks or stock mutual funds over the coming year, men focused on this more heavily than women. Almost half of all of the men surveyed said that they would be focusing on equities during the coming year, while only about a third of the women who were po

Social Security benefits are a significant income source for many retirees—and for some, they're the only source. How significant an income source it is, however, is determined by several factors that are under retirees' control. If you're nearing retirement (or are already in retirement) and haven't yet collected Social Security benefits, make sure you fully understand the ins and outs before you fill out your application to receive money. Here are some top tips you can use to get the most out of your well-deserved Social Security benefits. Delay Receiving Benefits Delaying receiving benefits is the top and the most common way to maximize the money you receive. Generally, the longer you wait after you reach full retirement age (FRA), the more money you can get every month. Full retirement age varies depending on when you were born and is defined by the Social Security Administration as "the age at which a person may first become entitled to full or unreduced retir

If you don’t think that money can be a stumbling block on the quest for true love, maybe you just haven’t watched enough romantic comedies. From the 1930s to the present, rom-coms are chock full of marrying for money (or breaking up based on the lack of it), lavish expenditures, bankruptcies, rich fathers, maxed out credit cards and — lately — student loans and post-Recession economic woes. Just as in the movies, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the stress in your relationship comes from having too much money or not having enough. In fact, according to a 2015 survey by SunTrust bank, nearly half of couples — regardless of income — reported that their spending habits were different from their partner’s. That discrepancy may understandably cause relationship stress. Over a third of survey respondents claimed that money was at the root of their problems. That gives financial advisors a front-row seat on couples’ money drama: from clashing expectations and different values to circumstance

Asia accounted for more than 9.2% of the world's oil production in 2014. The region was led by China and India, the world's fourth and 20th biggest oil-producing nations, respectively. In recent years, Asia's share of world oil production has been on a slow but regular decline. This is primarily a consequence of flat regional oil production during a period of rising overall global output. In the five years from 2010 to 2014, Asian oil output rose slightly from about 8.5 million barrels per day in 2010 to just over 8.6 million barrels per day in 2014. During the same period, world oil production grew more than 5%, from about 88.1 million barrels per day to about 93.1 million barrels per day. While a number of countries in the region have discovered large new reserves, others face declining production from aging oil fields. Consequently, analysts expect recent production trends to continue for the region as a whole. 1. China China is the biggest oil producer in the region by

The African continent is home to five of the top 30 oil-producing countries in the world. It accounted for more than 8.7 million barrels per day in 2014, which is about 9.4% of world output for the year. This level of production is down somewhat from the heights of 2005 to 2010 when African production topped 10 million barrels per day, including a high of nearly 10.7 million barrels per day in 2010. As of 2015, declines are due mostly to political and civil instability and violence in many of Africa's biggest oil-producing countries. 1. Nigeria Nigeria produced more than 2.4 million barrels of oil per day in 2014 to rank as the 13th-largest oil producer in the world. The country has produced between 2.1 million and about 2.6 million barrels per day for the last 18 years. Fluctuations in annual oil production, especially since 2005, can be attributed largely to security problems connected to violent militant groups in the country. While Nigeria is home to the second-largest proven o

The Biggest Oil Producers in the Middle East The Middle East was responsible for producing nearly 27.9 million barrels of oil per day in 2014, about 30% of world production. The region includes four of the top eight oil-producing countries in the world and six of the top 14. Most oil production in the Middle East is dominated by state-owned enterprises. However, many international oil companies engage in oil production and related activities across the region through joint ventures, production-sharing agreements and other business models. 1. Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia produced more than 11.6 million barrels of oil per day in 2014, nearly 12.5% of world output or about one out of every eight barrels. The country ranked as the world's biggest oil producer in the decade from 2003 to 2012, after which it fell to second place due to surging oil production in the United States. Saudi Arabia remains the world's largest petroleum exporter. With proven oil reserves of about 266 billion b

The US States That Produce the Most Oil A boom in oil production is profoundly changing the U.S. economy and impacting worldwide energy markets. As of 2015, 90% of U.S. oil production, excluding federal offshore drilling, comes from eight states: Texas, North Dakota, California, Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming. The surge in U.S. output is due in large part to the wide use of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as new technologies give drillers access to some of the largest oil deposits in the world that were once too tight to exploit. Fracking is controversial as some believe the chemicals injected into the wells lead to extensive pollution of the water supply. Some also argue the unconventional horizontal drilling awakens dormant faults, causing earthquakes. With domestic crude oil production averaging 9.4 million barrels a day over the first six months of 2015, the United States bypassed Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer of crude oil

4 of the Biggest Oil Producers in Latin America Latin American oil production is dominated by Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, countries that were responsible for about 75% of the region's total output in 2014. These countries are also giants on the international stage, ranking as the world's ninth, 10th and 12th biggest oil producers , respectively. Colombia also makes a good showing in the world rankings, coming in at 19th. The following list provides production figures for each of the region's top four oil producers in addition to a few details on each country's oil industry. 1. Brazil Brazil accounted for oil production of about 2.95 million barrels per day in 2014, continuing a nearly unbroken trend of increasing annual oil production since at least 1980. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than 90% of Brazil's oil production is extracted from deep-water oil fields offshore. In recent years, Brazil has made some of the world's b

The 6 Biggest Russian Energy Companies Russia ranks high among the top energy-producing countries in the world. According to the most recent industry data available, Russia is the world's single biggest producer of crude oil, the second-biggest producer of natural gas and the sixth-biggest producer of coal. Russia also ranks as the fourth-biggest producer of both nuclear power and hydropower. Most of Russia's biggest energy companies, including global giants such as Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil, operate primarily in the oil and gas industry, with interests spanning the full length of the oil and gas supply chain. However, a hydroelectric power company, RusHydro, also makes a showing on this list of Russia's biggest energy companies by market capitalization. 1. Gazprom Gazprom is Russia's biggest energy company by a substantial margin. The company controls the largest natural gas reserves in the world, from which it produced more than 2.6 billion barrel of oil equivalent

As the world's third-largest oil producer and second-largest natural gas producer, Russia is home to some of the biggest integrated oil and gas companies in the world. In fact, Russia's biggest companies by oil production volume include several mainstays on lists of the world's biggest companies. All of Russia's largest oil companies maintain substantial upstream and downstream oil and gas operations, including sprawling exploration and production divisions, petroleum refineries and petrochemical plants, and retail service stations. The top five oil companies are ranked here according to oil production volume in 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available. 1. Rosneft Rosneft is Russia's biggest oil company, with reported production of about 1.5 billion barrels in 2014. The company also ranks as Russia's third biggest natural gas company, with production amounting to more than 345 million barrel of oil equivalents (BOE). Rosneft has a market capita

China's biggest crude oil companies are state-owned energy conglomerates with sprawling international operations in oil and gas exploration and production; petroleum and chemical processing; storage and transportation; and many other functions along the oil and gas supply chain. This list includes the top five Chinese producers of crude oil by volume, ranked according to gross revenues reported in 2014 consolidated financial statements. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (NYSE: SNP), known as Sinopec, is an oil, gas and chemical giant with more than $440 billion in consolidated revenue. The company produced nearly 361 million barrels of crude oil in 2014. Domestic oil production amounted to roughly 311 million barrels, while production from overseas oil fields amounted to about 50 million barrels. Sinopec takes the top spot in this list on the basis of its consolidated revenue, but it is China's second-biggest crude oil producer by volume. S

The Chinese insurance market has grown at a furious pace in recent years. Between 2000 and 2014, the industry grew about 1,200% in size as measured by written premiums. During this same period, most of the largest Chinese insurance companies listed shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and other exchanges as part of an effort to reform the industry by reducing government control, increasing transparency, and exposing the companies to the demands of the market and shareholders. Today, the biggest insurance companies in China rank among the largest companies in the world in terms of market capitalization. China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. With a market capitalization of about $107 billion, China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LFC) is the biggest insurance company in China and one of the top insurance companies in the world. China Life traces its roots to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It operates life insurance and property and casualty insurance businesses, a