Is this an episode of Monk, or Murder She Wrote, or maybe Law and Order, Insurance Division?  A Los Angeles fraud ring sought to cash in on life insurance policies for individuals who were still living, according to an FBI investigation. The group prepared death certificates and staged a funeral where they buried an empty casket!

Tired of funny business when it comes to something as serious as life insurance? Get a real deal and the best life insurance rates with Efinancial.

Finalists in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, a $10 million competition to inspire a new generation of super fuel efficient vehicles, survived all on-track testing at Michigan International Speedway (MIS), and will now move into a Validation stage before prize money will be awarded this September.

What began as a field of 136 vehicles from 111 teams has now been narrowed to an elite group of nine vehicles from just seven teams that have proven they can meet the strictest requirements of this competition, including the ability to achieve at least 90 MPGe on the way toward the ultimate 100 MPGe requirement and to survive grueling dynamic safety and range tests.

The teams represent a wide variety of backgrounds that include emerging start ups, entrepreneurs and universities from around the world. All have proven that they can more than handle a variety of very difficult real-world scenarios.

Finalists were required to pass a repeat of technical inspections and on-track Efficiency, Range and Dynamic Safety events conducted by the competition’s technical team and auto test engineers from partner Consumer Reports.

“These finalists highlight true innovation in fuel efficiency, and prove that their vehicles have the ability to withstand strict safety, performance and emissions requirements. These cars redefine what is possible and set a new standard of efficiency that promises to revolutionize the industry,” said Eric Cahill, Senior Director of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE.

Team standings and vehicle performance details are available at  http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/team-central

Sadie, a 6-year-old Rottweiler-shepherd mix that required an emergency operation to install a pacemaker, is the most unusual 24PetWatch pet insurance claim this summer.

“She was walking over to her bed and just fell over,” says Eriny Scinto of Stratford, Connecticut,. “I thought she was having seizures but, basically, she was having heart attacks.”

The Scintos’ other dog had bone cancer at the time. “I couldn’t face losing both of them,” says Erin. “My husband, Robert, and I don’t have any children so our pets are like our kids.”

After rushing Sadie to the emergency vet clinic, the Scintos were told she had a third-degree heart blockage and was at risk of sudden death. Sadie needed a pacemaker to live.

The next challenge was finding one in time. There are no pacemakers made specifically for dogs, but manufacturers sometimes donate expired units to veterinary hospitals. Some people ask that their pacemakers be removed after their deaths and re-used for animals. Demand far exceeds supply, however. About 300 pacemakers are implanted in dogs each year, but at least 10 times that many dogs could use one.

The Scintos’ veterinarian was able to locate a suitable pacemaker at Tufts University Veterinary School in Grafton, Massachusetts, a nearly two-hour drive away.

The race was on. “I had to drive quite quickly,” says Erin. “They told me ‘Don’t let her fall asleep or get too comfortable.’ I was blaring really loud music and kept reaching one arm into the back seat to make sure she wasn’t sleeping.”

At Tufts, a veterinary cardiologist implanted the pacemaker into Sadie’s neck, with a wire connecting it to her blocked heart. “They saved her life,” says Erin. “The pacemaker is actually operating 99 per cent of the time, so she needs it to live. And she’s doing great on it. It’s just amazing.”

The total cost for Sadie’s vet bills came to $6,295, of which the couple’s 24PetWatch pet insurance paid a large share. “24PetWatch insurance is awesome; I tell people that all the time,” says Erin.

The Financial Reform bill passed by Congress last week expands the powers and responsibilities of federal agencies such as the new Financial Stability Oversight Council and the Office of Credit Ratings. It also creates a whole new agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB, to look after your financial interests in new ways. What does that mean on Main Street in practical, everyday terms?

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now has the authority to craft regulations, launch investigations and act on consumer complaints. Having a problem with your bank or credit card company? You now have someone to call!  Here are other ways the new financial reform act will affect average Americans.

Your Credit Score and Loans: First, the new CFPB will not oversee all loans. Financing from auto dealers, gyms and dentists are among those that frequently bypass the need for a bank by offering their own credit lines, often through a third party. This type of credit will not fall under the same regulatory eye of the new watchdog agency

if you ever learn of an “adverse action,” such as being denied a loan, or being offered a higher interest rate based on your credit profile, the bill allows you to access a free copy of your credit report and credit score with no strings attached.

If you qualify for a mortgage, your loan will stay closer to home than in the past. The bill requires lenders to keep a 5% stake in the mortgages they originate unless the loans meet a certain criteria. That means lenders won’t be able to offload some of the higher risk associated with some loans. Interest rates could take a hike to cover that gap.

Consumers with adjustable-rate mortgages and other complicated mortgage products would no longer have to pay pre-payment penalties if they want to pay off their mortgage early. The bill will also prohibit brokers and bankers from earning bonuses based on the type of loan they sell, which would reduce the incentive to write higher-risk loans.

Mortgages won’t come easy though. If you’ve had a loss in your business, you could be denied that mortgage, even if you have a high credit score and money in the bank. Other stricter lending standards requires lenders to document a borrower’s income. No more “income not stated” shortcuts.

Charge cards: Plastic card “swipe fees” are now going to be regulated for the first time. Visa and MasterCard currently charge debit swipe fees of around 1% to 2% of the transaction amount, which convenience stores and gas stations claim are “among the highest rates in the industrialized world.”   Want to put chewing gum on your card?  You may need to stock up. The bill also allows merchants to decline the use of credit cards for small-dollar purchases.

Airfares could be coming down to earth if the Air Transport Association is right that commodities speculation is what had led to sky-high fuel prices. That speculatton is being done away with. Fees for extra bags will need to be taken up in another bill.

Want a straight ahead, no-nonsense competitive quote on life insurance?  Let Efinancial show you the money-saving power of its life insurance search engine.

On July 2, just a couple of days before fireworks were sent skyrocketing, Representative William Delahunt of Massachusetts introduced the “Main Street Fairness Act” in Congress. The bill, H.R 5660, would allow states to collect sales tax for online purchases and is described as an attempt to “promote simplification and fairness in the administration and collection of sales and use taxes, and for other purposes.”

The bill was praised by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) as an equalizer that creates a level playing field for all sellers, regardless of their status as a brick-and-mortar retailer or as a purely online seller.  Opponents say the bill provides an additional tax burden and could complicate Web commerce.

In these tough economic times, the idea of a new source of revenue for troubled states appears to be winning.

“With the adoption of the Delahunt legislation, at a time when states are facing historic budget gaps, Congress can provide fiscal relief, $23 billion, for the states without a single penny of cost to the federal government,” said Iowa Representative Christopher Rants, co-chair of the NCSL Task Force on State & Local Taxation of Communications and Electronic Commerce.

Online retailer eBay aired its opposition to the legislation: ”Year after year supporters of increased Internet sales taxes recommend legislation that would impose significant new costs on hundreds of thousands of online small businesses and ecommerce entrepreneurs, which is sure to harm the economy and kill small business jobs,” a statement from the online auction company said. “At a time when unemployment rates are high and small businesses across the country are closing shop, we are confident that Congress will protect small internet retailers and the consumers they serve from another Internet tax scheme.”

Most states — including Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin — already have a “use tax” that consumers are supposed to pay on out-of-state purchases in which sales tax is not collected. Most online companies don’t have to collect state sales tax, so — no surprise — they don’t. But consumers are supposed to pay the state what it is due in use taxes.

It’s OK. You don’t need to go on the lam if you haven’t paid up. Almost no one pays the tax. And the state has bigger pots to stir than tracking down your 11 bucks. But that doesn’t make it right. Every day we read stories about how states are struggling to maintain programs and services with decreasing revenue. Here’s an area where states are missing out on tens of billions of dollars in tax revenue nationwide.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress was responsible for taking appropriate action and establishing reasonable guidance to enable the collection of sales taxes from remote retailers such as Internet-only sellers.

MainStreetFairness.org has this to say:  The proposed solution will give the states the power to collect revenue and help pay for necessary services.  This is a sustainable solution to help balance state budgets – without costing the federal government a dime.  The alternative is that the federal government continues to subsidize basic state operations in addition to state and local governments cutting additional jobs, creating a bigger drag on the economy.

What’s your viewpoint? We’d like to know.

A study of life insurance industry websites by the international research firm known as The Customer Respect Group has rated how life insurance companies treat their online customers.  The study, entitled Online Customer Respect Study of the Life Insurance Industry. examined the availability and quality of self-service tools, engaging content, ease of Website navigation, instant help such as telephone contact availability, and more

Today’s consumer has demonstrated a growing desire to research products and services online. Of particular interest is the cost of life insurance, according to the report. While consumers are more comfortable researching online, there remains an occasional preference by some to buy in consultation with a salesperson or agent. But those attitudes are quickly changing.

Key Findings

The study shows there has been a large increase in the number of interactive tools such as the interactive life insurance calculator, especially for term life insurance. Two-thirds of the companies reviewed provide life insurance calculators,  such as Efinancial, to estimate the recommended amount of insurance. One in four companies provides help in choosing the type of insurance and 43% offer cost estimators.

While a telephone call remains the preferred ‘next-step’ for the website consumer, there has been an increase in immediate help options. Of note, is how Efinancial offers both an E-Learning Life Insurance Education Center and a large call-in  center staffed by knowledgable, service-oriented professionals to address customers’ questions quickly and efficiently.

Mobile access is not yet a major factor with only limited traffic originating from mobile devices but that could change in the near future.

Among the market leaders, interactive tools that allow customers to get instant online quotes with a range of dialogue options to get their questions answered immediately is key.  Efinanical is proud to report on the study as we feel the Efinaincal Website is exemplary of the “best practices” in letting consumers evaluate life insurance products online with no pressure or “sales pitch.” See if you agree at http://www.Efinancial.com.

The U.S. Senate has passed the most sweeping changes in government regulation of the nation’s financial institutions since the Great Depression, including strong new consumer and investor protections and provisions that seek to “shine a bright light on the dark corners of Wall Street,” according to McClatchy Newspapers.

The House of Representatives passed a similar version, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, six months ago. The two bills must now be reconciled in negotiations between the two chambers.

Derivatives: For the first time, federal oversight of the complex products that bet on the future movement of underlying securities has been established. Such future transactions will be required to to be insured by a third-party clearinghouse and traded on public exchanges.

Consumer Protection: A federal regulator will be created to write and enforce rules protecting consumers of financial products like checking accounts, mortgages and payday loans. State regulators will gain more authority to enforce protections.

Financial regulation: The bill creates a council of regulators to watch for systemic risks and gives the Federal Reserve new authority over large financial companies. Administratively, the bill consolidates banking regulators, merging the Office of Thrift Supervision into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Too big to fail: Regulators are now authorized to impose restrictions on large, troubled financial companies. A new process has been created for the government to liquidate failing companies at no cost to taxpayers, which is similar to the F.D.I.C. process for liquidating failed banks.

Shareholder protections and executive compensation: The new law requires companies to have executive compensation set by independent directors and gives shareholders a nonbinding vote on those decisions. Proprietary trading he Senate’s bill includes the Volcker Rule, which restricts banks from making “proprietary” investments that do not benefit clients, including in hedge funds and private equity funds. The provision particularly affects banks like Goldman Sachs, which make much of their income from this type of activity.

Investor protection: Requires companies selling certain complex financial products, most notably mortgage-backed securities, to retain a portion of the risk and allows investors to sue credit ratings agencies.

Once reconciled and passed anew by each body, the bill will be sent to President Barack Obama for his signature, which is expected by July 4.

“We’re in a confidence business,” said Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs which is listing in the wake of SEC scrutiny and facing legal charges for the way it has designed, developed and promoted securities for  investors. It appears America’s confidence is waning and its patience for transparency in financial regulation is wearing thin.

Investor confidence in the beleagured but unusually profitable company, is waning. As a consequence, the cost of insuring Goldman’s debt is soaring. Ironically, the very same financial instruments - the credit default swaps - that have been called into serious question while being compared to casino betting products — are the hedge products that are raising the cost of insurance and  defending against potential Goldman losses.

The cost of insuring $10m of Goldman’s debt using a five-year credit default swap (CDS) is $162,000 a year, an 80 per cent rise from the level before the civil charges were announced by the SEC.

Goldman’s CDSs now trade at the same level as those of Morgan Stanley, which emerged from the financial crisis in worse shape, and just below CDSs on Citi, which had to be bailed out by the government.

According to the Financial TImes, on April 15, 2010, the day before the Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint against Goldman, it cost about $30,000 less annually to insure the debt of Goldman than Citi’s or Morgan Stanley’s. The CDSs of Goldman and Morgan Stanley have not traded at the same level since October 2007, Markit data show.

At the height of the credit crisis in autumn 2008, the cost of default protection on all banks soared to levels far exceeding yesterday’s levels. As the capital markets calmed and Goldman prospered, the cost of insuring against its default was typically lower than Citi and Morgan Stanley.

In addition to the SEC’s charges, which Goldman,denies, the investment banker and trader revealed it had been hit by several lawsuits from disgruntled shareholders since the SEC’s charges. In a regulatory filing, Goldman said the bank, its executives and directors faced seven legal actions related to the bank’s mortgage-related trading activities.

Sop long as a cloud hovers over Wall Street, Goldman will be caught in the storm. No wonder the industry is in for a flood of changes!

Can it be possible that you owe more to Uncle Sam than General Electric does?  Can changing overseas tax laws for America’s corporations put billions of dollars back into the U.S. Treasury? According to Forbes magazine, the answer to both questions is “Yes!”

Forbes.com reported that last year,  the GE conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, the corporation recorded  a tax benefit of $1.1 billion!

Avoiding taxes is nothing new for General Electric. In 2008, its effective tax rate was 5.3%; in 2007, it was 15%. The marginal U.S. corporate rate is 35%.

How did it happen? And would changing the laws that allow corporations to shift their profits overseas while keeping their losses at home on American shores — for tax purposes, of course —  fill up the federal coffers and reduce America’s debt?

According to Forbes, GE’s tax return is the largest the Internal Revenue Service deals with each year — about 24,000 pages if printed out. Its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission  is more than 700 pages long.

Inspecting those documents, you’ll find that GE in effect consists of two divisions: General Electric Capital and everything else. That everything else — the maker of engines, power plants, TV shows and more — would have been taxed at a 22% rate had it been a stand-alone company.

It’s GE Capital that keeps the overall tax bill low. Over the past two years, GE Capital has displayed an uncanny ability to lose lots of money in the U.S. (posting a $6.5 billion loss in 2009) and make lots of money overseas (a $4.3 billion gain). Not only do the U.S. losses balance out the overseas gains, but GE can defer taxes on that overseas income indefinitely.

It’s the tax benefit of overseas operations that is the biggest reason many multinationals end up with lower tax rates than ordinary American citizens. It makes sense that multinationals “put costs in high-tax countries and profits in low-tax countries,” says Scott Hodge, the president of the  Tax Foundation.

“When you add in state taxes, the U.S. has the highest tax burden among industrialized countries,” says Hodge. In contrast, China’s rate is 25%; Ireland’s is just 12.5%.

Corporations are getting smarter — not just about doing more business in low-tax countries but in moving their more valuable assets there as well. That means setting up overseas subsidiaries, then transferring to them ownership of long-lived, often intangible but highly profitable assets, such as patents and software.

As a result, figures tax economist Martin Sullivan, companies keep about $28 billion a year out of the U.S. Treasury by engaging in so-called transfer pricing arrangements. In such an arrangement, a tech company, for example, could license an overseas subsidiary’s software to its U.S. parent company in return for handsome royalties (which get taxed at lower overseas rates).

Close that loophole and America’s deficit can start moving in the opposite direction.