Company Florida Home Insurance Owner

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 20, 2007 - NeoStem, Inc. (OTCBB:NEOI), the first company to specialize in the collection, processing and storage of stem cells from healthy adults for personal use in times of critical medical need, has announced the latest article in a growing body of press coverage on the trend toward long-term banking of adult stem cells appeared recently in the San Diego Business Journal.

Under NeoStem's strategic business plan, the Company will provide stem cell collection and storage services through agreements with existing medical facilities around the country. The article spotlights one of the first of those facilities, the California Healthspan Institute, an anti-aging medical institute based in Encinitas, CA. In addition to being one of the first NeoStem facilities, it is one of the first to provide adult stem cell extraction and long-term banking services.

Nationwide Rates Set To Rise

31--TALLAHASSEE -- Arbitrators have overruled the state and will allow Nationwide Insurance to raise homeowners' premiums by an average of 54 percent. The increase by the Tampa Bay area's second-largest insurer applies to hurricane and nonhurricane coverage, though the amount will vary by location. Nationwide spokesman Eric Hardgrove said the company will implement the increase "as soon as possible." Nationwide, which has 240,000 policyholders in Florida and 42,005 in the Tampa Bay area, sought a 71 percent rate increase in July, but regulators rejected it. The company then filed for arbitration and won the case during hearings earlier this month. The ruling was released Friday. Under the original 71 percent average request, increases for the Tampa Bay area varied widely. Hillsborough County was projected to be 49.8 percent; Pinellas, 134.6 percent; Pasco, 73.7 percent; and Polk, 43.7 percent.

Insurance Law Fuels Confusion

Bill Bartram is one of more than 38,000 residents in Florida who are receiving notices from Nationwide Insurance that their homeowners policies will not be renewed. Like others, Bartram, a retired cop from Washington, D.C., who has lived in his Bradenton home for the past 28 years, thought recently passed legislation protected him from receiving such a notice. He was wrong. Actually, the law states that once insurance companies submit rate-reduction filings with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation - as Nationwide and others have done - then those companies can deliver nonrenewal notices to customers. Still, Bartram thinks someone's not keeping his word. "From what (Gov. Charlie) Crist's office said, if they (companies) sell insurance in Florida, they're going to have to continue to offer coverage," says Bartram, who has been with Nationwide for 25 years and also has automobile and life insurance with the company.

State orders insurer to cut rates further

VERO BEACH — Cincinnati Insurance Co.'s proposal to roll back their homeowners property insurance coverage by 3.2 percent statewide was rejected by officials with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, who instructed the company to instead decrease rates by 31.3 percent.

"They will have to make a new filing with us," said agency spokesman Bob Lotane on Wednesday. "The simplest way to put it is, they are going to have to get their math right."

.

First Floridian drops 40000

First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Co. is in the process of notifying thousands of Floridians that their homeowners policies will not be renewed, the most recent insurer to significantly reduce its business in Florida.

Crist renews rates assault

TALLAHASSEE With homeowners still feeling the pinch of high insurance premiums despite the Legislature's promises in January to cut rates, Gov. Charlie Crist made a rare, personal appeal to legislators on Monday to not lose sight of the state's property insurance crisis.

At a Senate Banking and Insurance Committee packed with insurance industry lobbyists, Crist touted a bill that could send more business to Florida's state-run insurance company.

It was the first time a governor has testified at a legislative hearing in nearly a decade; in 1998, Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles spoke to a committee headed by then-state Sen. Charlie Crist. The issue then was how the state intended to spend a major lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies.

Monday's meeting came to a brief but heated standoff between Crist and insurance lobbyists.

Second Home Buyer's Guide

Vacation homes in popular areas saw their valuations rocket with the broader residential market during the real estate boom. Now that the market has cooled and the investment speculators have gone home, buyers can expect to find a wide selection and prices that are flat or slightly lower -- at least in some regions.

While those factors have tilted the balance in favor of prospective buyers, notably in areas with a glut of new condos, prices in many of hottest markets haven't seen remarkable declines from their highs. Consequently, beachside bargains may be scant – and those seeking deals may have to travel to slightly less fashionable destinations to find true values. But for would-be buyers yearning to relax at their own retreat, rather than to turn a quick profit, conditions have improved.

Downtown plan is key to race in New Port Richey

NEW PORT RICHEY - When people run for public office in this city, they tend to talk about revitalizing two things: the downtown and the general fund.

Then there is the general fund. Anticipating property tax cuts from Tallahassee, the city has instituted a hiring freeze and a moratorium on most equipment spending.

People in Business

People in Business publishes announcements of employee promotions and workplace awards for people who work or live in Santa Cruz County. Send information to the Business Desk, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Box 638, Santa Cruz, CA 95061; fax to 429-9620; or e-mail jgumz@santacruzsentinel.com. Please put 'PEOPLE IN BUSINESS' in the subject line; high resolution photos 200 dpi run on a space-available basis. Deadline is noon Wednesday.

Teen driver program offered through American Family

MONROE -- The Teen Safe Driver Program, an innovative new program that helps young drivers overcome the challenges of learning how to drive, became available to American Family's automobile insurance customers in Wisconsin on March 1. More information is available from American Family insurance agents Tim Young and Karen Mau-Boll in their Monroe offices.

Insurance Sector Becomes Keen

Competition in the insurance industry has become very keen with products and premiums being driven by competition and, sometimes, by undercutting.

Travel insurance policies have become a fairly new phenomenon in the industry, but it is one area in which competition has left an indelible mark.

Premiums here have been largely driven by keen competition, having changed about two times a year, industry players have confirmed.

A one-month policy, which costs an average of $70 at the start of the first policy, now goes for about $45 on the average.

Travel insurance used to be part of personal accident policies without health component for most insurance companies until about two years ago when Schengen States, mostly members of the European Union, decided to make it mandatory for travellers to possess travel insurance policies which cover particularly sickness.

China's Earnings Season: What to Expect in April

Blaze Fabry submits: We are bullish on Chinese stocks. It seems to us, however, that average American investors got a distaste of China after the 9 percent plunge in Shanghai on February 26 that sent global equity markets south. As a result, March was a very quiet month for us stock researchers, while this was the time stock research would have been needed the most. We will get back to this later.

Bright corporate earnings prospects and huge amounts of money rushing into the Chinese stock exchanges, Shanghai and Shenzhen, are providing sustained growth momentum to the equities.

Multicultural Agents Launch Online Service to Give Minorities Easy ...

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 14, 2007 -- A former industry executive and a network of leading multicultural agents later this week will launch One Voice Insurance Services, an online portal designed to provide minority consumers and business owners with in-language and culturally relevant information about health and life insurance products in California.

.

Life Insurance Becoming A Better Bargain

Think about college tuition, health care and your electric bill, and it's easy to assume that prices only move in two directions: up and way up.

But you might not have noticed that one important financial product is significantly cheaper these days: term life insurance. Industry experts estimate that term premiums have fallen 40 percent or more in the past decade alone.

.

Rural youth can boost FIs, Insurance Cos` turnover

Financial Institutions (FIs) and Insurance Companies can rope in about 200mn Rural Investors in their fold provided they design innovative savings and loan schemes on lines of commercial banks and even post offices and multiply their annual turnovers by disbursing agri, housing, personal and education loans and easy insurance schemes at affordable rates to potential aspirants, according to Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

"This is because, these have no access to popular savings instruments of various commercial banks, insurance companies and post offices branches in ulteriors of countryside and are disparately looking to channelise their finances for suitable returns. A good number of rural investors are also aspiring to become self reliant but lack avenues for credit in areas for food processing, better horticultural and agricultural facilities, training for skill development to process their milk etc., says the paper.

Preliminary 2006 Admiral Group plc Earnings Presentation - Final

ALASTAIR LYONS, CHAIRMAN, ADMIRAL GROUP: Okay. Well thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and welcome, and my thanks for you coming in this morning to what is now Admiral's third full year results announcement since we came to the market in September 2004. We're delighted to again be reporting record profits and strong growth and turnover, despite the challenging market environment that we faced over the course of the last 12 months. As a result of our performance we've also been able to raise significantly our total dividend distribution for the year in line with our established policy of returning trading surfaces to our shareholders. So it's nice to do that as well. Without further ado let me introduce you to our team who will take you through the results in detail - Dave Stevens, our Chief Operating Officer; Henry Engelhardt, our Chief Executive; Kevin Chidwick, our Finance Director; and we're also delighted to have with us this morning Christina Nestares who runs our Spanish operation Balumba.es, who will give some of a closer insight into that activity.

Rewiring the brain

Karen Noonan was doing a bit of gardening during a visit with her parents in Montreal nine months ago when she suddenly experienced numbness in her leg and arm.