Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Refinancing

Refinancing refers to the replacement of an existing debt obligation with a debt obligation bearing different terms.

Refinancing may be undertaken to reduce interest costs, to extend the repayment time, to pay off other debts, to reduce one's periodic payment obligations, to reduce or alter risk , and/or to raise cash for investment, consumption, or the payment of a dividend.

Refinancing can alter the monthly payments owed on the loan either by changing the loan's interest rate, or by altering the term to maturity of the loan. More favorable lending conditions may reduce overall borrowing costs.

Refinancing is also use to reduce the risk associated with an existing loan. Interest rates on adjustable-rate loans and mortgages shift up and down based on the movements of the various indicies used to calculate them.

In the context of personal finance, refinancing a loan or a series of debts can assist in paying off high-interest debt such as credit card debt, with lower-interest debt such as that of a fixed-rate home mortgage. This can allow a lender to reduce borrowing costs by more closely aligning the cost of borrowing with the general creditworthiness and collateral security available from the borrower.

No-Closing Cost Type

Borrowers with this type of refinancing typically pay few upfront fees to get the new mortgage loan. In fact as long as the prevailing market rate is lower than your existing rate by 1.5 percentage point or more, it is financially beneficial to refinance because there is little or no cost in doing so.

Cash-Out Type

This type of refinance may not help lower the monthly payment or shorter mortgage periods. It can be used for home improvement, credit card and other debt consolidation if the borrower qualifies with their current home equity; they can refinance with a loan amount larger than their current mortgage and keep the cash difference.


Monday, November 12, 2007

Mesothelioma Lawyer

Companies that manufacture products that contain asbestos have known for over 60 years that asbestos can cause serious diseases.
Unfortunately, because many of these companies wanted to increase their profits, they kept this information quiet, thereby seriously endangering their workers.
There are now laws that help protect the workers who have been harmed by their exposure to these asbestos-related products.
However, since representing mesothelioma can be so profitable to attorneys, it is important that people who have mesothelioma be especially careful selecting attorneys who are really qualified to represent them.

When Selecting a Mesothelioma Attorney these points should be considered

  • What is your personal experience in representing mesothelioma patients?
  • Is the lawyer intends to actually handle your case him or herself?
  • What is involved in this kind of lawsuit?
  • How expenses and attorney fees will be handled for the case?

Sunday, November 11, 2007

What is a Tax Attorney?

When a taxpayer has problems with the Internal Revenue Service, or the state department of revenue, he may be able to solve it himself. However, with the intricacies of U.S. tax law being what they are, the taxpayer may find himself better served in hiring a tax attorney.

A tax attorney specializes in working with taxpayers to solve their problems with the IRS or state revenue department. In fact, they generally focus only on tax issues and relief. A tax attorney can help a taxpayer in trouble make it through an audit, have fines reduced, liens removed, and can navigate through the minefield of small business and self-employment tax issues.

Many small business owners consider their tax attorney to be as vital as their accountant. This is because a good tax attorney can help head off tax problems before they even begin. He or she can see potential trouble spots for a business and can advise the owner how to avoid them.

U.S. tax law is not only labyrinthine in structure, it also changes nearly every year. Thus, a good tax attorney will keep up with the latest changes and can advise clients accordingly.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Home Equity Loan

Home equity loans allow a homeowner to borrow money by pledging the house as collateral. Borrowers who want to borrow a relatively large amount of money or who don’t have good credit often find the home equity loan to be attractive.
Lenders may be more liberal because they view home equity loans as relatively safe. You can’t disappear with your house or hide it if you default on your loan, so the lender has a good chance of collecting the collateral. Also, you are likely to make your payments a priority if your home is on the line.

Advantages of Home Equity Loans
Home equity loans are attractive to borrowers for a few main reasons;

  • They typically have a lower interest rate
  • They are easier to qualify for if you have bad credit
  • Payments on a home equity loan may be tax deductible
  • Borrowers can get relatively large loans with this type of loan

Monday, November 5, 2007

Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos.[1] In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart).

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Adverse Credit Remortgage

Adverse Credit Remortgage is the process of paying off one mortgage with another mortgage on the same property. Elementary economics tells us this should not be possible, but apparently it can be with some nifty refinancing tricks. It’s definitely not something recommended for everyone. It involves money lending and banking, which can be very profitable. Think about it, banks produce nothing, yet are worth billions. Although niche websites are nice, adverse credit remortgage is probably a little too specific to be very profitable. Perhaps an expanded site explaining banking terms could do the trick.

Cheap Remortgages, 100% Adverse Credit Remortgage, Bad Credit Remortgages, Remortgage Quotes


There are remortgage calculators, bad credit remortgages, adverse credit remortgage deals, ccj remortgages, the cheapest base rate trackers and quick remortgages. As national mortgage and remortgage brokers they have provided you with a whole of market mortgage facility to find the best remortgage rates plus fast remortgage quotes for remortgaging.

Also there is remortgage advice, the most flexible interest only, buy to let remortgage rates, plus cheap 100% shared ownership mortgages, self certification deals, 100% remortgages, property abroad mortgages and guaranteed professional mortgages for doctors, vets, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, solicitors, opticians, footballers, lawyers and accountants.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Lease Management Software

That is software for people who manage leases, particularly real estate properties. These software packages are essential to people and corporations who own a large number of properties. It would be so hard to keep track of each property on paper, including such information as when taxes are due, when rent is due, and so forth, while using an old pen and paper system. There obviously isn't a huge market for this type of software, and it is very expensive to develop, so the price is going to be very high. Since software comes on a CD-ROM disc that costs practically nothing to produce, the marginal cost for each new customer decreases. Since the market will probably never be oversaturated, the marginal cost could be expected to decrease indefinitely, which is why these companies are willing to market so much.

Common Features

  • Lease Administration - Administration and integrated views of payment processes, lease data and financial aspects of contracts and responsibilities
  • Cash Flow Management - Straight line rents, percent rents and space utilization
  • Reconcile expenses and view sales history
  • Critical Dates - Receive notifications of renewals and option dates automatically
  • Lease Tracking - Track critical details, legal parties, insurance, clauses, payments and payment lines
  • Payment Calculations - Calculate recurring payment streams based on all escalations and offsets
  • Role Based Access - Determine roles and responsibilities related to leases and property management
  • Incident Reporting - Manage and report on any property-related incident
  • Customization - Customize system down to units and departments with extended attributes
  • Integration - Easily integrate with third party systems

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Benchmark Lending

Benchmark lending is something that has to do with interest rates and banking. The benchmark rate is set by the Federal Reserve in the United States, and it is the interest rate the banks pay when they borrow money. That’s right; your bank borrows money, too. They must have a certain amount of money on reserve, and when they don’t they borrow money over a very short term (such as one night).

Banks and mortgage companies seek out people who might need a loan. Banking makes its money on loans; it’s just a valuable business to be a part of when there are lots of customers.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Event Management Security

This is a very specific term for people with very specific needs. Although you would probably guess it has something to do with hiring rent-a-cops for concerts, it actually has to do with computers. Event management software monitors activities and resources on a network, and responds to such problems as security breaches. Obviously, individuals do not need this type of thing. You can use anti-virus software on your personal computer and enable software and hardware firewalls. Large networks need a little more. A security breach could cost a company millions of dollars, especially if vital information is stolen.


Event management software:

Event management software specializes in event management solutions. This technology provide you with the tools that enable your people to manage electronic invitations, content and full registration services with real time reporting and credit card processing so they can stay focused on strategic business objectives.

Here value proposition is about reducing the cost of event management, time to market and removing the headaches involved with getting and evaluating the data. Regardless of the size and scope of your event, this particular software should have a solution that will exceed your expectations.


Services of Event Management Software:

  • Consultation with system developers
  • Assessment of current applications
  • Integrating new elements into existing applications
  • Registration solutions for internal use
  • Full service solutions including on-site support
  • Guaranteed customer support
  • Custom solutions

Monday, October 29, 2007

Anti-spam Appliance

In simple Anti-spam appliances are hardware devices integrated with on-board software that implements anti-spam techniques.

Apparently, an anti spam appliance is not just anti spam software. You can find software anywhere. There must be a hundred different anti spam programs and filters, some are free. An anti spam appliance goes a little deeper than just software. It is hardware that can be used to block spam, and then sort it based on standard industry practices. This type of device is not for individuals, it is for businesses, especially those that might have a spam problem. If spam is getting in the way of company productivity, this type of thing might be for you. Obviously, these things are not cheap, and the profit margins are going to be fairly high, as with any specialized computing device.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Market analysis for product software

Market analysis for product software consists of a number of techniques that allow an organization to collect and disseminate information from their external environment of software products for use in determining their market strategy and actions. For example, market analysis helps to determine critical strategies for new software products such as time-to-market length, creating product differentiation, creating and preserving supplier credibility, developing effective distribution channels, forming relationships with large customers, and managing market efforts.


This topic has its roots in marketing discipline. Many types of market research techniques are used to gather this information. Market analysis plays a large part in explaining the current situation of a marketing plan. Marketing is very important to new product development because software products have a short average lifespan of five years and incur 75% of the costs during the research and development phase. Therefore, including market analysis information early on in the product lifecycle can ensure resources are not wasted.


It is a wide field so this article is a sample of scientific work that has linked the fields of marketing and product software. This consists of research in the fields of general market, customer, and competitor analysis which can be seen as processes that are hierarchically grouped under market analysis in the meta-process model from the figure below. There are many processes that can be used for each of these three processes to acquire information from the market. This article only lists a selected few for each.


General Market Characteristics for Product Software


Analysis of general market characteristics should lead to information about the market such as definition, size, trends, and market segmentation. This analysis is needed to help develop and maintain marketing strategies for product software and overall business strategies. The covered methods and techniques to obtain this information are Porter’s five forces model, risk analysis, marketing intelligence, and marketing decision support systems.


Porter’s five forces analysis is useful for software since it highlights many important factors that will be discussed in customer and competitor analysis such as switching costs, brand equity, product differentiation, and price of total purchase.


Customer analysis for product software


Customer analysis is needed to predict behavior and create demand forecasts for product software. It is also necessary in the development of new products to help select the most profitable choice. To analyze customers, aspects such as demographics, buying motivation, and expectations are studied. Besides basing behavior on software only, customers also look at the network externalities from software packages, such as manuals, add-ons, and training courses, to make purchase decisions. All of these subjects are useful for determining target groups (also known as market segments).


Customers can be divided into two groups, consumers (an individual) and corporate buyers. Consumers generally buy software for personal use on their home computer. While they behave as individuals, they are influenced by the environment and the other people around them. For consumers, psychological traits, such as risk-taker versus risk-avoider, play a great role in major decisions by the individual. Many other factors play a role for corporate buyers of product software. Businesses buy product software usually as an indirect material to help them increase the effectiveness of their processes.


Competitor Analysis for Product Software


The final major area of analysis in market analysis is the industry itself. By knowing what is happening with competitors, a software company can adjust strategies to be more successful in the marketplace. Companies should know about market share percentages, strength and weaknesses, industry structure, and strategic groupings among other things to get a good picture of what the competitive environment is like. Strategic groupings can be in the form of alliances between product software firms.


Competitor analysis is especially important when it comes to new product introductions. There are many advantages, especially for revenue, for a software company that can show major enhancement to software or be first to market. This makes competitor analysis particularly important because it can help a firm decide which new product opportunities to pursue by what the market size will be following the actions of other competitors. Knowing what is going around in the software industry is essential for software firms to be successful. Firms need to know which other software products their product must work with (eg operating systems) to provide the most usability for the customer.


Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Life Insurance Cautions

Knowing what type of life insurance policy to buy, who to buy it from, and what to consider when you buy a policy can be confusing and even overwhelming. Here are some tips to think about before you buy a policy:

  • Beware if it sounds too good to be true.
  • Never ignore notices from the insurance company even though your agent tells you it’s a “mistake” and nothing to worry about.
  • Be careful of any life insurance plan that promises “vanishing premiums” or guarantees you a premium-free policy over a specific period.
  • Don’t buy life insurance portrayed as a “pension plan” or a “retirement fund.” Life insurance is NOT a pension plan.
  • Don’t let someone pressure you. You do NOT face any deadlines.
  • Never buy coverage you don’t understand. It is the responsibility of the agent, broker, or company to explain your coverage in terms you can understand.
  • Save every piece of paper explaining your coverage and your policy. Keep them on file with your policy. (If the agent used a laptop computer, insist on a hard copy version of what he or she showed you.)
  • Every new insurance policy issued in Washington state comes with a 10-day “free look” period. If you change your mind and return the policy during those 10 days, the company must return your premium to you within 30 days.
  • Don’t cancel or let your old coverage expire until your new policy takes effect.
  • If an agent or broker tries to sell you life insurance as an investment with a high return, insist that he or she show you that specific guarantee in your contract.
  • If someone offers you a chance to turn in a small policy for a larger one without paying substantially more, WATCH OUT!
  • Never give an agent or broker money without getting a receipt.
  • Never sign a form that includes blank spaces, even if the agent or broker assures you it is merely a formality.
  • Never buy insurance from an unlicensed agent or an unauthorized company. You can check to see if an agent is licensed by calling the Insurance Consumer Hot line at 1-800-562-6900.