Drive Less? Pay Less for Insurance

From: WSJ

If you have a car that spends most of its time parked in a garage, a couple of insurers have a deal for you: auto-insurance rates based on how much you drive, among other factors that suggest you present a lower-than-average risk.

The thinking behind the mileage-based discounts offered by Progressive Corp. and GMAC Insurance is that people who rarely drive are less likely to get into accidents and thus are profitable customers even if insurers offer a big discount.

"The idea is there are many people who drive fewer-than-average miles, and historically they have not been able to get a rate that benefited them," says Gary Kusumi, president and chief executive of GMAC Insurance, the insurance unit of GMAC Financial Services.

Insurers have long sought reliable mileage data for drivers, but the figures drivers report are notoriously unreliable, while technology-based solutions have proved complicated to implement. GMAC Insurance and Progressive are offering mileage discounts using onboard devices to measure miles, and in the case of Progressive, other driving habits.

Both pay-as-you-go plans offer drivers a chance to benefit from their minimalist driving habits while giving insurers a chance to price more accurately for the risk they take. While consumer advocates call it a generally benign arrangement, they suggest that, before signing up, drivers make sure they understand and feel comfortable with the information insurers are collecting.

The discount offered by GMAC Insurance, the 20th-largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. by premiums written, is based on a partnership with General Motors Corp. subsidiary OnStar. It offers drivers discounts based on how many miles they drive, ranging from 54% off for those who drive less than 2,500 miles a year to a 14% discount for drivers who clock less than 15,000 miles annually.

To get the discount, which is available in 34 states, drivers must own a car manufactured by GM, GMAC's former parent, that is equipped with OnStar, a safety and navigation system installed in most new GM cars. The drivers must agree to have OnStar supply their insurer with a monthly odometer reading on which to base the discount.

Progressive's TripSense, available in Minnesota, Michigan and Oregon, requires customers to install a small device into their car's onboard diagnostic port, and then download the information to their home computer and send it off to Progressive at regular intervals. Progressive's discount for the program ranges from 5% to 25%, but Progressive spokeswoman Shannon Beczkiewicz says the company was working on a revised discount model.

The Mayfield Village, Ohio, company, the nation's third-largest auto insurer, declines to say how many customers have signed up for the TripSense program.
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wait for the Flood

Here's a bit of insurance trivia for you: Nearly 25% of all claims the National Flood Insurance Program pays out are for policies in low- to moderate-risk areas. This statistic should serve as a reminder that even if you don't have a beachfront home, or a lovely cottage on a lake, or even a trailer down by the river, you might still want to make sure you've got sufficient protection against floods.

If you're assuming that your home insurance policy covers flooding, you're probably wrong. Most such policies don't. In fact, grab a copy of your policy. I'll wait. You might be surprised by what's not covered when you sit down to read it. I found out that my own policy didn't protect me against earthquake damage, so I opted to pay a little extra for that.

Here's another thing that might surprise you: If you're watching a TV reporter standing in a rain slicker, describing a hurricane that's pounding the shore a few states away from you, it's too late to buy flood insurance to protect yourself from that storm. Flood insurance policies typically take a month or so to kick in.

Here are some good-to-know tips on the topic.

Make an inventory of your possessions.
This is something we should all do, whether we live on the coast, in a desert, or anywhere in between. You never know when some disaster -- perhaps a fire -- will occur, and if it does, you may need to furnish your insurer with a detailed list of your possessions. Consider taking lots of photos or a video of your home, and make sure to zero in on everything of value. Keep a copy of the documentation somewhere other than your home.

To prepare for the kind of life disruption that hurricanes can bring, make sure you have ample food supplies on hand, along with water and a first-aid kit. Keep important papers stored in a waterproof bag. Stock some batteries and solar-powered lights, along with a bunch of cash, too. (You might not be able to get money from your bank for a while.) Be sure to have a corded phone, since cordless ones won't work when the power is out. Before the weather ever gets bad, trim any tree limbs that might fall on your property during a storm. And have a pet carrier for Fluffy or Fido.

Keep learning
Learn more in our Insurance Center. You may not have thought about some kinds of insurance, such as disability or long-term care insurance, which are vital for many people. And, of course, properly insuring your property is crucial, too. Take a little time to learn more; you may be very happy you did, if some calamity occurs in the future.
Copyrighted, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. Fool.com.

Putting Your Life Insurance on the Block

From: WSJ
In recent years, a new option has emerged for older adults who own life-insurance policies they no longer want or perhaps can't afford to maintain.

The traditional process for cash-value policies involved surrendering the policy to the insurance company and receiving the accumulated savings component. Today, investors will buy that policy for considerably more, although less than the benefit payable upon death. They on occasion also will buy "term" policies that pay a death benefit but don't have a savings component.

When such deals -- known as life settlements -- work as advertised, they can free up substantial amounts of money that potentially can be used however the policy owner sees fit. One example: investing for higher returns than are typically available from an insurance policy.

Watch for Pitfalls
That said, life settlements have significant potential pitfalls. The most serious is that it's extremely difficult for sellers of a policy to know whether they're getting the best deal possible. As a result, life settlements have been drawing the attention of regulators who allege backroom dealings and predatory sales tactics.

There are a host of other issues to consider. The payout from a life settlement can lead to a big tax bill and affect Medicaid eligibility. (In contrast, at a policyholder's death, life-insurance benefits paid to heirs aren't subject to income tax.) Your medical history can be widely shared with many parties.

In the end, there may be other more attractive options, such as exchanging your policy for another insurance offering that can potentially earn higher returns.

The pitch is "free money," says Glenn Daily, a fee-only insurance consultant in New York who provides independent evaluations of life-settlement proposals. And while it can be a good strategy under certain circumstances, "it doesn't mean you shouldn't ask a long series of questions."

Life settlements usually are aimed at policies with a death benefit of at least $250,000, although sometimes policies with death benefits as low as $100,000 will be considered. Policyholders need to be at least 65 years old and have a life expectancy at the time of the purchase of at least two years but no more than 12 to 15 years, depending on the buyer's criteria.

The buyers are mainly investment firms that, after purchasing the policies, continue to pay the premiums and collect the benefit when the original holder dies.

Obviously, it's in the investors' interest to keep the purchase price down. They also would prefer if you died sooner rather than later; a policy from a holder who is in declining health, or, say, is an active smoker, could be worth more than a comparable policy from someone who is healthy.

Acting as a go-between between the policyholder and the investor are brokers. Ideally the broker, who is supposed to act in the seller's best interest, will submit the policy to different potential buyers who might make a bid.

Factors affecting the purchase price offered include your age, medical condition and resulting life expectancy, the type of policy and the premiums involved in keeping the policy in force. It's possible to get widely differing bids.

From this purchase price a number of fees are deducted, the largest of which is usually the broker's commission.

The problem is "there's no transparency -- you're reliant on your broker to shop your policy around," says Mary Schapiro, chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers, which published an "Investor Alert" on life settlements last month (available at nasd.com).

Ask the broker for a full accounting of what bids were received and what steps were taken to shop it around, the NASD suggests. In addition, it's important to ask if the broker is affiliated with a particular life-settlement company and thus may only be getting a bid from that one firm.

A Percentage of What?

Sellers should ask about commissions and any other charges.

Standard brokers' commissions have been 6%, but there may be subtle differences that can cost you big money. For example, some brokers charge commissions based on the purchase price, but others charge based on the policy's face value, a bigger figure -- which results in substantially less money in your pocket.

"If it's 6% of face value, that could be 20% or more of the purchase price," says Mr. Daily, who adds that policyholders shouldn't be afraid to haggle. "Commissions are negotiable."

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about collusion among buyers and brokers. Last October, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed suit against one of the largest life-settlement buyers, Coventry First, accusing the firm of bid-rigging with one of its competitors that significantly short-changed investors.

In this alleged scheme, Coventry would make payments to brokers in exchange for them tilting the bidding process to ensure that Coventry was able to purchase the policies at lower prices. Emails presented as evidence showed Coventry officials haggling with brokers over what Coventry would have to pay to win the auctions. In one instance, Coventry is alleged to have paid a broker $200,000 in exchange for not presenting to the policyholder a bid that would have topped Coventry's bid on a $10 million policy by $425,000.

Coventry denies in court filings that the firm did anything wrong, saying it didn't have to disclose the payments to policyholders.

Other Routes to Consider

There may be other options that should be considered. If it's a question of not being able to afford the policy premiums, you can ask if dividends or the cash value from the policy can help with the payments. You also can ask a family member to contribute.

If there's a concern that the policy is earning subpar returns, under certain circumstances it can be exchanged tax-free for another insurance policy or an annuity -- if losing the death benefit isn't a major concern.

John Skar, chief risk officer at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, and a vocal critic of life settlements, says policyholders should keep in mind that sophisticated investors believe they are getting good value in the policies they buy. But once commissions and taxes are taken into consideration, most policyholders who sell are going to have a hard time matching what they have given up, he argues.
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Return of Premium Term Life Insurance?

From: WSJ
Question: Is the return-of-premium term-life-insurance product as well-established and reliable as a typical term policy? -- A.R.
Answer: Return-of-premium term-life-insurance policies have become increasingly popular recently, accounting for 10% to 15% of new term-life-insurance premiums in 2006. More than 20 insurers offer them, up from a handful five years ago.
Often the feature is offered as a rider on regular level-premium term policies of 15, 20 and 30 years, but it's also available as a base policy. Insurers charge 50% or more above the cost of a regular term policy for the right to get all or most of your premiums back if you don't die before the end of the term. Shorter-term policies are more expensive, says Robert Bland, chairman and CEO of Insure.com, an online insurance broker.

The least expensive $1 million, 30-year-term policy with a return-of-premium rider for a 40-year-old man in California is roughly $2,160 a year, compared with $1,240 for the least-expensive regular term policy. That works out to roughly a 5% return on the extra $920 in premiums, says Glenn Daily, a fee-only insurance planner in New York.

If you let the policy lapse generally in the first five or six years, you may not get any of your premium back, and term rates could have declined in the interim. As for reliability, the policy should be as sound as the insurer offering it. Check with A.M. Best, TheStreet.com ratings (formerly Weiss Safety Ratings) or Fitch Inc. for ratings on insurers.

Write to M.P. McQueen at mp.mcqueen@wsj.com
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

life insurance products

Riders are modifications to the insurance policy added at the same time the policy is issued. These riders change the basic policy to provide some feature desired by the policy owner. A common rider is accidental death, which used to be commonly referred to as "double indemnity", which pays twice the amount of the policy face value if death results from accidental causes, as if both a full coverage policy and an accidental death policy were in effect on the insured. Another common rider is premium waiver, which waives future premiums if the insured becomes disabled.

Joint life insurance is either a term or permanent policy insuring two or more lives with the proceeds payable on the first death.

Survivorship life or second-to-die life is a whole life policy insuring two lives with the proceeds payable on the second (later) death.

Single premium whole life is a policy with only one premium which is payable at the time the policy is issued.

Modified whole life is a whole life policy that charges smaller premiums for a specified period of time after which the premiums increase for the remainder of the policy.

Group life insurance is term insurance covering a group of people, usually employees of a company or members of a union or association. Individual proof of insurability is not normally a consideration in the underwriting. Rather, the underwriter considers the size and turnover of the group, and the financial strength of the group. Contract provisions will attempt to exclude the possibility of adverse selection. Group life insurance often has a provision that a member exiting the group has the right to buy individual insurance coverage.

Senior and preneed products

Insurance companies have in recent years developed products to offer to niche markets, most notably targeting the senior market to address needs of an aging population. Many companies offer policies tailored to the needs of senior applicants. These are often low to moderate face value whole life insurance policies, to allow a senior citizen purchasing insurance at an older issue age an opportunity to buy affordable insurance. This may also be marketed as final expense insurance, and an agent or company may suggest (but not require) that the policy proceeds could be used for end-of-life expenses.

Preneed (or prepaid) insurance policies are whole life policies that, although available at any age, are usually offered to older applicants as well. This type of insurance is designed specifically to cover funeral expenses when the insured person dies. In many cases, the applicant signs a prefunded funeral arrangement with a funeral home at the time the policy is applied for. The death proceeds are then guaranteed to be directed first to the funeral services provider for payment of services rendered. Most contracts dictate that any excess proceeds will go either to the insured's estate or a designated beneficiary.

These products are sometimes assigned into a trust at the time of issue, or shortly after issue. The policies are irrevocably assigned to the trust, and the trust becomes the owner. Since a whole life policy has a cash value component, and a loan provision, it may be considered an asset; assigning the policy to a trust means that it can no longer be considered an asset for that individual. This can impact an individual's ability to qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

About Life insurance

Life insurance or life assurance is a contract between the policy owner and the insurer, where the insurer agrees to pay a sum of money upon the occurrence of the insured individual's or individuals' death or other event, such as terminal illness or critical illness. In return, the policy owner (or policy payer) agrees to pay a stipulated amount called a premium at regular intervals or in lump sums. There may be designs in some countries where bills and death expenses plus catering for after funeral expenses should be included in Policy Premium. In the United States, the predominant form simply specifies a lump sum to be paid on the insured's demise.

As with most insurance policies, life insurance is a contract between the insurer and the policy owner (policyholder) whereby a benefit is paid to the designated Beneficiary (or Beneficiaries) if an insured event occurs which is covered by the policy. To be a life policy the insured event must be based upon life (or lives) of the people named in the policy.

Insured events that may be covered include:

* Serious illness

Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations of the insured events. Specific exclusions are often written into the contract to limit the liability of the insurer; for example claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, riot and civil commotion.

Life based contracts tend to fall into two major categories:

* Protection policies - designed to provide a benefit in the event of specified event, typically a lump sum payment. A common form of this design is term insurance.
* Investment policies - where the main objective is to facilitate the growth of capital by regular or single premiums. Common forms (in the US anyway) are whole life, universal life and variable life policies.

Parties to contract

There is a difference between the insured and the policy owner (policy holder), although the owner and the insured are often the same person. For example, if Joe buys a policy on his own life, he is both the owner and the insured. But if Jane, his wife, buys a policy on Joe's life, she is the owner and he is the insured. The policy owner is the guarantee and he or she will be the person who will pay for the policy. The insured is a participant in the contract, but not necessarily a party to it.

The beneficiary receives policy proceeds upon the insured's death. The owner designates the beneficiary, but the beneficiary is not a party to the policy. The owner can change the beneficiary unless the policy has an irrevocable beneficiary designation. With an irrevocable beneficiary, that beneficiary must agree to any beneficiary changes, policy assignments, or cash value borrowing.

In cases where the policy owner is not the insured (also referred to as the cestui qui vit or CQV), insurance companies have sought to limit policy purchases to those with an "insurable interest" in the CQV. For life insurance policies, close family members and business partners will usually be found to have an insurable interest. The "insurable interest" requirement usually demonstrates that the purchaser will actually suffer some kind of loss if the CQV dies. Such a requirement prevents people from benefiting from the purchase of purely speculative policies on people they expect to die. With no insurable interest requirement, the risk that a purchaser would murder the CQV for insurance proceeds would be great. In at least one case, an insurance company which sold a policy to a purchaser with no insurable interest (who later murdered the CQV for the proceeds), was found liable in court for contributing to the wrongful death of the victim (Liberty National Life v. Weldon, 267 Ala.171 (1957)).

Contract terms

Special provisions may apply, such as suicide clauses wherein the policy becomes null if the insured commits suicide within a specified time (usually two years after the purchase date; some states provide a statutory one-year suicide clause). Any misrepresentations by the insured on the application is also grounds for nullification. Most US states specify that the contestability period cannot be longer than two years; only if the insured dies within this period will the insurer have a legal right to contest the claim on the basis of misrepresentation and request additional information before deciding to pay or deny the claim.

The face amount on the policy is the initial amount that the policy will pay at the death of the insured or when the policy matures, although the actual death benefit can provide for greater or lesser than the face amount. The policy matures when the insured dies or reaches a specified age (such as 100 years old). From: Wikipedia.com, the free encyclopedia.

Health insurance in many countries

1. Health insurance in Australia
The public health system is called Medicare. It ensures free universal access to hospital treatment and subsidised out-of-hospital medical treatment. It is funded by a 1.5% tax levy.

The private health system is funded by a number of private health insurance organisations. The largest of these is Medibank Private, which is government-owned, but operates as a government business enterprise under the same regulatory regime as all other registered private health funds. The Coalition Howard government had announced that Medibank would be privatised if it won the 2007 election, however they were defeated by the Australian Labor Party under Kevin Rudd which had already pledged that it would remain in government ownership.

Some private health insurers are 'for profit' enterprises, and some are non-profit organizations such as HCF Health Insurance. Some have membership restricted to particular groups, but the majority have open membership.

Most aspects of private health insurance in Australia are regulated by the Private Health Insurance Act 2007.

The private health system in Australia operates on a "community rating" basis, whereby premiums do not vary solely because of a person's previous medical history, current state of health, or (generally speaking) their age (but see Lifetime Health Cover below). Balancing this are waiting periods, in particular for pre-existing conditions (usually referred to within the industry as PEA, which stands for "pre-existing ailment"). Funds are entitled to impose a waiting period of up to 12 months on benefits for any medical condition the signs and symptoms of which existed during the six months ending on the day the person first took out insurance. They are also entitled to impose a 12-month waiting period for benefits for treatment relating to an obstetric condition, and a 2-month waiting period for all other benefits when a person first takes out private insurance. Funds have the discretion to reduce or remove such waiting periods in individual cases. They are also free not to impose them to begin with, but this would place such a fund at risk of "adverse selection", attracting a disproportionate number of members from other funds, or from the pool of intending members who might otherwise have joined other funds. It would also attract people with existing medical conditions, who might not otherwise have taken out insurance at all because of the denial of benefits for 12 months due to the PEA Rule. The benefits paid out for these conditions would create pressure on premiums for all the fund's members, causing some to drop their membership, which would lead to further rises, and a vicious cycle would ensue.

There are a number of other matters about which funds are not permitted to discriminate between members in terms of premiums, benefits or membership - these include racial origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, nature of employment, and leisure activities. Premiums for a fund's product that is sold in more than one state can vary from state to state, but not within the same state.

The Australian government has introduced a number of incentives to encourage adults to take out private hospital insurance. These include:

* Lifetime Health Cover: If a person has not taken out private hospital cover by the 1st July after their 30th birthday, then when (and if) they do so after this time, their premiums must include a loading of 2% per annum. Thus, a person taking out private cover for the first time at age 40 will pay a 20 per cent loading. The loading continues for 10 years. The loading applies only to premiums for hospital cover, not to ancillary (extras) cover.

* Medicare Levy Surcharge: People whose taxable income is greater than a specified amount (currently $50,000 for singles and $100,000 for families) and who do not have an adequate level of private hospital cover must pay a 1% surcharge on top of the standard 1.5% Medicare Levy. The rationale is that if the people in this income group are forced to pay more money one way or another, most would choose to purchase hospital insurance with it, with the possibility of a benefit in the event that they need private hospital treatment - rather than pay it in the form of extra tax as well as having to meet their own private hospital costs.

* Private Health Insurance Rebate: The government subsidises the premiums for all private health insurance cover, including hospital and ancillary (extras), by 30%, 35% or 40%.

2. Health insurance in Canada
Most health insurance in Canada is administered by each province, under the Canada Health Act, which requires all people to have free access to basic health services. Collectively, the public provincial health insurance systems in Canada are frequently referred to as Medicare. Private health insurance is allowed, but the provincial governments allow it only for services that the public health plans do not cover; for example, semi-private or private rooms in hospitals and prescription drug plans. Canadians are free to use private insurance for elective medical services such as laser vision correction surgery, cosmetic surgery, and other non-basic medical procedures. Some 65% of Canadians have some form of supplementary private health insurance; many of them receive it through their employers. Private-sector services not paid for by the government account for nearly 30 percent of total health care spending.

In 2005, the Supreme Court of Quebec ruled, in Chaoulli v. Quebec, that the province's prohibition on private insurance for health care already insured by the provincial plan could constitute an infringement of the right to life and security if there were long wait times for treatment as happened in this case. Certain other provinces have legislation which financially discourages but does not forbid private health insurance in areas covered by the public plans. The ruling has not changed the overall pattern of health insurance across Canada but has spurred on attempts to tackle the core issues of supply and demand and the impact of wait times.

3. Health insurance in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands in 2006, a new system of health insurance came into force. All insurance companies have to provide at least one policy which meets a government set minimum standard level of cover and all adult residents are obliged by law to purchase this cover from an insurance company of their choice.

The new system avoids the two pitfalls of adverse selection and moral hazard associated with traditional forms of health insurance.

In the Dutch system, insurance companies are compensated for taking on high risk individuals because they receive extra funding for them. This funding comes from an insurance equalization pool run by a regulator which collects salary based contributions from employers (about 45% of all health care funding) and funding from the government for people whose means are such that they cannot afford health care (about 5% of all funding). Thus insurance companies find that insuring high risk individuals becomes an attractive proposition. All insurance companies receive from the pool, but those with more high risk individuals will receive more from the fund. The remaining 45% of health care funding comes from insurance premiums paid by the public. Insurance companies compete for this money on price alone. The insurance companies are not allowed to set down any co-payments or caps or deductibles. Neither are they allowed to deny coverage to any person applying for a policy or charge anything other than their nationally set and internet published standard policy premiums. Every person buying insurance from that company will pay the same price as everyone else buying that policy. And every person will get the minimum level of coverage. Children under 18 are insured for free (the funding coming from the equalization pool).

In addition to this minimum level, companies are free to sell extra insurance for additional coverage over the national minimum, but extra risks for this are not covered from the insurance pool and must therefore be priced accordingly.
4. Health insurance in the United Kingdom
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is a publicly funded healthcare system that provides coverage to everyone normally resident in the UK. It is not strictly insurance system because (a) there are no premiums collected, (b) costs are not charged at the patient level and (c) costs are not pre-paid from a pool. However, it does achieve the main aim of insurance which is to spread financial risk arising from ill-health. The costs of running the NHS (est. £104 billion in 2007-8) are met directly from general taxation.

Private health care has continued parallel to the NHS, paid for largely by private insurance, but it is used by less than 8% of the population, and generally as a top-up to NHS services.

The NHS provides the majority of health care in the UK, including primary care, in-patient care, long-term health care, ophthalmology and dentistry. Recently the private sector has been increasingly used to increase NHS capacity despite a large proportion of the British public opposing such involvement. According to the World Health Organization, government funding covered 86% of overall health care expenditures in the UK as of 2004, with private expenditures covering the remaining 14%.

5. Health insurance in the United States.
The US market-based health care system relies heavily on private and not-for-profit health insurance, which is the primary source of coverage for most Americans. According to the United States Census Bureau, approximately 84% of Americans have health insurance; some 60% obtain it through an employer, while about 9% purchase it directly. Various government agencies provide coverage to about 27% of Americans (there is some overlap in these figures).[25]

Public programs provide the primary source of coverage for most seniors and for low-income children and families who meet certain eligibility requirements. The primary public programs are Medicare, a federal social insurance program for seniors and certain disabled individuals, Medicaid, funded jointly by the federal government and states but administered at the state level, which covers certain very low income children and their families, and SCHIP, also a federal-state partnership that serves certain children and families who do not qualify for Medicaid but who cannot afford private coverage. Other public programs include military health benefits provided through TRICARE and the Veterans Health Administration and benefits provided through the Indian Health Service. Some states have additional programs for low-income individuals.

In 2006, there were 47 million people in the United States (16% of the population) who were without health insurance for at least part of that year. About 37% of the uninsured live in households with an income over $50,000.

In 2004, US health insurers directly employed almost 470,000 people at an average salary of $61,409. (As of the fourth quarter of 2007, the total US labor force stood at 153.6 million, of whom 146.3 million were employed. Employment related to all forms of insurance totaled 2.3 million. Mean annual earnings for full-time civilian workers as of June 2006 were $41,231; median earnings were $33,634.). The insurance industry also represents a significant lobbying group in the US. For the 2007-2008 election cycle insurance was the 8th among industries in political contributions to members of Congress, giving $13,411,561, of which 56% was given to Democrats (lawyers and law firms were number 1, giving $59,205,616, of which 80% went to Democrats). The top recipient of insurance industry contributions was Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT). The leading contributor from the industry industry — as measured by total political contributions — was AFLAC, Inc., which contributed $907,150 in 2007.

Source: Wikipedia.com, the free encyclopedia.