Month: September 2015
The Perks of Hiring a Construction Consultant
Written by: Lyle Charles
Construction claims are known to be complicated. Not only that but when you involve the legal system and skip the settlement process, things can only get more stressful. Construction consulting services help relieve the stress and pressure that is placed on you when dealing with a claim. Here are some common reasons why you should hire an expert.
When lawyers handle the claim, it’s most likely going to be littered with verbiage that can be hard to grasp. Many times you will see a lawyer write claims that only other lawyers with experience would understand. This essentially keeps you out of the loop and can lead to misjudging the gravity of the situation. A simple mistake can cost you time and money. Construction consultants guide you through the claim and help you understand the ins and outs of it.
The standards of the construction industry change due to the fast-paced business environment surrounding it. Don’t get left behind and make the wrong decisions. Claims consultants will help suggest the right courses of action to make for each type of claim.
Negotiations are vital in a successful claim. There are times where the claim won’t even make to court saving you the stress of stalling a project. The best resolution will come from the best negotiations.
A deep analysis of your case is also recommended to understand the needs and volatility of the claim. Seeking out construction consulting will give you peace of mind as you won’t have to make decisions that could affect the outcome by yourself.
3 Ways to Protect Your Finances For Retirement
If you want to live comfortably during retirement, it takes wise choices, a frugal attitude and hard work to get there.
Yet there’s a danger: there’s a tendency to be vulnerable to scams, poor judgment or advisers when you reach retirement age too.
In fact, according to Allianz, fraud victims at the age of 65 and above lost an average of $30,000 every year. Of course, one in 10 lost more than $100,000.
Here are 3 ways to protect your finances while ensuring this doesn’t happen:
1: Keep Investments Simple
If you have a number of 401(k)s or IRAs, consolidate them so that you can monitor them easily. Another option would be to replace stocks and bonds with mutual funds or exchange-traded funds that will need little or no attention. Better still, keep only two credit cards – one for daily use and the other for automatic payments.
2: Have a Backup
If you have a backup person, you’ll be able to spot missteps or bad advice sooner rather than later. Set up alerts with financial institutions so as to keep you abreast of unusually large transfers. You can use an app such as Mint to see daily activity. Of course, if you cognitive issues, then give your financial advisers and doctors the permission to contact your backup.
3: Create an Investment Policy Statement
Doing this will help you to keep your finances on track. This statement should contain information such as how you will preserve capital, what kind of securities you will hold and how much of your portfolio will be allocated to safe and risky assets. One big benefit from this document is that it will help you resist sales pitches that will make you stray away from the investment strategy.
Key Aspects to Financial Technology
Financial technology is a relatively new field, but the market has grown substantially since 2008. The market is so big, in fact, that nearly 40% of the workforce in London is employed with a fintech firm of some form. Here are some of the key aspects of that industry that have allowed for that exponential growth.
Agility
One of the major problems banks have is that they are often too large to handle the smaller transactions that a growing majority of the population needs. Short term loans are a good example. It would cost a bank too much to underwrite a short term loan, especially if they had to deal with thousands or hundreds of thousands. Startups that are equipped to serve P2P lending are better able to service that underbanked portion of the population.
Data
Data fuels much of this growth, especially as we gather more data about the savings habits of people at various income levels. Banks need this data to improve their services, and companies are developing with the sole purpose of crunching this data.
Regulation
Regulation will also come into play at some point, and, to a certain extent, has already become a factor. One big example has to do with how much cash banks need to keep on hand. New requirements outlined in Dodd Frank have made it harder for banks to lend. That’s created opportunity for startups, but that same legislation can also hamper innovation depending on how it’s used.
Bio: Firoz Patel is the former CEO of AlertPay Inc., and successfully brokered its acquisition by the UK-based MH Pillars. Read an article about Payza here to learn more.