Mark Carolin

The association that sells and manages insurance programs for Kentucky’s 120 counties operates with a “self-serving culture” that has resulted in millions of dollars in questionable spending the past three years, according to a critical report by the state auditor.

State Auditor Crit Luallen today released a special examination of the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo), which found that as KACo’s revenues increased 75 percent from 2003 through 2008 to more than $5.7 million, the level of discretionary spending by the organization also increased dramatically– on parties, adult entertainment, expensive meals, sporting events, some employee retirement benefits, even condo rentals for executives.

KACo, a public, non-profit association primarily funded by public dollars and governed by county officials, offers lobbying and financing services and sells insurance to member counties, which pay insurance premiums and membership dues.

The majority – more than 90 percent– of KACo’s revenue comes from fees paid by the insurance and financial programs administered by KACo staff. The insurance portion of the organization is regulated and audited by the Kentucky Department of Insurance. County membership dues are not a large source of income for KACo, having averaged only about $130,000 each year since 2003.

The state auditor’s report claims that a culture of overspending flourished as board members, management and staff spent funds on lavish dinners, alcohol, sports and entertainment tickets, staff birthday meals, adult entertainment, and fancy Christmas parties. The exam found nearly $2 million charged on agency credit cards over a three-year period, with $1.4 million having inadequate or no supporting documentation, an unclear business purpose or was excessive in nature.

The lack of board oversight included weak internal controls, minimal conflicts of interest and ethics policies, and no whistleblower policy, the audit report says.

The exam reviews KACo’s finances from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2009 and makes 40 findings and more than 150 recommendations to improve board oversight and management operations.

“Our examination provides the leadership of KACo the proper tools to continue to strengthen accountability and to fulfill its responsibilities to the counties and the taxpayers,” Luallen said. “I believe the public expects no less. In this current economic downturn, when our counties are struggling, our citizens have no patience for waste and excess from those who hold their trust and handle their tax dollars.”

Luallen’s office announced its plans to audit both KACo and the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) in July after media reports raised questions about spending at both organizations. Luallen said the KLC audit would be released in the coming weeks.

Luallen said KACo should have found ways to return increases in revenues to its member counties as lower membership dues and insurance premiums or as additional training programs instead of on wasteful spending.

She said the KACo board has taken steps recently as a result of public scrutiny and media reports to begin to achieve greater accountability.  She also said that there were some board members and employees of KACo who resisted excesses evidenced in the exam and who worked effectively, despite the culture that developed.

Luallene said the KACo board has indicated it would move forward with reforms in reponse to her examination.

The audit uncovered $1.4 million in questionable credit card charges that lacked adequate documentation of their business purpose, including:

* KACo paid $219,144 for 77 restaurant charges that each cost more than $1,000. Examples include: an $8,857 meal at Mike Dikta’s Restaurant in Chicago; an $8,161 meal at Z’s Oyster Bar and Steakhouse in Louisville; a $7,237 meal at Sal’s Italian Chophouse in Lexington; and a $7,082 meal at Starker’s Restaurant in Kansas City.

* In 2007 and 2008, the organization spent $48,426 for two board Christmas parties for management, staff and board members. After brief board meetings that were held during the day, these individuals, along with their guests, were driven to Spindletop Hall in Lexington by a tour bus to attend the Christmas parties each year.

* KACo spent $43,000 on alcohol, although auditors believe the amount is significantly higher based on information provided through staff interviews.

* The organization also spent $28,700 in entertainment ticket purchases, including university football and basketball game tickets, and Kentucky Derby tickets, along with other entertainment venues.

* Auditors found a $1,814 credit card charge for 13 tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in 2008. The tickets were for entertainment for five board members, along with spouses and companions, during a bond closing in New York City.

* The organization spent $11,593 on staff birthday lunches, $7,262 on staff Christmas gifts, $3,053 on other board and staff gifts, $8,119 on air travel insurance, $2,385 on conference meals and $890 on adult entertainment.

* Adult entertainment charges included escort services on two occasions and four charges at two different strip clubs. These were charged to KACo credit cards of the former executive director and former board president.

Besides the $1.4 million in undocumented credit card expenses, auditors also found other instances of questionable expenditures by KACo.

According to the exam, KACo offers two retirement benefits for its employees: one in the County Employee Retirement System (CERS) and a 6-percent match in the Kentucky Public Employee Deferred Compensation Authority. Over a three-year period, KACo paid $622,355 for the employee 6-percent retirement match.

Additionally, auditors found that KACo spent $334,300 to pay board members for meetings, $278,154 for legal defense for convicted officials, $247,944 for a sports advertising contract, $83,000 for donations and sponsorships, and $12,600 for use of two condominiums.

Auditors found KACo rented two condominiums: One used by the organization’s product development manager in Frankfort at a cost of $11,000 over a 10-month period and another Frankfort condominium for its former executive director for $1,600 for a two-month period.

The list of expenditures can be viewed at www.auditor.ky.gov.

KACo was founded in 1974 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit  corporation by a group of county officials. Its membership includes all 120 county governments of Kentucky.  It was initially formed to offer educational programs, cooperative undertakings  and issue advocacy but over the years had expanded to provide various products and services including insurance. The KACo insurance units include:

* Commonwealth Insurance Company, Inc (CIC), a for-profit corporation that provides employee dishonesty fidelity bond coverage, business income coverage, and extra expense coverage exclusively to the  members of KALF.

* KACo Insurance Agency, Inc. (KIA), a wholly owned subsidiary of  KACo and a for-profit corporation.  KIA was originally  formed to market the KACo group health plan, but has  expanded in recent years to also market public official  bonds, excess earthquake coverage, and spectators’  liability coverage.

* KACo Worker’s Compensation Fund (KACo WC), an unincorporated association  created by KACo that allows county governments and  other public agencies to pool resources and creates a self-insurance fund for the provision of worker’s compensation  coverage.  In addition, the KACo WC Fund also provides  risk management and loss control training to the counties  and agencies that are members of the fund.

* KACo All Lines Fund (KALF), a group self-insurance pool to  provide liability insurance products, including products  such as auto liability, general liability, property, law enforcement liability, public officials liability,  employment practices, and intentional tort and criminal charges defense. KALF also offers risk management and loss control training.

 

Take Your Own Time

 

A decision taken in a hurry might just backfire on you.  Herein, due cognizance must be taken of the long term-affect of the refinancing option. You might just end up paying more for this mortgage then your original mortgage. So, compare the different rates offered by the lender, look up the pros and cons and then make your decision.

 

The Fixed Rate Loan Vs a Variable Rate Loan

 

Are you saddled with a variable rate loan and your rate of interest is increasing day-by-day? Well, home mortgage refinance will help you switch over to a fixed rate of interest.

 

An adjustable loan rate will help you select protective features like lower cap rates, and cash removal from the home equity.

 

The Annual Percentage and Rate Fees

 

This is the prerequisite consideration of any mortgage plan. Before you sign up for a refinance plan, be very sure about your total projected savings. In effect, the cost of financing your new mortgage, in totality, must be less than the savings you incur as a result of interest.

 

You can cut down on your home mortgage refinance cost by asking for no upfront money and simultaneously going for lower interest rates.

 

The “Safe Margin”

 

The “Safe Margin’ allows you to decide whether you must go for the refinance option or not. If the comparison of the balancing cost of savings against refinancing is more than two percentage points higher than the existing market rate, then you can definitely go for mortgage refinancing.

 

Moreover, you must also be prepared to stay in your home for a sufficient amount of time and harbor no thought of moving out. Typically your savings will be realized in about 3-7 years, dependant on the costs at the time you decide to take out a home mortgage refinance.

 

Loan Comparison

 

Comparison between the original loan and new loan has to be done, keeping the future in mind. You must have a fair idea as to how long you want to keep the new loan. In the end, home mortgage refinance is a good option only if the total cost of the current mortgage is more than the total cost incurred as a result of new mortgage. Meaning, your new mortgage will enable you to save money.

 

Be Wary of the Pre-Payment Penalties

 

You might want to pay off your original mortgage early but be aware of the pre-payment penalties involved in the process. Lenders are liable to charge penalty fees, if you are interested in paying off the first mortgage earlier then the designated time frame. This takes care of their interest, which would have been their due if the loan payment had been carried out through its life.

 

The great part of a home mortgage refinance is that, at times, even if the closing cost of your earlier mortgage are added to the new mortgage, the cost of the new refinance mortgage will still be lower than the original mortgage.

 

As can be seen, there are quite a few things you should keep in mind while taking the path of mortgage refinance. Give due thought to all before you make your decision.

Getting a home mortgage refinance is considered a highly profitable decision by many. However, if not thought through, the decision might end up costing you. Visit LoanWeb below today for the best refinancing services on offer.  

Getting the best out of a home mortgage refinance deal may be a daunting task for you. With a huge rise in the number of potential mortgagors, this fear should be wiped away. You must therefore carry out some meaningful research to achieve a stunning success.

What is the nature of your mortgage?

The nature of your mortgage in relation to home mortgage refinance means the type of collateral and the present and future value of that collateral. A refinance is akin to taking out an entirely new loan. This is an agreement which involves an offer and a qualified acceptance. What do you have to offer? Only your mortgage! Thus, it should be in the best of forms and endeavor to invest in it. An added investment in your mortgage means creating equity in it and raising the actual worth of the collateral. You therefore have to consider it best to apply for a home mortgage refinance to invest in the mortgages.

What is your credit score?

This is the conviction that you want your potential mortgagor to use in order to rely on you. Come up with a good credit record. Show documentary evidence of all that might affect your handling of finances. A home mortgage refinance is similar to managing any other financial matter. If your credits score is negative, there is no need to be bothered about it. There are always possibilities to get you out of the situation if you do the right investigation. A home mortgage refinance deal will therefore be possible if you genuinely present your case to a potential lender. Normally, a current lender would be more positioned to give you the best.

Shop online

Shopping online for home mortgage refinance is the best option to compare free quotes. There are a number of free quotes available online. Get to know these quotes and use them to make a final selection. Also shop comprehensively. What you may consider best may be average to another. If you are adept into a lot of varieties, use a note pad to calculate the choice which gives you the greatest number of points to your advantage. Then decide on this is the final choice for home mortgage refinance.

Lifting the veil

There are a number of hidden costs associated with home mortgage refinance. Examples of such may take account of redemption charges and the agent’s cost in relation to the home mortgage refinance. If you carry out an in-depth research, you may be able to dodge away from some of these costs. This could be done by meeting the lender in person. Keep in mind that there is no legal requirement that mortgagors must disclose this information to you. There are bits and pieces where the law requires you to be handy about.

If you are still in doubts on home mortgage refinance, do not hesitate to visit the link below for more information as we as the expert in this area could give you good advice.

Mortgage is a term used to denote the pledging of a persons property (typically) as a security when a person borrows money from the lenders. In most countries and their jurisdictions, loans secured on real estate are called mortgages. But, there are a few exceptions and few restrictions as well. There might be some jurisdictions in which only a piece of land can be mortgaged. But on the whole, mortgage generally refers to putting up your real estate as security. Thus, it is a secured loan with minimal risks to the lender.

Suppose, you have an old loan and you want to repay it. Well, then you can take a new loan to repay the outstanding debt. This, in essence, is what mortgage refinance is all about. When a person goes for a refinance loan, he/she is actually going for a secured loan. Through this process people replace an existing loan that was secured by the same assets. The most common reason why consumers go for refinancing is home mortgage. Some of the other salient reasons why people tend to go for mortgage refinance are given below:

·Refinancing goes a long way in reducing the cost of interests. Refinancing is generally done at a lower rate as compared to the other loans.

·If a person wants to pay off other debts, the refinance is the mortgage to go for.

·At times, people take a long-term loan and reduce their obligations in terms of periodic payments.

·Mortgage refinance also aids in risk reduction. Sometimes people move from a variable-rate to a fixed rate loan when they choose the refinance option.

·Many a times, people want to liquidate their entire equity, which has assimilated in real property since the time they gained ownership of their house.

Believe it or not, in some types of refinanced mortgages, you have a penalty if you repay the loan early. This can be with respect to a part repayment or the repayment of the entire loan. You are also cautioned, as far the lower interest rates are concerned. Some refinanced mortgages expose the borrower to greater risk than done so by the existing loan.

While picking a mortgage refinance you must calculate the ongoing, up-front, and the potentially variable costs that are all a part of refinancing mortgage. All these points must be considered before making a decision to go for a refinanced mortgage. Refinancing quotes also vary from region to region and depend on your credit history and other aspects like employment, duration of employment, savings history, and number of years at the existing place of residence.

Like all mortgages, mortgage refinance gives a lot of importance to credit reports. But, don’t fret if you have a poor credit history. There are numerous options available in the market today that allow you to pledge your property in order to borrow cash.

By handling these costs wisely, you can make your mortgage refinance tips even more effective and save remarkable sums in your monthly payments.

The structure of your mortgage refinance loan, PMI avoiding and an ability to buy lower interest rates are the ways.

1. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Close Credit Card Accounts.

What credit cards have to do with your mortgage refinance tips? A lot! When you close inactive credit card accounts, you can improve your credit score, which means lower interest loans possibilities to you.

This is wise to do by a letter to the credit card company. In this way you will have a document, if there is a need to handle the issue later on.

As a second step you have to check your credit report after 30 days to make sure, that it includes the comment that your credit card accounts have been closed by Customers Request.

This is important, because this report can be seen by other lenders later on, so they see that you have done the closing and not the company. Remember to correct all the mistakes, which can affect your future possibilities to get a loan.

2. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Avoid Hidden Cost Of PMI.

PMI, private mortgage insurance, can hit you, if you do not do the refinancing right. Why? Around 30 % of the people, who will refinance their home loan take certain part of their home equity as a cash to pay home improvement or paying some other big costs.

By paying off credit cards or improving your home, this can be extremely smart, but if you borrow more than 80 % of the home equity, you must pay PMI, private mortgage insurance, which can be hundreds per every year.

3. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Short Term Loan.

Usually short term mortgage loans offer lower interest rates than the long term ones.This means lighter monthly payments but also shorter payment time. The result is a larger monthly payment, but you can still save thousands later on.

4. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Ask About Fees.

Every mortgage refinance case includes fees, which are costs you do not necessarily remember to ask. They have several fancy names: document prep fees, courier fees, administrative fees etc. And lenders must disclose these costs, fees, within three business days of a mortgage loan application.

Now you can do the following. Request an official list of these fees from every company, you have asked an offer. When you have them all, add the fees to the interest rate of the mortgage loan. You will be surprised, when you notice that the cheapest offer has not the lowest interest rate.

5. Mortgage Refinance Tips, Pay Points.

When you plan to live in your home for many years, you can save money by paying points for lower interest rates. This happens by paying upfront fees by which you guarantee that the interest rates are lower during the rest time of your loan.

Among these loans, some loans satisfy your personal financial needs and some help you to come out of your business financial problems. The loans, that offer you financial help to start a new business or to expand your business are known as loans. These loans can be taken not only to start or expand the business but also to purchase furniture or machinery to improve your business. Compared to the other financial sources that provide money for business purposes, taking a business loan is the best and quick way to run your business without any hassles.

As most of the people are showing interest to take these loans, several companies and banks entered in the loan market of UK to provide loans for all segments of the business people. To help all types of businessmen, the lending companies are offering two types of business loans such as secured and unsecured. Secured loans can be availed by the people, who are ready to submit their own property as a security against loan. On the other hand, unsecured loans for business can be taken by anyone, without providing any such type of their properties as security for taking loan. These loans can be availed by even the bad credit business people.

To survive in the competitive and challenging UK’s loan market, most of the banks and money lending companies have stared offering cheap business loans. So, the persons, who want to take a loan for their business are no need to bother about high amount of interest rates. To avail a business loan, you have to mention the purpose of taking loan,while filling the application and should submit some of the required documents. Depending on your needs and repayment capacity, the lenders will sanction you the loan amount.

If anyone is looking to get a loan for his business needs in a fastest way, he can go for the online business loans. With the advent of the Internet, all most all the banks and money lending institutions have started providing loans via online. To avail these loans, no need to face any risk. Just by filling the application form of a particular lender online, you can get loan with in short time. Moreover, you can view the up-to-date information regarding your loan over the Internet, without visiting your lender several times. If you are the eligible person to take loan, they will sanction you loan.

Online business loans offer flexible repayment modes and are available at low interest rates. Without taking the assistance of loan executives, you can understand the terms and conditions of these loans. They save your valuable time.

Hence, availing business loans is now become easy and quick. But, the people, who want to take these loans should study the condition of the present day loan market of UK, before going to take a loan. Comparing the interest rates and repayment modes is also help you to take loan from a good lender.

With the economy continuing to struggle along, housing at all times lows, interest rates (adjustables) on the rise, and personal debt exploding, how can someone get out of debt? Consider a debt settlemnet/debt negotiation company. We endorse CuraDebt.

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Debt settlement and debt negotiation provide you with a shorter term and greater debt reduction than consumer credit counseling plans in addition to providing you with a bankruptcy alternative. Using debt settlement or debt negotiation has a better long-term outcome than filing bankruptcy.

Debt negotiation and debt settlement are being used by thousands of people like you to honorably pay back an agreed-to, reduced amount to creditors, often with reductions from 50-89%.

If you have credit card, personal loans, or any type of business debts, you stand an excellent chance of saving a lot of money and having peace of mind that you have a solution in place. Give CuraDebt a try.

The rose tinted view of financial data continues to drive the markets as more and more reasons are found to speculate on shares even as the driving impetus of the actual economy seems to be stuttering once again.

As far as I can see, much of the data over the past months has been rather less cut and dried in favour of a recovery than the headlines appear to have suggested.

For all of the economists’ readings of the tea-leaves much of their conclusions have been drawn from surveys rather than core data.

Gordon Brown’s duplicitous talk about the UK economy being in a better position than any other to withstand a global downturn has now been shown to be, well, simply untrue.

While the final numbers for the Public Sector debt for 2009/10 may well be less than the finger-in-the-air number of £175bn, the poor attempts by both political parties, so far, to really address the critical issue of too much state expenditure seem like Nero fiddling whilst Rome burns.

The issue may be one of increasing tax revenue but as everyone knows increasing the tax burden is an operation of diminishing returns. Unfortunately, the sacred cows of public sector spending will have to take the strain to an increasing degree.

I am less than convinced about the inflation data that we are now getting. In the past, the crying of the press over the numbers being too low has been unfounded in the face of the overall data.

I am now seeing across the board increases in food, toys, clothing, newspapers and fuel that appear to be at odds with the current near 2% level.

Many of these items rely on imported goods to stock the shelves and, with marginal growth in the rest of the globe coming through to take up excess capacity, foreign exporters seem to be less inclined to ‘cut a deal’ with UK buyers to soak up the sterling weakness.

The weak pound will not be helping with the pressure on retailers. Although, as a side issue, I have been enjoying the odd spread bet on the forex markets, particularly when trading the soft UK currency.

While the press is full of ‘winter of discontent’ warnings for the Government, this pressure is likely to come solely from the public sector side of the equation.

The private sector is well aware that business is not good and the rising tide of the dole queue is not something that they can do a King Canute in front of.

As such, the current administration might be in a good position to appear-to-be-strong. The impact on the economy of state employees removing their services has less of an impact on the actual GDP or Tax revenue.

Many auto insurance companies consider your credit and personal information when determining the amount of premium paid by your insurance. So if you call back on car insurance, keep in mind that many insurers are looking at your credit history to determine your automobile insurance rates. I hope that we will be able to tell why and how.

The reason why some insurance companies use credit information, because I believe that there is a direct correlation between the consumption of credit history behaviors and expected claims that occur in the month of May Accordingly, they believe that people with a performance better credit are less likely to severe insurance losses.

Many insurance companies still use your age, driving, the type of vehicle if you live to determine what you should pay for your insurance. So, if you do not have a credit history yet, companies that use credit history in the month of May is not the best for you. May they not allow you to qualify for certain discounts, which could lead to an increase in premiums. Companies that use credit scoring will continue to use other factors to determine the premium.

They can also use your age, driving, the type of vehicle if you live to determine what you should pay for your insurance. It ‘just an insurance company, and also look at my credit information without my permission? The answer is yes. The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act says “reasonable procedures. And ‘the purpose of this title to require that consumer organizations adopt reasonable procedures to meet the needs of commerce for consumer credit, personnel, insurance, and other information in a way that is fair and equitable to the consumer, with regard to the confidentiality, accuracy, relevance and proper use of such information in accordance with the provisions of this title.

If you think your credit history is much better to find the insurer, make sure that the insurer has your name, address, social security number, and date of birth. Some insurance companies will be directly to your credit report, in setting tariffs, but most use what is called “credit insurance.” Credit insurance has been developed using statistical techniques and methods to predict the probability that a consumer will have higher losses than expected. These are similar to that used by lenders to predict the reliability of the applicant to repay a loan.

http://www.carinsuranceezine.com/

Hi ,

A Colorado mortgage refinance loan is often a good choice that can allow you to meet a variety of needs. With a mortgage refinance loan you can reduce your monthly payments by reducing interest rates or extending the mortgage term. With a Colorado mortgage refinance loan you can convert from an adjustable-rate to a fixed-rate loan or to other loan products. Another popular benefits with a mortgage refinance loan, many free up cash for major expenses or to consolidate high interest debt. Colorado Mortgage refinancing refers to applying for a secured loan intended to replace an existing loan secured by the same assets. Get a Colorado Mortgage Refinance Loan Now . The most common refinancing is for a home mortgage refinancing. Certain types of loans contain penalty clauses triggered by an early payment of the loan, either in its entirety or a specified portion. If you’re only going to be in your home for a few more years, it may make sense not to refinance out of your ARM. If you’re going to be in your home longer than seven years, it might be a smart move to refinance to a fixed-rate mortgage.

The mortgage rates in the country are almost at their lowest ever, so don’t feel cheated on being locked into your present high interest mortgage scheme. With a Colorado mortgage refinance, you now have the chance of refinancing your present mortgage plan to take advantage of the falling interest rates. For More Information on Colorado Mortgage Refinance Loans For instance, if you have a 15-year mortgage, you can lengthen the term to 30 years. Since the balance of your mortgage is spread out over a longer period of time, your payment is lower. However, if you have a 30-year mortgage and one of your financial goals is long-term savings, you may want to consider shortening your term to 20 or even 15 years. With the advantage of the Colorado mortgage refinance loan, you can save thousands of dollars now and during the entire course of your loan period. Also, some refinanced loans, while having lower initial payments, may result in larger total interest costs over the life of the loan, or expose the borrower to greater risks than the existing loan. Calculating the up-front, ongoing, and potentially variable costs of refinancing is an important part of the decision on whether or not to refinance such as raising property tax after refinancing which varied by regions.

Request your competitive refinance quotes today with no cost and no obligation. From perfect to poor credit. When you refinance your mortgage, you usually pay off your original mortgage and sign a new loan. With a new loan, you again pay most of the same costs you paid to get your original mortgage. Traditionally, the decision on whether or not to refinance has meant balancing the savings of a lower monthly payment against the costs of refinancing. But in recent years, companies have introduced “no cost” and low cost refinancing packages that minimize or completely eliminate the out-of-pocket expenses of refinancing.

Compare free no obligation Colorado Mortgage Refinance

loan quotes from multiple Colorado lenders. Try to find you the best Colorado mortgage refinance loan rates available, even with less than perfect credit.