April 16, 2012 is the Fifth Annual National Healthcare Decisions Day. A day created by a coalition of health providers and insurers to remind the public about the critical importance of having advance healthcare planning.

If you do not have any form of advance directive telling your friends and loved ones how to make medical care decisions, you risk losing control of those decisions. "42% of Americans have had a friend or relative suffer from a terminal illness or coma in the last five years and for a majority of these people and 23% of the general public, the issue of withholding life sustaining treatment came up." We do not like to think about disaster, but planning can ease the burden on us and our family.

Advanced planning is important for business continuity as well. If you are a key person in the business and suddenly taken away, have you provided direction as to how to run the business or make decisions.

Good estate planning attorneys are not going to charge you extra for an advanced directive and/or living will as a part of the estate planning process. This is because the legally acceptable forms are free in order to encourage the public to plan ahead. The forms are free and encourage a frank and open discussion with your medical professionals and family about how you want to be cared for in the event of a serious illness or injury.

There is no excuse, download your state appropriate form, talk to your family and plan ahead.

The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) is a great source of information for companies looking to control risk and control business insurance premium costs. The RIMS professional library is a terific way to learn risk and insurance management.

The Society frequently sends me e-mails about product offerings and I do not receive any compensation from RIMS. I mention their publications because I know they are well written and practical.

Workers' compensation is complicated. It is also mandatory. It is also one area of business insurance where proper preparation and implementation of good company policies can significantly reduce premiums. Often very simple bookkeeping or hiring changes can save 15-20% of premium dollars.

RIMS is offering a 2012 publication entitled Workers Compensation Management Program - Reduce Costs 20% to 50% at its store. "The book guides the user through each aspect of a workers' compensation program, to learn, step-by-step about a variety of techniques that show organizations exactly how to reduce workers compensation costs." If your company has a large workers' compensation premium and doesn't have a good handle on controling costs, this might be a resource for you.

There is this agricultural board in the U.K. called BPEX(British Pig Executive) and it "represents pig levy payers in England. BPEX is focused on enhancing the competitiveness, efficiency and profitability for English pig levy payers and driving demand for English pork and pig meat products in Britain and globally."

Yeah, I'm not sure I understand all that either.

I probably would have little interaction with BPEX as I live in Ohio and my "bangers" come from Ohio. Our state is typically in the top ten in pork production (Iowa beats us every year). But, there are a number of news reports talking about the butcher with the Board whose taste buds are so valuable to them that they have taken out a $1.5 million insurance policy on his taste buds. Yes, when it comes to business insurance you can insure anything of value.

According to the BPEX "who's who," Mr. Keith Fisher is the Butchery Development Manager. He is a master butcher with a lifetime of honed taste buds. In a newspaper interview, Tina Mulholland of BPEX stated, "As a grandmaster butcher and the resident baconologist and head judge for Bacon Connoisseurs' Week, Keith's vast experience makes him the ideal person to lead the judging panel of tasters. As part of his role as head judge he and the rest of the panellists had to taste over 200 different cuts and cures of premium bacon for this year's award. As such, it was imperative that we protect his prize assets for the campaign."

In honor of Spring, I posted an article about insuring a flower shop.

Whether you own a flower shop or if you yearn to own a flower shop when it starts getting nice outside, always consider the proper business insurance for your business.