Lauren Ford, Actuarial Assistant, Allstate Insurance
Lauren Ford, 24, is an actuarial assistant with Encompass Analytics, an Allstate Insurance subsidiary in Northbrook, Ils., that sells several insurance products for a single premium to consumers. She holds a bachelor�� degree in actuarial science and accounting and has worked at Allstate for two years. Before joining the company full time, she worked as an intern for Allstate for two summers. She is currently a pricing actuary for property and casualty insurance.
��ricing actuaries estimate future losses and expenses so that we can charge an adequate price for insurance,��says Ford. Actuaries tend to work for a specific area within the company, such as personal lines (auto and homeowners), specialty lines (boat, motorcycle, etc.) or business insurance. Ford works on personal lines.
Top 5 Financial Companies To Watch In Right Now: First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Index Fund (GRID)
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Advisors' Opinion:- [By Selena Maranjian]
Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you'd like to add some smart grid stocks to your portfolio, but don't have the time or expertise to hand-pick a few, the First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ: GRID ) could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which companies will perform best, you can use this ETF to invest in lots of smart grid stocks simultaneously.
The basics
ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. The First Trust ETF's expense ratio -- its annual fee -- is 0.70%, which is a bit more than many ETFs, but still considerably lower than a typical stock mutual fund. The fund is fairly small, too, so if you're thinking of buying, beware of possibly large spreads between its bid and ask prices. Consider using a limit order if you want to buy in.
Top 5 Financial Companies To Watch In Right Now: 49 North Resource Fund Inc. (FNR.V)
49 North Resources Inc., through Limited Partnership intends to invest in a portfolio of flow-through shares of resource issuers, who engage in mineral, or oil and gas exploration and development in Canada. It focuses on resource issuers with exploration programs in Saskatchewan. 49 North Resource Fund, Inc. serves as the general partner of the partnership. 49 North Resources Inc. was formed in 2005 and is headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada.
10 Best Casino Stocks To Buy For 2014: SAGICOR FINANCIAL CORP COM NPV(SFI.L)
Sagicor Financial Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of financial products and services in the Caribbean, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its Life Inc segment offers life and health insurance, retirement accumulation savings, annuities, mortgages, and pension investment and pension administration services in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, the Eastern and Dutch Caribbean Islands, Belize, and Panama. The company?s Life Jamaica segment conducts insurance business under the Sagicor brand, and banking and other financial services under the PanCaribbean Financial Services brand in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. This segment?s principal products and services include life insurance, critical illness and health insurance, annuities, pension administration, investment management, securities dealing, and commercial banking. Its Europe segment offers property and casualty insurance products principally consisting of personal accident, property, liability, and motor vehicle policies primarily in the United Kingdom. The company?s USA segment provides single premium life insurance and annuity products in the United States. Sagicor Financial Corporation also involves in loan and lease financing, deposit taking, farming and real estate development, mutual fund, property and casualty reinsurance, and insurance agency businesses. The company was founded in 1840 and is based in St. Michael, Barbados.
Top 5 Financial Companies To Watch In Right Now: Ellington Financial LLC (EFC)
Ellington Financial LLC (EFC) is a specialty finance company, which specializes in acquiring and managing mortgage-related assets. As of December 31, 2011, its targeted assets included residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), backed by prime jumbo, Alternative A-paper (Alt-A), manufactured housing and subprime residential mortgage loans (non-Agency RMBS); RMBS for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a United States Government agency or a United States Government-sponsored entity (Agency RMBS); mortgage-related derivatives; commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), commercial mortgage loans and other commercial real estate debt, and corporate debt and equity securities and derivatives. It also acquires and manages other types of mortgage-related assets and financial assets, such as residential whole mortgage loans, asset-backed securities (ABS), backed by consumer and commercial assets, non-mortgage-related derivatives and real property.
Non-Agency RMBS
The Company acquires non-Agency RMBS backed by prime jumbo, Alt-A, manufactured housing and subprime residential mortgage loans. Its non-Agency RMBS holdings include investment-grade and non-investment grade classes. Non-Agency RMBS are debt obligations issued by private originators of or investors in residential mortgage loans. Non-Agency RMBS are issued as CMOs and are backed by pools of whole mortgage loans or by mortgage pass-through certificates. Non-Agency RMBS are securitized in senior/subordinated structures, or in excess spread/over-collateralization structures. In senior/subordinated structures, the subordinated tranches absorb all losses on the underlying mortgage loans before any losses are borne by the senior tranches.
Agency RMBS
The Company�� assets in this asset class consist of whole pool pass-through certificates, the principal and interest of which are guaranteed by Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Cor! poration (Freddie Mac), or Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), and which are backed by adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs), hybrid ARMs or fixed-rate mortgages. Mortgage pass-through certificates are securities representing undivided interests in pools of mortgage loans secured by real property where payments of both interest and principal, plus pre-paid principal, on the securities are made monthly to holders of the security, in effect passing through monthly payments made by the individual borrowers on the mortgage loans that underlie the securities, net of fees paid to the issuer/guarantor and servicers of the securities. Whole pool pass-through certificates are mortgage pass-through certificates that represent the entire ownership of a pool of mortgage loans.
In addition to investing in specific pools of Agency RMBS, the Company utilizes forward-settling purchases and sales of Agency RMBS where the underlying pools of mortgage loans are to be announced mortgage-backed securities (MBS) (TBAs). Pursuant to these TBA transactions, it agrees to purchase or sell, for future delivery, Agency RMBS with certain principal and interest terms and certain types of underlying collateral. It uses TBAs for hedging purposes. It engages in TBA transactions for purposes of managing certain risks associated with its long Agency RMBS and its non-Agency RMBS.
Mortgage-Related Derivatives
The Company takes long and short positions in various mortgage-related derivative instruments, including credit default swaps. A credit default swap is a credit derivative contract in which one party (the protection buyer) pays an ongoing periodic premium (and often an upfront payment as well) to another party (the protection seller) in return for compensation for default (or similar credit event) by a reference entity. In this case, the reference entity can be an individual MBS or an index of several MBS, such as an ABX Index, PrimeX or a CMBX Index.
CMBS
CMBS ar! e mortgage-backed securities collateralized by loans on commercial properties. CMBS issued are fixed rate securities backed by fixed rate loans made to multiple borrowers on a range of property types, though single-borrower CMBS and floating-rate CMBS have also been issued. Commercial mortgage loans are loans secured by liens on commercial properties, including retail, office, industrial, hotel and multifamily properties. Commercial real estate loans may also be structured into more complicated senior/subordinate structures, including those providing for multiple B-Note or multiple mezzanine loan senior/subordinate components.Corporate Debt and Equity Securities and Derivatives
For hedging purposes, the Company takes short positions in corporate debt and equity (including indices on corporate debt and equity) by entering into derivative contracts, such as credit default swaps, total return swaps and options. These hedges reference corporations (such as financial institutions that have substantial mortgage-related exposure) or indices whose performance has a degree of correlation with the performance of its portfolio. Given this correlation, a short position with respect to such corporations or indices provides a hedge to its portfolio of MBS as a whole.
Other Assets
The Company from time to time acquires other mortgage-related and financial assets, which include residential whole mortgage loans, ABS backed by consumer and commercial assets and real property. It also acquires real property interests, such as single family and multifamily residential properties.
Top 5 Financial Companies To Watch In Right Now: Investors Title Company(ITIC)
Investors Title Company, through its subsidiaries, provides title insurance to residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial properties. It underwrites land title insurance for owners and mortgagees as a primary insurer; and offers the reinsurance of title insurance risks to other title insurance companies. The company also provides tax-deferred real property exchange services, as well as serves as an exchange accommodation titleholder and holds property for exchangers in reverse exchange transactions; offers investment management and trust services to individuals, companies, banks, and trusts; and provides consulting services to title insurance agencies. Investors Title Company serves various customers in the residential and commercial market sectors of the real estate industry. It issues title insurance policies primarily through approved attorneys from underwriting offices, as well as through independent issuing agents in 24 states and the District of Columbia, the United States. The company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By CRWE]
Investors Title Company (NASDAQ:ITIC), reported its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012. Net income increased 110.0% to $3,349,488, or $1.57 per diluted share, compared with $1,594,805, or $0.74 per diluted share, for the prior year quarter.
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