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Recent research has shown that renting a property during retirement costs nearly four times as much as owning your own home.

It costs an average of £11,500 a year to pay for rent, ground rent, service charges and utility bills, whereas the homeowner only spends an average of £3,020 per year to maintain their property.

The insurance company Friends Provident have stated that if a person who owned their own home started saving into a pension at the age of 23, they would need to allocate £40 a month to cover the cost of housing in retirement. But, a person who was going to be renting a home at retirement age would need to save as much as £150 per month.

The figure is even more staggering if our two people don’t start saving into a pension until age 43.  The homeowner would have to save £115 per month while the tenant would have to save £450 a month.

Jeremy Ward, the head of pensions marketing at Friends Provident said: “Renting a property can be a difficult cycle to break out of due to the initial money and deposit needed to purchase a house.”

Britain’s most expensive tree is in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, London and has been valued at £750,000.  This valuation is based on a new system called, capital asset value for amenity trees (Cavat) and it has been introduced to try to stop trees being needlessly cut down for insurance subsidence claims.

In the past 5 years in London alone, 40,000 trees have been thoughtlessly cut down, necessitating the implementation of this system.  It is hoped that it will prevent trees being chopped down if they are suspected of causing damage to buildings, as it will cost the insurance companies a prohibitive amount of compensation for the loss of the trees. 

In future extensive engineering tests must be undertaken to ascertain the trees guilt.  The cause is often due to a building fault, drainage or shrinkage of clay-base due to extremes of weather but it would appear that it has been easier in the past to blame the trees.

According to new research one in ten couples are having to re-think their wedding plans because of the effect of the credit crunch.

Approximately one third of the couples interviewed are scaling down on their spending and roughly 43% have vowed to keep their wedding budget to £5,000, compared to the average cost of a wedding in 2007 of £20,000.

The most important aspects for the Wedding Day are considered to be the bridal dress and the honeymoon. Insurance cover is also a necessity but a free bar for the guests is not such a priority.

According to recently released figures, council tax bills have risen by more than £4000 over the past decade for the average English families, which is more than double the increase for Scottish families.

Southern England is also worst hit than Northern England with Devon families enduring a rise of more than £5000 during the last 10 years compared with less than £1,500 in Liverpool.

As well as being a wonderful playground, the sea can be a dangerous place so with all the marine craft currently being launched ready to enjoy Spring and Summer, it is a good time to make sure you review your insurance for yourself and your craft and check that you have adequate cover.

The Leisure Craft Safety Digest 2008 has just been published by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch so if you are concerned with safety at sea, as all responsible recreational sailors should be, it is a good read and should encourage you to check the terms and conditions of both your life insurance and marine insurance.

Insurance Companies have now agreed to restore full cover to anyone travelling from Heathrow’s terminal 5.  Six of the leading insurance companies had suspended cover until the chaos involving lost luggage and delayed flights at Heathrow airport had been resolved.

British Airways have made assurances that normal service has been resumed and BAA the airport operator confirms that Terminal 5 is finally operating at an acceptable standard.

A study by the Harvard Medical School has found a link between migraines and strokes/heart attacks which could lead to a more intense monitoring of migraine sufferers.  This in turn could see more use of preventative treatment to try to reduce the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

There are roughly 9 million people who suffer with migraines and about 80% of those endure an attack at least once a month.  These sufferers are one and a half times more likely to go on to have a stroke or heart attack than those who do not.

The unfortunate people who have a migraine once a week are three times more likely to have a stroke or heart attack according to the study.

In terms of  ‘quality of life’ migraines are listed by the World Health Organisation as one of the top 20 most debilitating conditions.

Migraine symptoms usually include a strong aversion to light, noise, sound and smell and can also include pins and needles and vomiting.  Attacks can last up to 3 days at a time.

Two women aged 77 and 75 convicted of the murder of elderly men by staging hit and run killings disguised to look like accidents, and then claiming the life insurance, are to avoid the death penalty.

It was decided not to apply the death penalty as both women will probably die in prison before their appeals are concluded.

The two ’Black Widow’ murderesses befriended homeless men mainly in Hollywood, set them up in apartments, drugged them and then arranged to have them run down in car accidents.

The two women took out 23 separate life insurance policies on one of the victims.

Following a fire in an oil refinery in Finland which has pushed fuel costs even higher, pump prices are set to hit record levels.  The AA said the £5 gallon is now in sight.

Motorists are currently paying 108.20p a litre for petrol and an average of 117.68p for diesel.  The cost of filling the tank of a Vauxhall Astra a year ago was £36.41 and it is now £54.10.

A rise of 2p a litre in duty was proposed by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, to come into effect in April. However in the Budget he bowed to pressure and it has been deferred until October.

The AA’s president Edmund King said: “We will be sending the Chancellor a clear message to abandon his proposed 2p per litre increase in October.  Families are having to reduce high street spending and businesses, low-income and rural drivers are becoming more vocal about the impact of high fuel prices.” 

A large increase in the number of senior citizens who are hiring cars while taking holidays abroad has increased so much that it has triggered a need for excess protection on low-cost car rental for the over 75s.

Apparently growing numbers of older travellers are driving as part of their holiday and are looking for car-hire companies that do not discriminate against them because of their age.

There is however a punitive daily levy for excess protection policies charged by the car-hire companies which could make some drivers decide it really isn’t worth the extra cost.