Search results

We've all of us suffered from the so‐called computer error — the ever‐repeating bill flopping through the letterbox, or the more serious print‐out failure holding up a giro cheque. However, these could be considered minor irritations compared to a complete systems failure, particularly if it's your firm's computer that has packed up. Insurance cover against such breakdown is particular and detailed. John Vann examines one major insurer's computer policy; outlines a tailor‐made policy for small computer systems; and points to one company that even covers computer fraud.

Smash and grab is decidedly unsophisticated when opportunities for computer crime are so great. It's also very popular, costing British industry and commerce anything between £500m and £2,500m a year. But there are ways it can be fought. John Vann reports.

When most people change jobs they do so for a higher salary, a greater challenge, increased prospects. What happens to their pension comes very near the bottom of things to be considered. But in many cases, unless you are employed in the public sector, a change of job could have adverse affects on your pension rights. A questionnaire drawn up by the Occupational Pensions Board and sent to various organisations, revealed a wide response to ways of avoiding pension loss as a result of job change. John Vann gives details of the questionnaire results and describes the tortuous pension‐path awaiting those who change their jobs, and advises everyone to delve into their pension position very carefully indeed.

John Vann outlines an insurance scheme which has come about in response to the financial penalties — and demands on management time — which a company is likely to incur if it gets involved with unfair dismissal action.

With new laws on retirement benefits now less than five months away, pensions expert John Vann outlines three ways of running a private company scheme.

John Vann examines an insurance scheme especially designed for industrial estate tenants, and explains how policyholders can plan their cover to meet the risk of under‐insurance.

Since the end of the United States’ Vietnam War and Indochina’s second war, little scholarly attention has been paid to a war that has so greatly affected the American public’s attitude towards politics, and their views towards their country’s management of foreign policy. Now that the USA has lifted trade embargos, and has normalized relations with Vietnam, many higher education institutions are offering additional courses about the Vietnam War. There are many perspectives of the war – civilian, military, political, French, North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, and American – that need to be identified and acknowledged to fully understand and explain the involvement of the USA in Vietnam. This selective, annotated bibliography of print sources and Web sites is meant to provide guidance to academic libraries desiring to build a collection of resources.

Employers like to feel that their staff are loyal and trustworthy and may therefore overlook the need for insurance against loss incurred through employees' fraud. In the past such practice could be put down mostly to individuals, but these days what the author describes as “the criminal element” is moving in. Fidelity insurance, described here, is one way for the employer to combat such theft.

The 1975 Social Security Pensions Act introduces fundamental changes in the scope and pattern of State pensions, and provides the main framework for the development of occupational schemes for some time to come. The arguments for and against contracting‐out are complex, but employers must give thought to this now.

As alternative to the final salary pension scheme, money purchase pension schemes are coming more into prominence now. Our contributor outlines the pros and cons of such schemes: they are simple and straightforward, and retirement benefits are produced which are directly linked to the contributions paid by each individual employee and by the employer. But they are unlikely to provide the best benefits at retirement for those who stay with an employer. At the moment more than 25 insurance companies are offering money purchase pension contracts; in this article some of these are examined in detail.