Guarantees

IF YOU haven't shopped around for cheaper life insurance coverage lately, do it now. Not only have term rates dropped dramatically, you can also lock in your rate for 20 or 30 years. This may be the last year that price guarantees will be offered for so long a period of time.Starting next year, the term-insurance market is going to change in many states, due to a change in regulations. Policies with long-term price guarantees are probably going to cost you more.You'll still have access to cheap term insurance, but its price will probably be fixed only for five or 10 years.

Let's talk turkey. It's the season.Everyone wants their family vacation to be a rip-roaring success, the best time they've ever had with their kids. It's costing enough, after all. But like Thanksgiving family gatherings, the trip, no matter how well-planned or how expensive, probably isn't going to be one Kodak moment after another. Real life is never that perfect, especially with kids. It wouldn't be nearly so interesting if it were.No one, though, wants to return home feeling they've wasted their time and money on a vacation gone wrong: rain when they expected sun, squabbling kids when they counted on togetherness.

Several Caribbean resorts are compensating guests when hurricanes occur during their vacations. Last year, Superclubs resorts began reimbursing guests for the cost of any day disrupted by a hurricane. A voucher for the number of disrupted days is also awarded for a future stay during the same month the next year. This offer does not include air fare.In addition, Superclubs guarantees sunshine at all its resorts in Jamaica. If the sun does not shine any day during a stay at a Superclubs resort in Jamaica, the guest receives a voucher for a day's stay within the next year.

Biosys Inc., a Columbia-based company that makes natural pesticides and has benefited from millions in state loan guarantees, has sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a result of unexpected, mounting losses in its second quarter.Edwin C. Quattlebaum, the publicly held company's president and chief executive officer, said poor second-quarter financial results and the recent collapse of the company's stock price had magnified Biosys' cash-flow problems to the point the company had to seek protection from its creditors late Friday.

What is the country coming to, when a hung jury means re-election?Congress guarantees that people out of work may buy health insurance, but does not say with what.Testaverde is not yet a household name in Bawlmer. Report back in a month.The Games were neat. They ought to hold them every year.Pub Date: 8/05/96

COLUMBUS CENTER at the Inner Harbor may well be Baltimore's "mystery project," as its president, Stanley Heuisler, puts it. The architecturally striking $160 million edifice was built on budget and according to the original timetable. Some 125 scientists are working inside. But a $7 million shortfall now threatens to postpone the opening of its Disney-designed interactive exhibits indefinitely.This cannot be permitted to happen. If Columbus Center's exhibits fail to open, that would cast a pall on a major redevelopment area that already has a troubled history.

Independent auditors have found that more than $10 million in economic development loans guaranteed by the state bear a high risk of default, and that in several cases Maryland's development-loan board wasn't given critical information about the deals before it approved them.All three of the loans in question were backed by the Schaefer administration in the early 1990s. None of the three borrowers, which include two biotechnology companies, has missed loan payments.But the risk of default is high enough that the Maryland Industrial Financing Authority's accountants have advised it to set aside enough cash to pay back all three loan guarantees.

AT&T Corp. announced plans yesterday to make it easier for its customers to buy and sell products over the Internet, including promotional offers for consumers who use AT&T for both Internet shopping and long-distance service, in yet another sign of the convergence of the ways once-separate methods of communication are packaged and sold."

The export finance program run by Maryland's economic development agency has been picked to participate in a pilot project in which financing risks are shared by the state, commercial lenders and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.The Ex-Im Bank will match loan guarantees made by the state for Maryland companies that need financing to export their products.Initially, $10 million in total financing will be available. On any given deal, the state will insure 45 percent of the loan; the Ex-Im Bank will insure another 45 percent; and a commercial bank will assume a 10 percent risk.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton cranked up a major lobbying effort yesterday to rescue Mexico's currency as financial and stock markets reeled over predictions that his $40 billion loan-guarantee package was doomed on Capitol Hill."

We have a problem. "I have an annuity purchased for me by an investment broker at my bank," a reader wrote. "I'm having difficulty understanding what this is. He has since left the bank and his successor isn't much help. The money is tied up for four years with a 9 percent early withdrawal penalty." From another reader: "My husband and I are being pressured to buy a variable annuity. I was told we'd never lose our principal, but I am really scared. We have to do this in about two weeks."

Millions of American families with subprime mortgages - including one out of 26 Maryland homeowners - face an increasing likelihood of losing their homes to foreclosure over the next two years because of the Bush administration's opposition to legislation that it wrongly views as a bailout of irresponsible borrowers. The bill would allow the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee up to $300 billion in affordable mortgages for troubled homeowners; it's overdue relief. Members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, should recognize the social and economic dangers of failing to help these homeowners and pass this bill with veto-proof majorities.

Itching to catch a Ravens game without a season pass? Don't let the purple haze cloud your judgment while trying to score tickets, the Better Business Bureau warns. Person-to-person sales on online auction, classified and bulletin board sites are most vulnerable to scammers. Put your noggin to work before pumping your dough into the secondary ticket market, a $10 billion-a-year industry. The Dos and Don'ts: Do use legitimate, certified sites that include money-back guarantees. Do buy from sellers with long, solid reputations.

Good morning --Rasheed Wallace -- Now that you've advanced, could you leave the guarantees behind?

It is by far the most common consumer complaint to the federal government about the home-buying process: Uncertainty about the bottom-line costs of obtaining and closing the mortgage. Unlike other major purchases, most homebuyers cannot be absolutely sure what fees they'll be expected to pay at settlement to their lender, title insurance company and other service providers connected with the transaction. Though buyers routinely receive "good-faith estimates" of their expenses, there's a gaping hole in the law that allows those costs to balloon - sometimes sharply - between the time they are made and final settlement.

THEY SAY there are no guarantees in life. But there are in higher education. Many colleges and universities, for example, tell freshmen that they won't raise tuition for four years if they remain in school in good standing. And a few colleges guarantee jobs for their graduates -- even in the current sour economy. Capitol College in Laurel has been offering both guarantees -- the tuition lock and the employment promise -- since 1998. All bachelor of science graduates are guaranteed placement in a high-technology or information technology job within 90 days of commencement.

IF YOU haven't shopped around for cheaper life insurance coverage lately, do it now. Not only have term rates dropped dramatically, you can also lock in your rate for 20 or 30 years. This may be the last year that price guarantees will be offered for so long a period of time.Starting next year, the term-insurance market is going to change in many states, due to a change in regulations. Policies with long-term price guarantees are probably going to cost you more.You'll still have access to cheap term insurance, but its price will probably be fixed only for five or 10 years.

Let's talk turkey. It's the season.Everyone wants their family vacation to be a rip-roaring success, the best time they've ever had with their kids. It's costing enough, after all. But like Thanksgiving family gatherings, the trip, no matter how well-planned or how expensive, probably isn't going to be one Kodak moment after another. Real life is never that perfect, especially with kids. It wouldn't be nearly so interesting if it were.No one, though, wants to return home feeling they've wasted their time and money on a vacation gone wrong: rain when they expected sun, squabbling kids when they counted on togetherness.

Several Caribbean resorts are compensating guests when hurricanes occur during their vacations. Last year, Superclubs resorts began reimbursing guests for the cost of any day disrupted by a hurricane. A voucher for the number of disrupted days is also awarded for a future stay during the same month the next year. This offer does not include air fare.In addition, Superclubs guarantees sunshine at all its resorts in Jamaica. If the sun does not shine any day during a stay at a Superclubs resort in Jamaica, the guest receives a voucher for a day's stay within the next year.

The export finance program run by Maryland's economic development agency has been picked to participate in a pilot project in which financing risks are shared by the state, commercial lenders and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.The Ex-Im Bank will match loan guarantees made by the state for Maryland companies that need financing to export their products.Initially, $10 million in total financing will be available. On any given deal, the state will insure 45 percent of the loan; the Ex-Im Bank will insure another 45 percent; and a commercial bank will assume a 10 percent risk.