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Abstract. In today's trade, the vast majority of commercial transactions in both domestic and international trade are concluded by applying trade credit terms. The aim of this article is to analyse the trade credit insurance and, according to the methodology, to evaluate it as a credit risk management tool in the context of Lithuanian business market. The authors have proposed a methodology that combines theoretical and practical research methods. First of all, with assistance of qualitative analysis, the alternative external credit risk management tools were examined. Such analysis allows not only to identify the advantages, disadvantages and benefits of researched risk management tools but also to assess the efficiency and rationality of trade credit insurance in the context of alternative methods. In order to carry out an assessment in the practical aspect, considering the lack of statistical data, it was decided additionally to perform an expert evaluation. After performing an assessment of trade credit insurance, it was concluded that in international trade, with a large buyer portfolio and high sales volume, the trade credit insurance becomes the most effective and rational way to manage credit risk, which eliminates the losses because of the debtor's insolvency or bankruptcy, manages countries and sector's risks and helps to discipline the debtor, what determines the decline in overdue accounts frequencies, amounts and volumes.

Clusterization has been named as one of the priorities of the development strategy of many European Union countries. Clusterization experts have already hypothesized that clusters of various economic activities are important not only in the formation of regional policy, but they also in a complex way stimulate the whole country’s economic growth from job creation to the development of intellectual property to new innovative industries. These realities show that cluster activity and its results are important not only for cluster participants, but also for the economy of the country in which clusters operate. However, there are currently no reliable and effective tools to validate this hypothesis. In the analysis of the problem and in order to deepen the theoretical knowledge of the object under study, this paper analyses and summarizes systematic, logical and comparative scientific literature, scientific studies, strategic documents and legal acts. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical overview of the currently available knowledge on service clusterization and sustainable economic development, to demonstrate the acute absence of relevant theoretical foundations and linkages that would allow to analyse these phenomena, and propose a methodological approach that would allow to expand this field of study.

Lietuvos draudimo rinka turi didelių plėtros galimybių. Jas patvirtina menki draudimo išsivystymo rodikliai. Be to, manytina, kad esama aplinka yra labai palanki plėtrai - vyksta socialinio draudimo perėjimas į privatų sektorių, užsienio kapitalo įmonės teikia gerosios patirties, didina kokybės reikalavimus, pastebima draudimo įmonių ir bankų integracija. Draudimo paslaugų teikimas šalies ekonomikai turi keleriopą poveikį: užtikrina finansinį stabilumą verslo įmonėms ir fiziniams asmenims, didina gyventojų taupymo normą, o tai savo ruožtu didina investicijas; mažina biudžeto lėšas, skiriamas socialinei apsaugai; visuomenė supažindinamo su galimomis rizikomis ir būdais, kaip jas valdyti. Visus šiuos pokyčius lėmė šalies integracija į Europos Sąjungos vidaus rinką ir besikeičiantis požiūris į finansų institucijų veiklą - pamažu įsigali vartotojų polinkis reikalauti kokybiškų paslaugų. Didėja gyventojų pasitikėjimas draudimo įmonėmis, keičiasi jų elgsena draudimo paslaugų pirkimo požiūriu.Šio straipsnio tikslai yra apžvelgti ir išryškinti ES šalių ir Lietuvos draudimo rinkos išsivystymo lygį, tendencijas, pagrindinius matus, nusakančius draudimo padėti šalių ekonomikoje.Tyrimo objektas - ES šalių ir Lietuvos draudimo rinka.Tyrimo uždaviniai - nustatyti dabartinio laikotarpio draudimo rinkos bruožus, pagrindinių rodiklių kitimo tempus ir bendrą kitimo tendenciją; pateikti draudimo rinkos raidos prognozę.Tyrimo metodai: literatūros analizė ir apibendrinimas, prognozavimas, ekspertinis vertinimas.

Abstract. This study investigates Lithuanian females’ personal investment peculiarities in line with Australia’s case analysis and application as a good practice method. Based on many publicly available research females tend to have less knowledge about finances in general and particularly investment processes; hence, it leads to their lack of interest into investing and the possibility of poor money management. This issue might be solved by investigating why it appears first and adopting the practical example from countries with developed investment market. In the case of comparison of personal investment strategies among Lithuanian and Australian females the two sets of questionnaires have been used to collect the data for further analysis. The main findings revealed by the survey were, that women in Australia had a higher financial literacy level, invested more often, and chose broader variety of investment instruments compared to Lithuanian females. Moreover, the significant discovery of the article disclosed that Lithuanian females chose not to invest due to the lack of additional funds and the shortage of financial knowledge. The main limitation occurred during the research was the lack of the available data on personal investment topic in Lithuania’s official statistic sources such as The Lithuanian Department of Statistics. The results of the research contribute towards improving Lithuanian female personal finance and investment areas and could be applied to further studies or used for the education program dedicated to financial literacy among women in Lithuania creation. Furthermore, this article creates an original value to personal finance, investment, and financial literacy areas in Lithuania by introducing an idea to not only conduct more studies in these fields, but also to use comparative analysis and good practice method from the countries that demonstrates high achievements in personal finance and gender equality areas. Keywords: personal investment management, female investment, financial literacy, investor’s profile, investing, investment options, investment strategies. JEL Classification G51, G53 Formulas: 1; fig.: 5; tabl.: 1; bibl.: 15