Archive for the ‘Life Insurance’ Category
Purchasing life insurance online has become increasingly easier and easier over the years. Agency websites are now equipped to do most of the work by surveying numerous life insurance carriers. However, there are still some decisions the consumer must make before they more forward in the process. These decisions are going to require some research, but how do you know when you’ve done enough and researched the right topics?
Choosing a website
When using a search engine to research life insurance, it is guaranteed that the engine will return numerous resources. The results will provide us with the information needed to compare online life insurance quotes and buy life insurance online. In fact, the results can provide too many site options and the consumer can become overwhelmed with information, resulting in indecision; all before the process has even begun. In reality, choosing the right resource is not that intimidating of a task. There will be a lot of overlapped content from one website to the other. Most websites pull their information from similar, if not the same, sources. Therefore, it’s not the necessarily the content that matters in this case, as much how easily it is for you to navigate the site and extract the information you need.
Your first hint of a user-friendly site will be a website that has a button that reads, “Click here to begin quote” or something similar, these should lead you into the process with ease.
The Quote Process
Once you have started the online quote process you will be asked to provide more information about yourself. And unless you’ve done this before, you will be asked to provide information that you’ve never heard of, so certainly wouldn’t have on hand. One of the most popular questions: what is your “health class” (or “rate class”)?
Your health class is an evaluation of your life expectancy based on your current life style. Life insurance carriers can take weeks of investigation and a medical examination in order to assign you to a health class. When determining your own rate class for quote purposes, give it your best estimation. Whichever you chose is not set in stone, especially since each carrier designs its own classification policy, so you may be a “Preferred” risk with one carrier and a “Standard Plus” risk with another.
However, your selection should not be a complete guess: most websites will include general information about health class ratings to help consumers determine where life insurance carriers will generally rank them.
Once you complete the form and click the “submit” button. The online life insurance quote form disappears and you are provided with a list of quotes. You may have anywhere from five or fifteen quotes available to you. This might be less than you were expecting.
An online life insurance quote engine may query so many as 100 insurers, but insurers differ in what they offer and many of those insurers might not offer the product or term you requested, or they may not do business in the state where you reside.
To compare online life insurance quotes successfully, you may need to do the quote process a few times, changing your criteria each time, to ensure diversity in your quote results.
Comparing online life insurance quote results
Your online life insurance quotes will consist of the name of the carrier and the cost of a yearly or monthly premium. The more advanced websites will provide further information, such as financial ratings for the carrier, service ratings, a link to the carrier’s website, and a brief description or history of the carrier. You may be able to rule out some life insurance carriers because of unstable finances or poor ratings, but whether you buy life insurance online, over the phone, or in person with an agent, the premium that you are quoted is going to be of the most significant part of your decision.
Applying for online life insurance
You are not bound to a policy until you have agreed to a contract and paid your first premium, so there is no need to fear applying for life insurance.
There is a chance that the rate you are offered would be different from the rate you were originally quoted. The life insurance carrier has the discrepancy to decide what rate class you fall into according to their guidelines, regardless of what you reported during the quote process. Changing rate class will directly affect your premiums. Before moving on to the next best quote, consult with your agent (if you do not have an agent, call your agency to speak with one) an experienced agent may be able to convince the carrier to assign you a better health class.
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If you are the primary earner for your family, you have to have a plan for their care should you pass away unexpectedly. Even if they don’t depend on you for income, the expenses of a funeral can quickly get out of control and you don’t want to burden loved ones with that. A life insurance policy is the best way to ensure there s money available to survivors when you die.
Life insurance is a vast business and there is a lot to know. Here are a few things to get you started in your search for the best life insurance policy for your particular needs.
Beware of policies that contain exclusions or special provisions. Perhaps these are best for your needs, but they are usually more beneficial to the insurance company. If you have doubts about the legitimacy of the provisions, you can consult an attorney. It’s usually best to buy a policy with the fewest exclusions possible.
Term life insurance is a popular option for many people. But it should only be purchased if you plan on keeping the policy for between 10 to 30 years. If you are young and are looking for a plan for a longer period of time, purchase whole life insurance. These policies earn a better return by investing some of the money into stocks and bonds.
Make sure you thoroughly investigate the company you are considering. You can find a company’s rating in Standard and Poor’s listing. State agencies are another option that can tell you if a company is legitimate.
Make sure you tailor the coverage to what you actually need. If you buy too little, it won’t suffice should you die. If you buy too much, then you’ll be paying for something you don’t need. A good rule of thumb is to select a police that pays about 5 times your annual salary.
Don’t forget to check with your employer for some possible offers. Many employers have group plans that can save you money. Even if it’s simply a referral, many companies will offer you a better rate through an employer.
Life insurance can give you peace of mind that your family will be taken care of when you are gone. Do a little research before you make a decision and find the best policy for you and your family.
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Everyone’s heard the term ‘life insurance’ or ‘life assurance’, but hardly anyone knows the mechanics of ‘how does a life insurance work’. If you are interested in knowing ‘how does a life insurance policy work’, this article will provide with the info. We shall first learn what a life insurance policy entails, before we move on to the question, ‘how does a life insurance work’.

Definition says that a life insurance policy is a legal contract between a policy owner and an insurer, wherein the insurer agrees to pay an accumulated sum of money to the nominees / beneficiaries (nominated by the policy owner) on the insured individual’s demise or illness. In return for this benefit, the policy owner is required to pay the insurer a certain pre-determined amount (premium) at regular intervals or in lump sums. It is important to note here, that while the insurance owner designates the beneficiaries to the life insurance contract, the beneficiaries may or may not actually be a party to the contract. Life insurance contracts are usually long, for they contain various clauses and special provisions, including the policy purchase dates, the maturity dates, the premiums determined, etc. Without going into the details of the various types of life insurance contract clauses or life insurance contract types, let us move on to the essence of the article. Let us try to answer the question – how does life insurance work. Know more on cheap life insurance and life insurance types.
How Does a Life Insurance Policy Work?
To know how does a life insurance work, it is essential to first know what are the informational inputs that serve as the basis for the life insurance contract. Here are the life insurance basics.
Basis for the Premium Calculations
Professional actuaries and professional statisticians require you to submit all your lifestyle details to them, if you are applying for a life insurance contract. Statistics reveal that people following a certain lifestyle pattern, like those that smoke regularly or those that eat junk food a lot, are likely to die sooner than others that don’t. So, taking all this lifestyle information and fitting them into complex estimation formulas reveals the premium that a certain person will have to pay for his insurance policy. It is thus obvious that someone who is obese or someone who already suffers from numerous health problems will have to shell out a larger sum as insurance premium than someone else who’s fit as a fiddle. Know more on low cost life insurance.
Apart from this information, other information is also gathered from a compulsory medical exam that is conducted in the insured individual after a person has applied for a life insurance policy. Assuming that the medical test comes out well and the person is deemed as ‘insurable’, the individual’s exact premium is calculated based on the risk category that he falls into. As already mentioned earlier, this category is based on many things like, lifestyle pattern, race, gender, occupations (whether hazardous or not), etc.
Considerations by the Insured
The insured individual must be sure in his mind regarding the amount he wishes his beneficiaries to receive upon his death. The amount consideration can be based on things like, mortgage repayment requirements, debt payoffs, etc. as well. The idea is that the insured should at least be covered around 8 to 10 times his current annual salary.
As the beneficiaries are thoroughly investigated by the insurance companies, it is in the insured individual’s best interest to choose them carefully. If your motives are suspicious or the beneficiaries you have chosen are dodgy and put you under scanner, there is a high probability of your life insurance application being denied.
As an applicant, if you lie on any of the details required on the application form, the insurance company is eligible to refuse you any payout. You are also not entitled to receive anything for the life insurance company if you have committed suicide or have been murdered by a beneficiary. Also, as an applicant, you will be required to supply some pretty personal details about your life and medical history and though there are strict confidentiality codes imposed on the insurance company, you may feel uncomfortable about revealing them. Yet, they are a necessary aspect when it comes to determining your premium amount.
Life Insurance Process
To know how does a life insurance work, here is a simplistic breakdown of the actual process.
- First and foremost, an application is filled out by the person wanting the life insurance cover. The application should also contain the details of a physical examination conducted to assess the health of the insured, along with other basic details.
- On receiving the application for life insurance, the company hands it over to insurance agents who review the variables that are likely to affect your lifespan. A thorough statistical analysis takes place, the assess the risk that the insurance company will be bearing.
- Using statistical methods like the ‘cost per thousand’ tables, the insurance agents calculate the insurance premium that is applicable to you. If you are too much of a risk for the insurance company to take on, your application may even be denied.
- If the insurance company decides to bet on you, they send you a life insurance contract that specifies all the details like amount of coverage, term of contract and amount of premium. The trick here is that the insurance company works on this principle. The company charges each insured such an amount of premium, such that the collective premiums received from all (total number of) the insured individuals is enough to cover the cost of paying out on some of the life insurance policies each year.
- You will have to sign the contract and pay the first installment after naming you beneficiaries. As long as you continue your premiums, you are insured.
You can read up more on term life insurance and whole life insurance. So, hope this has solved you ‘how does a life insurance work’ query. Make sure you choose the right one amongst all the different kinds of life insurance for yourself. For more on ‘how does a term life insurance work’, you can check out my next article.
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A life insurance contract is a serious bit of business. It is a kind of financial protection that an earning member of the family buys so that in case of that person’s death, his/her family will not be financially in any trouble. Some people also use a life insurance to reduce their tax burden as some types of insurance premiums are non-taxable.
What is Insurance?
To put it quite simply and bluntly, a life insurance agreement ensures that on the death of the insured, his/her nominees will receive a financial lump sum. For availing this facility, the insured has to pay a certain amount of money as premium periodically to the life insurance company. A life insurance agreement is therefore a contract between two parties – the insurer and the insured, where the insured pays regular insurance premiums and the insurer, in case of the death of the insured, provides financial compensation to the nominees of the insured. An insurance contract also contains various details regarding the duration of the insurance, the premium to be paid, etc. One of the most important factors that an insurance agreement covers is that all reasons for death are covered by the insurance agreement. Insurance agreements differ based on whether they include accidental death, murder, suicide, etc.
Life Insurance Types
The types of life insurance can be grouped into two broad categories:
Term Life Insurance
A term insurance is a life insurance policy for a relatively shorter period of time. The terms and conditions of this type of life insurance policies are that the insurance amount will be paid only on the death of the insured. In case the insured does not die during the term of the insurance, the insurance amount does not get carried over. Thus there is no penalty as such for not renewing a term insurance and the renewal is completely at the discretion of the insured. Insurance premiums of term insurance increase with the age of the insured as the chances of his illness and death also increase. A term policy is generally tax free.
Permanent Life Insurance
A permanent life insurance is what the name suggests: a life insurance cover that lasts for as long as you live. What a permanent life insurance policy does is that, along with insurance, it also provides a savings element which builds a cash value. The premiums of a whole life insurance for most insurance providers remain the same and are understandably higher than term life insurance premiums. A whole life policy lapses if the insured defaults on a payment and does not reinstate it. There are various sub types of permanent life insurance, namely whole life, universal life and variable life insurance:
- Whole Life Insurance: A whole life insurance is one of the most basic forms of a permanent life insurance. Like most permanent life insurance plans, the premium consists of a factor for actual insurance premium and one that goes towards a cash savings account. Interest gets accrued on these savings. In case of the death of the insured, the nominee gets both the accumulated savings as well as the insurance amount.
- Universal Life Insurance: Universal Life policy is almost exactly like the whole life insurance policy. The only differences are that in a universal life policy, the insured is allowed some flexibility to modify insurance premium and the savings component.
- Variable Life Insurance: The only difference between a variable life insurance and other forms of permanent life insurances is that variable life insurance holders are allowed to pick where the money saved is to be invested. They have the flexibility to invest their savings in a higher growth investment plan.
So, these were the basic life insurance types. Usually the insurers provide a person seeking insurance, to choose from these options. A prospective insured may choose one of these life insurance types which is most suitable.
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Life insurance is a way to overcome the unpredictable nature of life. To know about life insurance basics, read on…
It is difficult for family members to accept the loss of someone they all loved dearly. However, if the person they have lost is the principle earner, or the bread winner of the family, monetary problems start haunting the family. Monetary problems could lead a family into the troubled waters, which everyone tries to prevent from happening. There is a way to provide for your family and to prevent it from getting into a tight corner in the event of your demise. The following is a short note on the life insurance basics, which may help you decide in choosing policies offered by insurance companies.
Life Insurance Basics
Life insurance is a contract between two entities: the insured person and the life insurance company which provides the insurance cover. Nobody can help you resolve the question, “Do I really need a life insurance policy?”. It is up to you to take stock of your and your family’s financial situation, and find the answer to the question. If you have family members, especially younger children who are financially dependent on you, then, you must insure yourself by acquiring a life insurance policy. If something untoward happens to you while your life insurance policy is in force, then the insurance company pays a specified amount of money to the nominated person. You can nominate any person or a family member as the beneficiary of the policy. Life insurance:
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance is also referred to as life insurance term, as it provides insurance cover for a specific period time or term, such as 1, 5,10,15 or 20 years etc. The following is a list of different types of term life insurance policies:
- Annual renewable term insurance policy
- Renewable term insurance policy
- Level premium insurance policy
- Decreasing term insurance policy
- Convertible term insurance policy
Universal Life Insurance
This insurance policy allows you to control the amount of the premium, where your policy amount is invested by the insurance company. You can instruct the insurance company to invest in stock, mutual funds or in bonds so that you can rake in the benefit of the interest rates in the market. This policy allows you flexible life insurance premiums, which are also called life insurance rates. If you are experiencing a shortage of cash flow, you can get your premiums adjusted, or you can stop paying them altogether. When you come in for some money, you can increase your insurance rates. You can borrow against the accumulated cash in the policy.
Whole Life Insurance
This insurance policy is also known as whole life insurance as it provides you an insurance cover for you entire life, and upon your demise, pays the amount you are insured for, to the beneficiary. Another advantage of this policy is that you can borrow against the money accumulated in your policy. On the other hand you can cash your policy by terminating or canceling it. One of the advantages of whole life insurance is that in the early years, the premium you pay is lower than that of the other policies.
Children’s life insurance policies offered by life insurance companies is the best gift you can give to your child. These are whole life insurance policies, and the premiums or the rates are determined and set right at the beginning, which are so low that it makes these policies least expensive to invest in. A life insurance policy, which is now also available in the form of online life insurance, drawn at the right time, can take care of your future troubles. This concludes a brief insight into life insurance basics and the advantages they hold.
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The concept of cheap life insurance without medical exam is fast catching on as quite a popular and convenient for many people. To know more about such a life insurance policy, read on…
The concept of life insurance that comes in with a medical examination is becoming popular as it saves a lot of time for the people and also tends to be a viable option for people with minor and in many cases almost insignificant disorders. Another policy which is similar to cheap life insurance without medical exam is the term life insurance no medical exam, which is of course a term life insurance policy, which in some cases is simply stated as a term insurance. Apart from all these aspects one must also note that affordable life insurance without medical exam is very rare owing to the fact that premium on any no medical examination policy is always quite high. You may also refer to cheap term life insurance no medical exam to get to know about the term insurance that is given without a medical exam.
About Life Insurance
Whole life insurance or rather full life insurance can be broadly defined as an insurance policy that provides coverage against financial risks and burdens that a person’s family might suffer after his demise. Thus in case if you are a family man, then having a good life insurance policy is a basic necessity. If you cannot afford a full scale whole life insurance policy, then you can also take up a good term life insurance policy.
The entire mechanism is simple, the policy can be purchased by the individual from the insurance company. This makes the person has his nominated family members ‘insured’ from certain financial risks. The policy holder has to pay a certain sum to the insurance company which is known as a premium. This premium is principally decided upon factors such as age, chronic illnesses and other medical conditions of the person. In some cases, some other factors such as the income of the person and the number of dependents also affects the insurance premium. In certain cases, there is a prefixed rate of premium and also a prefixed compensation rate. Over all the sanction of the policy is decided with the help of actuary and underwriting methods. Now in cases of incidences of demise of the policy holder, a certain sum of money is forwarded to the nominated persons, on a monthly or an annual basis. This amount will be in proportion to the premium and in some cases it will be pre-decided. The compensation is paid in a structured settlement and lump sum about is very rare. The compensation amount is known as a death proceed.
All types of insurance policies can be classified into two aspects, namely the ones that have a return rate on them and secondly, the ones that do not have a returns on them. The life insurances having a return on them tends to have a higher premium, but it also has very good rewarding returns. The second ones which do not have any returns tend have a lower premium rate. The term life insurance by default do not have any return rates. You may also refer to life insurance no medical exam.
Cheap Life Insurance Without Medical Exam
As mentioned above, availing an affordable or cheap life insurance without medical exam is difficult, the primary reason being that there are several requisites that are imposed upon the applicants. Here are some essential points that you should know.
- The applicant should not have any chronic disorder or disease.
- Applicant should not have any substance addiction. In certain cases, a doctors certification is required to ascertain and prove that the applicant is not addicted to any substance.
- Usually the applicant’s age is subject to an upper limit, that is he or she must not be above 40 or 50 years of age.
- Apart from these requisites, the applicant is also needed to answer some queries and questions of personal nature. The answers to such queries and questions are held as conclusive evidence and an insurance claim which is false or untrue can be denied on the basis of such answers.
- The general rule of thumb that is applied to such an insurance policy is that the greater the age of the applicant, the greater is the insurance premium going to be.
In several cases, the applicant’s EMR (Electronic Medical Record) is also reviewed by the insurance company. In case of any no medical life insurance, or any no medical exam life insurance, the premium is usually deemed to be high. However in case of cheap life insurance with no medical exam, the total amount that is paid as a premium, does not usually yield high and returns. I hope that the elaboration of the cheap life insurance without medical exam is resourceful. Good luck.
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