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Archive for the ‘Life Insurance’ Category

Article by Denise Mancini

Buying life insurance requires a lot of thought and planning. For most people, the choice is between a permanent life policy and a term life policy. Here’s a bit of information on permanent life insurance to help you make a better-informed decision.Permanent life explainedPermanent life insurance will remain in effect until the insured dies, after which the death benefits will be paid out to the beneficiaries. The premiums on permanent life are designed to remain equal throughout the life of the insured. Premiums are high because permanent life policies develop cash values that can be accessed by the insured through surrenders or through loans against the policy.The cash values in permanent life insurance policies typically include two components:

A guaranteed cash value, already referred to above. The cash value grows based on a pre-set schedule, and grows to a sizeable amount upon maturity of the policy (typically at age 100).Most permanent life insurance policies additionally have a non-guaranteed cash value element, typically made up of dividends or earnings on the cash value, which can enhance the value of the life insurance policy over time.There are many permanent life policies in the market today with varying features and varying degrees of control over the cash value component of premiums.Permanent life vs term lifeIn sharp contrast to all the cash-value possibilities that permanent life can offer, term life insurance policies only offer you the death benefit, and only cover you for a particular number of years, called the ‘term’. Because of the absence of cash values and the temporary nature of this policy, term life premiums are more affordable.Permanent life insurance can be substantially more expensive than term life insurance, but the death benefit is guaranteed as long as premiums are paid. On the other hand term life policies can buy you the same amount of death benefit as a permanent life insurance policy, at a fraction of the premium cost.The pros and cons of permanent life insuranceThe drawbacks of permanent life insurance are:With most permanent life insurance policies, you don’t have a say in the investment portfolio to which your cash value component is linked. Because of its investment component, the best benefits on a permanent life policy are gained in the long term. So this is not a great life insurance policy for someone who wants a stopgap life insurance policy.If you fall short of funds the cash value portion of permanent life policy can be borrowed against. This attracts interest, so it is advisable not to borrow against a permanent life policy unless it’s a last-resort effort to access money during a tough financial situation.The investments of most permanent life insurance policies are by nature very conservative (variable permanent life policies are the exception) with a strong possibility that if you were to invest the same amount of money elsewhere, you would earn much more on your investments. In fact there is a school of thought that advocates that permanent life insurance may not be worth the money at all when compared to the benefits of buying term and investing the difference in premiums (between term and permanent).Let’s move on to the advantages of permanent life.If you have difficulty exercising discipline in money matters, permanent life is a great option because it offers you ‘forced savings’. If not for the policy, you probably would have difficulty investing money so consistently into an investment avenue.Permanent life is a life-long insurance policy and the premiums are consistently level. Though it can be quite a pinch in the first few decades of your policy, as the years pass, it can get more affordable.When you outlive a term life policy, you will need to buy more insurance, predictably at higher premiums. This problem does not arise in permanent life because the policy is lifelong, and premiums are consistently equal.Is permanent life insurance right for you?It all boils down to the life insurance needs at your current stage in life. If you are very young and have several financial obligations such as small kids, their college education to think of, mortgages, loans, etc. then permanent life policies may not be right for you just yet because of their high premium costs. Term life would be a lot better. On the other hand, if you are older, and are mostly done with your financial obligations you will need a life insurance policy to cover you for the rest of your life, and that’s where permanent life seems the more feasible choice.How long do you plan to keep your life insurance policy? If you want to be insured for several decades, you have to think of permanent life and not term, because even though term premiums are low, they will increase each time your policy expires, and you take out a fresh policy. However, one must also consider the fact that permanent life insurance investments grow conservatively. Therefore, those who are looking at great returns on their investments are better off buying term and investing the difference (that they save on premiums) in tax-deferred investment vehicles like IRAs, Roth IRAs and even educational accounts like the 529s. The general opinion is that if one can make sound investments elsewhere with this savings in premiums, the returns would be much greater returns than a permanent life policy could provide. If you look at it from this angle, permanent life insurance doesn’t really seem worth the money. The choice however, should totally depend on individual considerations.Finally…You need to spend some thought on how much your coverage should be. With permanent life especially, you don’t want to be over insured because defaulting on your premiums can cancel your policy. You don’t want to be under insured either, and put your family through tough times. So use an online life insurance needs calculator for an accurate estimate of how much life insurance you will need.Shop around before you buy your life insurance. You can do this online in a hassle-free manner by getting quotes from a reputed online life insurance agency. Check if the website is BBB-accredited, and you can be assured of its authenticity.About AccuQuote:AccuQuote is a leader in providing term life quotes to people across the United States. In 1986 it began operating with a single goal: to make the process of buying term life insurance as easy as possible for its customers. Their experienced professionals consistently deliver the most affordable term life insurance rates by comparing thousands of life insurance policies from dozens of top-rated carriers.


About the Author

Manager of public relations and marketing communications for AccuQuote. In addition to overseeing all corporate media relations, internal executive and employee communications, I plays a key role in the overall content development of the company’s online and offline marketing campaigns. This entails overseeing and implementing AccuQuote’s social media, blog and podcast strategies, as well as its word-of-mouth marketing campaign.

Life Insurance terms and definitions.
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Article by Denise Mancini

Mrs. and Mr. X own a significant estate that they plan to leave behind as a legacy to their children. As part of their estate planning process, their financial advisor recommends they purchase survivorship life insurance.Mrs. and Mr. Y have a son with special needs. They are worried about his financial security after they are gone. Their legal counsel puts forth the idea of survivorship life insurance.Both the couples decide to find out more about survivorship life insurance or joint survivorship life insurance and here is what they learned.Survivorship life insurance or joint survivorship life insurance is a life insurance policy that insures the lives of two persons, most often a married couple, instead of a single individual.The death benefits of a survivorship life insurance policy are not paid out to the beneficiary until the surviving spouse also passes away. For this reason, survivorship life insurance is also known as second-to-die life insurance policy.One of the biggest reasons couples buy survivorship life insurance policy is to pay for estate taxes and other estate settlement costs. The policy makes use of the marital estate tax deduction, which allows postponing the payment all federal and most state estate taxes until the death of the surviving spouse.At this time all taxes, which could have assumed considerable proportion by now on account of appreciation in the value of the estate, would need to be paid.This is where joint survivorship life insurance policy comes into play. The proceeds of the policy are used by its beneficiaries to pay all the estate taxes and meet other costs, eliminating the need for liquidating part of the inherited estate.The only caveat is that neither one of the insured couple can have ownership rights to the policy. The beneficiary of the policy has to be a third party such as the insured couple’s children or a trust.Survivorship life insurance policy is also bought by couples who have children with special needs to secure their financial wellbeing. The proceeds from a second-to-die life insurance policy ensure that sufficient funds are available upon the death of both the parents to provide for the child they leave behind.Advantages of Survivorship Life InsuranceThe biggest advantage of survivorship life insurance policy is that premiums are generally low. Since the insurance company has to pay the benefits only after the death of the surviving insured spouse, this policy is significantly less expensive than buying two separate life insurance policies.Another benefit of joint survivorship life insurance is that it is easier to purchase than individual life insurance policies even if one of the partners is in less than perfect health. The underlying reason is the same – since the insurance companies doesn’t owe the beneficiaries anything until both the partners pass away, they are not as concerned with one’s ill-health as they would be in case of traditional life insurance policies.In fact, a person who has been denied a single life insurance may also get approved for a joint survivorship policy. However, this can differ from case to case as no one is auto approved for any life insurance product.Survivorship life insurance policy is bought by wealthy individuals to conserve their estate. Estate taxes incurred at the time of surviving spouse’s death could be high and it may get difficult for the beneficiaries to arrange the money. Such a situation may force them to make a distress sell or liquidate parts of their inheritance. The proceeds from joint survivorship life insurance make sure that liquid cash is available to pay off the estate taxes, thereby preserving the left behind estate.Limitations of Survivorship Life InsuranceBut the survivorship life insurance policy is not without its limitation. First of all, the death benefits go to a third party, which means if the couple doesn’t have individual life insurance policies, then the surviving spouse has no coverage upon the death of one partner.Second, it makes use of provisions of an existing estate tax law. If any changes were to be made to the tax law, a survivorship life insurance policy would no longer be valid.Third, what happens in case a couple gets divorced after buying survivorship life insurance? That’s why couples are advised to ask their insurers for riders in case they were to split. One option they may be offered is to convert the joint survivorship policy into two single life insurance policies if they decide to go their separate ways.And finally, joint survivorship life insurance policy is not recommended for small estate owners. It is usually advised if the value of your estate is at least .5 million!About AccuQuote:AccuQuote is a leader in providing term life insurance quotes to people across the United States. In 1986 it began operating with a single goal: to make the process of buying term life insurance as easy as possible for its customers. Their experienced professionals consistently deliver the most affordable term insurance rates by comparing thousands of life insurance policies from dozens of top-rated carriers.

About the Author

Denise Mancini-Blonda is manager of public relations and marketing communications for AccuQuote. In addition to overseeing all corporate media relations, internal executive and employee communications, she plays a key role in the overall content development of the company’s online and offline marketing campaigns. This entails overseeing and implementing AccuQuote’s social media, blog and podcast strategies, as well as its word-of-mouth marketing campaign.

Article by Best Deal Insurance

Taking out life insurance is only common sense in an unpredictable world, and is essential if you have loved ones dependant on you. While we all don’t like to think of the worst happening, it can and does, so taking out adequate protection on your life is essential.

Basically a life insurance policy pays out a predetermined sum of money in the case of the death of the insured.

However there are many clauses which can affect and cause the policy to become void should the cause of your death be linked to them. There are also many factors which apply to policies in general regarding premiums and cover.

This is why it is important that you understand what you are covered for and what exclusions apply to your policy. While these can vary there are some common factors:

Not mentioning an illness you already have at the time you take out the policy can have a serious affect on whether your loved ones can make a successful claim. It is essential you always give honest information at the time of taking your policy out and declare any illness you have or have had when applying.

The premium you are quoted when you consider taking out life insurance is dependant on many factors. As an example, how old you are at the time of taking out the policy is a big factor in how much the policy will cost per month as will your height and weight.

Your occupation is also is taken into consideration – the more at risk you are, the higher the premium. Whether or not you are a smoker and the general state of your overall health will also play a deciding factor.

How much you will pay will also depend on the amount of cover you wish to take out and the type of policy you have chosen. Along with this you will be asked questions regarding your lifestyle. Obviously, if your favourite weekend activity is sky diving or a similar high risk sport, then you will be classed as a higher risk and the costlier the cover will be.

Always make sure you know what you are covered for and what you aren’t covered for. Check out the exclusions which will usually be found in the small print and definitely take the time to look a policy over.

About the Author

David Thomson is Chief Executive of BestDealInsurance.co.uk, a specialist insurance website dedicated to putting their customers and their needs first. Not only do they ensure that their customers get the best deal when buying life insurance, critical illness and income protection cover, but that they actually understand in full the terms and conditions of the product that they are buying.

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Article by Insurance Expert

Insurance Company Ratings Am Best

Making Sense of the different rating systems is made easier with life insurance company rankings.

The basic purpose of the rating system is to offer an opinion about the creditworthiness of any given life insurance company. Where it gets a little complicated is that each of the independent insurance company rating institutions uses a slightly different scale. The way each comes up with a rating for a particular company is proprietary (not to mention very complicated.) In addition, the meaning of each grade or rating is unique to each independent rating institution.

Four of the top independent insurance company rating institutions are:

Standard & Poor

A.M. Best

Moody

Fitch

The rating scales used by the top four mentioned above range from three A’s, an A with one or two plus or minus signs, through “F,S,” with many variations in between. In some cases you will see repeated letters, such as “BBB,” or a combination of letters, such as “Baa.” Yet other companies use a plus or minus symbol to further categorize the findings. In some cases an overall rating of “A” can be sub-divided four times with the use of plus or minus signs. In other cases, the overall rating of “A” can be sub-divided three times. This can make the information quite difficult to compare. Check Internet #1 Insurance Company Ratings Am Best right now!

Since each is using their own unique system, it can be confusing to make an educated comparison. This is where life insurance company rankings can help.

To truly understand how to compare policies fairly, use a ranking system. For example, look at each of the top four independent institutions grading system, and rank their marks from the highest grade to the lowest.

In other words, ranking is a way of looking at ratings in an “apples to apples” way. Make a column for each of the independent institutions listed above and for each column, list the ratings from best to worst. The top rating could be “three A’s, A++, or even upper case A with two lower case a” for example. Continue down each column until you have all of the possible grades listed for each. Then number each row with the best possible rating row to be numbered “1.” The lowest possible rating may get a ranking number as high as 21. With this system it is logical to say the lower the ranking number, the better the rating. Check Internet #1 Insurance Company Ratings Am Best right now!

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Article by Life Quotes, Inc

By Susheela Bhat, Life Quotes, Inc.

First the good news: if you’ve picked up a little weight over the winter, chances are your life insurance won’t be too badly affected. Any more than that, then you’ll have to cut the fat, or your insurers will charge you for it.

The bad news is, as a nation, we’re getting fatter. This is a huge problem for the life insurance companies, because obesity leads to a host of other serious health problems.

What’s the cost of being obese in insurance premiums?

“People who are obese are at a higher risk for serious conditions like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis (a common joint disorder) and certain kinds of cancers,” said Dr. Don Behan, Senior Research Associate at Georgia State University’s Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research. “When insurers are evaluating a person, his or her length of life is often discussed in terms of life expectancy. Mortality depends on age, gender, health status, habits such as smoking and drinking alcohol and participation in dangerous activities. Mortality rates may be estimated on the basis of these characteristics.”

Obesity is determined by the amount of body fat a person has relative to their muscle, bone and organ tissue. The sum of body mass is a simple mathematical calculation determined on your height and weight, and compared to a standardized body mass index (BMI) chart. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list an overweight adult having a BMI between 25 and 29.9. An obese adult would have a BMI of 30 or higher.

Hypothetically speaking, if a male nonsmoker, age 55 wanted to get about 0,000 of life insurance and had a BMI of 38, he would be paying an estimated annual premium of ,256. If a 55-year-old nonsmoker male with a BMI under 30 wanted the same amount of life insurance, he would pay ,767 annually, according to Dave Redpath, Assistant Vice President of Underwriting at Hartford Life. While these are estimated numbers the fact remains; the higher the BMI, the harder your wallet will get hit-not just for life insurance, but paying for potential health problems down the line.

Women at risk

Now for the worse news: If you are an obese female, you are at higher risk for endometrial, breast and colon cancer.

“Adult females seem to be impacted more by obesity than males when it comes to certain cancers, because there hasn’t been a link between prostate cancer and obesity,” said Behan.

Although some experts believe BMI is not the best way to measure if a person is obese, “It is possible for a person to have an ‘unhealthy BMI’ because they are very muscular, but in a general population, this is an exception to the rule and BMI is a good standardized tool to gauge healthy weight,” said Behan, who also said life insurance companies would not use BMI as a sole measurement, but would also take into account things like family history and body fat percentage.

If you would like to know your BMI, you can check out the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s free Body Mass Index Calculator.

To get low cost life insurance and avoid potentially devastating medical bills in the future, the answer is fairly straightforward. A healthy diet, exercise and a healthy weight are the best way to go. Also, if you join a wellness program at work or hire a personal trainer to lose weight, document your progress and tell your insurer. This will help your agent evaluate a fair assessment of your current health status, and could land you in a lower rate category. Keep in mind, that folks who are underweight can also be charged higher rates for insurance, said Redpath. The key to getting good rates is obtaining a healthy bodyweight.

While nothing beats a well-made hamburger, you’re generally better off grilling out at home than heading to a restaurant to get your burger fix. Like many delectable items found on a restaurant menu, the hidden calories in restaurant burgers can have you eating twice as much than you would normally in one sitting. So before you sink your teeth into that juicy piece of meat read this list of the top 7 worst burgers in America and weigh your options.

*Note: The nutrition information was verified using the nutrition charts of each restaurant.

#1: Denny’s Smokin’ Q Three PackWith a combined 2,020 calories, 110 g fat (22 g saturated, 3 g transfats) and 3,570 mg sodium, this “little” snack stacks up to being the equivalent of three meals, with more than the daily requirements of fat and sodium in each bite.

#2: Cheesecake Factory Ranch House BurgerThis monster of sautéed onions and bacon weighs in at a staggering 1,941 calories, 48 g saturated fat, and 2,877 mg of sodium. Not as bad as the #1 contender, but when compared to the Cheesecake Factory’s alternative; The Factory Burger, with its 737 calories, 15 g saturated fat and 1,638 mg sodium it looks a little obscene.

#3: Chili’s Jalapeno Smokehouse Bacon BurgerAlthough compared to its predecessors above, this burger’s 1,750 calories don’t seem too bad, it makes up for this with a whopping with 123 g fat (40 g saturated) and an salt mine’s 5,250 mg sodium, almost four times your recommended daily allowance of sodium.

#4: Ruby Tuesday Triple Prime Havarti BurgerThis “gourmet” burger may look skinny (relatively) with its 1,465 calories, but it’s got 116 g fat that are anything but, and 2,404 mg sodium.

#5: Red Robin A.1. Peppercorn BurgerLike the Ruby Tuesday burger, Red Robin’s has a measly 1,433 calories, and 97 g fat. The catch to this burger is its 5,618 mg sodium, making it the most sodium-laden burger in this list!

#6: Applebee’s Quesadilla BurgerYou guessed it, they replaced the bun with a tortilla. At 1,420 calories, 104 g fat (43 g saturated, 3 g trans) and 3,740 mg sodium, this thing is a huge plate of fatty disaster. Not to mention…burger purists might not classify it as a burger if it’s not on a bun.

#7: Wendy’s Triple BaconatorConsidering how “little” a fast food burger is, this one’s 1,350 calories, 90 g fat (40 g saturated, 3.5 g trans) and 2,780 mg sodium are a huge shock. Especially considering Wendy’s has a healthier alternative in the Wendy’s Double Stack with 3 strips of bacon at 400 calories, 21 g fat (9 g saturated, 1 g trans) and 990 mg sodium that won’t have you scheduled for coronary bypass surgery after eating it.

This article was originally published at Life Quotes, Inc.

About the Author

Life Quotes provides access to comparative quotes for auto, life, health and business insurance quotes so that busy consumers and business owners can save time and money. Life Quotes is dedicated to providing impartial insurance information.

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