Life Insurance & Finance

Finance and Life Insurance resources, news and articles

Archive for April, 2010

Statistics show that 1 out every 5 women may fall prey to a critical illness such as heart attack, cancer or stroke before reaching the age of 65. The same thing may happen to 1 of every 3 men. Therefore, the risk of catching a critical illness is bigger for men than women. Fortunately people’s awareness has increased. They have started to undergo health check ups regularly. Thus, any critical illness is being able to be discovered before the disease reaches a crucial stage. Let’s have a look at one of the most serious critical illnesses, heart attack.

Heart Attack
Heart attack is the second cause for most critical illness claims in the UK. Current surveys show that heart attacks have decreased significantly. This can be due to better diet, daily exercise, regular health check ups leading to discovery of the critical illness at an early stage. We’ll see at some figures concerning a critical illness such as heart attack from the year 1980 to 1992. According to Coronary Heart Disease Statistics (British Heart Foundation 1997), in the year 1982 about 50 out of 10,000 men of all ages contracted heart attack. Based upon a population of 10,000, about 10 men aged between 15-44, around 110 aged between 45-64 , approximately 200 aged between 65-74 and nearly 225 aged 75 or more all suffered from the same critical illness.
In the year 1992, the rate of heart attack considerably decreased. Based upon a population of 10,000 men, around 35 of all ages had contracted heart attack. Furthermore, nearly 5 men aged between 15-44, around 75 aged between 45-64, about 155 aged between 65-74 and approximately 180 aged 75 or more all suffered from a critical illness such as heart attack.

Moreover, concerning women, According to Coronary Heart Disease Statistics (British Heart Foundation 1997), in the year 1982 about 30 out of 10,000 women of all ages suffered from a critical illness like heart attack. Based upon a population of 10,000, around 2 women aged between 15-44, nearly 40 aged between 45-64, approximately 105 aged between 65-74 and about 135 aged 75 or more all suffered from heart attack.
Additionally, the rate of a critical illness such as heart attack among women decreased even more than that of men. So, let’s see at these figures recorded in the year 1992. About 25 over a population of 10,000 women of all ages suffered from heart attack. Again based upon a population of 10,000 no women aged between 15-44 had contracted this critical illness. Furthermore, nearly 25 aged between 45-64, approximately 65 aged between 65-74 and about 110 aged 75 or plus had all been diagnosed with the critical illness known as heart attack.

The decrease over this period of 10 years was 3.6 percent. As seen, this critical illness had decreased much among women than men. The reason is that men may have worked longer hours, possibly in stressful environments. Thus, time for exercise and dieting may have been a limited factor. At that stage, someone’s chance to suffer from any critical illness could be elevated. Therefore, getting a critical illness insurance quote with your life insurance could be an important move to secure your future

There are many types of life insurance with different features and benefits that meet different needs. Prior to purchasing a life insurance policy you need a primary understanding of the different types of polices available.

Term Life Insurance Explained

Term life insurance offers insurance coverage for a term of from 1-30 years. Yearly premiums are paid to the insurance firm to continue the policy in effect. If the policy owner dies during the term, his or her beneficiary is paid a lump-sum of money. If the policy owner lives beyond the term, the policy simply expires, and no death benefits are paid.

There are no savings or investment characteristic to a term life insurance policy. The insured must fill medical conditions prior to obtaining a policy. The yearly premium varies depending on the sum of coverage desired and the insured’s age and wellness. Because chances of death increase with age, standard term life premiums increase every year.

The pros of term life insurance are its affordability and the short term protective cover it provides without any risk. The cons include the temporary nature of the insurance coverage, annually-larger premiums, and no gains on you investiture. Term life policies work well if you want to pay off a mortgage in the event of your death or for other similar period specific life insurance needs.

Whole Life Insurance Explained

Whole life or permanent life insurance provides a lump sum payment to the beneficiaries upon the insured persons death. The vantage of whole life policies is they have no specified term, so as long as the premiums are continualy paid the policy will remain in effect for life, or until the endowment age which is typically 100. This just means that if you live to the endowment age, the benefit / proffit is paid to you at that time and the policy is no longer in effect. An additional advantage of the whole life policy is that the monetary value in the policy can be got at in if the insured needs the funds or can no longer make the monthly premium payments.
The premiums for a whole life policy are more expensive than term insurance since the policy holder is covered up till the end of their life. Often the premiums are fixed or decrease over time. This is possible because the insurance provider can invest part of the premium in bonds and investments and use the proceeds to cover the rising cost of insurance premiums and/or to make a payment when the insured dies.

Whole life is generally purchased as part of an estate preparation arrangement to make sure inheritors are looked after if you predecease them.

Universal Life Insurance Explained

Universal life is also named “flexible premium adjustable life insurance,” and is a more flexile version of whole life insurance. Like whole life, universal life includes a savings element that grows on a tax-deferred basis. A percentage of your premiums are invested and the return on the investments is accredited to your policy tax-deferred. Most policies vouch a minimum return on your investment. Universal life offers two death benefit options. One pays the death benefit out of the policy’s monetary value; the more cash value you work up the less the policy costs the insurance provider. The 2nd alternative pays a flat amount stated in the contract, plus any cash values you accrued over the years and costs more.

Universal life policies give you the power to set the death benefit as your needs alter, as well as the flexibility to pay lower or greater premiums for a set period of time. However, you need to make a minimum premium payment as assigned in the contract to avoid the policy lapsing.

Universal life like whole life is broadly used as a part of an estate plan to ensure inheritors are taken care of after your death.

Variable Universal Life Insurance Explained

The variable universal varies dependant on the performance of the investments chosen by the policy holder.

Since the insured decides the investments for a variable universal policy the risk and benefits of the investments falls to policy holder. The policy allows for the insured to choose among an assortment of investments so the investiture can be dispersed between higher and lower risk investments to ensure there is always some economic value to the policy and still capitalize on higher risk investments with the potentiality of higher returns. If the investments perform well the policy holder doesn’t have to pay a premium. If the investments perform poorly there is the risk the premiums will have to be paid or the policy will lapse.
Life insurance premiums alter within a set array and the cash value of the policy.

Insurance Choices

Work with a qualified and independent financial advisor to have your options for life insurance explicated amply prior to you making a decision as to which type of insurance to buy. One type of insurance is not better than a different one but for each one there is a distinct advantage and disadvantage dependent on your specific financial targets and requirements.

What to look for

Posted by admin under Life Insurance

When considering buying life insurance
, people get confused at the first stage itself, which is what amount of coverage to take. A common query is if there is some rule of thumb which can tell what is the appropriate amount of life insurance coverage to have? People want to understand how to calculate their coverage needs.

To evaluate if you are appropriately covered, consider first if it is appropriate for income replacement. Evaluate if the payout will be able to replace the policyholder’s future lost wages. Secondly consider the financial milestones, children education, marriages, home loans and other liabilities and see if you can visualize them being taken care of in the event of an untimely loss of life.

A common benchmark used is 10 times annual salary if you have children and a home loan. This can be used as a starting point for planning and by analyzing your needs you can arrive at the appropriate coverage amount for life insurance. Some people may need more than that and some don’t need so much. It depends on your situation and things like if your spouse works, the age of your children etc make a difference.
Ask yourself the reasons for buying a policy. Are you planning a family? Is it for your children’s education? Do you wish to provide for your spouse? Do you have debts and home loans? What amount will your family need to continue its standard of living without your income?

After listing all these factors one can use online tools and calculators to reach an estimate of coverage. By comparing and researching the various policies available, one can work backwards and see what levels of premium are affordable. It is advisable to consult experts and use professional expert advice to help you arrive at your decision.

Appropriately planned and timely purchased life insurance is a cornerstone of sound financial planning. It covers the highest risk and guarantees against a worst case scenario. With the purchase of a good life insurance plan which has adequate cover, you can provide peace of mind and financial security to your loved ones and free yourself from such worries.

Everyone has life insurance, but not all people have thought of getting critical illness insurance. This is of course, quite understandable, because no one wants to think about being down with a serious illness. Nevertheless, critical illness insurance is necessary for total protection. You will surely be called as someone who is ready if you get to have critical illness insurance for yourself.

Some statistics that may convince you to get critical illness insurance includes the fact that heart attack, which is a form of critical illness, strikes more than seventy thousand individuals each year. After heart attacks come strokes, which claims more than fifty thousand individuals each year. And finally, the ‘Big C’ or cancer gets into the bodies of people every week – at an estimate of two thousand eight hundred and sixty five, at that.
The great thing about critical illness insurance is that it has benefits to prepare not just you but your family as well. You can get up to twenty five thousand dollars in a lump sum benefit thanks to critical illness insurance. As this is paid to you, you can spend your critical illness insurance money any which way you please. You may use the critical illness insurance to pay for some medical expenses which you have to shoulder yourself.

You can space out the critical illness insurance money over the span of your expected lifetime and devote it to permanent medication which you might need. Or you can even choose to travel or refinance your home. Yet another great thing about critical illness insurance is that you will be required to fill out a medical questionnaire. If you are between the ages of eighteen and sixty, you may already be eligible for the basic life check. All that is required of you to get critical illness insurance is a solid declaration that you are in the pink of health.
You also get the best solution services from the best doctors around. Having critical illness insurance means you get excellent recovery management service. This is good because you know that not only do you have money, but you are taken care of. People monitor you and you have your medical records evaluated by the best people. Only those people who have critical illness insurance will have access to the best world class specialists. Additionally, a return of premium is also offered as an option for you. IF you want critical illness insurance and purchase a basic check, you have the benefit of having your premiums reimbursed back to you on your seventy fifth birthday. This is around twenty five thousand dollars’ worth of critical illness insurance that you can claim and spend for whatever you want.

The coverage that you also get for your critical illness insurance is also very much renewable up until your seventy fifth birthday. This is also done even if there are some changes in your health and well being. You are surely going to be in good hands if you find yourself being taken care of by critical illness insurance. It is always wise to start early, so you should try to look into this right now.

Do i need a medical?

Posted by admin under Life Insurance

See yourself what No Medical Life Insurance can do for you.

No Physical Life Insurance policies
 are available online from several highly rated life insurance companies.

The technology of the internet has made it possible for insurers to quickly and easily decide if you qualify for a policy. You answer some health questions and within minutes the carrier let’s you know of you qualify for the coverage.

Secure payment processing is offered online, so once you qualify, you can pay your premium either by credit card or electronic funds transfer from your checking account.

No medical life insurance offers consumers up to £500,000 of term life insurance without the hassles of taking a physical exam, even for Over 50 Life Insurance. There’s no visit from an agent, no doctor’s, no blood tests, and no mailing delays.
In the past, it would take up to 2 months for you to go through the life insurance application process, the underwriting of your policy, taking a medical exam, and then receive your policy through the mail.

Today, you can apply for term life insurance online and qualify for coverage and pay through secure payment processing online. If you pay your first month’s premium online, your life insurance policy begins the same day.

Imagine, protecting your family’s financial security with a no physical life insurance policy in the time it takes to have your breakfast.

There are a few drawbacks to no medical life insurance policies. First, the amount of coverage available is usually limited to £25,000-£500,000.

However, if you apply for coverage from two or more of insurance companies offering no physical life insurance protection, you may be able to buy up to £750,000 of term life insurance without taking any physical exams.
Next, life insurance with no exam required may cost more than a fully underwritten life insurance policy. That’s because the insurance company uses a shorter application process, limiting the number of questions they ask you.

They may accept some people who may not qualify for coverage elsewhere.

Also, most people accepted for a policy are placed into fewer rating groups, so rates may be higher than charged by other insurance companies for someone of the same risk as you.

Life Insurance Help

Posted by admin under Life Insurance

Why would someone not get life insurance
 The reasons why people don’t get life insurance
or delay can be simplified:

� You feel there’s no reason or need to have it
� Can’t afford it (or don’t want to spend the money)
� Don’t have time to take care of it.
� You aren’t confident about where and what to purchase
� You don’t understand how much to get or which kind of life insurance to get.

Let’s address each of these points.

You feel there’s no need or reason to have it. Sometimes this is true. You’re 20 years old and single. Maybe not today. But let’s say you have a family or loved ones that would be hurt financially if your income wasn’t there. In that case you would agree that you do need it and want to have life insurance.
You feel you can’t afford it. Money is tight sometimes but if it’s tight now what would the financial situation be like for family and children? Get term life insurance for now. Prices are at an all time low.

You don’t have time to take care of it. Usually this comes from just not understanding how it all works  if you recognise the importance of having it. People just don’t like to deal with things they don’t understand. It’s not that hard. Try the education pages of uklifeinsurancesolutions.co.uk or just start with something simple like term life where you own life insurance for a period of time at a fixed rate
Where to go and what to get? Again, try it online and study on your own if you don’t want to get “sold to” or feel you have a lack of understanding.

How much to get and what kind? The formula for how much is actually pretty simple. You should replace your income. Life insurance is really income replacement. As a rule of thumb, if you got 15 to 20 times your income as a breadwinner, you’d be doing well for your family. What kind? Term is inexpensive for now, whole life lasts for life. Term will cost more later, whole life doesn’t go up in price and compensates for the “overpayment” with cash value.

Most important point: Make sure you take care of this important part of family financial planning. There are online resources to help make purchasing life insurance or term life insurance
easy for you.

If you’re in the market for life insurance, you may want to consider using a term life insurance calculator to help you determine the right amount of life insurance to meet your needs.

Among the most important questions to ask yourself before choosing your life insurance policy are the following:
1.What type of life insurance do I need?
2.How much can I afford to pay for life insurance?
3.How much life insurance do I need?

So, “How much life insurance do you need?”

There’s the old Rule-of-Thumb that life insurance agents use, which says you should have 7-10 times your annual income in life insurance.

For example, if you make £50,000 per year, you should have £350,000-£500,000 of life insurance coverage to adequately protect your family.
This is based on the idea that if your beneficiary invests the death benefit of the life insurance policy and gets a reasonable rate of return on the investment, that person would receive the income from the investment to replace your income.

The thing is, even if you have 10 times your income in life insurance protection, your beneficiary would need a 10% return on the investment to replace your income.

So, there must be a better, more accurate way of determining the right amount of life insurance for you. There is – You can use a life insurance needs calculator.

With a term life insurance calculator you answer some questions about your personal financial situation, and then press a button that calculates the right amount of life insurance to meet your needs.
Usually, there are about 5-15 questions to answers, and you get an instant, accurate figure that shows you how much life insurance you need to protect your loved ones. It takes less than 2 minutes to answer the questions, and instantly get your life insurance amount.

The main benefits of using a life insurance needs calculator to figure out how much life insurance to buy include:
1.Easy – You just answer a few questions.
2.Quick – You get an instant answer.
3.Customized – It’s based on your personal needs.
4.Accurate – It fits your financial situation.

When you think about it, using a life insurance calculator to quickly and easily determine your life insurance needs is one of the smartest things you could do when it comes to protecting your family.

Why? Because, by using a term life insurance calculator you find out exactly what amount of life insurance meets your personal needs of your family.

That means you buy enough life insurance to properly protect the ones you love in case you pass away. And, you don’t buy more life insurance than your family needs – so you keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket.

It just makes sense to take the time, a few minutes, to find out how much life insurance is right for you…especially when it’s so quick and easy to find out online in just minutes.

Use a term life insurance calculator to help you find out how much life insurance is right for you

Let’s face it, when you make a large or important purchase such as a car or even a three piece suit you always shop around for the best deal.
This is done by either comparing retailers online or by comparing prices on the high street.

If your looking to buy life insurance, it is recommended that you do exactly the same. It will save you money and ensure that you have a better idea of which type of policy suits you the best.

When you are ready to start your life insurance comparison spend a little time and do a little research into exactly what type of of policy you require. For example, do require a whole of life policy or a term life insurance policy. Will you also require critical illness insurance as well as this is often cheaper when purchasing along side your life cover.

Once you have a better idea of which type of insurance you require you can then commence your search for online Life Insurance Quotes by visiting either comparison sites or preferably a brokerage site.

One of the best places to start searching for your life insurance is with UK Life Insurance Solutions as they will compare quotes from many of the UK’s largest insurance companies saving you a lot of time.
They are often cheaper than going direct to the life insurance provider and also suprisingly cheaper than the comparison sites which have now become popular due to their very large marketing campaigns.
When filling out their online quotation form, it will select their most suitable commercial partner in real time dependent upon your age, location and which type of policy you require.
This way you can be sure the most suitable broker or financial advisor will handle your application and because they are not a faceless comparison site you should even be able to haggle with them.

Once you have your quotes you can then start to comb through the fine print to see exactly what each policy covers you for and what it doesn’.
Because of FSA regulations, this policy information must be factual and must not be misleading in anyway.

If after examining your life insurance quotes and policies you still have any questions then speak to your advisor as they will be more than happy to advise.

So applying for your life insurance quotes online with a brokerage such as ‘UK Life Insurance Solutions’ can save you a lot of time in the long run and is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to purchase your life insurance.

Whether you’re a parent or grandparent you may want to get a Life Insurance Quote online for your children or grandchildren.

Child life insurance may be available online for healthy children, or even those who may have a health condition or be taking a prescription.

Some of the benefits include low life insurance rates, the opportunity to purchase higher limits of coverage as an adult, and there are usually no medical exams required.

Life insurance for children may be rather easy to apply for online. You answer a few health questions and you are able to find out within minutes if your child or grandchild qualifies for a life insurance policy.

Simplified life insurance for children allows you to buy child life insurance online the same day you apply for coverage. The policies are considered simplified life insurance because there are no physical exams, there are few questions to answer, and there is limited underwriting by the insurance company.
Online childrens life insurance helps to protect your child regardless of their future health, occupation, or military service. Many of these policies also provide a money-back guarantee for up to 30 days.

Some simplified life insurance policies for children offer you the chance to purchase up to £30,000 of coverage, and to buy child life insurance online for all of your children, or grandchildren.

Several insurance companies offer you the opportunity to buy children’s life insurance online, including Globe, Gerber’s and other carriers.

What is Life Insurance

Posted by admin under Life Insurance

Everyone is aware of their living bodies expiring at some point. When an existing person chooses to purchase a life insurance policy, there has to be a name to credit the benefits to. Life insurance policies, are required to have an appointed individual or individuals to gain the monies formed from paying the life insurance premiums.

Married couples usually choose to get life insurance, in case of premature death, their offspring will be financially stable. Any individual can and should get a life insurance policy as long as there is a beneficiary listed to receive the benefits, usually a loved one. Some corporations take out life insurance policies on employees that are a necessity to the companies income. The benefits are used to make up the shortfall in profits because of this particular employee passing away, before retirement.
Time after time, married or partnered couples have mastered a comprise of bill paying. However, death has no age, and regardless of expected or unexpected death, it leaves a sole income, responding to bills. There are numerous exorbitant details that will need to be paid by the sole income provider in a short time, following the death. Embalming, cremation, and burial plots are quite costly. This is when a life insurance policy can be a sort of hero, paying all these things, and allowing the living person of the relationship to have time to grieve.

Being a single-parent does not exclude anyone from gaining a life insurance policy. When the beneficiaries, the children, are not 18 years old, usually they do not get a lump sum settlement. After all expenses of the funeral are paid, the remainder is usually set up in a fund with stipulations set by the policy holder.
Service providers for the public are most likely to be located within one office. When this happens life insurance policies are taken out on one another to stabilize finances will not be compromised in case of death.

Older couples with children, usually purchase a cheaper form of insurance. The sole purpose of this type of policy is to pay for the charges of a final respects ceremony.

As we get older, we are most likely to experience health problems that cause hospitalization or the inevitable supervised rest homes. Older couples probably have these issues listed within the insurance policy, and these expenses can be paid also.

If you do not currently have life insurance, and you have loved ones it is a good idea that you purchase one. In case of a death, no matter of the situation, the expenses of burial will be covered along with a financial boost for the survivors.

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