Life Insurance & Finance

Whole life insurance quotes, the costliest type of insurance policies which are on the market owing to the fact of cash value over time. Whole life insurance is permanent life insurance coverage that lasts so long as you are alive and continue to make on time premium repayments. The reason that whole life insurance quotes are a great deal more expensive is due to the fact that the policy will have to pay out a loss of life benefit when you die.

People may wonder if there are any good techniques to getting a really low cost life insurance quote which may be less time consuming. There is indeed. A good way to search out the cheapest whole life insurance quotes is to check things out on the internet. More and more insurance companies are offering an online interface to provide a place for consumers to access life insurance quotes. These companies are sometimes able to give less expensive quotes in such a way because the online access helps them incur fewer expenses. The ease of utilizing these internet sites for obtaining life insurance quotes on the net is a great help to the customer. Such an online interface provides a customer with a prepared access to evaluating many insurance quotes from numerous providers in a brief space of time.

When you evaluate the whole life insurance quotes you’ve got, the most affordable is not always the best one to pick. They can be quite inexpensive as a result of the payment of premiums stretches out over a longer period of time. When you are evaluating the net life insurance quotes you obtain, you shouldn’t just take into consideration the quantity of the monthly premium but the length of time that you have to pay the premiums.

Getting one of the best whole life insurance quotes shouldn’t be a difficult phenomenon with today’s Internet. A little bit of research and education regarding life insurance basics are usually found at your fingertips. A person should compare such things as premium costs, length of payment, actual benefit to be paid, etc. A bit of advance homework can insure that you discover reasonably priced whole life insurance quotes and prepare effectively for the future.

Individuals buy life insurance policies to protect items that are essential to them, like their family, organizations, or a great many other things. Perhaps the insurance coverage is used to fund a buy-sell arrangement, to shape an estate planning strategy, or just to replace individual income in the event of death, term policies are designed to be there in case that you arenýt. Nevertheless, what would happen for anybody who is unable to pay your life insurance monthly premiums because of a disability? The Disability Waiver of Premium (WP) could possibly be your answer to those fears.

Waiver of Premium is really a rider that can be linked to your life insurance plan. Like other riders, it can be meant customize the policy for an individual’s needs in addition to to enhance the coverage of the policy to which it’s attached. It is doing so by ýwaivingý the monthly premiums on a policy when the insured has been inflicted by a debilitating disability which has lasted for at least six months.

Once proof of disability is literally given to the life assurance company, the rider is induced both immediately and retroactively. Given that the insured is over the age of five (and so long as the rider was in effect), all premiums due in the period the insured with the policy is disabled are waived. In reality, though the disability must continue for six months prior to the WP is invoked, its retroactive nature shows that the life insurance company will refund premiums paid from the time of the start of the disability most of the time.

While the waiver of premium rider is definitely useful, its is not free. This term life insurance rider generally runs from 10-25% of one’s total premium, depending on your age and health situation. Additionally, a waiver of premium rider is only available until age 65 in most cases. After 65, if the life insurance is still in force, the rider vanishes, and your premium drops due to the fact that you arenýt investing in the waiver of disability premium anymore.

So, if you do not think that you can continue to pay your life insurance premiums as the result of a disability, you might just want to explore the waiver of premium rider to determine if it makes sense for you.

A relative has just died. He had a life insurance policy with you listed as the beneficiary. There’s just one problem: the life insurance policy is missing. You have no idea which insurance company wrote it.If you find the missing life insurance policy in the future, are you still eligible to receive the death benefit?

Hope they paid their insurance bills.
If you’re a beneficiary and you find the lost life insurance policy shortly after the insured dies (within six months to a year, for example), claiming the death benefit should be trouble-free.

First, determine if the insured had term or permanent life insurance. If the insured held a term policy, you’ll receive the death benefit if he died before the end of the policy term. If he died after the policy expiration date, you would get nothing.

If the insured had a permanent life policy, you’ll receive the money if the death occurred while the policy was “in force,” meaning all premium payments were made up until the time of death. If the death was a while ago, you’ll receive the benefit with interest from the date of death.

If the life insurance policy lapsed — meaning the insured stopped making premium payments before he died — there’s a chance you might get nothing. When a permanent life insurance policy lapses, most insurance companies switch its status from permanent insurance to one of two options:

“Extended term” — The insurance company uses the cash value of the policy to buy a term life insurance policy for the same death benefit using the cash value of the policy. The death benefit will continue for the longest period the cash value will purchase.

“Reduced paid up” — The insurance company will keep the policy in force permanently, but will reduce the death benefit.

Gerry Brogla, an actuary for State Farm, says in the majority of the cases at his company, the permanent policy continues as extended term if it lapses. At State Farm, extended term is the default option for most permanent policies.

If the policy lapses, and the extended-term period expires before the insured dies, the policy is worthless and the life insurance beneficiary will get nothing. If the insured dies before the extended-term period is up, the beneficiary will receive the death benefit. If the policy lapsed because the insured died (thus ending premium payments and causing the insurance to be placed in extended-term status), the beneficiary will still collect the full death benefit, regardless of when the extended term was up. The beneficiary always needs to supply the insurance company with a death certificate to verify the date of death.

There is no time limit during which a life insurance beneficiary must step forward to collect the money, according to Jack Dolan, spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers. “If a person shows up 30 years after [the insured's] death, the company still makes good on it,” Dolan assures.

What happens if no one ever reports the death?

If the insured dies and the insurance company does not learn of the death, the policy lapses. Insurance companies will take steps to find out why a policyholder stopped making payments.

When an insurance company stops getting payments, it sends letters to the insured informing him the policy may lapse as a result of unpaid premiums. If the letters go unanswered, the company might initiate a search to find the insured. If that comes up empty, the company will then lapse the policy.

If a beneficiary to a policy never steps forward, it unfortunately means the insured paid money to a policy throughout his life and his beneficiaries never see a penny. This is why its a good idea to make sure beneficiaries are aware of any life insurance policies you have.

If you’re lucky, the state may have your money

In some cases when a beneficiary fails to claim a death benefit for several years, the money is transferred to the state where the insurance policy was purchased under the escheat laws.

If a company knows an insured died and it cannot find the beneficiary, it must turn the full death benefit over to the state comptroller’s department within three to five years of the insured’s death. The money is transferred to the state where the insured bought the policy. The money is considered “unclaimed property” and gets lumped in with dormant bank accounts and uncollected rent deposits. The controller’s department maintains a database that lists the names and addresses of lost life insurance beneficiaries.

Many states will try to contact life insurance beneficiaries in an effort to pay the death benefits. In Texas, for example, the names and addresses of the beneficiaries are published annually in each county in the state. In New York, the Web site of the New York State Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds has an online search to find any unclaimed death benefits owed to you. You can find out the procedures in your state by contacting the office of your state comptroller or treasurer.

Keep in mind your chances of finding the policy with the state are slim. The insurance company has no obligation to hand the money over to the state if it’s unaware the insured died. In most cases, it’s the beneficiary who contacts the insurance company.

Also, the insurer only transfers the money to the state three to five years after it cannot find the beneficiary but knows the insured died. If the state doesn’t have the death benefit, it’s likely the insurer is still looking for the beneficiary or doesn’t know the policyholder has died.

Unclaimed death benefits are rarely transferred to the state. Dave Potter, a spokesman for Hartford Life, says less than 1 percent of his company’s death benefits go unclaimed.

Del Chance, a life insurance claims manager at State Farm, says, “Turning over life policy benefits to an individual state after the death of an insured is extremely rare. State Farm utilizes their own search techniques as well as outside vendors to locate lost beneficiaries in the event of the death of one of our insureds. By and large these procedures have always located the beneficiary.

Tips for making sure your life insurance beneficiaries get your death benefit:

1. Give your beneficiaries your policy information. It can be a difficult and awkward conversation, but an important one.
2. Keep all your financial records (especially your life insurance policies) in one place. Don’t force your beneficiaries to search your house from top to bottom after you die.

Tips for looking for lost life insurance policies:

1. Go through canceled checks or contact your relative’s bank for copies of old checks. Look for checks made out to insurance companies.
2. Ask those who may have known about your relative’s finances. Speak with the relative’s lawyer, banker or accountant. Also contact the relative’s insurance agent.
3. Contact your relative’s past employers. They might know of possible group life insurance. The insured might have also purchased supplemental life insurance through work.
4. Check the mail for a year. Premium bills and policy-status notices are usually sent annually.
5. Look at income tax returns for the past two years. Check for interest income from policies or expenses paid to life insurance companies.
6. Contact the Medical Information Bureau. If your relative bought life insurance fairly recently, there might be a trail of the companies to which he applied. The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) maintains a database that might show if insurers requested your relative’s medical information within the past seven years. Record searches can be requested through the MIB’s Policy Locator Service and cost $75. The MIB says that nearly 30 percent of searches turn up leads.

When considering life insurance, being well informed is the first step to finding a policy that will best meet your needs. Life insurance in its simplest form refers to a policy than an individual takes out with the express intention of being compensated in the happenstance of misfortune, in particular death. The insured is to pay an agreed upon amount to the insurance company at the end of each stipulated month. The amount payable would constitute as an insurance premium. Upon the death of the insured, the agreed upon amount will be paid out to the named beneficiary of the insured. At the time of purchasing the life insurance policy, the insured is able to nominate a beneficiary, in most cases being a close family member, to receive the payout at the time of death.
Continue reading “Life Insurance made simple” »

Advances in medicine and increased life expectancy have diluted the importance of life insurance, according to a leading South African surgeon. Dr. Marius Barnard asserted that these days critical illness insurance is a wiser investment due to its practical benefits.

Dr. Barnard, who created the first critical illness insurance in 1983, said: ‘If you die at 30, life insurance was more important, but if you get a critical illness at 55, or 45 when you are at the height of your earning ability and you have an operation and survive another ten to 20 years, then Critical Illness Insurance was more important.

Where workability decreases and the ability to provide for your financial needs diminishes, I think that the critical illness policy is much better.’
This view is based on a much higher national life expectancy, alongside rapidly developing medical research that makes it possible to diagnose previously fatal conditions and prolong the patient’s life. A patient diagnosed with a serious illness but living for a further twenty years would receive a payout on their critical illness cover that they would not get on their life insurance policy.

Critical illness insurance has risen in scope and popularity over the last few years to cover 58 conditions as opposed to 4 when it was first introduced. It now includes functional diseases such as multiple sclerosis and an estimated 12 million adults and children are covered by a critical illness policy.

However, there have been many stories in the press concerning aggrieved policy-holders whose insurers have reneged on their critical illness cover. An investigation carried out last summer by the BBC’s One Show discovered that many conditions that the policy-holders believed were covered were excluded and that the terms of the policies required meticulous medical records to be kept.
A spokesperson for the show said: ‘It’s no mean feat remembering every single visit to the doctor – but that’s what insurance companies expect you to do when you’re filling out a critical illness form – and it’s the kind of question that’s catching a lot of people out. The first thing is to remember that insurance companies are profit-making enterprises. The onus is on you to make sure that you’ve covered all your bases before you get ill, rather than expect any goodwill from the company when disaster strikes.’

Dr. Barnard is keen to highlight the number of successful cases of critical illness cover payouts: ‘All I hear when I walk around here is that 20% of critical illness claims are not paid. However, the fact is that 80% are paid. Statistics such as 20% of the claims are not being paid are not strictly true because 20% of the claims should not be paid because they don’t fit the criteria.’

He has also outlined what changes he would like to see in the form and structure of critical illness insurance. As things stand at the moment a lump sum is paid out to the holder upon diagnosis, but Dr. Barnard would prefer it to be paid out in stages as the illness increases in severity: ‘Diagnosis is getting better and most people have treatment and then walk out. If they continue to receive full payout at diagnosis, the cover will become so expensive it will no longer remain affordable for those that really need it.’

One of the biggest fears for many people is not being able to pay the mortgage – or meet other financial commitments
 - if they are made redundant or unable to work due to illness or accident.

This is particularly worrying in the current uncertain climate, but one of the simplest ways to cover loss of earnings is by taking out income protection.

What is income protection Insurance?

Income protection pays out a regular tax-free replacement income if you are unable to work because of ill health or an accident; it enables you to pay the mortgage, as well as the daily costs of living.

How does it work?

Income protection policies pay out a set amount of income after a specified period of time, and you can elect a waiting period of between one and 12 months; the longer you defer, the cheaper the policy.
It usually then pays out until you either return to work, retire, the policy expires – or death.

How much does it cost?

Premiums are based on age, health, amount covered, term of the policy, waiting period, and whether you smoke.

For a 25-year old male with cover until the age of 60, the average premiums range from £23 per month for a four-week deferral period, to £11 per month for a 52-week deferral period (*).

The rates for women are slightly higher, and the average cost of for a 25-year old female with cover to age 60 range from £34 per month for a four-week deferral period, to £15 per month for a 52-week deferral period (*).

Should I take it out?

While life insurance might be the first protection policy that springs to mind when you have children, and mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) the first policy when you buy a new home, income protection could actually be the better option.
This is because it’s a lot more likely that one or both parents will not be able to work through long-term sickness than through dying, and because MPPI offers limited cover, and policies can be relatively difficult to claim on as they often include a number of exclusions.

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

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.

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.

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.