Archive for October, 2008

How can I tell the differences in life insurance ?

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Whole life- called ordinary life insurance and sometimes straight life insurance - is the original permanent life insurance coverage and is still the most commonly found in force life insurance policy today. The concept is simplicity itself:

  • 1. Premium payments are made for life at a rate fixed by the company and agreed by the applicant.
  • 2. When the name insured dies, the company pays the face amount to the named beneficiary. It’s that simple.

The company can never raise the premium rate nor can it cancel the policy as long as the premium is paid on a timely basis (absent fraud, in which case the policy can be rescinded, but fraud claims are rare). The insurance company therefore promises to pay the face amount upon death, whether that occurs the day after coverage becomes effective at age 99. To keep this promise, the company employs actuaries who determine the premium payment levels that will be adequate to fund the guarantees in the policy. Life insurance company actuarial science is, as the term implies, very scientific and fairly precise. It involves the pooling of risks over a large population of insured persons. The company has no idea which specific insured persons will die in any given year, but it knows which considerable accuracy how many will die each year, and their likely age distribution.

This knowledge allows actuaries to calculate premiums and set adequate reserve levels necessary to keep the promises made by the company. Although this is not actually in the life insurance policy, if the insured person lives to the end of the specified mortality table, the company usually considers the policy ‘endowed’ and pays the full face amount to the policy owner.

Whole life has become much less popular over the past 20 years, with the introduction of universal life, variable life and variable universal life. Such policies are more rigid than adjustable life, universal life and variable universal life in the sense that premiums must be paid on time otherwise the policy lapses.

Factors to consider when buying life insurance ?

Friday, October 24th, 2008

One of the best ways to search for life insurance is to consult the Internet. With so many businesses running online, you will undoubtedly come across thousands of insurance providers. You will easily get life insurance quotes and comparing them on your computer would be much easier than ever. Similar to any other product that you buy, be it food or electrical appliances, you need to look closely at the price tag. Often the price of an object is the reflection of its quality, unless it is in promotion. You need to employ the same technique while buying a life insurance scheme. You need to look closely at all its aspects and also at the various stipulations found in the life insurance policy.

Choosing a life insurance plan with a low price tag is good as it allows you to economise. But if seen from another point of view, one would almost immediately scrutinize its quality. Put in other words, a cheap life insurance plan may not provide as much benefits as an expensive one, unless if there are promotional offers. As a matter of fact, you should take your time to analyse the whole life insurance policy before you make an agreement with your insurers. Besides, reading and understanding the whole policy is as well vital. This helps you to know under which conditions you are covered or not. It also plays an important role to get rid of possible confusions that may arise with your insurers in the future.

If asked, most people would tell you that once they make a claim they want to obtain the lump sum hassle free from life insurance. Well, for this to happen, you definitely need to be in rule with your life insurance policy. If everything is fine, it will only be a matter of days before you obtain the money.

Can I add terminal illness to my life insurance ?

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Yes most life insurance polices contain terminal illness as standard. Terminal illness means that if you are diagnosed as having less than 12 months to live the policy will pay out and this means you will be eligable to make a claim against your policy. The idea behing terminal illness on a life insurance policy is that the polcy will pay whilst you are still alive and hopefully give you a chance to sort out your affairs before you finally passing away. Examples of this could be to sort your loved ones out or to pay off any debts you may have before you pass away.

The terminal illness insurance is normally standard in most life insurance policies, if you find a contract is charging extra for terminal illness insurance then I suggest you should look elsewhere for a contract that will inlcude this in for nothing. Terminal illness can also be included into your critical illness and life insurance combined policy if you buy one of these type of polices.

Terminal illness is often confused for critical illness insurance, this is nothing like terminal illness and is a lot more expensive as this is insurance will cover you for a number of pre determined critical illnesses. Critical illness is claimed upon a lot more than life insurance as there is a higher possiblity of getting a critical illness than dying or getting a terminal illness.

What is accidental death benefit on my life insurance plan ?

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

With the majority of life insurance policies they offer a small added extra whilst the policy is being underwritten. Before explaining accidental death cover it is important that you understand what the process is for underwriting a life insurance plan. The first part of the plan is to collect the underwriting information, this is normally done in the form of a paper based application form. Once the information has been collated on the form it is passed to the chosen insurance provider. This is normally done via an electronic submission via the internet or some of the providers who are not quite so technically advanded need the paper application form sending directly to them.

Once the application is recieved by the provider it then has to be underwritten, the underwriting process can take a number of days, weeks or even months. This is dependent on the doctors normally and how quickly they respond to the requests of the insurance provider. It is during this period that accidental death benefit would come into place. The accidental death benefit would normally pay the lower of the amount of cover applied for or a lump sum of £300,000.

This is seen a little bit like a goodwill gesture from the company and if the underwriting process is taking longer than expected this gives a bit of peace of mind.