Posted: September 25th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Life Insurance | Tags: Beneficiaries, Death Benefit, Earnings, Insurance Company, Insurance Premiums, Insurance Protection, Investment Experts, Investment Opportunities, Life Insurance Policies, Life Insurance Policy, Loan Interest Rate, Policy Choices, Policy Loan, Policyholder, Pros And Cons, Rate Of Return, Smart Investment, Term Life Insurance, Whole Life Insurance, Whole Life Insurance Policies | Comments Off
Whole life insurance refers to a policy that pays out an amount of funds to the selected beneficiaries upon the passing away of the policyholder. The policyholder is supported for life.
These policies may be useful to those who want improved cover while they have children dependant upon them and then later want to reduce cover to last their life. Here follows an explanation of whole life insurance.
An Explanation Of Whole Life Insurance:
Whole life insurance covers you for your entire life and not just for a particular period such as term life insurance.
Whole life insurance also builds cash value. This is a return on a part of your premiums that the insurance company invests. Your cash value is tax-deferred until you withdraw it.
Borrowing From Whole Life Insurance Policies:
The earnings on the cash value in the policy can be borrowed against in the form of a policy loan. The death benefit is reduced by the amount of the loan if the loan is not paid off. You may borrow at the present policy loan interest rate.
Whole Life Insurance As Investment:
Usually investment experts agree that life insurance should not be used only as an investment. You should judge your policy choices on the protection it gives and not the rate of return on the investment. The rate of return on a whole life insurance policy is normally low when compared to other investments.
Pros And Cons Of Whole Life Insurance:
The pros of whole life insurance:
– The policy lasts your entire life.
– Your annual premiums are fixed.
– Part of your premium is invested for you.
The cons of whole life insurance:
- Fixed premiums are more expensive than term premiums.
- Whole life insurance may be a less smart investment than other investment opportunities.
Most people do not have life insurance after the age of 65.
Juvenile Whole Life Insurance:
Juvenile whole life insurance works like most other whole life insurance plans. The child gets insurance protection for her whole life as long as the premiums are continually paid.
The paramount way to protect your whole family is by having ample life insurance for yourself. However, buying life insurance for your children can give them benefits in addition to what your own life insurance policy may offer to them.
Online Whole Life Insurance Quotes:
Getting a whole life insurance quote online does not have to involve too much research on your part. Hunt for a trustworthy whole life insurance company yourself or use one of the many web sites out there that do all the searching for you. You may then log onto the various sites and check out the rates for whole life insurance. If you have a local life insurance company, you may want to ask their advice. Since there are normally more than one life insurer represented in every town, you may want to compare their life cover products to see which is the best life insurance policy for your needs.
Most life cover policies cover aal the basics but be warned – if you are too truting you may pay for being so. Read the policies and if you find it dificult to understand you may ask the policy underwriter’s competition to give their review on the quote. Odds are they will tell you things about the policy that the life cover company did not mention.
Posted: September 10th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Life Insurance | Tags: Actuary, Beneficiary, Buy Insurance, Death Benefit, Default Option, Expiration Date, Insurance Bills, Insurance Companies, Insurance Company, Life Insurance Policies, Life Insurance Policy, Permanent Insurance, Permanent Life Insurance, Policy Expiration, Six Months, State Farm, Term Insurance, Term Life Insurance, Term Life Insurance Policy, Time Of Death | Comments Off
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 comptroller’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.
Posted: August 30th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Car Insurance | Tags: Car Companies, Car Insurance Companies, Car Insurance Rates, Car Repairs, Cars, Customize, Elements, Good Company, Insurability, Insurance, Insurance Company, Insurance Coverage, Insurance Premium, Insurer, Life Situation, Medical Attention, Purchasing Car, Quotes, Reliability, Saving Money | Comments Off
Saving money on car insurance requires a combination of techniques that improve your insurability, decrease the rate of insurance for your vehicles, and provide you with a unique advantage when it comes to purchasing car insurance.
This article will outline seven techniques that will ensure that you receive the lowest possible car insurance rates.
1 – Choosing the Best Insurer
Cost is certainly one factor when considering car insurance, but your insurer selection should be weighted more heavily on reliability. You could easily call a number of insurance companies, ask for quotes, and simply select the lowest bidder. However, even if the lowest cost insurer saves you hundreds of dollars a year in premium payments, that savings does you no good if you find yourself in an accident, needing car repairs or medical attention, with an unreliable and unresponsive insurance company. A good company is crucial. It’s not just about car insurance best rates.
#2 – Customize Your Policy
Before you begin calling around, it’s important that you determine the level of insurance coverage you need. Not everyone’s insurance needs are the same. Some families own two or three very expensive vehicles, while other families own only older used cars. Some people are members of AAA, while others are not. The specific terms of a policy should be determined by your life situation and the value of the items being insured.
#3 – How to Become Highly Insurable
Whether you’ve already purchased car insurance, or you are getting ready to start looking, one of the best things you can do to obtain the lowest possible rates is to improve those things that car insurance companies look at when they calculate your insurance premium. There are several things you can do in the short term to improve your insurability standing, and there are also things you can do over the long term to improve it as well. This section will describe four major elements of this technique to save money on your car insurance.
#4 – Reduce Your Car’s Insurance Rate
Another extremely effective technique to obtain the lowest possible insurance rate is to improve those things about your car which car insurance companies value the most when they calculate your insurance premium. There are several things that you can do before buying a car that will dramatically decrease your insurance premium. If you’ve already bought a car, however, and are looking for ways to decrease your existing insurance costs, there are still methods you can use that will substantially cut your premium costs.
#5 – Gaming the System
In addition to all of the techniques already listed in this article, there are also additional ways that you can use the insurance industries rating rules and premium calculation system in ways that will reduce your costs. Again, use the industry’s rules to get car insurance best rates.
#6 – Constantly Update Your Policy
One of the most important things that you can do to keep your insurance premium at a minimum is to always remember to update your insurance provider of any changes in your life that can reduce your insurance costs. Forgetting to do this can be very costly.
#7 – Deciding on Liability Only
There comes a point in the life of a car when the decision needs to be made whether or not it is worthwhile to maintain collision and comprehensive insurance coverage.
Getting Rock Bottom Insurance Rates
If you carefully follow each of the sections outlined in this guide, you are guaranteed to receive the lowest possible insurance rates for anyone within your calculated risk bracket. No one should ever overpay for car insurance – especially given the fact that there are so many insurers in the industry competing for your business.
Most people overpay for car insurance out of sheer laziness. However the consumer that understands how car insurance works, and is clever enough to take advantage of all of its loopholes, will save significantly on their premium in the long run.
Before you step foot into another insurance office, or visit another insurance website, make sure to print this guide and follow it carefully in order to ensure that you get the best insurance deal possible. Remember, car insurance best rates are achievable.