Tips to Getting Life Insurance

If you need life insurance you should determine how much insurance is appropriate and the type of life insurance policy that would best meet your family’s needs. Do we have a life insurance policy equal to the value of the business, simple, investment grade life insurance?

Your life insurance quote will be less once you’ve got one year smoke free under your belt. I had a renewed sense of self-confidence and hope for my health, auto and life insurance needs. Firstly, a Life Insurance policy combined with Critical Illness cover will work out significantly cheaper than buying two separate policies.

This agreement is funded buy a small business life insurance policy specially bought for that purpose. However, in the author’s view it will take more than a decade to get people covered by life insurance above the 50% level. = Life Insurance Can Help Pay for the Care and Education of Your Children = If you are a family with ‘special needs’ children, you may be paying for special tutoring or child care.

To make sure that you will be able to pay it back at the end, you take out an endowment policy with a life insurance company. These policies will enable you to convert your current term coverage to permanent life insurance at a later date, and generally a medical exam is not required.

Life Settlement Regulations As of June, 2003, eighteen (18) states have enacted statutes addressing the sale of life insurance policies insuring non-terminally or chronically ill individuals and an additional seventeen (17) states have laws that only regulate the sale of life insurance policies insuring terminally or chronically ill individuals.

Life insurance buys you the time you need. Other Options If you come to the conclusion that selling your life insurance policy is not for you, there are other options (though none that would provide you with such a large lump sum). The basic idea behind life insurance is that if you die prematurely, there will be a pot of money there to take care of your loved ones.

Senior Life Settlement Industry focus all the effort on senior citizens, who possessing an unwanted or unneeded life insurance policy, decide to sells life settlements to a third party company instead of surrendering it back to their default life insurance company. For those who are not terminally ill, selling the life insurance might be a good idea for a number of reasons. As a Life Insurance person, I always try to put myself in a position to win.

Not the same way you would commit to a life insurance policy premium. Also referred to as second-to-die life insurance, common abbreviations are SWL for survivor whole life and SUL for survivor universal life. These jobs fall under Civil Service and, as such, offer excellent benefits, including generous health plans, thrift savings plans, life insurance, annual leave, sick leave, and a student loan repayment plan.

In a guaranteed or non-profit endowment policy, the life insurance company agrees to pay the amount of money you borrowed at the end of the term (or on your death, if you die before then) and does no more than that. ‘I’m in Hardware’ ‘I’m a Plumber’ ‘I sell life insurance and used cars’, thinking about a Joint Life Insurance Policy.

Come and type in ‘life insurance quote’, notify your husband’s employer and file for any benefits owed you, such as pension income, life insurance and health insurance coverage. Well, there is a reason you are interested in purchasing a term life insurance policy in the first place.

The Lowdown on Life Insurance Medical Exams

There are three main ways a new life insurance policy is priced: Underwritten policies are those where you answer questions on your personal and family medical history and undergo a medical exam arranged by the insurance company; a simplified issue life insurance policy application asks you some medical questions but does not require a medical exam; and a guaranteed issue life insurance policy requires no questions and no medical exam. If you’re healthy, or even if you have a few medical problems, you’re likely to get the best insurance value from an underwritten policy, which is priced specifically for you. Simplified issue and guaranteed issue life insurance policies set a price that assumes risk that you may not have.

Whether you’re buying term life insurance or whole life insurance, you’ll likely be asked to undergo a medical exam. These are typically performed by licensed paramedicals who are often independent contractors hired by the insurance company. They will schedule a visit to your home for the exam and bring all the necessary supplies. The life insurance company foots the bill for the exam.

Health questions

When you submit your completed application for your life insurance policy, your agent or life insurer will call a paramedical service to let them know you require an life insurance medical exam. The service will then contact you to arrange a convenient time and place. You must have the exam or your application won’t be processed.

The life insurer may still request an attending physician’s statement (APS) from your doctor, but you cannot have the life insurance medical exam done by your own physician.

In a basic exam, the paramedical will take your medical history (even though you’ve already supplied it on your application), height and weight, blood pressure, pulse, and blood and urine samples. Beyond that, tests will vary based on your age and policy amount.

For example, MetLife will order an in-home EKG for applicants age 50 and older who are applying for face amounts of at least $1 million. For applicants age 70 and older who are applying for $2 million policies and higher, MetLife forgoes the paramedical exam and requires an exam by an M.D. chosen by MetLife (not your own doctor). The doctor will ask the same medical questions as a paramedical and get your height, weight, blood pressure and pulse, plus do a brief medical exam such as listening to your heart.

Jacki Goldstein, Vice President of Life Underwriting at MetLife, emphasizes that this is not a comprehensive medical exam and does not include sensitive issues, such as a breast exam for women. Goldstein also stresses that the M.D. life insurance exam is not a substitute for good routine medical care.

When age and face amounts get higher, a treadmill test may be required. For example, MetLife requires treadmill tests for applicants who are at least 50 and applying for over $10 million in insurance or applicants 76 and older applying for $5 million or more.

If you’re applying for a low face value policy, you may not even be asked to do a paramedical exam. For example, if you’re age 40 and applying for $50,000 of life insurance, MetLife requires no specific tests or measurements. And for some cases, MetLife asks for a “simple paramed” exam, encompassing the basic measurements and blood and urine work but without the paramedical question list. Guidelines for tests will vary among life insurers.

What are They Looking For?

The life insurance company wants to know if you have any health condition that could shorten your life  which in turn affects the insurer’s risk and your policy premium. When samples of blood and urine are collected, the insurer tests for HIV, cholesterol and related lipids, liver or kidney disorder, diabetes, hepatitis, prostate specific antigen (PSA) and immune disorders. The urine sample might go through routine analysis, plus screening for certain medications, cocaine and other drugs.

Results go to the life insurer’s home office for an underwriter to review. You can usually send a written request if you want a copy of the results, and some insurers will automatically send you a copy of your lab work. If there’s anything of concern about the lab results, you would need to consult your own doctor. Goldstein says, “It’s not uncommon to have abnormalities that don’t mean anything.”

A life insurance underwriter then reviews your application and the results of your medical exam. They decide your life insurance rating, which sets your premium. If there are lingering questions about your health, they may request additional information or medical tests. In the very rare event you are unknowingly quite ill  chronically or terminally  your application would be declined and you would have to look for a high-risk carrier or one that offers guaranteed issue life insurance.

Don’t Let Your Life Insurance Premiums Go Up In Smoke

Smokers pay higher premiums for life insurance because of their higher mortality rate. If any nicotine shows up in your results, you’ll be considered a smoker. The test also detects nicotine from a transdermal patch.

After the Life Insurance Exam Results

If your test results correlate with the classification used for your original life insurance quote, you’ll have no problem getting that rate. If a medical problem is discovered, you might be offered a life insurance policy with a higher premium.

There are two types of risk ratings: “flat” ratings, sometimes called temporary flat extras, and “table” ratings. Underwriters assess health conditions based sophisticated table to determine how to rate certain health conditions.

For instance, an underwriter might apply a flat rating for a short period of time for a person who has just had surgery. On the other hand, a person with high-blood pressure could receive a table rating, which increases premiums by a set amount for the duration of the policy, depending on your medical condition and age. If you disagree with a rating you receive, contact your agent.

Agents can find out if the rating can be revised based on supplemental medical tests to prove you qualify for a better rating.

Even if you end up declining the life insurance policy, your test results become part of your record in MIB Group’s database (formerly the Medical Information Bureau), a clearinghouse of medical information that insurers share which stores information for seven years after you apply for a life, health, disability income, long term care or critical illness insurance policy.

MIB is jointly owned by about 470 insurance companies. So, if you go shopping around for other term or whole life insurance policies, remember that your medical information is accessible to other insurers in the near future. Note that MIB’s database does not contain actual medical records but rather codes that represent medical conditions and tests, hazardous hobbies and even your bad driving record.

If you want to check your MIB file, or dispute information in it, you can obtain one free report annually at www.mib.com.

No Way, You Say?

Life insurance medical exams are really quite routine. But if you want to avoid a medical exam at all costs, you could buy a simplified issue life insurance policy, which requires only that you answer a few medical questions, or a guaranteed issue life insurance policy, which requires neither an exam nor questions.

Keep in mind, though, that if you’re in general good health, or even with a history of some health issues, you’ll likely get a much better rate by buying a life insurance policy that requires a medical exam.

Tips for a Better Life Insurance Medical Exam

Certain health conditions simply cannot be masked, but to obtain the best possible results, here are some recommendations:

-Get a good night’s rest the night before your exam. -Don’t drink for at least eight hours before the exam.

-Avoid coffee, tea or other caffein
ated drinks such as soda for at least one hour prior to the exam.

-Limit salt intake and high-cholesterol food 24 hours before your exam.

-Don’t engage in strenuous physical activities 24 hours before the exam.

Source: Exam & Profile Services, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin