Posted: December 15th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Travel Insurance | Tags: Annual Travel Insurance, Business Professionals, Car Accident, Couple Of Times A Year, Holiday Homes, Holidays, Insurance, Insurance Cost, Insurance Cover, Insurance Travel, Luggage, Policy Students, Pros And Cons, Time Fee, Travels, Trip Insurance, Trip Policies, Trip Travel Insurance, Unforeseen Circumstances, Weather | Comments Off
Travelling and taking holidays can be a lot of fun, but it can also be scary. If something goes wrong, you may find yourself in a foreign land amongst foreign people with no idea where to turn for help. Travel insurance prevents this from happening by helping you through all of the unforeseen circumstances that may befall you on a trip. Travel insurance can help cover expenses if you become ill or injured, lose your luggage, have a car accident or have to change your plans due to weather or illness.
There are two basic types of travel insurance: annual travel insurance and single trip travel insurance. Annual travel insurance is purchased annually and covers all of your travels for the entire year. Single trip travel insurance is purchased at the beginning of each trip and is only good for that trip.
There are benefits and drawbacks associated with each type of travel insurance. The following two sections will address the pros and cons of each.
Pros and Cons of Annual Travel Insurance
When you purchase annual travel insurance, you pay a one-time fee. This fee covers the cost of the insurance for the whole year. If you travel a lot, this price is almost always less than you would pay for multiple single-trip policies. But the price for annual travel insurance is also more than you would pay for one or two single-trip policies. So you need to have a clear idea of how often you will use the insurance before you spend the money for it.
Annual travel insurance is ideal for people who travel a lot. Business professionals, people with family living abroad, and families with holiday homes usually benefit the most from such a policy. Students who have to travel back and forth from school may also benefit from this type of policy.
Pros and Cons of Single Trip Travel Insurance
Single trip travel insurance is the most cost effective way to purchase travel insurance if you only have need of it a couple of times a year. It is spontaneous. You can purchase travel insurance prior to any trip even if it is spur of the moment. It is also inexpensive. Single trip travel insurance normally costs about four to seven percent of the entire cost of any prepaid trip.
If you make a lot of spontaneous trips, however, you could end up spending more than you bargained for if you purchase a separate policy each time you leave town.
Both annual and single trip travel insurances offer the same coverage. The only real discrepancy between them is cost. Therefore, you need to choose the most cost effective way to purchase the insurance that best meets your needs. If you have any doubts, talk to a travel agent. They will be able to help you compare prices and coverage options. The most important thing is that you always travel while insured. You need to be prepared for everything that may happen.
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: January 11th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Life Insurance | Tags: Brouhaha, Daily Basis, Dependents, Exclamation Marks, Family Member, Financial Difficulties, Financial Security, Funerals, Life Camps, Life Insurance Policy, Lifers, Loss Of A Loved One, Online Communities, Policyholder, Pros And Cons, Strong Opinions, Term Life Coverage, Term Life Insurance, Waste Of Money, Whole Life Insurance | No Comments »
“Do I need life insurance?” “Is whole life insurance a good investment?” “Is term life insurance risky?” Questions like these are posted in online communities on a daily basis. The answers vary widely, with the term life and whole life camps polarized. The tone of the debate is surprisingly strident. After all, the topic is insurance—not a something expected to inspire strong opinions, let alone strong language. But words like “rip-off,” “scam,” and “waste of money” fly back and forth, sometimes accompanied by rows of exclamation marks or worse. What is behind the brouhaha? And which camp—if either—is right?
The two sides do not even agree about whether a person needs life insurance. Whole lifers say, yes. You do not want the death of a family member to disrupt your family’s finances or jeopardize its future. It is hard enough to adjust to the loss of a loved one. Adding financial difficulties exacerbates the problem. With the skyrocketing costs of funerals, even children and seniors should have at least a small life insurance policy.
Not so fast, say the term lifers. The only reason to have life insurance is to replace the lost income of a family member who dies, and then only when the spouse or family is dependent on that income. If you are single with no dependents and no debts that might be transferred to your family in the event you die, then you do not need life insurance. If you are married and your spouse works, you probably do not need life insurance, either, assuming your spouse makes enough to support himself or herself.
The time for life insurance, term lifers say, is when the policyholder’s income is vital to the financial security of the family. If, for example, you have purchased a home together and your spouse could not pay the mortgage and other bills by himself or herself, then life insurance is in order. If you have children, you will want to have enough life insurance to allow your family to maintain its lifestyle after you are gone. This includes not only meeting day-to-day expenses, but also being able to follow through with plans for higher education. Insurance professionals recommend buying a policy with a face value 5-10 times the breadwinner’s annual salary to help family meet expenses for a period of years.
Whole lifers see problems with the term-life scenario. The view it as overly optimistic, even naïve. Many things can happen during the 20- to 30-year period covered by term life insurance that could extend the need for coverage beyond the policy’s end date. For example, children may be born mentally retarded, with severe autism, or with another serious condition that could prevent them from becoming independent when they reach adulthood. Children also can develop a disease or suffer an accident that disables them. A spouse, too, can become disabled. In these situations, the family will remain dependent on the breadwinner’s income long after the term life policy expires.
Term life insurance advocates point out that in such cases, the breadwinner can renew the term life policy, or take out a new one. Now it’s the whole lifers’ turn to say, “Not so fast.” By the time the second term life policy is needed, the breadwinner will likely be in his or her fifties or even sixties. Due to the age of the insured, the cost of a second term life policy will be much higher than the cost of the first was. With the added years come added risks of certain diseases. If the breadwinner is obese, has developed high blood pressure, a heart condition, diabetes, or another disease, the cost of the term life policy will skyrocket. If the individual has developed cancer or AIDS, he or she may not be insurable at all. In such situations, the cost savings realized on the first term life policy could be wiped out by the high cost of a second term life policy.
By contrast, the premiums of a whole life policy are set for life and do not go up with age or medical condition. A whole life policy cannot be canceled due to medical conditions, either. The policy remains in force until death, as long as the premiums are paid.
“Until death” is another advantage of whole life, its advocates maintain. Whole life gets its name from the fact that it insures the policyholder life until death. As a result, whole life insurance is guaranteed to pay a death benefit—the amount the policy pays upon the death of the insured. The death benefit can be increased—at certain points at no additional cost—as the policyholder ages. A small policy designed to cover the funeral costs of a child can be increased to provide adequate coverage during an adult’s peak earning years. Whatever the death benefit or “face value” of the whole life policy, the insurance company guarantees to pay it. As a result, the policyholder or his or her beneficiaries always receive some, all, or more than the premiums paid into the policy.
This is not the case with a term life policy, whole lifers point out. The term life insurance policyholder can pay premiums for 30 years, but if he or she outlives the policy—even by a day—then all of the premium money is gone. The only thing the policyholder will have received is 30 years worth of peace of mind.
Whole life insurance, by contrast, accumulates a value that the policyholder can access during his or her lifetime. This value is known as the cash value or the surrender value. The whole life policy holder can use the cash value as collateral for a loan, or even borrow some of it during his or her lifetime. The policyholder must pay this amount back. If he or she dies before it is paid back, then the unpaid amount is deducted from the death benefit. If the policyholder decides to cancel the policy, the insurance company will pay him or her the cash value, which is then known as the surrender value. Whole life, its proponents maintain, is not only insurance against death. It is an investment for life.
This is where the debate turns nasty. Term lifers often ridicule the investment features of whole life. Because whole life always pays a death benefit, it costs 5-10 times more than term life does. Term lifers argue that a person is much better off getting a term policy for the same face value that they would get a whole life policy, then saving and investing the difference in premiums. Almost any investment will return more than a whole life policy will, term lifer proponents maintain. Over 20 or 30 years, the difference can be vast. Buy insurance to insure, the term lifers say, and use the savings to invest.
Whole lifers respond that the return on a whole life policy is guaranteed at the outset, something than cannot be said for other investments. To earn greater rewards, the term life policyholder must take greater risks in the open market. Many investments will outperform whole life insurance, but not all will. Some investments lose money, as shareholders in World Com, Enron, Peregrine Systems, and many other companies can attest.
Even if the investment will pay out, it is not certain that the term life policyholder will actually make it. To do so, he or she must calculate the amount saved over whole life insurance; save that money every month, quarter, or year; research possible investments; and contribute to that investment regularly for 20 or 30 years. This makes sense for disciplined and savvy investors, but many others will find the endeavor daunting and time consuming. They may not start it, and if they do, they may not continue it. Whole life takes care of insurance, savings, and investment in one easy payment. Even if the returns on whole life are not great, saving something is better than saving nothing, and nothing is exactly how much many term life policyholders will end up saving.
Both whole life and term life have pros and cons. People who are financially savvy and disciplined will gain from the term life scenario. Those who need a convenient and simple mechanism for insurance and savings will benefit from whole life insu
rance. Deciding which is best for you requires an honest appraisal of your goals, your lifestyle, and your investing skills.