Life Insurance, The Facts

by: Joseph Kenny

Insurance involves transferring a risk that you bare, onto an insurance company, so that you no longer have to worry about the event occurring. While you pay a fee, or premium for this, what you get in return is peace of mind. So what is the risk that you are transferring with life insurance? Well, quite simply, it is the financial risk of your own death. It should also be remembered that it is in certain circumstances possible to insure the life of another person, such as your husband or wife, or an important employee. The insurance company will then pay out to the named beneficiary once the event occurs, and this is usually a family member or business associate of the insured.

The thing that insurance companies will be looking for is insurable interest. It may come as a surprise but in the early days of aviation, there were some clever entrepreneurs who would hang around at airports and buy life insurance policies on the passengers. Since plane crashes were very common, a good proportion of the insured passengers died and the insurance companies were faced with the prospect of paying out vast sums to these men.

This is not the reason insurance was developed and the system was not designed to cope with this kind of speculation. Therefore the rule developed that you could only insure the life of someone you had a real interest in surviving. There is also the public policy issue that it would be tempting to some people to insure strangers and then make sure they died soon.

The insurance policy will have two important details defined right at the outset. The first is who is to be paid out under the policy. While this seems obvious, it is important to think carefully about it as, unlike in most insurance contracts, the purchaser of the policy is rarely the beneficiary under a life insurance policy.

The second is the amount to be paid out on to occurrence of the event. It must be remembered that this is also subject to the rule of insurable interest and therefore you cannot have a policy on your life for more than your life is reasonably financially worth. Since the premium is partially calculated on the amount of the payout, you will simply be paying for more insurance than you can receive. Therefore be honest with how much you earn and how much support your providing to your family so that the premium will be accurately assessed.


About The Author
Joseph Kenny is the webmaster of the insurance site http://www.insure121.com/ where you will find information, news and links to the leading providers of insurance in the UK. If you found this article interesting you may find more articles of the same nature in the insurance guide http://www.insure121.com/Insurance_Guide located on site.

Life Insurance – Smokers and Overweights pay over 50% more!

by: Michael Challiner

The life insurance industry is becoming tougher on smokers and those of us who are overweight.

When an insurance company calculates its premiums, it has to work out the risk of you dying whilst the policy is in force. (Or with Critical Illness Insurance, the risk that you will become critically or seriously ill during the policy's term.) In this context, smoking and obesity have become increasingly important issues.

The life insurance industry pointedly ignores the views of some Pro Smoking Pressure Groups which argue that smokers under the age of 40 have around the same probability of dieing as non smokers. David Pickett, Life Insurance Manager at Sainsbury's spoke for the insurance industry when he confirmed “Health risks associated with smoking can have a big effect on life cover costs. It is vital for those who have kicked the habit to review their policies”.

Just how big an effect smoking has on life insurance costs was highlighted in a recent snapshot study by www.express-life-insurance.co.uk. This found that the average smoker paid 56% more than a non-smoker. The study was based on nine of the UK's top insurance companies and examined the premiums quoted for two men aged 30 asking for £100,000 cover over 25 years. The only difference between the application details was that one was a smoker and the other wasn't.

The life insurance industry has also recently tightened its belt on the overweight members of society. Previously, only people with a Body Mass Index of 33 or more were considered as overweight. This level has now been reduced by 16%. Now anyone with a BMI of 28 or more is likely to face premiums loaded by 50%. If you're anxious to know whether that includes you, you'll need a calculator! BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kilos by your height in meters and the result squared.

So if you're intending to apply for life insurance is may be as well to loose a few pounds first – oops kilos - and they're much harder to lose than pounds!

It's not quite so straightforward for smokers. To qualify as a non-smoker, most insurance companies insist that you must not have “smoked or otherwise consumed any form of nicotine products during the previous 12 months.” Indeed, some companies go further and extend the qualifying period to 5 years!

Because premiums for smokers and chubbies are so high, it becomes even more important to seek out the cheapest possible prices. As you're an internet surfer, the odds are you'll land a good discount. Just search for cheap life insurance and let your fingers do the walking!! You'll still pay more but the discount will soften the impact on the wallet. Expect online savings of 10% - 15%.


About The Author
Michael Challiner is an exclusive financial writer who writes articles primarily about UK family finance. One of the websites he writes for is Life Insurance Quotes Online. http://www.cheap-term-life-insurance-quotes-online.co.uk.

10 Year Term Life Insurance In All It's Glory

by: Donald Lusan

If you are looking for inexpensive life insurance may be the 10 year term life insurance policy would fit your need perfectly. This is life insurance in its simplest form. The policy contains a guaranteed death benefit from the outset and a guaranteed level premium. After the initial 10 years some life insurance companies allow you to renew the policy for an additional 10 years at an increased premium. This 10 year term policy provides you with ample insurance for small outlay over a fairly short period of time.

Policy Death Benefit

If you are the proud owner of a 10 year term life insurance policy. If you should die within 10 years of your ownership of this policy the full face amount is paid to your beneficiary, either in a lump sum or in the form of a monthly income. The monthly income may take one of several different income options. You may choose to take a life income with no certain period. After the beneficiary begins receiving the income if s/he should die suddenly that would be the end of the income. No one would get anything more from that 10 year life insurance policy. It does not matter if the income is paid only for one month. There are other options that would assure you, however, that would assure your beneficiaries more of a pay out.

You could choose to pay them a life income with a 10 or 20 year certain. This would guarantee that the income is paid for 10 or 20 years respectively. You could choose a fixed period option which would guarantee that the income is paid out for a fixed period, example 20 years or you could use the interest option, which would keep your principal in tact and pay only interest to beneficiaries for a specific period of years. At the end of this period the principal would be paid.

Term Insurance Conversion Privelege

Most term insurance policies have built in a conversion privelege. The 10 year term life insurance policy is no exception. This is because term insurance is temporary insurance and people usually have a permanent for life insurance. You can convert your policy usually to any permanent policy within a specific period of time. Some companies limit your conversion period to 8 years, whereas others may allow the policy owner the full 10 years.

Available Riders To Your Policy

There are certain riders that you can add to your 10 year term life insurance policy which would tremendously increase it's value to yourself and your beneficiaries. You may add the waiver of premium disability rider. If you should become disabled, anytime after 6 months of disability, the life insurance company will pay your premiums for you even if it is for the entire duration of the policy. Now, isn't that just great?

Another rider that you can add is the accidental death benefit rider. This is sometimes referred as the double indemnity rider. If you should die in an accident the life insurance company will pay double the death benefit to your beneficiaries.

Minimums And Maximums

There are certain minimum and maximum amounts of 10 year term life insurance that insurance companies will be prepared to issue on an applicants life. This may vary by age and medical history. Some companies may be prepared to issue between $20,000 and $1,000,000, others may start at 100,000 and go as high as $10,000,000 or $20,000,000.

Living Benefit Riders

The aids virus brought about a fairly new idea which many life insurance companies have adopted. Because of a tremendous need for additional cash terminally ill people may sell their policy to investors for a percentage of its value. As an alternative you can add a rider to your policy which would allow you to withdraw a portion of your death benefit during your lifetime. This is called a living benefit rider. It would serve to ease the pressure on the terminally ill and their families.

Spouse And Child Term Riders

Many insurance companies offer the opportunity for you to add a comparatively small term life insurance rider on the life of your spouse and children. These riders are usually 5 year term or 10 year term riders which work out to be less expensive than had the policies been bought separately.

Click on the link below to learn more about 10 year term life insurance and other similar types of life insurance.


About The Author
Donald Lusan
For more than 40 years Donald has been known for his extensive knowledge of the life insurance business. He has represented some of the largest and best life insurance companies in the United States as well as Canada. His advice is invaluable. Donald's website is: http://www.lifeinsurancehub.net

Types of Life Insurance

by: Mike Bell

If you are considering purchasing life insurance, an overview of the available types should prove helpful. This article will briefly discuss the difference between whole and term life insurance, as well as some variations on whole life insurance.

The easiest way to understand the difference between whole life insurance and term life insurance is to look at what is meant by their names. When you purchase whole life insurance, you are covering your "whole" life - as long as you own the policy, it will pay a benefit when you die. What that benefit is depends on the value of the policy at the time of your death, but you own the policy even if you are no longer making payments on it. Whole life also accumulates a cash value on a tax-deferred basis. In addition, whole life can pay dividends throughout the life of the policy.

Term life insurance, on the other hand, is purchased for a certain term, or period. As long as you die within that period, term life insurance will pay an agreed upon amount to your beneficiaries. It will not pay if you cease to make payments or if you die after the term has expired. In addition, term life insurance has no cash value.

Two other aspects of whole versus term life insurance should be pointed out. The first aspect is that premiums for whole life insurance are higher to begin with, but remain steady over time. On the other hand, premiums for term life insurance are lower near the beginning of the policy, but increase over time. Another aspect is that you can borrow against the cash value of a whole life insurance policy. This is not possible with term life insurance, since it does not have a cash value. There are two variations of whole life insurance that need to be mentioned. The first is a more flexible form of whole life called universal life insurance. With universal life insurance, you can adjust (within certain limits) the premiums as well as the benefit amount over time to suit your financial situation. This is made possible by placing the premiums in a fund that accumulates based on the interest rate. As with normal whole life insurance, this type of policy has a cash value that can be borrowed against.

The second variation on whole life insurance is called variable life insurance. This type is similar to universal life insurance, except that the premiums in the fund are tied to the financial markets rather than to interest rates. While the potential for growth is greater with this type of insurance, the potential for loss is greater as well.

As you can see, there are some choices to be made when considering the purchase of a life insurance policy. Now would be a good time to use some of the other resources at this site to help you decide on the life insurance policy that is right for you and your family.


About The Author
Mike Bell is the webmaster of http://www.InsuranceOptionsGuide.com, a resource for life and health insurance answers.