Friday, August 31, 2007

Life Insurance - Top Money Saving Tips

More and more people are buying life insurance online and the numbers seem to be doubling every two years. The reasons are clear. Prices are lower on the Internet and life insurance is fundamentally a simple insurance product.
Despite the underlying simplicity of life insurance, most web sites channel their online clients through a telephone based help and advice service manned by experienced personnel. They represent your safety net so if a little technical knowledge is called for, help is at hand.
But it’s always a good idea to have a few Top Tips in your back pocket when you’re shopping online for life insurance. They’ll help you ask the right questions and find the best policy.
1. Always have your Life Insurance policy “Written in Trust”.
This means that in the event of a claim, the money goes directly and immediately to the person(s) you nominate when you first take the policy out. It also avoids all possibility of your estate having to pay Inheritance Tax on the proceeds of your policy and that could represent a 40% tax saving !
All you have to do is tell the online brokerage organising your policy that you want your policy “Written in Trust” and the names of the people who the life insurance company pay in the event of a claim. They will then sort it all out for you. The extra good news is that this service is invariably free of charge. So it’s a win win situation and there aren’t many of those around these days !
2. In the early years a Reviewable Life Insurance Policy will be cheaper but a Guaranteed Policy will work out a better buy in the longer term.
With a “Guaranteed Policy” the insurance company guarantees never to increase your policy’s premium.
With a “Reviewable Policy” you agree that your insurance company can review the cost of your policy at regular intervals. But don’t be kidded – in our experience a “review” is just another word for a price increase. After all, who’s ever heard of an insurance company passing up a chance to charge you more! The review intervals are usually between 2 to 5 years but this does vary between insurance companies. You will find the details of the review intervals on the documents sent to you before you accept the insurance – these are called The Key Features Documents.
So, comparing otherwise like for like policies, in the early years the premiums for a “Reviewable Policy” will undoubtedly be lower than the premiums for a “Guaranteed Policy”. Thereafter, the premiums for a Reviewable Policy increase eventually catching up with and overtaking, the premium for a “Guaranteed Policy”.
In our experience, you can expect the monthly premiums for a Reviewable Policy to exceed those of a Guaranteed policy in about 7 to 10 years and then within the following 10 years, more than double again. If your budget is currently tight then by all means choose a Reviewable Policy - after all your salary may increase in coming years and ease the strain. On the other hand, if the premiums for a Guaranteed Policy are affordable, we think they represent your best buy.
A footnote. Many insurance companies have stopped offering “Guaranteed” rates for standalone critical illness insurance policies. This because they have experienced much higher claim rates than they initially expected. However, you may still find a Guaranteed life insurance policy that also provides critical illness cover. As we have explained, “Guaranteed” rates are especially good value and if you can get a quote for a Guaranteed life policy that includes critical illness cover, you may have a real bargain.
3. Thinking about a Joint Life Insurance Policy?

A Joint Life Insurance policy is usually written on a first death basis. This means that the policy will pay out on the death of the first policyholder, subject to the policy being in force at the time. This leaves the second person uninsured and older. Older people can struggle to get life insurance at an affordable premium, so rather than a Joint Policy consider taking out separate policies now. Overall it will work out a little dearer - but you get twice the cover and double the peace of mind.
4. Taking out a Life Insurance Policy? Now would be an ideal time to include Critical Illness cover.
Are you likely to need Critical Illness Insurance in the future? Yes? Then consider adding it now to the life insurance policy you’re arranging. Why? There are three reasons.
Firstly, a Life Insurance policy combined with Critical Illness cover will work out significantly cheaper than buying two separate policies. Secondly, as we have already explained in the footnote to Tip 2, you may be able to buy a combined Life and Critical Illness policy with a guaranteed premium. That could be a real bargain. Finally, premiums for critical illness cover increase rapidly as you get older – so the sooner you take it out, the cheaper it will be.
5. Don’t confuse Terminal Illness cover with Critical Illness cover.
There’s world of difference between Terminal Illness and Critical Illness cover so it’s important to understand the difference.
Terminal Illness cover pays out the insured lump sum if a Medical Doctor diagnoses you with an illness from which the Doctor expects you to die within 12 months. Most good life policies automatically include Terminal Illness cover at no extra cost. It’s basically an early, and welcome policy payout.
A Critical Illness policy pays out the insured lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of a wide range chronic illness and there is no life expectancy criteria. Indeed, with many of the insured illnesses you could expect to survive for many years. For example: certain cancers, heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, loss of speech, sight or hearing, onset of Parkinsons or Alzheimers disease, third degree burns etc. Say you were an engineer aged 40 and you lost your sight. A Critical Illness policy would pay out immediately and that money could well be vital in helping you and your family through many difficult financial years ahead. If you just had Terminal Illness cover there’d be no chance of a payout.
So as you can see, Critical Illness cover is far more comprehensive than simple Terminal Illness cover and for that reason critical illness cover always costs you extra.
© 2005 Andromeda Webs Ltd. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.


Thursday, August 23, 2007

How to Compare Low Cost Life Insurance in Arkansas

Buying life coverage can be viewed as a solid enactment since the individual purchasing it will never directly profit from it. But whether you see the purchase of a life coverage policy a shining illustration of goodness and altruism or not, the fact stays that it still make good sense to compare low pressure cost life coverage policies in order to acquire the best policy at the last price.

Fortunately there are a few simple things you can do which will assist to maintain the cost of your life coverage policy low, but before we look at those it would be a good thought to quickly reexamine the two primary types of life coverage so you can better make up one's mind which one is right for you.

Before you can purchase a life coverage policy you'll be asked to take between a whole life policy or a term policy.

On the surface a term policy might look like the better pick because the initial monthly insurance insurance premium on it will be less that the premium of a same-size whole life policy. But initial cost isn't everything.

A term life policy runs out every few years. And each clip it makes you'll necessitate to purchase a new policy if you desire to go on being covered by life insurance. The catch is, each clip you necessitate to renew a term policy, the terms for your monthly insurance premium travels higher and higher. And the terms will be its peak when you're old and may not have got the resources to go on paying for it.

A whole life policy is initially more than expensive to purchase, but since a whole life policy is good for your whole life, the insurance insurance insurance premium you begin out paying is the exact same premium that you will go on paying for your whole life.

And unlike a term policy, a whole life policy actually constructs a hard cash value over clip and, if you choose, you can borrow against this built-up value at very small cost to you.

But whether you settle down upon whole life or term life there are still a few simple things you can make to assist maintain your monthly premium cost under control.

One simple thing you can make is to maintain your recognition evaluation good. Many people are unaware of the fact that your recognition evaluation impacts how much you pay for your life insurance.

Don't smoke. If you make smoke, discontinue – and mean value it. You can't state your coverage company that you make not smoke and then decease of smoking-related causes. If you make your policy may not be honored, or at least not fully honored.

In portion your insurance premium will be based on your Body Mass Index, or BMI. From a practical point of view this is a measurement of your weight. The more than than corpulence you are the more you'll pay for your life insurance. Losing even a small weight could drop you down into a less BMI evaluation and that could salvage you money calendar calendar month after month, twelvemonth after year.

Don't routinely take part in unsafe or utmost athletics – and don't lie about it because if you decease during an utmost sporting event the truth will come up out and your policy will not supply your loved 1s with the hard cash you hoped it would. Drive a athletics auto or having a unsafe business will also increase the cost of your life insurance.

Finally, acquire online and happen respective of the websites which let you to do head-to-head comparings between life coverage policies and prices. Don't think, though, that you only have got got to fill up up out the word word form on one site, because no land land site compares all the coverage companies writing life policies in Arkansas.

You will necessitate to take the clip to fill out the form on at least 3 different websites before you can experience confident that you have compared and establish the last cost life coverage available in Arkansas.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Future of Long Term Care

The babe roar generation—born between 1946 and 1964—is bearing down on America's retirement programmes like a pre-climate alteration glacier. More than 78 million strong, the babe roar looks destined to oppress every societal programme in its path. It cannot be stopped. Only a mixture of authorities and private solutions, such as as private long term attention insurance, can debar the approaching disaster.

Today, with the babe baby boomers still in the work force, there are 3.3 pay wage earners for each individual collection Sociable Security benefits. That figure will shrivel as the babe baby boomers retire and get collecting Sociable Security benefits. By 2031, there will be only 2.1 pay wage earners for each Sociable Security beneficiary.

With the baby boomers working and paying taxes, the Sociable Security trust finances are running a surplus. That volition go on until 2016. At that point, with one-half the baby boomers collecting Sociable Security, the taxations flowing into the trust finances will not be as great as the outgoes flowing out. At first, nil will change. Sociable Security will utilize the involvement earned during the excess old age to pay benefits. By 2041, however, the surplus finances will be depleted. Incoming paysheet taxations will cover only 75 percentage of the costs.

The crisis in long term attention will develop more than quickly. The U.S. Census Agency estimations that 72 million baby boomers will dwell past age 65. According to the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), a non-profit-making grouping that surveys older care, 69 percentage of people living past age 64 necessitate some sort of long term care. If the per centum holds, then 49.6 million baby boomers will necessitate long term care.

The cost of the attention will be enormous. AAHSA studies that a private room in a nursing place costs an norm of $74,600 a year. The norm stay is 2.4 years. If everything remains the same (and costs are likely to rise, even in today's dollars), the cost of the boomers' long term attention will number $8.88 trillion over 19 years, or $467 billion a year.

Nearly 60 percentage of the baby baby boomers believe that Medicare pays for long term care, according to studies conducted by AAHSA. This is incorrect. Medicare pays for post-hospitalization rehabilitation, but not long term care. Right now, people and coverage wage for 51 percentage of long term care. The other 49 percentage is paid by Medicaid, the authorities programme for the needy.

If those percents stay unchanged, the baby boomers will flop Medicaid. To debar the crisis, United States Congress is limiting Medicaid eligibility. That volition not be enough, states U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey, M.D., of Georgia. He writes, "Congress must attach to Medicaid reform with meaningful inducements for buying long term attention coverage."

With long term attention coverage the insured pays a monthly premium, and the insurance company holds to pay for long term care. According to the AAHSA, the norm long term attention coverage policy pays out 82 cents for every dollar spent in premiums. The norm yearly long term attention insurance premium for people under 65 is $1,337. Individuals over 65 wage $2,862. Even without authorities incentives, it do sense for baby boomers to sign-up early for long term attention coverage sooner rather than later.

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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Whole Life Insurance - The Pro's & Con's Of Buying Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is a type of life coverage policy that supplies coverage to the insured person for their full life. That agency that if you purchase a Whole life policy today and keep the insurance premium payments in good faith, that you'll have got insurance until the clip of your decease or until your 100th birthday, whichever come ups first. If you are fortunate adequate to dwell to be 100 old age old, your coverage company will then issue you a bank check for the human face value of the policy. The human face value is the amount of money that the policy would have got paid to your donee if you had died, but instead, because you lived to accomplish this mature old age, they would publish it to you instead.

Whole life coverage isn't as popular today as it was respective old age ago. The ground for this is because it's more than expensive than the more popular "Term Life" policies and also because a part of what you pay into a Whole life policy travels into a nest egg business relationship for you. This wouldn't look like such as a bad thing, however, in most lawsuits you can happen investing programs that volition wage out better than one of these nest egg plans. The best thing that you could make is to acquire some sound fiscal advice from a fiscal planner. They can explicate different methods of investing, such as as stocks, bonds, common finances and more.

I'm not saying that Whole life coverage is necessarily a bad thing. With a Whole life policy, at least you're doing "something" to supply protection for your family. The lone point that I'm trying to acquire across is that there may be better options out there for you. You could purchase Term life instead and put in low-medium risk common funds.

The pick is up to you. You could always begin out with a less expensive Term life policy and alumnus it into a Whole life policy a few old age down the road, if you wish. Talk to both an coverage agent and a fiscal contriver before you make up one's mind if Whole life coverage is right for you.

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