Your Family and Life Insurance
by Chris B.
Do you worry about your family? If so, you are just like most people. While you will not be around if you pass away, at the very least you can make sure that your family will have enough money. The best way to do this is by having the right life insurance policy in place from the moment that you start a family. This may not be an exciting purchase, but it is one that you want to make anyway. Remember, a life insurance policy is what your family will need if your salary is no longer available.When should you buy life insurance? This is a common question. Most experts agree that consumers should begin to shop for life insurance coverage when they start a family. For most people this is when they either get married or have children; whichever comes first. By doing this you can be rest assured that you will have the proper life insurance coverage in place from day one. This is important because you never want to take a risk.
When buying life insurance for the first time you need to ask yourself several questions including: how much coverage do I need? What type of life insurance should I buy? More coverage may sound like the way to go, but this is only the case if you can actually afford the policy. Although life insurance is important you need to make sure that you can afford what you are paying for. Additionally, you need to make a decision on the type of life insurance that you are going to buy. Would you be better off with term or whole life?
Your family relies on you for money, and you want to make sure that you are always there for them; even if you pass away. The best way of doing this is to buy the right amount of life insurance coverage as soon as the time arrives.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Life Insurance - take cover
Life Insurance - take cover
by Michael Challiner
In the extensive field which is insurance, life insurance stands out as one of a few which is usually taken out for someone else's benefit. Insurance covering house, mortgage, valuables, travel etc. is intended to cover the holder against loss as a result of accidents, breakdowns, delays, theft and a vast number of other circumstances. Life insurance on the other hand is usually intended to benefit those left behind when the holder dies, if only to provide funds which will diminish to some extent the problems caused by that person's unexpected departure.There are of course exceptions to the above, as in the case of an endowment policy which is used as a form of saving in that it pays out at the end of the specified period. Even this has the provision to pay out on the earlier death of the holder, so it does not provide solely for the benefit of that individual. If this is the type of cover which you are considering, ask your broker for details of the various forms, as in Unit Linked or With Profits.
If however it is your intention to protect your beneficiaries from financial problems occurring in the event of your death, you have a good variety of choices. It is as well to bear in mind that, particularly in more complex estates, it can take quite some time for cash to be made available after a death to meet expenditure which was originally agreed to by the deceased. This may include the funds necessary to meet funeral expenses, which are not debts which can be put off for any length of time. At the last check payment by instalments was not a feature applying to interment costs, nor is yet socially acceptable to 'take the hat round' for contributions! If you do take out cover for these charges, make sure that your family are aware of this; it could save them from a panic situation when the time comes.
So what is available in varieties of life insurance? The answer is that there is a surprising range of policies, each designed to meet a different need. It will have to suffice here to cover the broader outlines of some of these varieties and leave the intended policy holder to discuss the finer details of their needs with their broker.
Perhaps one of the more common policies issued is the 'Whole of Life' which means just what it says. You will be covered for the whole of your life, subject to the caveat common to any insurance, that you must keep up the payments; default on a payment could result in the policy being cancelled. This insurance provides cover for a specified sum and will be paid out to your heirs in the event of your death. If after a reasonable number of premiums have been paid, you should decide that you no longer require the cover, then there should be a cash value when the policy is surrendered.
Term insurance is a policy which is taken out to cover a period which you specify, and is usually intended to provide funds for your heirs when you die. If you don't die within the term specified there is no payout and no cash value - the policy simply terminates. A variety of this is a Level Term policy which is usually used to protect an 'interest only' mortgage in that it will be set at the level of the capital sum which will be due on completion of the interest payments. Because the length and value of the policy can be established at the outset it has the advantage of unvarying costs, which makes expenditure control easier. In the opposite direction, an Increasing Term policy is linked to inflation increases. This avoids loss of value but adversely affects the premiums. The lowest cost term policy is the Decreasing Term (or mortgage protection) policy. This provides cover for the steadily decreasing total debt of a repayment mortgage, and thus the risk factor is also heading for a final zero.
Perhaps one of the best policies for providing for your family's needs after your death is Family Income Benefit cover. The fixed term ensures that the potential total payout reduces steadily, thus reducing the overall cost.
One of the less altruistic life insurances is the Endowment policy which has a guaranteed payout at the end of a defined term (usually at least 10 years) or in the event of your death. There are a number of variations on this theme which can increase the payout sum or alter the premiums as time goes by; you may wish to explore these. The big advantage here is that with this type of policy you may collect the benefit sum yourself.
The above is only a rough outline of some of the policies available. To enable you to examine these or others in detail you need to talk to a broker. Initial contact via the internet is the quick and easy way to do this and may well be the best 'mouse click' which you have ever done.
by Michael Challiner
In the extensive field which is insurance, life insurance stands out as one of a few which is usually taken out for someone else's benefit. Insurance covering house, mortgage, valuables, travel etc. is intended to cover the holder against loss as a result of accidents, breakdowns, delays, theft and a vast number of other circumstances. Life insurance on the other hand is usually intended to benefit those left behind when the holder dies, if only to provide funds which will diminish to some extent the problems caused by that person's unexpected departure.There are of course exceptions to the above, as in the case of an endowment policy which is used as a form of saving in that it pays out at the end of the specified period. Even this has the provision to pay out on the earlier death of the holder, so it does not provide solely for the benefit of that individual. If this is the type of cover which you are considering, ask your broker for details of the various forms, as in Unit Linked or With Profits.
If however it is your intention to protect your beneficiaries from financial problems occurring in the event of your death, you have a good variety of choices. It is as well to bear in mind that, particularly in more complex estates, it can take quite some time for cash to be made available after a death to meet expenditure which was originally agreed to by the deceased. This may include the funds necessary to meet funeral expenses, which are not debts which can be put off for any length of time. At the last check payment by instalments was not a feature applying to interment costs, nor is yet socially acceptable to 'take the hat round' for contributions! If you do take out cover for these charges, make sure that your family are aware of this; it could save them from a panic situation when the time comes.
So what is available in varieties of life insurance? The answer is that there is a surprising range of policies, each designed to meet a different need. It will have to suffice here to cover the broader outlines of some of these varieties and leave the intended policy holder to discuss the finer details of their needs with their broker.
Perhaps one of the more common policies issued is the 'Whole of Life' which means just what it says. You will be covered for the whole of your life, subject to the caveat common to any insurance, that you must keep up the payments; default on a payment could result in the policy being cancelled. This insurance provides cover for a specified sum and will be paid out to your heirs in the event of your death. If after a reasonable number of premiums have been paid, you should decide that you no longer require the cover, then there should be a cash value when the policy is surrendered.
Term insurance is a policy which is taken out to cover a period which you specify, and is usually intended to provide funds for your heirs when you die. If you don't die within the term specified there is no payout and no cash value - the policy simply terminates. A variety of this is a Level Term policy which is usually used to protect an 'interest only' mortgage in that it will be set at the level of the capital sum which will be due on completion of the interest payments. Because the length and value of the policy can be established at the outset it has the advantage of unvarying costs, which makes expenditure control easier. In the opposite direction, an Increasing Term policy is linked to inflation increases. This avoids loss of value but adversely affects the premiums. The lowest cost term policy is the Decreasing Term (or mortgage protection) policy. This provides cover for the steadily decreasing total debt of a repayment mortgage, and thus the risk factor is also heading for a final zero.
Perhaps one of the best policies for providing for your family's needs after your death is Family Income Benefit cover. The fixed term ensures that the potential total payout reduces steadily, thus reducing the overall cost.
One of the less altruistic life insurances is the Endowment policy which has a guaranteed payout at the end of a defined term (usually at least 10 years) or in the event of your death. There are a number of variations on this theme which can increase the payout sum or alter the premiums as time goes by; you may wish to explore these. The big advantage here is that with this type of policy you may collect the benefit sum yourself.
The above is only a rough outline of some of the policies available. To enable you to examine these or others in detail you need to talk to a broker. Initial contact via the internet is the quick and easy way to do this and may well be the best 'mouse click' which you have ever done.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Life insurance - terrorised
Life insurance - terrorised into buying?
by Michael Challiner
Life insurance is a useful investment to have in your portfolio. It can give you peace of mind, with the knowledge that your family have been provided for in the event of your death. Alternatively it may provide you with a nest egg if you have chosen an endowment mortgage and then lived through to the end of the term.How much thought have you given to it in recent years? Did the events of September 11th 2001 tend to focus your attention on your own mortality? They certainly had that effect on a number of people as there was a small rise in the number of new policies taken out in the following year.
In the UK the tube and bus bombs of 7th July 2005 had a more marked effect. People living in or commuting to London were suddenly made aware of the dangers around them and this would be reinforced by travel in a crowded tube train or even on a bus. Then there were the details and photographs of some of the victims in the papers, with the possibility of a name or a face being recognised as a neighbour, a work colleague or just a fellow traveller.
Mortality became a fact instead of a distant and little regarded enemy, and suddenly protection of family was thrust into the forefront of conscious thought. The inevitable result was for insurance to assume a greater importance, and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) reported a trend for increasing numbers to be taking out life insurance. The increase in value of life insurance to £1 billion in 2005 is judged by the ABI to be a likely result of the terrorist's actions. A similar increase in interest was recorded in the USA following the September 11th terrorist attacks.
It is unfortunate that it takes a terrorist attack to bring home to us the need to protect our families against the unexpected loss of a parent or any other family member who helps to provide our financial stability. However, that is the way of the world and these things are easily overlooked in the daily work, eat, sleep cycle. The old saying that 'it's an old wind which blows nobody any good' is tested in this case, and there can be few winds more ill than those which blow in on the back of terrorist violence.
Fortunately life insurance is still applicable in the event of deaths caused by terrorism; those victims of the London tube and bus bombings who had life cover would at least have provided some financial security for those they left behind. The ABI warn however that careful examination of the terms of any life policy is advisable because there can be variations. They quote group life insurance policies as an example, because the accumulated risks which can occur in a single incident may be specifically excluded.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, it is worth considering endowment policies as these will pay out, not only in the event of the death of the insured during the years of its currency , but also if the insured person survives to the end of the agreed term. In the latter case the total paid on a unit linked endowment would be the total contributions paid plus the value of the investment interest earned over the period of the policy. If the policy was taken out as 'with profits', the payout would be the sum insured plus the total of bonuses issued during its term, plus a terminal bonus. Historically terminal bonuses have proved to be very valuable, but there can be no guarantee of the level of investment interest or bonuses, depending as they do on the success of the company's investment or business endeavours.
If you intend to follow the path of life cover, contact a broker and discuss your needs. You should however enter into the agreement with the intention of following it through to completion. Although life policies tend to have a value after the initial years, they should at that point be entering into their period of best growth. This may look tempting as an option to surrender, but a little patience will produce a markedly better return for yourself or for your family.
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