Life Insurance – Money Saving Top Tips
 by: Michael Challiner

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.

About The Author

Michael Challiner has 15 years experience in financial services marketing at senior level, the last 5 of which specialised in online marketing. Prior to that he spent 15 years in advertising with two of the world’s top advertising agencies, J Walter Thompson and Saatchi & Saatchi. Tel. ++ 1477 535920 http://www.express-life-insurance.co.uk

Garnet

San Antonio Texas

Some life insurance companies in San Antonio offer term life insurance without medical exam. This type of insurance is commonly called as ‘simplified life insurance.’ Its main advantage is that it is very convenient as you no longer have to deal with medical assessment exams, visits from medical personnel to ask you questions and at the same time put you into a battery of medical exams.

It is so convenient that you can even apply for a simplified life insurance online. You just need to answer a few medical questions and select the coverage you prefer online. If you answer the medical questions correctly, then you get approved.

Application for term life insurance without medical exam or simplified life insurance is like a do-it-yourself process. You can do away with dealing insurance agents or brokers. So if you are anti-social and you are not comfortable dealing with insurance agent, this will save you the hassle of having to deal with agents.

One downside of term life insurance without medical exam is its cost. It is expected that you will get a higher premium than the traditional life insurance. But, sometimes, the difference is negligible with the convenience you get from it. Some insurance companies’ premium rate for their simplified life insurance is comparable, just slightly higher, to the traditional life insurance.

Another downside is that you can only get limited coverage from simplified insurance. The most an insurance company will offer is $500,000. But this is not totally a disadvantage because you can always get additional life insurance coverage – maybe from a different life insurance company. As they would say, ‘It is not good to put all your eggs in one basket.’ Some people also like the idea of getting a small coverage so they can put the rest of their money on other types of investments or savings plan which prove to give higher value of returns.

Simplified life insurance can be viewed as limited type of insurance. So it’s best that you consider getting additional life insurance or other investment plans where your money is more flexible to grow in additional to your simplified life insurance.

Dale

San Antonio Texas

Good question. Deciding whether you have the best Texas life insurance company (or any life insurance company) backing you up can be quite tricky. It would definitely help to have a few benchmarks or criteria to test and see if better coverage, pricing, or service is available elsewhere. Here is a guide to help you out:

Find out if Your Policy is Still Competitively-Priced

This is quickly and easily done by using one of the many life insurance comparison websites. Doing a life insurance rate quote search is free of charge and it only takes minutes to get the latest rates in the market. This should immediately tell you if you are over-paying on your life insurance policy. Doing a rate quote comparison also doubles as a way for you to find out which insurers are offering the best rates.

Find out How Well Your Insurer is Rated

Next, you want to see how well your Texas life insurance company ranks on other aspects or criteria when pitted against its competitors. An effective way to accomplish this is to use information coming from some independent rating agencies. Moodys, J.D Powers and A.M. Best are excellent agencies and offers free consumer information over their websites. You can even find out which companies are doing well per-state. Companies are ranked in different categories such as customer service, claims handling, billing and payments, financial stability and pricing. You can easily tell if your insurer is one of the best, or is just part of the rest.

Johann

San Antonio Texas

Life insurance is among life’s basic necessity. As a matter of fact, most insurance companies are now doing their best to make it a simple and easy process to any policy holder. The purchase of a term life insurance without medical exam is an example to this quick method.

There are quite a lot of individuals who are not comfortable with needles, don’t want to undergo any medical tests or just cannot wait for several months for their application to be processed by a life insurance company. Some even put off getting a life insurance because they don’t have the inclination for a medical exam. Fortunately, there is now a quick and easy way for you to get a term life insurance without medical exam. By going online, you can literally get hundreds of quotes and coverage of it. In fact, you can still qualify yourself for coverage even if you smoke or are on a medication.

Many individuals opt for a term life insurance without medical exam because it’s quick, easy and affordable. Shopping for it does not have to be difficult and time consuming. The Internet is such a very rich source of information. From one screen you already have a wide access to a variety of online term life insurance quotes. In fact, most online insurance companies provide these quotes for free. Term life insurance quotes may vary from one insurer to another so you must pick at least 10 quotes for you to compare.

You can instantly get a policy online in just a matter of minutes. You only have to fill up an application form and answer a few health questions. If qualified, you can choose from a range of $25,000 to $500,000 of coverage. Your insurance protection starts at that same day you applied online and get accepted.

Shannon

San Antonio TX

Yes, there is a so-called no exam life insurance policy. However, since medical exam is not required on this type of insurance, the risk for the life insurance company is high so the premium is expected to be high as well. The no exam life insurance policy is referred to as “guaranteed” life insurance. With this type of life insurance policy, application process is fast, easy and simple so waiting is not needed and follow-up is not necessary. You can also renew the policy at the end of the term. There are no obligations or risk and the coverage is issued immediately. You can also avail a flexible payment plan. Aside from these, you do not need to complete lengthy documents. This no exam life insurance policy offers $50,000 to $250,000 protection. Although this no exam life insurance policy offers a lot of advantages, this policy does not apply to individuals with serious health conditions. Examples of these serious health conditions are mental disorders, AIDS, lung disorders, stroke, nervous disorders, psychological disorders, heart disease and liver disease. However, rules of life insurance companies vary from one company to another. For more information, you can still inquire with local insurance agent about these.