What should you look for when getting life insurance?

Question

What should you look for when getting life insurance?

Answer 1

If you are not looking for a return on your money then you should look for the highest sum insured based on a specific premium - or alternatively the lowest premium for a specific sum insured.

You should also decide for how long you need the cover.

If you have dependents then you should look at about 10X your annual salary as a sum insured. (Based on level term insurance)

Answer 2

Life insurance is designed to protect a family against the financial burdens that accompany the premature death of a breadwinner. Would your death pose such a hardship? If so, you have two options: term life and whole life. You pay a monthly premium with each. A term life policy will pay a death benefit in the event that you die during the specific time, or term, covered by the policy. A term life policy has a start date and an end date. If you die the day after the policy ends, the insurance company does not pay a death benefit. The premiums that you pay for a term life policy will be gone when the term is up.

A whole life policy covers your for your entire life. If you die the day after you take out the policy, you are covered. If you die in 20 years, you’re covered. And if you die when you’re 80, you’re covered. In the mean time, the insurance company invests the money you pay in premiums, and some of the earnings are put into your policy in the form of cash value. The cash value builds over the years. At some point—when you are on a fixed income, for example—you can use your cash value to pay the premiums, keeping your policy in force. A whole life policy costs much more than a term life policy does, however. Good luck!

Answer 3

Maybe You should try to google it first ,nonetheless, if you prefer some direct resource ,here might be helpful.http://lifeinsurance.online-helpers.info...

Answer 4

I would say three important factors to consider are:

1. Type of Cover - life insurance can be used to cover a wide range of risks from straight family protection to a new mortgage. So you need to match the risk you are trying to protect to the right type and amount of cover. Ask yourself how much you could lose financially if the risk occurred, how long the risk is likely to exist and if it will change. Which leads to the second point.

2. Flexibility - Ask the insurer if you can change the policy term or amount of cover after the plan has started. Some term assurance policies from big names aren't very flexible so if you need to change the term of the policy, the amount of cover or add additional benefits later, you have to start a new plan. But if you are 5 or ten years older when an alteration is required, you will pay more as your age is factored into the cost of life cover.

3. Guaranteed Premiums - when you get a quote for life cover you will have a choice of reviewable or guaranteed premiums. If you can afford it go for guaranteed premiums which cannot be changed by the insurer. Reviewable premiums are reviewed by the insurer (usually every five years) and can go up at their discretion.

If you are in any doubt take advice, you can find independent advisers in your area at http://www.unbiased.co.uk which has a national database. If you know what type of policy you need you could save loads by using a discount life insurance broker. You can find a list of life insurers and brokers at http://www.uk-insurance-index.co.uk/life...

The independent consumer body Which? offer tips and reports on UK life insurance which you can find at http://www.which.co.uk/reports_and_campa...

Answer 5

when looking into it, you need to a have a policy that will cover just about every expense you can think of with some still left over so the rest of the family have time to get back on to their feet if your the main provider. Get one that will pay off your mortage, if you have one, pay any and all medical costs and cc bills off in full and also cover the cost of the funeral.  Contact a company you currently already have a policy with and talk to them, usually they will offer life insurance to you and you can get a discount for having muti policies with them

Answer 6

Your wife coming at you with a carving knife or poisoning your dinner.

Answer 7

the saying in the industry is that life insurance isn't bought, it is sold.

and the salesmen are well equipped with lots of evasions and misrepresentations, some of which only the company's actuaries understand are evasions/misrepresentations.

while this isn't a complete treatment, these come to mind:

1.  be very specific in defining what financial contingencies you wish to guard against.  generally speaking, most people do NOT need "permanent" insurance.  When you become older, you'll have assets which can cover your family's expenses and thus won't need insurance at all.  This suggests buying term insurance and letting the policies lapse as you near retirement.

2.  inflation will be with us forever.  what seems like an adequate amount of insurance won't be adequate in 10 years -- you'll need 50% more and that's if your family does NOT increase.  More children usually equals more insurance.  AND , the usual course is to buy more when you know you'll need it.

3.  providing for your family "forever" is poor policy.  While abject poverty may be harmful to children, having working parents not only isn't harmful, it sets the proper example and should thus be encouraged.  It therefore seems likely that a few years' expenses for the family is enough insurance [which keeps your cost down].

Should you die while the policies are still in force, they have enough time to handle their grief, reorganize their finances, and start moving forward again.

4.  college costs can be ignored.  there is financial aid and student loans a-plenty for children who are college material but lack finances.  Harvard and Stanford are now free to admitted youth who lack finances.

5.  Don't pay off the mortgage with insurance.  Until your family can re-establish itself financially, they'll be unable to borrow at any decent interest rate.  Let them adjust by downsizing the house if necessary -- and the sale will pay off the mortgage.

6.  life insurance companies are regulated by insurance commissioners as to their investing practices and frequently have high overhead costs.  you don't want to pay for either the costs or the regulated [over-safe] investments' poor returns.  This strongly suggests buying guaranteed renewable annual term insurance and NOT level term.  [salesmen get paid a lot more to sell level term, which'll tell you how much more profitable it is for the company.]

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companies -- Weiss ratings service is the only one in America that isn't tainted by taking fees from the companies it rates.  It has a history of also being the most conservative and spotting trouble earlier than the others.  Use their ratings only and only deal with companies rated "A" or better.

Consumer Reports magazine used to survey and price life insurance about once every seven years or so -- go read the back issues in the stacks of the public library to find the most recent such issue and thus get a bead on which companies are cheaper.  As you'll guess, the ones who advertise a lot many NOT be at the top of the low price list.

GL

Answer 8

The microscopic small print especially the bits that say "we will not pay out if"...Study that bits very carefully