Uncategorized

Among the many different types of life insurance such as permanent, term, group or individual, here is another type of life insurance, a guaranteed issue insurance, which is usually offered to the elderly people and to those with some serious medical conditions. The most important characteristic of this type is that it does not require any kind of medical exam and there will also be very few or no questions at all related to your health.

Although this may sound quite attractive, there are, of course, certain restrictions. The point is that most policies of this kind offer only a very small face value which is usually no more than $20,000. The reason behind this is that these policies are made for a special purpose and this is to pay the expenses of the funeral. Accordingly, some insuring companies only offer this kind of policies to a small range of clients – to those from the age of fifty to eighty five.

Also, if you wish to have some kind of payment plan such as quarterly bills or the semi-annual ones, you will probably have to pay more. And because you do not have to undergo a medical exam and the premiums are not determined according to your medical information, the cost will also be high.

So, when you have very high premiums and also very low face value, it is very likely that the total of what you pay in premiums will be far more than what your beneficiaries will get. This is why such offers are not so convenient for healthy persons and this is also why you should very carefully calculate the amount of money that you will have paid to the insurance company in five, ten or fifteen years.

Another point that you should be careful about is the so-called graded benefit and this is the case when the insurance company pays to your beneficiaries only a part of the death benefit should you die in the first several years. Since this differs from company to company you should check the details of your policy to see how it is graded.

Of course, these restrictions are meant to protect the insurance companies from people who, for example, know that they will die soon and then they buy as much insurance as possible. Some companies, however, will pay the full amount of face value in cases of death by an accident.

To sum up, guaranteed issue life insurance may sound very convenient since it does not include any kind of medical questions. However, when you take a closer look, you may see that it is really meant for a very small number of people and that it is not made for people to make money, but to be able to cover the expenses that occur when a person dies. So, you should very carefully consider all the details of this type of insurance and then conclude whether you should really take it or not.

I am an elderly man and I am sixty eight years old. I live alone for my wife died three years ago and my children, of course live their own lives though they do come to visit quite often. I have never had any serious health issues and thus never thought about what would happen once I am not among the living anymore. However, a recent situation made me think about such stuff. Actually, I started thinking about buying some kind of life insurance.

What actually happened is that some time ago, maybe a year or so, my overall health started deteriorating and I decided to visit my doctor. Short after, I was diagnosed with a serious disease. The doctor told me that I suffered from prostate cancer. It was too late for surgery and I was prescribed certain medications. However, those medications would not cure me; they would just prolong my life. Now, that was the point when I started thinking about my kids and what they would have to go through once I am gone. I did not want to leave all the expenses for the funeral and for the different taxes that are to be paid when one dies.

So, I decided to buy some life insurance. Since I really had no idea about insurance at all and the procedures that follow it I wanted to get myself a professional advisor and see what my options are. The one thing I knew, however, was that health condition mainly determines the cost of the premium. Anyway, I met with the advisor and he presented me with different options and combinations. The one that seemed most appropriate for me was the so-called guaranteed issue life insurance. The main thing that differentiated it from all other types was that you did not need to go through a medical exam nor provide any information about your health. Therefore the cost was a bit higher but still acceptable. So I asked about some more details and realized that it was really the optimal solution for me.

I then chose the company that offered the best price and finally applied for it. Since medical exam was not included, I got my insurance in only a week or so. I have paid premiums for a year already and my mind is now at ease for I know that my children will be left with enough money to cover all the necessary expenses.

To end this story with, I would like to give some advice to elderly people in situations similar to mine. The guaranteed issue insurance is really convenient for our condition. However, you should anyway consult a professional advisor or a broker for they are familiar with all the possible combinations and catches as well. They may also help you find the best insurance company in your area. All in all, be careful, pay attention to every single detail and in the end you will find yourself satisfied and at ease.

As you probably already know, there are two basic types of life insurance and these are term and permanent life insurance. The difference between these two is in the length, actually in the time period they cover. Permanent, as you may suppose is active for lifetime and term is active only for a period of time that you specify. The length of this period may vary from a year to up to thirty five years.

However, the problem with term life insurance is that in case you do not die within the specified period of time, you get nothing. In fact, all the money you paid to the company remains there and you have no right to claim even a penny. Anyway, there exists the so-called return-of-premium life insurance or ROP which is also a term life insurance, but after the term has expired and you are still alive, you will get your money back. Of course, this will not be the whole sum of death benefit, but the amount of money that you have paid to the company. However, the ROP life insurance is much more expensive than the usual term and the price can be higher by even 30%.

Anyway, the money that you receive at the end of the term will also be tax free since it is basically your own money that you have put away for some time.

In spite of the advantages of the ROP, it comprises only five to ten percent of the term written policies per year and this is probably because of the high prices. However, the prices as well as the numerous details very much differ from company to company and sometimes it can be very tedious and hard to find the satisfactory offer.

Another catch with ROP is that you cannot collect the full amount that you have paid so far before the contract ends. For example, if you have signed the contract for the period of thirty years, and you decide to end the contract after five years, you will not be able to collect all the money that you have given to the company so far. In fact, in this particular case where the policy is for thirty years, after ten years you can collect ten percent of the money, after fifteen years you can get thirty percent back and, of course, after thirty years you get your hundred percent back.

All in all, return-of-premium life insurance is really useful when compared to the regular term. However, it is more expensive and the policies differ from company to company. Thus, you should be very careful when choosing. You should also be bear in mind the procedure of terminating the contract earlier for it may happen that you will lose a lot of money and this is why you should carefully consider the time period over for which you wish to get insured. So, be careful, choose the company wisely and take a good look at every tiny detail.

Once you have chosen your insurance company and the type of life insurance that suits you best, the show is still not over. Actually, there are a number of add-ons to the life insurance policy which will depend on the type of the policy and on the company itself, as well. These add-ons are called riders and they can be very useful in that they provide some additional security, something like plan B, if anything goes wrong. There are many different riders, but here are some of the most common and most famous ones.

There is the so-called waiver if premium, and if you choose this rider, you do not need to pay the premium in case cannot work due to a complete disability. However, this waiver usually expires at the age of sixty or sixty five.

Further on, the disability income rider and it implies that in case you become disabled and cannot work you may collect a regular income from the company and the amount that you receive is specified in the policy.

The guaranteed insurability rider allows you to buy some additional coverage later on, but in this case you do not have to undergo a medical examination. You can usually buy the additional insurance at a set interval which is usually three years.

Term conversion rider is the next one on our list which is quite helpful in case you want to convert your policy from term to permanent. It allows you to do so without any medical examination. However, there is a deadline when you will have to convert the policy.

Now we come to the so-called accelerated death benefit rider which is helpful if you get seriously ill. This has become a rather usual rider and now it is included in every policy automatically free of charge, or for a quite small price. This rider allows you to collect a certain part of the death benefit in case you become seriously ill and with a short life expectancy of, for example, one year. The policy will also contain the information on how much you may collect before you die. Although it is usually free of charge, in case you exercise it, the company can charge a fee.

The critical illness rider is somewhat similar to the previous one. In this case, the insurer will pay you a certain amount of money if you become ill with some of the diseases specified in the policy. Unlike with health insurance where you will receive money only for medical expenses, you can use this money for any purpose.

To sum up, these are not all riders, but the most common ones and the total number of the riders is really great for there are many variations and combinations. Of course, not every company will offer the same riders and on same conditions, but these are some basic characteristics that are more or less the same with any company. So, think carefully and choose wisely the rider that you really need, if you need any.

As you are probably aware, there are numerous types of life insurance the two basic ones being term and permanent. However, when it comes to the number of people who may take life insurance, there are also two basic types and these are group and individual insurance. These two are actually subtypes of term insurance and many people will be able to choose between two. So, let us see what the particulars of each of these are.

When it comes to group insurance, it is very convenient for some companies for example, when they want to insure their employees and they offer them some kind of term insurance as a benefit. In this case, this is called group life insurance since it covers a larger group of people. However, it is not completely free for the employees. Actually, it is deducted from the paycheck of an employee, but the person does not have to go through the usual tedious process of application and they only need to answer some questions about their health in the form of a short questionnaire.

So, there are some advantages of group insurance and of these is that it is quite easy to obtain it. You do not have to the insurance company; you may only sign up for it once you get a new job or at the annual period of enrollment. This is when you also sign up for some other benefits such as dental or medical. Further on, you do not have to undergo a medical exam. As mentioned before, a short health questionnaire with your medical history as well, is all that you need to submit. Another advantage of this type is that your premiums are automatically deducted from your salary and in this way you won’t even know that you are paying for it.

As for the individual insurance, as you may suppose, the policy only covers the life of one person. The owner of the policy is usually the person themselves or a member of the family. The process for applying and obtaining individual insurance is somewhat different from the group one. You will have to go through a medical exam of some kind, submit a medical history and the company will want to look at your medical record with your permission, of course. They will also want to check your driving offenses and criminal record if you have any.

However, individual insurance also has some advantages. For example, if you change your job, you will not lose the insurance. It may also have level premiums during the term and if you at any point wish to convert to a permanent, your policy will have more options than a group one would.

All in all, both these types have certain advantages and they are both convenient in certain situations. That is the reason why you should clearly define your aim and carefully decide which of these two would best suit your own position and which will bring you more benefits.

I am man in his forties and I have a beautiful wife. Together we have three wonderful children who are our greatest pride. We both have fine jobs which are well paid and recently, a thought has occurred to us that it might be smart to buy some kind of life insurance just so that our children are on the safe side in case something happens to us.

We started asking around. We had some friends who already have a life insurance and we asked them for advice. They had permanent life insurance and explained the details. We thought about it, but decided that we would rather have the other kind, the term life insurance. We had heard before that it is much better to be insured as long as you receive paychecks. After that, you don’t really need life insurance. So, we decided to further explore term life.

We searched through the Internet and found so many different combinations. It really was a boring work to do, but we knew we had to be extremely careful and to see into every single detail for it could make a huge difference. However, all term policies seemed fine except for one thing – if you do not die within the chosen period, you do not get any money back. Actually, you practically give away to the company all the money that you have paid so far. It was really not what we wanted.

Since we could not find a satisfactory solution, we decided to consult a local broker and get some useful advice. We made an appointment and after we had explained what we wanted, the broker suggested several solutions one of which was the so-called return-of-premium life insurance. It was much like a regular term, but in this case you get your money back at the end of the term. Of course, they don’t pay you the whole amount of death benefit, but they do pay you back the total of all premiums you have paid. We realized it was just the right solution for us. We went into some more detail just to be sure and the next day we went to the company to buy the policy.

Of course, we had to undergo a medical exam and submit our medical history, as well as answer some questions about our lifestyle. We thought we would get the policy immediately, but we had to wait a month or so for the company to process the exam results.

Anyway, we are really happy to have found exactly what we were looking for and I can recommend to other people who want to buy insurance that they educate themselves well on the matter so that they are able to find the type and the combination that will suit their needs and their situation. We did so, but we also needed some additional help from the broker. So, don’t be afraid to ask – go ahead and find your own policy.

Life insurance of any type can be really expensive. The amount of the premium will depend on many factors including your medical history and your lifestyle habits which are the two most important points for insurance companies. However, you can try and lower the premiums and not by cheating, but by making some changes in your own life. Not only will these changes help you reduce the premium, but they will also have a very positive effect on your overall health. So, let us have a look at what you can do.

First of all, you can quit smoking. Since it is considered that non-smokers live longer, the insurance company will be able to collect the premiums for a longer time. You can also lose your weight. By losing your weight you will also lower the level of cholesterol and your blood pressure and the risk of some chronic diseases will also be lowered. Further on, you may reduce or eliminate taking alcohol, which will make you not so risky for the company. Another quite interesting thing you can do is improve your driving. In fact, your premiums will rise if you have a record of multiple violations. If you apply all of these, your situation will not look risky to the insurance company and they will reward you with a premium much lower than in some other cases.

Apart from these factors that are related to your lifestyle, there are also some other ways you can take to reduce the premium. You may switch from permanent to term life insurance, depending on how long you think you would need the coverage. But, before you decide to do this, you should check the policy of cancellation attached to your coverage. You may also try switching the insurer. Actually, you can easily find the same or even better coverage for less money. Another thing that could help you is eliminating the so-called riders. These are actually some optional provisions that would bring some additional money to the beneficiaries and there are several different types of riders.

Further on, you may search for “no-load” or “low-load” policies which are not so expensive for the agents that sell insurance usually charge a flat fee. You may also ask for possible discounts. For example, if you pay full annual amount of premiums, you may get a discount. Also, in case you have a medical condition, your broker may find you a company that already has experience with similar situations and that will probably have a better offer for you.

In a nutshell, these are some helpful tips you may use to reduce the premium. If you don’t feel like changing your lifestyle, you may take some other steps towards a lower price. Anyway, you should not lie about your health or lifestyle for it may lead to a breach of contract in case the company finds out about it. So, be careful and pick your own method to reduce the premium.

I am an old woman in her early sixties and I live alone. My husband died five years ago and my children live far from so I don’t see them very often. I know that I am quite old and I also know that once I am gone, my children will have to cope with all the expenses for the funeral, taxes and other obligatory stuff and I don’ t want to leave them with that trouble. That is why I decided to buy life insurance.

I did not know much about it so I went to an insurance company asked for an agent to explain the basics to me. He told me what type of insurance would be best for me to buy and when I asked about the price and the monthly premiums I would have to pay, I found out that those are to be determined according to my health condition and my medical history. I was a relatively healthy person, but when the agent asked me about the height and weight and about my smoking habits I decided to take away a few pounds from my real weight and, of course, I wouldn’t tell him that I was a smoker. There were also some similar questions the answers to which I thought might raise the cost of premium so I made some more adjustments.

My interview with the agent was over and he proposed the premium which I found suitable enough for me to pay. I decided to take the policy and there I was, happy to have managed to work out a nice price. However, the agent said I would also have to go through a medical exam which would be performed by a professional paramedical and that it could be done at my home. And so, the paramedical came to my house and performed a basic medical exam. He also measured my weight which I realized would not match with the information that I had given to the agent, but I hoped it would go unnoticed.

Now I had to wait for the company to process the results. A month passed, two months passed and there still wasn’t a word from the company. After the third month, I received a package from that contained my medical history from my primary doctor, the results of the exam and the application form that I filled out with the agent. There was also a notice that said I had no more right to any kind of insurance at their company due to giving false information. Actually, they compared data from the three documents and realized that I lied.

So, my advice to all of you  thinking about life insurance – do not give untrue information and even if you do, make sure that you do it so that the company is not able to find the mismatch. You will only lose some of your precious time and embarrass yourself just like I did.

Life insurance is one secure way to make sure that your family and your dependants will, once you pass away, have the same income that you provided them with while you were alive. However, finding the right type of insurance and the right company is not easy and you should be very careful about it. After having found what you were looking for, there follows the process of application which can be very tedious and confusing in case you meet with it for the first time.

Anyway, in order to find the right type of insurance you should do some research on your own, just to get familiar with the possible solutions that would best fit your situation. After that, you may ask for advice a professional advisor or a broker just to be sure that you are doing the right thing.  Once everything is decided, you will probably want to find the insurance company that will have the best price to offer and then you can finally apply for life insurance.

As mentioned before, the application process can be really tedious, but here are some tips for this and hopefully, these will help you once you apply.

Of course, there is an application form that you should fill out. You will need to enter the basic information about yourself such as your name, your address and the employer you work for. Apart from that, you will also need to provide some personal information which you might find strange from them to ask. These are your height, weight, your date of birth (which is ok), your lifestyle habits such as smoking, drinking and the amount of exercise and some financial information such as your annual income.

Some insurance companies will also require a medical exam which will be done by a professional paramedical hired by that insurance company. The exam may be done at your home, office or a clinic that the company selected. The examination will probably consist of the medical history the paramedical will probably ask you to provide. This will include medical conditions, surgeries and prescription medications and you will also be asked about the medical history of your immediate family. Further on, the paramedical will check your blood pressure, listen to your heartbeat, check your height and weight and also draw a blood sample and take a urine sample. You will also have to answer some questions about your lifestyle and the habits that could affect your health.

Of course, you may want to tell a lie at some point in an answer to a question, but you should be aware that the company has the right to terminate the contract within the next two or three years in case it finds out that you have provided false information.

All in all, now that you are familiar with the process to some extent, hopefully it would help you go through it as smooth as you possible. And, be honest – it is the best way to a secure future.

Most life insurance policies will require a medical exam which will be done by a professional paramedical at your home, office or at the clinic that the insurance company has chosen. Some types of life insurance do not require almost any medical information, but these are very rare. Accordingly, in case you are thinking about buying insurance, you should be aware of the process of the medical exam and what you may expect from it.

First of all, the reason why you must undergo a medical exam is because the company will determine how much premium to charge you with based on your medical information. In case they estimate that you might die earlier they will want to charge you with higher premiums so that they can collect more money; on the other hand, if they find that you will live longer, the premiums will be lower since they will have more time to collect them.

The two factors that help insurance companies determine for how long you are likely to live are the so-called Longevity Charts and Medical Exams with History.

Longevity charts are actually statistics about the mortality rates of people. For example, they provide information such as the number of men, women and children that die at certain ages and this may be of great help to companies in estimating the risk they take when they choose a client. For instance, if the charts say that the mortality rate is higher in men of thirty five years of age than in women, then a company will take more risk when it insures a man of that age than a when it insures a woman.

Your medical exam and your medical history are also meant to determine how risky you are for the company. Medical exams are usually done at your home, but if the company requires some additional tests, you will have to a clinic and complete the exam there. The information that will probably requested from you is the following: your medical history, the medical history of your family, how to contact your primary doctor, your smoking and drinking habits, the recreational drug abuse, the amount of exercise and how much insurance you wish to buy.

As for the procedures that are usually performed, you may expect measuring of your weight and height, measuring of your blood pressure and pulse, drawing a blood sample to check cholesterol, protein, glucose and HIV as well as taking a urine sample to check glucose, protein, creatinine and cocaine.

Once the medical exam is over, it may take up to a few months for the company to process the results and to reach final decision.

Now you that you know what you may expect during the medical exam for life insurance, you may prepare yourself and make it as least stressful as possible. Actually, you have nothing to fear, for it is a basic examination and you should be honest in giving answers to all those health related questions.