Health tips for better life

Comparing Term Vs Life Insurance is comparing temporary coverage to permanent coverage. Term life insurance is only temporary and Whole life insurance carries with you the rest of your life. So what other differences are there between the two in this common debate?

Whole life insurance builds cash value and Term life insurance does not. The cash value of a Whole life policy begins building in the third policy year and continues to grow with interest for as long as the policy is in force. You have the option to surrender the policy to the insurer and receive the cash value of the policy to do with as you please. You can also leave the policy in force and use the cash value to secure a loan.

Term coverage is only designed to be temporary coverage to provide a death benefit should you die during the period of time that the policy is in force.

Typically, term policies are sold as and “ART”, or “Annual Renewable Term” policy. Other common periods are 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 year term policies. When the policy renews, the premiums increase based upon attained age. The main benefit of a term policy is that you can get more insurance for less money.

Some people opt for a small Whole life policy to provide permanent protection, while simultaneously using a Term policy to provide additional death benefits for a specified period of time.

Different companies charge different premiums for the same exact coverage. One insurer may charge only .00 per month for a ,000,000.00 term policy, while another charges 0.00 per month. Only by comparing policies and companies carefully will you know you’re getting the best quote.

Although equity indexed annuities have been around for a number of years, equity indexed universal life (EIUL) insurance is a relative newcomer to the life insurance marketplace. EIUL is a spin on universal life (UL) insurance, a popular policy type because you can increase or decrease your death benefit as your needs change and your premiums can be adjusted accordingly. UL policies also build a cash value against which you could borrow or even use to pay your premiums.

The equity indexed concept is relatively simple: the amount of interest credited to your policy’s cash value is tied to the performance of a particular index (the S&P 500 is one of the most popular), so that in years where the index performs well your interest crediting rate will rise, and in years where the index performs poorly, your interest crediting rate will fall.

Most policies guarantee that your interest crediting rate will never fall below zero so that you won’t lose money (you just won’t make it). They also have a cap as to how high a crediting rate they will pass on to you. This range of possible rates is often described as offering “upside potential with downside protection.”

How It Works

Typically, the big choice facing life insurance buyers is whether to go with a “safe” universal life policy that offers a minimum guaranteed rate but limited potential for cash accumulation or to go with a more “risky” variable life policy that offers greater potential for earnings but no protection against losses in the market.

EIUL insurance is an attempt to fill the gap between these two approaches. EIUL is universal life insurance in which the cash value is linked to a certain index. If the index is higher at the end of the year, your cash value may go up. If the index stays flat or goes down, your cash value earns the minimum guaranteed interest rate (say, 2 percent). You should note, however, that when your index goes up it doesn’t mean that your cash value increase will reflect the full index increase, due to fees, and dividends and capital gains aren’t included in the cash value’s calculation.

But are these new products the best of both worlds? Let’s take a look at both sides of the coin.

The Pros and Cons

One advantage of EIUL is the potential for higher interest crediting rates than a traditional universal policy. Another advantage is that it offers greater protection from market downturns than a variable life insurance policy.

Stephan Mitchell, product & competition analyst for Pacific Life Insurance Co., based in Newport Beach, Calif., points out that while these products are not a cure-all, they can offer “an attractive middle ground for buyers who saw the market downturn of 2001-2002 and are looking for some guarantees.” These products can offer some peace of mind to buyers looking for a mix of guarantees and some potential for cash accumulation.

However, there can be disadvantages to having an equity indexed product. The chief disadvantage of an equity indexed product is that it comes equipped with slightly higher risk than a traditional universal policy. Also, the cap rate

Traditional whole life insurance, also known as ordinary life or straight life, is a type of permanent (cash value) insurance that provides coverage for your entire life. This kind of policy is sometimes described as plain vanilla insurance. You pay a fixed amount, known as a level premium, each payment period (monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually), and a guaranteed death benefit goes to your beneficiary when you die. Your premium amount is guaranteed to remain level for as long as you live, even if the insurance company’s costs rise. When you reach old age, your premium will not increase over the amount you paid when you started the policy.

How a traditional life insurance policy works

The insurance company calculates level premiums sufficient to pay the cost of your insurance coverage (mortality costs) to the end of your life.

In the policy’s early years, the level premiums are higher than the mortality costs. The difference between the mortality costs and the level premiums is placed into a cash reserve account known as the cash value. In later years, as mortality costs rise due to your advancing age, your level premiums are lower than the mortality costs, and your policy draws on the cash value to help pay the insurance costs. As the cash value accumulates over the years, the amount of your actual insurance coverage is reduced by an equal amount.

For example, say you buy a 0,000 policy at age 30. Since you have no cash value in the beginning, you are paying for 0,000 of insurance coverage. If you have ,000 of cash value by age 40, you’ll then be paying for ,000 of coverage. Your cash value will continue to rise, and the amount of insurance coverage will continue to fall.

If you continue to keep up your premium payments, your cash value will eventually grow to an amount equal to your policy’s death benefit.

In fact, if you happen to live to the policy’s maturity date (generally age 95 or 100), the company will pay the accumulated cash value (by then equal to the death benefit) to you. But if you die at any time before you reach the maturity date, your beneficiary receives the full, guaranteed death benefit, no matter what the amount of your cash value at the time of your death.

Accessing your money in the policy

Your cash value can be used as collateral to obtain policy loans from the insurance company at interest rates stated in the policy contract. This rate is often fixed, typically about 8 percent, or it may vary according to an index. These loans are tax free and will not affect the growth of your cash value. But remember, the cash value is designed to support your policy’s death benefit. If you are unable to repay the loan, the proceeds paid to your beneficiary after your death will be reduced by the amount of the loan, plus outstanding interest. The other way to access the cash value of your traditional whole life insurance policy is through a complete or partial surrender (cancellation) of your policy. However, surrender will terminate all or part of your coverage and may have tax consequences.

Policy dividends

For policyowners, an additional benefit contained in some life insurance policies is dividends. In order for a policy to pay dividends, it must be a participating policy. Nonparticipating policies pay no dividends. Dividends are not guaranteed, but are paid at the discretion of the insurance company’s board of directors, depending on a company’s expenses, the performance of its investments, and the amount of death benefit payouts made in a year. The amount you receive is determined by a formula that takes into account the policy series, the size of your policy, your age, and the number of years the policy has been in force.

Policy dividends are free from income tax because they’re considered a return of premiums you have paid and can be taken in cash, used to pay some or all of the policy premium, reinvested to gain (taxable) interest, or used to buy paid-up insurance additions to the policy (for which no further premiums are required). You may surrender accumulated paid-up additions in later policy years and use the proceeds to pay the regular policy premiums.

Other uses of cash value

If the time comes when you feel you are unable to continue making premium payments or you feel you have more insurance coverage than you need, but you don’t want to surrender or take a loan against the policy, you have a number of alternatives. Based on the size of your cash value account, you could use your cash value to purchase what is known as reduced paid-up insurance, whereby your coverage amount is lowered and no further premiums are required. Or, you could turn the cash value into extended term insurance, which would provide the same level of death benefit you now have, but for a limited period of time.

There are lots of people who have many ideas about life insurance policies. In fact, there are still many people who pay too much for the rates of life insurance. This is happen because they are lack of information. They often make mistake with the payment obligation of the coverage they will gain.
Life insurance is known as a good way to get death benefit. It is an effective choice for those who want to increase the value of death. The people love it since it has low rates. However, you need to know that there is still a way to reduce your life insurance rate.
You see the life insurance company usually determine your rate based on the physical condition. Thus, if you want to reduce you rate; you should improve your odds with the medical examination, too. Show them that you are health person. Be sure you do not smoke, or even drink. If you quit smoking, or drinking, you can surely find the lower rate of your life insurance.
Indeed, there is common thing to find people applying the life insurance since they have bad condition on their health. This kind of weak person will be easily threatened by the life insurance company.

The importance of life insurance policies or online life insurance must be clearly understood. The life insurance policies provide you with life time safety as it provides financial support to your family, in the event of a death. There are two main types of life insurance policies. One is the annual term insurance that is renewable. This is quite common. Apart from this, you can also avail the policies like premium term insurance. In this case, the premium will never change over a long period of ten to twenty years. Thus these policies are highly beneficial. Until the contract gets completed, the premium amount will not get revised. If an unexpected death occurs within the contract period, then the beneficiaries will be eligible to get the amount. If you wish to learn more details on the advantages of this scheme and wish to know about the premium amount to be paid, you can visit the life insurance sites and get a proper quote.

After comparing the different quotes, you can choose the best option.

In the case of level term life insurance, the premium might change over a period of time. The money that will be received as death benefit is going to be constant in the level term life insurance. This is like a temporary coverage option. In the event of the death, the family members will not be left stranded. They will be financially supported, due to these life insurance policies. There are also other schemes, where the money received as death benefit will reduce over a period of time. This is called the decreasing term life insurance. This will not be chosen by many people. This is mainly availed by people who are in some financial crisis like a personal loan or some mortgage related issues.

The rate for the term life insurance schemes will differ according to the factors like age, health conditions, alcohol or smoking addiction, profession and so on.

Those who are chain smokers and have a family history of diabetes are prone to get diabetes and blood pressure at an early age. Thus such unhealthy people will be treated differently. When you have a complicated health issue, the life insurance company might ask you to provide proper medical certificate. Online life insurance will also be useful to cover your financial expenses. The most important part of the financial plan for the year will be the insurance policy. There are so many online life insurance policies. But you need to select the best one that serves your purpose. The major advantage of online life insurance is that, you can receive quotes from various insurance companies. This will help you to make a comparative analysis of the current scenario. There are four main things that will be needed, if you plan to have an online insurance policy. This includes a financial calculator that is reliable, internet connection, the details on the insurance company and its quotes. You need to choose a trustworthy site, as the bank information that you provide must be kept confidential.