Life Insurance

Monday, August 28, 2006

Life Insurance Quotes Online

In the past, if you planned to get a life insurance policy and you needed to get quotes, you had to devote a considerable amount of time and effort. Usually, you needed to spend hours either on the phone speaking to different insurance brokers or at appointments with agents.

Finding the lowest prices on a life insurance policy the traditional way was definitely taxing as well as costly. But now, the Internet has radically changed the way we obtain life insurance. Since most insurance companies have launched their presence on the web, all you need to do is access their websites and you can now get the life insurance quotes you need.

Life insurance quotes are readily available from numerous insurance companies on the Internet. A simple search will yield dozens of reputable insurance companies offering essential information including quote services. Most of these sites offer you the best information from insurance specialists and experts. And you can get the insurance quote you need, in a matter of minutes. Generally, all you need to do is fill out a form with your information and you can get a competitive quote immediately.

You don’t even have to spend much to get the information you need because most of these insurance quotes services are free. In addition to insurance companies, some insurance agents and brokers also operate online and provide excellent quote services with high-quality results. With these life insurance quotes, as well as other essential information, you can easily compare and evaluate the different insurance options you have. Now you can make the best choice when deciding which insurance company you select. Life insurance quotes online let you make the right decision quickly, efficiently, and conveniently.

Which Life Insurance Policy Should You Buy?

Which life insurance policy should you buy? You will at some time in your life come to the conclusion that you need to buy some life insurance. You have a pretty good idea how much you need but deciding which life insurance policy is best for your particular need is another question. There are many to choose from. May be if we examine the varying reasons why people buy life insurance and which policy best fits a particular need you would more easily come to a decision. Here goes.

Mortgage Life Insurance Protection

Most people have a desire to own a house at some time. Some are small and cozy and seem to just ooze family. Others are larger and may seem to project affluence and success. One thing they all seem to have in common is that this piece of property is very important to it's owners. Sometimes it is simply pride of ownership that drives a person to buy a house. In other situations this home is bought because the couple may just want a home for the family. They want their children to know that this is their home.

You buy homeowners insurance to protect your home in case of fire or any type of disaster that may destroy it. You also need to buy some mortgage life insurance in the event of the death of the person who pays the mortgage. One of the best policies to use is the decreasing term life insurance policy. You buy this policy for the duration of the mortgage...for example 20 years. Upon your death the insurance company pays your beneficiary an amount equal to the balance owed...

They therefore have a house free and clear. Some people prefer to use, for our example, a 20 year level term life insurance policy. If you died in the first year the same amount would be paid to your beneficiary but if you should die for example in year ten there would be sufficient money to pay off the mortgage but there would be considerably more cash that your loved ones would certainly welcome.

Family Protection

One of the main reasons for buying a life insurance policy is for the protection of your family in case you should prematurely die. They will need money to pay last expenses like burial costs, probate costs, attorneys fees and of course the big one...estate taxes. Although the congress has repealed the estate tax it has been done on somewhat of a sliding scale until the year 2010...so the fact is that if you are in that tax bracket you have estate taxes to pay upon death.

You also must consider that your family still needs your income after your death. You need a policy the proceeds of which can be paid out in the form of an income. The best way to do these things is to buy a life insurance policy to take care of the cash needs and another life insurance policy that would provide income at your death. In either case the most commonly used policies are the 20 year term life, the 25 year term life or the 30 year term life insurance policies.

Some people like universal life insurance, variable life insurance, variable universal life insurance or whole life insurance. These life insurance policies include cash values which you could use during your lifetime.

Business Life Insurance Needs

Small business owners needs for life insurance policies differ from individual need or family protection needs even though the focus still is in the surviving family. A corporation or a business partnership would buy a life insurance policy on each of the partners or stock holders that would provide sufficient cash to buy a deceased partners or stock holders shares from his or her heirs. A buy sell agreement is drawn up by an attorney. It is funded by life insurance and is binding. Most business people use 20 year term life insurance policy or the 30 year term life insurance policy for this. Any of the permanent cash value policies can also be used.

Business owners may also buy life insurance to protect the business against the loss of a valuable key employee. The business would own the policy and also be the beneficiary. Upon the death of the key employee the cash from the life insurance policy would be used to help the business stay afloat while they search for a capable replacement.

Life Insurance Explained

Life insurance is a type of insurance wherein the insured pays a premium for a period (often lifetime) and the life insurance company provides insurance coverage against the risk of death. There are many types of life insurances or assurance (in the UK) available today.

Basics: There are 4 parties in any life insurance policy. The policyholder is the one who is buying the policy, the insured is the one against whose death the policy is made, the insurer that is the insurance company and finally the beneficiary is the person who will get the proceedings of the life insurance policy. It is mandatory that the policyholder should have a legitimate reason for insuring a person’s life.

Types of Life Insurances:

1. Temporary Life insurance. This policy is also called term life insurance that has coverage for a fixed period of time. The policyholder needs to pay a premium for a fixed period of time for which the insurance company provides insurance coverage. This type of policy does not accumulate cash value.

2. Permanent Life Insurance. This type of policy provides coverage till the policy matures. A policy is said to mature when the person reaches a fixed age or dies. The policyholder needs to pay premium for the entire period. This type of policy accumulates a cash value. The policyholder can withdraw or borrow the money or surrender the policy to receive surrender value. There are 3 types of permanent life insurances.

2.1 Whole life insurance. This has a level premium and corresponding cash value. Upon death of the insured, the beneficiary receives the death benefit only and not the cash value. The policy owner can borrow loans on the cash value.

2.2 Universal life insurance. This has a flexible premium and gives higher internal rate of return. The policy has a cash account depending upon the premium. The surrender value equals the cash account balance.

2.3 Variable Universal life insurance. This is similar to universal life insurance with cash account. However the money is invested by the insurance company in mutual funds for a greater return. Hence there is higher probability of increase of cash account but the risk of reduction in cash account is also present.