This is not rocket science – none of it is difficult conceptually, and it could be argued that some good foundational knowledge on life insurance might be worth many thousands of dollars to you over the policy you eventually purchase.

The best sources of information when it comes to life insurance would include websites like this one, that are not overly commercial or filled with ads for specific companies or types of insurance policies. A life insurance agent who’s going to actually listen to the details of your situation before attempting to route you into one type of policy or another is also invaluable. Specifically, look askance at any agent who pushes you into whole life insurance before adequately explaining variable life insurance, universal life insurance, and variable universal life insurance.

As well-meaning as friends and relatives are, is very easy for a layman to confuse the choice that was best for him with the best choice.

Term life insurance advice

Term life is the cheapest and most straightforward life insurance, with clearly defined premiums, payout amounts, and policy duration. The real downside with term life insurance is that it opens you up to the possibility of being in your 50s or 60s, after the policy is finished, without any life insurance at all. You can still get a new policy at that age, but it will be expensive, possibly prohibitively expensive. The way around this situation is to, when you take out your original term policy, make sure that it has a rider, or supplementary addition, that will enable you to either extend the policy or convert it to a whole life policy at the end of the original policy. Coverage like this, for most people, is preferable to whole insurance especially, because of the much lower premiums that you pay, more than anything else. These lower monthly premiums will hopefully leave you with some money each month towards building an investment portfolio. This nest egg in turn, after 20 or 30 years, will most likely be worth more than the death benefit payout that whole life promises you.

Whole life insurance advice

The best advice for many people regarding a whole life policy is “don’t buy it”. Whole life has a guaranteed payout, regardless of when the insured person passes away, and there is also a “cash value” amount associated with the policy, against which the policyholder may borrow. Agents will also trumpet the fact that whole life can be viewed as more than just life insurance, that it can also be viewed as an investment, or even a retirement plan.

The problem is that there are miscellaneous fees and expenses charged by the insurance company that eat into your yearly return, making it hard to justify the higher premiums that you pay in relation to the amount of your death benefit. Some people feel secure with the defined nature whole life insurance, and with the guaranteed payout. Let’s face it, if whole life didn’t make sense for at least some people out there it wouldn’t still be sold. However, in light of the alternatives you have with term or other forms of permanent insurance, declining whole life and choosing to be a little more proactive about your finances will be hugely beneficial to you in the long run.

Whole life is only one form of permanent life insurance i.e. policies that have a guaranteed payout. Other types are variable life, universal life, and variable universal. This life-insurance guide covers each of them in detail elsewhere, but the common elements that they all have relative to simple whole life is that they give you greater control over the previously-mentioned cash value amount, and flexibility as to the amount of your payout and premiums as your needs change over time. Now, they also usually involve a degree of risk that term life or whole life does not have, because you’re allowed to put a portion of your cash value amount into a wider range of investments such as the stock market, which will always involve some risk.

Life insurance advice is easier than ever to obtain via the Internet nowadays. Just make sure that the sources from which you get your information do not have commercial biases that unscrupulously attempted direct you into one form of insurance or another, without giving you all the facts.

In addition, the prices of these policies always seem extremely low. If I am in poor health, why would I give the insurance company a reason to give me a higher quote on my life insurance? It almost seems as though the insurance companies themselves could be taking a lot of risk in selling policies of this kind to thousands and thousands of people without knowing their medical condition. After all, anyone would prefer life insurance without physical exam, all else being equal, so their potential losses would be huge if the beneficiaries of their risky policies tried to collect all at once.

Well, you can be pretty sure that that is not the case, that the insurance companies are not gambling with their balance sheets. So how can they do this?

When you choose to buy life insurance with no physical, you’re essentially requesting that the insurance company look at you in the most general terms. You are telling them to categorize you in terms of average risk across the entire population, without any regard at all for your physical condition. When the company looks at your likelihood of passing away in the next year or next 20 years, in light of very specific statistics that it has for quantifying the mortality rate across the whole population, they will not give you credit for being in good health. They will simply assume that you’re in average health, and base their rate quote on average mortality risk, which naturally is higher than it is for people in excellent health.

It is easy to assume that your life insurance premiums will be higher if you take a medical exam and find that you are less than perfect health. But you still would not know just how risky of a proposition it is to insuring you, for the insurance company. Remember, we’re not comparing your condition to that of people who are in perfect health. You would be trying to establish that your condition is better than average. If you have a couple of minor health problems you may still be much more desirable as a quantifiable risk than the “average” person. Therefore the premiums you pay would still be lower.

It goes without saying that if you are in good or very good health, you will benefit if your insurer knows about it, even if they seem to really want to sell you life insurance, no physical exam required. The prospect of life insurance without physical should be looking a little less attractive by now.

A final thought: it stands to reason that the most aggressive advertising campaigns undertaken by insurance companies would be those that have the highest profit margins. Might this be a reason why advertising for “life insurance no physical” can be found on bus benches, a top taxicabs, and on direct-mail fliers that you receive every single day? If you think you’re in pretty good health, is most likely a good idea to prove that you are, then in essence force the insurance company to give you credit for it.

You have probably wondered what a so-called guaranteed life insurance policy is. It sounds like a way to be sure that you won’t be turned down when you apply for life insurance, and that is exactly what it is. Maybe you are a little skeptical because insurance companies advertise this guaranteed life insurance so aggressively. Well you should be skeptical. In this short article I will outline exactly why guaranteed insurance might not be the best way to go.

“Guaranteed” implies that there are no conditions getting insured. Clearly the condition that you as the customer would like to circumvent in this case is getting life insurance without having to go through a medical exam. But what will you have to pay for that privilege?

The insurance company has to charge you more for guaranteed acceptance life insurance because of the increased risk they are assuming, because your health is a total unknown to them. They have nothing to gauge their risk except the likelihood of the “average” person passing away during the term of policy they will sell you, if guaranteed term life insurance is when you are selecting. Obviously the category of “average” includes people who are in poor health. You will get your guaranteed issue life insurance but your premium payments will be high enough to cover the risk that the insurance company is taking in case you are unfortunately one of those people who are in below average health.

This may be a reasonable trade-off if your aren’t in the best shape, but the take-away from this article should be the following: even if you have a minor health condition or two, you may still be better off in taking a deep breath and getting the medical exam. If you can prove to the insurance company that you have no ailments that put you squarely in the “below average” health category, you can look forward to the prospect of lower life insurance premiums for years and possibly even decades.

And what if you are in good or even excellent health? In this case, for similar coverage your premium payments should definitely be lower than if you had not taken a medical exam. Guaranteed life insurance may be very tempting to you, but the prospect of paying lower premiums-over many years-should have you giving at least serious consideration to taking a medical exam before you purchase term life insurance. At the very least, don’t go “guaranteed” because the exam seems like to much trouble. The potential savings make it worthwhile.

As bombarded as we are with life insurance advertising, it might seem as though it is an easy task to very quickly arrive at a very inexpensive solution to all of our life insurance needs. Well, there’s no doubt that an instant life insurance quote can be found very easily on the Internet or via direct mail advertising, but can you be sure that insurance which you buy in this way is the very best choice for you and your family? After all, you pay into most life insurance policies for decades: is this really a decision you want to make that quickly? Now make no mistake, there are plenty of reputable companies online that you can count on to deliver insurance at a good price. As an example, Kanetix offers the most comprehensive insurance marketplace to compare travel insurance quotes so you can enjoy your vacation. It’s really about doing your homework.

One of the main shortcomings of instant life insurance quotes is the implication that no medical exam will be required in order for you to secure a policy. This can be very attractive to you if you have doubts about your health or even if you’re worried for one reason or another about getting a physical examination. But the very fact that insurance companies so readily offer instant insurance quotes should give you pause as a consumer.

Insurance companies are playing off your fear of an exam or disinclination visit a doctor at all. And by presenting yourself to them through the insurance application as an unquantified risk in relation to your own health, they quite reasonably group you into the “average risk” category. As you can imagine, this will result in higher monthly premiums for a given amount of coverage, even if you are in excellent health. Remember that “average” includes people who will unfortunately pass away at a very young age due to all sorts of health problem, thereby costing the insurer a lot of money. This keeps premiums relatively high for the otherwise innocuous-sounding “average” category.

And so here is the point: this is one of those situations where extending a little effort over a couple of hours could pay enormous dividends over the many years of your policy term. Whether you are thinking an instant term life insurance quote or an instant whole life insurance quote, think again. Be proactive and force the insurance company to essentially give you credit for being in at least average health. Even if you have one or two small health problems, you may still end up paying premiums that are lower than they would be if you opted for the drive-through convenience, so to speak, of a long-term insurance policy commitment based on an instant life insurance quote that locks you into a poor choice.

Few people would argue the point that life insurance is a necessity, to protect the financial well-being of those you love should you pass away during your prime earning years. The question is, what is the best life insurance to purchase? Let’s take a quick look at the relative merits of the two most popular forms of life coverage: term life insurance vs. whole life insurance.

As the name indicates, term life insurance is insurance that you take out for a fixed term. So this policy is taken out for a certain number of years, and the policy expires at the end of that period. If the policyholder dies during this time, the beneficiary who has been named by the insured will receive the death benefit payout associated with the policy. If the policy holder is alive at the end of the term nothing is paid out.

You should know that statistically speaking, it is likely that the person who takes out the policy will survive through the length of its term. This is why term insurance is almost always the cheapest insurance you can buy for a given payout amount: the unlikelihood of payout enables insurance companies to offer term life to you relatively inexpensively. Before we look at term vs whole life insurance, let’s look at the whole life policies.

Whole life insurance, aka whole of life insurance, came into being because the market demanded life insurance with a guaranteed payout, regardless of when the policyholder died. In addition to the assurance of a payout, insurance agents often tout its benefits as an account against which you may borrow money, and as a sort of retirement account. With whole life, the concept of “cash value” was introduced, which is the value that the policy has over and above the premium payments you’ve made, because of interest that accrues on those payments over the life of the policy. The idea is that the cash value amount will eventually cover the payout when the insured person dies. In the meantime you are essentially allowed access to it if you desire, by borrowing from it. Be aware that borrowing against your cash value could reduce the payout to your beneficiaries if you should pass away before paying back the loan.

So moving on to the question of term life versus whole life insurance. Conceptually, whole life may sound like a pretty good deal. You get additional features and a guaranteed payout. The fact is though, that unfortunately you will pay a small fraction of the premiums each year with term life insurance vs whole life, for a similar amount of coverage. The premiums are large enough that they could affect your standard of living. Even if you can afford them though, the reality is that for most people whole life insurance policies just don’t make good financial sense anyway. There are usually fees and hidden costs that really increase your premium relative to the amount of coverage you are receiving. Everyone has alternatives as to where to put their money, and when it comes to the question of term insurance vs. whole life most experts will counsel you to use an alternative to whole life to address your income needs in retirement.

Specifically, many suggest to buy a good term life policy, possibly with a rider (an extra provision) to either extend the original policy when it is finished or to convert it to a whole life policy at that time. Then, since the term policy should lock in years of relatively low premium payments for you, get as aggressive as you can with your retirement planning and investing. What will then hopefully happen is that the next egg that you build over decades will exceed, and possibly greatly exceed, the whole life payout for which you would have paid so much.
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Maybe you’re young and just starting a new family, or maybe you’re older and thinking about protecting your family’s financial future for the long-term. Either way you realize that life insurance is a critical component of long-term financial planning of responsible people. The question is should you buy term life insurance, or would it be better to go for some form of permanent life insurance? I’ll attempt to answer this question in this short article, as well as describing a couple of absolutely critical things to look at if you buy term life.

Maybe a knowledgeable friend or relative has told you to think twice before you purchase whole life insurance. While whole life gives you the assurance that your loved ones will receive a payout at the time of your passing or when you reach the age of 90 or even 100 years old, and term life insurance does not, there are some very good reasons why whole life is not the best choice for most people.

Now an insurance agent will attempt to sell you on the idea that there is an investment component to a whole life insurance policy, and in addition to a guaranteed payout this makes it a good choice. Whole life has what’s called a cash value amount that earns interest over the lifetime of policy. Basically your premiums, which are quite high to begin with, work for you and for the insurance company, so that they equal or exceed the payout amount when the beneficiaries are paid. It sounds fair but the problem is that the premiums constitute a substantial financial commitment does benefit really does not add up over the long term. There are a couple reasons for this. First of all whole life has many miscellaneous fees that are not necessarily disclosed to the policyholder. Another reason to decline whole life is the way that term life insurance simply fits very easily into a smart long-term overall financial plan.

(There are other forms of permanent life insurance like variable life and universal life, that give you flexibility and control over the policy and the cash value amount, and you should look at these policies. They involve a degree of risk and a level of financial expertise that you may or may not possess. They are covered in depth elsewhere on this site, but in this article I want to focus on the clearest choice for people who prefer a hands-off approach to their life insurance, because those people are best suited to term life.)

The real attraction to buying term life insurance is that as cheap as it is, you should be left with some cash each month that you can put towards an investment portfolio. The idea is that over time your portfolio is likely to be worth more than the payout amount of a whole life insurance policy. We are talking decades here to build up a nest egg yourself, while paying premium amounts that are a small fraction of their whole life counterparts. I mentioned flexibility and freedom with other policies: the small term life premiums alone represent freedom that you will have over what you do with your finances.

So how to avoid finding yourself in your 50s or 60s, at the conclusion of a term life policy, with no life insurance at all after having paid into a policy for decades? Make sure you at least look into getting a term policy that is renewable so that you can extend your term coverage, or convertible into a whole life policy at that time. These features will increase the cost of your original term policy, but they are a good middle ground that enabled you to pay relatively low premiums for decades while building a nest egg, while ensuring that you always have life insurance. Note that converting to a whole life policy when you are much older still leaves you plenty of autonomy towards your own finances during your prime earning years, with the much lower term premiums. Incidentally often these policies are called guaranteed term life insurance, or guaranteed level term, where you are assured that the premiums will not increase over a defined period of time, in the early years of the policy.

It’s very easy to buy term life insurance online, but a good agent can answer all your questions, and explain all of your options to you. Just make sure you talk to when you can trust, because the fact is that agents tend to make a lot more money from selling whole life than they do selling term life insurance policies.

When it comes to purchasing life insurance, do you think that you are out of luck because of a medical condition or because you have a lifestyle that involves activities that might be considered ‘risky’? Well, think again, because high risk life insurance policies are sold every day to people who fall into one of these categories. I want to outline a strategy that you can use to purchase life insurance that will responsibly attend to the needs of your loved ones in case you should pass away, and give you peace of mind knowing that you have done so.

A good first step is to take a look at any policies that you already have, for what’s known as a ‘guaranteed insurability rider’. If you see this, it means you have already been paying for the right to increase the coverage you already have. If this doesn’t apply to you, check out the possibility of group insurance, which caters to a wider range of people, and for which one tends not to need a medical check-up. Premiums amounts are often higher with this form of insurance for this reason, but it may make the difference between you getting life insurance or being without it.

Many people with heart problems, diabetes, a history of cancer, etc., need another option, and fortunately today there is one. Whereas 30-40 years ago or more, a lot of people with these health conditions may have not been able to find a high risk life insurance policy at all, today insurance companies have a product generically known as “impaired risk” insurance. Between medical advances, better diagnostic tools and continuing care, as well as more knowledge on the part of patients with these chronic ailments as to how to properly take care of themselves, even ‘high risk’ policyholders have an incrementally better chance of long-term survival, and impaired risk insurance exists because of this fact. So-called clinical medical underwriting takes into account your improved chances, with a detailed look at the condition(s) you have, treatments available, as well as your present health.

What are some high risk life insurance companies? Often they are companies you already know, like Mutual of Omaha, CNA or GTLIC. There are also many companies to be found online, and now that you are aware of the concept of ‘impaired risk insurance’ you know the right term upon which to base your search.

There is such a thing as impaired risk life insurance specialists, who will do the legwork of finding you a high risk life insurance quote. If you have had problems getting a policy based on your health, an agent with experience in impaired risk might save you time as well as money.

Many people neglect to even research taking out a life insurance policy, simply because they think these policies are too expensive to fit comfortably into their budget. However, it is still possible to find low cost life insurance. Just do a quick online search and you’ll be amazed by the amount of coverage you can buy for just pennies (or at least nickles) a day. But now I’m going to tell you why blindly rushing ahead and buying one of those policies sold just on the basis of their cost is the wrong thing to do.

First you have to determine whether it is whole life insurance or term life insurance that you are looking for: this is even more important than buying based on the most attractive low cost life insurance quote you can find. A good guide supplying answers to your life insurance questions can help you with this basic decision.

Ask yourself what your needs are. Maybe you’re young, just starting a family. Financial protection for your loved ones in the event of your death is paramount, but if you buy one of those low cost term life insurance policies, then live longer than the duration of the policy, are you aware that you will receive nothing at all for all the premium payments that you made, over decades? Also, have you considered how much harder it will be to get a life insurance policy at that time, in your 50s or 60s? Of course no one can fault you for making provisions for your family, but to buy that cheap coverage you found on the internet or in a direct mailer might very well not address either of these eventualities. There are ways to avoid these outcomes, through convertible or renewable term, but you have to know about them and why they might make sense for you.

On the other hand, maybe you’ve heard that a relatively low cost whole life insurance policy can be thought of and used as an investment for your retirement. You’re attracted by the guaranteed death benefit payout, and the fact that you can often borrow money against the cash value amount that your policy will build up over time. But did you know that most experts, I mean unbiased experts not actively engaged in trying to sell you insurance(!), don’t regard simple whole life insurance as a very good investment? Did you know that whole life has fees that are often undisclosed to the policyholder, which can seriously eat into any cash value appreciation from which the policy is benefiting?

I’m asking these questions about two of the most popular forms of life insurance not to dissuade you from buying either of them. I’m trying to help by pointing out that there’s more to them than meets the eye, and certainly more to your task of finding the right policy for you, than simply looking at price, or rushing to a judgment before you have all the facts. Getting the right variation of a given policy, or getting the right supplemental features won’t necessarily happen even if you go through an agent, unless you ask the right questions and have a general idea about what you do not want.

Since you’re making a financial decision that you could be paying into for decades, reliability of the institution that you choose is obviously key. While market cap is in itself no guarantee that you can count on your insurance company to be around 100 years from now (heard of AIG?), it probably still makes sense to look at a few of the the top rated life insurance companies, based on a recent asset size. Disclaimer: with all the financial turmoil of late, a list of the top three or top ten life insurance companies probably shouldn’t be considered too firm, if they are based on market capitalization. That measure is just too volatile nowadays. Still, it might be worthwhile to list a few of the largest US Insurance companies to help you decide where to start your search for life insurance.

Right up there on the list is MetLife, Inc. MetLife is dedicated to providing diversity in their services. This allows them to cater to the different needs of their clients in different financial brackets. MetLife is also focused on innovating their corporate culture and changing of how insurance companies are perceived. The key focus here is empowering their employees to succeed. As their people get happier in doing their jobs, so do their customers.

Another old stable firm is Prudential Financial, Inc. Founded in 1895, Prudential Financial has remained strong all throughout its existence. The company has helped shape the lives of many people. It is the epitome of strong leadership and social responsibility. Prudential’s wise business decisions and sound investments are the key measures that have made it possible for it to stay on top of things. In the 1990s, Prudential has a consolidated asset that reached more than $100 billion USD. This has to have their customers sleeping well at night.

Another that belongs high on the list of the top life insurance companies is Lincoln National Corporation. There are three critical business strategies that Lincoln National Corporation focuses on. These are Wealth Accumulation Protection, High Net-Worth, and Buyer Behavior of Baby Boomers. The reason for this business strategy is to continue providing value-add services to its clients and customers and yes, even to their employees. Wealth Accumulation protection is focused towards the future. This strategy’s goal is the success of the company and its policy holders and stakeholders for the next generation of insurance coverage policies. High Net-Worth is simply the investment return for those who have assets that are worth more than $1 million. Buyer Behavior of Baby Boomers refer to the economic, financial, and political influence of about 80 million Americans who have no retirement plans yet.

You can do a search to round out the current top 10 life insurance companies, but as I say, it would be subject to rapid change.

If you are looking for a particular insurance company that is very reliable in the industry, then you should consider going with New York Life Insurance. Let’s take a quick look at an example of a plan they offer: whole life insurance. But what exactly is whole life insurance? To make an informed decision, you must know the different types of insurance plans that are available in the market right now. Whole life insurance is actually the permanent type of insurance protection, in the sense that you are protected for the whole of your life. Well, not exactly for the whole of your life, but from the very day that you took out your policy until the very day you die. Of course, this is only applicable for as long as your life insurance premiums are duly paid.

Whole life insurance actually provides you a solid foundation for you to build a financial strategy that is long-term in nature. From the definition itself, this insurance type gives lifetime protection for yourself, your family, and even your business. Aside from these, there are a number of other things that this policy can offer you.

For instance, you get mortgage protection. The proceeds coming from your death benefits can then be used to pay off mortgages and all sorts of outstanding debts. Of course, it would be a bit sad to think that only the premature death of the policyholder can bring about this ironic financial blessing. But if you really think about it, death is an ultimate part of life, one that none of us can virtually escape. The better and responsible thing to do is to prepare so that you would not leave your family any financial burden. Your policy will surely help a lot with the mortgage protection it provides you.

Aside from this, you also get estate preservation. New York Life Insurance offers funds that can cover the expenses of your estate. You no longer have to sell any of your assets to cover your expenses. Borrowing money is no longer needed as well. Moreover, if you have a favorite charity, you can actually arrange to make your own contribution to your charity upon your death. Of course, the charity at hand here should be qualified per guidelines of New York Life Insurance.

A New York Life Insurance agent will also allow you to take out loans against your whole life policy’s cash value. This will accrue interest, of course, and your total benefits and cash value would decrease respectively. Still, this is a very convenient feature to have, especially when there are sudden monetary needs.