Life Insurance - Money Saving Top Tips

More and more people are buying life insurance online and the numbers seem to be doubling every two years. The reasons are clear. Prices are lower on the Internet and life insurance is fundamentally a simple insurance product.

Despite the underlying simplicity of life insurance, most web sites channel their online clients through a telephone based help and advice service manned by experienced personnel. They represent your safety net so if a little technical knowledge is called for, help is at hand.

But it's always a good idea to have a few Top Tips in your back pocket when you're shopping online for life insurance. They'll help you ask the right questions and find the best policy.

1. Always have your Life Insurance policy "Written in Trust".

This means that in the event of a claim, the money goes directly and immediately to the person(s) you nominate when you first take the policy out. It also avoids all possibility of your estate having to pay Inheritance Tax on the proceeds of your policy and that could represent a 40% tax saving!

All you have to do is tell the online brokerage organizing your policy that you want your policy "Written in Trust" and the names of the people who the life insurance company pay in the event of a claim. They will then sort it all out for you. The extra good news is that this service is invariably free of charge. So it's a win win situation and there aren't many of those around these days!

2. In the early years a Reviewable Life Insurance Policy will be cheaper, but a Guaranteed Policy will work out a better buy in the longer term.

With a "Guaranteed Policy" the insurance company guarantees never to increase your policy's premium.

With a "Reviewable Policy" you agree that your insurance company can review the cost of your policy at regular intervals. But don't be kidded - in our experience a "review" is just another word for a price increase. After all, who's ever heard of an insurance company passing up a chance to charge you more! The review intervals are usually between 2 to 5 years, but this does vary between insurance companies. You will find the details of the review intervals on the documents sent to you before you accept the insurance - these are called The Key Features Documents.

So, comparing otherwise like for like policies, in the early years the premiums for a "Reviewable Policy" will undoubtedly be lower than the premiums for a "Guaranteed Policy". Thereafter, the premiums for a Reviewable Policy increase eventually catching up with and overtaking, the premium for a "Guaranteed Policy".

In our experience, you can expect the monthly premiums for a Reviewable Policy to exceed those of a Guaranteed policy in about 7 to 10 years and then within the following 10 years, more than double again. If your budget is currently tight, then by all means chosen a Reviewable Policy - after all, your salary may increase in coming years and ease the strain. On the other hand, if the premiums for a Guaranteed Policy are affordable, we think they represent your best buyer.

A footnote. Many insurance companies have stopped offering "Guaranteed" rates for standalone critical illness insurance policies. This because they have experienced much higher claim rates than they initially expected. However, you may still find a Guaranteed life insurance policy that also provides critical illness cover. As we have explained, "Guaranteed" rates are especially good value and if you can get a quote for a Guaranteed life policy that includes critical illness cover, you may have a real bargain.

3. Thinking about a Joint Life Insurance Policy?

A Joint Life Insurance policy is usually written on a first death basis. This means that the policy will pay out on the death of the first policyholder, subject to the policy being in force at the time. This leaves the second person uninsured and older. Older people can struggle to get life insurance at an affordable premium, so rather than a Joint Policy consider taking out separate policies now. Overall, it will work out a little dearer - but you get twice the cover and double the peace of mind.

4. Taking out a Life Insurance Policy? Now would be an ideal time to include Critical Illness cover.

Are you likely to need Critical Illness Insurance in the future? Yes? Then consider adding it now to the life insurance policy, you're arranging. Why? There are three reasons.

Firstly, a Life Insurance policy combined with Critical Illness cover will work out significantly cheaper than buying two separate policies. Secondly, as we have already explained in the footnote to Tip 2, you may be able to buy a combined Life and Critical Illness policy with a guaranteed premium. That could be a real bargain. Finally, premiums for critical illness cover increase rapidly as you get older - so the sooner you take it out, the cheaper it will be.

5. Don't confuse Terminal Illness cover with Critical Illness cover.

There's world of difference between Terminal Illness and Critical Illness cover so it's important to understand the difference.

Terminal Illness cover pays out the insured lump sum if a Medical Doctor diagnoses you with an illness from which the Doctor expects you to die within 12 months. Most good life policies automatically include Terminal Illness cover at no extra cost. It's basically an early, and welcome policy payout.

A Critical Illness policy pays out the insured lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of a wide range chronic illness and there is no life expectancy criteria. Indeed, with many of the insured illnesses you could expect to survive for many years. For example: certain cancers, heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, loss of speech, sight or hearing, onset of Parkinsons or Alzheimers disease, third degree burns etc. Say you were an engineer aged 40 and you lost your sight. A Critical Illness policy would pay out immediately and that money could well be vital in helping you and your family through many difficult financial years ahead. If you just had Terminal Illness cover there'd be no chance of a payout.

So as you can see, Critical Illness cover is far more comprehensive than simple Terminal Illness cover and for that reason critical illness cover always costs you extra.

6:34 PM   by Unknown ·   0

Buying Life Insurance Online - Is it a Really Good Idea?

The advent of the internet has opened up the possibility of cheaper life insurance for all.

In years gone by, if you were considering life insurance you would probably have invited an insurance salesman from your favorite insurance company to meet you or alternatively gone to your local insurance broker. But rarely would you have been courageous enough to get competitive quotations. It just wasn't done. You trusted the salesman to do the best for you and surely you thought, life insurance is somewhat technical and requires specialized knowledge. All very cozy. All very expensive. How life has changed!

People now realize that life insurance is not that complicated. If on a scale of 1 to 10, buying car insurance online rates 9, life insurance must be a 7 or 8. This has opened up the Internet as a prime arena for cut-price life insurance. That's not to imply that life policies bought on the Internet are in any way substandard. No, you're most likely to end up with a policy from one of the UK 's big insurers like Norwich Union or Legal & General and they'll be exactly the same policies as you could buy anywhere else. It's just that the intense competition on the internet and efficiency and simplicity of the system, means that most online brokers decide to cut the commission and roll back the savings into lower prices.

Ah yes, I hear you saying, 7 or 8 implies that life insurance is more complicated than car insurance. Yes, it is - but that doesn't mean that it represents a problem. The companies selling life insurance online recognize that many clients feel that some level of personal advice is useful and indeed, necessary. They accommodate this with a mix of useful information on the web site and more often than not, with a short telephone conversation with a life insurance adviser prior to you buying. This provides reassurance and helps to ensure you really do get the policy options you need all at rock bottom prices.

Buying online certainly is a good idea.

6:32 PM   by Unknown ·   0

Buying Life Insurance? One Tip to Save You Thousands!

It's simple, always have your Life Insurance policy "Written in Trust". This may sound technical but it is easy to understand and it's so easy to organize.

"Written in Trust" ensures that in the event of a claim, the policy will pay directly to the beneficiaries you name on the policy when you first take it out. If you do not do this, the policy will pay out to your legal estate and this inevitably means that the money stays in your solicitors' hands for some time.

Yes, that implies legal delays and, of course, your solicitor takes a small cut!

Then, if the value of your taxable estate exceeds £275,000, and remember your home can easily account for the lion's share of the £275,000 limit without much difficulty, your estate will have to pay Inheritance Tax. This represents 40% of the estate's taxable value in excess of £275,000. So, if your estate has to pay Inheritance Tax and the proceeds of your life policy go to your estate, the taxman gets his hands on 40% of your life policy!

But it's so easy to avoid all these problems.

Simply get your policy "Written in Trust". Then the life insurance company pays out immediately, directly, and totally tax-free, to the persons you have named on your policy. All you have to do is tell the online brokerage organizing your policy that you want your policy "Written in Trust" and they will automatically sort it out for you.

This advice remains sound even if the Life Insurance policy is designed to pay off your mortgage. Rather than your estate using the insurance payout to pay off your mortgage, the policy can be written in trust and paid to your partner and then he or she can use that money to pay off the mortgage. The benefit? Well, if your taxable estate exceeds the IHT threshold the mortgage is effectively paid off tax-free.

The extra good news is that all the brokers we've met will arrange for your policy to be "Written in Trust" as a free of charge service. So it's a win win situation and there aren't many of those around these days!

6:29 PM   by Unknown ·   0

5 Steps to Cheaper Home Owners Insurance

Knowledge is power
When you are looking to make any major purchase or take out any long term insurance the first thing you should do is arm yourself with all the facts you need and this is by no means any different with your home owners insurance. Work out the value of your home and write up a list of the personal items in your home. This list should include absolutely everything that you would need to replace in the event of it being damaged beyond repair, stolen or broken. This itinerary will not only prove useful for calculating the level of cover you require but also for making a claim should the need arise.

Calculating your cover
Home owners insurance is a little different to other insurance. Car insurance uses the book value of your car, the insurance company being safe in the knowledge that you will be able to replace your car should the unthinkable happen. Going out and buying a house is a little! Different to this. There isn't a set value on a house and you can't just buy the house itself. In order to come up with a value on your home, you need to find out the market value of similar houses in a similar area. In order to reduce the cost of your monthly premium you should seriously consider excluding a small amount of the money because while you need to insure the building and outbuildings you don't to insure the surrounding or housing land.

Shopping around
This is the key aspect to gain cheaper home owners insurance and is a step that has been made much easier with the introduction of the Internet. Comparison sites are regularly available that will allow you to get quotes from a large number of home owners insurance companies. This will give you a much better picture of the type of price you should expect to be paying and will let you decide which policy has the best cover combined with the cheapest price.

Selecting your home owners insurance policy
Once you've got your list of quotes in you should be able to tell pretty quickly which of the offers appears the best. Check it over to make sure it offers exactly what you are looking for and if it does you are onto a winner. If there are a couple of quotes around the same price look them all over to see if any have outstanding extra services that may make you give them slight preference over the others.

Renewal time
You will need to renew your policy or change insurance provider on an annual basis and when this time comes you should check that the policy you are applying for still has everything you need. By doing this you will be able to stay on top of the prices you are paying and the coverage you are receiving.

10:33 PM   by Unknown ·   0

Getting the Best Life Insurance Quote

Your life insurance quote is primarily dependent on a number of personal factors, namely your health, family history, lifestyle and age. It's not possible to physically change any of these factors and you definitely shouldn't lie about any of them when applying for a life insurance quote. However, there are ways you can ensure that you get the best deal out of your life insurance quote. It is important to remember, though, that we aren't talking about the cheapest life insurance quote. This is because the easiest way to get the cheapest life insurance quote is to exclude a number of factors from your policy. This may not give you the coverage you require so you should be aiming to combine the best price with the best coverage for you.

What coverage do I require?
This is a very important question and that you shouldn't answer on the spur of the moment or without careful consideration of your circumstances. By taking out a cheap life insurance policy that offers you very little in the way of coverage you are putting your family and their livelihoods at risk. Of course, nobody can answer the question properly except you. You know, or can work out, how much money your family will need to bury you and to replace your lost income. You know how much money your family needs to live on and how much the mortgage and bills cost. You should carefully consider all of these before deciding how much coverage you really need.

Getting your life insurance quote.
By this point you should have all the information you need regarding the level of coverage and other factors. This information is what your life insurance quote will be based on so you need to double check everything to make sure you are going to get exactly what you want and exactly what your family need. If you aren't the money earned, or one of the money earners in your house and you don't have young children then you only really need to cover the cost of being buried whereas being the care of young children of being the principle wage earner will necessitate a much larger level of coverage and, therefore, a more substantial payout.

When you have the answer to all of these questions, you should shop around as much as possible. Clearly express exactly what you want from your policy and make sure that this is what is being offered. If it isn't, then the life insurance quote you are getting is not for the life insurance policy you need. Always compare your quotes on a like for like basis or you are unlikely to be getting the best deal you can.

10:30 PM   by Unknown ·   0

The Advantages of Term Life Insurance

There are two main types of life insurance that are available to everyone; there is whole life insurance and term life insurance. Many people are unaware even of the existence of term life insurance, which is a shame because term life insurance is usually much cheaper than the whole life insurance equivalent. If you are a shrewd investor then term life insurance could be just the option you are looking for. It can work out thousands of dollars cheaper every year, giving you that extra money to invest yourself. Insurance companies are normally very conservative when investing your money; some people like this while others prefer a more risky but greater return investment opportunity.

Cost
The obvious advantage of taking a term life insurance policy over a whole life insurance policy is the cost. Often a term life insurance policy will cost you hundreds of dollars a year, but a similar whole life insurance policy can cost as much as thousands. In fact, there are some term life insurance policies that will cover you to the value of $100,000 over a ten year term that cost less than ten dollars a month. Obviously, similar factors are taking into consideration when applying for term life insurance as they are when applying for whole life insurance; factors such as health, family history, lifestyle and age.

Flexibility
Term life insurance offers you a greater level of flexibility over, it's whole life insurance counterpart. For less money you are able to take out short 10, 20 or 30 year plans and you are able to determine the exact level of cover that this offers. You may have a 4-year-old son and a partner who has opted to stay at home and look after him. Right now he is dependent on your earning money to feed, clothe and care for him, but in twenty years he will have finished school, finished college and hopefully got himself a job. This means he is no longer your dependent and you may not need to make financial allowances for him in your life insurance. Alternatively, your mortgage may expire in ten years. You won't need to pay to cover your mortgage once it has been fully paid up.

Investment
A term life insurance policy costs you hundreds, even thousands, of dollars a year less than a whole life insurance policy. This means that you can invest your money yourself instead of relying on the insurance company to do so. Insurers are typically very conservative when investing your money, so by taking a term life insurance policy you are able to be a little less strict over the type of investment you choose affording you a greater potential to make more money.

10:28 PM   by Unknown ·   0