Period Of Time
Whole Life Insurance – Did You Know?
Did you know that whole life insurance or some variation thereof is bought more than another types in the United States? Why do you think this is so? Is it because the people know nothing about term insurance? Not so! Term insurance is simple to understand. You own $1,000,000 of term life insurance for a specific period of time and you die within that period the life insurance company pays $1,000,000, as long as you keep paying the premiums. Everyone knows about term life insurance.
Permanent life insurance is a different matter. There is much more to absorb when it comes to a permanent policy. You can consider the whole life insurance policy which is really a policy which lasts for the rest of your life, even if you live to age 100. The premium payments can be level for the entire period or, as with some modified whole life policies, you start out with a lower premium and it increases every year for 5 or 10 years then it levels off.
On the other hand you can contract with the life insurance company to pay only for a specific period of years, 10 years or 20 years for example, and the policy will remain in force for the rest of your life. You can also arrange with the company to pay one lump sum and you have your single premium whole life insurance policy for the rest of your life.
Even the the variable life insurance policy is whole life based thus it is considered permanent life insurance. Variable life insurance is a whole life policy with an investment portfolio attached.
These are the basic variations of whole life insurance. Each life insurance company has a different slant to their modified whole life policies, however.
Whole life insurance policies have guaranteed cash values which you may use as you see fit. You may use these values as collateral if you want to get a loan from a bank or other financial organization. On the other hand you may choose to borrow the money from the policy itself. The interest rate is usually lower and you are never under pressure to repay within a given period of time. Any outstanding balance, however, will be deducted from the face amount upon your death.
Whole life insurance policies also earn dividends if your life insurance company is effective with their investments and also if they keep expenses down. Dividends are not guaranteed. These dividends are applied according to your wishes.
The dividends earned on your whole life policy can be used to reduce premiums, can be paid to you in cash each year, can be left with the life insurance company to accumulate interest or they can be used to purchase paid up additions. Paid up additions are tiny single premium whole life insurance policies which increase the amount paid at death. They also have cash values which accumulate interest and they earn dividends as well.
Permanent life insurance policies are very effective, yet complex, tools. If you take the time to understand them you will more appreciate why more people buy them than term insurance. Whole life insurance can be kept for the rest of your life.
Pack Your Bags! Get Some Travel Insurance With Me
I’m looking for good cheap travel insurance. I have a week before I leave for my holiday and I need to get a policy quick! I’m going to write about my experience trying to find a policy that will cover 2 adults for a 36 day trip. It’s a long holiday I know! If you ever have to look for insurance I hope that you can refer to this article and learn from my experience.
For every trip that I take I spend quite a bit of time organizing. I usually do a bit of pre-holiday shopping, get a haircut so I will look good on the beach and make a list of the items I need to pack. Before I start packing I get my travel insurance!
I am going overseas for an extended period of time and I’m hunting for comprehensive travel insurance package to keep me covered for any nasty eventualities on my trip. I like to start the process by writing down a few of the problems I am most worried about on my travel. This can vary on the type of trip that you are doing and the destination that you are going on.
If I was taking a ski holiday I might priorities cover for personal injury or damage to my ski equipment. This trip isn’t an action filled holiday, I might do a bit of snorkeling but my main concerns are:
1- Making sure I get to my destinations and home again in one piece (with all my luggage).
2- Cover for health/accident related problems that might occur.
3 -Having cover for any theft, loss or damage to my possessions while I’m away. Travelling for a month
means that I have a lot of luggage. I don’t want to worry about my precious laptop and camera!
Now that I have a few priorities I’m going to start my search.
Internet comparison websites really do make life a lot easier. I’ve carried out a couple of searches on Confused.com and MoneySuperMarket.com. The lowest prices for a travelling couple on a holiday longer than 30 days is about £40 pounds up to a maximum of £230 pounds for luxury travel insurance! I’m not going to consider the policies as I can see that the luggage cover values are too low.
Later I’ll need to check out the maximum single item cover limit for baggage as expensive single items such as laptops and camera might fall outside of some of these policies.
I’ve decided to use quotes from Confused.com only as I am pushed for time and they offer the largest comparison of insurers at the moment. If I had more time I would look at hitting up MoneySupermarket and others comparison sites as then I could get a larger comparison.
So here are my chosen runners -
TRAVEL INSURER Premium Medical Cancellation Baggage Excess
Travel Insurance Genie £57.20 £10 Mill £2K £1.5K £65
Travel Plan Online £57.50 £10 Mill £5K £1K £100
Swift Cover £62.19 £10 Mill £2K £2K £75
Direct Travel Insurance £72 £10 Mill £3K £1.5K £50
There is a £15 difference between the most expensive and least expensive policies. Looking at them closely it is going to be interesting to see what I can get for my money’s worth.
MEDICAL COVER
Medical cover for all the policies is pretty similar at £10 million. You might think that this is a lot of money but you have to keep in mind that it can be expensive paying for doctors and hospitals when abroad. Just as you don’t get to go to the Grand Canyon for free the US aren’t going to pay for your stay at the local hospital. Breaking your leg in other part so the Continent can be very expensive especially if you have to abandon your holiday and pay for alternative transport home.
CANCELLATIONS
UK weather has been pretty temperamental recently. I am not counting on a nice day for my departure so I’m keeping one eye on the forecast in case I have to set out a few hours early to make it to the airport. I haven’t noticed too many news items about flight cancellations but another bout of snow and ice could make trains and buses a trial. To be sure I want a decent amount of cover for cancellations.
Travel Plan Online has the largest provision for cancellations of the four with £5000. The first leg of our trip London to LA and I don’t think that a replacement flight would cost more that £2000. If you are planning on travelling business or first class you would need to have a higher cover amount for cancellations. For my purposes £2000 is just fine as my flights for the whole trip didn’t cost that much!
So looking at the competition so far the policies are level pegging, price aside.
BAGGAGE
It is difficult making a figure for the value of your suitcase contents…especially when I haven’t packed yet! Having written a list of what I will pack I think that if I lost all of my clothes, toiletries, camera, laptop and other gadgets I would be looking at over a £1000 to replace everything. The policies under investigation cover between £1000 and £2000 for baggage. So at the baggage hurdle Travel Plan Online has tripped up and fallen out of the race!
As Travel Plan Online didn’t provide a high enough value on baggage I am casting them aside. Interestingly enough Travel Plan Online had the highest excess £25 -£50 more than their competitors. If a customer have to make a claim for contents over £1000 the maximum pay out would amount to only £900!
Something to keep in mind for later is whether the survivors provide cover as new for old or 2nd hand value.
EXCESS
So the competition is down 3 insurers now with excesses ranging between £50 and £75. At this early stage I’m not swayed towards any one company so I’ll consider excess later in the piece if the running is close between contenders.
JUDGEMENT SO FAR
Here is my competition table after looking at the basic offers from comparison tables.
TRAVEL INSURER Premium Medical Cancellation Baggage Excess
Travel Insurance Genie £57.20 £10 Mill £2K £1.5K £65
Swift Cover £62.19 £10 Mill £2K £2K £75
Direct Travel Insurance £72 £10 Mill £3K £1.5K £50
I’ve considered price and checked if my basic requirements for travel insurance would be covered.
Travel Plan Online has been crossed out of the competition as in hindsight they would not be able to cover the whole value of my baggage.
If I had to pick a winner at this point it would be Travel Insurance Genie. Based on the bare facts their price is good, they offer a decent amount of medical cover, pretty good cancellation and baggage cover amounts too with a competitive excess at £65.
Next I want to do some research into the service and history of these companies and see if I can dig up any dirt on their performance! Stay tuned for more on my adventures shopping for travel insurance.
Why Health Life Insurance is Important For your Family
Whether you deny it or not, health life insurance can really help protect your family. Although there are a lot of people who do not entertain the idea of death, it is still something that cannot be avoided. Unless you have discovered the fountain of youth, death is the ultimate threat to your loved ones.
Death does not just entail the loss of a loved one. In many cases, death haunts people because of the series of events that it triggers. For example, the death of the breadwinner in the family is more than enough reason to have larger than life problems. Would you want your family to experience this kind of situation? Get a health life insurance now.
Health life insurance in focus
A health life insurance is a kind of well, insurance, that covers a lot of things. Funeral costs are usually the major coverage of most health life insurance. In some cases, a health life insurance also provides people with the benefit of not worrying about hospital bills. There are also health life insurances that will provide your loved ones with certain amount of money after your death.
Offered by the different public and private institutions, health life insurances can be compared to social securities. People who have health life insurances are required to pay a minimum amount during a period of time. Once the insurance policy matures, the bearer of the health life insurance would be entitled to several benefits agreed in the policy.
Advantages of having a health life insurance
Having a health life insurance for your family will always provide you with a number of positive benefits. To give you an idea, here are just some of the things that you would enjoy for having a health life insurance:
You’re insured!
A health life insurance would guarantee that you or your family will have the financial means to support and solve whatever life and health related problems will come along the way.
No worrying about funeral expenses
Death may have its toll financially. As a matter of fact, funeral expenses can just aggravate the lost of the families left behind. Some sources say that funeral expenses costs an average of $10,000—an amount that not all families have. And since death is always unexpected, having a health life insurance that covers funeral expenses is like being prepared for the unknown.
Money for those who were left behind
Some health life insurance also covers giving certain amounts of money to the beneficiaries of the insurance holder. Depending on the type of health insurance plan, the funds could be received in bulk or in scheduled releases. Having a health life insurance of this type will ensure that life would still go on for those who were left behind.
No debts/bills to be paid
Since a health life insurance will cover all the expenses for the funeral and hospitalisation, families need not worry about paying bills or getting credits. This would mean that they would be free of worrying about the consequences of the death of their loved one.