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~Archives~
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

~Credits~

Life Insurance – When Only The Best Will Do!
We’re all too used to hearing about rising prices. But there’s one thing that now costs less than ever – good life insurance! Intrigued? Read on …
No-one likes to think about the worst that could happen. But proper life insurance cover could protect your family, providing them with the means to cope financially should you pass on. Life insurance cover is divided into three main types. Here is our jargon-busting guide to de-mystifying what they are, and what they mean:
· First we have the level term policy. This pays a one-off cash payment when you die. The amount is agreed when you take out the policy and does not change.
· An increasing term policy is also known as indexed insurance and the amount paid out changes with inflation. Some policies of this type may have premiums that rise with inflation too, but some do not.
· Lastly a decreasing term policy pays out an amount on death that decreases through time, getting smaller as the policy progresses. A long-lived customer may even outlive the point where the policy pays anything at all.
These policy types often form part of loan or mortgage deals. There are benefits to each type, depending on the loan or mortgage it is being used to safeguard.
Level term policies are most usually used with interest only mortgages. This type of mortgage does not reduce the capital you borrowed with time – you only pay off the interest. When you die, the capital amount is paid off by the insurance policy payout. Whatever may happen with inflation, it does not change.
Increasing term policies cost more, but offer protection against inflation.
Decreasing term policies are usually used with repayment mortgages. In this type of mortgage the capital is paid off along with the interest, decreasing the amount you owe. This type of insurance has lower premiums than level term insurance.
Term policy payments can be settled in two ways: either as a single or “lump” sum, or as “family income benefit”. This second method means that an agreed amount is paid to your family as an income for the remaining duration of the policy. The method you use affects the cost of the premium you will have to pay. If you consider that the longer a policy holder lives, the fewer family income payments an insurance company will have to make, you can see why this type is cheaper.
So far, we have only discussed insurance for mortgages and loan payments. These are both useful, but there are other things you can do to ensure peace of mind.
A typical, average family, it is estimated, will need insurance for both parents worth at least £150,000 in insurance for each child, in addition to any death-in-service benefits you may expect ( these usually come with your employment). Taking the option of family income benefit, it’s recommended that you should allow for an income of £20,000 to £25,000 a year for each child.
There is another alternative form of life insurance. It pays out a guaranteed sum on the death of the policy holder (the sum assured), and is known as whole of life. The terms for this type of insurance vary.
You can also buy life insurance bundled with your pension fund. This gives you the opportunity of getting tax relief on the premiums you pay. A higher rate tax payer can get £100 worth of life insurance for only £60, which makes this an attractive method to some. On the downside, higher administration costs for this type mean higher premiums overall, so basic tax rate payers may prefer to shop around and compare to make sure they get the best deal.
Some couples take out a joint policy covering both at once, but it’s better to take out individual insurance. The reason for this is that a joint policy pays out only once, when the first partner dies, but individual policies pay out for each partner.
We’ve given an overview of the different policies and what might be best for you here, but for more in-depth and up-to-the-minute advice we recommend finding an Internet insurance broker. Surf onto the ‘net, and into a great deal – and peace of mind for you and your family, hopefully for many years to come!
Get great articles on life assurance from Life Insurance Professionals.


Heavy drinking can increase life insurance costs.
Britons are drinking too much, shout the headlines. Out of those who live in Great Britain, two thirds say they drink to excess at least once a week and almost a quarter hurt themselves while they are intoxicated. This is according to a report by the Drink Aware Trust and the British Chiropractic Association.
But binge drinking is not just a health issue, but a financial one as well. It hits you not just in the pocket through the excess weekly spending on alcohol, but it can drive up the cost of your Life Insurance premiums too.
Talk to the Association of British Insurers and they will tell you that in fact yes, years and years of heavy drinking will be taken into account when calculating your premiums on your life insurance policy. On the Life Insurance application form a questions asks about your alcohol and tobacco consumption. And as with all sorts of insurance products, the underwriting is done at the point of your application.
You might think you can get away with not declaring the fact that you have been drinking excessively for a certain period of time. After all, no one is really going to know when you die right? And of course, you plan to cut down your alcohol consumption in the years to come. Yet a spokesperson for the Association of British Insurers says that it is best to tell the truth. If you die, the medical experts can often tell from the post mortem examination if you are someone who has been drinking for a time frame that extends back before you made your life insurance application. They can refuse to pay out if you did not reveal the truth about your drinking at the time.
The spokesperson says: “The point here, as with any deliberate non disclosure, is there is a strong chance that if you do put down something that is not accurate on your application form and if you do have to claim on that policy, the insurance company may say that your policy was rendered invalid because you deliberately failed to disclose something.”
However, if you develop an alcohol problem after you have made an application for Life Insurance you are most certainly entitled to a policy payment. He adds: “Your death might be related to some sort of alcohol consumption issue, in which case the policy will pay out. It is only things that are such at the time that you apply that are taken into account.”
Most insurance firms ask you to disclose your average weekly consumption of alcohol, asking how many units of alcohol you consume each week. But this does depend on the individual company. Most look at the NHS guidelines with respect to deciding what is a normal and safe level of alcohol to consume and what is considered to be potentially dangerous. The firm will weight their premiums accordingly.
Direct Line insurance company charges a 30-year old who does not drink monthly Life Insurance premiums of £14.88. For someone who does drink the payment is £15.37. Over the years, this can make quite a difference.
A spokesperson for the ABI says alcohol consumption is one of a number of factors insurers will look at when they are establishing whether or not to take on an insurance risk and what the level of premiums for that person will be.
“From a public health perspective, there will be medical practitioners within insurance companies who will have concerns about this issue,” he says. But he goes on to add: “The insurance companies must look at that factor dispassionately as they do with all of the other factors that they look at when they are calculating premiums.”
Get great articles based around life insurance.


Smoking – more expensive than you think?
Are you a smoker? Have you ever tried to give up the habit? The chances are that you have, but like any addiction it can be (and usually is) extremely difficult to stop, and even attempts to cut down rarely last very long. Part of the problem is that smoking can be very enjoyable, but only too often something can turn up which will instantly remove the enjoyment. Unfortunately that ‘something’ will very often be loss of health.
The insurance industry is well aware of this fact, so not surprisingly they try to ensure that they do not lose money by covering high risk customers at low risk rates. At the same time non-smoking customers for life insurance have been piling on the pressure in their search for lower premiums. This is where the internet comes into the picture.
It used to be the case that at best, anyone looking for competitive quotations for life insurance had to be prepared to spend a lot of time searching adverts and telephone directories for likely companies. They also had to be prepared to spend a lot of time on the telephone collecting information, and then to settle down to long and careful comparisons, covering bits of paper in confusing and often indecipherable notes.
But all that has changed. Now all they have to do is go online and check out as many companies as they wish. They will find information which is very carefully presented for maximum clarity, because a confused enquirer is highly unlikely to become a customer. It is now so easy to reach a decision that a ‘price war’ has developed and some very competitive quotations are available. This competition has however had an inevitable effect in that insurance companies have had to tighten up their procedures or risk losing money on the narrower margins.
So they have hit the obvious target – smokers. Whilst the life insurance premiums for non-smokers have been steadily reducing, smoker’s premiums have moved away in the opposite direction. This has resulted in rates for smokers which are 100% or more above standard rates and still climbing. This, on top of the cost of the cigarettes (currently estimated to be approaching £100,000 in a lifetime and still climbing) means that anyone who still smokes must be very determined not to curtail their enjoyment.
Critical illness insurance is another policy which many people take out, to provide financial security for their families in the event of loss of income due to lengthy illness. It is reasonably self-evident that this too will be a great deal more expensive for smokers, simply due to their greater propensity for such illnesses as a result of their addiction.
So do you dig your heels in and continue to enjoy smoking, or do you give way to the financial pressure (not to mention the widespread anti-smoker climate) and give up the habit. The sad news is that even if you grit your teeth and stop smoking, as far as the insurance companies are concerned you are not out of the woods (or the Woodbines) for at least 12 months or maybe much longer. Some may require complete cessation for at least five years – contact your intended insurers after 12 months completely smoking free and see how the premiums look now. A considerable cost reduction should be evident.
Some folks cheat themselves and their friends by claiming to have stopped smoking when they are still sneaking the odd one in dark corners. This is up to the individual, but don’t try it with your insurers; it would not be difficult for a relatively low-key enquiry to expose the lie and your cover (in both meanings of the word!) would be blown. All the effort, the subterfuge, the self-deceiving would have been wasted. You would not be insured.
Right, you have made the praiseworthy and not inconsiderable effort and you are now a non-smoker. You can feel some justifiable pride as you tick the ‘NO’ box on a form with a smoking query. Now take advantage of your position, get on the internet and shop around for insurance quotes. You may be pleasantly surprised by some of the offers which you get, but don’t let your euphoria get the better of you. A move too soon, before everything has been confirmed, could leave you with a cancelled policy with your old company and an oversight leading to rejection by your new company; result no cover. Check the details carefully, finalise all the figures and then change to your new insurer.
Finally, don’t let those savings in expenditure just melt away. Add the money saved on cigarette purchases to the money saved on reduced premiums and invest it, and just watch that total climb!
Get great articles based around life insurance quotations.