Term Life Insurance Lowdown

State Insurance Regulators on – what every consumer needs to know about life insurance

National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) stated that most individuals know about the importance of life insurance. However difficulty is faced when it comes to deciding which type of insurance and exactly how much a person needs to put into life insurance. As part of the ‘Life Insurance Awareness’ month NAIC has put together tips and chunks of advice on how one should invest in life insurance. The association highlights the point that every stage of life is different and so are the needs at that specific time. It is not surprising therefore that an individual should consider different types of life insurance at different stages of his life.

Commenting on Term Life insurance the write-up suggests that young singles should consider investing in them. This is because the policy is renewable and can easily be converted to a cash-value policy for a set fee when they have more money. This type of life insurance is also recommended for those serving in the defense services. They can invest in low cost group term insurance that covers them while they are in active duty. Also Term Insurance is an excellent option for young families for both the spouses so as to help pay for child care and other domestic services.  Hispanic Business reports:

Consumer research conducted by the NAIC earlier this year indicates: -- Only 35 percent of young singles have life insurance. Furthermore, few young singles (28 percent) express high levels of confidence in knowing the difference between the two basic types of life insurance, term and permanent, and a similar number (27 percent) are highly confident that buying life insurance when they are young will guarantee their coverage later in life.

Residents of Columbia can now enjoy Free Life Insurance program

A national philanthropic program from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company will now enable the working residents of Columbia to have access to free life insurance. This program is called LifeBridge(SM) and will issue 10-year term life insurance policies to working parents. This is being done so that the education of their children is taken care of in the event of their sudden demise.

The policies are valued at $50,000 and are issued to a trust on the life of the qualifying parents or legal guardians. All the premiums for the policy are paid by MassMutual and no fees etc are payable by the insured. The company is taking this philanthropic step in order to ensure that every child has access to education even if the working member of the family is no more. The program was started in 2002. Since then the company had provided more than 5,600 10 year tem life insurance policies. These policies represent more than $280 million in free life insurance coverage. PR newswire reports:

Each LifeBridge policy has a 10-year policy term. If the insured parent or legal guardian dies during that time, the $50,000 life insurance benefit will be applied solely toward the education of the children.

Advocating life insurance for the sake of survivors!

People who have suffered first hand the consequences of no life insurance know exactly how high on the priority list, having an insurance means. When an earning member of the family dies an untimely death, the survivors have a tough time dealing with the grief. If they have to deal with financial problems along with this they can land in a very difficult situation. Therefore one should buy a term life insurance at least so that they can be assured that their family members are taken care of financially while they battle with their grief.

In order to promote the concept of having a life insurance, the insurance industry has decided to observe every September as the National Life Insurance Awareness Month. With this they want to sensitize the Americans about the hard facts of life. This action is subsequent to LIMRA International’s research results that show that at least one third of the American adult population has not insured their lives. LIMRA International is a research and consulting organization for the insurance industry. The research revealed that this is primarily due to lack of coverage of young men and women. Seattle pi reports:

“The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education is a non-profit organization funded by the insurance industry that coordinates the national awareness campaign. It has a calculator on its site at www.life-line.org that consumers can use to determine their insurance needs.”

New Term Life Insurance Products from Principal Financial Group

The Principal Financial Group recently announced the extension of its line of products. It will now be offering 15 and 30 year term products as well. Apart from this, the product line will have an enhanced conversion provision to age 70. There will also now be a super standard risk class. These new features have been specially created for 2006 and beyond.

This product extension not only gives the company a wider range of offerings but also helps it to attain the image of being more affordable and competitive in its underwriting. The company feels that the products are designed to be more flexible in order to meet the needs of more and more people. This will also help the marketers and financial experts to do their job well. They will now be able to guide their clients on the subject of life insurance in a much better way. Trading Markets reports:

The company said the new principal term line of life insurance products offers lower cost and more flexible options for life insurance marketers and financial professionals to help their clients protect their assets for the unexpected.

Now health and term life insurance for Greatwide drivers and owner operators

Greatwide has recently launched an insurance drive exclusively for its drivers and owner-operators. This announcement was made at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. Transportation giant Greatwide Logistics Services realized that the truck drivers and owner operators are a neglected lot when it comes to insurance. Most insurance companies do not regard them as great targets. This perhaps due to their on-the-road lifestyle and occasional poor eating habits. Therefore the insurance plans that most of these people end up getting are either budget busters or piecemeal. This is therefore being seen as one of the key reasons why the truckers are leaving their driving profession.

The medical insurance plan includes preventive and supplemental health care benefits along with dental insurance. A 10-year term life insurance and disability income protection is also a direct benefit. The plan offered by Greatwide is immediately available in 19 states to all its drivers and owner operators. Etrucker reports:

In addition to the health care portion, Greatwide, through MetLife, will offer legal counseling, home and personal auto insurance, pet insurance, a Preferred Savings Plan and critical illness insurance. These benefits will be rolled out over a period of months, Newell said.

Now get your premiums back if you survive the term of your term life insurance!

American General now has a policy that promises to pay you even if you survive the complete tenure of your term life insurance. Therefore what it offers is the deat benefit for the duration of the selected term (e.g., 15, 20 or 30 years). It also promises to return the amount equal to the premiums that you have paid when the term ends and if you are still living and if you have kept the policy in force. Generally the cost for taking this policy would be higher than an ordinary term insurance.

Other factors like age, health, medical history etc continue to influence the premium amount. The company claims that the reason that not very many people opt for this is simply because they have really not heard of it. At most times, people are also looking for affordable policies that do not cause much drain on the pocket.
Read more on this on the American General Life website.

Why Term Life Insurance providers advertise more!

It is a simple case of demand and supply. While the demand for term life insurance may be high, the number of companies offering term life insurance policies is much more. The chances that a person might kick the bucket while being covered by term life insurance is quite less. Renewal of the policies is something that people generally go in for since no one wants to leave a lot of medical bills when they die. Apart from this the insurance companies do not have to make allowances for cash management. This is because there is no cash to be given to the policy holder if he is still alive at the end of the term.

No wonder that insurance providers consider this to be their cash cow. Hence term life commercials make up the bulk of insurance commercials aired during on television during day time. The benefits offered range from no checks on the information provided, no medical exams to no probability of being turned down for a policy. And they do manage to get a good piece of the ‘want to be insured’ market. A word of caution here – make sure that the deal that you are getting from your insurer is indeed the best deal!

Types of term life insurance you can choose from

Term insurance is a kind of life insurance that insures your life for certain duration of your life. The cover is for your life till such time as it is insured and there is no cash back should you survive the term The premium that you are asked to pay generally depends up on the type of tem plan you choose, the amount of coverage, your current age and the duration for which the insurance cover is desired. The different types of term life insurances are as follows:

Decreasing Term: As the name implies, decreasing term life insurance means that you are covered highest when you acquire the policy. As time goes by the coverage decreases and is the lowest when the plan is terminated. This kind of term life insurance has low premium which remains at that level as the death benefit decreases.
Level Term: In case of level term, the person who is being insured has to pay the same premium through out the tenure of the policy. In exchange he receives the same level of coverage for the complete duration. This obviously attracts a higher premium than decreasing term life insurance.
Renewable Term: In this case the premiums to be paid are not level but increase over the duration of the policy. However the death benefit will remain at the same level. The only good point about this is that the policy can be renewed easily and is guaranteed.

Follow this link to read more.

Wells Fargo requests US Labor Department to allow funding employee benefits through it’s captive

San Francisco-based financial services industry giant Wells Fargo & Co has recently asked U.S. Labor Department for approval to fund employee benefits through its captive insurance company. The company wants to use Superior Guaranty Insurance Co. to reinsure group life and long-term disability policies. Superior Guaranty is a 16 year old Vermont Captive.

The US Labor Depart has earlier this year received a similar request from consumer food products manufacturer H.J. Heinz Co. The company had requested for approval to fund group term insurance policies written by Minnesota Life. Though initial approval on the request was given some months back, the final approval is expected to come sometime in the month of September. This year also saw pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca receiving a go ahead on the request of funding benefits through AstraZeneca’s Vermont captive. Business Insurance reports:

Wells Fargo, which has more than $500 billion in assets, now uses Superior Guaranty to fund a wide variety of corporate property/casualty risks. Last year, according to a filing with the Labor Department, Superior Guaranty generated more than $57 million in premiums, making it one of Vermont’s larger single-parent captives