Category: Life Insurance


Life Insurance Claim – 2 Steps For Filing

Filed Under: Life Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
November 15, 2010

How do you file a life insurance claim? This process can be a bit complex. Here are the two major steps involved, with detailed information on each:

1. Find the agent of the deceased

They will assist you in filling out the correct life insurance claim form to fill out. Basically they are the middleman between you and the firm. They will be able to let you know the policies and rules involved with filing, so ask them any questions you have.
What if you do not know who the agent is? Then all you do is phone the closest location to you, and see what the process is.
They will be able to fill you in on the details.

What if you do not even know the company? Should you be unaware of the firm that is insuring you, then first you obviously want to look for paperwork that would have this info. If you cannot find any insurance papers, then look for receipts for monthly payments that were made. Ask others who knew the person who died.

If these steps all fail, you have to contact the Missing Policy Service (MPS). You can find plenty of information about how to do this on the internet. After you get in touch with them, they then send out a request to each major firm to help you find the policy. They will give the firms your information, and they will in turn search their database to see if you are in the system.

2. File the claim

Assuming you have either found the company or agent, now it is time to actually file the claim. Again, it is helpful (but not a necessity) to have the agent walk you through the process. However, if you cannot find them, that is okay too. Just get in touch with the company itself, and they will give you all the necessary details of what needs to be done.

The bottom line-if you want to file a life insurance claim, the process is not incredibly hard. Follow these steps, and you will get the money you need shortly.

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Older People Can Still Get Term Life Insurance

Filed Under: Life Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
July 20, 2010

Families who are made up of young members have the tendency to get term life insurance. This is because they are affordable, the coverage is larger, and the contract is only for 30 years at most. They see term life insurance as a cheap way to pay for the house expenses and to send their kids to school. Older people tend to go for the whole life policy which usually goes toward their burial plans. In general, older people will have their bigger needs already cared for by the time they reach the age of retirement. All they need is a small coverage to care for the expenses of a funeral.

The situation is quite different now. There is good news for older people. Most Americans are enjoying longer lives than they used to. Because of this, term life insurance has become an attractive option even for the elderly. Most healthy 70-year olds who live active lifestyles can get a low-cost term life insurance policy for 10 years. A 50-year old can enjoy an affordable one for 20 years. An affordable choice for many couples is a joint life insurance policy.

There is, however, a theory that our requirements for life insurance will get lower as we get older. While this is a nice thought, it has been proven time and time again that it is not true. We might have kids who we expected to be grown up by the time they reach 22 and yet they are taking quite a longer time to be done with education and no longer need our financial support. There are some older people who end up supporting not just their grown children, but also their grandchildren. There could be delayed payoffs on home mortgages because you ran into some money problems or you opted to get another mortgage. There are also some breadwinners who do not see themselves ready for retirement. A lot of people move up their retirement plans until they reach 65 years of age. Aside from this, most business owners keep their companies even after they retire.

All this means is that the obligations of some people do not end after the term life insurance policies that they took out before expired. We can see that older people can still be burdened with obligations and they can also still be earning income so they still have a need for the cheaper costs and large coverage given by term life insurance policies. They could still need to pay for home mortgages or provide for the financial needs of their children and even grandchildren. Their businesses could also need to be taken care of. Getting a whole life insurance might not be worth it but a reasonably-priced term life insurance policy sure is. Another option to look into is guaranteed acceptance life insurance for those who can’t obtain other types of insurance.

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What Is Variable Universal Life Insurance

Filed Under: Life Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
May 24, 2010

With all the different types of life insurance to choose from it can be a daunting task to know which one is right for you.  You have term life which will protect you for a predetermined amount of time.  You got whole life which will protect you just as it says, for your whole life but their is another type of life insurance called Variable Universal Life.

In this post I’m going to cover the ins and outs of this insurance and also give you a few benefits to having it as well.

How VUL Works

First off, this type of policy is variable meaning it is invested into the market, much like a mutual fund except they don’t call the underlying accounts fund but rather sub-accounts. This is different from whole life because it is invested in a fixed account and it is all different from term because term has no cash value.

Second, the policy is universal which means it is flexible, meaning it will allow the cash value to pay for premium payments.  For example if you had a premium of $50 and forgot to pay it one month it would be directly paid out of the cash value instead lapsing like a normal whole life policy.

Benefits To VUL

One of the biggest benefits to variable universal life is that you get the chance to earn a higher return on your invested dollars rather than the meager fixed rates that most companies give.

However their is one big downside I should also mention and that is the surrender policies involved.  A lot of times a VUL policy will have a 10 year surrender penalty if you close the policy before the term is up.

That’s why I also want to stress that this may not be the best life insurance for elderly people to have since the cash value may be at  a bigger risk.  However on the flip side this is a great benefit to younger people who want to take more risk with their cash value and earn higher returns.

In Closing…

If this sounds like an option for you a great company to consider is Western Reserve Life Assurance.  This company specializes in variable universal life and is very competitive in their prices.

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How Much And What Kind Of Life Insurance?

Filed Under: Life Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
March 22, 2010

As anyone in the market can tell you, there are seemingly infinite types of life insurance out there.  Policies run the gamut from the familiar (such as term life insurance) to the strange (such as mortgage insurance), to the downright stupid (such as child life insurance.  What do children need life insurance for, anyway?).  With all the limitless options, exactly what kind and exactly how much life insurance do you actually?

Insure Against Catastrophic Losses

One fundamental truth pertaining to all forms of insurance, not just life insurance, is that you should only insure against catastrophic loss and self-insure against incidental costs.  If a tree were to crash into your roof, you would be homeless;  therefore, you should insure your home.  Similarly, a serious automobile accident could leave you with tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars in medical bills.  Since you would surely be unable to work in such a situation, you should insure adequately against it.

The same goes for life insurance.  Should the breadwinner or your family die (or one of them, if both parents work), the surviving spouse and children would probably be unable to maintain the same standard of living, and there’s nothing worse than having to worry about money problems while you’re busy mourning the loss of a loved one.  Therefore, every working adult in your household should be insured to some extent.  The rule of thumb is that each worker should be insured for 8-10 times their annual pre-tax salary.

Term Life Insurance Is All You Need

The most useful type of life insurance is also the simplest and most popular:  term life insurance.  A term life policy insures you for a specified period of time, usually twenty years, for a pre-determined monthly premium usually based on your age and health.  Term policies are generally very affordable, especially for younger workers.  The goal is merely to protect your family, and especially your children, until they are old enough to fend for themselves.  Life insurance should not be used as an investment, so there’s no need to bother looking into variable or permanent life insurance policies.

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