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Archive for December, 2008

Key Person Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On December - 28 - 2008

It is critical when owning or operating a business that you have plans in place just in case any of the owners, partners or key executives were to pass away suddenly. When starting a new business no one wants to prepare for a future where the company must go on without the guidance of its leaders, but it is a fact of life that none of us live forever and that we must prepare for the future.

One important source of protection that is available to businesses is key person insurance. Purchasing a key person life insurance policy will help to protect the surviving leaders and owners in the business. When starting a new business, it’s vital to consider how the death of a key manager or executive could impact the company’s day-to-day operation and also the financial impact it would have in having to replace the leader’s expertise and talents.

If the company prepares ahead of time and invests in key person insurance, the business will receive a cash payment if the individual covered in the policy passes away. The funds received from the insurance can then be used to help in the search to hire a replacement for the key person. This could be particularly important if an owner passed away.

Owners, especially in the early stages of the company’s formation, often devote a lot of unpaid time while drawing on a great deal of their experience and expertise. If someone new is brought in to attempt to replace that expertise that is not an owner, they will expect to be paid full compensation for their efforts. If there is adequate insurance coverage, this will ensure that the surviving owners will have the means to hire experts to replace the deceased owner.


Another vital consideration that is often overlooked is taking into account any implications from an inheritance that could occur as a result of one of the owner’s death. Before agreeing to go into business with other partners or owners, it is critical to have a buy sell agreement worked out that outlines exactly what happens to each owner’s share in the business in the event they should pass away.

If a buy sell agreement is not worked out ahead of time you could end up having to share ownership of the business with your partner’s heirs. If you do not want this to happen you need to have a specific arrangement that specifies that the business will purchase the deceased owner’s shares in the event of their death. In order to have the money available to purchase the shares, a key person insurance policy should be purchased to provide the necessary funding. In the terms of the agreement you need to make sure that there the specifics of how the proceeds from the policy will be used should the covered individual pass away to prevent any misunderstandings.

The company’s business insurance coverage should be reviewed on a periodic basis. One of the important things to review is to make sure that there is adequate key person insurance coverage. Ensuring that the company has adequate key person insurance coverage is one of the major steps to take in preparing for your company’s future and preventing a difficult situation from occurring should a key member of your leadership team pass away.

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How Long Does Term Life Insurance Last?

Posted by Pamela Spencer On December - 22 - 2008

Term life insurance is a policy that is only active for a specified period of time. The term life insurance policy will only cover you for the amount of time that you intend it to and then it expires at the end of the term. With some policies you are able to pay extra during the policy’s term and have your premium payments refunded when the terms expires. This can be a good investment. How long are terms on term life insurance policies?

The terms of life insurance policies can vary depending on what your needs are. Term life insurance polices can range anywhere from a year up to thirty years. They can cover a variety of debts and expenses. There are several important reasons for you to consider getting term life insurance as well as different coverage levels and various term lengths for you to select.


You may be wondering why you would ever want a one year term on an insurance policy. There could be circumstances when you have loans or other types of debt that need to be covered. In order to protect your family, who might be responsible for these debts in the event of your death, you can increase your insurance coverage to cover the debt. For example, if you took out a car loan that was to be paid off in one year, that loan might need to be covered in the event of your death if it would pose a financial hardship on your spouse to make the payments. You can get a term life insurance policy that would pay off the car and you would only need coverage for one year. So basically the major purpose of short term life insurance policies is to cover loans or short term debts.

On the other hand you may be wondering why you would need a thirty year term insurance policy? The main reason would be for paying off a mortgage. If you have mortgage payments to make, you will want to ensure that your spouse will be able to continue making the payments if you should die. A thirty year policy should cover almost any mortgage loan term.

Another reason why you might want a longer term policy is if you have young children or planning on having additional children and it may end up being thirty years or so before all of your children are on their own and financially independent. A long term policy will help to keep things financially stable for a family with young children.

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Terminal Illness & Cashing Out Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On December - 19 - 2008

Unfortunately a majority of terminal illnesses are not short and sudden. Frequently people with a terminal illness suffer for months or even years, and often spend their last dime to pay for expensive medications or trying new treatments. Life insurance is often overlooked as a financial asset that may be at the terminally ill’s disposal to help them.

Term life insurance policies are renewable at specified intervals. Sometimes it is once every year or it could be every five or ten years. If the policy holder dies within the coverage time period, their beneficiaries will receive the policy’s face value. If the policy holder does not die within the period of coverage, the policy holder does not receive anything. Most term life insurers do not offer buy out options.

With a whole life insurance policy, you pay insurance premiums and have a policy with a specified face value. These policies often come with investment interest, although it is not usually much more than the inflation rate. One additional benefit is that whole life insurance policy holders have the ability to borrow up to ninety percent against their insurance policy.

Universal life insurance is very flexible life insurance and provides a higher rate of return than whole life insurance. However, the policy holder also takes on more risk. The policy’s cash out value will depend on the amount of the policy holder’s investment and the policy’s length.


If universal life insurance policy holders become terminally ill they can request funds from either their mutual fund or insurance policy managers. Term life and whole life policy holders have to agree to a viatical settlement in order to receive funds. Viatical settlements requires policy holders to change the beneficiary on the policy to the investor’s. In exchange for being named as the beneficiary on the policy, the investor pays the policy holder part of the policy’s face value. The policy holder will receive a lump sum payment from the investor, which is usually in the range of sixty to seventy five percent of the policy’s face value. The investor will collect on the entire face value of the policy when the policy holder dies.

The shorter the policy holder’s life expectancy is, the higher the percentage of the face value the terminally ill policy holder will receive. The policy holder will also receive a higher percentage on larger insurance policies.

Most viatical statements have requirements that the insurance policy must be a minimum of two years old and that the policy holder’s life expectancy is less than two years. There are brokers who can help to facilitate the process by helping investors find policy holders and oversee the paperwork. There is no government oversight or licensing requirements for brokers, so one needs to be careful when choosing one.

Terminally ill policy holders need to thoroughly understand what the consequences are to selling a life insurance policy. They will be responsible for paying income taxes on the policy proceeds. In addition, the policy holder’s family will not have any claims on the insurance policy after the policy holder has died.

Before agreeing to a viatical settlement, terminally ill policy holders should consult with their insurance company to ask about the possibility of borrowing against their policy. Although there may be interest payments that need to be paid, they are not taxable and when the policy holder dies the loans are paid off.

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Life Insurance after Marriage

Posted by Pamela Spencer On December - 12 - 2008

If you are about to get married, you probably have a lot on your mind in terms of all the different ways in which your lives will be joined. There are so many things on your mind when it comes to getting married. Once you are married, one of the things that you will need to address is insurance policies. If you or your spouse already have life insurance policies, you will need to decide what to do with them after you are married.

One of the first things you will want to look at in terms of your life insurance policy is to consider if it would be more beneficial to combine with someone else’s policy. A life insurance policy is frequently more expensive when it is purchased on your own. It may be much less expensive to purchase a policy with your spouse. You may be able to save money by getting a policy together.

There are some important considerations you need to keep in mind when deciding whether or not you should combine life insurance policies. You will want to make sure that a new policy is set up in ways that will most benefit you. If your life insurance policy is one you received through your place of work, you will need to check to see if you can add your spouse to the policy. You will need to check with your insurance company and human resources department at work to see what you are allowed to do with your insurance policy.


If either you or your spouse bought life insurance on your own prior to getting married, you need to check to ensure that your policies will still work as you intend them to before you combine them. Some married couples discover that it is easier for them to keep their life insurance policies separate. This ensures that both spouses will be covered.

A lot of other married couples do end up combining their policies and getting rid of their individual policies. This works for a lot of couples because this enables them to both be covered and it is often less expensive to do it that way. So you may be able to find a less expensive policy if you get one together and get rid of your individual policies.

Life insurance is a way to help protect you and your spouse. Life insurance is necessary so that you can have the security of knowing that if anything should ever happen to you, that things are covered to that your spouse will not have to worry about it. You need to make sure you have the appropriate insurance policy so that each of you can take protect each other in any way that you can.

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Level Term Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On December - 8 - 2008

Term life insurance has been in existence for a very long time and has resulted in quite a few different kinds of term life insurance for you to choose from. Some of these types are not very common. For example, renewable life insurance that is renewed on an annual basis. This form of term insurance could end up with very high premiums. Many people hesitate buying an annual renewable policy because of the fact that they will end up paying more on their insurance premiums as they grow older.

Level term insurance is a more popular type of term life insurance. With level term insurance, the premium that is paid each year is guaranteed to be a level rate. The premium rate is guaranteed to stay level for a certain stated period of time. It is usually for ten, fifteen or thirty years. During the stated time period, the premium is guaranteed to stay the same. This gives the person buying this type of term life insurance the assurance that their life insurance premiums will not increase. This form of term life insurance is quite popular and common. People like the security it offers in knowing that their term life insurance will not increase until the stated time period is up.


Premiums are paid each year on level term policies. Each year the amount paid is the same. The longer the term is, the higher the cost of the premiums. This is due to adjustments that are made for time value of money and the cost of getting older that are factored into the rate.

Level term is usually a good type of term life insurance for many people. They get used to paying the same amount for their premiums each year, so they can plan ahead of time. However, there is still the problem of what will happen when the term expires. If it expires when they are elderly, it might be very hard for the person to renew or find a new insurance policy. However, most level term life policies today do have options for making them renewable. These policies will include a rate with a maximum guarantee if the policy holder wants to extend their policy. This often happens when the policy holder becomes ill during their policy term and do not think they will be able to find new life insurance.

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Reasons Not to Cancel Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On December - 1 - 2008

For some reason you might be fortunate enough to no longer need your life insurance. There could be several reasons for this, but the most common reason would be when you earn or receives a large sum of cash that would very easily cover all of your expenses when you die. If you happen to have millions of dollars in an account earning interest, a house that is completely paid for, and very few other expenses, then maybe you do not need life insurance. You should talk over your situation with your life insurance agent to see if this is accurate, but in certain cases it is.

If you feel that you do not need your life insurance policy any longer, should you go ahead and call your insurance company and ask them to cancel your policy? Keep in mind you have been paying on this policy for many years. Canceling it now could be like flushing your money down the toilet. You may be thinking yes it protected me when I needed it, but why should I keep the policy now that I don’t need it?


There are several good reasons for keeping a life insurance policy. You have already invested your money into the policy. Your family is taken care of when you die, so you could just change your beneficiary to someone who really needs it.

Another option to consider is leaving your life insurance benefit to a charitable organization. A local animal shelter is one good possibility. Your premiums may even be tax deductible if the beneficiary is a charity. Check with your accountant for more details.

Even if you feel you really don’t need the death benefit you should definitely consider keeping your policy.

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