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Archive for January, 2009

History of Whole Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On January - 29 - 2009

When making important life decisions it is a good idea to look back to see how things have evolved to where they are now to help you make the right decisions on what will be best for you. When you are making a decision about whole life insurance, it is very important that you understand where it came from so that you can anticipate where it is headed into the future.

Whole life insurance is a fairly new type of insurance that developed out of other types of life insurance. It used to be that life insurance was basically term insurance. Term insurance allowed you to buy a policy that insured you for a certain period of time. The policy could be paid for in either installment payments or a lump sum. As long as you paid the premiums, you would be covered in the event something happened to you during the time period specified in the insurance policy. However, once the term expired you would need to continue purchasing term insurance at rates that continued to increase or find a different life insurance policy to cover you. This situation led to many problems. One big problem was that individuals who were over the age of sixty had a difficult time getting life insurance after their term ran out. In addition, because life expectancies were increasing, there were more older people who could not afford to pay the increasing premiums on their policies after the term life insurance ran out. Due to these problems, whole life insurance was created.


Whole life insurance does not have a term. When purchasing whole life insurance you do not need to select a term or period of time that you want to be covered. You are covered for your life time with whole life insurance, no matter how long you might live. The benefits on your life insurance policy will be available to your beneficiaries and to help pay for your funeral and other final expenses. Whole insurance takes the worry out of having to choose a term when buying life insurance.

Another change that occurred with whole life insurance is that some policies can actually be cashed in while the policy holder is still alive. For example, you may be able to receive payments from your insurance company if you become diagnosed with a disease or terminal illness. This allows you to make your own arrangements and plans and provide for your family while you are still alive. This can give you an even greater sense of security that no matter what may happen to you, that you have life insurance in place to protect you and your family.

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Life Insurance on a Spouse

Posted by Pamela Spencer On January - 22 - 2009

If you are wondering whether or not you can insure your spouse, the answer is yes. However, you cannot do this without her or his knowledge. You will need to meet with a representative who assesses your lifestyles and gives you a physical exam. Depending on your insurance company, you may be able to do this at home or at some other location. You will need to have some type of proof of your health before an insurance company will insure your spouse or you.

There may be several reasons why you would want to insure your spouse. If you are your family’s only source of income, your spouse may be at home taking care of the children and household. If your spouse were to die, then you need to realize that this could cause a financial hardship on your family. Child care and cleaning services can both be very expensive. So a spouse who stays at home contributes a great deal, and it would be expensive to replace those contributions if she or he were to die unexpectedly.


If your spouse is the one who is the financial provider, then the reason for insuring her or him is very obvious. Should your spouse die, you would need to find a job and raise your children if your spouse were to die unexpectedly. You also may have a mortgage and other expenses to deal with as well. It would be very unwise to not have a substantial life insurance policy to ensure that the family’s lifestyle could be maintained in the event of the provider’s death.

In order to insure your spouse you will need their social security number, birth date and medical history of not only your spouse but their family as well. To make sure that all of the information is correct you should review the paperwork with your spouse. If for any reason it is not possible to do this, make sure you understand the process and have the opportunity to contact your spouse with any questions you may have. You may need to make a note of any questions you have or take the insurance paperwork home to complete it.

Life insurance is a very critical part of being married and your family’s future. Hopefully you will never need to use your insurance benefit. However, it is very important that both you and your spouse have sufficient coverage to protect your family in the event something unfortunate should ever happen.

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Whole Life vs Universal Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On January - 15 - 2009

Universal life insurance and whole life insurance are quite similar in many ways. Universal life insurance evolved from premises of whole life insurance. People wanted to buy whole life insurance policies that gave them more flexibility. These needs resulted in the creation of universal life insurance.

Universal life insurance has the advantage of providing more flexibility than whole life insurance does and also provides a greater possibility of a higher cash value if the financial markets outperform the insurer’s account.

Both the premium payments and death benefits are flexible with universal life insurance policies. The flexibility with the death benefit comes with the fact that the insured can increase or decrease the benefit without having to give up or start a new policy which would have to be done with a whole life insurance policy. Universal life insurance policies also have a variety of premium payment options which range from small minimums up to the maximum amount allowed by the Internal Revenue Service.

The biggest difference between whole life insurance and universal life insurance, is that with a universal life insurance policy, the insurance company passes some of the risk of maintaining the insurance benefits to the insured. Under a whole life insurance policy the death benefit is guaranteed to be paid when the insured dies as long as the premium payments are made. Under a universal life insurance policy, if the premium payments and cash value on the policy are not sufficient to cover the insurance costs, the death benefit lapses and is no longer available to be paid to beneficiaries.


Another difference between universal and whole life insurance, is that with whole life polices the charges, expenses and costs of the insurance are not disclosed to the policy holder. With a universal life insurance policy all of this information is disclosed.

Universal life insurance policies also provide flexibility in terms of exit strategies to get out of the insurance contract and also offer zero interest loans that allow the insured access to the capital appreciation within the policy without a tax liability at the time.

Universal life insurance was formed out of the principles that govern whole life insurance, but cater to preferences that whole life doesn’t offer. Due to the increasing flexibility, universal life insurance policies are becoming more and more popular. However, there are still people who prefer to keep strict controls intact on their whole life insurance that forces them to keep to a schedule. Some whole life insurance policies do offer some flexibility in regards to premium payments and others do not.

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Understanding Life Insurance

Posted by Pamela Spencer On January - 10 - 2009

Life insurance is simply an agreement between an insurance policy payer and the insurer. In the agreement, the policy payer is ensured that a death benefit will paid to his or her beneficiary or beneficiaries in the event of his or her death. The policy payer pays a premium in exchange for the death benefit. The insurance premium can be paid as a lump sum or in monthly payments. The coverage of an insured person’s life is determined by life policies. The contract covering the agreement between the insurer and policy owner places limits on what events are covered by the life insurance policy. The event that is usually covered by the insurance policy is the death of the insured. Other events such as accidents, sickness and untimely deaths may also be included in the life insurance policy.

The liability and obligations of the insurance are limited by stipulations stated within the insurance contract. There are exclusions that are also stated in the coverage that limit the life insurance policy coverage that the policy owner receives.

There are two major classifications of life insurance contracts. There is investment insurance and protection insurance. One example of protection insurance is term life insurance. With this type of insurance only a specified term and events are covered in the insurance policy. If the specified events occurs, the insured’s beneficiaries will be paid. An example of a type of investment insurance is whole life insurance. With a whole life insurance policy, the insured is covered by the insurance policy throughout his or her entire lifetime. In the event of the insured’s death, their beneficiaries are paid the policy’s death benefit.


The parties to an insurance contract include the policy owner, the insurer, the insured and the insured’s beneficiaries. The insurer pays the death benefit to the insured’s beneficiaries when the insured passes away. Usually the insured person is also the policy owner. However, there are cases where the insured is not the same person as the policy payer. For example, if a husband buys insurance for his wife the wife is the insured and the husband is the policy payer. The husband is the one who is responsible for paying the insurance premiums. If the wife dies, then the beneficiaries will receive the death benefit on the policy. Beneficiaries of the insured could be organizations or individuals. Individuals are often the insured’s dependents but not always.

The policy payer’s cost for a life insurance policy is generally based on a calculation made by the insurance company that takes into account claims to be paid, administrative costs and expected profit for insuring the individual. Actuaries provide mortality tables that the insurance companies use to determine the price of insurance. The tables are based on actuarial science which uses statistics and probability to come up with their calculations. Life expectancy is also a factor in computing insurance prices.

The beneficiaries receive the death benefit in the event of the insured’s death and after the insurance company has been provided with proof of death. Insurers usually required that a claim be filed and a death certificate be presented before any death benefits are paid out to the beneficiaries. Insurers may investigate in cases where the death appears to be suspicious to see if they are under any obligation to pay the beneficiaries the death benefit.

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Term Life Insurance & Causes of Death

Posted by Pamela Spencer On January - 3 - 2009

There are several important reasons to purchase life insurance. However, the most important reason why people invest in a life insurance policy is to ensure that their dependents and loved ones will be provided for at a time of loss. No one wants to think about their untimely death, however this issue will need to be faced when you are considering purchasing term life insurance.

Term life insurance policies often have provisions to cover deaths that are not due to natural causes or medical complications. If you are considering a term life insurance policy, you need to be aware of what these provisions and situations are that could prevent your beneficiaries from collecting the death benefits on your life insurance policy. You should also consider riders to your policy that can provide additional protection.

Suicide is a horrible tragedy for any family to have to endure. At such a difficult time, grieving families may need assistance from a life insurance policy. One provision that many insurance companies include in insurance contracts is suicide clauses. What the rider usually states is that the insurance plan needs to have been active for a minimum of two years before the date of the insured’s death in order for the beneficiaries to be able to collect on the death benefit. If the time requirement has not been met then the policy will be voided and usually the money will be forfeited.

Another provision in which insurance companies often reserve the right to not pay claims is in circumstances regarding foul play. If the insured’s death is suspicious, the insurance company will withhold claims until the death has been investigated. Unfortunately people have been murdered in order to collect on insurance policies. If there is any suspicion that a beneficiary may have played a part in the policy holder’s death, their benefits will be denied.


Insurance companies rely on evidence presented by government and police investigations as well as their own research to make decisions on the insurance claims. Some insurance contracts even give insurers the right to deny claims of a beneficiary even in cases where they have not been charged with a crime.

A majority of term life insurance contracts will cover many types of accidental death, but will still have additional accident riders. Some of these clauses will enable the beneficiary to receive additional benefits if the insured’s death was caused by an accident. This will increase premium costs but will be less than increasing benefits on other causes of death.

The insurance company is who determines whether the cause of death is accidental or not. Reasons for denying accidental death claims should be specified in the insurance contract within the rider or be thoroughly explained by the insurance agent.

Many times dismemberment and accident death can be purchased either through work or privately. These additional policies can work hand in hand with a term life insurance policy to provide additional benefits for policy holder’s that work in dangerous conditions or lines of work.

Fortunately most of these types of circumstances do not occur very often. Buying a term life insurance policy is a very effective way to help protect dependents and other loved ones. You only need to be aware of these other circumstances and spend a small amount of time to ensure that you have adequate coverage in the face of unforeseen consequences. You want to spend most of your time ensuring that your dependents and loved ones are well cared for.

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