Buying insurance of any kind is often confusing. In order to compare policies by price, you have to be sure that each policy carries the same benefits for the same amount, and figure in a dozen different factors. It’s enough to set your head spinning in most cases.Below you'll find a list of the typical Life Insurance options available:Term Life InsuranceTerm Life insurance is life insurance that you pay for during a specified length of time or term. This is generally one to 30 years. You select the amount of the death benefit or face amount to meet your needs.Premiums, or payments, which can be the same amount or increase with time, must be made monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. If you die during the term of coverage, the face amount of your policy will be paid to your beneficiaries. Term insurance policies do not accumulate cash value and therefore usually offer lower premiums than other life insurance products with the same face value.Universal Life InsuranceUniversal Life is permanent insurance that has the potential to accumulate cash value. However, it offers additional features and options. For example, you can increase or decrease your policy's face amount to accommodate your changing protection needs. You can also increase or decrease the dollar amount of your premium payments and make additional lump sum payments to your policy. Since a Universal Life policy accrues cash value, you can borrow against this cash value for any purpose.You have the option to skip premium payments if your account has accrued sufficient value because the premiums will be taken from the accrued value. A Universal Life policy also has the potential to earn a higher rate of return than a whole life policy, although there is a risk that your rate of return could drop.Whole Life InsuranceWhole Life Insurance is life insurance that you own for your entire lifetime. The amount of the death benefit or face amount can be selected to meet your needs.Premiums, or payments, are fixed and can be paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. As more premiums are paid, your policy accumulates a cash value that grows on a tax-deferred basis. In essence, whole life is like buying a house versus renting it. The monthly cost is higher than it would be for a term life policy, but with each payment you make, you gain equity. You can borrow against a Whole Life policy for any purpose. Loans, however, require you to pay interest, and any borrowed amount you do not pay back is deducted from the payout to your beneficiary at the time of your death.Final Expense InsuranceYour family means the world to you. The last thing you want is to leave them with major expenses after you’re gone. Final Expense insurance is life insurance that helps provide the money they may need to pay medical bills, funeral expenses, legal fees, or unpaid bills. It is an insurance policy that lets you decide how your assets are distributed. By planning ahead, you can help protect your loved ones from unnecessary financial stress when you die. You can also decide how your assets are distributed!

Term life insurance coverage can be relatively easy to comparison shop. It simply covers you in the event that you die before the end of the term for which you are covered.How Term Life Insurance WorksTerm life insurance will pay out a specified lump sum to the person that you name as beneficiary in the event that you die before the policy expires. The payout is subject to a few exclusions, most often suicide or other self-inflicted conditions.Other than deciding if you want guaranteed or renewable premiums, there’s no need to worry about other bells and whistles, so comparing policies is a simple matter of comparing premiums among the various life insurance providers.How Much Coverage Do You Need?The biggest decision you’ll face is how much life coverage you need. The general rule of thumb is that, at a bare minimum, you should provide at least enough to pay off your outstanding debts and cover your funeral expenses. The face value of your policy should cover any remainder on your mortgage and other debts, and provide a cushion to help your family get back on their feet financially after your death. If you have young children, you should also cover your expected annual salary multiplied by the number of years until the youngest is no longer financially dependent.What Factors Are Considered in Assigning a Premium?There are a number of factors that may affect how much you pay for your policy aside from the amount of the death benefit you choose. These include your age, your gender, the state of your health and any pre-existing conditions, and whether or not you smoke. Smokers can expect to pay higher premiums than those who don’t use tobacco products.Why Should You Buy Life Insurance?If you are the major breadwinner or a major contributor to family income, you should be insured. No one likes to imagine what will happen if they die, but it makes sound financial sense. Potentially, your life insurance benefit can mean the difference between your family keeping the home in which you live and losing it to debt if you are no longer able to provide for them. In general, if you are carrying a mortgage, you should carry at least enough insurance to cover the remaining mortgage so that your heirs aren’t left with an ongoing financial impact.Tips To Help You Save Money on Life Insurance:Only buy what you needGet the most appropriate coverage for a mortgage

Term life insurance is part of your plan for providing financial protection for your loved ones, business, or estate. There is no other form of insurance or financial tool you can use that provides the value you get from term life. It’s inexpensive, simple to maintain, and easy to purchase.However, your family or your business only benefit if you die. And while that’s simply the nature of life insurance, it’s not exactly the most desirable trade-off. Wouldn’t it be nice if term life policies offered benefits while you were still living?Living BenefitsLiving benefits are exactly what the name implies. They are benefits paid from the term life policy while you are living. More commonly, they are known as accelerated death benefits. With these benefits, the life insurance company pays or advances a portion of the policy’s death benefit to you to pay for care or treatment. The company will then pay the balance of the death benefit to your beneficiary(s) if you were to die.Limitation to Accelerated Death BenefitsIt’s important to understand that there are some limitations with these types of benefits:State Availability: Accelerated death benefits are not available in every state. Many standard term life policies that offer accelerated death benefits are also limited by state restrictions. Let's discuss what your options are when it comes to Living Benefits.Benefit Limits: Many benefits limit the amount and frequency that you can tap into accelerated benefits. Again, it's important to understand these limits, so let's talk about your options.Fees: Accelerated death benefits are essentially loans against the policy’s face amount. The company will use a benefit interest rate to determine the present value of future benefits. This rate, along with administrative fees, will be factored into the amount of the benefit allowed.It’s a good idea for you to get an understanding of these benefits before you purchase a policy. You don’t want to wait until a critical illness occurs to learn how your policy works.Give us a call to determine if this is a good fit for you.

Universal life insurance is a form of permanent life insurance offering the low-cost protection of term life insurance as well as a savings element (like whole life insurance) that is invested to build cash value. The death benefit, savings element, and premiums can be reviewed and altered as your circumstances change. In addition, unlike whole life insurance, universal life insurance allows you to use the interest from your accumulated savings to help pay premiums.Premiums, which are variable, are broken down by the insurance company into insurance and savings, allowing you to make adjustments based on your circumstances. For example, if the savings portion is earning a low return, it can be used instead of external funds to pay the premiums. Unlike whole life insurance, universal life allows the cash value of investments to grow at a variable rate that is adjusted monthly.

Q: What are Linked Benefits?A: A Linked Benefits policy is a unique life insurance or annuity policy that allows you to protect your assets from a potential long-term care (LTC) event and still leave a legacy to your loved ones without having to purchase two separate policies.By paying an initial lump sum premium, you immediately create a death benefit for your beneficiaries and a pool of money to pay for covered long-term care needs.Q: What types of insurance products can be linked?A: A base product such as life insurance or an annuity with a “rider” that provides long-term care benefits if needed. This provides multiple benefits, paying out the first benefit as needed. If you need long-term care, income tax-free reimbursements are available for qualified long-term care expenses. Q: What does a Linked Benefit provide me?A: Linked Benefits policy provides you with:A guaranteed death benefit that is generally income tax free: your beneficiaries will receive a death benefit even if you don’t use your LTC benefits or use some or all of it.  Value for your money: Typically, your death and LTC benefits are significantly greater than your initial premium.Flexibility: No matter what happens in your life, you will have a guaranteed level of benefits.Q: Who should consider Linked Benefits?A: If you are between ages 55 and 75 with investable assets (money that you won’t necessarily need to fund your retirement) and you want to insure against a time that might require temporary or permanent long-term care, then you should consider a Linked Benefit, especially with the potential for tax savings.Still have questions? Give us a call and let's discuss your options.

Cash value is an attractive part of many permanent life insurance policies. When the cash value inside a life insurance policy builds up, you may take a loan or a withdrawal from the cash value, subject to provisions of the life policy, that can help you with expenses.Only permanent life insurance policies can build cash value, so that means if you are looking for a life policy to build cash value, you may want to investigate whole life or universal life policies.Whole Life policies allow you to have a cash value that builds slowly but steadily as long as you pay your premiums on time. As the cash value increases, you’ll see it grow too - so it pays to be patient!Universal Life policies also build cash value, but they do so in a little more complicated way. The value inside of a universal life policy is usually not guaranteed, which means you may receive more cash value than expected, or you may get none at all. If you want a life insurance policy that may build cash value that you can access while protecting your family, talk to us about overfunding - paying slightly more than the normal premium in order to increase your cash value. Just like a whole life policy, the larger the cash value gets, the faster it grows. So, taking advantage of the flexibility of a UL plan by overfunding means you may receive more cash value!

One reason for choosing a life insurance policy is to figure how much your dependents will need after you’re gone. In order to choose the face value (the amount your policy pays if you die) of your life insurance you should consider the following:How much debt you have: All of your debts must be paid off in full, including car loans, mortgages, credit cards, etc. If you have a $200,000 mortgage and a $4,000 car loan, you need at least $204,000 in your policy to cover your debts (and possibly a little more to take care of the interest as well).Income Replacement: One of the biggest factors for life insurance is for income replacement, which will be a major determinant of the size of your policy. If you are the only provider for your dependents and you bring in $40,000 a year, you will need a policy payout that is large enough to replace your income plus a little extra to guard against inflation. Just to replace your income, you will need a $500,000 policy. This is not a set rule, but adding your yearly income back into the policy (500,000 + 40,000 = 540,000 in this case) is a fairly good guard against inflation. Remember, you have to add this $540,000 to whatever your total debts add up to.Future Obligations: If you want to pay for your child's college tuition you will have to add this to the amount of coverage you want, which would be about another $100,000Adding everything together, you will probably want a policy for $840,000 ($540,000 to replace yearly income + $200,000 for the mortgage expense + $100,000 university expense).Once you determine the required face value of your insurance company, you can start shopping around for the right policy (and a good deal).Obviously there are other people in your life who are important to you and you may wonder if you should insure them. As a rule, you should only insure people whose death would mean a financial loss to you. If you have a spouse or partner that also is a contributor to the family income, then it would make sense to go through the same exercise to determine the face value of the policy.

Guaranteed acceptance life insurance and simplified issue no medical life insurance provide insurance alternatives to those whose medical profile or lifestyle makes it otherwise difficult to get coverage.Simplified issue life insuranceTo qualify, you need to answer some medical questions, but no medical reports or medical exams are requiredCoverage amounts available range from $1000 to $150,000Term options offered include a 10-year term, 15-year term, 20-year term, 25-year term, or a term to 100 policyTerm to 100 and whole life policies provide lifetime coverage at a guaranteed fixed rateSome permanent insurance policies include cash surrender values and reduced paid-up insuranceMost no medical life insurance policies include an additional benefit payable in the event of an accidental death, equal to 1 to 5 times the base amountSome insurers provide a living benefit which pays up to 50% of the death benefit in the event the insured is diagnosed with a terminal illness where his or her life expectancy is less than 12 monthsNon-smoker rates are usually reduced by 20% to 40%Guaranteed issue life insuranceGuaranteed acceptance, no medical questions askedChoice of coverage amounts offered range from $5,000 to $25,000Premiums and face amount may be guaranteed for lifeAn additional accidental death benefit is often included and pays an amount equal 1 to 5 times the face amountIf natural death occurs during the first 24 months of coverage, the premiums paid are reimbursed with interest; full coverage kicks in on the 25th monthA living benefit is often included: a one-time cash advance of up to 50% of the sum insured should an insured be diagnosed with a terminal illness with a life expectancy of 12 months or lessRule of thumb:There is a direct correlation between premium rates charged and risk. As a result, the fewer the medical questions asked on an application, the higher the risk to the insurer and the higher the rates. Conversely, the more elaborate the underwriting process is, the lower the risk and the better the rates.Non-medical life insurance, often referred to as a simplified issue, requires no medical tests and no doctor’s report. However, to qualify, you’re required to answer “no” to the 7 to 20 medical questions asked. Middle-of-the-road pricing is usually the best solution for applicants who’ve experienced more serious medical issues but whose conditions have been stable for years.The key is stability over time: no change in medication and no treatments administered during the last 24 months; some insurers may require a 60-month period. A good example of a person who could qualify for a permanent insurance simplified issue would be a heart patient who had a stent installed 3 years ago; no other treatment has been required and no change in his medication since.Guaranteed issue life insurance or guaranteed acceptance life insurance should be considered as a last resort, as the death benefit is deferred 24 months and the cost per $1,000 of insurance is the highest among the 3 methods presented. Guaranteed issue life insurance provides an opportunity to get insurance when no other option is available.

In a very broad sense, there are two types of life insurance:Permanent life insuranceTerm life insurance.Permanent life insurance is a type of life insurance that can stay in force for your entire life, as long as you pay your premiums in full. Permanent life insurance usually, but not always, builds cash value for you that you can use for expenses later in life.On the other hand, term life insurance is only in force for a specified amount of time: usually 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. At the end of the term, your coverage expires, and you will need to either convert your policy to a permanent life insurance plan (if available) or purchase a new policy for a new term. The advantage of term life insurance is that it's somewhat less expensive than permanent life insurance.Which is right for you?The answer depends on what you’re trying to accomplish by having a life insurance policy. Are you insuring your life so that when you pass away your children will be able to go to college and your spouse will be able to pay off the mortgage? These are temporary concerns, and so a temporary form of life insurance - term life - is best suited to address them.However, if you are concerned about providing income to a widow or widower for life, funding retirement, or passing wealth to a future generation, then you will find that permanent life insurance is better suited to address these goals.Always ask yourself why you need your life insurance policy. If it’s for a temporary goal, then term insurance is probably best. If it’s to address a long-term need or concern, then it’s time to start looking at permanent policies.