Monday, June 14, 2010

The Right Time to Buy Life Insurance

You've graduated from college and you are now officially an adult, the cycle begins and before you know it you have people who depend on you. If taking care of them is your main concern then you should think about purchasing life insurance. If you don't have the kind of responsibility as mentioned then you might wonder whether it would make sense to get life insurance.

To start off on a morbid note, unfortunately life is short and unexpected things happen all the time. Until we find a way to travel through time no one can predict when they will pass away. This is a sad truth but a truth nonetheless. Being prepared is never a bad thing. The main question is when it would be the right time to get insurance. If you are between the ages of 20 to 30 you might be thinking that insurance wouldn't make sense especially if you aren't married, you don't have any children or you don't own a home. In this case you are right to think that way. There are, however, beneficial aspects to purchasing life insurance at a young age even if you don't have a lot of responsibilities.

If you get insurance at a young age you are more likely to get low premiums. This is because, generally speaking, younger people are less likely to have bad health and especially life threatening diseases. If you do purchase life insurance you aren't doing it for yourself you are doing it for your family. You don't want your family to be stuck with study loan you took, or the credit card bills you made or the new car you bought once you have started working.

The only time where life insurance doesn't make sense is when you are younger than 21 and you are completely dependent on your parents. Once you reach 25 you are probably already employed and you have built up on your debt. This is probably the most common age for purchasing life insurance. At 25 your parents cannot, by law, claim you as a dependent. You are then on your own. Regardless of whether you still live with your parents/family you aren't covered. If you have enough funds and stability in your life before 25 you will then pay a lot less than what you would at 25.

Being prepared is never a bad thing. People tend to be in denial about unplanned circumstances; the common train of thought is that "it would never happen to me". This is not true, life is full of surprises be it good or bad. Life insurance will help you help your family when they are going through a tough time accepting your death they don't want to be burdened by paying you finances.

4 Hidden Secrets in Finding Discounts For Car Insurance

Are you looking for discounts for car insurance? Don't let the federal government catch you! No one is supposed to know that there are ways you can save money on your car insurance. You see, it is all a diabolical conspiracy! Well, actually it's not. The truth is that saving money on car insurance is not a big secret. However, it seems that the majority of drivers out there don't know or don't care about saving money on car insurance premiums. These 4 ways to get discounts for car insurance are not well known, but they are guaranteed to work!

1. Drop collision coverage.

If you drop collision coverage, you will save a bundle. Many of the claims that are filed everyday are for minor and major damages that result from a driver driving "dirty" (or recklessly). By assuming more responsibility in your driving, you can reduce the price of your premiums. This is an even smarter strategy if you drive an older car. Did you know that the price of your yearly premiums for full coverage insurance is probably more expensive than the total price of your car?

2. Get on or get off a multi-driver policy.

You can find discounts for auto insurance by getting on (or getting off) a multi-driver policy. Young teenagers or twentysomethings that might have a difficult time finding a policy on their own, could get a significant discount if they are added to the family car policy. On the other hand, if you have been on a multi-driver policy for several years and have actually outgrown the high-risk demographic, you might be surprised to learn how much you could save by starting your own policy.

3. Join a club.

No, not the Mickey Mouse Club. We mean joining an automobile club and taking advantage of their special member savings. This is one of the most overlooked ways to find discounts for auto insurance. For example, some automobile clubs offer 15% discounts on regular auto insurance. They might also offer special benefits such as free roadside assistance and free use of the club swimming pool. (Though you might not want to swim in a pool occupied by greasy mechanics)

4. Pay more money to the same insurance company-but for less.

This simply means that if you opt to give more money to your insurance company, by investing in other insurance policies (such as health, life insurance, umbrella insurance and etc.) you may qualify for a multi-policy discount. Combined coverage gets you combined discounts. You may not see a great deal of savings in car insurance alone, but when you add up homeowners, health and life insurance coverage together, you may be surprised to learn how much you save. Start looking for discounts for auto insurance today!

Phoenix Life Insurance

NO PAYMENT LIFE INSURANCE?

It that a typo? Supposedly, there are companies offering to pay your life insurance premium. What a deal, huh.

In this arrangement, you apply for life insurance and agree to give the vast majority of the death benefit to a third party company. It is essentially an investment to them.

For example: you buy a $100,000 life insurance policy and at your death your beneficiary receives $50,000. In return you pay no premiums. The company who has been paying premiums owns the policy and the remainder death benefit.

It is unclear if any Department of Insurance will approve such an arrangement or any insurance company for that matter. Typically there has to be insurable interest, which means someone has a vested interest in your death, other than simply owning your life policy.

There is one way around the above arrangement, if an insurance company or Department of Insurance does not approve this type of relationship. Any insured can change their beneficiary after a life policy has been approved. It is during the underwriting process that the insurance company can have say in who may be a beneficiary.

You should consult an estate planning attorney before agreeing to such a partnership, however. You need to find out whether this life policy under this arrangement will affect you in any way when it comes to estate taxes or in any other related way.

For most of us, we need to simply buy a low cost Arizona Term Life Insurance plan. The policies are designed to help our loved ones in the event of our death.

Accessing the Best Life Insurance Leads Easily

Finding the best life insurance leads to help increase your productivity and boost profits can sometimes be a challenge. Not only do you need to spend our valuable time sourcing and seeking out ways to reach potential new clients, but that's time you could have spent working on increasing your conversion rates and closing more sales.

How much would your business prosper if you had a constant stream of the best life insurance leads coming into your business whenever you needed them? Would a steady stream of inquiries boost your profitability if you knew those inquiries were genuinely interested in your offer? You'd be able to spend more of your working day focusing on alternative activities that are more likely to result in higher sales figures for you and your entire business.

If you're thinking about buying leads, be sure you're allowed access to multiple filters to make sure you receive only the best life insurance leads you really want to suit your business needs. After all, there's no point dealing with clients who aren't seeking the same type of products or services you offer. It makes sense to aim at only those who will be interested in your proposition right away.

Some suggestions for ways you can filter your leads should include:

* Location of Inquirer - filter and search for the best life insurance leads to suit your needs from within a specific radius from you or by a chosen zip code or even from a desired list of areas

* Preferred lead type - for example, you could look general insurance leads or narrow your search to return only the best life insurance leads pertinent to your business

* Set specific spending amounts on your account to ensure you never exceed your allocated spending limit

* Pause your account anytime or start it up again if you ever need more business

As well as these things, you should be given the opportunity to on-sell the best life insurance leads to other downstream providers. For example, an insurance agent who buys the information could sell disqualified leads to a general insurance agent, while a debt settlement provider might sell bankruptcy leads for people who don't qualify for his or her program. Car dealers can sell a lead to car insurance providers. This can allow you to recoup the cost of the lead and also provide a new source of revenue from existing business processes.

When you search for the best life insurance leads, you have the ability to score the seller highly as providing information that is legitimate and contactable or score them less favorably is the information was not satisfactory.

Some of the expert lead sellers who should be providing information for you include internet marketing experts with millions of opt-in records, and skilled associates who are trained to search for very specific types of leads such as investment opportunities or high net worth individuals.

Bonus Tip: SwiftCRM lead generation account includes real-time incoming notification for the very best life insurance leads via instant messenger, email, text message, or any combination of the above. If you're buying real-time live-transfer exclusive phone leads, this data can help you sound informed, and if it's a data lead, this can mean the fastest possible response, as you will typically call the lead while they are still on your marketing team's website.

For a free trial of SwiftCRM, a hosted CRM application focused on sales automation and quality lead generation, please click through to the website

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Suze Orman on Term Life Insurance Versus Whole Life

If you love Suze Orman then you might want to understand more about her stance on Whole Life Insurance. Here is a conversation with a guest calling in which will shed some light on her thoughts on Term Life Insurance vs Whole Life.

A caller has phoned in asking Suze's advice on whether to purchase a whole life policy recommended by a friend. The annual premium is $14,000 for $500,000 of whole life coverage. Caller states that this policy was supposed to also be an investment for the future as well.

Suze Orman: "Oh sweetheart that's not a friend that a sn....I don't even know %#*#)$! You know, it gives me dandruff I think. Listen, you can get a half a million dollar term policy for 20 years at your age for approximately $25 or $30 per month. OK? That's $300 per year. Now, if you really want to make an investment you could take all those other $1000s of dollars and take that money and invest it where? In a retirement account, a piece of real estate, in stocks, bonds, whatever it may be where it absolutely makes sense to you."

Why doesn't Suze Orman like Whole Life Insurance (also known as Permanent Life Insurance / Variable Life / Universal Life)?

For the amount of death benefit one can purchase Whole Life, as life insurance is way overpriced.

  • $500,000 worth of Whole Life Coverage = $14,000 per year
  • $500,000 worth of Term Coverage = $300 per year

Difference of $13,700 extra you are paying to get Permanent Life coverage.

What is the difference between Term Life Insurance vs Whole Life Insurance?

Term Insurance is for a set term or time period from 1 year and usually up to 30 years.

Whole Life is life coverage for the rest of your life PLUS an "investment portion" held by the life insurance company.

With Term Coverage there is no investment portion. Like car insurance it is pure insurance. That's it.

Do you ever see an auto insurance agent try to add an "investment" to your automobile coverage? No you do not. It doesn't make sense at all. What for? It is the same thing with life insurance. What for?

With Whole life coverage it is Term insurance + Investment Portion with you paying premiums for the rest of your life.

1st thing's first. What do you need life coverage for?

You need it to protect your family that depends on the breadwinner's income whether it be the husband working, the wife working or both parents working to bring money in to take care of the family. Life Coverage is there so that if something happens to the income provider the income can still come in and the family isn't financially devasted.

Once the children are grown up and making their own income they are no longer dependent on the parent(s) income. At that time you no longer need it for that purpose.

So why keep paying premiums for the rest of your life?

Some people believe that it will make their family rich but that is further from the truth. Don't throw away your money like that. You are better off buying term coverage only for the time period for which it is needed.

Besides, the older you get, the premiums are going to skyrocket. You only purchase it when you need to protect your family.

Save your money and/or invest it wisely.

But what about the investment portion when you buy whole life insurance?

It is sold to you as an investment for retirement / children's college fund / emergency fund in which it will grow while being held by the company and you can "BORROW" from it and pay it back with interest.

BORROW from my investment? Isn't it my money?

No, as long as your policy is active you can only borrow from it AND pay the life company back with interest. They call it CASH VALUE. Sounds like a catchy and wonderful phrase right?

The real ripoff? You first year of premium payments you get NO CASH VALUE. That's right. The money that was supposed to go to your investment portion only starts the 2nd year. The first year it goes to the insurance agent commission and the insurance company. Your money? Yeah right. Their money.

BOTTOM LINE? Buy Term Coverage only when you need it (ONLY when you have dependents)

Take the money that you would save and put it into a retirement account which YOU CONTROL 100%. Your money fully controlled by you to invest it anywhere you choose or just leave it in cash.and STAY AWAY from Whole Life / Permanent / Universal Life / Variable Universal Insurance or any type of life insurance that has a savings or investment tied to it.