What Is Term Life Insurance?
Term life insurance is usually the most affordable option when you want life insurance to cover financial obligations that are temporary.
Term life insurance is a contract between a policyholder and an insurance company that says if the insured person passes away within the time period of the policy, the insurer will pay a death benefit to the beneficiaries named on the policy. Term life insurance is typically available in lengths of 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years. Some companies offer longer terms of 35 and 40 years Key Features of Term Life Insurance
The key features of term life insurance are:
- It’s generally the cheapest way to buy life insurance.
- Term life insurance policies have a specific length of time when your rates are locked in.
- There’s no cash value in a term life insurance policy.
Types of Term Life Insurance
Level Term Life Insurance
• A level term life insurance policy maintains the same premiums and death benefit throughout the term. Rates won’t increase as you age, and the death benefit is consistent whether you die in the first or final year of the policy.
Annual Renewable Term Life Insurance
• An annual renewable term policy’s premium increases each year you renew it. When you choose this policy, you’re guaranteed to keep coverage and don’t need to reapply.
• It may be good for people who want to fill a short gap in life insurance. However, a short level term life policy may be a better choice.
Decreasing Term Life Insurance
• A decreasing term life insurance policy’s premiums stay the same over the length of the policy, but the death benefit decreases steadily over time.
• Mortgage life insurance is a form of decreasing term life. Here the payout is tied to the declining balance of your mortgage, and the beneficiary is the mortgage lender, not your family.
• Regular term life insurance is a better bet because your family receives the payout and can use it for any expenses they choose.
Return of Premium Term Life Insurance
• A return of premium life insurance policy promises to refund the premiums you paid if you outlive the policy. As you can imagine, the refund feature makes the policy more expensive. • Return of premium term life is available.
• How much life insurance do you need?
• To choose the best duration for a term life insurance policy, consider the length of the debt or situation you want to cover. For example, if you just bought a house and took on a 30-year mortgage, you’re likely looking at 30-year term life. Contact us to learn more about the right critical illness coverage for you.
What Is Whole Life Insurance?
Whole life insurance offers coverage for the rest of your life and includes a cash value component that lets you tap into it while you’re alive.
Whole life insurance offers three kinds of guarantees:
• A guaranteed minimum rate of return on the cash value
• The promise that your premium payments won’t go up
• A guaranteed death benefit amount Whole life insurance is more expensive than term life insurance because people with a whole life policy are guaranteed to have a death benefit when they die. Term life insurance, on the other hand, offers level rates for a specific period, such as 20 or 30 years. Term life policies are cheaper than whole life insurance because they offer only coverage, not cash value.
Types of Whole Life Insurance
Participating vs. Non-Participating Whole Life
Policyholders of whole life insurance are usually eligible for annual dividends from the life insurance company. If you’re buying whole life insurance, confirm that the policy is “participating” so that you can reap the benefits of dividends.
• With a participating whole life insurance policy you are eligible to receive life insurance dividends from the insurer each year, which are essentially a refund of excess premiums paid by policyholders. Dividends are not guaranteed, but many life insurance companies are known for paying consistent dividends year after year. You can take the dividends in cash, use them to pay premiums, or use them to increase the face amount of your policy.
• With a non-participating policy, you won’t get any dividends.
Whole Life Insurance Payment Types
You may find differences in how you can pay for a whole life insurance policy.
Pay premiums on a regular basis: You’ll pay a fixed amount monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.
Single premium: You’ll pay the entire cost of the policy upfront. Cash value will be available right away and you’ll have no further premiums to pay.
Limited payment: You’ll pay regular premiums for a set number of years, such as 10 or 20 years. After this time period, the policy is paid up and no more payments are required.
Modified premium: Modified whole life insurance policies require premium payments that will increase after an introductory period. Your premiums will be lower for a set number of years—such as the first three to five—and then higher for the remainder of your lifetime. The death benefit will not change.
Contact us to learn more about the right critical illness coverage for you.
What is Critical Illness Insurance?
Critical illness insurance or critical illness coverage is an insurance product, where the insurer is contracted to typically make a lump sum cash payment if the policyholder is diagnosed with one of the critical illnesses listed in the insurance policy.
The policy may also be structured to pay out regular income and the payout may also be on the policyholder undergoing a surgical procedure, for example, having a Heart bypass operation.
Conditions That May be Covered:
Alzheimer's disease
Blindness
Deafness
Kidney failure
A major organ transplant
Multiple sclerosis
HIV/AIDS contracted by blood transfusion or during an operation
Parkinson's disease
Paralysis of limb
Terminal illness
Contact us to learn more about the right critical illness coverage for you.
What is Dental Insurance?
Dental insurance is designed to pay a portion of the costs associated with dental care. Generally dental offices have a fee schedule, or a list of prices for the dental services or procedures they offer.
Typical Types of Dental Insurance
Indemnity Dental Insurance Plan:
This plan may be helpful when you want to stay with your dentist and he/she does not participate in a dental network. By the very nature of this plan the insurance company generally pays the dentist a percentage of your services according to the policy you purchased. In addition, you will want to review the co-payment requirements, waiting periods, stated deductible, annual limitations, graduated percentage scales based on the type of procedure and/or length of time you have owned the policy prior to starting your dental work.
Dental Health Managed Organization (DHMO):
When a dentist signs a contract with a dental insurance company that provider agrees to accept an insurance fee schedule and give their customers a reduced cost for services as an In-Network Provider. Many DHMO insurance plans have little or no waiting periods, no annual maximum benefit limitations, while covering major dental work near the start of the policy period. This plan is sometimes purchased to help defray the high cost of the dental procedures. Some dental insurance plans offer free semi-annual preventative treatment. Fillings, crowns, implants and dentures may have various limitations.
Participating Provider Network (PPO):
Depending on your specific plan, the PPO works similar to a DHMO while using an In-Network facility. However, it allows you to use an Out-of-Network or Non-Participating Provider. Any difference of fees will become the financial responsibility of the patient unless otherwise specified in your dental policy. As noted, some dental insurance plans may have an annual maximum benefit limit. Thus, once the annual maximum benefit is exhausted any additional treatments may become the patient's responsibility. Each year that annual maximum is reissued. The reissued date may vary as a calendar year, company fiscal year, or date of enrollment based on your specific plan.
Contact us to learn more about the right dental insurance for you.
What is Disability Insurance?
Disability Insurance, often called DI or disability income insurance, or income protection, is a form of insurance that insures the beneficiary's earned income against the risk that a disability creates a barrier for a worker to complete the core functions of their work.
For example, the worker may suffer from an inability to maintain composure in the case of psychological disorders or an injury, illness or condition that causes physical impairment or incapacity to work. It encompasses paid sick leave, short-term disability benefits (STD), and long-term disability benefits (LTD).
Statistics show that in the US a disabling accident occurs on average once every second. In fact, Nearly 18.5% of Americans are currently living with a Disability, and 1 out of every 4 persons in the US workforce will suffer a disabling injury before retirement.
Types of Disability Insurance
Individual Disability Insurance - Those whose employers do not provide benefits, and self-employed individuals who desire disability coverage, may purchase policies. Premiums and available benefits for individual coverage vary considerably between companies, occupations, states and countries. In general, premiums are higher for policies that provide more monthly benefits, offer benefits for longer periods of time, and start payments of benefits more quickly following a disability claim. Premiums also tend to be higher for policies that define disability in broader terms, meaning the policy would pay benefits in a wider variety of circumstances.
High-limit Disability Insurance -
High-limit disability insurance is designed to keep individual disability benefits at 65% of income regardless of income level. Coverage is typically issued supplemental to standard coverage. With high-limit disability insurance, benefits can be anywhere from an additional $2,000 to $100,000 per month. Single policy issue and participation (individual or group long-term disability) coverage has gone up to $30,000 with some companies.
Key-person Disability Insurance -
Key Person Disability Insurance provides benefits to protect a company from financial hardship that may result from the loss of a key employee due to disability. The company can use the benefits to hire a temporary employee should the disabled employee's disability appear to be short-term. In the case of permanent disability, benefits are used to help defray costs related to hiring a replacement, including recruitment, training, startup, loss in revenue and unfunded salary continuation costs.
Business Overhead Expense Disability Insurance -
Business Overhead Expense (BOE) coverage reimburses a business for overhead expenses should the owner experience a disability. Eligible benefits include: rent or mortgage payments, utilities, leasing costs, laundry/maintenance, accounting/billing and collection service fees, business insurance premiums, employee salaries, employee benefits, property tax, and other regular monthly expenses. Contact us to learn more about the disability insurance coverage for you.
What is Final Expense Insurance?
Final expense insurance is an insurance policy used to pay for burial expenses and funeral services when the named insured dies.
Such a policy helps ease the financial burden placed on a family when a loved one dies.
More About Final Expense Coverage
Final Expense insurance is a basic issue life insurance policy that covers people until they reach 100 years old. It is quite similar to universal life insurance and is sometimes referred to as graded life or burial insurance with easy issue permanent coverage.
As an inexpensive insurance choice, final expense coverage can be used to cover the funeral and burial costs of the policy holder. Most people who do not want to place a hardship or burden on their families with these burial and funeral costs will take out burial insurance policies.
Burial premiums can begin with higher costs at first than other forms of insurance since they include cash value features. An important advantage of burial premiums is that they are fixed, which means they remain the same even if your health deteriorates.
Final Expense coverage can pay for the casket, funeral service, visitation/viewing, hearse, digging and filling the grave, the actual cemetery plot, or burial vault or grave liner, minister, headstone, flowers, and other expenses related directly to named insured's funeral.
Contact us to learn more about the right final expense coverage for you.