State insurance regulators are touting the $17 million settlement they negotiated with Prudential in January as “an important step” in getting life insurers to cough up the estimated $1 billion they owe to life insurance beneficiaries. It’s a step, all right, but in the wrong direction.
This settlement gives the states which sign on – seven so far, including California – a small amount of money, but even that pittance will ultimately be divided by at least 20 states, the number which need to sign on for the deal to be approved. And s
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Youve been meaning to look into disability insurance for quite a while and now you are finally going to do it. You start your search and see that there are several very good disability insurance companies that offer high-quality individual policies. How do you choose the right company for you?
The first thing you might want to do is find a broker (such as those that run this website) who represents several disability insurance companies and ask for quotes from each company and a side by side comparison of benefits so you can easily compare the benefits and premiums of each policy. The major players in the high-quality individual disability insurance market are Guardian (Berkshire), Mass Mutual, MetLife, Principal, Standard and Union Central. A broker specializing in disability insurance should be able to get you quotes from these companies.
Make sure the broker gives you the financial ratings (A.M. Be
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A new study has found that last year (2010), about 40% of Americans had trouble paying medical bills. This is up from 34% just a few years ago in 2005. Lack of insurance coverage is an obvious obstacle to increased out-of-pocket spending, but Patricia Herman, an economist at the University of Arizona warns that even having health insurance isn’t always protective from being financially devastated by illness or injury.
The study, which appears online and in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health, used data of 4,200 households in Arizona using the 2008 Arizona Health Survey which included items about whether families were having trouble paying medical bills or if they had delayed care because of the expense. D
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If you’re planning to climb Mt.
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You have submitted an application for life insurance and you have been told that the application is in underwriting. I have found over my many years of selling life insurance that most people have no idea what occurs in this ominous-sounding process. Most people I speak to wonder what could take so long in approving an application. So, in an effort to take the ominousness out of it, I will attempt to relay to you what exactly happens when you submit your application.
In the LifeInsure.com Glossary, we define Underwriting as the process of selecting risks and classifying them according to their degrees of insurability so that the appropriate rates may be assigned. Th
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In learning about life insurance, it is important to know some key definitions. By having some key terms well-defined, you wont get tripped up while reading your application or policy. Most people never read their policies because they get tripped up on some of the terminology. You can visit our Life Insurance Glossary where you will find definitions on many of the words you will come across in your life insurance application and policy. Here are a few key words found in our glossary:
- Policy The written statement of the agreement between insurer and insured (or policy owner, if other than the insured), including all endorsements and attached papers, which constitutes the entire contract of insurance. See contract and insurance policy.
- Death Benefit In life insurance, the face amount, as stated in the policy, to be paid upon proof of death of the insured.
- Beneficiary The person (or entity) to whom the proceeds of a life insurance policy are payable when the insured dies. There are various types of beneficiaries (see primary, contingent or secondary and tertiary beneficiaries).
- Term Life Insurance Life insurance issued for a term of years, normally building up no cash value and expiring without value. Typical term periods are 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years.
- Permanent Life Insurance A term loosely applied to cash value life insurance. This type of policy is meant to last a whole life, as opposed to term, which is in force for a specified period of time or term.
- Whole Life Insurance A plan of insurance offering protection for the whole of life, proceeds being payable at death. Premiums may be paid under a continuous premium arrangement or on a limited payment basis for virtually any desired period of years.
- Cash Value - In a life insurance policy, the amount available to the owner when a policy is surrendered to the company. During the early policy years, the cash value is the reserve less a surrender charge. in the later policy years, the cash surrender value usually equals or closely approximates the reserve value.
- Underwriting - The process of selecting risks and classifying them according to their degrees of insurability so that the appropriate rates may be assigned. The process includes rejection of risks.
I pulled these few out of the Glossary, as I thought these would be a good place to start. Visit the glossary when you get a chance and look up the definitions for any of the words that might have tripped you up previously.
If I had a dollar for every time somebody told me they dont need disability insurance because they dont believe they will ever get in an accident (auto or otherwise), I would be a wealth man (well, maybe Id have a couple of hundred dollars more in my pocket).
First of all, who believes they will ever be involved in a career-shortening accident? Secondly, the majority of disabilities are not caused by accidents. Accident-related claims account for less than 10% of claims, according to the Council of Disability Awareness (CDA).
The majority of claims, in fact, are caused by illness and disorders. According to the CDAs 2010 Long-Term Disability Claims Review, the following are the leading cause of claims in 2009:
- Musculoskeletal/connective tissue disorders caused 26.2% of new claims (includes claims caused by neck and back pain; joint, muscle and tendon disorder; foot, ankle and hand disorders, etc.).
- Nervous System-Related Disorders caused 13.7% of new claims.
- Cardiovascular/circulatory disorders were responsible for 13.1% of new claims (includes claims caused by heart and circulatory disorders, stroke, etc.).
- Cancer caused 8.4% of disability insurance claims.
Unfortunately, illness happens and one never knows who and when one will be affected. The bottom line is, if you and your family rely on your income, you should look into protecting that income by purchasing a disability insurance policy. To find out more about how disability insurance works, visit our Disability Insurance Education Center.
If you would like to see how much it would cost to protect your income, request disability insurance quotes from the top disability insurance companies click the Get Started button above.
