What's Universal Life Insurance?

Universal life insurance is a form of whole life insurance, but the premiums are more flexible and the benefits are more adjustable. Some insurance experts suggest that only those individuals seeking life insurance coverage into their 70s or beyond should purchase universal life insurance. Before you decide whether or not a universal life insurance policy is right for you, consider the following information.

Flexibility. Universal life insurance is more flexible than whole life insurance. You can choose the amount of coverage you need, as well as adjust your coverage based on your changing insurance needs.

Savings. Universal life insurance has a tax-deferred savings component. Interest is earned at the insurance company’s interest rate and credited to your account each month.

Options. Universal life insurance policies offer a variety of options such as family coverage (such as adding a term life insurance rider for your spouse and children), waiver of monthly premiums due to disability, and guaranteed insurability.

Loans and withdrawals. You can take policy loans or make withdrawals from your universal life insurance cash surrender value. However, the number of unpaid loans and withdrawals at the time of your death will be deducted from the cash benefits your beneficiaries receive. The number of loans and withdrawals you can make each year may vary from company to company, so make sure to ask your life insurance agent.

Charges. You may be charged for making withdrawals or surrendering the account value of your universal life insurance. However, note that if you surrender, you will still get the full amount of the account value minus the charges and any unpaid loans.

Death benefits. Universal life insurance has tax-free death benefits, and most life insurance companies offer more than one option for death benefits. You can choose a policy that allows your beneficiary to get the basic amount of life insurance or one that provides the amount of life insurance plus the account value.
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Life Insurance Services

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Life Insurance For Estate Planning

There are many reasons to put together an estate. One of the main reasons for those who already have grown children is to ensure that their assets are divided and distributed equally among all the heirs. Adding a life insurance policy to your estate planning can help in a variety of ways.

What to Know First

One huge myth in purchasing a life insurance policy is that the best thing to do is to name your estate as the beneficiary of your life insurance benefit. This is not wise. If you list your estate as the beneficiary, then the proceeds of your life insurance policy will first have to go through probate. The probate process can be a long one - taking months and even years to finish. Courts put estates through probate to ensure that the will left by the deceased is valid. While your estate is in probate your heirs will not be able to access any of the money paid out by your life insurance policy. This could be a problem, especially if the family was counting on using some of those funds to pay for your funeral expenses and immediate debt.

Furthermore, if the proceeds to your life insurance policy are added to your estate, that would only increase the value of your total estate. This could make your estate taxable. Check with your financial advisor as to the tax laws pertaining to estates in your particular location. Some states require that estates be taxed if the value is more than $1.5 million. Estate tax rates are upward to 48%, with California being one of the highest rates. Clearly, it is best to name specific heirs to receive the payout of your life insurance policy. To get more life insurance information visit http://www.equote.com/li/life-insurance.html.

How Life Insurance Can Help with Planning your Estate

There are a couple of ways in which buying a life insurance policy can help with estate planning. First, a life insurance policy will help reduce or eliminate gift and estate taxes. For example, if you have a large estate and own multiple properties you might decide to request a summer home in the Hamptons to your son. Whether the bequest is property or other non-liquid items such as artwork or jewelry, the recipient is required to pay a gift or estate tax on the item. By taking out a life insurance policy, the funds can be used to offset those taxes. That would make your gift to your son truly a gift since he could own it outright, without the worry of having to pay an unexpected sum for the inheritance. The funds could also cover the various administrative costs associated with estates.

The second use for life insurance in estate planning is for junior generations to protect against having inheritances, such as residences, from being dragged back into an estate after it has already been passed down via a Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT). QPRT’s are put together by a member of a family’s senior generation. The senior transfers a residence to the next generation. If the senior outlives the specified term of the QPRT then the residence eventually passes to the junior generation without any additional gift tax. However, if the grantor dies before the specified term, the residence is subject to being brought back into the estate. So, having the life insurance policy helps guard against that by enabling the junior generation to buy the residence outright should the grantor unexpectedly pass away.

There are many more ways in which life insurance can be used to solve issues associated with estate and gift taxes. It is best to consult a professional to help you determine which planning techniques are appropriate for your situation.

Life Insurance Facts

Life insurance guarantees payment of a given amount to the insured person’s beneficiaries when the policy owner dies.  While many people, especially younger people, don’t necessarily want to take the time to think about something as abstract as dying, this form of insurance is particularly important for parents or other persons with dependants.

The basic structure of most life insurance policies is relatively straight-forward: the policy owner pays a premium every month; upon the owner’s death, the insurer issues payment for the policy amount to the spouse, children, or another beneficiary named in the policy.  In practice, as with most forms of insurance, specific policies can be much more complicated than this fairly simple model.

For example, the life insurance policy might have riders, or additional clauses, that pay off in the event of a terminal or critical illness or a permanent disability due to physical or mental causes.  Also, there are different varieties of policies, including term life insurance, whole life coverage, universal coverage, and limited-pay policies.  Understanding the difference between the different types of coverage and picking the appropriate one for your situation can be difficult, and professional advice may be necessary to ensure the correct policy is in place.

Term Life Insurance covers the insured for a certain number of years, after which the coverage typically expires.  Because the policy does not build any cash value, and because it is typically based on a low likelihood of death for the covered person, term insurance premiums are usually relatively low.  However, the length of the term, the amount of coverage (and whether it stays constant or decreases over time), and the premium amount (again, fixed or adjustable over time), will all affect the premium amount.  The lower premium is a primary advantage of term life insurance; a drawback is that, at the end of the term, the still-living insured receives no benefit from the coverage.

Whole Life Insurance is permanent life insurance, which means the policyholder can withdraw money paid in or borrow against the cash value.  Whole life has the advantage of a fixed annual premium and guaranteed death benefits.  Premiums are much higher than term life policies at first but over the life of the policy the two policy types roughly even out in terms of total cost.  While whole life insurance does build value over time, it may not be as strong as other savings options in terms of the rate of returns.  Also, dividends are not guaranteed with whole life. 

Universal life insurance is similar to whole life, but it offers more flexibility in premiums and may offer stronger returns over time.  It also has a cash account and accrues interest. 

The variety of policies available is intimidating enough to many people.  With dozens of optional riders available and variations even within individual rider classes, competent professional help is definitely recommended when selecting life insurance.  It should be noted that the life insurance policies offered by many employers, while an attractive benefit, are typically not adequate to meet the needs of the insured’s family in the event of an untimely death.  The total amount of life insurance carried should be enough to pay off any mortgages, car payments, credit card debt, and any other major outstanding debt, leaving the survivors in a solid financial situation.
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How To Save Money On Your Car Insurance

Tip 1: Give the car insurance company all details that they require.  Details regarding your annual mileage, your car's safety features and installed equipment, zip code, marital status and your driving record would be needed to ascertain all the discounts you may qualify for. This will help the company give you the best quote possible. In the absence of these details, the insurance company will quote their highest price. This is just to cover themselves, so you can't wave it in their face later if it turns out you're not an optimum risk.

Tip 2: To cover your car according to your needs, you may get insurance quotes that could vary up to 300%, meaning if one company quotes £1000, another may quote £3000 for the same car and the same coverage. Just by comparing quotes from various companies, you could end up saving hundreds of bucks annually. Even your old car insurance company may be offering lower rates to new customers. You can negotiate the same deal for yourself.

Tip 3: If there's any way to reduce your annual mileage, do it. Most companies have discounts for cars that do less than 40 miles a day on an average. Traveling by train or flying for vacations can also help reduce miles on your car. This will cut a lot of precious dollars off your insurance quote.

Tip 4: Switching drivers could be a good option. A few more quid could be shaved off the insurance quote if a female driver drives a truck or a male driver drives a minivan. Teenage drivers need to be insured on a family car or a sedan instead of a sports car. Ultimately the insurance company looks at the risk of covering your car. The lesser the risk, the lesser is the car insurance quote.

Tip 5: Bump up you're 'excess'. In the UK you are at liberty to increase the amount you'll pay in the event of a claim before the insurance company stumps up. If the minimum they ask for is £100, but you volunteer £500, your premiums can be lower.

Tip 6: Get 'third party fire and theft' on older cars. Old Bessy is not worth getting 'fully comp' on. Three years of fully comprehensive may be worth more than the car itself!

Tip 7: Buy a mediocre car. A smart car is a thief magnet and is usually more powerful. Drivers are likely to drive more recklessly in a sports car. Some are expensive to repair. These factors cause the premium to be higher.

Do your research before you buy. Before you buy a new or used car, check into insurance costs. Premiums are based in part on the car's price, repair costs, its overall safety record, and the likelihood of it being stolen.
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Home Insurance And Selling Your Home

If you are selling your home, hopefully, you have considered hiring a real estate agent to help you with all the fine details. If not – get to work!

The process of choosing the right real estate agent can be just as difficult as it is important. Below are guidelines to follow when you start your search for the right real estate agent for you.

Look at insurance companies that specialize in real estate. Usually, these companies will be able to provide you with a list of their own real estate agents who are trained to the company’s specifications. Perhaps your current homeowner’s insurance company provides tools you need to sell your home; they may even have their own real estate agents from which you can choose. If not, they may be able to point you in the direction of a reputable insurance company or real estate agency that does.

Make sure the real estate agent you choose is trained or accredited. Most real estate agencies, or insurance companies that supply real estate agents, have specially trained their real estate agents, or have hired real estate agents who are in some way accredited. Look for special training or accreditation when choosing your real estate agent.

“Interview” the real estate agent. During the selling process, the real estate agent you eventually choose is going to handle a lot of things for you – many of which are better left handled by the real estate agent. However, there are certain factors you may want to know about, such as how the real estate agent plans to list your home and how the real estate agent plans to “show” your home. Make sure the real estate agent provides you with all the information you want to know.

In the end, choose a real estate agent you with whom you feel comfortable, whether the real estate agent is from an insurance company or real estate agency.

Cheap Life Insurance Policy

A Guide To What to Expect From Your Life Insurance Policy

The average life insurance policy isn’t hard to understand – you take out this kind of policy to basically get life insurance cover to protect your family. So, if you die unexpectedly, the insurer you are signed up with will pay out on the policy to give your next of kin a lump sum or an income according to the terms of your agreement. In most cases you will pay for your life insurance policy on a monthly basis for as long as the policy is in force – the payments here are usually referred to as premiums.

All this may simply be common sense but there are other things you need to know about a life insurance policy before you take one out. For a start, it is absolutely vital that you read the terms and conditions of any policy before you buy it as this is where you will find all the information that you need to know before you proceed. The terms and conditions will give you an exact idea of what your policy will cover you against and what it won’t.

The fact is that your life insurance policy may not give you fully comprehensive cover unless you ask for it and in some cases, you may need a special policy. The majority of policies will generally cover you against death by accident or illness but they will also take your past medical history into consideration before you’ll get coverage for everything. So, for example, if you have had an illness in the past then you may well find that your policy won’t cover you for death that relates to this illness. Don’t, however, be tempted to lie about your medical history just to get the cover you need – if you do die and your insurer discovers that you haven’t told them the truth then you’ll invalidate your policy and they won’t have to necessarily make the payment on the policy.

These particular clauses are generally known as exclusions. In most cases, the majority of insurers will have the same kind of general exclusions but not all will be exactly the same. So, there are some specialist insurance companies out there, for example, that will be able to give you cover for existing medical conditions in certain circumstances if you do have problems finding a standard insurer that will help you out. These specialist insurers, as you might imagine, may charge you a little extra for being more flexible but the extra cost is usually worth the peace of mind of knowing that you have fully comprehensive cover in place. And, if you shop around for a life insurance policy on the Internet to find the cheapest deal then it’s perfectly possible to get a really good deal even if you do have an existing medical condition or problem.
Get a free  insurance quote at http://www.auto-insurance-companies-free-quote.com.