There are two main types of life insurance that are available to everyone; there is whole life insurance and term life insurance. Many people are unaware even of the existence of term life insurance, which is a shame because term life insurance is usually much cheaper than the whole life insurance equivalent. If you are a shrewd investor then term life insurance could be just the option you are looking for. It can work out thousands of dollars cheaper every year giving you that extra money to invest yourself. Insurance companies are normally very conservative when investing your money; some people like this while others prefer a more risky but greater return investment opportunity.

Cost.

The obvious advantage of taking a term life insurance policy over a whole life insurance policy is the cost. Often a term life insurance policy will cost you hundreds of dollars a year but a similar whole life insurance policy can cost as much as thousands. In fact, there are some term life insurance policies that will cover you to the value of $100,000 over a ten year term that cost less than ten dollars a month. Obviously, similar factors are taking into consideration when applying for term life insurance as they are when applying for whole life insurance; factors such as health, family history, lifestyle and age.

Flexibility.

Term life insurance offers you a greater level of flexibility over it’s whole life insurance counterpart. For less money you are able to take out short 10, 20 or 30 year plans and you are able to determine the exact level of cover that this offers. You may have a 4-year-old son and a partner who has opted to stay at home and look after him. Right now he is dependant on your earning money to feed, clothe and care for him but in twenty years he will have finished school, finished college and hopefully got himself a job. This means he is no longer your dependant and you may not need to make financial allowances for him in your life insurance. Alternatively, your mortgage may expire in ten years. You won’t need to pay to cover your mortgage once it has been fully paid up.

Investment.

A term life insurance policy costs you hundreds, even thousands, of dollars a year less than a whole life insurance policy. This means that you can invest your money yourself instead of relying on the insurance company to do so. Insurers are typically very conservative when investing your money, so by taking a term life insurance policy you are able to be a little less strict over the type of investment you choose affording you a greater potential to make more money.

Copyright 2005 Stacey Zimmerman

Stacey Zimmerman is the owner and webmaster of Free Insurance Quotes. His site offers free online insurance quotes for homeowners, auto, life, health, car and long term care insurance. Be sure to visit his site http://www.freeinsurancequotes.us for the latest articles, news and tips on all types of insurance.

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You may have noticed that life insurance is coming back into fashion. It’s true that it may not be the financial term on everybody’s lips, but sales of life insurance have been going up, according to the Association of British Insurers. Whilst we may not be saving the volume of funds that the financial institutes would like, we are at least flirting with the idea of becoming a little more protective with our finances.

If you have yet to consider taking out any life insurance, don’t worry -there’s plenty of information out there including consumer organisations such as which? and moneynet. Start with some simple, easy questions such as:

* Would my dependents need a lump sum, such as to pay off the mortgage?

* Will they need a replacement income?

* Should my partner and I both take out life insurance?

You need to ensure whatever life insurance cover you take out accommodates funeral expenses, an emergency fund to encompass household expenses in the short term, repayment of the mortgage, repayment of any other loans, inheritance tax, bequests in your will to people - in addition to your dependents, any other possible lump-sum expenses.

Life insurance broadly falls into two categories: term life insurance (protection only) and investment type. Term insurance is the cheapest type of life insurance and provides a pay-out if the person / policy holder dies within a selected period of years. If you survive beyond the given period of years, then no pay-out is given.

Investment insurance advises that you should choose a whole-of-life option which is a form of investment type policy. Whole-of-life insurance provides cover for as long as the policy holder lives. The policy must eventually pay out and therefore builds up an investment value which can be cashed in by surrendering the policy. However, it often takes many years for a surrender value to build up and in general, whole-of-life policies are expensive if your main requirement is protection, the same is true endowment policies. Endowment policies are investment insurance products which pay out upon the death of the policy holder and also if they survive.

If you’re considering term life insurance, bear in mind there are multiple variations encompassing increasing term insurance, increasable term insurance, decreasing term insurance, renewable term insurance, convertible term insurance, family income benefit insurance and pension linked term insurance.

Increasing term insurance

Increasing term insurance is just like basic term insurance, except that, as the name suggests, the level of cover increases - typically alongside the premiums. This policy is suitable for long-term insurance as increasing prices reduce the value of a fixed level of cover over policy period.

Increasable term insurance

Increasable term insurance provides the option of increasing the level of cover either at specific intervals (such as anniversary of policy start date) or specific events (such as marriage or birth of a child). Premiums increase for additional cover, but they are based on your health at the start of the policy, even if it has since deteriorated.

Decreasing term insurance

Decreasing term insurance reduces cover year on year, with the policy holder usually requiring the cover for loan repayments such as a mortgage or to cover a potential inheritance tax bill.

Renewable term insurance

Renewable term insurance gives the policy holder the option to extend the insurance term when it comes to an end; the premium paid is the same at the start of the term, in spite of any deterioration in the policy holder’s health.

This may be beneficial to parents whose children stay in full-time education longer than originally intended. Alternatively if someone cannot afford the cover for the period they want, they could take out cover for a short period and extend it later with slightly high premiums.

It might be a financial jungle out there, but it’s not impossible to navigate your way through to financial security.

Resources:

Life insurance consumer research

http://www.which.co.uk/

About Rachel:

Rachel writes for the personal finance blog Cashzilla.

http://www.cashzilla.co.uk

Rachel eats a lot of Green and Black’s chocolate, particularly Maya Gold -it’s delicious and fair-trade too.

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Quite often you feel that an ad for life insurance no medical exam is trying to rip you off. However, it is possible to get life insurance no medical exam when you shop online for your life insurance needs. It is only a click away on a computer, but you really do need to check to see if life insurance without having to visit a medical doctor applies to you.

You will have to complete the online application for life insurance answering a series of questions regarding your age, gender and the state of your health. Once the online agents assess the answers to the questions, they will determine whether or not you qualify for no exam medical life insurance. One thing is for certain and that is to get life insurance and no medical exam, you do need to be young and in prefect health.

When you find the perfect life insurance online where you do not need to have a medical exam, the process is quite simple. Once you receive a reply that your application has been accepted for life insurance, you can pay for it online using your credit card and print off your no medical exam life insurance policy. If you do not tell the truth regarding the state of your health, this will result in cancellation of your life insurance no medical exam.

When you shop for life insurance, you need to be an educated consumer. Even though you may be eligible for life insurance no medical exam, life insurance policies are either standard (permanent) or term (temporary). Basically, standard coverage remains in affect for the life of the insured. Term coverage expires after a set term of 5, 10, or 20 years (except for term to 100 insurance). Term life insurance is generally less expensive because death is not certain during the policy term. Generally no medical exam life insurance is term insurance. While there is no guarantee you will be accepted for life insurance without a medical exam, it is worth a try.

Not everyone qualifies for life insurance no medical exam.

For a website totally devoted to Life Insurance visit Peter’s Website Life Insurance Answers and find out about Life Insurance as well as Life Insurance Companies and more, including Online Life Insurance, Term Life Insurance and Life Insurance Agents.

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