Insurance Information|Finding the right insurance information
Apr
13
Filed Under (Insurance) by admin
Nail Ramp asked:
Whenever you think of opting for Life Insurance Policies, the general image or idea that flashes on your mind is that of a salesman trying to entice to purchase a policy under his company name. Now if you are a completely new customer and have no idea as to what kind of deal suits your need, you end up making the wrong policy. Life insurance is also used to pay death taxes and estate settlement costs, to shift wealth from one generation to another or to benefit selected charities.. Most people go in for a life insurance policy to ensure that upon his/her death, the beneficiary is financially secured. Life insurance policies are typically divided into two major types: term insurance and permanent insurance. From these two basic policies, the insurance industry has developed a number of products using the same essential principals. People on a general basis would consider a life insurance policy to have no time limits, which always isn’t the case. Lets discuss the two types of life insurance policies in detail.
Term Life Insurance: A term life insurance policy pays the beneficiary or the nominee the due amount only if the insured individual expires during the time/ tenure of the policy. No benefits are paid if the insured exists beyond the term of the policy and there is no investment or cash value feature inherent in this type of policy. For this reason, term insurance policies will carry the lowest premiums in the earlier years of the policy. However, as an individual gets older, term insurance gets more expensive. A major problem with term insurance is that with the expiry of the insurance policy, the insured would need to replace or renew the policy at a higher premium.
Permanent Life Insurance: A permanent life insurance policy, often referred to as whole life insurance, is intended to provide protection throughout the life of the insured. It is an alternative to term life insurance and the premium is a bit costlier too. This is done to maintain the premium level while the policy is in place. Moreover as the insured keeps getting older the mortality rates increases. A couple of permanent life insurance policies are the universal life insurance policy and variable life insurance policy. A universal life insurance policy provides flexibility for the insured by allowing the individual to select the premium they would like to pay. Variable life insurance is a policy in which the insured has the ability to direct the investments of the cash surrender value to achieve potentially higher returns than could otherwise be realized. If the investments perform well, the death benefit will increase.
Determining your need prior to choosing a policy is important. Insurance is basically done when you have young members in your family, there is one bread earner and insufficient savings to meet the demands of the survivors in case of a disaster. The type and amount of insurance which is being considered must also be predicated on the affordability of the premiums. A policy which is too expensive to carry may result in an early termination. The insured would then need to reapply, usually at higher costs, and potentially subject him or herself to a physical examination to determine overall health.
Going by the current premium values in the market the top 5 insurance companies would be ranked as
1) ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
2) Birla Sun Life Insurance
3) HDFC Standard Life Insurance
4) Life Insurance Corporate of India
5) Bharti-Axa Life India.
Life insurance is a very complex product and, yet, is essential for many individuals in order to protect their loved ones or meet the other needs for which it is being purchased.
Anita
Whenever you think of opting for Life Insurance Policies, the general image or idea that flashes on your mind is that of a salesman trying to entice to purchase a policy under his company name. Now if you are a completely new customer and have no idea as to what kind of deal suits your need, you end up making the wrong policy. Life insurance is also used to pay death taxes and estate settlement costs, to shift wealth from one generation to another or to benefit selected charities.. Most people go in for a life insurance policy to ensure that upon his/her death, the beneficiary is financially secured. Life insurance policies are typically divided into two major types: term insurance and permanent insurance. From these two basic policies, the insurance industry has developed a number of products using the same essential principals. People on a general basis would consider a life insurance policy to have no time limits, which always isn’t the case. Lets discuss the two types of life insurance policies in detail.
Term Life Insurance: A term life insurance policy pays the beneficiary or the nominee the due amount only if the insured individual expires during the time/ tenure of the policy. No benefits are paid if the insured exists beyond the term of the policy and there is no investment or cash value feature inherent in this type of policy. For this reason, term insurance policies will carry the lowest premiums in the earlier years of the policy. However, as an individual gets older, term insurance gets more expensive. A major problem with term insurance is that with the expiry of the insurance policy, the insured would need to replace or renew the policy at a higher premium.
Permanent Life Insurance: A permanent life insurance policy, often referred to as whole life insurance, is intended to provide protection throughout the life of the insured. It is an alternative to term life insurance and the premium is a bit costlier too. This is done to maintain the premium level while the policy is in place. Moreover as the insured keeps getting older the mortality rates increases. A couple of permanent life insurance policies are the universal life insurance policy and variable life insurance policy. A universal life insurance policy provides flexibility for the insured by allowing the individual to select the premium they would like to pay. Variable life insurance is a policy in which the insured has the ability to direct the investments of the cash surrender value to achieve potentially higher returns than could otherwise be realized. If the investments perform well, the death benefit will increase.
Determining your need prior to choosing a policy is important. Insurance is basically done when you have young members in your family, there is one bread earner and insufficient savings to meet the demands of the survivors in case of a disaster. The type and amount of insurance which is being considered must also be predicated on the affordability of the premiums. A policy which is too expensive to carry may result in an early termination. The insured would then need to reapply, usually at higher costs, and potentially subject him or herself to a physical examination to determine overall health.
Going by the current premium values in the market the top 5 insurance companies would be ranked as
1) ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
2) Birla Sun Life Insurance
3) HDFC Standard Life Insurance
4) Life Insurance Corporate of India
5) Bharti-Axa Life India.
Life insurance is a very complex product and, yet, is essential for many individuals in order to protect their loved ones or meet the other needs for which it is being purchased.
Anita
Comments Off
Mar
03
Filed Under (Insurance) by admin
Insure.com asked:
A relative has just died. He had a life insurance policy with you listed as the beneficiary. There’s just one problem: the life insurance policy is missing. You have no idea which insurance company wrote it.
If you find the missing life insurance policy in the future, are you still eligible to receive the death benefit?
Hope they paid their insurance bills
If you’re a beneficiary and you find the lost life insurance policy shortly after the insured dies (within six months to a year, for example), claiming the death benefit should be trouble-free.
First, determine if the insured had term or permanent life insurance. If the insured held a term policy, you’ll receive the death benefit if he died before the end of the policy term. If he died after the policy expiration date, you would get nothing.
If the insured had a permanent life policy, you’ll receive the money if the death occurred while the policy was “in force,” meaning all premium payments were made up until the time of death. If the death was a while ago, you’ll receive the benefit with interest from the date of death.
If the life insurance policy lapsed — meaning the insured stopped making premium payments before he died — there’s a chance you might get nothing. When a permanent life insurance policy lapses, most insurance companies switch its status from permanent insurance to one of two options:
“Extended term” — The insurance company uses the cash value of the policy to buy a term life insurance policy for the same death benefit using the cash value of the policy. The death benefit will continue for the longest period the cash value will purchase.
“Reduced paid up” — The insurance company will keep the policy in force permanently, but will reduce the death benefit.
Gerry Brogla, an actuary for State Farm, says in the majority of the cases at his company, the permanent policy continues as extended term if it lapses. At State Farm, extended term is the default option for most permanent policies.
If the policy lapses, and the extended-term period expires before the insured dies, the policy is worthless and the life insurance beneficiary will get nothing. If the insured dies before the extended-term period is up, the beneficiary will receive the death benefit. If the policy lapsed because the insured died (thus ending premium payments and causing the insurance to be placed in extended-term status), the beneficiary will still collect the full death benefit, regardless of when the extended term was up. The beneficiary always needs to supply the insurance company with a death certificate to verify the date of death.
There is no time limit during which a life insurance beneficiary must step forward to collect the money, according to Jack Dolan, spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers. “If a person shows up 30 years after [the insured's] death, the company still makes good on it,” Dolan assures.
What happens if no one ever reports the death?
If the insured dies and the insurance company does not learn of the death, the policy lapses. Insurance companies will take steps to find out why a policyholder stopped making payments.
When an insurance company stops getting payments, it sends letters to the insured informing him the policy may lapse as a result of unpaid premiums. If the letters go unanswered, the company might initiate a search to find the insured. If that comes up empty, the company will then lapse the policy.
If a beneficiary to a policy never steps forward, it unfortunately means the insured paid money to a policy throughout his life and his beneficiaries never see a penny. This is why its a good idea to make sure beneficiaries are aware of any life insurance policies you have.
If you’re lucky, the state may have your money
In some cases when a beneficiary fails to claim a death benefit for several years, the money is transferred to the state where the insurance policy was purchased under the escheat laws.
If a company knows an insured died and it cannot find the beneficiary, it must turn the full death benefit over to the state comptroller’s department within three to five years of the insured’s death. The money is transferred to the state where the insured bought the policy. The money is considered “unclaimed property” and gets lumped in with dormant bank accounts and uncollected rent deposits. The comptroller’s department maintains a database that lists the names and addresses of lost life insurance beneficiaries.
Many states will try to contact life insurance beneficiaries in an effort to pay the death benefits. In Texas, for example, the names and addresses of the beneficiaries are published annually in each county in the state. In New York, the Web site of the New York State Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds has an online search to find any unclaimed death benefits owed to you. You can find out the procedures in your state by contacting the office of your state comptroller or treasurer.
Keep in mind your chances of finding the policy with the state are slim. The insurance company has no obligation to hand the money over to the state if it’s unaware the insured died. In most cases, it’s the beneficiary who contacts the insurance company.
Also, the insurer only transfers the money to the state three to five years after it cannot find the beneficiary but knows the insured died. If the state doesn’t have the death benefit, it’s likely the insurer is still looking for the beneficiary or doesn’t know the policyholder has died.
Unclaimed death benefits are rarely transferred to the state. Dave Potter, a spokesman for Hartford Life, says less than 1 percent of his company’s death benefits go unclaimed.
Del Chance, a life insurance claims manager at State Farm, says, “Turning over life policy benefits to an individual state after the death of an insured is extremely rare. State Farm utilizes their own search techniques as well as outside vendors to locate lost beneficiaries in the event of the death of one of our insureds. By and large these procedures have always located the beneficiary.
Tips for making sure your life insurance beneficiaries get your death benefit:
1. Give your beneficiaries your policy information. It can be a difficult and awkward conversation, but an important one.
2. Keep all your financial records (especially your life insurance policies) in one place. Don’t force your beneficiaries to search your house from top to bottom after you die.
Tips for looking for lost life insurance policies:
1. Go through canceled checks or contact your relative’s bank for copies of old checks. Look for checks made out to insurance companies.
2. Ask those who may have known about your relative’s finances. Speak with the relative’s lawyer, banker or accountant. Also contact the relative’s insurance agent.
3. Contact your relative’s past employers. They might know of possible group life insurance. The insured might have also purchased supplemental life insurance through work.
4. Check the mail for a year. Premium bills and policy-status notices are usually sent annually.
5. Look at income tax returns for the past two years. Check for interest income from policies or expenses paid to life insurance companies.
6. Contact the Medical Information Bureau. If your relative bought life insurance fairly recently, there might be a trail of the companies to which he applied. The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) maintains a database that might show if insurers requested your relative’s medical information within the past seven years. Record searches can be requested through the MIB’s Policy Locator Service and cost $75. The MIB says that nearly 30 percent of searches turn up leads.
Holly
A relative has just died. He had a life insurance policy with you listed as the beneficiary. There’s just one problem: the life insurance policy is missing. You have no idea which insurance company wrote it.
If you find the missing life insurance policy in the future, are you still eligible to receive the death benefit?
Hope they paid their insurance bills
If you’re a beneficiary and you find the lost life insurance policy shortly after the insured dies (within six months to a year, for example), claiming the death benefit should be trouble-free.
First, determine if the insured had term or permanent life insurance. If the insured held a term policy, you’ll receive the death benefit if he died before the end of the policy term. If he died after the policy expiration date, you would get nothing.
If the insured had a permanent life policy, you’ll receive the money if the death occurred while the policy was “in force,” meaning all premium payments were made up until the time of death. If the death was a while ago, you’ll receive the benefit with interest from the date of death.
If the life insurance policy lapsed — meaning the insured stopped making premium payments before he died — there’s a chance you might get nothing. When a permanent life insurance policy lapses, most insurance companies switch its status from permanent insurance to one of two options:
“Extended term” — The insurance company uses the cash value of the policy to buy a term life insurance policy for the same death benefit using the cash value of the policy. The death benefit will continue for the longest period the cash value will purchase.
“Reduced paid up” — The insurance company will keep the policy in force permanently, but will reduce the death benefit.
Gerry Brogla, an actuary for State Farm, says in the majority of the cases at his company, the permanent policy continues as extended term if it lapses. At State Farm, extended term is the default option for most permanent policies.
If the policy lapses, and the extended-term period expires before the insured dies, the policy is worthless and the life insurance beneficiary will get nothing. If the insured dies before the extended-term period is up, the beneficiary will receive the death benefit. If the policy lapsed because the insured died (thus ending premium payments and causing the insurance to be placed in extended-term status), the beneficiary will still collect the full death benefit, regardless of when the extended term was up. The beneficiary always needs to supply the insurance company with a death certificate to verify the date of death.
There is no time limit during which a life insurance beneficiary must step forward to collect the money, according to Jack Dolan, spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers. “If a person shows up 30 years after [the insured's] death, the company still makes good on it,” Dolan assures.
What happens if no one ever reports the death?
If the insured dies and the insurance company does not learn of the death, the policy lapses. Insurance companies will take steps to find out why a policyholder stopped making payments.
When an insurance company stops getting payments, it sends letters to the insured informing him the policy may lapse as a result of unpaid premiums. If the letters go unanswered, the company might initiate a search to find the insured. If that comes up empty, the company will then lapse the policy.
If a beneficiary to a policy never steps forward, it unfortunately means the insured paid money to a policy throughout his life and his beneficiaries never see a penny. This is why its a good idea to make sure beneficiaries are aware of any life insurance policies you have.
If you’re lucky, the state may have your money
In some cases when a beneficiary fails to claim a death benefit for several years, the money is transferred to the state where the insurance policy was purchased under the escheat laws.
If a company knows an insured died and it cannot find the beneficiary, it must turn the full death benefit over to the state comptroller’s department within three to five years of the insured’s death. The money is transferred to the state where the insured bought the policy. The money is considered “unclaimed property” and gets lumped in with dormant bank accounts and uncollected rent deposits. The comptroller’s department maintains a database that lists the names and addresses of lost life insurance beneficiaries.
Many states will try to contact life insurance beneficiaries in an effort to pay the death benefits. In Texas, for example, the names and addresses of the beneficiaries are published annually in each county in the state. In New York, the Web site of the New York State Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds has an online search to find any unclaimed death benefits owed to you. You can find out the procedures in your state by contacting the office of your state comptroller or treasurer.
Keep in mind your chances of finding the policy with the state are slim. The insurance company has no obligation to hand the money over to the state if it’s unaware the insured died. In most cases, it’s the beneficiary who contacts the insurance company.
Also, the insurer only transfers the money to the state three to five years after it cannot find the beneficiary but knows the insured died. If the state doesn’t have the death benefit, it’s likely the insurer is still looking for the beneficiary or doesn’t know the policyholder has died.
Unclaimed death benefits are rarely transferred to the state. Dave Potter, a spokesman for Hartford Life, says less than 1 percent of his company’s death benefits go unclaimed.
Del Chance, a life insurance claims manager at State Farm, says, “Turning over life policy benefits to an individual state after the death of an insured is extremely rare. State Farm utilizes their own search techniques as well as outside vendors to locate lost beneficiaries in the event of the death of one of our insureds. By and large these procedures have always located the beneficiary.
Tips for making sure your life insurance beneficiaries get your death benefit:
1. Give your beneficiaries your policy information. It can be a difficult and awkward conversation, but an important one.
2. Keep all your financial records (especially your life insurance policies) in one place. Don’t force your beneficiaries to search your house from top to bottom after you die.
Tips for looking for lost life insurance policies:
1. Go through canceled checks or contact your relative’s bank for copies of old checks. Look for checks made out to insurance companies.
2. Ask those who may have known about your relative’s finances. Speak with the relative’s lawyer, banker or accountant. Also contact the relative’s insurance agent.
3. Contact your relative’s past employers. They might know of possible group life insurance. The insured might have also purchased supplemental life insurance through work.
4. Check the mail for a year. Premium bills and policy-status notices are usually sent annually.
5. Look at income tax returns for the past two years. Check for interest income from policies or expenses paid to life insurance companies.
6. Contact the Medical Information Bureau. If your relative bought life insurance fairly recently, there might be a trail of the companies to which he applied. The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) maintains a database that might show if insurers requested your relative’s medical information within the past seven years. Record searches can be requested through the MIB’s Policy Locator Service and cost $75. The MIB says that nearly 30 percent of searches turn up leads.
Holly
Comments Off
Feb
17
Filed Under (Insurance) by admin
Emeka Ezidiegwu asked:
The types of life insurance that are available can make selection difficult. With all of the different types of life insurance it is important to understand the benefits of each type before taking out a policy. When choosing what type of life insurance would be best for you and your family it’s important to understand how each type works.
Term Life Insurance: Term, or temporary, insurance is one type of life insurance. Term insurance covers the policy holder for a specified number of years, for a predetermined premium. This means that the policy holder knows how much their life insurance will cost, for the entire term of the insurance policy. Term insurance, unlike other types of life insurance, does not build any cash value. Also, most term life insurance provides death benefits only.
Whole Life Insurance: Whole life insurance is another of the different types of life insurance. It is considered permanent insurance. Permanent insurance is considered to remain in force until one of two things happens, the policy holder dies, and the insurance is paid, or the policy holder cancels the policy, either intentionally or by failing to pay the premium. The only way that the insurance company can cancel the policy is if they have evidence that the policy holder committed fraud when completing the application. Whole life coverage, like all permanent types of life insurance — builds cash value as you pay your premiums. This accumulated value can be accessed by withdrawing the money, borrowing against it, or surrendering it to the insurance company and receiving the surrender fee.
Different types of life insurance have different advantages and disadvantages: Whole life coverage offers a guaranteed dollar amount upon the death of the policy holder, a known cash value, predictable premiums, and the knowledge that the insurance company cannot cancel the policy as long as premiums are paid.
Term life insurance provides affordable coverage for many people. There are different types of life insurance available that offer term coverage. Annual renewable term coverage guarantees that the insurance company will renew the insurance policy each year, although the premium amount may change. Another specialized type of life insurance that is considered term insurance is mortgage insurance. The face value of mortgage insurance decreases each year. The purpose of mortgage insurance is to cover the cost of the household mortgage until it is paid off, if the main breadwinner dies.
While the different types of life insurance can seem confusing, there are a few basics that can make it easier to compare policies. If you are considering term life insurance, know the amount that the policy will pay off at death, the length of the coverage and the cost of the premium. If you are considering whole life insurance, know the cash value of the insurance and the return you can expect on the premium. In some cases, it makes sense to purchase a less expensive term policy and place the difference in a higher yielding investment, while for other people whole life insurance is the safer investment.
Heather
The types of life insurance that are available can make selection difficult. With all of the different types of life insurance it is important to understand the benefits of each type before taking out a policy. When choosing what type of life insurance would be best for you and your family it’s important to understand how each type works.
Term Life Insurance: Term, or temporary, insurance is one type of life insurance. Term insurance covers the policy holder for a specified number of years, for a predetermined premium. This means that the policy holder knows how much their life insurance will cost, for the entire term of the insurance policy. Term insurance, unlike other types of life insurance, does not build any cash value. Also, most term life insurance provides death benefits only.
Whole Life Insurance: Whole life insurance is another of the different types of life insurance. It is considered permanent insurance. Permanent insurance is considered to remain in force until one of two things happens, the policy holder dies, and the insurance is paid, or the policy holder cancels the policy, either intentionally or by failing to pay the premium. The only way that the insurance company can cancel the policy is if they have evidence that the policy holder committed fraud when completing the application. Whole life coverage, like all permanent types of life insurance — builds cash value as you pay your premiums. This accumulated value can be accessed by withdrawing the money, borrowing against it, or surrendering it to the insurance company and receiving the surrender fee.
Different types of life insurance have different advantages and disadvantages: Whole life coverage offers a guaranteed dollar amount upon the death of the policy holder, a known cash value, predictable premiums, and the knowledge that the insurance company cannot cancel the policy as long as premiums are paid.
Term life insurance provides affordable coverage for many people. There are different types of life insurance available that offer term coverage. Annual renewable term coverage guarantees that the insurance company will renew the insurance policy each year, although the premium amount may change. Another specialized type of life insurance that is considered term insurance is mortgage insurance. The face value of mortgage insurance decreases each year. The purpose of mortgage insurance is to cover the cost of the household mortgage until it is paid off, if the main breadwinner dies.
While the different types of life insurance can seem confusing, there are a few basics that can make it easier to compare policies. If you are considering term life insurance, know the amount that the policy will pay off at death, the length of the coverage and the cost of the premium. If you are considering whole life insurance, know the cash value of the insurance and the return you can expect on the premium. In some cases, it makes sense to purchase a less expensive term policy and place the difference in a higher yielding investment, while for other people whole life insurance is the safer investment.
Heather
Comments Off
Feb
13
Filed Under (Finance) by admin
Jim Thio asked:
Most aspects of capitalism is win-win. If employers make a lot of money from workers due to increase of workers productivity, those employers will hire as many workers as possible — increasing workers’ salary.
Hence, in most aspects of capitalism, people try to profit from others in any way they can.
However, not all aspects are win-win. If same shops sell the same product at a different price, of course, you’ll pick the cheaper package. In this case, picking a package that makes the shop profit more will tend to hurt you.
The same thing works for insurance. A good rule of thumb on whether an insurance package is good for you or not is whether the insurance program makes a lot of money doing it or not.
No, I am not advocating that such huge profit should be prohibited. To the opposite, when an insurance company makes a lot of money, then they’ll invite competitors that’ll shift their profit back to you. Free market is still the best in this area. I am advocating that you don’t buy such insurances.
The same way, I am not advocating that merchants shouldn’t make a lot of money selling their products to you. I am advocating that you should buy from the business providing the best product, and service, at the least costs. That’s how capitalism works.
The following are insurance programs where insurance companies make a lot of money. Hence, avoid these programs like plague.
Flight Insurance
The safest way to travel is by airplane. There is a statistic that says that if you travel by airplane every day for 1000 years, you’ll probably get a plane crash once. Even then, you’ll survive. However, plane incidents are always reported on TV. That causes fear. Humans act based on emotions and feel that flights are much less safe. Not only that, you also have life insurance covering your life.
Mortgage Life Insurance
I have found out that you’re better off buying term life insurance. Again, in general, insurances that are mixed with something else, like mortgage, or savings, are usually bad ideas. The more things are mixed, the more consumers are confused. The more confused the consumer, the more money insurance companies make.
Credit Card Lost Prevention Insurance
By law, your lost is limited to $50. So don’t buy.
Accidental Death Insurance
Stick to regular good old term insurance. The probability that you’ll die due to accident is lower than you think.
Rental Car Insurance
This is also another rip off. Insurance companies make too much from this. Chances are, it’s already covered with your regular car insurance. Think of it this way, you use your car for a whole year. If you rent a car for 1 day, then the probability that you will have a car accident within that 1 day should be around 1/365 of your regular car insurance. However, rental car insurance is sold at much higher price than that.
Children Insurance
“Mommy, our kids are dead, I am so sad. But fortunately, we got them insured. So we got cash.” There are only two ways why you should buy children insurance. First if your child is the bread earner of the family. Second if you plan to hack them into pieces. I’ll explain more why when we understand the true nature of insurance on http://FasterFinancialFreedom.com/art.390.0.html.
Identity Theft Insurance
The hassle of going through claiming the insurance coverage is better spent on checking your free credit report.
Insurance, Risk, and Investments
Every time you put $1 in an insurance, you’ll probably get $.50. The other $.50 goes to the insurance companies and to their seller. Most of the time, the ratio is even higher.
For example, say you buy term insurance for $1 million. Say you paid $2000/year for that kind of insurance. Then I bet, the insurance companies know all along that the probability you’re going to die that year is only 1%. Hence, the insurance companies make $2 for every $1 they pay in claims.
The more complicated the insurance, the larger the ratio. In permanent insurance, for example, insurance companies probably make $5 every $1 they pay.
You can’t win in insurance by buying more insurance. Your true gain doesn’t come from the higher expected value of your return. Your gain comes from increased stability of your business. Say you have a lot of houses that’s all in the bank. Say one of them is on fire. Then a $100,000 lost can cost you way more than $100,000. Perhaps it’ll force you to fire sale your other houses at cheap price. You see how financial instability can knock you out of business? Insurance addresses this.
Also, with insurance, your income from year to year becomes smooth. Women like stable income. IRS are more lenient towards stable income too. You’ll pay less tax if you earn $50,000 per year for 10 consecutive years than if you earn $100,000 per year for 8 years and lost $150,000 per year the next 2 years. The former case will put you on lower income tax bracket and relieve you from paying the tax on the extra $50,000/year that you’re going to lose.
So what are the tips?
Do not over Insure
Remember, the benefit of insurance is stabilizing your income. If you over insure, your income will be instable again because you’ll actually make more money if your house is on fire than if it stays in charge.
Now, some people love to over insure. The only time this can be profitable is if you plan to burn your house. This is illegal, however. Insurance companies understand that those who are over insured are less likely to guard his house well, observe fire codes, and so on. So, they charge much higher premiums.
Keep the Co-payment Threshold High
In many insurances, you pay the first $10,000. The insurance pay in addition to that cost. Say you wreck your car. Say the cost is $5,000. You pay for it. However, if the cost is $100,000, then you pay the $10,000 of the cost, and the insurance pays $90,000.
Why is the co-payment high? First, insurance claiming is not easy. There’s a lot of fraud going on and there’s a lot of administrative processes that need to be done. If the insurance company puts the administrative cost to the claimant, they’ll lose customers.
“Oh I lost my house, but I have to cough up even more money to get money from my insurance.” Only governments can do such cruelty and stay in business.
So what do insurance companies do? They put the administrative cost in the premium.
So the premium becomes high. After all, if your loss is small, why not just pay for it? Saving the lesser premium in investments will be more than enough to pay small losses without losing your financial stability.
It’s also never a good idea to file a claim for small losses. Filing such claims will make insurance companies mark you as a high risk. Hence, they’ll raise the premium even more.
Sell Life Insurance Policy
The problem with term life insurance is you receive it after you’re dead. Well, sometimes you can get your money before you die. That process is called viatical settlement. It’ll only work for those whho are terminally ill. So an investor pays a reduced version of the coverage. After you die, the investor gets the coverage from the insurance company.
Michael
Most aspects of capitalism is win-win. If employers make a lot of money from workers due to increase of workers productivity, those employers will hire as many workers as possible — increasing workers’ salary.
Hence, in most aspects of capitalism, people try to profit from others in any way they can.
However, not all aspects are win-win. If same shops sell the same product at a different price, of course, you’ll pick the cheaper package. In this case, picking a package that makes the shop profit more will tend to hurt you.
The same thing works for insurance. A good rule of thumb on whether an insurance package is good for you or not is whether the insurance program makes a lot of money doing it or not.
No, I am not advocating that such huge profit should be prohibited. To the opposite, when an insurance company makes a lot of money, then they’ll invite competitors that’ll shift their profit back to you. Free market is still the best in this area. I am advocating that you don’t buy such insurances.
The same way, I am not advocating that merchants shouldn’t make a lot of money selling their products to you. I am advocating that you should buy from the business providing the best product, and service, at the least costs. That’s how capitalism works.
The following are insurance programs where insurance companies make a lot of money. Hence, avoid these programs like plague.
Flight Insurance
The safest way to travel is by airplane. There is a statistic that says that if you travel by airplane every day for 1000 years, you’ll probably get a plane crash once. Even then, you’ll survive. However, plane incidents are always reported on TV. That causes fear. Humans act based on emotions and feel that flights are much less safe. Not only that, you also have life insurance covering your life.
Mortgage Life Insurance
I have found out that you’re better off buying term life insurance. Again, in general, insurances that are mixed with something else, like mortgage, or savings, are usually bad ideas. The more things are mixed, the more consumers are confused. The more confused the consumer, the more money insurance companies make.
Credit Card Lost Prevention Insurance
By law, your lost is limited to $50. So don’t buy.
Accidental Death Insurance
Stick to regular good old term insurance. The probability that you’ll die due to accident is lower than you think.
Rental Car Insurance
This is also another rip off. Insurance companies make too much from this. Chances are, it’s already covered with your regular car insurance. Think of it this way, you use your car for a whole year. If you rent a car for 1 day, then the probability that you will have a car accident within that 1 day should be around 1/365 of your regular car insurance. However, rental car insurance is sold at much higher price than that.
Children Insurance
“Mommy, our kids are dead, I am so sad. But fortunately, we got them insured. So we got cash.” There are only two ways why you should buy children insurance. First if your child is the bread earner of the family. Second if you plan to hack them into pieces. I’ll explain more why when we understand the true nature of insurance on http://FasterFinancialFreedom.com/art.390.0.html.
Identity Theft Insurance
The hassle of going through claiming the insurance coverage is better spent on checking your free credit report.
Insurance, Risk, and Investments
Every time you put $1 in an insurance, you’ll probably get $.50. The other $.50 goes to the insurance companies and to their seller. Most of the time, the ratio is even higher.
For example, say you buy term insurance for $1 million. Say you paid $2000/year for that kind of insurance. Then I bet, the insurance companies know all along that the probability you’re going to die that year is only 1%. Hence, the insurance companies make $2 for every $1 they pay in claims.
The more complicated the insurance, the larger the ratio. In permanent insurance, for example, insurance companies probably make $5 every $1 they pay.
You can’t win in insurance by buying more insurance. Your true gain doesn’t come from the higher expected value of your return. Your gain comes from increased stability of your business. Say you have a lot of houses that’s all in the bank. Say one of them is on fire. Then a $100,000 lost can cost you way more than $100,000. Perhaps it’ll force you to fire sale your other houses at cheap price. You see how financial instability can knock you out of business? Insurance addresses this.
Also, with insurance, your income from year to year becomes smooth. Women like stable income. IRS are more lenient towards stable income too. You’ll pay less tax if you earn $50,000 per year for 10 consecutive years than if you earn $100,000 per year for 8 years and lost $150,000 per year the next 2 years. The former case will put you on lower income tax bracket and relieve you from paying the tax on the extra $50,000/year that you’re going to lose.
So what are the tips?
Do not over Insure
Remember, the benefit of insurance is stabilizing your income. If you over insure, your income will be instable again because you’ll actually make more money if your house is on fire than if it stays in charge.
Now, some people love to over insure. The only time this can be profitable is if you plan to burn your house. This is illegal, however. Insurance companies understand that those who are over insured are less likely to guard his house well, observe fire codes, and so on. So, they charge much higher premiums.
Keep the Co-payment Threshold High
In many insurances, you pay the first $10,000. The insurance pay in addition to that cost. Say you wreck your car. Say the cost is $5,000. You pay for it. However, if the cost is $100,000, then you pay the $10,000 of the cost, and the insurance pays $90,000.
Why is the co-payment high? First, insurance claiming is not easy. There’s a lot of fraud going on and there’s a lot of administrative processes that need to be done. If the insurance company puts the administrative cost to the claimant, they’ll lose customers.
“Oh I lost my house, but I have to cough up even more money to get money from my insurance.” Only governments can do such cruelty and stay in business.
So what do insurance companies do? They put the administrative cost in the premium.
So the premium becomes high. After all, if your loss is small, why not just pay for it? Saving the lesser premium in investments will be more than enough to pay small losses without losing your financial stability.
It’s also never a good idea to file a claim for small losses. Filing such claims will make insurance companies mark you as a high risk. Hence, they’ll raise the premium even more.
Sell Life Insurance Policy
The problem with term life insurance is you receive it after you’re dead. Well, sometimes you can get your money before you die. That process is called viatical settlement. It’ll only work for those whho are terminally ill. So an investor pays a reduced version of the coverage. After you die, the investor gets the coverage from the insurance company.
Michael
Comments Off
