Life Insurance Settlement Scams

Families opt for a life insurance policy to provide security against calamities such as death, fire, or accidents. Such deals prove to be a safe way of protecting individuals by agreeing upon a certain amount prefixed by the insurer that would be paid in case of such unfortunate events. Insurance companies assist bereaved families by providing moral, financial, and emotional support. Life insurance is purchased by working employees, and by senior citizens too.

It is possible that a policyholder may not be able to pay the premium fixed due to financial constraints. In this case he would be forced to sell his policies to companies for cash back at a fixed percentage. Some companies may not offer the amount expected by a policyholder. Other companies may agree to pay face value of the policy. An application form has to be filled that includes the medical and policy information to dissolve such a policy and claim compensation.

At times, major companies that invest in buying policies at a lower rate than the purchase value may acquire large sums offered by insurance companies at the time of maturity. Various lenders or brokers, who bid for higher rates, may pay the customers only half the value acquired.

Companies that buy such life insurance settlement policies are major investors who fund many transactions every year for a considerable amount of profit. These policies are held as portfolio assets rather than selling them to outside investors. Such policies are purchased from holders who are in desperate need of money. People may tend to sell their policies to companies without knowing if the company is legally recognized or not.

A policyholder has to consider all such drawbacks and avoid selling them to fraudulent companies who may reap profits over such deals and disappear.

Hence, before selling a policy, individuals are advised to consult lawyers who guide these people. It may prevent them from scams. Selling a life insurance settlement involves a lot of trust in the company. Hence, people need to read the prospect of the companies before taking such a major decision.

Understanding Supplemental Group Term Life Insurance

What is Supplemental Group Term Life Insurance?

Supplemental group term life insurance is an added benefit if you are already covered under a group policy through your employer. Usually group coverage is not as comprehensive as you may desire as policies are written according to what would benefit the group as a whole. As an individual with a family of your own, you may have different needs that are not covered through a group plan. If you find yourself in this position, buying a supplemental term life policy would be a wise decision.

An employee is eligible for supplemental term life insurance if he or she performs all of their regular duties on a full-time basis (check with your employer as some companies consider "full-time" as 17.5 hours or more while other companies require you work the full 40 hour weeks). Again, you must already be covered under your company's basic group term life insurance policy. Spouses and dependent children are also eligible for coverage if you buy a policy of your own.

What are the Benefits to Adding a Supplement?

There are a couple of benefits to purchasing supplemental term life insurance. The first is a waiver of premium. If you become completely disabled prior to your 65th birthday, the insurance company will continue to keep your policy intact and active until you become 65 years old. The stipulation is that your disability must last for nine consecutive months before the benefit can begin. If your disability continues indefinitely, the insurance company will not collect any further payments of premium from you. An individual is considered "totally disabled" when that individual is unable to work at any occupation collecting wages because of injury or illness. You must also provide proof of continuing disability annually.

A second benefit to taking out a supplemental term life insurance policy is the Accelerated Living benefit. If an individual is diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only 12 months or less to live, that individual may apply for a percentage of their combined basic group and supplemental term life insurance policies. The percentage is usually paid in a lump sum. Check with your carrier, as the benefit is usually 50% of the active face value amounts or $50,000.00, whichever is less. While an employee and their spouse are eligible for the accelerated living benefits, children of the employee are not. In most cases, coverage is portable -- which means you can take your coverage with you if you retire, reduce your hours or change jobs.

The only exclusion is the standard waiver of benefit payment should the employee or their spouse/dependents commit suicide within the first two years that the policy came into effect. Check with your carrier as in some states this exclusion applies to both sane and insane individuals while some states only the sane.

How Age Affects Your Policy

While premiums for supplemental term life insurance are literally just a couple to a few dollars per month, the rates are affected by age. The premium is based on attained age and then increases at various steps. You would have to check with your carrier for their specific criteria. Age 70 is a defining milestone for supplemental term life insurance policies.

Beginning at age 70, your coverage is reduced to 65% of original certificate face value.

Beginning at age 75, you coverage is reduced to 45% of original certificate face value.

Beginning at age 80, your coverage is reduced to 30% of original certificate face value.

One thing to keep in mind is that spousal coverage terminates at age 70. If the premiums are current, your spouse may choose to convert their individual coverage to a term life insurance policy of their own. Your dependents may also choose to convert their policies after their dependent status expires. They can obtain term life insurance policies in the amount of $25,000.00 or $50,000.00.

Supplemental term life insurance is a wonderful benefit as you can give your family an additional benefit of up to $270,000.00.

Becoming an Insurance Agent

The Insurance sector has seen a major growth in the recent times, opportunities in this field seem endless with the increasing population. If you are looking to become an agent then, You need to be a good salesperson with an outgoing personality. By keeping yourself updated on any changes in the insurance industry you can refine and define your sales pitch.
For starters we live in an age of when mother earth is fighting back humans through endless hurricanes, rain at unexpected places, drought in traditionally evergreen areas. It has never been a better time to help people ensure their financial well being by responsibly insuring their life and property. By becoming an Insurance agent you are not only entering a lucrative profession but you are helping the under priviledged and less informed folks out there who are in need of some heavy selling of the benefits of insurance.

You can either enter this as a part time or become dedicated to this profession. You can obtain highly respected designation of Chartered Property or Casualty Underwriter after having considerable experience as an agent by taking intensive courses and examinations. It is a very prestigious title, which involves reading applications that are submitted by the agents to determine whether the agency should accept the risk presented by the client. Since this is a starter's edition we just dive back to the basics.

Who is an Insurance agent? - An insurance agent is a representative of an insurance company who sells insurance policies to third parties. They sell different types of insurance policies, for a single insurance company, in return for a commission. Depending on the type of work they perform they are paid a salary, a salary plus commission, or only commission. He is also called an insurance broker in some instances and may work with different companies depending on their area of expertise and coverage.

Some of the basic Job Responsibilities of an insurance agent

His / her job his is to find local doable customers to determine their needs and help them in getting insured.
Delivering the insurance policy to the respective customers upon approval and collect the premium amount; in return for which they get a certain amount of commission by the insurance company.
He may sell individual policies for home, life, car and medical insurance.
Negotiate the new terms with the insurance company.
Help the insured customers to get their insurance claim in case of any natural disaster occurs.

Things To Know About Insurance Companies

There are many different types of insurance and just as many choices in types of insurance companies. Whatever you may need to have insured can be covered by some type of policy and there are also companies that will tailor a policy for one time special events. Here are some other things you might need to know about the types of insurance.

Anyone who has ever borrowed money to buy an automobile knows about auto insurance. These policies provide coverage against liability, fire, theft, and collision, as well as certain medical coverages which apply in the event of an accident where either passengers in your car are injured or any people at the scene who may get injured.

Homeowners and renters can find a company to write coverage for liability, fire, theft and water damage to your homes. These policies offer different types of coverage and may even include protection from tornado and high winds. Roof and basement damage can be covered as well as certain claims for landscaping.

Business owners have the need to be protected against fire, theft and liability, as well as provide health care insurance for their employees. A business policy can also cover high risk and certain special events that might not fall under the conditions of their normal business insurance policy.

Many people are now taking out insurance policies on their pets. These policies may cover anything from vet visits to such horrible things as the pet being stolen. Check with a good insurance agent to find out more about how to cover your pets with some affordable insurance coverage.

Airplanes, motorcycles, boats, RVs and Traveling can also have insurance coverage at affordable prices. Insurance companies are in business to provide coverage for anything you wish to insure. Just check with a reputable insurance agent to find out what your options are and then select the policy that is best for your needs.

What Your Life Insurance Company Doesn't Want You to Know About Life Insurance Company Performance!

Does the investment performance of your life insurance company really matter? The answer is simple, yes and no.

The reason people ask this question is often because they are being told by that the life insurance company where they already have a policy or the life insurance company they are considering buying a policy from is not performing as well as the one the representative they are talking to is trying to get them to buy a life insurance policy from.

The truth is that if the life insurance company is a well established one such as Prudential, New York Life, Mass Mutual and any of 2,000 or more companies the names of which are familiar to everyone are performing just fine and passing the benefits along to their policyholders.

Think about it, these companies compete with one another just like their agents compete with each other. There are certain life insurance policies that one company has more experience providing that another and as a result is likely to have better results with them and pass those results along to its policy holders. There are certain types of professions and businesses they some life insurance companies are better at serving than their competitors, with perhaps better returns or lower premiums for their insureds.

But when you die they will all pay the claim and the differences in premiums and returns of investment will be quickly forgotten. It is the protection at the moment of death that you are buying the insurance for, not its investment potential remember.

Of course if the life insurance policy and its annual premiums are very large, the performance of the life insurance company can make a big difference in terms of return on the premiums paid, no doubt about it. Maybe so large in fact that the effective amount of money you are paying dramatically decrease and you can use the resulting savings to buy more life insurance.

No matter how much you already bought it was not enough to come close to replacing your economic life value and you know it.

In the old days when you were going to buy a car you would visit a dealership that sells a single kind of car, one with the features and benefits you were looking for. If you could not get together on the cost you would drive across town to another dealer of the same kind of car to haggle over the price - the features and benefits had already been established.

The second dealer would attempt to beat the first dealer's price or renegotiate the accessories in a way to get a compromise between features and cost. Now car dealers offer a wider range of brands, types, models, with an unlimited variety and combination of accessories. The decision making process did not get easier. In fact buying a new car or pickup becomes like a part time job, with people spending hours online after seeing the latest TV commercials, getting online quotes and bids, and then weekend after week end going from dealership to dealership.

Of all the questions they ask when looking for a new car or truck they would never think to ask about the performance of the car manufacturer. General Motors is in bankruptcy, or not and Ford Inc. is having incredible financial challenges with the failure of some of its ventures. But nothing any financial analyst or anybody is going to deter you from buying a new Ford S 150 if that's what you want.

The same is true of life insurance company performance. Among the established traditional life insurance companies there is a difference between their performance. Some have better investment portfolios, some are still working themselves out of past poor decisions, some specialize in more profitable markets, and some are more inclined than others to reward their stockholders more than their policy holders.

How can you sort this all out? How can you get to the bottom of the issue of life insurance company performance? How can you negotiate with an insurance company with hundreds of policy plans and accessories to offer? The simple answer is that you can't.

The best solution when it comes to life insurance, when you are concerned about a certain life insurance company's past present or future financial performance is to connect with a trusted life insurance professional, someone with the respect of a friend or fellow business owner whose opinions you value the most.

Talk to the recommended life insurance agent to find out if they have had experience working with other people like you - same job, same business, same industry, same profession as you. People you naturally identify with.

You might find that the best people to ask for the name of this highly trusted and respected life insurance professional are members of your peer group. Peer groups provide us all with access to the collective brains and experiences of people like us - people who have no financial stake in the advice and help they give you any more than you do it the advice and council you provide them.

3/16/10: White House Press Briefing

White House Press Briefings are conducted most weekdays from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the West Wing.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oepR5oPMIc4&hl=en

Life and Income Protection Insurance - Make Sure you are Covered!

Despite popular perceptions, people working in stress-related jobs do not have to pay higher premiums for their life insurance as there is no evidence to suggest that their life expectancy is affected by their job. However, in terms of income protection insurance those in high-stress jobs are more likely to pay loaded premiums, according to Kieran Platt, co-founder of Life Direct and an independent financial adviser.

Rather than stress levels, it is the exposure to danger that drives up life insurance premiums. For example, a soldier due to serve a tour of duty in Iran or Afghanistan will find that his or her premiums will significantly increase, or cover may be withdrawn altogether. Workers who are employed as electricians will not have loaded premiums unless they are constantly working at high altitude, such as repairing pylon cables. As far as the insurance industry is concerned, the loading of premiums is in direct relation to the risks involved to the individual performing that job and not to level of stress endured.

However, more surprising than the fact that stress-related jobs do not attract loaded life premiums is the news that so many people have no life insurance whatsoever. Research carried out by life insurance firm Bright Grey found that one in three families in the UK do not have any form of life insurance cover and even less have critical illness and income protection cover meaning that many families could be exposed to financial hardship in the event of an accident or death of a major earner. A prolonged illness or a major accident involving the prime earner could especially impact on a family's finances, and leave them unable to meet their commitments. Even though they may have critical illness cover the chances are they will not be covered for accidents or major illnesses that are not considered life-threatening. This risk is particularly relevant to those who are self-employed as prolonged illness could destroy their business and cause them serious financial hardship.

Even if you are not self-employed it is financially prudent to ensure that you have adequate life assurance or insurance, depending upon your circumstances. Remember though to always ensure you adequately compare life insurance, critical illness insurance and any other insurance policies that are relevant to your circumstances. It is always best to get the advice of an independent financial advisor (IFA), who can accurately assess your circumstances and ensure the products that you buy are relevant to you, and are not sold inappropriately. If you belong to the 33% of the UK population that have no life insurance, then you should seriously consider contacting an IFA now.