I was always taught that looking for the positive in every situation should be your only option. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, ‘Turn that frown upside-down!’
This sounds great but often it’s rather difficult to do, especially for me.

Nobody wants to ever think that they’re going to die. The ‘not-so-funny’ thing is, that’s the only thing we all have in common.

Hopefully though, it’s after you have lived a long healthy life. Regardless, it is important to make sure you get adequate life insurance to protect you and your family in case something happens to you. Or maybe you have just purchased a home and want it to be covered.

A lot of people that think the words ‘insurance’ and ‘devil’ are interchangeable, probably because they haven’t taken the time to even try and understand it.

When you go shopping for life insurance, two of the words you will hear often are permanent and term. These two words discuss two different types of life insurance policies. Permanent insurance is a life insurance policy that is designed to cover you for the rest of your life, as long as you continue to make your premium payments. Term insurance is a policy that covers you only for a certain number of years, and only as long as premium payments are made during that time. Today, we are going to discuss the strong point of term policies.

Estate planning is a tricky topic that almost no one, except estate planners, likes to talk about. But it is an important topic and, unfortunately, death is something that’s going to happen to all of us whether we talk about it or not, so it’s best to just face up to it and be prepared.

After retirement, most people want to kick back, relax and enjoy the good life that they worked so hard to get during their working years. Because retirement savings are fixed, and expenses are variable not to mention unpredictable since no one knows for sure what their life expectancy is, this means that many individuals work really hard to reduce post-retirement expenses.

We spend a lot of time on Twitter (follow us @inseducation). Naturally, since we like to talk about insurance, we tend to search for the word insurance on Twitter and check out what everyone is talking about day to day, and see if we can send links to any articles that might help encourage insurance education.

You may feel like a great weight has been lifted off your chest once you buy your life insurance policy, but there are still some things you should consider taking care of once the policy is purchased.

This week, after the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, many people were surprised to find that their travel insurance policies will not reimburse their trips because they were cancelled due to concerns of radiation contamination. Some are crying foul, but chances are if they read their travel insurance policy, they would find that these events – while unlikely to even occur – were included in a list of excluded incidents.

Financial planner Neal Frankle wrote a post this week on the blog Fivecentnickel.com, about how surprised he was to find while updating his financial plan, that he did not have enough life insurance coverage and actually needed to buy more.

Life insurance policies often have a value beyond their death benefit. Whole (or permanent) policies also accrue something called cash value. A policy’s cash value is the accumulation of premium that is paid over the policy’s cost of insurance. These cash reserves accrue and gain interest and can be borrowed against.

As if there isn’t enough to think about when you take out a life insurance policy, you also have to think about whom you are going to name as owner because you don’t have to be the owner of your policy, you simply have to be the insured.

Have you given up on all your lofty New Year’s resolutions yet? No? Well good on you! It’s hard, especially now around week three, to stay on track so we thought we would take this time to give you another couple of reasons to keep it going. Since most New Year’s resolutions seem to revolve around eating and drinking in moderation and exercising, we’ve decided to focus on those goals.

Insurance companies issue insurance policies filled with stipulations – stipulations that will void your policy if they are not met. Sometimes, individuals commit fraud thinking that they can lie to their insurers in order to avoid these stipulations, but this very dangerous game can result in huge losses for your family.

Lying to insurers is also known as Material Misrepresentation because it involves the misrepresentation of facts that are material to the issuance of your insurance policy.

How will the insurance company find out I lied?

While material misrepresentation can happen with any insurance policy, for the purposes of this article, let’s talk about it with regards to the purchase of a life insurance policy. When you apply for a life insurance policy, an underwriter looks at your application and many different types of supporting documents and tests in order to figure out whether or not you are accurately representing your health during the application process. In doing so, they will often find evidence of misrepresentation through a medication you’ve been prescribed, from reviewing your doctor’s records, or from the results of a paramedical exam.

If they do not catch the misrepresentation before the policy is issued, then when you pass away another examination can be done of your health before your claim is paid. So if you die 8 months after your policy is issued, and you die of a medical condition that would have taken longer than 8 months to manifest, the claims officer will review your medical information again, looking for any information that you left off your application.

What happens when they find out I lied?

If you are caught having lied to the insurance company and misrepresenting your health, your insurance claim – no matter what type of insurance we are talking about – will be declined. You (or your beneficiaries) will not get the money that you worked so hard to make sure was there. After the misrepresentation is discovered the insurance company will generally void your policy and return all your paid premiums. It will be as though you never had an insurance policy at all. Depending on the type of insurance you have, it is also possible that the insurance company might take legal action against you for attempted insurance fraud – a very serious crime.

What is the better option?

As with everything in life, it is always better to be honest. Even if it makes it more difficult to get a policy, or more expensive, or you have to accept a policy with aggressive conditions, honesty about your health or any other underwritten aspect of your policy is important because if ensures that you actually have a policy – you don’t just have a made-up policy that won’t come through when you actually need it.

So be honest about your situation and the insurance company’s risk and shop around for an insurance company that is willing to issue your insurance policy even after getting all the facts. You and your family will be grateful that you did.

When you take out a life insurance policy, you need to decide who will get the policy proceeds (or death benefit) when you pass away. Many people make the mistake of leaving the beneficiary elections blank, which means that their death benefit must go to their estate and, therefore, through probate – often a long process. When you name the beneficiary of your policy instead of leaving that choice blank, the death benefit can be paid out immediately allowing your heirs the immediate use of much-needed money.

If you have children or grandchildren, then you are probably concerned with making sure that you leave a legacy after your death. Whether you want that legacy to pay for the education of your descendants or to help them improve their quality of life, making sure that the assets you worked so hard for during life actually amount to a meaningful change in the lives of your heirs is likely a priority.

We all know how important life insurance is for your family. It not only pays your funeral expenses – taking that burden off your family – but it also replaces your income, pays off your family’s debt, pays for college funds and counseling, and can even supplement your spouse’s retirement plan contributions. But what about your business? How can a life insurance policy help your business after you or an important employee have passed on?

When you apply for a life insurance policy to protect your family and their assets after your death, your health and lifestyle will be scrutinized by life insurance underwriters in order for them to determine what kind of risk you will present to the insurance company once you are insured. It is this risk, and the resulting likelihood of death, that will determine whether or not your life insurance policy can be issued, whether the death benefit can be immediate or needs to be graded, and how much your premium will be.

Last week, we sent out a link on our Twitter account (Are you following us, @InsuranceHits? Please do, we look forward to talking with you!) to an article that noted that 74 percent of couples rarely, or even never, talk about life insurance. You can read the study results here.

If you’ve met with a financial planner lately, you may have been told to purchase a whole life insurance policy – the kind of policy that grows cash values. These types of policies can have a place in your retirement plan, but you need to be careful just how you utilize them. Here is a list of pros and cons to their use in your plan.

One of the biggest fears that life insurance customers have is that their insurance company will go bankrupt before they can pay out the death benefit they’ve promised. It makes sense to be afraid – life insurance policies can be issued and be in-force for 50 years before the death benefit needs to be paid out. And who can guarantee that an insurance company will still be in business then?

Understanding your current health and recent health history isn’t always enough for underwriters. Sometimes, they want to find out about your habits and personality also. They do this because the way that you act and react can play a part in how dangerous your day to day life is and how likely you are to suffer an untimely death because of your actions. One way that they determine this aspect of your risk is by pulling your motor vehicle report (MVR).

No matter how you look at it, there is no easy way to determine how much life insurance you need to carry. In reality, there is no wrong number; there are simply numbers that would pay off all your debt and keep your family comfortable and other numbers that might just pay for your burial and not give your family anything. But the amount of life insurance coverage you want to consider could depend on your stage in life.

Whole (or permanent) life insurance policies are more than meet the eye. Sure they offer a death benefit that caries through the rest of your life as long as you pay your premium and keep the policy in force, but more than that they offer an additional benefit of premiums accruing into something called cash values.

Universal life insurance might sound like a policy that covers more than just your life, but in reality, universal life insurance is simply a life insurance policy that offers a death benefit as well as the option for cash value accumulation. With universal life insurance, you have a varying premium that you can pay.

One of the most basic and popular types of life insurance policies available is the whole life insurance policy. Whole life insurance policies pay out a death benefit over your entire life, unlike term policies which only pay for a certain period of time. In addition, they accrue cash values.

Once you get your life insurance quote, there is just one thing standing between you and the issuance of a life insurance policy. And that thing is life insurance underwriting.

If you have been comparing life insurance rates then chances are good that you have looked at term life insurance. Term life insurance is a terrific product for people who:

1. Need a high dollar death benefit with a low dollar premium.
2. Need a temporarily high amount of life insurance death benefit.
3. Need a gradually decreasing amount of life insurance.
4. Need a simple, small burial policy.

One of the more popular forms of life insurance out there is variable life insurance. But why is this complex form of life insurance gaining such popularity, and how can it benefit your financial foundation?

Your life insurance policy doesn’t have to just cover you. In fact, you can simplify your life and budget by adding family coverage riders to your life insurance policy. These riders provide affordable coverage for your spouse and children.

There are many life insurance riders that can affect your premium. Some provide you with a return of your premium while others waive your premiums during a time of disability. These premium riders can be a real insurance policy saver and add additional values that many consumers love.

A life insurance policy is not as straight forward a product as you might think. In fact, you can build a life insurance policy that adds additional benefit beyond the death benefit paid upon death of the policy holder. These additional benefits come in the form of riders, which are additional contracts that can be tacked on to a life insurance policy.

Cheap life insurance is one of the primary goals of most consumers. From newlyweds to new grads, newly retired individuals to working professionals-no matter what stage of life you are in chances are good that you want cheap life insurance.

One of the most confusing aspects of shopping for life insurance lies in trying to understand all the terminology used in the industry. Agents tend to talk to clients as if they already understand terms like lapse, rider and cash value and consumers often don’t want to admit that they aren’t exactly sure what these terms mean. Following are some of the most commonly used terms in the industry to help make your search for life insurance a little bit easier.

If you can’t afford to buy life insurance there could be another way for you to get it-and that is through premium financing. In a premium financing arrangement, you are loaned the annual premium costs and the collateral on the loan is a stake in your life insurance death benefit proceeds.

If there is one extremely important asset that you have which is almost impossible to attach a dollar value to, it is your life. How do you determine what your life is worth to those who love you and would miss you after your death? Unfortunately, you can’t.

Life insurance policies can have many different types of value added aspects. They have the death benefit, the possibility of cash value accumulation, and accelerated benefit and other riders. But there’s one more benefit that life insurance policies offer, an asset that you can sell to another investor.

While children yearn to become adults, those who have already reached this exalted life stage understand the challenges it holds. Adults must find a balance between developing their career, raising children and sometimes looking after ageing parents. This level of constant clatter causes many adults to neglect their own financial affairs. In order to protect your financial future, you must begin thinking about setting financial goals-goals that include the purchase of life insurance.

When you are buying either term or whole life insurance you may be asked to go through a medical exam as part of the underwriting process. This is not necessary for most young people taking out small policies, but for applicants in their 40s and 50s who want more than $100,000 in coverage it is likely you will at least need a paramedical exam. A paramedical exam is usually completed at your home or office by a licensed medical professional hired by the insurance company.

Life insurance rates are determined by your health, gender, age, weight and smoking status. An extremely healthy non-smoker might qualify for a super cheap life insurance rating class like preferred plus but a smoker might only qualify for standard smoker. Of course, like anything there are a few exceptions.

Before you start off on your quest to buy a life insurance policy and begin searching for online quotes, you need to understand the difference between term insurance and permanent (or “whole life”) insurance. While the terminology may seem foreign to you now, the differences are actually very easy to understand.

Your life insurance death benefit proceeds have a very important responsibility: to replace the money you would have earned had you lived. It also has to provide certain guarantees to your family-the guarantee that your kids can go to college and the guarantee that your family isn’t going to be thrown out of the home they love. This is understandably an overwhelming thought and can make the purchase of a life insurance policy very intimidating. Here are 3 easy steps to help you start the process.

When you are in your early twenties, your life often revolves around climbing up the corporate ladder during the weekdays and partying on the weekends. During those years, when death seems like such a far away notion, the thought of life insurance coverage and comparing life insurance quotes is probably not in the forefront of your mind. Unfortunately, not buying life insurance while you are young means that you miss out on some of the best life insurance rates of your life and can jeopardize the financial security of your future family.