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.

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.

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.

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?

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).

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.