Ideas, tips and news about life insurance and the uses of life insurance

According to a new joint project conducted by LIMRA (Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association) and LIDMA (Life Insurance Direct Marketing Association), sales through direct channels represented more than 20% of the life insurance policies sold and about 5% of the premium sold in 2008.

“For the first time, we have been able to quantify the amount of individual life insurance sold through direct channels, like the Internet, direct mail and telephone,” said Ron Neyer, senior analyst, LIMRA Distribution Research.

LIMRA and LIDMA researchers estimate that over 2 million individual life insurance policies sold in 2008 were purchased through direct channels.  In addition, direct response sales totaled $675 million in new premium in 2008.

The number of consumers who bought life insurance online has doubled since 2006.  Price, convenience and a good Web site were the top factors that influenced these consumers.  With advances in technology, researchers anticipate that more consumers – especially younger generations – will use direct channels to buy life insurance in the next 5 to 10 years.

Okay, you’ve done it again – as soon as the ball dropped in Times Square, you pulled out the pad and pen and wrote down your resolutions.  Hopefully they’re not the same ones you made last year, as that would indicate  less than successful outcomes of those resolutions.

I would like to suggest that, if you insist on making New Year’s resolutions again, make only one – qualify for lower life insurance premiums.  If you don’t succeed, you can admit to only failing at one resolution.  However, if you succeed, chances are you have made some changes and improvements in your life that would give you a year of well-deserved bragging rights.  This list of typical resolutions contains those life changes that would most probably lower your life insurance premiums:

1.  If you use tobacco products…quit.  Nothing will lower your premiums more than this action (you will probably have to wait a year or more to enjoy non-smoker rates, but it is worth the wait).

2.  Lose weight.  Not only will you enjoy lower premiums for weighing less, the potential residual effects (lower blood pressure and cholesterol) could favorably affect the premiums too.

3.  Exercise.  See #2.

4.  Get regular medical check-ups.  Early detection can prevent major health issues, which always raise your premiums and can often lead to being declined coverage.

5.  Drive more carefully.  Fewer traffic tickets and accidents result in lower premiums.

6.  Lower your stress levels by not sweating the small things.  In the end, they’re never worth it, are they?

These six are resolutions people often make so, by making only the one to lower your life insurance premiums, you’ve saved yourself some time.  If you do 1 through 6 above, not only will you (most probably) lower your life insurance premiums, you will have gained some bragging rights in 2010.  Good luck and Happy New Year.