Just think about if for a second – wouldn’t this be a greater act of love than rushing out at the last minute to buy a box of chocolate or flowers that cost 3 times as much as they did the day before?  Okay, I know you’re thinking this isn’t very romantic or sexy, but let’s break down the value of each gift.  Let’s say you paid $50 to $100 for those dozen roses.  How long are they going to last – a week, maybe two, at best?  Or maybe you spring for that $40 box of See’s candy – that’s gone in a week.

What if, on Valentine’s Day, you  handed her a new life insurance policy you took out on her life?  You can even include a handwritten note with it and tell her that, because you love her so much, you wanted to make sure that she (and the children, if any) would be able to continue in the lifestyle you worked so hard to create together, if something should happen to you.

While this is probably the most amazing gift you could give to her, it would probably have a greater effect if you were to include it with the chocolate and flowers and jewelry.  Nothing says I love you more than a box of chocolates, a dozen roses and a life insurance policy!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Part of the problem, I found, is in the terminology.  Insurance has a language not spoken by most folks and contains many specialized words that might as well be Martian to them.  In my experience, any subject can be learned by most people, but in order to do so, the specialized words of the subject need to be learned.  That is why we put together the Life Insurance Glossary on LifeInsure.com.  We know that an educated consumer makes the best decisions and purchasing life insurance is not a decision that should be made lightly.

I’m not suggesting that you become a life insurance expert..  However, I am suggesting that you learn enough of the language to understand the intricacies of a life insurance policy.  Our life insurance glossary is alphabet-tabbed to make searching for a word a simple process.  Find and clear most of the insurance terms on this website and you will be armed with ammunition to speak to a life insurance agent.

However, I must offer this disclaimer:  I am not responsible for the response you get at parties when you start showing off your knowledge about life insurance.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Lifetime Term Life Insurance?

I know, there really isn’t a product know by this name.  However, if it walks like a duck, etc., etc., it is a duck.  A Universal Life Insurance policy with lapse-protection is a policy that lasts a lifetime (until age 121, in most cases).  These policies won’t typically accumulate cash-value, like a whole life policy or universal life policy (without the lapse protection).  Even when the cash value dips to zero, something that would be cause for alarm in a standard universal life policy, the death benefit and premiums are still guaranteed (provided the premiums are paid in a timely fashion).  Let’s recap – guaranteed level premiums, guaranteed death benefit, no cash value – sounds like a term life insurance policy to me.

We quoted one of these policies for this gentleman and, if approved at the best health class, his premium would be $21,000 annually for a $1,000,000 death benefit.  Would this make sense for this gentleman?  If he could predict that he would die before age 88, the term policy would be the best choice, but being that he can’t, it would make sense to me for him to go with the policy that will pay the death benefit, regardless of how long he lives.

Term Life Insurance on a Universal Life Insurance Chassis

It seems that I’m not the only person with this idea.  Several life insurance companies have ditched their term policies and replaced them with, you guessed it, guaranteed universal life policies with fixed-year guarantees – 10, 20 and 30 years.  So now these universal life insurance policies are looking exactly like the term policies they replaced.  And, there’s no downside to the consumer.  These policies perform life a term policy and are even priced to be competitive with term policies from other companies.

For term life insurance quotes or universal life insurance quotes, click the “Start your Instant Quote” button at the top of this page.

I am offering a challenge to other life insurance Websites to allow consumers to check life insurance quotes online without submitting personal information (name, phone number or email address).  At the least, if this information is requested, the challenge to other Websites is to prominently display and disclose how the information will be used.  If the information is being sold as sales “leads” to life insurance companies or agents, the consumer has the right to know this upfront before they submit their personal information.
 
As the Internet continues to provide a convenient and streamlined method of selling products and services, the number of websites offering term life insurance quotes has exploded. Many of these companies do a great job of presenting quotes and selling insurance but, unfortunately for the consumer, many Websites have sprung up that only collect and sell the consumers’ information to multiple parties

As I can see it, there are four types of life insurance Websites:

• Life insurance company websites – used mostly for branding purposes, but some have quote request forms.  The companies will typically forward your information to their agents or brokers.

• Websites that have the appearance of consumer sites but are actually lead-generation websites.  Leads (your information) are sold to other agents and brokers, sometimes as many as 8 times.

• Sites where the visitor can get quotes from multiple companies, but must enter contact information (name, email address, phone number).  This information is usually only used to contact the consumer to sell the policy.

• Websites where the visitor can get quotes from multiple companies anonymously, by entering basic information (date of birth, state, height and weight, amount of insurance and length of term).  Personal information is only required if the consumer decides to apply for a policy.

  The last type is the most consumer-friendly and offers the most privacy of the various Website types.  I challenge the rest of the online life insurance community to offer quotes without requesting any personal information or, at a minimum, to let consumers know up front that their information will be shared.

I clicked the link on the email that said “Get Instant Quote” and was sent into the company’s website, where it boldly states that “Rates are Ready for you Right Away with no Wait.” I enter my zip code, as requested, and away we go.

I am greeted by a typical web form, asking me how much life insurance I want, for what term, date of birth, height and weight, tobacco use and gender – information that is needed in order to provide a life insurance quote. However, now comes the part when the “Instant” part of “Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes” begins to feel not quite so instant – the next part of the form asks for my name, address, home and work phone numbers, email address and what major illnesses I have had. Not only does entering this information extend the definition of “Instant,”personal contact information is not needed for an instant quote. Why are they asking me for all this information? More on that later.

Okay, I finally finish entering my personal information and click “Get Instant Quotes Now.”. I’m ready to see my quotes and voila…wait, what’s this? These aren’t instant quotes – this is a page with advertisements for other online life insurance agencies, some nationally known and a few I haven’t heard of. I click on one of the nationally known companies, thinking that now I am going to view my quotes offered by this reputable company. After all, the button says “Get Quotes.” wait…there’s another form to fill out, similar to the one I filled out originally. Where are my Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes? I was told they would be instant!  Okay, so I complete another form and finally get my quotes.

Maybe one of the other nationally-known companies will give me an instant quote too, so I click on their button and yet another form pops up.  I fill it out (4 pages worth) and now, I would think, with all the information I just entered, I would get my instant quotes.  No such luck – I am now looking at a page with more advertisements for yet more life insurance agencies.  I can click on any one of the buttons and be taken into another form, but I can’t take it anymore.  I was only doing a test and I am ready to throw my laptop against the wall.  This was an extremely frustrating experience.  What if I was a real consumer looking for Instant Term Life Insurance Quotes?  Would I have stuck around long enough to get quotes?  Probably not.

Now, what happens to the contact information you provide on one of these types of websites?  It is sold to other life insurance agencies (sometimes as many as eight of them) so they can call and email you to try to earn your business.  And, if you completed other forms that popped up during this frustrating process, another company would be selling your information to yet more agencies.  Did you know this was going to happen when you clicked “Get Instant Quotes?”  I would venture to guess that the answer is no.  How would you know?  After all, nowhere on this website did it say your information was going to be sold.

I’m glad I went through this exercise.  I knew how these types of websites operate but had no idea how frustrating a process this can be for a consumer.  The good news is there are websites that give instant life insurance quotes online.  Even better yet, there are a few (LifeInsure.com included) that don’t ask for your personal information in order to give you a quote.

Save yourself a lot of hassle and get a real Instant Life Insurance Quote at LifeInsure.com.

Many people have “get my financial house in order” as a general resolution.  However, what does this mean?

• Unless you’re the Federal Government, this would include getting your budget in order so that your expenditures are less than your income (sorry, I couldn’t help the easy dig).
• If you have an IRA or other retirement plan, it’s always a good idea to review your investment mix and modify it, if necessary.
• The end of the calendar year is a good time to start pulling together the financial records you will need to file your tax returns (actually, it’s a good idea to look at it before the New Year so you can take any last minute deductions available to you.
• Time to review your insurance policies, including home, auto, health, disability and life insurance.  Is your coverage for each adequate or too much or not enough?  Regarding life insurance, if you have had a change in income or significant life changes (marriage, new child, changes in employment) you might want to review your policy with your agent to see if any changes are necessary.

If your insurance agent offers to review your policies, take him/her up on it.  We recommend doing this annually and what better time to do it than when you’re making your resolutions?

A life insurance policy with you as the insured person might just be the best gift your family ever received.  Hopefully, if it’s a term policy, it’s a gift that will never be used.  Quite unlike the tie you will never wear, this will be a gift everybody will be glad it wasn’t used,

Okay, so I’m being a bit facetious here.  I, myself, would never give this gift to my family for Christmas (and I’m in the business), but if you have a family, this should be the gift you purchase (without putting it under the tree before you buy all the toys that will be forgotten in a few months or the clothes that won’t fit your kids within a year or the blender you thought, for sure, your wife would really love as a Christmas present.

Making sure your family, upon your death. would be able to maintain the lifestyle you have provided for them for many years to come, might just be the most selfless Christmas gift you can buy.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy New Year.

Have you ever considered what your free time’s worth?  I usually do when my wife wants me to drive a long way to go to some store that’s having an “amazing sale.”  After driving an hour out of my way and waiting in line for a half hour, I usually conclude that, when I factor in the cost of my free time, the savings were hardly worth it.

I consider that what I normally earn in an hour is also the cost of my idle time.  If I am worth $25 or $50 or a thousand dollars an hour (I wish) at work, that’s what my free time is worth to me.   Unfortunately, my wife disagrees with this concept and usually wins the argument and so, off to sales we go.

However, if you don’t take my wife’s side of this argument and do agree with me, I have some advice for you when it comes to shopping for a new life insurance policy.  You can save a lot of time (and money, per my theory) if you follow this advice – find a website that provides life insurance quotes from multiple insurance companies.  Also, make sure the website doesn’t ask for your contact information prior to showing you quotes.  More on that later.

Don’t be fooled by the websites offering life insurance quotes that are nothing more than lead generation sites for life insurance agents and brokers.  What happens on these sites is you fill in your information and several choices pop up.  However, most of what’s being displayed are other life insurance websites.  So you’ve just spent this time on this site only to be directed to other sites.  When you click over to these sites, you will be asked to fill in your information again in order to get quotes.  Not only did you just waste your (valuable) time, but now multiple web sites have your personal information.  Aside from the value of your time we’re discussing here, do you really want your information spread over multiple websites?

Another similar type of lead generation website is one in which they gather your information, don’t show you quotes, but rather sell your information to multiple brokers and agents who will call you and try to sell you a policy.  How much of your precious time will be spent speaking to (or avoiding) these phone calls and emails?

I shop on the Internet for the convenience and, contrary to my wife’s opinion, I value what my time is worth.  I do most of my shopping online because it is fast and relatively simple and I can find and purchase what I want in a short period of time.  If I want to buy a new computer, for example, I don’t want to go to a computer website that will recommend me to other sites (Amazon.com is an exception to this because, even though I might be purchasing from a vendor that isn’t Amazon, they process and guarantee the transaction).  I want to go to a site that shows me all the computers within my price range with the features I am looking for.  Once I find one, I can read up on it and make my purchase on the spot.   This way, I save not only on the price but, if you factor the value of my time into it, the savings are even greater.

There are several excellent life insurance websites, LifeInsure.com being one of them, that will show you quotes from life insurance companies without needing your contact information.  You can then apply for the policy without having to go to one or more additional websites. The price of the policy will be the same no matter who you purchase from but, with this type of website, you will be saving a significant amount of time.

Yesterday, once again I was reminded of why I choose to sell life insurance.  We received a call from one of our client’s beneficiaries that our client passed away.  She was inquiring about how to file a claim.  It is never an easy conversation for me, but knowing that the life insurance policy my client purchased from me is going to provide for his family for many years to come helps me get through the call.

In this profession, it’s not difficult to get into the daily minutiae involved in selling life insurance policies – from completing a mind-numbing amount of paperwork to working with sometimes-stubborn underwriters, etc.  On some days, one can get so wrapped up in these details that one can lose sight of why we do it.

Speaking to my recently-deceased client’s wife and helping her navigate through the claims process, I remembered (again) why I sell life insurance.  Sure, I earn a good living and I get to speak with a lot of interesting people from all over the country.  However, it is knowing that I am helping my clients to financially protect their families’ futures that makes this a great a great occupation. 

• Policy – The written statement of the agreement between insurer and insured (or policy owner, if other than the insured), including all endorsements and attached papers, which constitutes the entire contract of insurance.  See contract and insurance policy.

• Death Benefit – In life insurance, the face amount, as stated in the policy, to be paid upon proof of death of the insured.

• Beneficiary – The person (or entity) to whom the proceeds of a life insurance policy are payable when the insured dies.  There are various types of beneficiaries (see primary, contingent or secondary and tertiary beneficiaries).

• Term Life Insurance – Life insurance issued for a term of years, normally building up no cash value and expiring without value.  Typical term periods are 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years.

• Permanent Life Insurance – A term loosely applied to cash value life insurance.  This type of policy is meant to last a whole life, as opposed to term, which is in force for a specified period of time or term.

• Whole Life Insurance – A plan of insurance offering protection for the whole of life, proceeds being payable at death.  Premiums may be paid under a continuous premium arrangement or on a limited payment basis for virtually any desired period of years.

• Cash Value - In a life insurance policy, the amount available to the owner when a policy is surrendered to the company.  During the early policy years, the cash value is the reserve less a surrender charge.  in the later policy years, the cash surrender value usually equals or closely approximates the reserve value.

• Underwriting - The process of selecting risks and classifying them according to their degrees of insurability so that the appropriate rates may be assigned.  The process includes rejection of risks.

I pulled these few out of the Glossary, as I thought these would be a good place to start.  Visit the glossary when you get a chance and look up the definitions for any of the words that might have tripped you up previously.