What Is Whole Life Insurance And Is It Right For You?

Author: Dean Shainin

Before you can decide if whole life insurance is suitable for you, you will need to be well informed on the key aspects of whole insurance.

So, what is whole life insurance? Whole life insurance is so named because it's designed to stay in force throughout your life. In the first few years, when you're young, its cost will be low, so the bulk of the money goes to pay the agent and into an investment account. However, as you get older, the cost of insuring you increases, so less of your premium goes into the investment account. The money that goes into the account in the early years of your policy therefore grows. The cash value of your whole life policy is the amount you'd get if you decide to surrender it.

Whole life insurance policy's premiums are guaranteed throughout the life of the policy and so is your death benefit. However, the cash value of the policy will vary with the insurance company's investment performance. Normally, insurance companies invest the money that's building you cash value fairly conservatively. This enables them to try to keep up with the numbers you saw in a policy illustration. However, this also means that returns under perform other investments, such as stocks or equity mutual funds.

It can take some time to accrue any real cash value with whole life insurance. To get some notable cash value, you will need to keep going with it for about ten to twenty years. It can actually take closer to twenty years before the gain begins to look impressive. For this reason, you will need to be cautious with any insurance agent who tries to convince you to swap one whole life insurance policy for another so called ""better"" policy just a few years after you made your original purchase. You wouldn't have earned any cash value to speak of, and worse still, you may face high surrender charges for dropping the first whole life insurance policy. Some agents do this to keep their large commission checks coming in.

Here Are 4 Important Aspects To Consider With Whole Life Insurance Policies?

1. Commissions and expenses.

2. Cash value.

3. Dividends and interest.

4. The ability to adjust the death benefit.

4 Important Questions To Ask The Life Insurance Company

Before you commit to sign up for a whole life insurance policy, here are several questions you should ask an agent. These are just a few common questions to ask and some you may want to research yourself.

1. How much coverage do I need?

2. What type of insurance is best for me, whole life or term?

3. How can I get a discount on my life insurance policy?

4. What is your Standard & Poor's ratings?

Fast online Internet access and the many web sites available enable you to easily compare and get quotes from several whole life insurance companies in a single day. Be sure to be honest with the health questions that you answer to get an accurate quote. Take time to decide what is best for you and your family.

About the author: Dean Shainin offers free online life insurance quotes. For more information, articles, news, tools and valuable resources on life insurance, visit this site: http://life-insurance.deans-knowledgebase.com Get free valuable online tips for saving money from his:

Whole Life Insurance website.

Risk of foreclosure: It only takes one catastrophic illness

Author: Craig Stiff

Most Americans get health insurance from their employers and never review their policy to learn the details of their health insurance benefits, dictating which medical providers they can use, and what their out of pocket expenses will be. It usually takes a health problem for the employee or a member of their family to bring the details to light, and by then, it's usually too late.

According to Paul Zane Pilzer's book, The New Health Insurance Solution, the lack of Affordable health insurance , and rising health care costs now consume almost one-sixth of America's economy, and during ones lifetime, medical and health insurance costs are likely to be the largest or second largest expense after housing. That's if a person is lucky enough to have health insurance. However, even if one has health insurance, the traditional employer-sponsored plan is likely the number one threat to an employee's financial future.

This statement is supported by a recent article published in the Detroit News citing a dramatic increase in the number of home foreclosures. Below is an excerpt:

""The first and most obvious reason so many homeowners are missing their mortgage payments would seem to be unemployment. Michigan posted one of the highest annual unemployment rates in the nation last year, and it's expected to keep edging up in 2006. But while disappearing paychecks are a factor, so are the shrinking paychecks brought about by cuts in overtime or total hours worked, experts say. Divorce or prolonged illness often leads to foreclosures.""

""It's really three things: loss of income, reduction in income or substantial medical expenses,"" says Stuart Gold, a Southfield bankruptcy attorney as quoted in the Detroit News article.

Health Savings Accounts are an excellent way to offset the risks of bankruptcy due to catastrophic medical expenses and for individuals who remain relatively healthy and manage to accumulate funds in their HSAs, such accounts could be an important part of planning and saving for later-life health needs such as long-term care.

About the author: Author, Craig Stiff of Lifespring Health, writes on the benefits of Health Savings Accounts as an alternative to expensive Health Insurance Policies. More information can be found at http://www.LifespringHealth.com.

Do You Have Enough Jewelry Insurance?

Author: Denny Reinke

Jewelry insurance comes in many forms and varieties and only an insurance agent can provide accurate and specific advice. However, it helps to know enough about jewelry insurance to ask your agent the right questions and to be aware of how the process works. The time to ask your insurance agent the questions is before you insure an item, not when you need to file a claim. Read the fine print in your insurance contract to be sure it provides the coverage you expect.

Understanding jewelry insurance begins with recognizing the difference between scheduled and unscheduled property.

Unscheduled property (jewelry not specifically listed) is typically included in basic homeowner or renter's policies under blanket coverage. There is a usually a deductible (typically $500) and a maximum amount of coverage (typically $1500) although these amounts can vary with the specific policy. This type of coverage does not require an appraisal but sales receipts, written descriptions or photos are beneficial in proving the items existed and estimating their replacement value.

Scheduled property (jewelry specifically listed) is included in a floater, rider or endorsement to homeowner or renter's policies. Jewelry insurance is also available with a separate policy, from a company specializing in jewelry insurance. For scheduled property, the insurance appraisal is vital because it describes the jewelry item and provides the ""insured value"" that is used in determining the premium you will pay to insure the item each year. Most scheduled property policies do not have an automatic appreciation adjustment as is common for the house and other unscheduled property. Therefore, even if it might cost 50% more to replace an item in five years, the ""insured value"" is still only that stated in the appraisal.

If you file an insurance claim, the settlement process and amount paid will depend on the policy and in particular, if the policy allows replacement or agreed value settlement. For agreed value policies, the settlement amount is stated in the policy whereas replacement value allows the insurance company to replace your jewelry or make a cash settlement based on the insurance company's cost to replace your item. The insurance company's liability ceiling is set at the ""insured value"" on the appraisal.

Do you have enough jewelry insurance? The answer depends on what kind of policy you have, the ""insured value"" is on the appraisal, the settlement procedure is for your particular policy, and the accuracy of the information on your appraisal. If you have a jewelry item valued at more than the $1500, you should definitely consider scheduled as opposed to unscheduled coverage.

The critical issue for scheduled property coverage is the how accurate is the information on the appraisal. 1) If the information on the appraisal is vague and general, the insurance company can replace the item with an item that satisfies the description but perhaps is not the quality and true value of the lost item. Be sure your jewelry appraisal has a detailed and accurate description of the jewelry item.

2) If the appraisal value is artificially high, the insurance company can replace the item at their cost even though the client paid premiums for years on a value twice as much. This is often the case for purchases from a jewelry store with prices double other retailers and the store provides an insurance appraisal even higher than the purchase price. You do not need an appraised value more than 150% of the price you would pay at low priced online retailer.

3) If the appraisal value is too low, the insurance company can make cash settlement that might not cover the current replacement cost of the item. This could be the case for items purchased three or four years ago from a low price online retailer and the appraised value was at or below the purchase price. With diamond prices increasing about 10% a year recently, it does not take long for appraisal values to be out of date if too close to online retail purchase prices. Be sure to have your jewelry insurance appraisal updated every four or five years so you do not end up underinsured.

About the author: Denny Reinke is the Vice-President of Diamond Source of Virginia, an online diamond retailer specializing in loose diamonds, diamond rings and diamond jewelry located in Richmond, Virginia and on the web at www.DiamondSourceVA.com You can also visit Denny's blog at www.diamonds.blogs.com