Whole life insurance has always been a way to build a foundation for tomorrow while ensuring what you most value today-your loved ones, your business, your new home - will still be financially protected in the event of the unexpected.

Traditionally, Whole Life insurance has required that you either pay premiums for the life of the policy - up to age 100 - or you can choose to compress your premiums over 10 years, 20 years, or to age 65. The disadvantage of the lifetime payment method is that you are saddled with paying premiums right through retirement. Yet the limited number of shorter-term payment plans may not fit your budget or timetable.

Custom Whole Life is the first Whole Life product that offers you the unique ability to set your own premium payment schedule. In fact, it allows you to pick the exact year you want your Whole Life policy to be "paid-up" - ending your premium payments.

Custom Whole Life allows you to:


-Pay all your Whole Life premiums in as little as five years.


-Pay-up your policy at any age you choose, up to age 75. For a 30-year-old, that means the premium payment period can be from 5 to 45 years.

Custom Whole Life is available for anyone from birth to age 70, and should the entire death benefit no longer be needed, the policy values may provide many uses - from supplemental retirement income to helping fund a child's college education. Keep in mind that even though your premiums end when you choose, your life insurance coverage continues for your lifetime.

Custom Whole Life is a next-generation product designed to give you greater choice, control and performance than other whole life policies.

When it comes to buying life insurance it is important that you purchase a policy that is suited to your needs and that of your family.

A policy will usually be bought through a broker or insurance agent and by purchasing this way, commission will normally be taken for your premium. This money is for the time that the broker will have spent finding you a suitable policy and for advising you on the type of insurance that is most suitable for you.

You are also able to buy an insurance policy through a financial advisor who will help you to select a policy while taking a set fee for doing so.

If you are in work and your employer has a scheme such as a group plan - which most big companies do have - then you can take your insurance through this, however this type of policy is for employees only and as such you would have to take separate insurance for the family if needed. The premiums taken for this type of insurance will normally be deducted from your wages and can often be considerably cheaper than taking your own cover.

If you take out a large loan, credit card or mortgage then sometimes lenders will offer life insurance alongside these to cover the repayments should you die.

If you are purchasing your cover independently then the best way you can make great savings is to buy online from a specialist broker. While doing it yourself sounds attractive as you can go online and make comparisons with several different companies quickly and easily by getting online quotes, taking specialist advice is the safest way of getting the protection you want.

In order for the broker to get the best idea of the most suitable quote you should have already worked out how much cover you require and also the type of cover that you need. The cost of the premium on life insurance does vary from company to company sometimes considerably and your broker will check with lots of different companies before suggesting a policy.

Do remember that you should always read the small print and exclusions within a policy and know what you are covered and are not covered for. It is also imperative that you be totally honest with the insurers. For example if you have an existing condition then you should make sure you tell them about it, otherwise you could be seen as misleading the company and as such the ones you leave behind will get nothing but a fight on their hands.

Most people, comfortable with their own sense of immortality, might look to a Life Insurance Company rating as an indication of the lowest premiums for x amount of Life Insurance. A bit more important is the Company's financial stability and its ability to pay its claims.

When you are shopping for Life Insurance and feel all proud of yourself for being responsible and taking care of the risk management portion of your long term financial planning process, it is easy to concentrate solely on the cost of premiums. After all, most people are expecting to lost their wager with the Insurance Company and are getting Insurance for the "what if" and not the "when."

Yet, although comparative premiums play a part in the Life Insurance Company rating, financial stability is a more important consideration. If an Insurance Agent offered you a million dollar term policy for a couple of cents a year, it might seem like a very, very good deal. Yet, if the Company has folded up shop and moved to Central America when your beneficiaries come looking for their payout, it was really a wasted couple of cents.

In the world of permanent Life Insurance and the combination of Life Insurance with savings and investment, financial stability and a good track record in selecting and managing your investment are the factors that constitute a good Insurance Company Rating. The ratings and evaluations of any single Company are subject to change during the life of your policy. The need to understand ratings and to follow them closely does not end when the policy is purchased.

There are several reputable Rating services and they present their ratings online, so it is easy to obtain them. In addition, the Insurance regulatory agencies of most States can provide additional information on Company performance. The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA) provides a Seal of Approval to Companies with ethical standards and a good performance records.

Remember, the Life Insurance Company Rating is a combination of a number of factors. These include competitive rate comparisons, but more important are the ratings that indicate long term financial stability and a good performance and investment track record. The ratings are tools that can be used to make the important choices involved in the selection of the best Company for your Insurance needs. Make sure you use them and do not be afraid to discuss them and their meaning with your Insurance Agent.

The left over years of anyone's existence must not be spent perturbing about meeting fiscal responsibilities or whether or not they can pay for the supplies such as accommodation, provisions, and medicine. But since the price of livelihood persists to outpace gains made in Social Security profits and with the complete prospect of this retirement program in solemn doubt, millions of Americans will go into retirement sentiment very uncomfortable about their future. Instead of wandering around the nation visiting friends and relatives while spoiling their grandchildren, a complete generation will pinch every penny and worry the rest of their lives away following a lifetime of hard work and forfeit. A senior life settlement might be the way for individual to utilize their life insurance policies to cherish the golden years that they have struggled so hard for all their lives.

Many individuals are astonished to know about the option of settling their life insurance policy to someone else in a title of senior settlement. A senior settlement or a life settlement moves the death profits of the original policy holder to the third person who has purchased the settlement. In exchange, they proffer certain profits to the main holder of insurance policy. In approximately all case, that sum proffered in a senior settlement will go beyond the sum that individual would get by withdrawing the insurance policy and getting the surrender cost which is normally equivalent to the premiums rewarded in over the years.

After the conclusion of the life settlement, the company that bought the life insurance policy will disburse the premiums. The actual policy holder has no more compulsion to the life insurance company nor the senior settlement company. Enjoying their lives after this will be very easy because they can simply take their money.
Not all the senior settlements are the same the profit percentage differs. Life settlement companies disburse a percentage on basis of your life expectation, if you are closer to retirement the percentage will be higher. Well, the formula differs with different life settlement companies. It is always suggested to shop around to find the ideal deal for you. You'll learn the variation in figures of different companies.

Initially senior settlements might sound a bit odd but this is the best way that proffers future retirees to relax themselves till their end without any worries. If you have been looking at retirement but are anxious that you may not have sufficient to weather the hesitation of the prospect, consider senior settlements as a likely solution to your anxiousness.

Is buying a life insurance policy on your list of important things to do? Well, it should be. Let me ask you a few questions here. Do you love your spouse? Do you love your kids? Do you love your parents? Are you a responsible person? Do you have any common sense? All right, enough already. You're probably thinking I'm a jerk about now am I right? Well, the truth hurts sometimes and if you answer "yes" to all these questions and don't have a life insurance policy, that I'd be forced to argue that point.

Just how important is life insurance to your loved ones? It's important enough that the expenses for your final arrangements will be passed on to all of these individuals, in that exact order, your spouse, your children, if they're of legal age, and then your parents, unless you have some type of insurance policy to take care of those final expenses. I know that this is true, not only because I'm a former life and health insurance agent, but also because I've experienced this personally. I have a great amount of respect and love for the individual that left their final expenses in the lap of my wife and I, and even though we ended up being repaid at a later time, it was certainly a shock to both of us then.

As the breadwinner of the household you should have enough life insurance to provide for your family until your youngest child graduates from college. This includes every bill that you currently have, every bill that you expect to have in the future and a reasonable amount tacked on top just in case anything else unexpected comes up. That's why they call it insurance, for those unexpected things.

At minimum your spouse or significant other should have burial coverage, and even more if they bring in any type of income into the household. Underage children should have burial insurance, unless you co-sign for a vehicle or something of that nature.

I highly recommend that as soon as you're finished reading this article that you hop on over to the nearest website and start getting life insurance quotes so you can take care of your family like a responsible individual is supposed to. Don't let your own negligence leave them with an unnecessary burden. Enough said.

Whole life insurance has been around for over 150 years. Universal life was introduced in the early 1980's. Universal Life offered the ability to increase or decrease the premium and death benefit and credited the cash values each year with a current interest rate. Variable life followed, which allowed policy owners to invest their cash values in equities. All three have their plusses and minuses.

Now there is a new kid on the block: Indexed Universal Life.

Here are the salient features:

1. Indexed Universal Life (IUL) is similar to Universal Life (UL); premiums and death benefits are flexible. You can increase or decrease premiums, or even stop them altogether. As your situation changes, you can decrease or increase (subject to insurability) the death benefit.

2. IUL is similar to Variable Life (VL) or Variable Universal Life (VUL) as the cash value is based on the increases of one or more stock indexes. The most common are the DJIA, NASDAQ 100 and the S & P 500.

Variable Life contracts allow direct investment in equities, much like a mutual fund. Indexed Universal Life policies do not invest directly in equities, so you do not have the same downside risk. The insurance company assumes all the risk.

If the index that you have chosen goes up over a given time frame (usually one year), your cash value goes up. However, if the index goes down, your cash value either stays the same or is credited with a minimum guaranteed interest rate, i.e. 2%.

3. How cool is that? If the market goes up, you get to participate in the growth. However, if the market goes down, your account doesn't go down; it stays the same. It gets even better. Any gains are locked in. They can never be taken away due to future decreases in the market. It's like walking up a flight of stairs. If the market goes up, you take a step up; if the market goes down, you stay where you are.

4. Indexed Universal Life has only been around for a few years. Only a few companies offer this contract. However, since 2000 the annual growth rate for this type of policy has been 24%.

When you speak with your life insurance agent about IUL, there are a few new terms you will need to understand:

1. Crediting Options

Crediting options are the math behind how the insurance company determines how much to credit your cash value at the end of each crediting period. The two most common are point to point and monthly average.

Point to point looks at the value of the stock index you chose at the beginning of each contract year and compares it to the value at the end of the point-to-point period. This is normally one year, but could be 2 or 5 years, depending on your contract choice.

Whatever happens in the interim doesn't matter. You could have a very high growth rate if the market and the corresponding index have a growth spurt during the last few months of the term. On the other hand, you could end up with a healthy loss if the index takes a dive during the latter part of your term with what to a regular investor would be a gain for the year.

The monthly average method takes a reading of the index each month. Then at the end of the year, adds them up and divides by twelve. This approach tends to smooth out the fluctuations.

Which one is better? It depends on your tolerance for risk and how the market performs during your policy's time frame. Since a life insurance policy is a long-term proposition, in the real world both should end up about the same over an extended period of time.

2. Participation Rate

Participation rate is the percentage of the increase in the index credited to your Indexed Universal Life policy each year. It could be, for example, 55%, 80%, 100% or 135%. Any given percentage rate is not necessarily better than another. It is simply the insurance company's way of factoring in their downside risk and is a component that allows you to negate a cash value decrease if the market goes down.

3. Cap Rate

The cap rate is the maximum rate of return the insurance company will credit to your policy each year. For example, if the cap rate is 12% and the index you chose went up 10%, your policy is credited with a 10% gain. However, if the index increased 15%, your policy is credited with 12%, the cap. Not all Indexed Universal Life contracts have a cap. Participation rates and cap rates work in conjunction with each other.

Indexed Universal Life is an exciting new approach. If you are looking for a rate of return that is higher than traditional whole life or universal life, but don't want the market risk of variable life, indexed universal life may be for you. The fact that the cash values are based on the performance of the equity market, coupled with the feature that prevents loses and locks in gains should be enough to warrant further exploration.

Shopping for life insurance quotes online lets you compare costs and coverage without ever leaving your home. If you're looking to save money by finding the best deal on term life insurance in Florida, then shopping online is a good place to start.

The Internet is a great place to find affordable insurance. Whether you're looking for life, health, auto, or homeowners insurance you can generally find some of the best prices online. By filling out one easy form you get quotes from multiple insurance companies. All you have to do is compare the quotes you get to find the best deal.

When you shop online for life insurance, there is no pressure to buy. The information is given to you onscreen or delivered to your email address. Once you get your insurance quotes, you have the time to check out all your options before deciding which policy is right for you.

On the other hand, when you go to an insurance agent, it can sometimes be hard to say no before you've had a chance to check out the competition's prices for term life insurance.

Term life insurance is simply life insurance for a set period of time. A term life insurance policy can be from 1 to 30 years in length, with 20 years being the most popular. One of the biggest benefits of term life insurance is it's lower initial cost. With term life insurance there is no cash value, you're just paying for the death benefit, which is the lump sum payment your beneficiaries will receive if you were to pass.

It recently occurred to me that I've been writing several articles about life insurance, individual, group, family, and so on, but I haven't taken the time to actually explain the basics of life insurance itself. I'm going to do that in this article.

Life insurance policies pay a death benefit, which is known as the "face value" to the beneficiary of the policy. The face value is nothing more than the amount of the policy. Example, a $100,000 life insurance policy would have a face value of $100,000, a $50,000 life insurance policy would have a face value of $50,000, etc. that's all there is to it.

Besides the insurance company, there are only three other people normally involved with any one life insurance policy. These three people are the owner, the insured and the beneficiary. Let's take a look at each one of these people.

The owner of the policy is the person who purchased the policy and is making the premium payments. The owner of the policy makes all of the decisions regarding the policy, including who is going to be insured and who the beneficiary is.

The insured person is exactly that, the person that the insurance was bought for. In the event that something happened to the person that is insured by the policy, a payment would be made to the beneficiary.

The beneficiary is the person that receives payment in the event that anything happens to the insured. There can be more than one beneficiary for each insurance policy. Example, let's say that one of your parents has a life insurance policy and they pass away suddenly. If you have brothers and sisters there is a good chance that your parents named all of you as beneficiaries of the policy.

Example, let's say that you have one brother and one sister and the policy was for $60,000 even. In this case, you would each receive $20,000. If you're an only child you'd receive it all.

There are only three basic types of life insurance. These are Whole Life, Endowment and Term. Although there are different variations of insurance policies, these are the three that you really need to focus on if you're considering getting a life insurance policy for yourself.