Saving Money on Life Insurance is Easy

New no-hassle, no-pressure system to find affordable insurance.

Too many people are underinsured because they fear life insurance is excessively expensive. Let’s be honest – whole life insurance and universal life insurance can be expensive. They may not be the best options for individuals of limited means, or for families with growing children.

That’s why I recommend term life insurance to clients in those situations. Term life insurance is the most affordable alternative. It offers the best of both worlds – security knowing that your family is provided for in case of your death, and affordable cost so your family doesn’t suffer now.

Term life insurance offers benefits only if you pass away during a specific period of time. While you are young and healthy, it is the most affordable type of insurance. In case the unimaginable happens – a fatal accident, a sudden heart attack, a terminal illness – your family is protected.

Life insurance provides the cash for your spouse to pay off the mortgage, and your children to go to college – even if you’re not there. Providing enough life insurance means your spouse can pay immediate expenses and still have a financial cushion to rely on, instead of barely scraping by on one salary.

Finding affordable term life insurance can be a hassle – but it doesn’t have to be.

Some factors that you will want to consider when purchasing term life insurance include:

· Rating of the insurance company

· Price of the term life policy

· Length of coverage

· Right amount of death benefit

· Rider options

Many people are understandably intimidated by the process of finding affordable term life insurance. Who can blame them? It’s annoyingand time consuming to research a number of insurance companies, get quotes from all of them, compare company rankings and compare price and coverage.

In addition, many consumers fear that if they contact a dozen companies, they will have a dozen insurance salespeople hassling them. The sad part is…they’re right. Most insurance salespeople continue to annoy you by constant calling, emails and messages.

Getting quotes online usually doesn’t help. That’s because 99 percent of the websites out there don’t provide online quotes. They take your contact information, and sell it to various insurance sales people. Suddenly, you’ve got a dozen pushy salespeople calling you constantly – and you’re not any closer to finding affordable term life insurance.

The solution is TERMdog.com. Because finding affordable life insurance doesn’t have to be ruff. At TERMdog.com, we’ll search the top insurance companies for you and send you the best prices from the best companies to fit your needs – online. It’s free, it’s confidential and we will never sell your contact information.

Best of all, you have my personal guarantee that we will never hassle you. Using TERMdog.com to find affordable life insurance is quick, easy and painless.

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What is Term Life Insurance?

The definition of insurance is to shift the economic risk of an occurrence to another party. Auto insurance shifts the risk associated with a car accident. Homeowner’s insurance shifts the risk associated with a fire, hurricane, flood or other home-related catastrophe. Life insurance shifts the risk of the financial devastation left by a person’s death.

In What is the Best Life Insurance Policy?, we briefly discuss the different types of life insurance: whole life insurance, universal life insurance, variable life insurance and term life insurance. Now, let’s look specifically at the advantages and disadvantages of term life insurance.

Term life insurance is the purest form of life insurance. Here’s the deal… if you die during the policy coverage period (or “term”), the insurance company will send a check for the contractually agreed upon death benefit to your beneficiaries. If you don’t die during this period, typically you receive no benefit (we’ll discuss an exception later). That’s it. It’s pretty simple.

However, there are different types of term life insurance (just to complicate things!). There is ten year term, twenty year term, thirty year term, annual renewable term, decreasing term and return of premium term life insurance. We’ll look at each type, but first let’s discuss how a premium is calculated.

Insurance companies use very bright people called actuaries to calculate the amount of premiums that must be charged so the insurance company can pay death claims and still make a profit. The actuary does this by using an enormous amount of data and statistical probabilities. If the insurance company knows the statistical probability of, for example, a 40-year-old healthy female dying in the next 10 years (and it is a very small probability), they can calculate a premium to meet their goals. Common sense would tell you that the probability of a 50-year-old dying would be higher than that of a 40-year-old, so logically, the premium would be higher for the older person wanting the same amount of insurance.

Ten, twenty and thirty year term life insurance policies are called “level term” policies because the annual premium is the same for the entire period of coverage. You can purchase a tremendous amount of insurance for very little premium if you are young and in good health. This works well for a young couple with small children where the death of either spouse would leave the surviving spouse with a stressful and difficult financial situation.

Annual renewable term life insurance is basically a “one year at a time” policy where the premium increases for each year of coverage. This is usually used for a short-term need (1 to 5 years) such as collateral for a loan. Usually, the policy allows for coverage to age 80 or 85, but the annual cost becomes prohibitive as you age.

Decreasing term life insurance is typically sold as “mortgage protection” insurance or with some other emotional marketing pitch. The death benefit decreases annually to coincide with your decreasing mortgage balance (that is, if you have an amortized loan). There is nothing wrong with this type of product, but typically a good agent will discuss the overall coverage needs of the family, rather than just a policy to pay off a certain item.

As stated earlier, there is typically no benefit paid for term life insurance unless you die within the term period. There is one exception to this rule, however. Many companies now offer “return of premium” term life insurance. This means that if you don’t die during the coverage period, the insurance company will refund all of your premiums at the end of the term. Obviously, this type of policy will cost more than a traditional term life insurance policy. But if the idea of paying premiums with little probability of a benefit bothers you, this might be an option.

Many agents will tell you that permanent life insurance policies are the only type to buy. However, there are many factors that come into play in determining what type of policy is best for you. If getting the most coverage for the least amount of dollars for a certain period of time is your goal, term life insurance is probably the way to go.

Use our free online quote to find out how much life insurance will cost you and let TERMdog’s professional insurance advisors help you choose the right insurance policy for your needs.

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How Do I Choose an Insurance Company?

While many of my customers are concerned about the cost of life insurance, not everyone realizes the vast differences in individual life insurance companies.

Have you considered the financial strength of the life insurance company you plan to do business with?

What about their customer service?

Or their ability to answer any questions you may have about life insurance and your personal insurance needs?

If you purchased your life insurance policy through an Internet term life insurance quoting machine, or if you didn’t consider all of the factors involved when a life insurance company sets your premium, you may not have the right life insurance policy to meet your needs. But with some planning, you may be able to improve the life insurance policy you already own.

Let me tell you a dirty little secret about most online life insurance quoting websites… These sites want you to think that they can answer your questions such as “What is the average price of life insurance?” or “How much life insurance do I really need?”

In reality, what many of these life insurance websites are doing is simply selling your personal information to the first insurance agent who’ll pay their fee. And that means any agent.

The insurance agent who purchases your contact information may inexperienced or even unaware of all of the factors involved in determining the best life insurance policy and premium for you. And you could be the one to end up paying for that lack of experience and knowledge!

Insurance companies can have as many as eight different rate classes, and an additional ten substandard rate classes, that come into play when new clients approach them for life insurance quotes.

As an insurance adviser, I’ve found that most people who were quoted a life insurance premium from an agent without all of the pertinent facts were misquoted by as much as three to five rate classes. That creates a huge difference in your insurance costs!

That’s why it’s so important that many different factors be taken into consideration when your agent is preparing your life insurance quote. You deserve an insurance agent who will work diligently to meet your life insurance needs. Don’t settle for anything less.

Get started with your free life insurance quote or life insurance review right now, or call me at 630-393-6500.

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How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?

Have you ever wondered how much life insurance costs? As an insurance advisor, I am asked this question on a daily basis. There are so many variables that make up the cost (or premium) of a life insurance policy that it’s hard to define what life insurance might cost without some explanation.

Factors that affect the potential cost of life insurance include the amount of coverage you are seeking, the length of time you want the coverage to last, your overall health, family history and age, and whether or not you are a tobacco user.

Other variables that are just as important but which most people are not aware of include your occupation, whether you are involved in any dangerous hobbies such as a flying airplanes, hang gliding or mountain climbing, and even your financial net worth and annual income. All of these considerations are taken into account when an insurance company is deciding what life insurance premium to offer you.

The most important component of the premium, however, is the purpose for purchasing the policy in the first place. Are you looking for maximum coverage to care for your family in the event of your premature death (I have often wondered how many deaths were right on schedule)?

Or are you looking for cash accumulation in addition to the death benefit to give yourself a tax-free retirement income?

Are guarantees important to you?

Are you funding an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust or a Special Needs Trust?

Or do you just want your mortgage paid off?

All of these are questions your life insurance advisor might ask. As you can see, answering the question, “How much does life insurance cost?” isn’t as easy as it first seems.

That’s why we offer a personalized life insurance quote to make it easier for you! Take yours now to get a better answer to the question of how much your life insurance policy will cost. Start by completing the information in the yellow box in the upper right corner or give us a call at 630-393-6500.

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