Term Life Insurance Quote

Ask Dave: My food, my roof, my way – Victoria Advocate

Admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 23:21:45 +0000

By Dave Ramsey
Originally published May 19, 2012 at midnight, updated May 19, 2012 at midnight
Dear Dave: I’m a single dad with two teenagers at home. My 15-year-old son wants to open a checking account of his own, but he doesn’t want me or anyone else to have access to it. Should I just let him do this and suffer the consequences I know are coming? – Tim
Dear Tim: When it comes to 15-year-olds, as a parent, you have every right to say, “My food, and my roof. You do what I say.” With kids this age, you never know what you’re getting. Half the time, you’re talking to a 35-year-old, and the other half they’re 5 again.
At that age, I think you let them do, or not do, these things based on their ability to perform well in life. To the extent they behave and show some sense, you lengthen the rope and give them more freedom and privileges. If they act like doofuses, you shorten the rope. Remember, “no” is a complete sentence. Can you tell I’ve raised teenagers?
If it were my son, I’d sit him down and gently explain that he doesn’t have the capacity or knowledge to manage this idea by himself just yet. You wouldn’t turn your child lose behind the wheel of a car the moment they wanted to drive, right?
So make yourself a part of the experience by teaching him to handle money wisely. Then, as he matures in financial understanding, you can give him more leeway.
If he wants to go dramatic on you, let him. And remind him that for every minute he’s in drama mode, that’s less leeway he’s getting in this matter and every other one in his life. In other words, the more mature you act, son, the better your existence is going to be.
No, at 15 he’s not opening a checking account on his own.
Dear Dave: I have a 20-year level term life insurance policy. I noticed the other day that the cost would increase to $4,000 per year at the end of the term. Is that because it’s the end of the policy coverage or something else? – Tate
Dear Tate: Technically, the policy will expire at the end of the term. But most companies that sell term life insurance will let you renew it, if you can’t get any other insurance, at a ridiculously high rate.
But let’s face it, 20 years down the road, your probability of death has also increased. The older you are, statistically speaking, the more likely you are to die.
If it were me, and I’m near the end of that policy, I’d go buy another 20-year level term policy, and let the old one run out. The only time you might run into trouble with a policy like that is if you were in the last year of coverage, and were diagnosed with a terminal illness. Then you’re really going to be paying through the nose to keep your coverage intact.
But the real point of a 20-year level term policy is to ensure that your family is taken care of while the kids are at home and your mortgage is covered if you die prematurely.
If you follow my plan, you’ll have $500,000 to $1 million in your retirement account when the policy runs out and the kids are gone.
For financial help, visit daveramsey.com.

Visit link: Ask Dave: My food, my roof, my way – Victoria Advocate

Will life insurance with your broadband succeed? – MyBroadband

Admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 22:18:44 +0000

Vodacom to enter the insurance market, link products to telecommunications offerings

Next time you go into a Vodashop to increase your data cap, why not consider adding on some long-term insurance products as part of your purchase.
This week Vodacom announced that it will start playing in the South African insurance market after being awarded a long-term insurance licence by the Financial Services Board (FSB).
Earlier in the year, Vodacom already received its short-term insurance licence from the board.
This means that the telecommunications company can now underwrite and sell insurance products.
According to Adrian Cloete, equity analyst at Cadiz Asset Management, the cellular giant might have a tough time competing in the market, despite the benefit of being able to target its existing client base of 30m customers.
The long-term insurance industry in South Africa is basically dominated by a couple of main players – Discovery, Liberty, MMI, Old Mutual and Sanlam.
These players have large market shares of the existing insurance assets and large market shares of new business written, Cloete told Moneyweb.
“For a new player to penetrate the market in any significant way you need a strong brand, strong distribution and innovative products. Vodacom does have many clients and good client relationships, but the insurance market has very strong competitors,” he said.
Mark Taylor, managing executive of Vodacom Financial Services, believes that Vodacom has the stuff that it takes to cut into the market.
“We have a base of more than 30m customers and the necessary support mechanisms such as billing and customer care, which enables us to reduce the cost of acquisition quite substantially. These cost savings will be passed on to our customers. So our customers can expect great value from our insurance products,” he told Moneyweb.
It’s not clear yet what products Vodacom will offer and it could also not give an indication on when news about products will reach the market, only saying that this will happen in due course.
According to a FinScope study released late last year, 57% of the adult population in South Africa have no form of insurance. This is compared with 50% in 2010.
The study also showed that the percentage of South Africans using formal insurance products was even lower at 34%.
Although Taylor could not provide statistics, he said that the bulk of Vodacom’s customers do not have insurance “due to lack of affordability.”
“Our vision is to dissolve these access barriers by providing more affordable insurance products to our customers,” he said.
“When customers see the value we offer, it will make sense for them to opt for Vodacom Insurance.”
According to the FinScope study the largest decline with regards to insurance products was seen in funeral cover, a product among the lower income households. In its findings FinScope stated that the decline was because of affordability and that lower income households especially were experiencing financial strain.
An interesting thing that the study highlighted was that although a large percentage of South Africans were uninsured, cellphone penetration in the country was extremely high at 92%.
This gives Vodacom an ace up its sleeve.
When asked whether Vodacom is aiming to bring innovative new mobile solutions for insurance to the market Taylor admitted that linking its new insurance offering with its core expertise was in the pipeline.
“Over time our insurance offering will be added and linked to our core telecommunication product offerings,” he said.
Victor Muguto, Insurance Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers South Africa, believes that technology offers alternative means to distribute insurance products.
In an article in the South African Financial Services Journal earlier this year he indicated that cellphones, smartphones and tablet technology are increasing ‘go anywhere anytime’ access to the internet.
“Could these advances present new distribution opportunities for insurers in Africa, where populations are largely rural and inaccessible by traditional bricks-and-mortar based channels?” Muguto asked in the article.
As part of the strategic decision to enter the insurance market, Vodacom appointed FRANK.NET, a direct life investment company which is owned and capitalised by Liberty Holdings, to provide administrative and claims support for its long-term insurance offering.
Source: Moneyweb
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Tags: FRANK.NET, Headline, Mark Taylor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Victor Muguto, Vodacom

See the original post here: Will life insurance with your broadband succeed? – MyBroadband

MetLife to Pay Eligible Life Insurance Policyholders $1.36 Billion in Policy … – MarketWatch (press release)

Admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:07:28 +0000

NEW YORK, May 16, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
MetLife, Inc.

/quotes/zigman/252112/quotes/nls/met MET
-2.07%

has announced that four of its life insurance
subsidiaries (Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, MetLife Investors USA
Insurance Company, New England Life Insurance Company, and General
American Life Insurance Company), approved an aggregate payment amount
of approximately $1.36 billion in policy dividend payments to eligible
life insurance policyholders for 2012.

“Despite the uncertainty in the financial markets, MetLife’s
long-standing disciplined practices continue to create benefits that we
can pass on to our eligible policyholders. This significant dividend
pay-out reinforces our commitment to providing policyholders with
value,” said Gene Lunman, senior vice president, MetLife. “MetLife
continues to focus on bringing competitive life insurance products to
market and managing its business for the long-term performance, as
demonstrated by the company’s financial strength and stability.”

Life insurance policy dividends are based on the performance of
participating policies, including investment returns, mortality,
persistency, and expenses, among other factors, and are therefore not
guaranteed. Eligible life insurance policyholders include MetLife
clients with certain in-force permanent life insurance policies,
primarily whole life, and certain term life insurance policies.

About MetLife

MetLife, Inc. is a leading global provider of insurance, annuities and
employee benefit programs, serving 90 million customers. Through its
subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife holds leading market positions in
the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle
East. For more information, visit
www.metlife.com .

SOURCE: MetLife, Inc.

MetLife, Inc.
Judi Mahaney, 212-578-7977
jmahaney@metlife.com

/quotes/zigman/252112/quotes/nls/met

: U.S.: NYSE

Volume: 14.59M
May 18, 2012 4:01p

Words used in this article:

Term insurance vs endowment plan: Which benefits you more? – Rediff

Admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 06:16:05 +0000

Here’s why term insurance always scores over endowment plans. Term insurance, as the name itself explains, is for a specific period of time, and has the lowest possible premium among all the other insurance plans available. You can select the length of the term for which you want the coverage right from one year up to 35 years. Premiums of this policy are fixed and it does not increase during the term period of your policy. In case of sudden death, your dependents receive the cover amount that is mentioned in the term life insurance agreement signed by you at the time you got yourself insured. In case the individual assured survives the term of policy, no claim is paid to the assured. Endowment insurance is another type of life insurance policy. An endowment policy is a life insurance contract designed to pay a lump sum after a specified term (on its ‘maturity’) or on death of the insured. The author is the founder of Rupeeinvest.com and has written Investment Planning: Turn Your Money Into Wealth. This book covers the details of investment avenues like shares, mutual funds, bonds, bank deposits, pension schemes, real estate, commodities, tax saving schemes, etc whose knowledge is essential for everyone to make our money grow and secure our financial future. This book also covers details about Insurance Planning, Retirement Planning and Children’s Future Planning. This book is published by Buzzingstock Publishing House www.buzzpublishing.net

Pet insurance: Paws for thought – Montreal Gazette

Admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 03:43:47 +0000

MONTREAL – It is plain to see that Centre Holistique Brandy’s is animal friendly. From the street, the sign boasts a paw print. Inside, a few small dogs roam freely greeting people at the door. Brandy’s is one part café and one part shop, its racks stocked with animal food and other goodies for pets. The doggie beds and a magazine stack including Animal Wellness and Modern Dog show just how inviting it is to animal lovers. Brandy’s is one of Kyla Sentes favourite places to drop in for a coffee. She sits in a lounge chair sipping a café au lait, her 15-year-old border collie cross, Lucy, among the dogs making themselves at home. Sentes, a lifelong animal lover, shares two other dogs with her sister Rachel, who lives with them in Vancouver. They had to part ways when the sisters left Edmonton to move in different directions. In spite of the distance, the sisters share responsibilities and jointly invested in pet insurance for their three dogs.“Our dogs, like us, are very accident prone,” said Sentes, explaining why she and her sister decided on pet insurance five years ago. “A tiny bite, but in the wrong spot, you end up with a $1,000 bill.” That is only the beginning. Advances in veterinary medicine, such as cancer treatments, hip replacements, and even acupuncture and other alternative treatments, mean better care is available for animals and can mean they lead longer, healthier lives. But those treatments come at a cost. Medical procedures for animals can easily run into the thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars. Such bills can put a huge financial burden on pet owners. For Sentes, insurance alleviates some of that pressure. “Weird stuff happens to our dogs,” said Sentes with a laugh, pointing to Lucy, “she was electrocuted. She died and came back.” That was several years ago, when Sentes was still living in Edmonton. While walking Lucy in front of a church near her house, the dog suddenly went berserk. When Sentes tried to calm her, Lucy bit her in a panic, the first time ever. “Then she just collapsed. She pretty much died. She lost all colour, her heart stopped beating, her eyes went back in her head,” said Sentes, noting it was only after that moment she felt the electrical current herself.“Suddenly she snapped back,” Sentes added. “She opened her eyes and shook her head.”What had happened was that underground wiring, designed for outdoor lighting for the church, had accidentally been switched on and was sending stray electricity, or contact voltage, into the ground. Similar electrocutions have happened in cities across North America, including one incident in Outremont last winter when a dog died after it was electrocuted while walking past a hydro pole.Sentes immediately headed to the vet. Lucy had an electrocardiogram to determine whether she would be okay. The vet confirmed that it was possible Lucy had died, briefly, before springing back to life. In that case, Sentes paid for treatment out of pocket, but more than anything, she was simply relieved. Eight years later, Lucy is still alive and well. In spite of the happy ending, the electrocution is among the reasons Sentes considered pet insurance in the first place.“For us, because we’ve had a lot of problems, it makes a lot of sense.” Still, pet insurance is not cheap. For her three dogs, Sentes pays just under $200 in insurance premiums every month. After being unhappy with her first insurance company, Sentes’s veterinarian recommended she switch companies to Trupanion. “It’s the lesser of the two evils, really,” Sentes said. While happy with the service and the quick payment of most claims, she still has many questions about how premiums are determined. Most companies offer many different coverages and sorting through them can be very confusing.“There are some practices that are questionable and there’s a lack of transparency,” she said.Sentes’s questions rise from personal experience. In one case, she was told she could only claim one half of the expense of anesthesia, a situation she found ridiculous – “you can’t half put under a dog, you have to whole do it.”Many companies offer policies that, in order to keep premiums lower, mean expenses are shared. There are policies that cover 100 per cent of an owner’s costs, but unsurprisingly, premiums are higher.Sentes also pointed out the premiums for Lucy, the oldest of her three dogs, go up faster than for those her other dogs, a point that appears to go against Trupanion’s policy. There is no one-shoe-fits-all policy in pet insurance. In many ways, it is rife with many of the same complications as health insurance for people, in that age and pre-existing conditions can be the difference between getting insurance and being turned away at the door. Add to that the different rates for dogs and cats and different pricing scales for different breeds, and finding a policy that is the best fit is no simple task. Pet insurance is a growing industry. In recent years, consumer brands such as RSA Canada, President’s Choice Financial, and HBC have all branched into it. Trupanion is something of a trailblazer in the pet insurance industry. Founded in Canada, it is now headquartered in Seattle, Wash. It is a founding member of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA). Trupanion’s focus from its founding in the late 1990s was to provide insurance focused on animal care. Trupanion’s executive vice-president of customer experience, Kerri Marshall, said the company offers “one simple plan,” an effort to simplify an otherwise complex insurance process.“Veterinary medicine has really advanced. There’s a lot of care available for your pet. Pet insurance helps you be able to afford that $4,000, $10,000, $20,000 in some cases for rare diseases,” said Marshall, a former veterinarian with 25 years’ experience and owner of three dogs and a cat. She added the changes in premiums are mostly due to the rapid improvement in care available. Trupanion’s “one simple plan” may mean many different things depending on the type of pet and its age and breed. However, the company has been credited as one of the few that offer a customizable deductible, unlimited payout, and that will insure pets regardless of their age, though the monthly cost is much more expensive. The average monthly premium for insurance, Marshall points out, is around $39 for a dog and about $29 for a cat. The scale changes significantly based on your pet’s age and whether it is purebred, but Marshall assures, “it’s tied to the age of the animal when you sign-up, but we don’t change it over time.” While some pet owners, Sentes included, see pet insurance as an investment worth making, the vast majority of pet owners across Canada do not have pet insurance. A study in the Canadian Veterinary Journal in 2009 suggested just over 50 per cent of pet owners “knew a little about pet insurance.” Still, the number of Canadian pet owners that do have insurance is somewhere closer to three per cent. That is higher than in the United States, but pales in comparison with places such as the United Kingdom, where 30 per cent of pet owners have insurance, Marshall said. Mina Carbone is among those who do not have pet insurance. Carbone and her brother Cesare co-own Montreal Dogs, a kennel and doggie daycare, in Côte des Neiges. Dogs can be heard yipping and yapping as their dogs are accompanied to the door as their owners pick them up at the end of the day. Carbone sits in her office, in her lap is Ammo, a three pound poodle with a Mohawk haircut, one of the six rescue dogs she calls her own. “I’m my own insurance, kind of,” Carbone said, “I’m very lucky. I save a lot because I’m in the industry.”Carbone knows the cost of animal care all too well. She has spent many years working with animals. Before opening Montreal Dogs, she worked as a veterinarian’s assistant. Now, she is experiencing the great costs of animal health care first-hand. Carbone is paying thousands of dollars for cancer treatment for her oldest dog, Blue, a Great Dane. Several times per month, Carbone takes Blue for treatment, paying out of pocket every time. “He wasn’t supposed to see Christmas and we’re now May. To me, worth every penny.”Carbone is willing and able to find ways to cover the costs. She has watched many others go into debt to prolong the lives of their four-legged friends. Given her recent experience she is considering paying a monthly premium to insure her five other dogs: “I should definitely get insurance.”Other owners remain skeptical as to the value of the insurance options on the market. Shelly Elsliger has four dogs of different breeds. She writes on a number of dog care issues as one of the core bloggers for the Montreal Dog Blog, an active online meeting place for the city’s dog owners. Elsliger has looked into pet insurance, but she remains unconvinced. “The biggest pitfall is the fine print,” said Elsliger, who works as a career adviser at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business. “It’s not as simple as black and white. There are a lot of grey areas.”Rather than invest in insurance, each month, Elsliger puts money into an emergency fund that could cover the cost of expensive treatment for her dogs. Not all pet owners are willing or able to set aside the money to cover expensive medical bills for the family pet. Veterinarians often mention that owners will take their pets in to be put down, rather than pay for an expensive surgery or scans to discover what is wrong. Vets have a term for it: “economic euthanasia.” Even those owners without insurance suggest if more owners had insurance, there would be fewer unnecessary deaths. That is why Marshall, with Trupanion, left the vet clinic to join a pet insurance company in the first place. She was discouraged watching as owners would drop off their animals to be put down rather than spend the money for proper care. She changed careers when she realized, “I can help these pets, but we don’t have the mechanism to help these pet owners.” Back at Brandy’s, Sentes suggests she would have another dog, if she could afford another. Sentes understands the responsibility that comes with being a dog owner, though she said many people do not.“There are a few things people don’t realize. They talk about walking and feeding, but those are the easy parts.”© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Originally posted here: Pet insurance: Paws for thought – Montreal Gazette

Life insurance simplified – Postnoon

Admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:53:59 +0000

Money Matters
Nupur Pavan Bang
As I walked into the lobby of my apartment block, Mukherjee was waiting for me, sitting on a sofa, with a piece of paper in his hand. The moment he saw me, he jumped up and extended his hand to greet me.
Me: How are you Mr. Mukherjee?
Mukherjee: I am fine, except that I don’t understand your world.
Me: My world?
Mukherjee: Yes, your world of investments, financial jargons, markets, assets.
Me: Ah! That? What’s troubling you?
Mukherjee: See I want to buy a life insurance. So I contacted an agent. After meeting him, I am totally confused. There are so many different types of policies. Now which policy should I buy?
Me: That’s it? Let me explain a few basic things about insurance to you. Hopefully, then you will be able to decide about which policy is suitable for you.
Since you have already made up your mind to buy a Life Insurance policy, you probably already know that such an insurance provides the beneficiaries, that is, your family, the financial protection in case of the death of the insured or in the case of terminal/critical illness of the insured. Most of the policies have exclusion which will not cover you in the event of suicide, war, natural disaster, fraudulent claims etc.
The sum that will be paid to the beneficiaries depends on the sum assured at the time of buying the insurance. The premium that you will pay, will depend on a number of factors, like age, sum assured and the type of policy.
There are basically two types of Life Insurance policies. They can be for a specific number of years; term policies. Or for the entire life of a person; whole life policies.
Term Policies: As the name suggests, term policies are for a specified period, say 5, 10, 15 years up to a maximum of 35 years. The beneficiaries are paid the assured sum in the event of the death of the insured during this period. However, no money is paid to either the beneficiaries or the insured, if he or she survives the term of the insurance. These policies are known to have the least premium amongst all types of life insurance policies.
Whole Life Policies: Whole life policies assures the payment of the assured sum to the beneficiaries, irrespective of when the insured passes away. Similarly, the insured needs to pay the premiums throughout his life time. There can be variants of these policies as well.
For example, you can buy a cash back policy where a certain amount of cash is returned to you after a few years, and the balance is paid to the beneficiaries after the death of the insured.
Mukherjee: But have a look at this sheet. It says that there are other policies too like the endowment plan and ULIPs.
Me: The other types of policies are nothing but additional features added to these two. For example, Endowment plans are term policies with elements of savings attached to them. So you buy a policy which ensures a certain sum to your family in case of your death, during the term of the policy, and in case of survival, you get the sum assured along with a bonus or return.
You might even opt for an annuity plan. Which basically returns you the money in the form of an annuity (divided into equal annual payments over certain number of years), instead of a lump sum, upon survival.
Unit Linked Insurance Policies, popularly known as ULIPs are again like term plans, where a part of the premium that you pay, gets invested in the stock markets.
Mukherjee: So it is not as complicated as it looks in this sheet?
Me: Not at all. Go home, discuss with your wife, and then decide on the policy you want to buy!
The author is a senior researcher at Centre for Investment, ISB
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Tags: Money Matters Category: Business, Business News

Read the original: Life insurance simplified – Postnoon