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First, there are two primary types of life insurance:

#1. Term Life: This is temporary life insurance, which does not accumulate “cash out” dollar value over time. In other words with term life you can never cash in your policy and get a check, since it has no value other than to provide a benefit in the case of death. Term life is similar to car insurance in that respect. It only pays when an event occurs. You purchase coverage for a period (or term) that covers you for the number of years you select. If you die during the term of the contract, your beneficiary receives the dollar value of the policy.

Increasing/decreasing, or Level Term: With a choice of increasing or decreasing term the death benefit increases or decreases, usually each year over the life of the policy. Our advice is to choose an increasing term that’s renewable each year if the length of the policy is less than four years. Level Term premiums and coverage amounts are fixed over a certain period of your choosing. If the term of the policy is longer than 4 years say, 5, 10 or 20 years your best choice is to choose a level term policy.

#2. Permanent Life: As is suggested by the name, permanent lasts until you cancel the policy or fail to make a payment, and provides your beneficiary with a death benefit regardless how long you live. In other words the policy does not expire after a specific time frame as is the case with term life.

Traditional Whole Life is a sub-type of permanent life insurance, whole life insurance covers you for your whole life and both the premiums and death benefit remain the same. If you pay the premiums on time, this policy will not expire. While you are younger, your premium payments will be slightly higher than what you would pay for a term policy. The insurer invests the extra monthly premium money and uses that to supplement the cost of your insurance as you get older.

Universal Life is a type of policy that works double duty, as life insurance and as an investment vehicle. You can also opt to pay an amount over your monthly premium, and this extra money will be invested for you to enhance the overall value of your policy. Your earnings are essentially placed into a savings account, which you can either use toward future premiums or allow it to grow in value.

Variable Life is the kind of policy that also has a cash value component and works in a very similar manner to universal life insurance, allowing you to use your excess equity to either offset your premiums or to build your savings account value. However, a big difference is that variable life offers a wider array of investment vehicles, such as mutual funds. This also generates higher risk. If your investments don’t perform well or even decrease in value, your cash value and death benefit could also decline in concert with your investments. Of course the reverse can always happen, your investment could increase and therefore generate a much higher death benefit.

Once you determine which type of insurance is right for you and your family, use the quote box above at fastcustomquotes.com to generate quotes from our vast network of  local insurers, agents and brokers.

So how much life insurance is right for you? There is a simple and easy way to calculate how much you need. All you have to do is to take into consideration three main types of your expenses:

Short Term Expenses: This category includes final expenses such as funeral and burial expenses, legal fees, unpaid mortgage balances and all outstanding debt.

Ongoing Expenses: This category includes all of your family’s day to day expenses. Examples include groceries, gas, phone, car and utility bills. Adequate life insurance coverage will allow your family to maintain its current standard of living in your absence. Future Expenses: This category includes things like school, college tuition, long term care expenses and retirement. Without your monthly salary, will your children still be able to attend college? Will your spouse be able to or comfortable to retire as planned?

If you the above 3 categories of expenses minus your existing resources, like investments and other life insurance policies, you can determine how much life insurance you will need.

It is a common misperception that life insurance is something that you don’t need to worry about until you get senior discounts or read AARP. In reality, anyone who has dependants should have life insurance.

If you are married, you should consider life insurance for your spouse. Most families depend, to some extent, on each other’s salary. The life insurance you buy covers immediate expenses your spouse, such as funeral costs and affords your family the time they need to cope with the loss and get back on sound financial footing.

If you are a single parent, you are obviously the sole wage earner and financial guardian of your family. Your need for coverage exceeds most, but ironically nearly four in 10 single parents don’t have any life insurance. Often, single parents have limited incomes and don’t want to or can not afford to spend money on life insurance. But depending on your age and other factors, a $500,000 life insurance policy could cost as little as a dollar a day. For a quick free quote from fastcustomquotes.com use the quote box at the top of this page.

If you are a stay-at-home parent, you provide childcare, cook meals and maintain your home. If for some reason you could no longer provide these services, your family might have to pay someone to take over these duties. Make an approximation of what it might cost to hire a person to fulfill these roles, and ensure your policy will maintain your family’s standard of living in your absence.

If you are an empty nester, then most likely your kids are through college and your house hopefully is paid off, so you may think you’re do not need a life insurance policy. But the increasing life expectancy in the US means one spouse could out live the other by 10 years or more.

If you are retired, your life insurance policy will cover expenses that your family may need when you die. Depending on the size of your family and estate, your heirs could be responsible for a tax of up to 48 percent of your net worth. A life insurance policy pays for these estate taxes, funeral costs and other debts, so your family does not have to draw from the family retirement savings.

If you are single, and young you probably don’t need to worry about life insurance just yet, unless you are considering a wealth building vehicle such as whole life. But some singles may be caring for an elderly parent or grandparent and may have considerable debt that they would certainly not want to pass along. If you fall into this category, you may want to consider purchasing enough life insurance to cover the above mentioned expenses.

Now that you’re armed with lots of life insurance knowledge, use our quote box above to request quotes from agents, insurers and brokers in your area!

To help you address your life insurance policy questions, we’ll answer four of the most common life insurance claims questions so that you can become empowered and in control of your life insurance decisions.

#1. How should I go about filing a life insurance claim?

To start the claims process, you’ll need to get a copy of the policyholder’s death certificate: usually from either the hospital or the coroner’s office. If you have trouble, the funeral director can often help you with this process.

Next, you will need to contact your life insurance agent immediately. Your agent will help you to complete the necessary paperwork required to begin the claims process. If you’re not sure who the deceased’s agent is, you can simply contact the insurance company directly. Remember that getting the original death certificate is the first requirement to a quick and efficient claims process.

#2. How does the death benefit get paid to me?

The majority of the time, you will be given several choices as to how you would like to collect the death benefit. Your choices include:

Lump sum Payout: The entire death benefit is paid out in one check to the beneficiary.

Specific interest provision: The insurance company pays the beneficiary principle and interest according to a prearranged payment plan.

Life income: The beneficiary receives the death benefit as guaranteed income or an annuity for life. Of course, this amount depends on the beneficiaries age at the time of the insured’s death.

Interest income: The insurer holds the proceeds of the death benefit money and pays the beneficiary interest. In this scenario, the death benefit is preserved and can be given through the beneficiaries will to a second beneficiary after the primary beneficiary dies.

No matter which option you choose, the insurance company is required to send the beneficiary the proceeds of the death benefit within days of properly submitting the claim.

#3. What if I can’t pay my life insurance premiums?

The answer to this question depends on the type of life insurance:

In general, if you have a term insurance policy, failure to pay the premium will cause a lapse, which means the life insurance policy will be temporarily cancelled and you will not be eligible for benefits.

If you have a permanent policy, according to the Insurance Information Institute you have the following options:

First, you can cash it out immediately. By cashing out your policy you stop paying the premiums and can then collect the available cash value. You could even apply this cash toward purchasing a cheaper term insurance policy. However, if the cash value is greater than what you originally paid on the policy, be aware that the funds may be subject to being taxed.

Non-forfeiture. A “reduced paid-up” option may be available. This would enable you to stop paying the premiums in exchange for a reduced death benefit and zero cash balance. You could also be allowed to convert the permanent policy into an extended term life insurance policy.

Lapsed policy. If you are not able to make the premium payments and are forced to let your policy lapse, you may be able to get parts of it reinstated within five years of lapsing. Reinstatement, however, typically demands that you pass a new/current medical exam and this may end up forcing you into new, higher premiums than you had when you originally purchased the insurance policy.

If you have had a financial setback and are unable to make your life insurance payment, contact your agent immediately. The sooner your insurance company knows about your specific situation, the sooner they can assist you in finding several potential solutions.

#4. What should I do if I can’t find the deceased’s policy?

A lost policy can be very hard to track down. Nevertheless, the Insurance Institute offers the following advice: Start by trying to determine the insurance company and agent that might have sold the policy to your loved one. You can also check to see if the deceased has a policy through an former employer or even a union group.

If that search does not work, you can try the following:

A. Searching records, storage areas, and safe deposit boxes. You may find receipts of premium payments, cancelled checks from your bank or copies of the insurance policy itself.

Contacting the policyholder’s legal or financial advisors. Previous and current financial advisors may be able to determine of where the policyholder information can be found.

Check tax returns. Old tax returns may indicate interest that came from an insurance policy or that was paid to the deceased.

Check the mail. This point is fairly obvious, but if you live out of state it may be lest obvious. Your loved one may still be receiving premium notices in the mail

Calling Canada. Wow, where did this suggestion come from? It sounds odd, but it’s possible the deceased purchased his or her life insurance policy from a Canadian isurer. You can reach the “Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association” at 800.268.8009, or look them up on the web.

Probing the MIB database. While there’s no official life insurance database, there is a database for insurance holders by name. And while it’s a long shot (the MIB finds about 20 percent of  lost policies), this does have a cost however and usually runs roughly $75 to search the MIB database.

Have more questions? Get answers!

It is important that you understand your life insurance policies, terms, premiums and your consumer rights. When questions come up, be sure to contact your life insurance company. They will give you current information regarding your particular policy leaving fewer questions and uncertainty during a time of crisis.

But the reality is that life insurance is an important and necessary purchase for most of us. So to help you maximize your life insurance coverage and at the same time minimizing your premium dollars, here are four tips to help you save money, so that you can spend your savings on the fun things in life.

Tip #1: Shop Around…..Its Easier Than Ever!

Life insurance policies are not one-size fits all, and importantly each insurer has a specific target market or “type of person” they prefer to insure. If you fall into that box you will get a good rate, if not the rate will be much higher than the “market rate”. The only way to handle this dilemma is to get multiple quotes. Our service specializes in electronically surveying hundreds of companies to find you the lowest rate. Use the quote box above to find the lowest rate. Let local agents and national insurers compete for your business.

Tip #2: Obtain Discounts

Many insurance companies offer discounts to clients, especially if they hold additional policies through the same company (like car or health insurance, for example), as well as for non-smokers. At fastcustomquotes.com our system automatically looks for any discounts available. It is easier than ever to find affordable insurance without breaking the bank!

Tip #3: Try to Make Healthy Choices

Yes it is hard to get on that treadmill or eat the same salad you had yesterday. Yuk. But more and more insurers are using measurements such as Body Mass Index (BMI) a measure of body fat based on height and weight, to calculate premiums for life and health insurance. Smokers also pay more for life and health insurance.

So if you’re having trouble finding the motivation to join weight watchers or quit smoking for good, extra cash in your wallet could provide some incentive!

Tip #4: Buy from Reputable Companies

Remember that not all life insurance carriers are reputable or even financially stable. By obtaining quotes from fastcustomquotes.com can rest assured that our network of insurance companies includes only the top rated companies. We are partnered with Insureme and they regularly check the financial viability of life insurance and other insurance companies in the network to include only the best, and weed out any that do not meet strict criteria.

Start Saving Today!

Life insurance may not the most fun or exciting purchase you make, but it’s an key step in protecting the livelihood and prosperity of your family. Keep the above tips in mind as you compare quotes for a life insurance policy. We are dedicated to ensuring that you find the best policy for a price that fits your budget. And, if you are ready to begin saving money and shopping for quotes, you can start your search right here at fastcustomquotes.com!

Let’s start with the basics: the definitions of term and permanent life insurance.

Term life: Term policies cover you for the duration of the term period, which can vary wildly depending on your choice and what meets your needs. Terms can run from one year, thirty years, or until you turn 65, with many options in between. It only pays a benefit in the event of the policyholders death. Term premiums are often much less than other types of life insurance because they do not accrue any cash value. Term insurance is event driven kind of like car insurance in that something has to happen to generate a claim.

Permanent/cash value life insurance: Permanent polices are very often called “cash value” polices because they can include a death benefit in addition to  some variation of long-term, tax-advantaged savings plans.

Permanent or cash value plans pay a death benefit, similar to term policies, but they also have a savings component. So if, and this is a very Big If, you hold your cash value life insurance policy long enough, the amount you earn with the savings account can potentially balance or perhaps even exceed the amount you pay in premiums each month or year. So potentially over a very long time the policy pays for itself each month.

The thing to remember though, is that cash value policies are significantly more expensive right from day one. So cash value/permanent policies are probably not a worthwhile short-term investment vehicle, because it will take a fairly long time before the savings part generates enough cash to counter the much more expensive premium.

A quick summary of the 2 types of insurance is:

• If you are going to keep your insurance for a very long time, say at least longer than 15-20 years then cash value/permanent insurance might be a good choice.
• If you do not plan to keep your life insurance for very long, term life insurance is probably a better option than cash value/permanent life insurance.

Term life enthusiasts, particularly financial experts independent of the insurance industry, consistently say “buy term life insurance and invest the difference.” The “difference” refers to the amount of extra cash you would have to pay for a cash value/permanent life policy. That extra amount of relative savings each month, they say, can be put to use elsewhere, such as into a mutual fund, Roth IRA, 401k, CD or many other financial investment options, where it has the potential of producing a better rate of return than in a more traditional and conservative cash value savings account.

If you follow the advice of financial advisors and decide on a term policy, make sure you choose renewable or convertible term life policies! Renewable policies allow you to renew your policy on a regular basis without requiring a medical exam. Convertible policies have the option of changing to a permanent policy, also without a medical exam.

And as always, whenever shopping for an insurance policy, research your options, shop around, and use our sophisticated quote system which generates multiple quotes from top rated insurance companies within our vast network. Use the quote box at the top of this page for free instant quotes.