Life Insurance

What is the best life insurance for seniors?

September 5, 2013 By Mike

As a senior, getting the best life insurance is easy! When I first started in insurance, we were always taught that the best life insurance is the one that is in force when you die. Meaning, it doesn’t make much difference what you have, as long as the coverage will pay the claim. That always made sense to me and it made the business easier I think. So what does that mean for you as a consumer?

Getting the Best Life Insurance as a Senior

If we stick to the advice from above, the best insurance would be whole life insurance. Whole life insurance is designed to last your entire lifetime and will pay whenever the claim may come.

best senior life insurance for final expenses — NJ Final Expense Insurance

How Much Does Senior Life Insurance Cost?

Senior Life Insurance is just a small whole life policy, usually around a $10,000 benefit that can be bought with almost no medical underwriting. But how much does it cost??

These are just for illustrative purposes. Your actual rates will be different.

These rates represent a $10,000 whole life policy

60 year old male non-tobacco – $46 per month
60 year old female non-tobacco – $36 per month
70 year old male non-tobacco – $73 per month
70 year old female non-tobacco $54 per month

As you can see women pay a bit less than men because of their longevity. Also, if you have been looking over any life insurance quotes you will notice these rates are a little higher than fully underwritten life insurance. The reason is simple. The insurance companies are offering you a small final expense policy with little or no medical questions or exams so in return they must have slightly higher rates. They are taking both sick and healthy people so they adjust accordingly

Best Company for Final Expense Insurance

It depends.. When you call or email me for a quote, I will ask you some basic questions and we will see which company will be the best fit. If you have had serious medical issues in the past, that is no worry either as some companies are guaranteed issue with no medical questions asked.

Please email or call me for more information or you can read more about Life Insurance Here.

If you are also in the market for pricing out your Medigap plan, please read my resources

Supplemental Life Insurance. Should you buy it?

March 27, 2012 By Mike Sheeran

Supplemental Life Insurance is usually offered as an extra employee benefit option at large companies. It is a life insurance benefit that can be bought through a payroll deduction for a low cost and usually with no or few medical questions. Sounds good but is it worth it?

Do you need supplemental life insurance?

Before you buy supplemental life insurance, you should really take a good look if you need life insurance at all.

People who do not need insurance may be those without any dependents, any debt or anyone depending on them financially. Ask yourself “if I were to pass away, would anyone be affected financially?” If that answer is no, then you should probably not be buying supplemental life insurance or any insurance at all.

How much supplemental life insurance should you buy?

If you have determined that you do need insurance, you can use this calculator to see how much you should consider buying.

Life Insurance Calculator from LifeHappens.org

Life Insurance is meant to cover a financial shortfall and they generally are used to pay for:

College Funding – if you have kids
Pay off Mortgage
Final Expenses
Pay off outstanding loans like credit cards or other loans
Make up for lost income for surviving spouse.
Pay estate taxes for large estates
Money to be left in trust for beneficiaries.

Where should you buy your life insurance?

You’ve determined you need insurance and now you know how much so the next step is to get quotes and buy it.

The supplemental life insurance option through your employer will be an easy option because it can usually be paid for through payroll deduction and you have the ease of signing up without medical questions. The downside to this is that you may qualify for a better rate if you were to apply on your own.

Key Things to Consider When Deciding Between Supplemental Life and an Individual Policy

If you need x amount of coverage, can you purchase that much through the supplemental life program?
Is the supplemental life coverage portable? Can you take it with you if you leave the company? And for how much money?
Are you in good health or bad health? Good health may benefit by buying individually but unhealthy people may get a better deal through the supplemental life program.
How long do you need the coverage?
Supplemental Life Coverage can be discontinued at the discretion of your employer. Are you ok with that or would you prefer to have control over your own policy?

Supplemental Life Insurance can be a great choice to buy a little bit of life insurance coverage for those that need it, but it’s not always the best option.

You can get a life insurance quote here on the ING website or request one directly from me. It’s always a good idea to get an individual quote so you can compare it to your supplemental life options.

I’d love to earn your business. Please contact me for a personalized life insurance quote and I will help you evaluate all of your options.

Additional Reading – What you need to know about life insurance – From LifeHappens.org

Should You Buy Your Life Insurance Online?

August 10, 2011 By Mike Sheeran

Like many people, the first place I turn for information is usually the web. Nowadays, we can purchase nearly any type of insurance online with just a few clicks of the mouse. This can be both good and bad, and I think online purchases may have some disadvantages, especially when it comes to life insurance.

I will walk through the process of purchasing a term life insurance policy on the web versus dealing with an independent insurance agent.

I’m an agent, so of course I think agents do a better job then our online counterparts, but please read below and decide for yourself.

Pre-Sales Information Gathering and Advice

When you first decide to purchase life insurance, you will have to do some initial research to help pick the right policy.

A few considerations:

What type of policy? Term, whole life, universal life?
How much insurance do you need?
How long do you need the insurance?
What is your monthly budget? How much can you purchase based on that budget?
What company to choose?

There are more to add to the list, but your initial research will either have to be done solely on the web, or you can speak to your agent for advice. Looking for good advice online can be very time consuming and some things may be overlooked. If you decide to work with an agent, they will help you with all of the questions above and will probably bring up some addtional concerns that you may not have thought of.

Getting Quotes

You’ve done your research and you are now ready to get some quotes. Some think that they will get lower rates by purchasing online because they can cut out the middle man(agent). This is simply not true. Just to be sure, I quoted myself at a major online site and compared it to my own quotes. Same price!

Another way to look at it is this. If your premium for a ten year term is $500 per year, the agent might get 50% commission. So if you average out $250 commission over ten years, that is about $2.08 in commission per month. So even if you could cut the commission, you are saving a whole $2 monthly.

Moving on…

A quote is just a quote so regardless of what the website or your agent says, the actual rate will be determined by the underwriter when they issue the policy. If you are making comparisons, make sure everyone is using the same rate class to be fair.

Online

Online quoting is very easy. You can probably get quotes from 30 carriers in a matter of minutes.

Agent

Some agents will also quote 30 carriers, or they will select a few that they think will work best for you. They probably know of some carriers that are more lenient with underwriting, or some that may consider cigar smoking as non-tobacco or other details that may benefit you.

At Glenn Insurance, we carefully selected a few different carriers that underwrite fairly, and they will almost always be in the top five for lowest price. Typically the top few carriers will only vary by a few dollars per month in the quotes.

Advantage

I think the advantage will be with the agent, because they will know some of your medical conditions ahead of time and can quote appropriately. As long as they use the top companies, this will be your cheapest route.

Underwriting

Insurance carriers have teams of underwriters that will use your personal and medical information to decide how “risky” you are, and assign you to a rate class. The rate classes are usually some variation of this:

Super Preferred – least expensive
Preferred
Select
Standard
Substandard – Rated Policy – most expensive

The underwriters use criteria set by the insurance carrier to place you in one of those categories. Some of these rules are strict, but others may be up to the underwriters discretion. If you are on the border, the underwriter gets to choose based on their professional opinion.

Since underwriters don’t have the chance to meet you in person, they have to rely on the information in your application to base their decision. If you purchase online, they may not be as agressive with thier underwriting decision especially if you are in between classes. This is where the value of an agent can come in. A good agent can write a letter to the underwriter or speak to them directly to help you get a better rate. Sometimes they can get you from Standard to Preferred, which will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Service Issues and Questions

Life insurance does not require much service once the policy is delivered, but things do come up at times. Things like beneficiary changes, billing issues, address changes, etc… If you do not have an agent, you will be calling the 800 number and will be responsible for all follow up. If you do have an agent, you can make one quick call, tell them what you want to do, and they will take care of the rest.

Claims

No one wants to even think about this, but remember why you bought the policy. Should anything ever happen to you, you want your loved ones paid quickly and correctly so they can get their financial situation in order.

If you purchase online, your beneficiaries will be responsible for contacting the insurance company and getting the proper forms in order. If there is any holdup with payment, they will be responsible for all followup.

If you are working with an agent, this is something they can be a huge help with. With someone passing, the last thing a claimant wants to do is to fill out forms and deal with the insurance company. Your agent will walk everyone through the process and make sure everything is done timely and correctly.

Summary

I tried my best to be fair to both sides and let you decide if purchasing online is right for you. I encourage a litte shopping online but in the end, I think your best bet is to find an agent you trust. Having someone help out when needed is worth a lot more than the perceived convenience of online shopping. Life insurance claims are filed at the worst possible moment for your family. Should something happen, do you want your loved ones dealing with an 800 number or a trusted advisor?