Life Insurance Reviews

The cost of life insurance cover is dependent on a number of different factors and will vary between the various insurance companies out there that offer life insurance policies.

Initially when looking for your life insurance cover you ideally want to compare quotes from the various insurance companies.  To do this you could go onto a website which has an online quote station which would then provide you with a list of the various insurance companies that will provide the life insurance cover you are wanting and their standard quote for that cover.  The standard quotes are based upon the life insurance amount you would like, the length of time you require the cover (the term), your age, whether you are male or female, if you have smoked or not in the last 12 months. 

These quotes are normally, unless otherwise requested differently, a monthly premium.  However, you can request for the cost of the life insurance to be quoted as an annual premium and pay for your cover in one lump sum for the year each year.

The standard quote is normally a guaranteed premium.  However, a few companies may also quote a reviewable monthly price.

A guaranteed premium life insurance quote is where the cost of the life insurance policy remains the same throughout the life time of the plan.  Regardless if it is paid monthly or yearly.

A reviewable premium life insurance quote is where the cost of the life insurance policy is reviewed by the insurance company every five years.  The insurance company will then either keep the cost the same, or the price may increase or possibly decrease slightly.  This new premium will then remain the same for the next five years.  Once again this will be the same for monthly or annual payments.

Once you have chosen your preferred insurance company before a final offer can be given and life insurance provided, you will be required to complete their application form.  The information provided in the application form is then looked at by the insurance company’s underwriting team whom then will make a final decision on the cost of the life insurance policy you are applying for.

The life insurance application form asks for details such as your occupation, lifestyle, health, family health etc.  If you do not pose as a high risk to the insurance company then the life insurance premium will most likely remain same as originally quoted, the standard premium.  However, should there be information provided on the application that the life insurance company feel could mean that there is a greater risk of a claim being made then the cost of the life insurance will most likely be adjusted accordingly to take into account the risk.  For example, such risks could be a health issue, family health problem, a hazardous pastime, an occupation that is classed to be more dangerous etc.  In some cases the life insurance premium may stay standard but exclusion(s) put in instead.  Additionally, the life insurance premium may be increased as well as exclusion(s) being put in place.

A company may, for example, have five funds (equity, property, fixed-interest, securities, cash managed) and allow the investor to switch his premiums from one to another on an annual basis. He may also, for a modest fee (around 1% of the value transferred), switch the units accumulated in any fund to any other fund when he wants to. So such policies offer the investor the opportunity to build a “do-it-yourself’ portfolio of investments within the life insurance policy.

This is an appealing concept, but it must be used to make it worth while. There is no point in taking out such a policy and starting it with premiums directed to a gilts fund, because you think that is the one with the best current prospects, unless you are prepared to review that decision and if necessary switch the units when conditions change.

The tax refinements of these policies are concerned with the drawing of the ultimate benefits. So long as premiums have been paid for 10 years the policy is a qualifying one and the proceeds are free of tax. But the investor who has accumulated this capital does not really want to cash it in, reinvest the proceeds and end up paying tax on the income. Ideally he wants to draw off part of the policy proceeds each year without any tax liability. Ways of doing this have been devised, and normally involve continuing the payment of premiums to the company at either a reduced or nominal (£5 p.a.) level in order to maintain the policy in force. So long as this is done it is possible to draw off a proportion of the benefits each year free of tax as an income, while the accumulated capital continues to grow in the funds chosen.

 Contracts of this type have a variety of names but usually involve a 10-year premium payment period with the option to continue for a second and third l0-year stint; “income” may be drawn by one of the conversions mentioned above after a minimum of 10 years.

As we shall see, are fairly straight forward. But in investment-oriented life insurance policies a number of factors enter into any comparison of value. The most important concern, an assortment of methods.

In conventional companies, the method of distribution is the bonus system. The with profit policyholder, having agreed to pay a given premium for the guaranteed sum assured, has bonuses allocated to his policy from time to time, and by the middle age date these can add up to a very substantial sum, far exceeding the sum assured itself.

There are two basic bonus systems, the simple bonus and the compound bonus. Both are expressed as £4% and when you see that a rate of bonus is £4%, this means that £4 is added to every £100 provided under the course of action. Bonuses may be “declared” annually or triennially, and once they have been declared they “attach” to the policy and cannot be taken away. Such bonuses are referred to as “reversionary” bonuses because they “revert” to the policyholder only when a claim is made.

The simple bonus system is, as one would expect, the less complicated method. If a company pays an annual bonus of £4% simple, this means that 4% of the original sum assured is added to it every year. Thus if you have a policy with a sum assured of £3,000, and the bonus rate is £4%, then after the first year the sum assured will be £3,120, after the second year £3,240, after the third year £3,360, and so on.

Under the compound bonus system, the bonus is a percentage of the sum assured plus the bonuses already declared. On a £3,000 policy a £4% compound bonus declared annually would therefore produce a sum assured of £3,120 after the first year, £3,245 after the second, £3,375 after the third, and so on.

Many companies announce “interim” bonuses every year but compound them only every three years. Thus, a company paying £4% compounded triennially would add £120 to the £3,000 sum assured for each of the three years.

If you are married, have children, a mortgage or a business then you would normally be advised to take out a life insurance policy. You can choose the sum of money you which to be insured for typically called the benefit amount of the policy. This is generally advised to be enough to cover your mortgage, any outstanding debts and provide for your spouse and children.

The cost of the premium is dependent on a number of factors. These include the amount of the sum assured you require, the length of the contract, and dependent on your current state of health. The insurer would also look at other factors such as height and weight ratios, whether you smoke or not and your family history if known. When applying for life insurance it may involve the provider asking for a medical report from the doctor of the person to be insured. It is important that when filling in the questions on the application form they are answered fully and truthfully as failure to do this may result in a failure to pay out upon making a claim.

Also when applying for life insurance you can choose whether you want the premium to be guaranteed or reviewable. The guaranteed premium is where the payments would be the same price for the term of the policy. The reviewable premium is reviewed every five years and it can stay the same, go down or go up. This is dependent on the insurer taking a number of factors into consideration such as their claims experience, investments and, costs of reassurance.  The review is applied to all policyholders and not on individual circumstances. If the reviewable premium is chosen and it is increased at some point you normally have the option to accept the increase or reduce the amount of sum assured to keep the premium the same.

The insurance would pay out the sum assured when the assured person dies. It also normally pays out on the diagnosis of someone suffering a terminal illness. Normally the diagnosis would mean the assured would have less than 12 months to live. However the terminal illness would not normally apply for most policies in the last 18 months of the term of the contract. The plan has no cash value if you do not pay the premium.

When taking out Life Insurance you need to ensure that you make a commitment to the policy. Therefore this means that when applying for Life insurance you need to be accurate about the information you give and also be truthful to the best of your knowledge about any medical conditions or family history for example. You also need to be aware that if your medical circumstances were to change between the date of applying and the policy being accepted then you would have to make sure your supply this information to the provider. The reason for this is that failure to give such information may mean that the cover does not suit your exact circumstances and may not be appropriate. You do not have to inform the provider if you were to change occupation, however if you were to make a claim your occupation at that moment in time will be taken into consideration when assessing your claim.

When you have given the provider all your information, you will have to decide on your monthly premiums. You can choose from either Guaranteed or Reviewable where the guaranteed premium would stay the same throughout the term of the policy where as the reviewbale premium may change on a five yearly review.

Once you have applied and your policy has been accepted, you should throughout the term of the policy check to make sure that the policy is still relevant to your needs and circumstances. For example your financial situation may change and you may need to either increase or decrease the benefit amount of the policy, therefore if you do not check your policy on a regular basis you may find yourself with not enough cover if your circumstances were to have changed.

Finally you should also know the risk factors involved when taking out a life insurance policy, for example if you were for whatever reason not able to make your specified payment one month you would then have thirty days to update your payments because typically after thirty days the policy will be cancelled.

The main aim for a life insurance policy is to pay a lump sum to the beneficiary of the policyholder on death of the life assured. Some policies have the facility to add critical illness as an added option. Critical illness tends to pay the life assured on the diagnosis of a specified illness but most contracts cover a different amount of illnesses and within each illness the insurance companies will have different definitions to be met, although the regulator normally will set minimum standard to be offered across a set amount of core conditions.

Most insurance contracts will include terminal illness within a life insurance contract but this should not be mixed up with a critical illness contract. Terminal illness would normally pay out if a policy holder was diagnosed as having less than twelve months to live. But you should always check the key features of any contract prior to signing any documentation.

Most terminal illness benefits would not be paid if the policy was in the last eighteen months of the end of the term of the policy. Potential policy holders take out insurance for a wide variety of reasons; however the most common is to cover any outstanding mortgage or loan or simply to pay a lump sum to cover for potential loss of income. Many policies are taken out on joint life basis, however people might want to do this on a single one only. This is one of the nice things about this type of policy as they are flexible to suit your needs.

Firstly throughout the term of the policy if you were to stop the paying the premiums at any point during the policy you will come over off cover and your protection will cease and the policy can never be cashed in as it only provides protection. When taking out a policy insurers should point out any exclusion on the policy, which for example could be suicide and at this point the specific insurer might not pay out. It is also important that when giving your insurer information you do miss any information and complete all forms to the best of your knowledge as there is the risk that they would not pay out.

Also if you have life insurance with a reducing benefit, it is important that the benefit reduces at the same rate as your mortgage, the typical rate is eight per cent so if your mortgage rate is much higher then if you had to make a claim the benefit amount may not cover your mortgage at that moment in time. There is also the option to have reviewable premiums throughout the term of your policy which means that throughout the term your payment premiums make go up, down or stay the same on a five yearly basis. There is no limit as to how much the premiums could go up or down by, however any increase will be fair as it is calculated on factors such as the Retail Price Index (RPI) and the claims history in the past five years.