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Nov 20 2009

Over Fifties Life Insurance Cover You May pay more Than You Get Out

Published by admin under Life Insurance Premiums

Summary
This article looks at the over fifties life insurance policies that do not ask questions about your medical history but are they worth buying? Continue reading this article for lots more information.

The over 50’s Life Insurance Plans are becoming extremely popular and are regularly advertised by mature personalities like Petula Clark and George Clooney. Consumers who purchase these life insurance plans might be paying much more in than their recipients will get out. Assuring a pay out on the policyholder’s death, premiums start from around 6 pounds rising to about 62 pounds and you’re unlikely to better your premium. Being sold to people between fifty and eighty the settlement influenced by the premium paid, gender and age when the policy begins.

Disturbingly, no questions about their health are asked.  Some online life insurance plans stop after a specific amount of time, but will still be valid until the policyholder passes away. In other life insurance plans the premium is taken until the client passes away, in spite of this insurance holders can put more in than they get paid out depending upon when they pass away.

Referring to adverts for Legal and Generals over 50’s life Cover Plan, Peter Chadborn of independent financial advisers Masons Financial Planning Ltd says ‘I can’t comprehend George Clooneyendorsing this style of insurance plan. He is a quality act, but the same cannot be said for this policy.’

The Chairman of Legal and Generals over 50’s life Cover Plan, Joel Winters defends Douglas’s role, saying he’s only making consumers mindful of the insurance plans existence , for which there is substantial demand. He states, ‘The attraction is their affordability because of their guaranteed acceptance process and the low premiums.’

Yet, you could get an improved deal with a different insurer purchasing an ordinary insurance policy on similar terms ‘consumers could get three or four times as much for their money from a normal life policy, in return for replying to a few questions.’ Says Gerald Parkins of Clarence financial services.

Not demanding any health history imposes much dearer fees as these insurance plans interest clients with pre-existing complaints who may pass away before the company has covered its cost. Insurance companies also restrict any payouts for the first 2 or 3 years to  shield themselves. A reimbursement of the payments made is in general refunded if a policyholder departs this life from natural causes during this time.

Director of financial services at Direct Line, Gev Lynott, states that you may pay less for standard life cover but generally by the time you get into your fifties, many have endured some sort of illness, thus why peoplelike the over 50’s policies. Plan holders paying more in than they can ever get out is one part he doesn’t concur with. ‘When we put together our plan we decided to put a cap on the premiums,’ he states, meaning once policyholders have paid the amount insured their payments cease.

Many over-fifties plans do eventually have cut off points, but lots of policyholders have paid more than necessarybefore they reach this point. Premiums usually stop at ninety with the Liverpool Victoria insurance policy and the post office running them for a set duration.

The main reason people buy these policies is to cover funeral charges. Yet, the final pay out may not be enough money. A pre-payment insurance policy would be a better choice with Lincoln funeral care providing three packages priced between 2,535 pounds and 3,286 pounds. These plans can be taken out for a period of 3 years.

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Nov 05 2009

Insurance World Banks On Mix And Match

Summary
The variety tendered by protection major insurance companies to create protective offers for the clients, which significantly undercut the rates found in protection insurance options. The industry has now progresses and a large amount of new protection policies have been presented which have gained the approvalof a lot of the intermediaries.

Zurich Life was the 1st to develop a winning formula when it re-launched it’s self assurance menu. They were soon followed by Scottish Equitable Protect, Skandia Life, Friends Provident, Liverpool Victoria Life, Legal and General and others are sure to shadow their lead quickly.

Three fundamental points are to be found in most protection options. Critical illness insurance policies quotes a number of stated critical conditions for which the insurer would settle a lump sum. The cheapest option, term insurance, pays out a lump sum if you die within a given period of time and nothing after that. The final option is income protection cover, which gives you a regular income if long term disability or illness impedes you from working. The menu may give you redundancy cover, which is usually restricted to 1 or 2 years and may also be limited to the pay out of a mortgage. The principle attraction is the flexibility of the insurance products. For instance several levels of insurance cover can be organised for separate component parts, so should you make a claim on 1 part the others will still continue. No additional health information will be needed prior to major living events, like becoming married,having a baby, or moving house. These added benefits are known as ‘Guaranteed Insurability Options’.

To search for cheap life insurance quotes, go online.

Different components of cover may be added on after the conclusion of a brief questionnaire and you will still benefit from the usual policy discounts.

A case of the benefits sourced from a protection menu is shown by a newley married couple who chose Friends Provident’s Protection Choices option for mortgage protection. This couple are paying a combined premium of £31.10 a month for separate life policies and critical illnesses, which have been done on a combined life basis. Initially they have cover of £109,750 which reduces as their 21 year homeowner loan is paid off. Life insurance will be paid out if one of them passes away and the insurance policy is ended, but the one surviving will still be covered for critical illness insurance life assurance will be maintained for both partners even if one of them became ill and the insurance will settle on first to die.

If the husband and wife had signed up for a standard joint life policy with Aviva they would only get a pay out on their 1st claim. Whereas with their Protection Choices insurance policy they are offered two possible pay outs costing only £8 more. Even though workers are sometimes provided with income protection at work they can also insure their mortgage in the same way. As an extra they may want to take out further critical illness cover and life cover not tied to their mortgage. Aviva’s  protection menu permits them to do this in a cost effective and straightforward way. The new options based products allow you to save money even though you can research around for individual policies and only save a few pence.

3 responses so far

Sep 30 2009

Genetic Testing – An Insurance Grenade

Published by admin under Life Insurance Premiums

Summary
The problems related to the launch of genetic testing andhow it will be used in the writing of life insurance documents, specifically in association with HD.

Insurance covers might not be affected at the moment by the arguable topic of genetic testing following the ABI’s recommendation that clients should not be asked by insurers for the outcome of genetic tests for the next four years.

Like many of ABI ‘s declarations,  for example erasing the Raising Standards Initiative, it’s not a compulsory code but a voluntary one. Nonetheless it is marvellous news. In reality, very few of  Association of British Insurers 404 members are likely to discount the recommendations, as it could put their membership of the Associationat peril.

The low reliability of genetic tests to be had at present was acknowledged by the ABI. For example, merely because a member of their family died from cancer does not always mean that they will contract the disease. However the still supports the test for Huntington’s disease as a reliable guide when underwriting life insurance covers.

On life insurance policies over 450,000 pounds, insurance companies may well request the results or a genetic test for Huntington’s Disease. However Association of British Insurers states that only 4 per cent of all life insurance quotes are underwritten for over £500,000.

A Parliamentary select committee has expressed reservations about the relevance of the genetic testing for Huntington’s Disease and has asked that the GAIC reassesses their verdict. It is essential that this moratorium is used to discuss the subject in depth rather than to use it as a reason to disregard genetic testing for the nextfour years. Being an strich will only aggravate the situation, as progression in medical science will be employed to develop much more reliable genetic tests within the next 4 years.

Insurers may then utilise genetic tests when underwriting covers, leaving us with a genetic underclass, who could have  trouble in finding cheap life cover.

Many insurance companies like the Friends Provident, are advising a public/ private solution to solve the problem. They of late employed an all encompassing moratorium on the underwriting of life insurance based upon the results of genetic tests. Using these tests will be costly so it is logical that the Government should share the burden with insurance companies.

An unbiased complaints procedure will be prepared by the ABI so that consumers have ample redress if they believe that the insurers have dealt with them unfairly. At present there is no documentation of how a scheme of this kind would perform,but of course it has to provide results, which purely deliver and be totally impartial of the insurance industry. The ABI do supervise the moratorium themselves, which create reservations re whether the public might receive an impartial  hearing. The positive statement by the ABI will be a meaningless promise if they don’t.

The Governments Cross party Group have been given a Statement of Concern  46 individuals and organisations have requested the Government to bring in a law to prevent  the use of genetic test results in insurance.

They are concerned that there is no legal guidelines to prevent the use of genetic testing by insurers and employers to make decisions about who is able to obtain insurance. What’s more they also believe that testing is not a reliable or conclusive forecasterof a customers impending health.

4 responses so far

Sep 24 2009

Insurance Companies Improve Protection Insurance

Published by admin under Life Insurance Premiums

Summary
In this article we explain  how Financial Protection Insurance may become more popular
with the insurers at long last making positive steps that could with any luck be successful.

Most qualified  financial advisors would be of the same opinionthat Protection Insurance is fundamental to the majority of families, whether it may be a  precaution in the event of premature death, prolonged illness, loss of employment (especially in the present economic climate), or cover for an accident.

lfe Insurance Cover is the basis of all financial assurance for cover for a mortgage or to ensure a lump sum that is not taxable, in the eventuality of death.  Unhappily, a proportion of other Protection Insurance policies, do not do not have similar reputable qualities and have been labelled as being miss-sold.  Also, based on what we are now aware, critical illness insurance has suffered as a result of astonishing exclusions from insurance policies making it feasible for insurance companies to reject many claims, as genuine as they may be.

In spite of this, some faith was re established when Aviva reported on the conclusion of claims on Critical Illness Cover on their 1/2 yearly figures. 

Critical Illness Insurance claims were being rejected because clients did not disclose their full medical background.  As a result Standard Life  says that in the last 5 months the number of declined claims has plunged significantly from 6.7 per cent in the last year, to 1.6%.

Why?  We think, not simply Aviva but all of the insurance companies, because of negative public relations, have been put into a position whereby they must reduce the number of claims that are rejected. Does this prove how forceful the press can be?  Debateable perhaps – you may think we are cynical but we think there are other factors that urged the insurance companies to make modifications.  A short time ago, as a consequence of bad press, sales of Critical Illness Cover  have declined which in turn has visibly affected the insurers profit. This is most likely to have been the vehicle to further change!

Friends Provident, Norwich Union, Scottish Provident and Axa have introduced some important alterations specifically designed to reduce their rejection rates. To begin with, they silhouette plainly that all health disclosure, however trivial a visit to a Doctor might have been, must be revealed.  Axa, together with others will get a Doctor or Nurse to telephone every candidate to discuss all the details of their medical record.  If the insurance policy then goes on risk, a number of policyholders are being told that it is important that they provide full medical disclosure and they are permitted to add or put right any details on their application.

The Insurance Company may then re-evaluate the risk and if it is thought to be increased the monthly payments will likely be increased – which appears more sensible and eventually more appropriate than paying the original premium then having a claim rejected because of non-disclosure of medical information.

This process should have been taken by the Insurance Companies a long time ago as the public’s perception of Protection Insurance has eroded by their somewhat eccentric approach. On a positive note, there is a clear and necessary need for protection insurance so we can hope that it is able to re-establish trust and then the popularity it duly warrants.

6 responses so far

Sep 24 2009

Hello world!

Published by admin under Uncategorized

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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