Posts Tagged ‘insurance agent’
While taking a life insurance plan to cover your death benefits, you will certainly get a number of options from your insurance agent. But how do you select the optimum one? What are the feasible options as your budget and future planning is concerned?
Know your insurance options:
Let me tell you, it is never an easy task to deal with such risk-return trade off. First, you need to decide your financial goal. The death benefit plan can have two options for you to select. Either, you expect good return on your investments (the annual premiums) or just accept it as financial protection tool. For the first one, premium amount would be higher than the second one.
Simply put, the first insurance plan has dual benefit i.e. Return on Investment plus death benefit, which is called as Whole life insurance. Here a part of your premium goes to the investment fund like shares, mutual fund, stocks etc for funding.
In the second plan, the policy pays the monetary benefits to your beneficiaries upon your death which is named as Term life insurance. This is the most inexpensive insurance scheme as far as premium amount is concerned. You can get a number of insurance advisors to avail cheap term life insurance.
Now both the options may look lucrative if you know which one to use, when and how. It all depends on your income stability, saving pattern, insurance need and risk tolerance ability.
For example, if a 30 year old healthy man registers a policy with a death benefit of $30, 0000 he can apply for both the options: Whole life and Term life. In case of Whole life insurance policy the annual premium would be $3000, whereas to gain the same death benefit, Term life insurance would cost him only $300 per year.
Here is a point to be noted that in case of Whole life policy, the premium would remain same through out the life, whereas it will increase in Term life as you grow older. So, at the age of 70 years you may end up paying $ 12,000 per year as opposed to $ 300 which you started with.
Another advantage of the Whole life policy is that you can utilize the accrued money on demand. You can also borrow it from your investment funds anytime you wish.
Since both the options are viable, you have to judicially choose the apt one for your family. Initially you may start with term insurance for the basic securities, then think of pouring additional funds to get a whole life policy, where you can choose your investment option. For term life, you will have different options like annual, 7-year and 10-year policies. In annual term policies, premium would be higher. So it is advisable to ask Term life insurance quotes for at least 7 or 10 years.
When facing an insurance case, people often find it frustrating to wait for the insurance company to settle their case and ask how long it takes to process a claim. Many customers look for legal support of their anticipation, asking if there are any laws regulating the duration of insurance procedures.
Every state has its own regulations and legislation concerning insurance activities to which the insurance companies have to abide. In some states you may also find things like “Unfair Insurance Practices Act” or “Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act”, which are more specific and targeted at insurance activities in contrast with broader laws and regulations presented in other states. The nuances and specifics of such regulations have their own peculiarities across different states, however there are certain common points that they all share in regard to insurance companies, imposing them to: a) accept your insurance claim within a specific period of time (usually 15 days);
b) conduct a prompt investigation on your claim. Make everything possible to process and settle the claim with a clear liability. Besides, the insurance company has no right to refuse your claim a payment without delivering a valid and clear reason.
In case you feel that your insurance agent or company representative did something without correspondence to state legislation, you might want to speak to the person’s supervisor first. In case the attempt wasn’t satisfactory, it’s time for you to file a report in your state’s insurance regulation department. If the department has other similar claims concerning the same company it will conduct an investigation and is likely to impose a fine or even revoke the company’s license if the case is quite severe.
In some states you are even allowed to take legal actions against an insurance company individually, if you feel to do so. In case you choose to pursue in a lawsuit against your insurer, there are certain regulations that might help you: a) broader interpretation of coverage provisions, b) limited interpretation of exclusion provisions c) favorable interpretation of any ambiguities contained in the policy. However, take into account that in certain states, in case you’re successful with your legal action you will only get the claim amount, while in other states you may also be reimbursed with court fees and punitive damages.
Here are some helpful tips you may use in order to be prepared in case of filing a home insurance claim.
Prior getting the policy:
* Write down the coverage proposals told by the agent, you may need them for reference in the future
* Road through the policy before signing it, making sure that you understand its contents
* Don’t misinterpret or change the information provided to the application
Prior to filing a claim:
* Read your current policy thoroughly
When the claim is filed:
* Review your actual home insurance policy and the notes you’ve taken when signing the policy
* Inform the insurer about your loss in a prompt manner
* Keep the claim as objective as possible
* Log your communication with the insurer (especially when speaking by phone)
* Get all the materials proving your claim (such as receipts)
* Have copies of any documents you give to the insurer no matter what
* Estimate the loss on your own
* Sign releases or checks only if you think they’re fair