Quite often we read about people dying unexpectedly. They may die due to natural causes such as old age or through a fatal illness or through accidents or natural calamities. An unexpected typhoon caused massive flash floods that claimed the life of hundreds of residents in a city of the Phillippines. In a news report, surviving family members have expressed their grief on the loss of their loved ones and have also asked the government’s support for financial assistance because of what happened. A situation such as this is indeed really dreadful. However, there are ways to protect family members from being financially devastated because the head of the family unexpectedly dies. This is through a life insurance policy.
A life insurance policy is a sure way of assuring that the loved ones that a head of the family will leave behind will be able to cope with life financially even after that head of the family dies unexpectedly. The life insurance policy acts as a contract which will obligate an insurance company to indemnify the loss of life of a policy holder in the event of his/her death. The amount of coverage purchased by the policy holder is the same amount that will be given to designated beneficiaries upon the policy holder’s death.
A person who wants to purchase a life insurance policy even if it is just one of the more affordable life insurance policies available must consider how much coverage his/her family will need upon his/her death. There are a lot of things to consider such as the immediate expenses, the recurring expenses and the future expenses of the family. The fees and costs associated with the death of the policy holder come under immediate expenses. This includes funeral services costs and hospital bills. Unpaid credit card bills are also included in the immediate expenses. Recurring expenses are the costs that the family needs to pay to continue their daily living. These will include house rental, mortgage payments, utility bills and other payments made regularly. Future expenses will include the retirement expenses of the surviving spouse or the college tuition fees of school aged children.
The amount of coverage, most will advice, should be at least equal to or more than ten times the amount of the annual salary of the policy holder. Term life insurance quotes will give a potential policy holder the choice of coverage amounts as well as the corresponding premium payments that he/she has to pay on a regular basis.
Most life insurance policies will require potential policy holders to undergo a medical exam which will be conducted by a company appointed physician. The insurance company’s underwriters assess the life expectancy of the potential policy holder based on the results of these medical exam. This will be the basis of computing for the premium rates that the policy holder will have to pay. Whole life insurance and most of the long term life insurance policies require this medical exam. Policies with high coverage amount also require the medical exam and this exam is done annually.
On the other hand, certain life insurance policies available do not require any pre-screening medical exam. These policies are called the no medical life insurance policies. Individuals who have pre-existing diseases or illness before being covered by insurance may avail of this type of policy. This also is known as an instant life insurance. The insurance underwriters will make use of the person’s age and the information on the person’s family medical history as the main bases for the computation of the premium payments that policy holders must pay on a regular basis.
An instant or no medical life insurance policy has only one disadvantage. The amount of insurance coverage may not be large enough to cover all the necessary expenses of the family after the policy holder has died. Also, these types of policies may only a limited number of illnesses. Because of this, these instant life insurance policies are sometimes called accidental death insurance policies. It is because they only cover death due to accidents and not due to fatal illnesses.
Article by David Livingston of EQuote, who is a specialist in everything life insurance. For more information on insurance life and life insurance quote, visit his site today.