About Life Insurance.Please help!!!?

Which insurance company is the best when it comes to life insurance? And is it worth it at all?
Thank you for your answers.

The first thing you need to do is understand the different types of life insurance out there. There are two basic types of life insurance.

The first type is called "cash value life insurance." They go under the name as whole life, universal life, variable life, or a mixture of those words together. Cash value life insurance is a term insurance plus a savings attached to it.

Whole life insurance is a level term to age 100, Universal life insurance is an increasing term insurance (that means the insurance goes up internally every year) to age 100, and Variable life is also a level term to age 100, but the death benefit may increase if there is growth in the cash value. If you see the word "Variable" it means that a portion of your premiums is invested and when you are investing, you must know that there is no guarantee that there will be growth.

All cash value life policies provides protection to age 100. But the bad news is that they are generally expensive to the average consumer and most people who buy these types of life insurance are under-insured (meaning they don't have enough coverage).

Majority of cash value life policies have a low rate of return. They usually average around 3%. The highest I ever seen was 6%. The lowest I ever seen was 1%. If you ever wanted to take money out of the cash value, you will have to borrow it and pay a loan interest on it (usually around 8%). If you die someday, all the cash value is kept by the insurance company. In some life policies, the cash value is included in the death benefit, but you have to pay more premiums to get this feature.

The second type of life insurance is known as "term insurance." Term insurance does not build cash value, therefore premiums are very low. You can buy lots of coverage for a low amount of premiums. There are level term policies that are as short as 1 year (you want to avoid these) and as long as 35 years. Longer term is always better since it will give you enough time to build wealth for your future.

Right now, you probably have a mortgage to pay, you got a child to take care of, and you probably have some other personal debt such as credit cards. You probably don't have much saved right now, so the need for life insurance is very high.

If you die tomorrow, not only would it be emotionally devastating, it will also be financially devastating. Which will have a longer impact on the family, their emotional loss or financial devastation? The financial devastation because without life insurance, your child may not be able to afford college, the family will have to move out to a cheaper place, and your personal debt may go toward your spouse.

In the later years, your kids grow up and maybe move out of the home, your mortgage gets paid off, and hopefully you don't have much personal debt. So the need for life insurance is very low. You are nearing retirement, so you better have lots of money saved.

Buying term now will provide the right amount of protection needed to protect your family's income. At the same time, you want to start investing toward your future. Of all the cash value life policies I seen, none of them can compete against the S&P 500 index, which represents the top 500 largest companies (mostly all US companies). Most of the products you own in your home is listed in the S&P 500. In the past 20 years, the S&P has an average rate of return of 12%. Even though it done 12%, investor's performance will vary because people tend to make mistakes. If market crash, people will tend to pull their investments out. But if you are smart, you will continue to invest.

So lets say you invest $200/month for the next 20 years and it gets an average rate of return of 12%. Keep in mind, it's not going to do 12% every year. One year it may be 4%, then one year it may be 18%, but if you invest for the long term, it may average out to 12%. So in 20 years, investing $200/month, you can potentially have about $200k. In 30 years, you can potentially have about $706k, and in 35 years, you can potentially have about $1.3 million. If these investments were in a Roth IRA, you can withdraw all this money out after age 59 1/2 and you won't pay any taxes on them! Just remember, this 12% is not guaranteed. But saving money outside of life insurance is always better because life insurance charges lots of fees that you don't know about.

If you were to accumulate this amount of money in 20-35 years, would you still need life insurance? Your answer should be "I don't know" because you won't know your financial situation in the future. Maybe your kids are still dependent on your income, maybe you have a horrible mortgage where the principal balance never goes down (these type of mortgages do exist because I seen them), or maybe you abused your credit cards and maxed them out (hopefully you don't, but people have done it). Whatever happens in the future, you just need to take care of your needs right now.

Now you know everything about life insurance and a little bit about how money works, you are set to find the right life insurance for you. Remember that life insurance's only purpose is to replace your income if you die, not as a way to build savings for financial goals.

Many life insurance companies are good. You can use a number of factors to determine which is best - the financial rating, premiums, customer service, etc.

Here is a list of the top 10 largest life insurance by revenue for the year 2006, including their financial strength rating:

The Top 10 Life Insurance Companies - Revenues, 2006
and Financial Strength Ratings by A.M. Best Company

MetLife вЂ“ rated A+, Superior
Prudential Financial вЂ“ rated A+, Superior
New York Life Insurance вЂ“ rated A++, Superior
TIAA-CREF вЂ“ rated A++ , Superior
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance вЂ“ A++, Superior
Northwestern Mutual вЂ“ rated A++, Superior
AFLAC вЂ“ A+, Superior
Genworth Financial вЂ“ A+, Superior
Unum Group вЂ“ A-, Excellent
Principal Financial вЂ“ A+, Superior
Source вЂ“ www.iii.org

You may want to decide why you need the coverage to protect your kids through college, pay off your mortgage, etc.

Then use a life insurance calculator to determine how much you need.

After that you can use an online term life insurance quote service to compare free, no obligation quotes from top-rated life insurers.

Life insurance rates may vary by up to 50% or more between insurers, so it helps to compare multiple quotes.

One leading service for free quotes is efinancial at https://www.efinancial.com/smartquoteefc.aspx?source=389-777 They offer you up to 12 free quotes instantly, after you fill out an easy quote request form. If you like your rates you can apply online with no obligation.

I hope that helps! Best of luck to you.

And yes, life insurance is worth it. If you have others who rely on you for financial support, life insurance gives you the peace of mind you are provided for their secure financial future should you pass away unexpectedly.

Search here on Yahoo! Answers for other question on Life Insurance. YES it is definitely worth it. Insurance takes care by providing more money when it is most needed - after a bad event - car wreck, flood, illness or death etc etc.

Go talk to several local independent insurance agents. The AMOUNT of insurance as well as the TYPE of insurance is too complicated to try to answer on a message board without knowing more of your information.

Good Luck

It is worth it, only if spend the time to sit with an agent who is taking care of you and not padding his wallet. If the agent is working for you, you and your family will benefit.

There are many reputable companies out there. But focus on yourself and your family's needs before focusing on cost and the company name. If it is cheap it is so for a reason.

What do you want the insurance to do for you? That is THE most important question. All else is the answer to that question. So, what do you want the insurance to do for you and your family? Do you want all your debt eliminated? After all debt, including mortgage is paid, how much income will you and your survivors need; for how long? Do you want to pay off the mortgage? Do you want children's education paid for? Funeral- do you want that paid, also?

Next, ask yourself if you would like a Single policy that covers primary insured, spouse and al present and future children. This will eliminate the need, and COST, of having multiple policies. As was said above- do you want term insurance or whole life? Term is like car insurance- you pay for it hoping to never use it, but if the worst happens it is there to do it's job. Whole life has some funny rules- 1) 1st couple years there is no money in the savings;2) when it does earn interest it only earns at 1-4%; 3) you can borrow your own money out, but you pay the company 6-8%; 4) they do not have to give you YOUR money until up to 6 months, so plan your emergencies; and lastly,5) you pay premiums for two things- life insurance and cash build up, but your survivors will only receive one or the other.

Should you look into term, look at companies that offer LEVEL term only, with termperiods up to and including 35 years- that will cover until age 95, has a single policy for the entire household, if you presently have a child the child rider will cover any other children that are born in the future and one that has been rated highest in the industry.

What it is worth is dependent upon you and your situation. In it's simplest form, it provides you peace of mind... knowing that if anything were to happen, your loved ones would be taken care of in a number of ways.

Some of the other answers are good too and give ratings of the good companies.

However, the guy above me is simply trying to sell the heck out of mutual funds and can only use rate of return as his selling point. His logic is flawed and his advice is the type of advice that Suze Orman and all of the other talking heads give you.

yes it is worth it...it is the one thing you are glad you have when something bad happens and if you dont have it you will regret it..you want to make sure your loved ones who are left behind are taken care of along with any unfinished debt you may have at that time...it is also cheaper when you get when you are young and carrry the policy through your life making changes to it as your life changes..as far as who is the cheapest....the price for insurance is almost the same across the board the go off your age, health,smoker, etc....but you will want to find a company you are comfertable working with through these tough decisions..the best way to find a company like that is to ask around to people you trust like parents, co-wokers, friends and family members....for something so important you need to know who you are working with is professional and giving you the best coverage you need at this time in your life.

two types of life insurance:
term insurance: coverage and premiums lasts for a specified term of time, then it's over. Ususally has low monthly premiums. Does not have cash value.

whole life insurance: will last your entire lifetime; premuims are higher than term coverage, but builds cash value that you can use.

so sit down with an insurance agent or financial planner and see what kind of coverage you are needing, then get quotes and compare.

The way to tell if a company is good, better or best is to look at ALL the rating companies which are Moody's, Standard and Poor, Fitch and AM Best. The best ratings for all of these companies are as follows:

Moody's: Aaa

Standard and Poor: AA+

Fitch: AAA

AM Best: A++

Other things to look at are the company's surplus (this is equatalbe to retain earnings) this shows the company's financial strength for the future. Also take a look at how many claims and the total dollar amount of those claims that were paid out the previous year. You can get this information from the company's policy holder (or stock holder) annual review booklet. Take a look at how long the company has been in business, if it is a relativly new insurance company oh say the last 30 or so years, what makes you think that this company will be around to pay your claim in the next thirty years?

I have been an agent/ Financial Advisor for 2 years now and when I decided to look into which company could I put my name with, I did a lot of research on the big "famous" insurance companies, and the one I chose to work with primarily is New York Life. The reason for this is because it is a mutual company, not a stock company meaning that the policy holders are the owners of the company, and the board of directors makes its decisions based on what will keep New York Life around to honor the promises it has made to it's policy holders. It has all of the best ratings of the before mentioned industry "watch-dogs." They have been around for 160+ years, through the Civil war, the Great Depression and two World Wars and has honored its committments. They have over $13 BILLION in surplus to continue on honoring the promises they are making today.
Are they the cheapest insurance, not by a long shot, but we are not talking about a car that you are going to have for maybe two or three years and then trade it in. We are talking about a promise to pay out cash in the event of the worst case for your loved ones, and the reliefe that all they have to do is grieve for their loss and not have to have the added burden of wether or not they will be able to keep the house, the water flowing or the lights on.

So yes I believe there is a Best Insurance Company out there, I believe it is the New York Life Insurance Company and I believe that if your plan is to protect the ones you love from the financial loss of lossing you than it is all worth it.

There isn't one "best" company. Any company that's A rated and admitted to do business in your state, will work fine for you.

Is it worth it? Depends. If you're being "sold" something, likely not. If you have predefined "goals", and the insurance policy meets them, then likely it is.

I have term insurance, because I have minor children that I want to get through college. I don't NEED whole life. If it ever happens that I have enough of an estate to worry heavily about taxes when I die, I'll set up a trust, or corporations, or other method of ownership so that the tax issue goes away.

I look for the least expensive way to meet my financial goals. Insurance is a financial tool - it's not about whether or not you HAVE the tool, it's about if it's the right tool for the job.

Its definately important if you are going to poison your husband with arsenic. saw one the other night on crime and investigation channel, every time the wife kills the hubby, they have always bumped up the insurance policy in the run up. Its also a classic give away.

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