Life insurance questions?

I was signed up for a life insurance policy with my previous job, but I no longer work there. My husband has no life insurance at all. We just had a baby, and I'm really wanting to get life insurance set up for us. Also, do people actually insure their children?? My mother has always kept life insurance on me even when I grew up, set it up through my job. She even offered to put it on our baby, and I told her no, but that I would look into insuring my child myself. Where can I find insurance for all of us with a low policy cost?? Any tips or suggestions on life insurance would be helpful. Thanks, God Bless, and Merry Christmas.
Additional Details
I think term life would be best for my husband and I -?? Can that be renewed before the term ends?? And the only reason I see for anybody to ensure a child if something should happen God forbid, would be to only cover funeral related fees-??

There is a lot of disagreements among insurance agents on whether term or universal life is better.

This is my opinion. Agents want customers to buy whole life or universal life because it is more expensive and agents get get more commission on it. It's better for their pocket but not for your pocket. There are other reasons too but it gets complicated.

My suggestion is take a 30 year term policy that will give you level payments for 30 years. That is a long time and things and times change. You have no idea what will be happening even in 10 years.
Get one policy for each of you. Then on one of policies add a children's rider. That will cover all your children automatically no matter how many you have. Cover the children's rider for maybe $20,000.

Call around some of the big companies and get some quotes. The rates vary by state and by company. With people living longer rates today are very, very competitive. And, if you want to save money for retirement or the kids education then open a 401K or IRA for that purpose. That money grows and that is a real investment. Life insurance is not an investment.

Find an honest agent to tell you the truth.

Before I simply put down some information on basic insurance types, I'd like to address your additional details. The reason for insuring a child is not only for funeral fees - think about it for a moment. As you say, God forbid, but what if a child dies? Are you going to go back to work next week? Is your husband going leave you and the other children in just a few days and go back to his job? No, chances are you're both going to need time to grieve. Insurance money can provide the income necessary for you to take the time to heal and take care of your other children while you deal with the tragedy. Now as for types of insurance.

First: term - this is for a specific period only. Most companies offer 10, 15, 20, and some 30 and even 40 year term policies. There is no cash value accumulation within a term policy and it is basically renting your insurance for a specified period of time. It has its place, but in one bad feature of it is that you only win if you die. If you should die even one day after the term is up, your family gets nothing. Most beneficiaries actually appreciate if the policy is in force at your death and only about 1-2% of all term policies ever pay off because most drop it as they get older, simply because the costs become exorbitant. However, term is good if you only need insurance for a specified time and at least when youâ€™re young, premiums are cheaper.

Second: there is permanent insurance. This is insurance that will cover you for your complete lifetime, no matter how long. There are various types of permanent insurance. A lot of folks only know an older one called Whole Life. This is an insurance in which there is cash value growth within the policy. The premiums are fixed in this type of policy. The basic idea is that you make premium payments and what is above the necessary to insure you goes into the General Accounts of the insurance company, which usually guarantee you about 3-5% on this. However there is almost never any cash accumulation over the first five years and what they give you barely keeps up with inflation. As you age, the cash accumulation can be used by the company to pay for policy charges so these sometimes lapse or the person winds up at retirement with little if anything in the policy.

There is another type called Universal Life which is similar in many ways to the whole life, but here the premium payments are flexible, but again any cash value accumulation is put into the General Accounts of the insurance company and guaranteed at about 2-5%.

Third:
Because both types of insurance didn't provide real cash value accumulation, the insurance companies came out with a product called Variable Universal Life. Here, cash value accumulates in subaccounts (which are owned by the insured and NOT the insurance company). These accounts are in the market and get market rates of return. Depending on the portfolios you are in, these can average anywhere from 6 - 12% over time. Some of these policies also have a fixed account within their portfolios.

All of these permanent policies not only provide life long insurance for you, but the cash value in the account may be accessed tax free and if structured correctly and depending on the policy, this can add money to your retirement or even before so you may enjoy it while you're alive (as well as having the death benefit if something happens to you). .

About eight years or so ago, the insurance companies created Indexed Universal Life. In these policies, the company compares some index, usually the S& P 500 over the year. A lot of these policies seem to average about 6- 8% over time. They usually have a cap and a floor and they are often very attractive to folks who like some sort of guarantee and who may be a bit older.

Folks who insist you should always invest directly into mutual funds and buy term insurance instead of looking at a policy like this invariably seem to ignore potential tax benefits to a correctly structured policy like this as opposed to the potential taxes you will need to pay on the mutual funds. Youâ€™re going to pay someone: the insurance company or Uncle Sam. You need to look at whatâ€™s best in your own situation.

Speak to a local agent: make sure he/she is dually licensed so you can get the full story.

Does this mean I think term is bad? Absolutely not. I often recommend it to folks with a need for it or whose cash flow is down, but usually it's a convertible policy that can be moved to a permanent one as their situation improves. However, term is NOT the be-all and end-all and it often increases in cost to a point where you can no longer afford it as you age. Also, what happens if youâ€™re in a 20 year term and at year 17 you're diagnosed with cancer, or have a heart attack, etc. Your chances of having your policy renewed have dropped to about zero. If you died then with no policy your loved ones would get nothing. A permanent policy would continue so long as you kep

See an independent agent that handles life insurance. Level term policies will give you the most coverage for your buck. General info on life insurance can be found under "Personal Finance" at Yahoo Finance.

While the discussion hasn't gotten as bitter as it often does on these boards, I'm seeing the old permanent vs term argument.

Have an advisor do a comprehensive financial analysis. This is the only way to arrive at an appropriate amount of life insurance. Chances are you'll be astonished by the figure, but keep in mind that you're likely needing to replace 5-10 years of your income.

As for the type of coverage, you'll probably need a combination of permanent (whole or universal life) and term coverage. One poster recommended a 30-year term. This is illustrative of the ignorance of most in this forum. Only a small handful of companies offer more than 20-year term. Also, because a participating (dividend-paying) whole life will likely be self-funding within 12-15 years, the total premium outlay for a whole life policy will probably be less than for a 30-year term, and the policy will be in force for life.

lifeinsurance.awardspace.info - you can try this company. I personally have their life insurance.

you left out some key information what state are you in how old are you an your husband, how much coverage you would like ,any health problems, are you smokers or not , is life insurance important for you when your older do you want your insurance to build up cash value or do you want pure life? in general without knowing any of this the problem with insurance trew work is that if you developed a condition an cant work your insurance will expire an you'll be un insurable so i recommend index universal life policy for your husband with a rider for you an your kid(s) ask for a quote at your local allstate office an ask to speak to someone who can answer all your insurance questions

Contact a local agent, and have him or her do a Financial Need Analysis (FNA) to determine the total amount of needed life insurance. The analysis will also determine if you need long or short-term disability insurance, and even a retirement account.

Term insurance is good for a specified period of time. You will probably need some permanent insurance for the long haul. Most term policies are renewable and convertible to permanent coverage, but as you renew a term policy, the premium payment increases, OR the amount of coverage decreases, depending on the type of policy.

My recommendation, without knowing your total need or circumstances, would be to have a combination of whole life and term. You should also add a children's protector rider to cover your child, and all additional children in the future, either born or adopted into the family, will automatically be covered at no additional cost. For just a minimal cost, less than $100 / yr., you can cover each child under 18 with at least $10,000 coverage.

By All Means have a local agent do the FNA or other Total Need System. This service is free of charge.

Merry Christmas, and may God richly bless you and yours now, throughout the New Year, and beyond.

"Personally, I have sold term insurance 100% of the time. Why? I

Because that's all Primerica offers.

"Since premiums are low, I help setup investment accounts for my clients so that they can build wealth."

In funds with high loads, in order to make the same commissions you attack cash value agents for making.

"If you had lots of money saved right now, would you still need life insurance?"

Yes, they'll probably need to worry about estate taxes, but since Primerica doesn't even discuss that, you don't know about it.

As you get older and continue to invest, you may or may not need life insurance when it is time to renew the term insurance.

At what point in one's life do they not need a funeral paid for?

"If you were to invest $200/month for the next 30 years and the average rate of return in your portfolio was 12%, you would have about $650k saved for retirement."

How much of that would be taxable? What's the penalty if they want access to that money before age 59 1/2? If you did this for someone at age 35, 30 years ago, where would they be today? How's that 12% estimate looking today?

"That's probably not enough to live on, but at least its better than having money sitting in a life insurance policy."

Yep, tax-free withdrawals and policy loans sure do make it a bad idea.

Term insurance is probably best. Look into a policy that is guaranteed renewable until 65. Usually, these policies keep the premium the same for each 5 year period then can be renewed for another 5 years for a higher premium (the reason the premium goes up is because you are 5 years older and therefore a greater risk).

Term insurance is cheap and has gotten cheaper since people tend to live longer. Go price major companies e.g. Prudential, Met Life etc - you want a company that will be around for 40 years so they can actually pay the insurance.

It usually doesn't make sense to insure children. The odds of children dying are very low and usually parents can pay any funeral expenses. The insurance agents can really lay a guilt trip on parents - but the real need for the children is to have their parents insured so that if one of them dies they can still have a roof over their head and maybe money for college etc. If you have extra money don't spend it on insurance for the baby - save it for retirement or the baby's education and make sure you have good health insurance

Good Luck

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