Group Life insurance is policy that insures a group of people. Its a type of insurance in which a group of people are covered- if you are part of the group.

Group Life Insurance is often provided by employers as an employee benefit because it is an economical way for employers to provide a quality benefit that employees value. Employees can usually be insured without medical examination as a group of people under a master policy.

The amount of coverage can vary from $10,000 to $100,000. Coverage ceases at the age of 70. Upon the termination of employment, the insured employee may continue coverage through an individual term policy without evidence of insurability for as long as the insured person continues to pay premiums.

Full-time employees may purchase additional life insurance for themselves, their spouse and eligible dependent children and have premiums deducted from their paycheck.

Life Insurance Premiums

If you are over 50′s, there are affordable ways to prepare for the future.

With over 50s life insurance cover there is guaranteed acceptance- and in most cases there is no need for a medical check up. Its easy to find coverage as you can apply online to get a quote.

Can can choose the plan that you an afford and the coverage depends on the level of cover you want. Monthly payments are clear and premiums are always the same month to month, and are guaranteed never to rise once your plan starts.

It is one of the simplest ways to leave your family a guaranteed tax-free cash lump sum after you die to put towards funeral expenses and outstanding debts.

The key benefits in having a Life Cover for over 50′s:

1. No Medical or health questions
2. Monthly payments stay the same after you sign the policy
3. Guaranteed tax-free cash lump sum
4. All application will usually be processed within 71 hours
5. You have have peace of mind.

Each Insurance Company uses different methods and factors to decide whether or not to insure you.

Here is a good example. If you have high blood pressure that you control with medication, one company might reject you while another company may accept you. Just don’t give up searching.

If you have a medical problem it’s a good idea to talk it over with your doctor. Treatment may improve your condition enough to meet company standards or the company may qualify you as a special risk at an adjusted premium.

You should also want to check on group life insurance. Some group plans do not require a medical exam or health histories from your doctor.

Insurance Companies are part of the free enterprise system and within certain limit they can select those individuals they want to insure.

However they are not free to turn down coverage without a valid reason.

Insurers cannot refuse insurance to anyone based on:

• sex
• martial status
• race
• creed
• color
• national origin

It is also against the law to deny coverage to domestic violence victims, people with a sensory, mental or physical problem.

The internet has become a very popular way to purchase life insurance policies. Remember all state laws and regulations regarding selling insurance apply to the Internet and insurance-based Web sites. Do some research and make sure the company is authorized to do business. Call the Insurance Consumer hotline before signing any policy.

Most people prefer to buy life insurance through an agent or broker.

Agents represent one or more companies. The agents job, is commission based to sell your policies of the company they represent.

Brokers represent and work for you. You would describe to the broker the type of coverage you want and the amount you want to spend. The brokers job is to survey the market and bring back options for you to review. The broker also receives a commission of the sales they arrange.

It is very wise to choose your agent or broker carefully.. Choose some who is an established business person in your community. If you have concerns about an insurance provider contact the Insurance Consumer Hotline.

You do not need a lawyer to resolve disputes in most cases, most insurance companies will generally be willing to work with your to straighten out any problems.

First contact your insurance agent. If your concerns are not addressed contact the company’s customer service office. If customer service fails short of your expectation ask about the company’s procedure for appealing decisions.

If your self-help efforts fall short then the next step is to contact the Department Of Insurance Office of Consumer Services, and speak to a life insurance analyst. Your analyst will answer your questions over the phone and explain any additional steps you should take to resolve your problems. The staff will give you an honest and unbiased answers to all your questions.

If this explanation does not satisfy you, you can then request a complaint form which your insurance analyst will mail to you with instructions of how to fill the complaint form. Your analyst will review all the facts to make sure the company follows its contract with you as well as Insurance Regulations.

The most frequent complaints about Life Insurance are:

1. Misrepresentation
2. Information requested
3. Coverage question
4. Claim denial

Most agents are very professional and honest but remember a dishonest agent can confuse you with a sales pitch designed for high sales commission with little regard to the impact it might have on you financially.

A good agent can be your best ally and advocate if you have a problem with the insurance company.

It is always good to get recommendations from friends, business acquaintances, banker or lawyer about finding the best agent you want to buy your life insurance from.

Insurance agents are all required to be licensed. But I personally look for an agent with extensive education beyond the bare minimum required for a license. These agents may use initials after their names to let you know you are dealing with a well-trained professional. Some examples:

CLU: Chartered Life Underwriter

ChFC: Chartered Financial Consultant

FLMI: Fellow of Life Management Institute

CFP: Certified Financial Planner

It is illegal for a stranger to take out an insurance policy on your life. The stranger has no insurable interest and could have an unhealthy desire to see you die sooner than nature intends, so that his can collect the death benefit.

A life insurance policy is like anything else, if you own it, you can sell it, even to a perfect stranger who has no conceivable insurable interest, who then becomes the policy owner and can then name himself as the beneficiary.

There are Viatical Insurance Buyers and Sellers of life insurance policies and they call themselves viatical settlement firms. The viatical firm buys insurance policies from people with terminal illnesses and sells them to investors.

This provision may be built into the policy or offered as a rider. It is intended to let you use death benefits to pay hospital or medical bills connected with terminal illness. It will require that you must have your “terminal illness” backed up by a doctors prediction that you will die within a set period of time. The amount of time will be specified in the policy. The policy may limit the dollar amount you can take out.

If you accelerate and use the death benefit, there will be less left in the policy for your family or other beneficiaries when you die.

The best way to explain what a life insurance rider is as follows:

Riders are modifications to the basic insurance policy added at the same time the policy is issued. Riders are used to either add or limit benefits to the policy. Riders change the basic policy to provide some feature desired by the policy holder. The policy holder will have to pay an extra amount to cover the rider.

When your agent includes riders to your policy to calculate your premium, ask the agent to price each rider separate. You then can decide whether your believe the added benefits any rider provides is worth the extra cost.

The most common riders I know of are:

Accidental death: Double indemnity. It means that the benefits paid by your policy will be 2 times the face amount of the policy if you die in an accident. It is known that 20% of all policy holder die in accidents. The cost for an accidental death rider is generally inexpensive. This rider is worth considering.

Waiver of Premium: This rider let you stop paying premiums whenever you become disabled and can no longer work. It is important to understand what the rider define “disabled” In most cases it means that you can not do any kind of work not just the work you had when you signed the policy. You may want to consider getting a disability policy to protect your from financial hardship due to a disability. Depending on the type of policy you buy, it could provide money to pay for all your living expenses and not just your life insurance premiums.

Mortgage Protection: This rider attaches a mortgage life policy to your main policy.

Other Insured: You can add life benefits for your spouse or children.

Guaranteed Insurability: This rider would typically be added to a whole life or universal life policy. Whereby it gives you the right to buy a new policy or increase the limit on your existing policy without passing another medical/physical exam. The rider will also specify how much you can add and when to do it.

Accelerated death benefit: This rider will let you sue some part of your death benefit when you have a terminal illness.

A Life Insurance Policy is based upon life of the person named in the policy. The policy is paid out when the following events occur: death, accidental death or sickness.

In return the policy owner agrees to pay a premium at regular intervals or in a lump sum.

Life Insurance policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations, specific exclusions are often written into the contract to the limit the liability of the insurer, for example most claims relating to suicide before 2 years of the date the policy is written will not paid in full.

The beneficiary receives policy proceeds upon the death of the insured person and only the owner can change the beneficiary and only the owner can designate the beneficiary to his policy.