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.

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.

Some basic questions to ask your agent to guide you through the process are:

• How much will this life insurance policy cost me each year
• How much is the Sales commissions
• How much am I charged for Administrative fees
• What is the future life insurance cash value
• How much will I pay for penalties for an early surrender of this life insurance policy
• When do the penalties stop for early surrender
• What is guaranteed in this life insurance policy
• Are interest rates declared monthly or annually
• How long should I plan to keep this life insurance policy
• Should I keep it for a few years or for decades

Take your time to decide before you sign any forms and talk to one other person in your family or a friend.

• Decide how much you need (the amount of death benefits)
• How long you want the life insurance to cover you (1, 5,10, 15, 20, or more years)
• Compare insurance premiums with other companies
• Find out if the insurance policy fees are built into the premiums
• Ask is the life insurance policy is renewable
• Find out if it is convertible to whole life insurance
• Ask if participating life insurance policies are available (potential for dividends)

You can purchase term life insurance from an insurance agent but some companies market term insurance through the mail, internet or TV.

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.

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.