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They say taxes and death are the only absolute things in life. Whether this is true or not, you can prepare for both. While tax planning is an interesting subject, we are going to look at life insurance in this article.

Life insurance is the great safety net against all that life can throw you. That being said, it is hard to imagine another area of financial planning that uses such odd terminology. Well, let

An important part of a sound financial plan, life insurance provides a death benefit to your beneficiaries and can replace some of the income you were earning. This can help preserve any investments, savings, or other assets you intended on paying off.

The Benefits Of Term Life Insurance:

A term life insurance policy can provide financial stability when you need it most in your life. This type of insurance policy provides coverage to the insured over a certain length of time. One key characteristic of level term life insurance is that the premiums remain level for the life of the policy (whether it be 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 years).

However, you may opt for “yearly” renewable term life insurance which has a lower initial premium. With this option the premium rises each year. Be advised that yearly renewable term life insurance is only cost effective for a few years because of the increasing premiums. Before you invest in term life insurance you need to decide if you are looking for a solution that runs more than a few years. A level term life insurance policy can cost less depending upon the number of years you’ll require coverage.

Serveral Good Reasons For Investing In Term Life Insurance:

Permanent insurance is more expensive than term life insurance. If you have young children at home it may be a good decision to buy a term life policy to protect your income. If you have bought a house and now have a 30 year mortgage for $500,000 that may be another deciding factor. If this is the case you may need to purchase a level term life insurance policy for $500,000 30 year term to cover your mortgage. If something were to happen to the proposed insured between now and the life of the policy the insurance company would write a check for the full face amount of the term life insurance policy for the survivor to pay off the mortgage and the balance could be used by the designated beneficiary to cover other living expenses.

Term Life Offers Conversion Options:

A convertible term life insurance policy means that during a specified time you can convert all or part of the term insurance to a permanent life insurance product without having to prove evidence of insurability. For instance, if someone took out a term life insurance policy their needs for the amount of coverage may change down the road. The need for some life insurance may still exist. The conversion option on a term life insurance policy gives them to option to convert over a certain amount to cover final expenses.

Term life insurance can be bought at an extremely low price and can be very attractive to young families. You can lock in a term rate at an early age while you are young and healthy and the rate is guaranteed for the full length of time on a guaranteed level term.

Some clients like to combine term life insurance with a permanent life insurance policy so during the earlier years of the policy they have more coverage. As they get older they may not need as much insurance as they originally applied for. For example, the children are grown and/or the house is paid off so the need for so much coverage is not there. The term insurance will expire but the client still has the permanent insurance that was put in force at the same time the term insurance was issued. Now the client still has the permanent life insurance to pay off final expense benefits down the road.

Why You Need Life Insurance:

1. Protect your family

You’ve heard the terms single payer universal coverage system or multi payer system tossed around by politicians, legislators and healthcare administrators when discussing healthcare reform. But, what do they mean? Are there similarities between the two models? What are the differences? Should we adopt this system for the United States?

Single-payer systems are usually financed relying on existing taxation systems; they effectively distribute risks throughout one large risk pool; and they offer governments a high degree of control over the total expenditure on health. Multi-payer systems sacrifice this control for a greater ability to meet the diverse needs and preferences of beneficiaries.

Canada is an example of a country that has a single payer universal coverage system. They provide universal health coverage to all Canadian citizens and the single payer into their system is the Canadian government. The United States has a multi payer system that is a mix of both private and public funds. Statistics provided by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2006 state that private insurance paid for 36% of personal health expenditures, private out-of-pocket payments were 15%, while federal, state, and local governments paid 44%.

There are other countries, however, that provide universal coverage to their citizens but use the multi payer model. Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, France, and Switzerland also rely on private health insurance to keep their multi-payer systems innovative and solvent. In Germany, 10% of the population has private health insurance; in the Netherlands, 31%; in Japan, over 50%; in France, 86% have complementary private health insurance; and in Switzerland, by mandate 100% have private primary health insurance.

According to the World Health Report in 2006, the U.S. spends more on health care per capita than any other nation in the world. Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 15% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the world’s highest. We also have some of the lowest statistics in the industrialized world in terms of life expectancy and infant mortality. The CIA World Factbook ranked the United States 41st in the world for lowest infant mortality rate and 45th for highest total life expectancy.

Most people would agree that Americans are in need of serious health care reform. Politicians woo their constituents with the promise of change. This is one of the platforms that all presidential candidates run on and one of the major factors that voters use to determine their ultimate voting decision. Americans want and are in need of change from the current system and there are examples from other industrialized countries to choose from and model after.

The United States has options in regards to selecting and implementing a new health care plan for its citizens. Universal health insurance whether it is a single or multi payer system would be a viable option.

Before you try to decide what the right amount of coverage should be. You first need to understand what Automobile Liability Insurance covers. There are always two factors that make up liability coverage. There is bodily injury and property damage liability.

Bodily injury liability covers just that, injuries that are caused do to an auto accident:

1. Initial aid

2. Medical expenses for bodily injury

3. Compensation for loss of income

4. Death benefits

5. Lawyer Fees

Property damage liability makes the damage that is cause due to an automobile accident.

1. Property damage to houses as other buildings

2. Restauration cost for other immobile objects

3. Automobile damage or total loss compensation

So, you are probably thinking to yourself what coverage limits should I have? Minimum liability guidelines are set by each individual state, they are usually 15,000/30,000/15,000 worth of coverage. The reason there is 3 numbers instead of two is because body injury liability is usually set in split limits but you could request a single limit of coverage.

Split Limit coverage: Limits are split into two for bodily injury coverage and then there is a separate coverage for property damage. If you take the example from above $15,000/$30,000 coverage, the $15,000 represents the total amount of bodily injury coverage that will be paid out to any one person during an accident. The $30,000 represents the total amount of bodily injury coverage that will be paid out for the entire accident. If you had a single limit of coverage it would include a maximum to be paid out but no individual maximum and it could be divided however needed.

The last number in your liability coverage is always your property damage limit in the above cast is was also $15,000.

What is right amount of liability coverage? The most common amount of coverage is a split limit of $100,000/$300,000 bodily injury with a property damage coverage equal to $50,000. People that take out lower limit are really exposing themselves to financial disaster if they can’t afford to pay the difference when an accident occurs. For example, say you have $15,000/$30,000 bodily injury coverage and $15,000 property damage coverage. You get into an accident that is your fault with two vehicles a five year Honda Accord and two year old Chrysler 300. There are three people in the Honda and one person in the Chrysler. All have minor injury but are brought to the hospital and the person driving the Chrysler stays overnight for observation. Their bills will run over your $30,000 maximum for Bodily injury and the person driving the Chrysler will have individual hospital cost of more than $15,000. What does that mean? Once your coverage is used up you will be responsible for the rest. With hospital cost as expensive as they are that could mean a very costly bill to you. This doesn’t even take into account the amount of property damage that needs to be paid out. Since you hit two cars the damage for both comes out at $19,000. That is another $4,000 out of your pocket. The worst part of the whole thing was you thought you had full coverage and that it didn’t matter what happened. Full coverage only means that you have liability coverage, comprehensive and collision coverage but your limits on liability are the most important. Make sure they are set properly.

The most common amount of coverage around the country is split limit of 100,000/300,000/50,000 but you might want to consider even higher limits. The cost to raise liability from 15,000/30,000/15,000 to 100,000/300,000/100,000 or even higher shouldn’t cost more than a couple of hundreds of dollars per year. I’ll personally spend a little more now to save thousands later just in case I was sued for expenses costing more than my coverage limits.

This article is aimed at couples buying life insurance and the benefits over cost of having or arranging two single life plans rather than just arranging a joint life first death plan for both individuals.

Most people don’t realize that, in some situations, it can be a lot more helpful to have a pair of single life insurance policies, even though they know they need insurance. Here’s how this strategy can help you.

To understand this principle you first need to be aware of the choices open to you. Say for example you are a couple who need life insurance for whatever reason. Most people in this position would opt for a joint life first death life insurance plan. Joint life first death is simple in so much as the benefit is paid once in the event of the first person dying. Once this event has taken place the plan ceases and there is no cover for the surviving individual.

Instead of dealing with a joint plan, you can choose to set up a pair of single insurance plans, which will provide benefits for each person, regardless of what happened with the other partner’s plan. Children and other dependents are then covered, even if one partner dies early. Even if you’re legally married, your individual plans won’t be affected by your partner’s death. This isn’t so with a joint plan.

It is quite common that when couples take out plans to insure themselves that should one of them die the other is in a position of having no life cover at all. This commonly leaves them needing to arrange life insurance as they may still have a need to insure their lives for one reason or another. If this event is sometime after taking out the original plan they will probably find that the cost of cover is considerably higher at this point due to many reason not least the fact that the life assured is that much older and more expensive to insure.

One other reason why two single life plans can be far more beneficial to the one joint life first death plan is down to how relationships and marriages work, or not, as the case may be. It is said that 40% of marriages will end in divorce and a significantly higher percentage of relationships will end in separation. In these situations assets have to be split in order to pass equal benefit to each partner. Life insurance plans are in most cases, if not all, impossible to separate. So if you have to single life plans this problem does not present itself as each life assured walks away with their own plan in tact.

One common belief is that it costs too much to have your own life insurance plan. In fact, setting up two single plans for a couple costs around ten percent more than setting up a joint plan. Since you’ll essentially be receiving twice the benefit, this extra cost is well worth it. Having your own plan, separate from your partner’s is clearly the better choice.

Of course, the best benefit of having two plans is the fact that you’ll get twice the benefits. A joint life insurance plan offers only one payout, then the plan ceases to exist. On the other hand, if you both have a plan of your own, these plans are independent of one another. This means that each play will pay out on its own. Since two plans cost only about ten percent more, that’s a lot more benefit in the end than cost. Financially, a pair of independent plans seems like a good idea.

In summary, having one plan per person, even if you’re a couple, means never having to reapply for insurance at a higher rate. If your partner dies, you’ll still be covered. In the event that a relationship fails, the arrangement is more flexible than joint plans, and the cost over financial benefit is excellent if you compare them. When you go shopping for life insurance for you and your partner, look into alternative plans, instead of just going for joint life insurance. In this case, two life insurance plans is probably better than just one.