Insuring Collectibles: Tips for Hobbyists and Professionals

Precious collectibles might have a great value, but seldom get covered against all potential ways of destruction. A set of canvases with paintings, a coin collection, signed props of one’s most favourite music group, or rare and foreign goblin merchandise from a movie are but a few examples of valuable things that people like to collect.

Whether the core goal of your collecting is passion or a means of investment, it is wise to have your precious collection insured. Granted, the cash you receive will not make up for the enthusiasm you have invested, but it might at least allow you to start de novo. Learn more from life insurance specialist Lorne S. Marr...

Specific Insurance Coverage

Clients must take into consideration that this underwriting follows different principles than insuring other types of property. Conventional kinds of property insurance as a rule only cover the quantifiable value of the insured item. A stolen flat-screen TV can be replaced by a new one and a flooded hard-wood parquets can be removed and re-laid. Such things are almost always easy to replace — an exceptional vase or an inherited signed photograph of one’s favourite talented opera singer aren’t.

For that reason, pricey collectibles have to be considered and insured on their own. You can approach several insurance companies that include collectibles insurance in their portfolio in Canada.

Estimating the Price

Plenty of clients imagine that the collectible items must be valued by a specialist before it is insured. This is not unavoidably the case. Official appraisers have to be rewarded for their statements, which would make frequent evaluations unworkable.

Even still, you should be able to justify the benefit sum you choose. Correct appraisal may ensure your monthly or yearly insurance fees are efficient. In addition, it will also expedite the claims filed that may come later on To rephrase, if you inflate the value of your collection, you are risking that the heightened insurance fees will never actually pay off for you.

There are abundant guides for accurate self-valuation of a wide range of collectibles. Delve into the ways to buy and sell your type of collectibles and/or discuss with other seasoned collectors to begin building the bigger picture.

Risks in the Terms

If you ever wish to take out insurance on your special collection, check out the plan that covers ‘all risks.’ As well as the normal dangers of robbery, flood, or fire,, an ‘all-risk’ plan will cover natural wear and tear, damage or destruction in war, and even inexplicable vanishing.

What is more, you will likely be able to include new items in your coverage easily. If you are greatly invested in collecting, contact your insurance provider before you pick the item up to bring it home, so you are covered on the way!

Documentation

More critical than a costly appraisal is maintaining a detailed inventory of your items and any receipts from the purchases, sales, and exchangesof your pieces where feasible. Take photos or other visual evidence of all of your revered collectibles. Such documentation will likely help abridge any claiming process if indeed you misplace part or all of your belongings.

Funny Examples of Collectibles Insurance

Clients often generate uncanny accounts of their collections’ loss or destruction. A tiny bit of advice: please do not cry over your valuable images or show them off to visitors who are allergic to your pets. Pets in general often devour pieces of puzzles and wet paintings. Some collectors like to drive with part of their collection placed on their car’s roof, or dare upsetting their less enthused girlfriends and wives, who then frequently tend remove the prized possessions.

If you want to be on the safe side regarding collectibles insurance, please locate a knowledgeable specialist insurance broker or financial advisor in your area.

Claiming an Insurance Coverage in Canada

When people think about life insurance, they often ask “What legal consequences does passing have?” and, “How do the beneficiaries get hold of the insurance coverage sum?” Filling out paperwork is definitely not something you would seek when you just lost a loved one. Therefore, Hence, LSM Insurance do our best to reduce the hassle of the claiming process for you as much as possible.

In order to begin the claims process, one should contact the life insurance company and also one’s life insurance broker or agent. This will start the claim process.

Consider that the life insurance carrier will request a death certificate. One can be obtained from the funeral home. They will also require the beneficiaries to deliver a claimant form which spells out some information about the death of the insured person. These would namely be the time of death, the cause of death, and all the personal information of the claimant or claimants. After signing and filing this document, the life insurance carrier may verify with the client’s doctor some of the information avowed in the initial request. It is important to make clear that should there be many claimants on a particular policy, each one of them will have to fill in his or her own claimant form.

Canadian life insurers are more likely to want to examine the cause of death if the claim took place within the initial two years of the insurance policy. The resolution methods and requirements do differ from company to company, so it is crucial that the claimant verifies this information with an insurance broker or the life insurer.

It is possible that the insured person have multiple insurance policies at the same time, obtained by way of multiple channels. Remember that insurance policies do not actually pay out lest someone files an application. For that reason, make sure that you take care to find out about the possible other life insurance policies. There could be more funds which you are entitled to apply for to which you may be oblivious. Life insurance is regularly presented to those applying for credit cards or lines of credit. Do not forget to contact your or your loved one’s insurance broker to assist you with making a claim if you have any worries about the procedures. Certainly research all potential kinds of life insurance coverage that your loved one may ever have taken on.

Compiled by Lorne Marr, an insurance expert and he is also an authority on Canadian no-medical life insurance. Lorne is familiar with more than a dozen Canadian life insurance companies.

Low Interest Rates in Life Insurance

In order to encourage growth throughout the universal financial downturn, overnight lending rate of Bank of Canada has stayed at one per cent since September 2010 and is most likely to linger at this figure in the foreseeable time horizon.

The United States, China and emerging economies will grow slower than previously thought. Unfortunately, the European Union is falling into a relatively mild decline. Nobody said, however, that the developments cannot in fact be less favourable.

All this is bad news for Canada’s insurers. Their income depend on interest incurred in financial investments.

Proceeds from life insurance premiums are usually put into bonds—a relatively very safe investment vehicle—and remain there to generate interest. This interest can cover the costs of insurance claims, overhead and other miscellaneous obligations. Interest revenue left over will become insurance company profits.

Unprecedentedly low rates have put the screws to profitability for of Canadian insurers. Many insurers are trying to balance out these rates by inflating the price of their permanent life insurance policies. Manulife, Empire Life, Industrial Alliance, Canada Life, and BMO Insurance have all bumped up the fees on their level-cost universal life plans. Manulife has taken even more drastic measures – they decided to remove this type of coverage from their permanent life offering altogether. What’s more, additional players are likely to do the same in the foreseeable future.

The outlooks are ugly, seeing as central banks in the US and Canada are saying that interest rates are going to remain low for the foreseeable future.

One positive outcome of this situation is that a few smaller Canadian insurers try to attract new customers by freezing their permanent plan rates.

Please read more on the effect of the current interest rate trough on government employees and pensions.

Lorne Marr, author, is an insurance specialist and an authority on no medical life insurance. Lorne works with over a dozen Canadian life insurers.

What’s the News with Critical Illness Insurance?

Critical illness is nothing that we’d like to face at any point in our lives. Because the possibility of developing an illness can never be eradicated entirely, it is important that one takes precautions.

Only then, one is able to make key financial decisions. Taking on the suitable insurance plan now – while you are healthy – is one of the ways to make up for some of the unexpected costs that might be brought about by a critical illness. And that is the reason why there are half a million such policies active in Canada.

Life-and-death conditions are but a slice of the story. Even if one exceeds the originally estimated elimination period, the insurance company may take time to review the claim. One of the measures taken, for example, is to validate whether the insured knew of the illness at the time of application.

The latest news is that a few Critical Illness insurers in Canada bring forward an automatic increase benefit rider. This rider works to augment the policy’s critical illness insurance benefit at scheduled intervals. These automatic increases also mean that the monthly premiums in accordance with the benefit increase.

RBC Insurance, for one, offers its clients a biannual Automatic Increase Benefit Rider. This rider provides the insured with an opportunity to add to her or his benefit every second insurance policy anniversary until the rider terminates.

What is more, during the initial ten years of the policy, the insured person can boost their benefit amount without having to provide additional proof of his or her insurability. The amount is going to be equal to 20% of the originally agreed-upon policy benefit. This means the actual coverage can increase by 100% this way.

One caveat: RBC automatic increases may not be deferred or missed. In case the customer declines an increase, the add-on automatically terminates. Though, previous increases and corresponding increased premiums will still be in effect.

Speaking of inter-insurer variances Canada Life draws a distinction between cigar and pipe smokers in that they classify cigar and pipe smokers as if they were non-smokers for the purposes of critical illness and disability plans. This fact has a great potential to cut down the total price.

Check out for recommended reading about Critical Illness insurance: How Equitable Life Insurance reworked Critical Illness Plan for kids.

Various Insurance Policies Clarified

Today, we will take a peek at several types of insurance products offered to all of us that many are oblivious to. My short list should give you an overview of what is available out there.

American Insurance Company Building in Newark, New Jersey by wallyg

Mortgage Life Insurance

Kicking off with what is a terrible product: Mortgage life insurance. This idea obliges you to pay for coverage that weakens as you go. This means that the more cash you pay in, the more risk remains uncovered. This is such a bad deal that no one should ever agree to, since there are dramatically better means of insuring the household to offset the risk of default.

Bump Up Remuneration using Group Insurance

Employee benefits have the potential to engage HR managers for a long time. There are simply countless combinations of various perks and it is very hard to pick the ones your people will enjoy most. To top it off, the costs of employee benefits have been making it crucial that companies’ choices are as financially efficient as possible.

When you have acquainted yourself with the available combinations, look for perks your employees will prefer. Be open with them and give them several options to select from in a simple survey or take a look at their claims history and search for major examples of behaviour. Record and consult your approach and progress with an expert group specialist to prevent ordinary mistakes and boost the efficacy of the process.

No-medical Life Insurance

Guaranteed issue life insurance is a specific category of life insurance that is available to almost any applicant regardless of her or his medical history. This includes patients with lethal illnesses, patients with AIDS, and patients with unhealthy habits, such as smoking or drug abuse.

Insurance companies will accept almost anyone and they will ask only a few or no medical questions during the application process. Because this practice exposes insurers to much greater risk, the cost will show this and will be considerably more costly than with traditional life insurance plans. Also, the maximum coverage sum will typically be topping at several thousand dollars, whereas traditional agreements may easily reach anywhere up to millions of dollars. In addition no medical and simplified issue life insurance plans will contain exclusions in order to protect the underwriter from “abuse” by people who are extremely close to death. These are all sacrifices that you will have to make if you do not qualify for mainstream life insurance plans but want to be covered to a certain extent.

Life Insurance to Compensate for Detrimental Impact of Earthquakes

In the aftermath of the earthquake near the Japanese islands and the devastation it brought into the country of the rising sun, we looked into the exposure of Canadians to earthquakes and the ways we can protect ourselves.  The events in Japan make us feel very strongly for survivors and victims alike.

Quakes are lethal and emotionally disturbing.  This is most certainly the case in Japan, where the Sendai quake registered a 9.0 reading on the Richter scale and thus was the 5^th strongest quake recorded in the history. The magnitude, however, is not really the most important either, because even a less momentous earthquake originating within an inhabited area may come to be more serious than a forceful occurrence happening in the middle of the Pacific.  The last earthquake in Canada could be noticed not that long ago, taking place just a few months ago on June 23^rd, 2010 between Québec and Ontario.  The thing nobody wants to worry about after living through something like an earthquake is paying for picking up the shattered pieces – this is where life insurance coverage can come in very handy.

We enquired five chief Canadian insurance companies and all of these will cover death in the event of a disaster.  The insured, however, mustn’t be hit by the disaster while visiting specifically prohibited locations.

The prevalence of natural disasters of huge significance steadily rises.  It was hardly a few weeks prior to the quake in Sendai that swaths of Australia were under water.

While no more than 75,000 lives were lost yearly during the 1990s, compared to 86,328 each year during the eighties, an average of 211 million people were directly affected by natural disaster in the 90s – up from 147 million in the eighties.

The number of natural disasters has tripled since the 60s and, even worse, the monetary effect has amplified by a factor of nine in that same time.

Death due to an earthquake is increasingly possible all the time, so in Canada, life insurance that helps when someone dies in an earthquake is only a natural choice.

Cremation as an Alternative to Burial and Your Life Insurance Coverage

The cost of cremation is by far smaller than that of a burial in Canada.  Nonetheless, the cost of cremation still vary widely.  Much depends on the complexity of the cremation ceremony that you select, the region you are home in, and the funeral provider that you use.  If you have been hesitant to ask thus far, according to a article on cremation, a direct cremation normally comes at about $700.  With an obit, holy service, transportation and catering, decorations and viewing, the total expense may climb up to $2,700.  Although much cheaper than the burials worth thousands of dollars, this is still a significant item in the budgets of most of us.

The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) claims that the ratio of cremations to traditional funerals in Canada, from about 5.89% in the seventies to over 68% in 2009. An article on the funeral “business” from Sun Media asserts that last year, cremation amounted to a slight majority of all funerals in Canada.  The climbing "popularity" of incineration in the recent years can be credited to one thing – inexpensiveness.

LSM Insurance is aware that many of us are interested in substitutes of the traditional funeral to save some money.  In Canada, life insurance can be a very effective strategy for doing away with the wide range of outlays associated with cremation.

Life insurance proceeds are paid out tax-free and, in most cases, the coverage can be taken out for a quite reasonable monthly fee.  Life insurance policies usually fall under one of the following three groups:

1. Traditional Life Insurance, where the client is required to subject her- or himself to a medical check-up and answer a comprehensive list of health questions.
2. Simplified Issue Life Insurance that does not require medical tests and the insured has to complete anywhere from 3-twelve health-related questions.
3. Guaranteed Issue Life Insurancewithout health check-ups and the insured needen’t complete any questions.  Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance is also referred to as No Medical Life Insurance

One trouble with guaranteed issue as mentioned above (and certain simplified issue insurance plans) is the contractual limitation of the payout to a return-of-premium and applicable interest in case the insured passes away within the first two years due to non-accidental causes.  This safeguard is in place to prevent insurance policies from becoming a speculative form of investment for otherwise uninsurable applicants.

RBC Insurance's "Business Insurance Rider"

Insurance policies often bear a resemblance to a car purchase. As soon as you decide for the fundamental insurance policy, there is a large array of alternatives, riders and tweaks that you may potentially need. They can add to your policy and help account for your individual risks easily. Some optional riders are more often applied than others, but all may be beneficial to you.

RBC Insurance now offers a Business Insurance Option, which is basically akin to the Future Income Option which applies to its disability insurance policy.

The business insurance option is a policy rider attachable to RBC’s Disability Insurance. The rider is an affordable one guarantees for the insured an opportunity to add additional protection without having to undergo a medical examination. This is good in the event that the value of their business increases.

Akin to the Future Income Option, the Business Insurance Option guarantees that the owners are incontestably insurable in the future. If one of the partners was diagnosed with a health issue (such as diabetes) but, at the same time, their company grew in its worth. Purchasing extra coverage down the road could very well become an issue in a traditional instance. However, thanks to the Business Insurance Option, the business owner can compound their personal income coverage once every two years from the policy’s effective date. This date—often being the same as the beginning date of the rider—is the so-called “option date”.

These are the specifics of this particular disability rider:

• The highest face value of the newly acquired coverage is eighteen per cent of the rider figure at a time.
• Financial data attesting the client’s claim to purchase additional coverage is required, but the insured won’t need to provide additional health-related information when these option dates are applied.
• The additional premium is, however, calculated based on the insured’s current age, not his or her original application age.
• The added option income falls under a matching type of coverage and agreement terms as those of underlying insurance plan.

Learn about more special policy riders and options. Stay updated about the latest insurance news, check out the LSM Insurance online portal.

How Does Cosmetic Treatment Influence Your Insurability

As stated by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of cosmetic surgeries in this Country is the fifteenth highest in the world, with 108,758 procedures carried out per year. Especially contrasted with the rather small population of Canada, this figure is really fairly high.

The surgery ladder is headed by the US, which are followed by Brazil, China, India and Mexico. The developing countries increasingly offer advantageous price for the quality of service.

To help our clients understand the impact of invasive cosmetic and/or plastic procedures on people’s ability to purchase proper insurance coverage, LSM Insurance carried out an analysis among several large life insurance companies. Are these insurees forced to look for no medical life insurance? The insurance team queried five major Canadian insurers. We might have expected that none of the insurers would give any simple resolutions, since all traditional life insurance arrangements must be underwritten fully.

Even those insurers who did talk declared that prospective clients who are looking to undergo cosmetic and plastic procedure like breast enlargement, lip enhancement, or Botulinum toxin (Botox) may qualify for standard policy pricing. However, these procedures are considered just as other operations; the life insurer may postpone making a decision for a pending surgery.Normally, the evaluation will be undertaken only after the actual operation. This means that you should basically—when possible—wait with surgery planning until after their agreement has been signed.

Surgical procedures tied with other nervous or mental maladies may carry with themselves additional hazard and could cause the client to receive a rated insurance plan premium or cause him or her to be turned down completely.

Lorne Marr, author, is an independent insurance broker and an expert on no medical life insurance. Lorne has worked in this industry for nearly two decades. His LSM Insurance brokerage firm works with more than 13 Canadian life insurers, such as Standard Life Assurance or Manulife Financial Life Insurance.

Can Cocaine Users Get Traditional Life Insurance?

According to the most recent data (2009) from the Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, cocaine and its derivatives were the most popular drugs used by those fifteen years or older, after marijuana.

Whereas cannabis was used by 10.6% of us during the year of the survey, roughly 1.2% of people had experience with cocaine and crack. An average of 11% of Canadians experienced an unlawful drug in the same interval. Among these drugs are heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, speed, hallucinogens (excluding salvia) and, of course, cannabis and/or marijuana. 17.7% of men and 7.6% of women had tried drugs, with youth reaching 27.3%.

Since 2004, Canadians have been abusing banned drugs less and less. This leaves plenty of former users and addicts who will want to purchase life insurance one day.

Quite understandably, insurers in Canada do not really particularly favour the use of cocaine or of other drugs. Current cocaine use, or other forms of recreational drugs, will earn the applicant an instantaneous rejection. This is simply because unlawful drug use is a pre-existing medical condition. It should be noted, however, that drug users may qualify for simplified issue policies. This coverage is not subject to any medical tests and often does not have a drug related question.

We inquired four leading life insurers and scrutinized how their underwriting guidelines look at ecstasy, heroin and cocaine. Here is what we found:

• Ongoing addiction to heroin, cocaine or ecstasy will earn the applicant a decline on the part of the insurance company.
• If the applicant has not been involved with drugs for more than 4 years, the insurer’s quote will in all probability lead to a policy rating if the applicant is otherwise in good shape. A policy rating means for the insured that he or she pays an additional monthly premium on his or her insurance plan due to the larger risk to the life insurance company. Plan ratings are generally in a multiple and can be anywhere from 1.5x to 5x the insurer’s usual cost.
• If the client has not been abusing drugs for over 4 years, the client may qualify for standard premiums (i.e. without policy rating). Of course, this only works if there are no underlying health and lifestyle issues.

An insurance advisor with enough experience in this specific area can help you acquire quality life insurance for a reasonable price.

Lorne S. Marr, author, is an insurance specialist and an expert on hard-to-insure clients. Lorne works with over a dozen Canadian insurers, such as London Life Insurance Company or London Life Insurance Company.

LSM Insurance Brokers Are Comparably Better for You than the Others, Did You Know?

LSM guarantees to its clients that our brokers are serving its clients better than other Canadian insurance brokers.

The Globe and Mail exposed the hidden world of bonus and vacation structures which are aimed to push brokers to sell policies of the insurers that virtually employ them. These practices are most likely to take place when a broker is generally dependent on doing business with a single insurance company. In most cases, such incentives mean brokers are not exactly acting in their clients' best interest as they constrain their clients only to insurance plans from those insurance companies that are keen to offer the most attractive bonuses -- not the best plan that suits the client's needs and economic situation. The article lists the following:

Instead of searching the marketplace to locate the best coverage, and the most favourable terms, for the clients sitting across from them, many autonomous brokers and agents steer all their business to a minimal number of insurance companies, say insurance executives in an interview for The Globe. They favour the ones that reimburse them most generously in commissions, bonuses and perks, such as those all-expenses-paid trips.

Unfortunately, this may only too often be true of most brokers operating in Canada, LSM Insurance has throughout its history operated from a higher moral level. Our brokers expect very comparable bonuses from every insurer with whom we work, so there is no motivation to prefer one carrier to another except our clients' best interests. Brokers who only work with a handful of carriers are more biased towards those particular companies. As client-oriented as we are, LSM is contracted with over 15 insurers.

LSM is perpetually in contact with all of those insurers. LSM finds itself very close to those underwriters to ensure we are qualified to pair every customer with the right insurance carrier for their unique situation. This philosophy adds up with LSM's one-of-a-kind specialization in those clients that are hard to insure (i.e. people with lifestyle or health issues which prevent them from qualifying for conventional insurance plans). That, in turn, has enabled LSM Insurance to eliminate the apparent conflict of interest affecting the rest of the insurance industry in Canada.

However, if scepticism still permeates your thoughts, check out our Testimonials Page featuring honest feedback from our clients. This neat assortment of opinions will give you a decent idea of the kind of service we have been providing to our clients over the many years we are in the insurance brokerage business. LSM also gives our clients the opportunity to put their destiny in their own hands using our many handy interactive utilities (such as our Needs Analysis Calculator and Internal Rate-of-Return Calculator), which add more precision to the buying process.

Boosted Ratings of Transamerica Life Canada

As reported in the August Issue of the Insurance Journal, S&P recently improved its counter-party credit and financial strength ratings for Transamerica Life Canada from “BBB” to “BBB+.”  The outlook as an insurance company is positive as of now.

Similarly, in July, AM Best changed Transamerica Life Canada to positive from stable and affirmed the financial strength rating of B++, which equates to “Good”.  AM Best also reclassed the prospects to positive from negative and confirmed the insurer’s credit rating at BBB+.  More good news for Transamerica clients and prospective customers, Transamerica Life has slashed its term plan prices from September 20.

To learn more about guaranteed issue life insurance, visit our specialized website.

Learn More about Lorne and the Company

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question - have you already had a look at LSM Insurance on Facebook? We will be happy to see that you “Like” us!

Also, if you want to find your favourite broker, check out the exact location of LSM Insurance on wikimapia.org .

Thanks and stay tuned for more articles!

- Lorne

Were You and Your Loved Ones Caught Up in The Earthquake In Canada Last Week?

Did you feel the earthquake that struck south eastern Ontario and some of Quebec on June 23, 2010 at 1:41 pm EST?

Luckily, the magnitude was only 5.0 according to the US Geological Survey, and no extreme damage was reported. Just 61 km north of Ottawa is where the epicentre of the earthquake happened.

As reports came in, many people spoke of a gradual rumbling which escalated in intensity, a bit like building work going off below or around you. The vibrations could be felt as high up as the 9th floor of office and apartment blocks according to eye witnesses. The rumbling sensation may have been mild, but Lorne certainly felt the earthquake.

Even though natural disasters happen very rarely in Canada, they do occur and it brings home to us all how vulnerable we all are. It definitely makes me wonder what I can do to protect myself and my family should another disaster hit us.

Along with normal emergency preparedness, part of your preparation should include life insurance.

What many people do not understand is that along with disasters such as floods or hurricanes, earthquakes are one of the most expensive natural disasters. Earthquakes account for 30% of all damage by natural disasters from 1950-2001. While the human cost of earthquakes is only 9% compared to the 42% occurring due to famine, famine only accounts for 4% of the damage which is tiny in comparison to earthquakes.

People losing their lives fell in the 90's from 86,328 per year in the 80's to 75,252; but those touched by natural disaster climbed from147 million in the 80s to 211 million people a year in the 90's.

With a big increase in monetary impact from natural disasters since the 1960's we also see an increase of occurrences, which isn't good news.

With more disasters occurring then it stands to reason that more and more people are going to have their lives affected by them, as a result it is only natural to look at ways of minimizing the impact on your family.

The five influential Canadian insurance organizations we surveyed do provide death benefits for you and your family if such disasters take place, but you need to check the policy carefully if you choose not to use them and go elsewhere. If you are urged not to travel somewhere, such as a war zone and you do, be aware that this is one exception that insurance companies put in place on their schemes.

Delivered by Lorne Marr, the founder of LSM Insurance and mortgage life insurance expert

Not every shake is the same!

image by elana's pantry

Life Insurance for the Older Generation

Life insurance for the senior generation has altered substantially in Canada. Although insurance companies look more closely at applications the actual charges, in most cases, are a lot lower.

The following are six factors to keep in mind when looking into when thinking about life insurance as a senior:

1. Life insurance up to the age of 85 is now quite normal. Nonetheless, the premiums vary significantly between ages 65, 75 and 85. What a lot of people fail to contemplate is the best time to buy life insurance is now, that's because you are looking at today's rate.

2. The premiums payable can be anywhere from $20 per month with a face value of $5,000. If you are searching for traditional life insurance and want an instant life insurance quote, hunt no further.

3. Many creditor insurance plans end at age 69. Individual life insurance is certainly the better option if you are in good health and coming up to or have already retired.

4. If you fortunate enough to be in excellent health with an excellent family health history you could probably qualify for the preferred rates.

5. A last-to-die policy often has a smaller rate than the normal life insurance policies, this is on offer at a lot of insurance companies. This type of insurance is used largely for estate planning and pays out a tax-free death benefit upon the passing of the last surviving spouse. It's because the the insurance monies are paid out further in the future that the price are substantially smaller.

6. If you do have a few health problems then look at Simplified Issue policies. These policies do not have medical examinations, but they do have health questions. When picking which company you should go with, have a look at the medical questions; select the one you can answer no to the most. If you are wanting a scheme that has no medical questions then you will be paying out a lot of money; they also state that the death benefit can't be claimed for two years.

Photo: Seniors by Grant Talbot.

How Does Obesity Effect Your Life Insurance?

Obesity is prevalent all round the globe and Canada is no exception. A survey undertaken in 2004 by the Canadian Community Health stated that over 23% of the adult public suffered from obesity. Another 8.6 million, or 36.1% were heavier than average.

For those that are overweight or obese purchasing life insurance is more complicated to purchase due to the direct health issues that go hand in hand with weight issues such as heart disease and diabetes. Life insurance comes in four types:

Preferred Rates: For people in very good health and with an outstanding family health history.
Standard Rates: The usual rate that an applicant is normally classified.
Rated/Substandard: Given to individuals who have a greater risk category.
Declined: Where the insurance company refuses to cover an customer.

Standard cover would be granted to a healthy man who weighed 250lbs and had a height of 5'9" - this is established on an in-house survey completed by some of the life insurance companies.

When working work the grouping a person comes under, insurance companies look at the risk variables linked with health problems that are often part and parcel of obesity. If you are obese find yourself a reputable broker as they are able to help obtain a reasonable premium for you.

Making an insurance company aware of lifestyle or any irregularities that may influence your quote is common sense if you want a fair quote, especially as many companies use the equivalent height/weight chart for both genders. Simplified Issue Life Insurance is another option for obese customers. These applications have no medical tests and less health questions. They come with higher costs and lower face amounts, but pricing options have increased significantly in recent years.

For more information, visit our instant life insurance quote calculator.

Image capture by Miran Rijavec.

Investing in a Life Insurance - Is It a Good Idea?

Life insurance policies can be divided into two very broad categories - term insurance and permanent life insurance. Term insurance policies are generally prepared to cover you for a temporary period of time, usually 10 or 20 years. With a permanent policy, the insurance can last for your lifetime. Furthermore, there are three sub categories of permanent life insurance policies: Term 100, Universal Life and Whole Life. There are several variations of the latter two policies. An independent and qualified advisor can help you to find which of them is best for you.

The primary difference between Whole and Universal Life insurance is in the investment component - on a Whole Life policy, it is built in the premium, while on a Universal Life insurance it is separate. In addition, Universal Life policies offer a wider variety of investment possibilities. However, the most important aspect when buying a life insurance policy is that it must fulfil your needs. Let's suppose your needs are met and you can pay for a permanent policy. Now you need to ask - is it a sound investment?

Opinions on this subject vary, in part because life insurance as an investment is a very misunderstood topic. Now we will present the crucial pluses and minuses of using life insurance as an investment:

Advantages

* Profits within the policy and the MTAR limits grow on a tax sheltered basis. In case of Whole Life insurance, the premium shouldn't exceed the MTAR limit, Universal Life policies set a maximum premium according to the MTAR limit.
* The investment portion on an increasing death benefit Universal Life insurance and the dividends on a Whole Life policy are added to the face amount and are paid out on top of the policy face amount tax free.
* You can use the investment component on a permanent insurance to pay for future premiums, allowing you to pay future premiums with pre-tax money, rather than after-tax money.
* The minimum investment rate guarantees are set to more than 4% in case of numerous Universal Life insurance products. This is a great plus for investors who don't like to risk, particularly in today's low interest rate environment.

Disadvantages

* For numerous permanent policies, there are strict penalties, if you decide to cancel your insurance within the first few years.
* Generally, it is not a good idea to select a permanent policy, if you don't need a permanent life insurance, as the mortality charge for the life insurance would be higher.

Photo source: thinkpanama

Why Not to Get Life Insurance Policy Directly from a Website

When you see the title of this article, you might think we are fighting against ourselves, as a company specializing in the online marketing of life and health insurance. Every day, thousands of people check our website and many of them contact us inquiring if it's possible to buy an insurance policy directly via our website. After pondering on this problem for a long time, we came to a conclusion that buying life insurance online would mean a disservice to our clients.
The following reasons are supporting our opinion why Internet is not the perfect way to buy a life insurance policy.

1. When you buy a life insurance directly on the Internet, it is just a single product and not a part of an overall financial portfolio. It should always be evaluated carefully and considered for a specific client - why and how much insurance is necessary and what's the best type of insurance. It is very difficult to do this without speaking to a broker over the phone or in person.

2. When you decide to buy your life insurance online, you can get only a limited product offer. Most companies selling life insurance online limit their portfolio to a few carriers and in some cases, just one carrier with just a few of their products.

3. There are often some features of the insurance policy that may not be fully explained to you when you buy the insurance online. When you buy your life insurance online, you may be surprised later about some details - for instance some ten-year term policies are not renewable or convertible, or may have a higher than usual renewable premium, and so on.

4. Many insurance products are just too complex to be sold online. There are too many details in some products (for example Universal Life or Whole Life insurance) that cannot be disclosed when the policy is purchased directly online. In case of BMO's Universal Life insurance policy, there are more than 400 investment possibilities available. There are just too many nuances in the whole plan, which makes it difficult to be offered online.

5. If you wish to get in touch with someone from the insurance company, it would be most likely with a call centre and not a broker.

Just to be understood correctly - of course the Internet is a great source of information when buying life insurance. Some Internet pages can give you a lot of useful information concerning life insurance. For instance tools such as our Instant Quote Calculator or Needs Analysis Calculator may be a great help. But finding information is very different to purchasing.

Record Declining Sales for US Life Insurance

US life insurance sales took their biggest six-month decline since 1942, reported by LIMRA International. The current news from Bloomberg show that people have lost hope in investments associated to stocks which is having a knock on effect on sales of individual life insurance.

This however is a totally different story in Canada. While sales of universal life policies have declined 14% compared to the same six-month time span just a year ago, advisers have been able to use steady term life and whole life policy sales to offset those losses. Annual premiums in general have witnessed only a 1% drop this year.

A personal budget may be more rigid in the US, but the best part of US citizens will still have life insurance as the basis of their financial planning. Without decent life insurance, an unexpected death can create a financial tsunami in the normal household. For family members left behind, life insurance policies give security from financial worries.

Of course, that doesn't mean you can't still save cash on your scheme. The following are six brilliant ways to save cash on your life insurance.

One kind of policy to refrain from is accidental death insurance. This is the main type of policy to be sold by Canadian insurance companies to people that don't really require it. Accidental death is extremely profitable for these companies, but provides only rare benefit to the consumer because lower than 3% of all life insurance claims are paid out thanks to death-by-accident. When comparing this policy to a term policy the majority of the time the term policy costs less.

Be wary of captive agents. They can only sell that company's products. Insurance companies employing captive agents generally charge higher premiums than the organizations employing independent brokers do. Captive agents cannot shop the market for the best value for you and, in some instances, may not offer the product best suited to your needs.

Just because a premiums seems low cost, it doesn't mean that it works out the cheapest. The start up premiums could be cheap, but work out the complete cost as it could be more expensive than acquiring a slightly higher priced policy in the first case. Start up offers such as low start up premiums are incentives used by insurance companies to lure you in. Term insurance policies, which offer low start up premiums that grow as the insured ages, are pertinent if used for temporary insurance needs. The main problem with this philosophy is we are not all the same, nor do we all have the same requirements. They don't take alot of time to examine why you're seeking insurance, or how long you'll need it.

See if you can uncover a company offering preferred rates. When it comes to standard or preferred term premiums there can be a telling difference is cost. A 40-year-old man, non-smoker would hand over $62.55/month with Equitable Life for standard rates on a $500,000 Term 20 policy. Taking the same details, using the preferred rates this policy would cost just about $20 less. Click this link to see if you are eligible for your own preferred policy.

Be very careful that you have not got too much insurance. By making use of our Needs Analysis Calculator you can observe at a brief look whether you are over or under insured.

Don't try and go it by yourself, work with an independent broker. A broker that has access to the whole insurance market is more likely to accomplish your requirements than someone who has only got access to their own company or one or two others.

Photo source: Jonathon Colman

Canadian Tire Term Life Insurance: Is It As Favorable As It Seems To Be?

You many believe that Canadian Tire is firm that deals with furniture, tools and outdoor living, but it is life insurance. The home hardware company adjusted their life insurance policy and came up with a new plan. This plan is underwritten by Canada Life and subject to a new marketing drive. Analyzed next to an individual term life policy this plan isn’t necessarily up to scratch. Applying for this policy is very easy. You have the choice of applying online, by phone or mail. You will be have to fill in seven health questions and you will be expected to fill them all in. You may find you have to provide more facts or be subject to a nursing visit if any of the questions are answered yes to. The fees stay the same for the first five years, after that the fees increase. The value of the plan is $250,000.

What's the trouble? This all looks great to me.

Now we need to demonstrate to you the contrast between this type of plan and a Canada Life individual term life policy. If we examine a 40 year old male smoker. On the Canada Life policy the payments are $40 lower. The Canada Life policies are greatly lower. An individual policy offers more versatility and customization.The disadvantages to the Canadian Tire plan include limited benefits of only $250,000 and a term of no longer than 5 years. A Canadian Tire Plan also charges you PST. You can add riders to individual plans which give your extra benefits. Also you can connect it with another policy if you wish. Exclusive advise from your broker which leads to a policy worked on your individual lifestyle are another bonus rather than a standard group policy which is offered by the Canadian Tire Term Life Insurance plans. To recap: Although the Tire Plan looks great on paper your will be better off with a customized plan which suits your own lifestyle. To find out more about the Canadian Term Life Insurance, please refer to our more detailed article.

Photo source: kenyee