Cheap Life Insurance in Houston

Life insurance helps protect the people who depend on you for financial support by replacing some or all of your lost income when you die. It can help pay expenses that your income normally would have covered, including mortgage payments, bills, and a dependent’s child care or college tuition. Some types of life insurance also accumulate cash value during the policyholder’s lifetime that can be withdrawn or borrowed against.

Insurance agents, brokers, and companies must be licensed by the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) to legally sell life insurance in the state. To learn whether an agent, company, or broker is licensed, call TDI’s Consumer Help Line or view company or agent information using the “Insurer Search” feature on the TDI website.

When you buy a life insurance policy, you specify whom you want to receive the policy’s death benefits when you die. The people you specify are called “beneficiaries.” It’s important to understand that the primary purpose of life insurance is to help your beneficiaries maintain their standard of living after you die. Life insurance isn’t an investment. A life insurance policy is generally guaranteed to pay death benefits when the policyholder dies. With an investment, however, there’s a risk to the payoff – an investor might earn money, but he or she also might lose some or all of it.

While some types of life insurance include a savings component that can provide some retirement income, Texas law prohibits marketing life insurance as an investment or retirement income source. If an agent or company tries to sell you a life insurance policy as a good investment, be careful. Complicating matters somewhat, many life insurance companies also sell a legitimate investment product called “annuities” that are similar in principle to life insurance. People often purchase these investments to provide for retirement because they can provide a steady stream of income over a long period of time.

Insurance companies use a process called “underwriting” to determine which policy applicants to accept and what premium rates to charge. The company will consider certain “risk factors,” including your age, gender, medical condition, and whether you smoke. Younger applicants who are in good health and who don’t smoke will generally be charged lower premiums. The insurer expects that these policyholders will live longer and thus be able to make more premium payments. Older applicants who have health problems or those who smoke can expect to pay significantly more because their risk of early death is statistically higher. Some companies may determine that, based on its review of an applicant’s risk factors, the applicant is too great a risk and may decline to issue coverage altogether.

If a company declines to cover you or charges you more for coverage because of your health status or other factors, keep shopping. Different companies have different underwriting guidelines. If you are accepted for coverage at a higher rate, ask whether your premium can be lowered later. Some companies will lower your premium if you maintain good health for a specified period of time, give evidence that your health has improved, or change to a less-hazardous occupation.

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When purchasing life insurance, be sure to consider your individual circumstances and the standard of living you want to leave for your dependents. If you don’t have anyone depending on you for financial support, you may not need life insurance, or you may need only enough to cover funeral expenses or other financial obligations. The following guidelines can help you decide if life insurance is right for you.

Families, including single-parent households, generally need life insurance because children depend on their parents’ incomes. Typically, the younger a child, the greater the family’s need for life insurance. It’s a good idea to consider insuring both parents, even if only one is a primary wage earner. This can help ensure that the surviving parent can pay for any increases in the cost of child care if the parent primarily responsible for child care dies.

Single adults typically don’t need life insurance, unless they are single parents or support someone such as an elderly parent.

Working couples without children or dependent parents typically don’t need life insurance, particularly if the survivor would earn enough to meet expenses and pay debts without exhausting savings. However, life insurance may be a good idea if only one spouse is employed because the nonworking spouse could maintain his or her standard of living should the working spouse die. Young couples who plan to start a family may want to consider purchasing life insurance since life insurance can cost significantly less when purchased at a younger age.

Older people whose children are grown and independent are less likely to need life insurance.

A well-planned savings program can decrease a family’s need for life insurance as wage earners near retirement age. Although life insurance is sometimes used to pay for prepaid funeral arrangements, it is often not the best funding source. Make sure you fully review your needs and all of your options to pay for funeral expenses.

You may purchase a Life insurance policy on your own life or on the life of anyone who gives their consent for you to do so and agrees to undergo the insurer’s underwriting process. The person who purchases the policy is known as the “policyholder” and is the person responsible for making the premium payments to keep the coverage in force.

Most often, life insurance is purchased by policyholders to insure their own lives and provide a death benefit to a spouse, dependent child, or other family member. However, in some cases you may wish to buy a life insurance policy on someone else and name yourself as the beneficiary. For instance, if you are divorced and your former spouse provides child-support payments, you might want to purchase a life insurance policy on your ex-spouse to guarantee continued support payments if he or she dies.

You may name any individual, organization, or trust as the beneficiary of the policy’s death benefit, or you may choose to name multiple individuals as “shared beneficiaries” and stipulate how the benefit will be divided among them. You may also choose to name “secondary beneficiaries” who will only receive the benefit if the primary beneficiary is no longer living.

In some cases, a creditor may have an interest in the life of a loan recipient. The creditor may purchase a life insurance policy to cover the balance of the loan in case the recipient dies before repayment. Businesses also sometimes purchase policies on the lives of certain key employees who are vital to company operations.

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When To Consider Selling Your Life Insurance Policy?

A Life Insurance Policy is a personal property, like a house, car, antiques, old painting or stocks and bonds. You can sell your life insurance policy like you sell your other personal property items. Life insurance may now be viewed as a traditional asset that can be purchased or sold. Sale of Life insurance policy is called as Life insurance settlement, Life settlement or Senior settlement.

Millions of seniors are unaware of the flexible and liquefiable insurance policy, they can sell for cash. The flexibility of a Senior settlement or Life settlement permits policy owners to sell all or a portion of their life insurance policies.

When the life insurance policy owner sells own life insurance policy, he or she transfers all rights and obligations to a new owner. The purchaser of the policy will then become the new owner and the new beneficiary of the policy and is then responsible for making all of the future premium payments. The new owner now collects the full amount of the death benefit when the insured dies.

Life insurance settlements present a unique opportunity to the policy holder to extract the maximum possible value from an existing life insurance policy and repurpose those funds for whatever financial needs may exist. Many people choose this option because the cash value of a life settlement generally exceeds the surrender value that would have been paid by the life insurance policy.

Policies are sold for many different personal or business reasons. Below are some of possible reasons for considering a Life Insurance Settlement:

Personal:

1. The original purpose or need for the policy has changed or has diminished totally.

2. The Beneficiary of the policy is deceased.

3. Policy holder is chronically ill; selling current policy provides needed funds to cover financial burdens caused by illness. A Viatical settlement gives the ability to regain needed financial security.

4. Policy has not met the original illustrated values and premiums need to be increased to keep policy in force.

5. If policy holder is over the age of sixty-five, a Life settlement or Senior settlement maximizes the current assets by eliminating premiums and getting required funds that can be used today.

6. Insured person wishes to distribute the funds/ liquid assets as per his or her desire while living.

7. To make funds available for other investments like real-estate, stocks, bonds or to start a new business.

8. Divorce settlement has altered the need for life insurance.

9. Personal financial situation has gone bad and making premium payments is unaffordable.

10. Sale proceeds from Life settlements are needed to pay down loans or outstanding debt.

11. The policy owner’s current asset mix is weighed too heavily in life insurance.

12. A client wishes to invest in a more appropriate product, such as a lower cost survivor policy, single premium annuity for supplemental income, long term care insurance, long term care insurance or other asset protection tools.

13. A family trust has eliminated the need for personal life coverage.

14. Policy holder need to fund an alternative healthcare that present insurance does not cover.

15. Insured person has left an employer, so he or she needs to sell old group policy.

16. Policy was purchased to ensure the availability of funds to pay off a mortgage and the mortgage has been paid.

17. To take a long awaited vacation or to buy a luxury item that was never affordable.

18. When a policy is in danger of getting lapsed the policy holder can turn it into cash.

19. You can use life settlements to donate to your favorite charity or cause and feel much better about yourself knowing that you have done your part to make the world a brighter place.

Business:

1. Business owned policies those are performing below expectations.

2. Key person insurance policy is no longer required due to retirement or change in business structure.

3. A policy purchased to finance a buy/ sell agreement is no longer needed after the business has been sold.

4. Bankruptcy of business has caused liquidation of assets.

5. Deferred compensation programs in business have changed or not required.

6. If you are a corporation, selling corporate owned life insurance lets you regain back premiums paid on no longer needed policies.

Estate Planning:

1. A single life insurance policy is no longer appropriate- a survivorship policy meets the estate planning requirement and 1035 exchange is avoided.

2. If you are managing an estate, selling your current life insurance policy will help manage changes in estate size, eliminate premiums, and liquidate policies that are no longer needed.

3. A policy needs to be removed from an estate. The three year rule can be avoided by using the life settlement sales proceeds to repurchase a new policy out side the estate.

4. There is a significant reduction in size of estate due to loss of net worth and less insurance coverage is needed to fund the projected estate tax liability.

Charitable Organizations:

1. If charities can no more continue to pay premiums on gifted policies.

2. Proceeds of a Life insurance settlement could result in a larger gift to the charity organization than the policy itself.

Non-Profit Organizations:

1. If you are a non profit organization, selling a gifted life insurance policy provides funds that can be used now and also eliminates premiums.

Once a policy owner has absolutely determined that it no longer makes sense to continue holding a policy, Life insurance settlement or Life settlement may be economically advantageous relative to surrendering or letting the policy lapsed.

This innovative wealth and estate planning tool removes the burden of expensive insurance premium payments in addition to providing the lump sum cash settlement. This allows policy holders to get cash out of their life insurance policy, in an amount in excess of the cash value of policy(if any), while they are still alive. To get the highest life settlements is to improve the quality of life during your retirement years.

About The Author
Paul Sherman is a Cash Flow Consultant. He offers free, professional and independent advice to Individuals, Business owners and Seniors. To secure a Life Insurance Settlement or Structured Settlement funding please visit http://www.Financial-ease.com.

Term life insurance can be a good choice for young families with children. You may only need coverage until the children are old enough and financially able to provide for themselves. There are several aspects to term life insurance and some common features of most term life policies include the following.

Convertibility.
You can exchange the policy for permanent life insurance of equal value without taking a medical exam or any further underwriting. For example, you could transfer a $100,000 convertible term policy into a $100,000 cash value policy without having to answer questions about your health or medical history. However, your premium will probably increase because cash value coverage typically costs more than term life. Convertibility can be an important feature if your health declines and you become unable to qualify for a permanent policy through a separate application. Converting to a cash value policy can also allow you to begin using your policy to build savings. Insurers typically only allow policyholders to convert term life policies before age 65.

Renewability.
You can extend the policy for additional terms, regardless of your health and without having to pass a medical exam. This can be another advantage of term life coverage as you age or if you become ill. Even if you no longer meet an insurer’s underwriting criteria, the company still must renew. Terms can renew at 20, 10, or five years, or even annually. Premiums generally increase at each renewal term. Annually renewable premiums can be extremely high for policyholders past middle age. If you’re paying high annually renewable premiums, you may want to convert to some other type of coverage.

Term life insurance typically comes in one of three common policy variations:

Level term coverage pays a death benefit that remains constant over the term. For example, a 20-year level term policy with a $100,000 death benefit will always pay that amount, whether the insured dies in the fifth or 15th year. Depending on the policy, your premium for level term coverage will either remain constant or increase at a scheduled rate.

Decreasing term coverage pays a death benefit that decreases over the term at a scheduled rate. For example, a 20-year decreasing term policy may begin with a $100,000 death benefit that decreases by $5,000 per year. If you die in the 11th year, the policy pays $50,000. Decreasing term coverage can be a good option to provide for children in the event of a parent’s early death since the need for coverage typically decreases as they near adulthood. A disadvantage of decreasing term coverage is that its convertibility value also decreases each year. Premiums typically remain constant over the term.

Increasing term coverage pays a death benefit that increases over the term at a scheduled rate, which is often pegged to inflation. For example, a 20-year increasing term policy may begin with a $100,000 death benefit that increases by 5 percent of the face value per year. If you die in the 12th year, the policy would pay about $155,000. Premiums typically increase each year for increasing term policies relative to the benefit increase.

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Cash value life policies provide both a death benefit and a way to accumulate funds over time. However, the primary purpose of cash value coverage is to provide permanent life insurance protection, not to serve as a retirement or savings plan.

Initial premiums for cash value insurance are typically higher than for term life insurance because you’re also purchasing the savings feature. However, cash value premiums generally increase at a slower rate. If you buy a cash value policy at a young age and continue the policy into middle age, your premium will likely be lower than they would for a term life policy with a comparable death benefit.

A portion of each cash value premium is placed into an account that accumulates over time. This is the policy’s “cash value.” The amount may grow at a fixed interest rate, be tied to indexed interest rates, or increase according to the performance of stocks, bonds, or other securities in which the account is invested, depending on the policy type.

A policy may allow you to withdraw from the cash value, use it as collateral for a loan, or use it to make future premium payments, depending on the terms. Withdrawing all of the cash value cancels the policy and ends coverage, however.

When you die, beneficiaries may receive only the policy’s stated death benefit or the benefit plus any remaining cash value, depending on the policy terms. Premiums will be higher for the second option.

It typically takes at least three to five years for a policy to build significant cash value. Moreover, if you withdraw some or all of the money before a specified time period, you will likely incur a substantial “surrender charge,” which can be as high as 10 percent or more. You may also be liable for income taxes on the money. If you purchase a cash value policy, try to keep it for at least 15 to 20 years. About half of the people who purchase these policies cash them in within five years, which is often a financial mistake.

Get free life insurance quotes from the top-rated companies in your city with just one click from: www.GetLifeInsuranceNow.com.