Insurance World

Getting an insurance is one of those ‘life’ requirements that you should be looking into early in your career, especially now when you are still able to work and earn money. in addition to being better able to pay for the insurance, younger individuals also pay less. This is one of the principles of insurance. Since younger people are less likely to die, they are given cheaper rates as compared to older individuals.

Insurance protect financially you and your family in the future. Depending on the kind of insurance that you will choose to get, insurance can even provide for your health concerns, for your retirement and even for your death and burial.

But while it is important that we are protected against any unexpected eventualities, some people still shy away of availing insurance on their own, preferring their companies to do it for them. Like legal matters, all those insurance mumbo jumbo tend to confuse and sometimes even frighten people.

Here are some of he frequently asked questions about insurance.

What are the kinds of insurance?
There are two major types of insurance. The life and the non-life insurance. The life insurance, as the name suggests, protects the family of the person in case something happens to him. When a person who is insured dies, the money that he insured will be given to the beneficiary that he has chosen.
The non-life insurance is an insurance that protects properties. Under this category, there are several different types. There car insurances, which protect automobiles from wreckage in case of accidents; property insurance, which protects properties especially houses from fire and other forms of destruction; deposit insurance, which most banks have in order to protect their depositors from losing their money in case the bank suffers financial setbacks; and health insurance, which helps in covering for medical and hospital costs. Among the various non-life insurance, the most popular is the health and car insurance.
Some insurance also provide for the future. Some of the insurances are retirement plans and death plans, which covers for burial costs.

What is the difference between a premium and a face amount?
Premium refers to the amount that you have to pay every year for the insurance. Some insurance companies also offer to divide the premium into monthly installments to help their clients. The face amount on the other hand is the amount that you have insured yourself into. For example, if the face amount in your policy is set at $500,000, then your beneficiary will receive $500,000 when you die.

What do you mean by double indemnity?
Some insurance policy offer an accidental clause that would double the face amount in case death has been established as accidental. This is done to protect the insured’s family in case of an untimely death. Double indemnity means that the face amount will be doubled when death is accidental.

Is the beneficiary always the legal spouse?
No. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not always the spouse who is the beneficiary. It is up to the person to choose, who he names as beneficiary. It can be any member of the family as long as insurable interest is established. If in case, the children are named beneficiaries and are still not in legal ages, a ardian will be named to assume control of the money for them.

Tourism is a growing industry worldwide. So are undesirable things like terrorism, flight crashes, accidents, wars, disease, natural calamities etc. Any experienced traveler can tell you that travel is full of uncertainties. But it is not possible to sit at home afraid of calamities. Holiday travel insurance is one way of mitigating the financial risk of such unforeseen events or calamities.

There are a variety of holiday travel insurance policies available today on the internet or the market. It is easy to get confused with so many offers. However most holiday travel insurance policies have certain basic benefits which are common. Holiday travel insurance policies usually provide coverage for:

Trip cancellation/interruptions. Trip cancellation/interruptions due to a variety of reasons like death of an immediate family member, weather, sudden illness, bankruptcy of airliner, jury duty, terrorist activities etc.

Medical costs. Costs incurred for doctor visits, medicines, treatment, surgery etc and some policies even provide coverage for costs of medical evacuation to nearest medical facility.

Accidents. Accidents or calamities like earthquakes, tsunami, storms etc and the related costs. Some policies also provide vehicle accident costs. These are especially useful when going for a driving holiday to a foreign country. Most of your regular policies for auto insurance only provide insurance within the United States and do not provide for accidents out of the US.

Baggage Loss. Costs incurred for loss of baggage and valuable is also covered by most travel insurance policies. These are especially useful when going out for a shopping holiday for antiques, valuables, jewelry or electronics.

All the above-mentioned costs are borne by the travel insurance company depending upon the travel insurance policy. Before purchasing the policy read the fine print carefully, especially the parts covering, deductibles, co-insurance, specific limits, exclusions, hotline numbers and emergency services. Purchasing a policy for a family works out cheaper. Purchasing a policy online also works out cheaper as you do not have to pay for the insurance agent.