Insurance World

The advent of the internet has opened up the possibility of cheaper life insurance for all.

In years gone by, if you were considering life insurance you would probably have invited an insurance salesman from your favourite insurance company to meet you or alternatively gone to your local insurance broker. But rarely would you have been courageous enough to get competitive quotations. It just wasn’t done. You trusted the salesman to do the best for you and surely you thought, life insurance is somewhat technical and requires specialised knowledge. All very cosy. All very expensive. How life has changed!

People now realise that life insurance is not that complicated. If on a scale of 1 to 10, buying car insurance online rates 9, life insurance must be a 7 or 8. This has opened up the Internet as a prime arena for cut-price life insurance. That’s not to imply that life policies bought on the Internet are in any way substandard. No, you’re most likely to end up with a policy from one of the UK’s big insurers like Norwich Union or Legal & General and they’ll be exactly the same policies as you could buy anywhere else. It’s just that the intense competition on the internet and efficiency and simplicity of the system, means that most online brokers decide to cut the commission and roll back the savings into lower prices.

Ah yes I hear you saying, 7 or 8 implies that life insurance is more complicated than car insurance. Yes it is - but that doesn’t mean that it represents a problem. The companies selling life insurance online recognise that many clients feel that some level of personal advice is useful and indeed, necessary. They accommodate this with a mix of useful information on the web site and more often than not, with a short telephone conversation with a life insurance adviser prior to you buying. This provides reassurance and helps to ensure you really do get the policy options you need all at rock bottom prices.

Buying online certainly is a good idea.

There are a lot of people getting quotes for life insurance online. The quotes requested are usually for standard amounts of 50,000 to 500,000. The amounts requested often indicate that most people have not taken the time to calculate the amount of life insurance that they need. This often leads to early policy terminations because a real need was not established at purchase. It is very helpful to determine actual needs and then purchase amounts accordingly.

Basic Needs – Purchase an amount of life insurance to cover the basics.

1.Final Expenses – This your basic burial expense need. Choose an amount and enter it into a calculator.

2.Mortgage Balance – Add your mortgage balance to the final expense amount.

3.Short Term Debt – Add your entire installment loan and credit card balances to your final expense and mortgage balance totals.

Now you can purchase a basic need life insurance policy amount based on actual needs.

Additional Income Needs – The next level of a needs based plan might include a life insurance amount to replace income during an adjustment time period of your choice. You may want to leave your beneficiary a total of five years of your current income in the event of your death to allow your family the time needed to find other sources of income. You can now add this income need to the basics need amount to see if combining the two will fit into your budget.

Educational Needs – You can also purchase an amount of Life insurance for an educational fund. You can estimate future college costs based on inflation and then multiply the amount by the number of children in your household.

These are a just a few basic needs and reasons for the purchase of life insurance. It isn’t that difficult to do a mini-need analysis. You may save yourself some premium dollars because you have taken the time to determine how much life insurance that you actually need instead of purchasing a random amount.