Sunday, April 29, 2012




Tips to Receive the Best Car Insurance Quotes


Author:

Mona Penslon
Car insurance has been a constant source of headache for most of us for a long time. With the increase in demand, a number of companies have emerged in the auto insurance market. It is no longer a difficult task to receive quotes from these companies. However, it is also important to ensure that we are receiving the best car insurance quotes.  The most encouraging point is that the likelihood of receiving cheap car insurance quotes depends a lot on us. The insurance amount of any car insurance policy can be lowered substantially by taking proper care of these points.

Most of the insurance companies are looking to maximize their own benefits. Therefore, they tend to offer high end policies with many additional features that may not be required by the buyer. This is why it pays to have a basic idea about the different coverage areas. The policy owners are advised to leave out any additional feature that is unnecessary. The car owners must be aware of the minimum requirements in his/her state in order to opt for the coverage that is perfect.  Another good way to pay less to your insurer is driving an inexpensive car. The costlier cars are much more expensive to insure.  

The car insurance quotes become much cheaper when the buyer agrees to pay a higher deductible to the insurer. However, this is an option only for those who can afford the higher deductible. Many car owners get cheap offers from the companies by signing up for a clubbed package that includes car, life, and homeowner\'s insurance. The car owners who drive less are likely to pay less, too. Similarly, the cars that have all the safety features cost less to insure.

Apart from these, there are many types of discounts that the customers must purchase to make the maximum use of their car insurance quotes. At times the customers may have to ask for these discounts because many companies do not offer them proactively. The car owners with a good credit history can expect a substantial discount on their auto insurance. Even those with a poor credit can money on future premiums by improving their credit score. Driving history is another important factor that determines the rate offered in car insurance quotes. Drivers without any record of traffic violations or accidents can ask for discounts, too.

Therefore, the best possible car insurance quotes can be received easily with some knowledge, and by taking a calculated approach towards it.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/tips-to-receive-the-best-car-insurance-quotes-5857785.html
About the Author
If you\'ve been looking for the best place to get car insurance quotes online, look no further than Car-Insurance-Quotes-Today.com, one of the newest, most resourceful places to get car insurance quotes online. You can read up on the latest insurance news, find out tips and trick to save you money on car insurance quotes, and can compare your car insurance quotes in one convenient place within minutes, so visit today to see what you can save!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Importance of Financial Planning And International Insurance


Author:

Andy Robert
Plan is the process of thinking and defining a way or series of processes and methods adopted for completion of any activity with minimum risk and maximum output. Plan plays an important role in avoiding or at least minimizing the mistakes, hazards and loss. A sound plan means more chances of achieving your goal. The planning is not only important for business and trade, but also for life of a normal human being as it has got very important role to play for a better future. Based on type of plan or target, planning can be categorized in many different types like business planning, comprehensive planning, environmental planning, financial planning, family planning, life planning, marketing plan, operation planning, etc.

The financial planning is one very important type of planning to deal with finance related matters and increasing income or profits. No matter a small or large scale business, good financial plan is a must to achieve the success. If we put this trade aside, even a salaried employee has a particular plan. Talking of business again, a financial plan may be comprised of balance sheet, income sheet and cash flow statement. Financial forecast are made and investment plan becomes part of financial plan. So financial planning can be defined as a process of paving the way for managing your finances to achieve the goals avoiding or minimizing risk factors and increasing income or profit.

A good financial plan may involve a few steps including goal establishment, data collection, evaluation of the current financial status, plan development and implementation, and monitoring of the plan. As discussed above, minimizing the risk factors is an important element of a financial plan; for this element, role of insurance companies come to the surface. Insurance means minimizing risk of uncertain loss. Insurance companies sale their policies and in return provide a cushion against the hazards. Many different kinds of insurance policies are being offered nowadays. These may include medical insurance, business insurance, national insurance, professional insurance, and international insurance.

The international insurance may include international travel, international health or international travel health insurance plans with wide range of policies providing cover to the policy holder all over the world. For example, in international travel plans insurance, the companies offer policies that cover your health, lost luggage, repatriation, trip cancellation or any other problem during your international trips for projects or clients. While international travel health insurance provides better medical cover for people during their longer foreign stays and international health insurance is for covering those individuals who have to live on foreign lands for longer periods.

Dubai is very busy place visited by millions of people every year and this is why the international insurance Dubai facility became very important component for foreign investors and workers. Many insurance companies in Dubai are providing highly exclusive services to their policy holders. Insurance Dubai is also very important as most of the construction and other professional work being done in this part of the world is carried out by international companies and high profile professionals who need to be insured to avoid any risk or hazard.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/the-importance-of-financial-planning-and-international-insurance-5827770.html
About the Author
Andy Robert is a reputed insurance agent and has been working in the Insurance industry for the last five years. He has worked as a consultant with a number of reputed financial institutions and have extensive experience in Financial Planning, Property Insurance & specially International Insurance and all the latest development in Insurance Dubai trends. He is currently residing in Abu Dhabi.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Life Insurance - Pros and Cons of Whole Life & Term Life Coverage


Author:

Bradley Steffens

'Do I need life insurance?' 'Is whole life insurance a good investment?' 'Is term life insurance risky?' Questions like these are posted in online communities on a daily basis. The answers vary widely, with the term life and whole life camps polarized. The tone of the debate is surprisingly strident. After all, the topic is insurance—not a something expected to inspire strong opinions, let alone strong language. But words like 'rip-off,' 'scam,' and 'waste of money' fly back and forth, sometimes accompanied by rows of exclamation marks or worse. What is behind the brouhaha? And which camp—if either—is right?

The two sides do not even agree about whether a person needs life insurance. Whole lifers say, yes. You do not want the death of a family member to disrupt your family\'s finances or jeopardize its future. It is hard enough to adjust to the loss of a loved one. Adding financial difficulties exacerbates the problem. With the skyrocketing costs of funerals, even children and seniors should have at least a small life insurance policy.

Not so fast, say the term lifers. The only reason to have life insurance is to replace the lost income of a family member who dies, and then only when the spouse or family is dependent on that income. If you are single with no dependents and no debts that might be transferred to your family in the event you die, then you do not need life insurance. If you are married and your spouse works, you probably do not need life insurance, either, assuming your spouse makes enough to support himself or herself.

The time for life insurance, term lifers say, is when the policyholder\'s income is vital to the financial security of the family. If, for example, you have purchased a home together and your spouse could not pay the mortgage and other bills by himself or herself, then life insurance is in order. If you have children, you will want to have enough life insurance to allow your family to maintain its lifestyle after you are gone. This includes not only meeting day-to-day expenses, but also being able to follow through with plans for higher education. Insurance professionals recommend buying a policy with a face value 5-10 times the breadwinner\'s annual salary to help family meet expenses for a period of years.

Whole lifers see problems with the term-life scenario. The view it as overly optimistic, even naïve. Many things can happen during the 20- to 30-year period covered by term life insurance that could extend the need for coverage beyond the policy\'s end date. For example, children may be born mentally retarded, with severe autism, or with another serious condition that could prevent them from becoming independent when they reach adulthood. Children also can develop a disease or suffer an accident that disables them. A spouse, too, can become disabled. In these situations, the family will remain dependent on the breadwinner\'s income long after the term life policy expires.

Term life insurance advocates point out that in such cases, the breadwinner can renew the term life policy, or take out a new one. Now it\'s the whole lifers\' turn to say, 'Not so fast.' By the time the second term life policy is needed, the breadwinner will likely be in his or her fifties or even sixties. Due to the age of the insured, the cost of a second term life policy will be much higher than the cost of the first was. With the added years come added risks of certain diseases. If the breadwinner is obese, has developed high blood pressure, a heart condition, diabetes, or another disease, the cost of the term life policy will skyrocket. If the individual has developed cancer or AIDS, he or she may not be insurable at all. In such situations, the cost savings realized on the first term life policy could be wiped out by the high cost of a second term life policy.

By contrast, the premiums of a whole life policy are set for life and do not go up with age or medical condition. A whole life policy cannot be canceled due to medical conditions, either. The policy remains in force until death, as long as the premiums are paid.

'Until death' is another advantage of whole life, its advocates maintain. Whole life gets its name from the fact that it insures the policyholder life until death. As a result, whole life insurance is guaranteed to pay a death benefit—the amount the policy pays upon the death of the insured. The death benefit can be increased—at certain points at no additional cost—as the policyholder ages. A small policy designed to cover the funeral costs of a child can be increased to provide adequate coverage during an adult\'s peak earning years. Whatever the death benefit or 'face value' of the whole life policy, the insurance company guarantees to pay it. As a result, the policyholder or his or her beneficiaries always receive some, all, or more than the premiums paid into the policy.

This is not the case with a term life policy, whole lifers point out. The term life insurance policyholder can pay premiums for 30 years, but if he or she outlives the policy—even by a day—then all of the premium money is gone. The only thing the policyholder will have received is 30 years worth of peace of mind.

Whole life insurance, by contrast, accumulates a value that the policyholder can access during his or her lifetime. This value is known as the cash value or the surrender value. The whole life policy holder can use the cash value as collateral for a loan, or even borrow some of it during his or her lifetime. The policyholder must pay this amount back. If he or she dies before it is paid back, then the unpaid amount is deducted from the death benefit. If the policyholder decides to cancel the policy, the insurance company will pay him or her the cash value, which is then known as the surrender value. Whole life, its proponents maintain, is not only insurance against death. It is an investment for life.

This is where the debate turns nasty. Term lifers often ridicule the investment features of whole life. Because whole life always pays a death benefit, it costs 5-10 times more than term life does. Term lifers argue that a person is much better off getting a term policy for the same face value that they would get a whole life policy, then saving and investing the difference in premiums. Almost any investment will return more than a whole life policy will, term lifer proponents maintain. Over 20 or 30 years, the difference can be vast. Buy insurance to insure, the term lifers say, and use the savings to invest.

Whole lifers respond that the return on a whole life policy is guaranteed at the outset, something than cannot be said for other investments. To earn greater rewards, the term life policyholder must take greater risks in the open market. Many investments will outperform whole life insurance, but not all will. Some investments lose money, as shareholders in World Com, Enron, Peregrine Systems, and many other companies can attest.

Even if the investment will pay out, it is not certain that the term life policyholder will actually make it. To do so, he or she must calculate the amount saved over whole life insurance; save that money every month, quarter, or year; research possible investments; and contribute to that investment regularly for 20 or 30 years. This makes sense for disciplined and savvy investors, but many others will find the endeavor daunting and time consuming. They may not start it, and if they do, they may not continue it. Whole life takes care of insurance, savings, and investment in one easy payment. Even if the returns on whole life are not great, saving something is better than saving nothing, and nothing is exactly how much many term life policyholders will end up saving.

Both whole life and term life have pros and cons. People who are financially savvy and disciplined will gain from the term life scenario. Those who need a convenient and simple mechanism for insurance and savings will benefit from whole life insurance. Deciding which is best for you requires an honest appraisal of your goals, your lifestyle, and your investing skills.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/life-insurance-pros-and-cons-of-whole-life-term-life-coverage-253730.html
About the Author
An award-winning author of books for young adults, Bradley Steffens is a frequent contributor to online and print publications, including Gig and Broker Agent Magazine. A copywriter with 25 years experience, he creates website content for health insurance, life insurance, and homeowner\'s insurance professionals. His most recent book, Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, is the world\'s first biography of the medieval Muslim scholar known in the West as Alhazen.