Taking out a life insurance plan is becoming more and more important as the cost of living continues to rise. The main reason people take out life insurance is to provide for their family and loved ones should something happen to them.
There are also investment strategies you can implement into your financial portfolio using life insurance products – the options are endless.
And if you have yet to take out a life insurance plan, or even if you already have one in place, there is some very good news.
Forecasters and analysts are expecting insurance premiums to continue on their downward trend throughout next year. This means that there really is no good reason not to invest in a life insurance plan today.
A September 19, 2006 article by Eileen Alt Powell of The Associated Press, “Forecast: Insurance premiums to fall,” discusses what industry insiders are saying about insurance policies and premiums.
People who previously had the notion that life insurance was just too expensive are now being proven wrong.
“Premiums for individual life insurance are expected to continue a downward trend in 2007 with a drop about 4 percent, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The New York-based institute said Tuesday the projected decline was in line with the average annual fall in rates of 5 percent per year recorded since 2000.”
The decrease in premiums is expected to affect both term and permanent life insurance. These are the two main types of insurance on the market today.
Term life insurance protects the person for a specified amount of time, such as 10 or 20 years. If the person dies within the time period, then the beneficiary gets the cash amount. If the person does not die within the specified term, no money is issued, and the person must either renew their policy or be without life insurance.
For permanent life insurance, the person is protected for the duration of their life, and the beneficiary is guaranteed a pay-out when the person passes away.
“The III estimated that a 40-year-old nonsmoking male who purchases a $500,000, 20-year level term life policy in 2007 will pay an annual premium of $615. Rates for women and younger men would be lower, it said. The group said premium rates for traditional whole life, universal life and variable universal life policies also were expected to fall.”
“III economist Steven Weisbart said rates have been falling ‘because death rates for the 25-44 age group _ the primary age range for purchasing life insurance _ have decreased significantly over the past 10 years.’”
These falling premiums should encourage people to reassess the amount of insurance they carry, because costs after the breadwinner is gone can be much more than expected, as hard and uncomfortable as this reality is to face.
“It takes a $500,000 death benefit to pay a widow $2,500 a month for 17 years. But according to recent studies, the average adult age 25-34 with life insurance had just $145,000 in coverage, while the average adult age 35-44 had just $323,000.”
This exciting news in the insurance industry should cause many people to think long and hard about their current policies and how they are going to provide for their family in the future.
|
