by: Michael Challiner
According to Swiss Re, one of the world's largest re-insurance companies, less than half of the UK population has any form of life insurance protection. They then go on to put a figure on the value of this protection gap. Using an average income of ?20,000 and assuming that the value of protection needed ranges between 5 and 10 times income, they put a value on the protection gap at ?2.3 trillion.
But in all probability, whilst the gap is huge, ?2.3 trillion is likely to be somewhat over stated. After all there are people who are disqualified from having life cover due to their age - just over 1 in 5 are under 18 years old, the minimum for life cover, and 1 in 6 are effectively uninsurable as they're over 65. Then there's a raft of persons for whom life insurance is just not necessary. These are people aged between 18 and 65 who do not have dependents. Having said that, without doubt, there are still many families in the Swiss Re survey that have been correctly identified as desperately needing life insurance.
So if they need life insurance, why do they hold back?
Undeniably there are still many people who have no understanding what life insurance provides and because they don't think about it, they don't care, and nothing ever gets done. After all life insurance isn't a fun buy - there's no enjoyable window-shopping or pleasure in owning it. The chances are that unless financial advisers sit down and talks to these, they'll remain totally uninterested and uninsured.
Newspaper reporting given to the insurance industry also tends not to help. The Sunday papers in particular are regularly full of stories about one family or another that has had a claim turned down. These stories make the headlines, as behind them there's invariably a poignant tale of personal tragedy and distress. It all gives the life industry a tarnished image and creates a feeling that they can't be trusted. In practice, when you read the stories, the reason for the claim being refused often comes down to the fact that the policyholder missed off some relevant information from their application form. Nevertheless, some refusals are clearly wrong and this undoubtedly damaging.
Then there are those people who fully appreciate that they need life insurance but just can't be bothered or say they can't afford the premiums. More realistically, for many ?can't afford? actually means, ?I choose not to afford?. They might be happy to spend ?100 at the pub each month but are unwilling to cut back a little to pay the premium that protects their family's future.
For sure, there is no disputing the fact that some life insurance applicants have found the final quote to be genuinely unaffordable. Whilst for the majority, cover at standard premiums is affordable, over the last seven years we've seen a huge rise in the number of people who have seen the proposed premium substantially increase once the insurer has looked at their application form. It's a result of the life companies making it harder for people to meet the company's definition of ?healthy?. Seven years ago half as many applicants were seeing the price increased as a result of the insurance companies classifying them as an above average health risk.
Even a few years ago it was usually obvious who'd have difficulty getting insured at standard rates ? people with heart or circulatory problems, former cancer suffers and diabetics for example. How the picture has now changed. Application forms are much more detailed and medical problems that were previously acceptable are now only acceptable with a higher premium. Take weight for example ? these days insurers clamp down when they judge an applicant's weight to be a risk to their longer-term health. And it's not just the obviously obese that attract the insurer's notice. Companies are now using the Body Mass Index to identify weight problems. This is your weight divided by the square of your height. Most life companies now want a BMI of no more than 29, whereas previously up to 40 was acceptable. This means that a woman weighing 83 kilos and 1.66 meter tall will now face a higher premium.
The application process can also be put some people off. Whilst about 30% of people will receive an immediate decision, for others the process can become one delay after another. As if a 14-page application were not enough, some people are being asked to complete more forms in addition to medical examinations. The whole process can take up to 9 weeks, sometimes even more, before the applicant finds out precisely how much their premium will be. If that premium works out more that they can afford, the applicant is often too tired of the whole process to start applying again to a new insurance company. The result is yet another family without life insurance.
Despite these problems, the life companies say that thanks to more sophisticated underwriting procedures, prices are lower today that they were a few years ago. The arrival of the Internet has also had a profound affect on prices. Around 10% of life insurance is bought online and discounting has become the norm. This too has helped more families to become insured.
However, in the author's view it will take more than a decade to get people covered by life insurance above the 50% level.
About The Author
Michael Challiner writes for Brokers Online ( http://www.life-assurance-bureau.co.uk ) who offer life assurance and most UK financial services including credit cards ( http://www.life-assurance-bureau.co.uk/credit-card/ ).
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How To Decide Which Health Insurance Is Best!
How To Decide Which Health Insurance Is Best!
by: Ian Joan
There are so many numbers of insurance companies and they all have so many different plans for health insurance. Choosing a plan, which can be termed as best, is simply a tedious task. It is not as easy as it used to be. It?s true, but there are some points which can help us to decide which plan is going to be good for our health or our family?s health or for our employee?s health. If you are the owner of a business then you can easily know how costlier is it to take care of the health of your employees, since the prices of the health insurance are touching to the sky day by day.
Many people generally complain about the cost of providing health insurance to their employees and close relatives, but in fact majority of them does not even give time to select the insurance plan. They depend on their broker. If their broker says that this plan is good then they believes on his statement without...
How To Decide Which Health Insurance Is Best!
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Health Insurance Rules
Health Insurance Rules
by: Ivon T. Hughes
Many dual income couples, include their children on each group health insurance plan to maximize benfits. However, without some sort of system in place to help the health insurance companies coordinate benefits, it's possible that either you or your doctor would be reimbursed for more than 100 percent of the actual cost of your claim.
To prevent this, health insurance companies typically designate one parent's health insurance plan as the primary plan and the other as the secondary plan. (That's why the patient questionnaire at your doctor's office asks for information on primary and secondary coverage.) The primary plan is responsible for paying covered expenses up to the limits of the policy. If any unpaid costs are left over, the secondary coverage kicks in.
THE DATE OF BIRTH DETERMINES WHICH HEALTH INSURANCE PROVIDES COVERAGE
The birthday rule is often used to determine which plan is...
Health Insurance Rules
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Buying Insurance
Buying Insurance
by: Jeff Lakie
Insurance is one of the most unpleasant purchases that we have to make - it takes its place amongst those few things we buy that we hope we will never actually have to use. Many people, in fact, use this hope to argue against purchasing insurance in the first place - and while the chances are that we might never need it, this is one of those times in life when it is better to be safe than sorry.
As the expense of daily life continually mount, it can be easier to see the non-immediate need for insurance as illusory. I'm not sick now, am I? My house is fine - it doesn't look like tornado weather out there today. That will never happen to me - I'm not wasting all my hard earned money protecting against something that might never happen! Those insurance companies don't need any more money.
Unfortunately, this confidence is misplaced, as even the most intellectual of scholars cannot predict which one of us...
Buying Insurance
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Insurance and Financial Services Sales Tactics
Insurance and Financial Services Sales Tactics
by: Sharron Senter
If you sell insurance, financial services and the like, consider the following low-cost marketing strategies to help grow your small business.
It's important to first acknowledge some of the natural barriers to acquiring new clients within the insurance and financial services industries. These include, but are not limited to, customers lacking knowledge about your products and, therefore, lacking the ability to ask questions, and customers afraid of being ripped off. Unfortunately, insurance and financial salespeople often carry the same stigma as used car salespeople. And I'm certain there are some great and honest used car dealers around. It's important to recognize this stigma so you can proactively address it in your marketing plan. Ultimately, to grow your business within the insurance and financial services industries you must strive to build an incredible reputation, built...
Insurance and Financial Services Sales Tactics
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Insurance And Ethics
Insurance And Ethics
by: Joseph Kenny
Insurance contracts are often seen as a form of gambling. That is because they appear as a type of wager that takes place over the lifetime of the policy. Basically the insurance company is willing to bet that you and your property will not suffer the loss insured against. In exchange for making this bet, and taking on the risk, the receive your premium. If they win the bet, they keep the premium, if they lose, they make the payout. In this sense, they are often compared to a type of long term financial casino.
The difference between your premium amount, and the amount the insurance company will have to pay out if the loss occurs, is simply the odds the insurance company is getting for taking on the bet. It?s just like going to the horse races and betting on a horse that pays out 10 to 1.
This view of insurance has led to a number of people and religious communities disapproving of insurance because...
Insurance And Ethics
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Life Insurance Providing Little Protection from Terrorism
Life Insurance Providing Little Protection from Terrorism
by: Richard Green
Recent statements by the City of London Police Commissioner James Hart that future terrorist attacks in London?s financial centre are, "a matter of when, rather than if", will increase already serious concerns over issues of personal and business financial protection.
Mr Hart?s statement pointed out that, "if you want to hurt the government, hurt people at the same time, and you want to cause maximum disruption...where better to hit than at the financial centre?"
Mr Hart also echoed a report by the insurer Axa which warned that just under 50% of small firms do not have a plan in place to ensure that their business could survive should they be hit by an emergency or disaster.
Axa highlighted that many businesses, especially in the South East danger zone, are not even covered against general risks such as fire and flood, which have a much greater...
Term life insurance > Life Insurance Providing Little Protection from Terrorism
The Ins and Outs of Long-Term Care Insurance
The Ins and Outs of Long-Term Care Insurance
by: M. Sanders
If you aren't considering the purchase of long-term care insurance as part of your retirement planning, then your plan isn't complete. I'm not saying everyone needs long-term care (LTC) insurance, but I am saying you need to educate yourself about the issues and decide how you want to address those financial concerns.
According to a recent MetLife survey, the average cost of a private nursing home room is about $70,000 per year.
The average stay in a nursing home varies by the type of condition that put you in the facility. For example, those who suffered strokes require an average of 21 months of care, those with cancer average 36 months, and those with Alzheimer's average 96 months. There are a dizzying array of options and features you'll need to understand if you are thinking about buying an LTC policy.
What daily benefit will you need?
The higher the daily benefit,...
The Ins and Outs of Long-Term Care Insurance
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