Life Insurance??? - Des Plaines,IL

Please do not take a form letter answer like "OneandDone" has given you.

Life insurance companies are rated based upon their financial soundness. As insurance is state regulated, I can't advise you in IL. I'm in FL. I can tell you that many, many agents will try to sell you more than you need as they are based upon commission. Do not buy more than you need...and don't be afraid to do research on life insurance.

Whole life is much more expensive than term life insurance. Term life insurance is just that - life insurance for a particular term of time - can be 10, 15, 20, 30 years or more...

We purchase life insurance for different reasons. If you are single, no children, no financial dependents, then you normally don't need any life insurance.

Many agents will tell you to purchase a certain number of years worth of your salary - that may or may not be wise. Also, you need to decide whether your goal in having insurance is to make sure that your spouse / children are comfortable or rich...

I also try to give my clients as much future flexibility as possible. Sometimes that means purchasing two or three policies instead of one large one in order to allow you to drop some coverage as children grow up, your house gets paid off, etc. If you work, don't forget to look at your last social security statement that you got around your birthday. That will give information on how much your children would receive from social security annually until the age of 18.

IF you want to email me directly, I would be happy to suggest some things you should think about - tell me what your reasons are for purchasing the insurance.

Cheers,
C.

When you ask a life insurance question here, you will inevitably get a response from a Ramsey devotee about what a bad investment life insurance is. Ignore it. He is no more qualified to give life insurance advice than a life insurance company is to give you financial planning advice.

A quick lesson. 3 types
Term - super cheap. only lasts for a certain "term" or number of years
Return of Premium Term - a little more, but at the end of the term, you get every penny you paid back!
Whole Life - the most expensive, but it grows, earns interest, can be borrowed against, and price never goes up.

If you have a mortgage or small children, and are on a tight budget. Start with a 25,000 term with term riders for the kids. That should be around $20-25 a month. ANd it will cover you and the kids. If you have a larger budget, think about Return of Premium. That way, you aren't losing anything. In 20 years they will write you a check for several thousand dollars!

Call your home and auto insurance agent to get a quote. It might give you a discount on your existing insurance. Then call New York Life, Met Life. A couple of the big guys. Don't go with a company that might not be there in 20 yrs!

I would follow Clark Howard's advice on life insurance. I like a lot of what Dave Ramsey says, but life insurance IS important -especially if you have young children! It's also very important if one spouse is a SAH person. You have to look at it like this -if the person making most or all of the income dies, then what will you do? You have to take into account mourning time, trying to find a job, possible moving, etc.

Clark Howard is our go-to financial expert. He has a lot of great advice about what types of life insurance are right for different people. He has several books (covers life insurance pretty well in "Living Large in Lean Times") and a good website.

I have life insurance through the company I work for as well as private life insurance through 2 different companies, First Fidelity (whole life) and Travelers Insurance (term life).

I got the whole life policy almost 18 years ago and I will be finished contributing towards it in about a year. It will be something I will always have no matter if I stop working and don't have any other insurance. At least my family won't have to worry about burying me after I'm gone.

My mom had no insurance at all. I thought she did but she didn't.

We have 2 policies (term) with 2 companies for each my husband and I. We also have it on the kids, which is a rider attached to my policy. I never thought about getting life insurance on the (4) kids, but it's cheap.

One policy is through ING/ReliaStar and other is through Anthem/Liberty Mutual. The both were easy and seem fine to me, but we'll only find out how good they actually are when we die. I wanted to stick with large, well-known companies, so the money might actually be there, rather than a fly by night company that goes belly up 2 years after investing.

My friend's son died unexpectedly in the middle of the night. I asked her if I should open an account, where people can send money to help pay for the funeral, instead of flowers. She said told me everything was taken care of. They don't have a lot of money, so I was confused. She told me that when her 3rd was born, she decided to get life insurance. A few years later, her 7 year old died and she had enough stress from his death....but didn't have to worry how to bury him.

We went through our Insurance agent (who we have our home/auto with). They have a company that they work. I would start there.

Hi S., I'm an insurance agent in AZ. Some people are telling you to get a quote from your home/auto agent. Just an FYI...not all insurance agents are licensed to sell life/health that sell home/auto. They are different licenses. That being said, you need to contact a local "independent" insurance agent that can quote you thru many companies. That way you can see the range of premiums. They can also explain the differences in policies and also help you figure out the amount of coverage you need. Once you have it in place...DO NOT CANCEL it!!! It gets more expensive the older you get and if you get health issues, you may not qualify and it will be too late. In fact, just last week I had a client contact me that wanted me to quote his EIGHT SIX year old dad...really? Thats a little late. Message me if you have any questions...good luck!

lovemy boys is spot on.
Though, my life insurance is totally separate from my other insurances - heck they all come from different companies. But, I know my life insurance guy - used to be involved in community projects with him, plus he is with Northwestern Mutual which is a reputable company.

Explore whole life vs term insurance - one gives you cash build up that you can use later in life - one just insures you until a specific age. There are many options.

My life insurance is the one thing I will not from my ever dwindling budget - it is my child's protection should something happen to me.

You can get quotes online for all kinds of different policies. That will give you an idea of what you might be able to afford. If you need help trying to decide what kind or how much insurance, talk to your current auto/home agent. Most of the agents for the major insurance companies will be licensed for property/casualty (auto, home, etc) and life/health. So if you are insured with a major insurance company, I'd start there before you look into independent agents. Multiple policy discounts can save you a bundle. If their rate isn't in your budget or they don't sell it, then I'd look into an independent, but be sure to do your research on the financial stability of the companies. AM Best is a great resource.

If it's in your budget, consider a mixture of whole life and term. Although whole life is expensive, if you are fairly young and in good health, you can get a reasonable rate that will be locked in forever. It has advantages that term policies don't have, such as the cash value, option to borrow against the policy, etc. The term policy can get you the large amount of coverage you need now that (hopefully) you won't need as you get older. The longer the term the better. How much you need will be dependent on your individual situation, so talking with an agent can help you determine that. Don't forget to include everything you want to accomplish with this money. Do you want enough to send your kids to college? Pay off a mortgage? Pay off other debt? Send the grandkids to Disney World? Donate to charity?

Also, if your budget allows, consider insuring your children, both as a rider on your policy and their own policies, especially if they are young. The whole life policy I bought on my son was purchased as a 15 year payment policy. So after 15 years, it will be paid off and will continue building up cash value. I bought when he was 3 weeks old, so the rate is very cheap and will be paid off before he graduates high school. Once he is old enough, I can transfer ownership of the policy to him.

Be sure to ask the agent about your eligibility for preferred rates and any riders there may be available. Two riders I have are the guaranteed insurability option and waiver of premium disability. The GIO means that I can buy additional insurance at certain points in my life without having to re-qualify. Great for policies on younger people or people with medical history likely to disqualify them in the future. I have it on my son's policy too, so no matter what health issues he has, he will have insurance and be able to buy more. The WPD will take care of your payments if you become disabled. Mine is only 50 cents a month, so it is definitely worth it for me. Good luck with your search and great looking out for your family!

What you want is level term. Approx 10-20x your yearly salary.

Dave Ramsay always recommends Zander Insurance: http://www.zanderins.com/

My husband and I both have 2 seperae policies, from 2 different places. When we changed everything into AAA, an agent called and gave us a little information. Now I dont know the exact name of this insurance but We have a 400,000 policy that is good for 30 years. In the event that we don't have to use it (praying) We get ALL the money back that we invested into it. If we do have to use it we know our morgage will get paid, and other min. bills, and money can get put away for my boys for college. I pay $40 a month for that. Then we each have a $25,000 policy that I belive is term? This we will carry for the rest of our lives and then some day when we pass, we know our funeral and expenses will be covered.
My husband deals with this stuff, but if you want I can go through my policies and give you the exact name, just PM :)

We went with SelectQuote for both me and DH and have not had problems with it. They take your info and price you a policy based on your health and needs.

I'm not an agent, but I agree with MzKitty. You find an independent agent (my first agent had an office at my credit union, my current agent is the same as my car/home insurance agent but - my life insurance is NOT through the same company as my car insurance, he works as an independent agent for life insurance). The agent should generate quotes for you from many companies, and the insurance companies will have ratings attached to them (AAA, AA, A, B). You want to purchase from the most highly rated company you can that gives a fair price.

In general, you'll want to get term life insurance. There is a whole life insurance but it's much more expensive and it's only worth if it you are buying it basically as an investment product (ie, you've maxed out your ability to invest for retirement in IRAs, 401Ks, etc, and need a new way to stash away money for retirement). Very very few of us fall into that category.

You figure out how much you need by calculating how much debt you have plus how much your family would need to live without you. For example, I have enough so that if something happened to me, my family could of course have a funeral for me, but also pay off the house and car and replace my income for several years until they got back on their feet. I only calculate in several years because my husband has a good job. If I were a single mom, I'd need more to try to get my kids to age 18 (not sure what your situation is).

In general, you almost always want to get a 30 year term policy, because if you only get 20 years now, and, 20 years from now try to buy a new 10 year policy, it will be much MUCH more expensive.

Good luck, and good for you. This is an important thing to do.

Make sure you buy it before you may be sick. They ask why you are buying it now and they don't pay out if the investigator later finds out you were sick when you applied.

I would get at least three quotes, including one from the company that insures your home and cars. I would NOT go with the cheapest necessarily. We are with State Farm and could save hundreds every year by switching. We don't switch because we know if we have a claim, we get a check in 24 or 48 hours. They also have employees who can secure our house if we are on vacation and something happens. We are paying for extra services that discount brokers may not provide.

I personally had to sue Progressive to make them pay though they knew they owed it. I lost 1/4 to the lawyer.

Policies that can be cashed out sound so tempting, but you should NOT cash them out. A lady I know has maxed out each of her policies and until she pays it back, she told me she is only partially insured. I don't know if this is right but I would buy insurance without the idea it is a line of credit for emergencies.