Life insurance quotes for older people

The article looks at some of the situations in which older people may consider taking out life insurance. That said, because of preexisting health problems, not all will be able to buy a new policy.

In many ways, common sense says buying insurance for your life is for young people. That way, you have many years to pay into a fund that will grow in size. Better still, inflation will slowly make an expensive premium payment feel less painful as salaries and pay checks increase. Perhaps more importantly, it makes sure a young family is protected when any loss of earning capacity would be most damaging. There is nothing more destructive than taking on that first mortgage on a home and then filling it with two children only to find one spouse disappears. The tax-free lump sum that pays off the mortgage and keeps the home together while the children grow up will not make the grief of loss any less, but it will make life easier for those who remain.

The truth of this never changes, but it is equally true that older people may also have legitimate concerns. Let us take some scenarios to see why insurance might be considered. First, suppose an aging parent has concerns about the adult children’s financial status. The good life they had hoped for has not been possible. They are struggling. There was a small life policy taken out when they were young but that is not going to significantly improve their lot. Or suppose the main asset is the family home and, because the housing bubble burst, it is no longer a good asset. Maybe it has just lost value. Perhaps it is underwater because a mortgage has yet to be paid off. Now there will not be enough to divide fairly between the adult children. When we get to grandchildren, particularly those who are born with a disability, there are many long-tern problems with the funding of Social Security. It may not be possible for the federal or state government to continue paying the same level of benefits. In all these cases, it makes sense for an older parent to take out insurance.

Not all the older people interested in buying insurance will find it possible. Many will be turned down because of medical conditions that now affect them. Even when there are no current health concerns, the premium payments may be unaffordable. But the more practical situations do provide encouragement. Medical science has been making progress in keeping people alive. Conditions that would have killed you quickly thirty or forty years ago are now treatable. There may be enough years for insurers to collect premiums and build up reasonable cash values if you have a life expectancy of at least fifteen years. This is a judgement call for the actuaries who drive the medical underwriting side of the business. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes you can look at a rural property and fall in love with it. There can be a beautiful stream burbling through a valley with a small stand of trees and a white picket fence – all the elements artists draw into the dream home. Although exurbs are not as picturesque, they can also be on the edge of “civilization” with real countryside just a few minutes away. Under normal, the realtor’s drum will be beating location, location, location. You will be encouraged to view on a summer’s day when everything is in apple-pie order. But before you buy into this version of the American Dream, you should do some serious investigating. You should start with a little history about the area. Does this stream suddenly produce flash floods as heavy rain washes down from the distant mountains? Do those valley sides offer a secure grounding for the trees or will mudslides bring the hillside down to your porch through the fence? Then, no matter where you live, there’s the really important question. Where is the local fire department located?

Have you noticed the big debates both at federal and state level over the deficit? Sorry, silly question. It’s an unavoidable issue and we’ve seen cuts made to all public services. For the most part, this has closed local parks, libraries and reduced the number of teachers in our schools, but left the law enforcement and fire departments untouched. Except out in the countryside, the volunteer departments now suffer loss of equipment and support for training. In the fringes of cities, smaller departments are being shut down and consolidated. This is bad news on the insurance front.

Every area of the country is given a rating based on the local fire department’s Insurance Services Organization rating. If your fire department gets a low rating, this means a low premium rate. So how does the rating system work? It all comes down to the efficiency of the service the department offers to the local community. Let’s say the department is centrally located and can get to all the homes within the immediate area within just a few minutes. This would be wonderful if it also had a crew on the premises, just waiting for the alarm bells to ring, and that crew could take out the latest in fire fighting technology. The fire fighters arrive and they are able to attach the hoses to local water mains with good pressure. This puts out the fire before it can do serious damage to the property. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a pretty well-known fact by now that the safety of a vehicle can be one of the determining factors when shopping for auto insurance quotes. This definition is influenced not just by your driving record, but also by the number of safety features and enhancements that are part of the vehicle itself. Now, new advantages in technology are focused not just on surviving crashes and maximizing passenger safety, but in proactively avoiding accidents entirely.

Advancements in testing
The testing process itself is improving, as more accurate crash test dummies are being used during testing. Dummy anatomy is now more reflective of actual humans, reacting more similarly under impact. There is also growing focus on diversity of crash test models, as the very young and the very old both have different physical characteristics that influence how much they may be impacted in the case of an accident. For example, elderly people are more prone to bone breakage, while young children have the added factor of car seats.

Increased protection
Passenger protection has come a long way in a short amount of time. Remember, seat belts in cars weren’t made mandatory by Congress until the 1960s. Other advances in technology that keep both passenger and driver safe include airbags, side airbags, and crumple zones that help move the collision impact away from those within the vehicle. Future advancements include inflatable rear safety belts, which essentially combine a seat belt with an airbag for optimum rear passenger protection.

Crash avoidance
The biggest trend in car safety technology is an overall shift toward preventing crashes in the first place rather than just minimizing the impact on passengers and vehicles. There has been much discussion of microchip-based safety systems which may eventually eliminate accidents entirely. Future vehicles could come equipped with communication capabilities that eliminate blind spots, allowing coordination with other vehicles to avoid not just collision, but even traffic congestion. Other possibilities include an electronic connection to the larger communications grid, allowing direct access to EMS services in case of an accident. In the future, vehicles may also be able to sense and remember the vitals of each passenger and adjust accordingly. Read the rest of this entry »

Although the latest employment statistics show a drop in the number of people claiming benefit, there’s little real improvement in the availability of work. It’s still tough to find and keep a job. Curiously, both the GOP and the Democrats see the need to encourage small business, believing new entrepreneurs will lead us out of the recession. The problem with this view is we are less entrepreneurial than we used to be. Many other countries have a higher percentage of people prepared to risk their capital in starting new businesses. The majority of our younger adults are just sitting back waiting for jobs to come along. That said, the Government is encouraging small business with tax breaks. All of which brings us to the Affordable Care Act.

Ignoring the usual politics and second-guessing what the Supreme Court will rule in 2012, let’s focus on what will happen between now and 2014 when the whole Act’s program is supposed to be in force. If you are a one-person business, you will be caught by the mandate just like any other individual. That means you buy cover or pay a penalty. For the record, the penalty is $695 or 2.5% of your income whichever is the greater unless the actual cost of the premium will be more than 8% of your income. You do the math to weigh up where you interests lie.

There’s no mandate for businesses, but there are penalties for failing to put a plan in place. If you have up to 25 employees, there’s a tax break to set off against half the cost of group cover. But you only get the maximum benefit if you are really small, i.e. you do not have the equivalent of 10 full-time employees and the average of their pay is less than $25,000. Your right to the tax break reduces as your size and the average pay increases. If you are small but your employees earn an average of $50,000 or more you lose the tax credit. In 2014 every state should have a Small Business Exchange in operation and, if you decide to buy through your local exchange, the tax credit will increase. However, these tax credits are only to prime the pump. Once you have a plan for your business, the credit will phase out over five years and only for two years after the exchanges are running. Read the rest of this entry »