Travel Insurance: An Insurance You Actually Needed While Travelling

After months of business at work, you sometimes need to refresh you mind by having travelling either locally or overseas. This way will release your fatigue during the work. You may be happily to set off your travelling without travel insurance, but what will happen in case you need treatment during your travelling that cost you out of your reach?

What is actually a travel insurance? Travel insurance is insurance that is intended to cover medical expenses, financial default of travel suppliers, and other losses incurred while traveling, either within one's own country, or internationally. It is clearly intended to cover things dealing with your travelling, such as medical expenses.

What are actually covered by such travelling insurances? Below are the basic of ravel insurance:

1.  Cancellation and curtailment

Dealing with cancellation of your travelling, the travel insurance company will be likely to pay you in case you cancel your holiday for the reason of losing your job and can not afford your travel for more or a member of your family gets ill while you are away and you need to come home earlier than scheduled. Be detailed in understanding the policy because your claim will not be approved for a certain reason.

2. Delay 

The travel insurance company will compensate you if your flight is delayed for more than 12 hours. As the airline you are are flying with to confirm the delay in writing and keep the receipt of anything you have to purchase dealing with the delay as to avoid any problem in receiving the compensation. 

3. Baggage and belongings 

This deals with the luggage or personal belongings that are lost, damaged, or stolen. Most travel insurance companies will limit to pay the claims for the your lost or damaged belongings. Make sure of the limits by asking your agent.

4. Personal liabilities 

This deals with incidence you do not intend to, like injuring others or damaging others' properties. In case this happen to you, they could make a a claim against you. That's why you need to have personal liability cover to anticipate these.

5. Emergency assistance

Most insurance companies provide their clients a 24 emergency calls that can be a lifesaver, especially when you are in a different time zone. 

6. Medical cover 

This will cover you when you need a medical bill cover in case you are ill or have an accident while on holiday. Almost all experts recommend you to take up to $2.5 million of medical cover i you are travelling abroad.

Are you planning for travelling, either domestically or abroad? You'd better to consider the travel insurance in case you get the unwilling incidence during the holiday.

5 Smart Self Questions Before Choosing the Appropriate Life Insurance

Choosing life insurance seems like an easy way to do. In fact, there are some factors you have to consider before choosing the right life insurance for you. You may ignore the factors, but you might regret to do this later.

As a Financial Service Consultant of Prudential Life Assurance (Jackson Life Assurance in the USA), I do suggest you to consider the following before deciding to sign up the proposal your agent provide you, ask the following questions to yourself.

1.  Why do I need a life insurance?

This is a very basic question a prospective client has to ask to his/herself before deciding to buy a policy. A life protection is actually needed by anyone, no matter the condition, the health condition, the profession. The higher the risk you have, the more urgent you need to have a life insurance. 

2.  What products do I need?

For those who new to life insurance, they will find themselves difficult in deciding the products they actually need. All insurance companies offer such lucrative lures as the cover provided, the benefits, the easy way of claiming, the customer support, etc. Your insurance agent will explain you in such an interesting way but you have to focus on the questions, "what products do I need?"

There are a lot of insurance products you can choose based on your need, both for traditional and unit-linked insurance, such as basic insurance (for death and/or  disablement), early stage crisis cover, crisis cover, income cover, hospital cover, accident care cover, waiver payor, etc. Ask you agent or financial service consultant to clearly explain in detail all about them. 

Do not buy the products you do not actually need a lot. 

3.  How long will I take the insurance covers? 

After you decide what insurance products you buy, next is to think of the length of period of coverage. As I have explained at the  understanding the basic concept of insurance, decide first whether you choose buy either the traditional insurance or unit-linked insurance. Each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. The main difference of them is the period time you have to pay the premium: you have to pay all your life time to cover your need all the time if you choose the traditional insurance, and you need only to pay in a certain period of time if you choose unit-linked insurance in order to be lifetime protected. Make it sure by asking the clear explanation about the period of coverage you will get in case you choose either traditional or unit-link insurance.

4.  Could I afford the insurance covers? 

This question deals with your money. Be wise in terms of spending money on this. Just pay what you actually need the coverage. You again your agent might  persuade you to buy all protection products the company has as the more money you pay for the premium, the higher commission will the agent earn.

Some professional financial consultant advice people to spend not more than 30% of their income. Never spend more than that amount of money as you will find difficulties in paying the due date in case you need fresh money for non-coverage incidence.

5.  Are there any comparisons I can learn from other insurance companies? 

Each company has a certain standard in paying the claims as well as determining the minimum and maximum coverage a customer may apply for. Find out comparisons first first before deciding signing the proposal provided by your agent.

This also include the procedures of claiming, facilities provided, as well as the services provided by the company by surfing through the internet or by inquiring others whose different insurance policis.

Based on the five self-questions above, you have to be wise and selective before paying the life insurance offer by a certain insurance company. 

Happy insuring!

Long Term Care Insurance Is the Best Choice for Covering Care Uncovered by General Insurance

Long term care insurance (LTC or LTCI) is an insurance product sold in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada that helps provide for the cost of long-term care beyond a predetermined period. This kind of insurance covers care generally not covered by health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid.

Unlike traditional life insurance, this long term care insurance is designed for long term services and supports including personal and custodial care in such settings as home, public facilities, organizations, and other facilities. Those who need long-term care are generally not sick in the traditional sense, yet, those who are unable to perform such basic activities of daily living (ADLs) as dressing, bathing, eating, toileting, continence, transferring (getting in and out of a bed or chair), and walking.

This long term care insurance is based on the following aspects:

1. Age

Age determines the premium you will have to pay. The older you are, the higher premium you have to pay.

2. The amount of cover 

This is set for the maximum amount of cover of a policy you will pay per pay.

3. The amount of days cover  

This is about the maximum of days (years) that a policy will pay you. 

4. The amount of day times the number of days 

This is about the amount of per day times the number of days determined the lifetime maximum amount that a policy will pay you. 

5. Optional benefits 

The optional benefits you may choose, like benefits that increase along with inflation. 

For this kind of insurance, you may not qualify for the long term insurance if you are in poor health condition. But, in same case, you may buy a limited amount of coverage or a non standard coverage. 

Insurance Quotes:The Estimated Rate You Will afford with A Potential Life Insurance

Insurance quotes are estimated rate you afford with a potential insurance carrier. The insurance quotes are subject to change based on how much information you provide at the time of the quote. The more information, you provide, the more accurate your insurance quote will be.

Dealing with your life insurance, how long does it take to get a life insurance quote?

It does not take a lot of time to get a single quote. In a matter of fact, there are some factors that affect the time it takes to get an insurance quote. At least, there are 7 factors affect the time it takes to get an life insurance quote:

1. Age

The number of factor behind the life insurance premium to pay is the age of the policy holder. The older the age of policy holder, the higher rate they have to pay. That's why it is important for you to set your life insurance as young as possible, but of course, as you do not have any financial problem in terms of paying the premium. Still, it does not mean that you have to buy your life insurance policy right after college. 

2. Gender

Gender is at the second position of life insurance quotes. Woman will have to pay cheaper with the same life insurance benefits compared with man. It is because, according to the statistic research the life expectation of women is five years longer than men. 

3. Smoker

Smoking is the highest risk in terms of all kinds of causes of death and critical diseases. Smoking will risk you with a lung cancer that in turn will risk you to die faster than the non smoker. Because of this high risky habit, the life insurance company will quote smoker higher than the non smokers, and even twice. Then, how to trick it out? Just quit smoking two years before applying for a new policy.

4. Health condition 

An insurance agent as the first underwriting processor will ask you to provide them any information dealing with the health condition you have - the critical illness you have had. What you have to do is just be honest for what you have or what you feel. It is because the information will deal with the quote you will rate as well as the claims you will propose later. There will be in time you need to have a medical check up for your blood pressure for example, in case the the first underwriting processor think you should to.

5. Lifestyle

Your hobbies are also included in lifestyle. The risky hobby, such as racing cars or climbing mountain, will end up with the higher quote you have to pay. You must be honest about the lifestyle you have since, for example you don't let the insurance agent know that you have a racing car hobby and next time you claim for the accident caused by such a hobby, the insurance company will deny your claim. 

6. Family medical story

Family medical story deal with your insurance quotes in which the agent will ask you about your parents or siblings's health condition, whether they have experienced such critical illness, like cancer stroke, heart attacks and other critical illnesses, including premature death. This medical story will impact on some higher premium to pay.

7. Driving habits

Not all life insurances will pay such an attention on this aspect, but some will. Whether the insurance companies ask about violations on the application, they can access Department of Motor Vehicles records to find out if you have run afoul of the traffic laws. If you have good driving habits, the life insurance companies likely rate you with a more favorable premium. 

Those 7 factors affecting the quote of rate you will pay needs to pay your attention at. In fact, just as important is whether or not the quote has the coverage you need and want, when you are getting quotes on life insurance, you should have each company run the quote a similarly as possible. It is the only way you will know which carrier has the best price for you.

Understanding the Basic Concept of Life Insurance Before Applying for A Policy

Life insurance is now a primary need for people in advanced countries and it has been now becoming a new life style there. People in such countries are aware of the importance of this insurance in which it protects themselves as well as protect their income. And todays, life insurance becomes more familiar in developing countries. And as this, all insurance companies compete to provide the best services to both the existing customers as well prospective customers. Besides, they keep innovating their products to meet the customers's needs. 

A decade ago or so, all insurance companies provide the customers with traditional products that is called term life insurance. And since then, some companies have been innovating their products into the more beneficial ones: unit-linked insurance. 

Traditional insurance consists of three types: term-life insurance, whole-life insurance, and endowment insurance. 

a. Term life insurance

This type of insurance provides the customers a life protection in a certain period of time. This kind of insurance requires the customers to pay a lower rate with higher cover. In case the customer gets incidence where they got into fatal accident (disabled) or pass away, the company pays all the cover put on the policy either to customer or the beneficiary. But, in case, the contract of the term life ends while there is no incidence or claim during until the contract ends, there is no premium return to the customers. The premium of this kind of insurance is usually paid annually.  

b. Whole life insurance 

This kind of insurance is the opposite type of term life insurance. In this type of insurance, you need to pay higher than the term life but the company will pay you back some or the whole premium paid in case you as the customer do not claim anything during the period of protection. This kind of insurance take longer than the term life insurance. 

c. Endowment insurance 

Endowment insurance is more popular than the first two kinds o insurance. The customers will not only get the returning premium paid at the end of the contract, they will also receive some amount of money before the contract ends. Education insurance is included in this kind of traditional insurance. 

Unit-link insurance or is commonly called as unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP) is a product offered by insurance companies that unlike a pure insurance policy gives investors the benefits of both insurance and investment under a single integrated plan. This kind of insurance product was firstly introduced in India in 1971 by Unit Trust of India. 

A unit-linked insurance plan is basically a combination of insurance as well as investment. A part of the premium paid is utilized to provide insurance cover to the policy holder while the remaining portion is invested in various equity and debt schemes. 

The money collected by the insurance provider is utilized to form a pool of fund that is used to invest in various markets instruments (cash, managed, and equity funds) in varying proportions just the way it is done for mutual funds. Policy holders have the option of selecting the type of funds based on their investment need and appetite. 

Just the way it is for mutual funds, ULIP policy holders are also allotted units and each unit has a net asset value (NAV) that is declared on a daily basis. The NAV is the value based on which the net rate of returns on ULIPs are determined. The NAV varies from one ULIP to another based on market conditions and the fund’s performance. 

Both the traditional and unit-link insurances have their own advantages and disadvantages. Just be wise in terms of choosing the suitable one for your needs as well as your financial condition. In case you need a certain short period of time protection, it would be wise for you to choose the term-life insurance. In fact, if you need longer protection as well as need to prepare the future financial planning, you'd better to choose the second one, unit-link insurance.