Guide to Life Insurance Terms

Listed below is a useful guide to life insurance terms. It is a list of definitions of life insurance terms that may or may not be familiar to you.

Accelerated Benefit Provision

A provision in many new policies which will allow the policy owner to receive a portion of the death benefit early if the insured person is diagnosed with a terminal illness or permanently confined to a nursing home.

Accidental Death Benefit

A provision added to a policy that provides an additional benefit if the insured dies from accidental causes.

Certificate

A document provided to a person insured under a group insurance policy that provides evidence that the coverage exists.

Convertible Term Insurance

These policies allow conversion, without further medical evidence, to a different type of policy from an insurance company's range.

Decreasing Term Insurance

The sum assured decreases each year throughout the term of the policy.

Dependent protection

Where the protection is required on a permanent basis rather than just for a specified term.

Evidence of Insurability

Medical and other information about a person applying for insurance that the life insurance company keeps confidential, but uses to decide whether the policy can be issued and what premiums will be charged.

Face Amount

The amount to be paid to the beneficiary when the insured dies.

Free Look

The right of the policy holder to have a period of ten or more days to examine an insurance policy, and if not satisfied, return it to the company for a full refund of all amounts paid.

Grace Period

A period of time after the premium due date when an overdue premium may be paid without penalty. The policy remains in force throughout the period.

Guaranteed Insurability

An option that permits the policyholder to buy additional stated amounts of life insurance at certain times in the future, without having to provide new evidence of insurability.

Illustration

A document used in life insurance sales presentations showing year-by-year numbers indicating how a policy will work.

Increasing Term Insurance

Under this option, the benefit payable on death increases and is particularly useful to avoid the sum assured being eroded by inflation.

Insured

The person whose life is covered by a life insurance policy.

Lapse

The discontinuation of insurance without cash value when the required premium is not paid.

Level Term Life Insurance

In this form a policy will pay out a fixed sum on death during the term.

Loan Value

The amount which can be borrowed by the policy holder from the company using the value of the policy as collateral.

Mode of Premium Payment

The frequency of premium payments during the policy year. Premium payments can usually be made on annual, quarterly, or monthly basis.

Mortality Table

A statistical table showing the death rate for each age.

Nonforfeiture Options

A provision in the policy that allows the policy holder to choose how the cash value of the policy will be used if the policy is surrendered or lapses due to non-payment of premium.

Ownership

All rights, benefits, and privileges under a policy controlled by the insured.

Paid-Up Insurance

A life insurance policy where all premiums have already been paid, with no further premium payment due.

Policy

The printed document issued to the policy holder by the company stating the terms of the insurance contract.

Policy Year

A one-year period starting on the day and the month the policy was issued. The first policy year starts on the date of issue, and ends on the day before the policy's first anniversary date.

Premium

The payment a policy holder is required to make to an insurance company to purchase insurance coverage and to keep the policy in force.

Rated Policy

A policy issued with an additional premium to cover the extra risk involved if an insured has impaired health, a hazardous occupation or hobby.

Reinstatement

The restoring of a lapsed or surrendered policy to full force and effect.

Renewable Increasable Convertible Term Insurance

This contract combines the options of increasing the sum assured, converting the policy and renewing the contract.

Reviewable Term

Level term assurance with an option to renew the contract at the end of the term, without the need for further medical evidence.

Rider

A provision added to a policy that provides additional benefits.

Settlement Option

The manner in which the insured or beneficiary may choose to have the policy proceeds paid.

Suicide Clause

A policy provision which reduces or eliminates the amount to be paid if the insured dies from suicide.

Surrender

To voluntarily terminate or cancel a policy for its cash value.

Term Life Insurance

This type of policy runs for a specified time period.

Underwriting

The process of evaluating applicants for insurance and classifying them fairly, so the appropriate premium rate may be charged

Waiver of Premium

A provision added to a policy that will waive the premium payments required by an insured during the total disability of the insured.

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About the Author:
John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help UK homeowners find the best available loans via the www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.
Article Source: Articles Directory.net

Business Overhead Expense Insurance – Do I need it?

Personal disability insurance protects a physician's ability to earn income, but what protects his or her medical practice? Business overhead expenses are just as relentless for those who suffer a disability. A practice that relies on a small number of people (or one person) to produce revenue is economically vulnerable if one of those individuals becomes disabled. A business overhead expense ("BOE") disability policy will cover the ongoing operating expenses of your practice. It ensures that you do not have to use personal assets to pay for business expenses if you become disabled.

If the insured does become disabled, a BOE policy pays a monthly benefit based on business expenses, not anticipated profits. The following are some business overhead expenses that are covered by BOE insurance:

- Rent or Mortgage Payments

- Employee Salaries and Benefits

- Utility Bills

- Property Taxes

- Accounting Fees, Legal Fees, and Professional Dues

- Malpractice and Other Business Insurance Premiums

- Maintenance and Janitorial Services

- Depreciation

- Interest on Business Debts

- Office Supplies

- Other Fixed Expenses that are Ordinary, Necessary, and Tax Deductible

Some policies even cover the salary of a temporary employee hired to do the duties of the disabled. Income taxes, the cost of inventory, and the cost of furniture are a few expenses that are not covered.

There are several key areas in which BOE insurance differs from personal disability insurance.

Benefit Periods – Usually, BOE insurance policies have short benefit periods that do not exceed two years. Remember that BOE insurance is not protecting your ability to generate income—that is what a personal disability policy does. Instead, BOE insurance allows you to keep your practice open, or at least pay for its expenses until you recover. In the case of a long-term disability, it offers you up to two years to make a business decision, such as whether to shut down or liquidate your practice, without worrying about accruing debt from business expenses.

Maximum Benefits – Personal disability insurance pays a monthly benefit as defined in the policy. BOE insurance policies offer a maximum monthly benefit, but only pay the actual overhead expenses if they are less than the maximum benefit. For example, if the maximum monthly benefit is $1,000 but actual business overhead expenses are only $600, the benefit paid is $600. With some insurers, that unused $400 benefit can be applied to increase future monthly maximums or to extend the benefit period.

Taxation – As long as premiums for personal disability insurance are paid with after-tax dollars, the benefits are tax free. DOE insurance benefits are subject to income tax, but the premiums are tax deductible as a business expense.

One similarity that BOE insurance and personal disability insurance policies share is that the sooner you purchase a policy, the better. Not only will you get lower rates when you are younger and generally in better health, but additional coverage can be purchased later without providing further evidence of medical insurability.

BOE insurance is a great idea for small practices with several physicians. If one physician is disabled, their portion of business overhead expenses will be covered by the policy so the other physicians are still able to practice without an extra financial burden.

Your practice should allow you to earn income, not be a financial parasite if you become disabled. BOE insurance doesn't just protect your practice… it protects you.

About the Author:
Andy Puls is a freelance writer for Doctor Disability Insurance
Added: 21 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/48756.html

Online Insurance Quotes California Auto

Insurance Quotes

Finding insurance quotes for California auto is now pretty easy. There was a time where finding auto insurance at a price we were willing to pay took a lot of driving and calling around. You'd select different agents that represented different companies, call them and repeat the process 4 or 5 times. Then you'd have to wait for a return call for the information. Consequently,insurance quotes for California was cumbersome to say the least.

Today we have many services that negotiate a listing fee for their services and the insurance companies happily pay them a slight fee rather than a large commission to give people their rates. That's good business for you and them. Cost effective, time efficient without bias or opinion. These services let you varying amounts, coverage's, deductible and so forth to produce numerous options for you to select from.

When you get an insurance quote from an agent it's usually more time consuming and less thorough as they are limited by the companies they have. Getting appointments with companies is very difficult to do. The process your taken through, commitmants that they require along with the overall tone and nonesense is riduclous. Then complicating it further the agent wants you to think that they have many companies but in reality probably just a few. Also, the bigger and blue chips so to speak are very selective in selecting agents so often times you never even get a quote from them.

The business of getting anything decent to some degree now really falls in our laps. Online ability to reach these companies along with phones that pop up on the T.V. frankly entice you directly to them, rather than an agent.

Then there's also the issue of direct writers who work directly with the public not through agents and generally speaking their rates are more competitive because the cost of doing business is less and they can pass on those savings to you. You'll be able to decide with your insurances quotes for California auto.

About the Author:
rolfie
Learn more about getting effective insurance and quotes.
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com