Safety Insurance Plus

The need for affordable individual health insurance is becoming more prevalent because of the rising numbers of self-employed. Entrepreneurs are changing the landscape. Home-based businesses are growing at a phenomenal pace. The enormous growth of small business has generated a greater demand for individual health insurance. This is a first time experience for many of these new start-ups. Group health insurance is provided by the employer. The employee that is enrolled in the company group health insurance plan rarely examines the coverage or the cost. This changes dramatically when they are forced into purchasing their own individual plan.

COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) guarantees a continuance of coverage when you leave your employer. This coverage is made available for 18 months after you leave. You have a 60-day window after termination of employment to shop for your own individual health plan. This window of time is critical to the insurance shopping process. If you have any thought of leaving your employer then it is imperative that you investigate the availability of individual health insurance.

Individual health insurance is medically underwritten. That means that the insurance company will gather all applicable medical information on you and or your family to determine if they can offer you an individual plan. Pre-existing conditions are often eliminated and in some instances coverage can be denied.

Things to consider:

1. Health – Do not presume that you or any of your family is Insurable. There may be certain pre-existing conditions that are covered by some companies and excluded by others.

2. Self-Insuring – The higher deductible that you elect will decrease your premium dramatically. This is called self-insuring. Some companies have deductibles that go as high as thousands.

3. Insurance Company – There are many reliable insurance companies in the health insurance industry use their quotes to compare coverage.

To view our recommended source for reliable quotes, visit this page: ezquoteguide.com/health Affordable Health Insurance.

To view our recommended source for all other insurance, visit this page: ezquoteguide.com/ Insurance Quotes.

The phrase “BUY TERM AND INVEST THE DIFFERENCE” evolves around the concept of term life policy which is a basic protection policy and the endowment/ whole life policy which has protection and investment/saving features. To put it simply, the phrase means that instead of taking up the endowment/whole life policy, an individual should buy a term policy for protection and the difference between the premiums of the two policies is to be invested by the individual himself to earn some dividend on the investment.

To agree with the phrase “Buy Term and Invest the Difference”, one need to have the conviction and will-power to invest the difference in the premium in an investment vehicle that can pay a return higher than that declared by an insurance company. Unfortunately, most of us do not have the capability to achieve the desired return over time. At times, one is lucky to reap a good return from the equity market but this is all short-lived when the downturn occurs, all gains will be wiped out and may even heavy losses.

However, investment-linked life insurance have been pioneered and offered for sale by insurance companies around the world as one way where it is possible to have both protection and investment at the same time. In the United States of America, investment-linked life insurance is known as “variable life insurance”. It was pioneered by the Equitable Life Assurance Society and was offered for sale in 1976. This type of product is recommended if one agrees with the phrase “Buy Term and Invest the Difference”.

Investment-linked life insurance policies offer more flexibility to the policy owners and they can choose when to top up or how much, or on what portion of their policy that is linked directly to investment performance. Considering the wide range of investment tools available, investment-linked insurance products may be linked to stocks and shares, property or real estate, cash deposits, fixed income securities, government bonds, corporate bonds, unit trusts, investment trusts, other life insurance and annuities. Investment-linked funds have been created to suit the client’s various investment objectives, risk-reward profiles and investment preferences.

With several insurers offering a variety of investment-linked insurance products, it is now possible for an insurance policy holder to enjoy protection and at the same time to invest solely in one fund or a combination of funds, subject to certain limitations, such as a minimum of 20% of his investment in each fund selected. An insurance policy holder may switch his investment between funds when his investment objectives change.

As an example, an Income Fund which is managed by a company’s in-house fixed-income investment team comprising individuals with more than 20 years of experience in the financial sector. This fund is suitable for policy owners seeking stability of principal and a higher return compared to bank deposits but with acceptable risk to capital invested. The fund is principally invested in fixed-income securities, treasury products, money market instruments, collective investment schemes, and any other permissible instruments or investments prescribed by the relevant regulatory bodies to provide a steady return to policy owners through accumulation of capital over the long-term.

Without the existence of investment-linked products, one may disagree with the phrase and may not “buy term and invest the difference” but instead to take up a traditional participating life insurance product that provides life protection with an element for investment. The premium may be higher but it leads to wealth creation for the future.

YS Koh is an independent Certified Financial Planner and a licensed financial investment broker by practice. She writes often and provides insights and viewpoints for her blog “Life Insurance Information Portal” ( get-term-life-insurance-info.blogspot.com get-term-life-insurance-info.blogspot.com)

This Life Insurance Information Portal is designed to provide you with unbiased information and useful tips, free from get-term-life-insurance.info get-term-life-insurance.info