Thursday, November 6, 2008

Life insurance and getting the best deal for you and your family

By Chris Clare

At some point in everyones life they will have a need for life insurance, whether it is to cover a mortgage or other loan, to protect against inheritance tax, or to just protect their families standard of living should they die. This article will go some way to hopefully pointing you in the right direction of the most appropriate plan and the best place to source it.

The first thing you need to do is establish just what you need life insurance for. This is important as it will probably dictate the sort of policy you ultimately go for. As a guideline, mortgage protection will probably come in the form of term insurance, family protection will usually be a term or whole of life insurance plan and inheritance tax cover a little known policy called gift inter vivos will most likely be the option best suited to you.

Once you have decided on the type of plan you want to go for, you will then need to go to the market place to get the best premium for that type of cover. There are many places you can buy life insurance, such as direct from a life insurance company, from a bank, from a financial advisor or even online from one of the many life insurance quote sites on the internet.

The main point to remember is to be wary because some of the advice you will be given will not be from independent financial advisers who may not have your best interests at heart. This policy should benefit you and your loved ones.

The first port of call will most probably be to a life insurance company. The main benefit of dealing in this way is that you will have a face to face meeting with a company representative which makes it personal, real, and reassuring. But it is worth bearing in mind that the policy you will be offered will be a standard one- you will not benefit from any offers. Also the choice of policies on offer will only be ones that are in that particular company's portfolio.

Another option is to deal with a bank and just like with the insurance company, familiarity with both institutions can make for a less daunting experience. The downside is that the policies on offer will be limited to the ones on the portfolio of whichever insurance company the bank deals with.

The financial advisor route can be a very beneficial one, however you need to make sure they are independent financial advisors because if they are not it is the same situation as banks and insurance companies, in that they can only offer you a limited range of products. Independent financial advisors on the other hand can offer you products from all the life insurance companies and as such will always ensure that they find the most suitable product from the most suitable life company for your particular requirements.

The last of the options highlighted is to use the internet. This is recommended for those people who have done all their homework and have researched into what policy is best for them. By being 100% informed as to what you need from your life insurance policy, you can quickly and effectively browse what is available to you online and make your own decision accordingly. Also, you will probably be able to get your policy at a cheaper price online rather than going directly to the insurance companies. The reason being online providers can give good premiums because they are cutting out the commission element of the sale.

So, to obtain maximum benefit from the option of the internet you should know exactly what you require, and for how long, and what the final outcome should be. Then it is a matter of trawling the options (avoiding companies that may need to call you back, they have a tendency to try and push what you don't need). An important thing to remember is that if you are getting bogged down and don't really understand the details whilst on a certain site there should be a contact button which I would always advise that you use. Reference points for any queries are usually part of the site setup, and, usually at no extra cost, provide invaluable information that you can use to supplement your own findings.

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