Frequently Asked Questions

A rate class is a way for an insurance company to group you with other people who have a similar risk factor to determine a fair price for your insurance. As you can see there are several rate classes. Actually, there are dozens more that are not shown due to the vastly different ways each company puts people in a class. Each company has its own rules regarding which class an individual person will be placed. Therefore companies will charge different prices for the same rate class. The determining factors are age, gender, build, personal habits, health history, and occupation. The art is to find the company that will give the individual the best personal rate. It takes a trained and experienced agent to know which company will give the best rate to a 46 year old scuba diver with borderline high cholesterol. The difference between companies could be thousands of dollars in premiums.

Term Life is pure insurance. The insurance company does not charge extra for any type of investment plan. When purchasing a term life insurance policy you will chose the length of time that you want the policy to be in force. If your need for the insurance is short than you should get a short term policy such as a 5 or 10 year term. Most people who are purchasing life insurance want to lock their rate in for a longer term so they shop for a longer term policy like a 20, 25 or 30 year term.

You get the most insurance for your money. Since the cost of Term Life Insurance is the key selling feature of Term Life, companies are constantly competing with each other to have the lowest possible price. What this means to you is that you can have the amount of insurance that you need and want instead of the amount you can afford.

If you have a term life policy and live to the end of the term there are four possible options. If you no longer need the insurance you can let the policy expire and be happy that you did not need to collect on it. If you still need insurance and you are still insurable than you can simply purchase a new term policy for the remaining time that you would like to have the coverage. Many companies will continue your insurance as an annual renewable policy where the rate is changes each year. This option is quite a bit more expensive than the original policy and so should not be part of your original plan. Another option most companies offer is to convert the term policy to a Whole Life or Universal Life plan. While you initially avoided these plans because of their cost, if you have developed a poor health history they may now be a bargain.

When you convert a policy you change your Term Life policy into a Whole Life or Universal Life policy. The beauty of this option is that even if you have a terminal illness your converted policy will have the same rate class as your original term policy. So if your term policy was issued at preferred rates you converted policy will have preferred rates as well. Typical rules are that your converted policy will be charged the rate for your age at conversion. Each company can have different rules regarding conversion. Most have a maximum age that you can convert a policy, such as prior to age 70. Some companies will allow conversion up to 30 days prior to the end of the term others require the conversion option to be elected sooner.

For some conditions like hypertension and high cholesterol, if properly treated, we can get preferred or preferred plus rates. Other conditions can be more challenging. The key reason why you will get your best rate with us is that we will take the time to shop your specific case with company underwriters, real people not charts or computers. We want to find the people who understands your condition and your treatment progress. Underwriters who will compete to give you a fair rather than inflated price or a rejection.

It depends of how often, how fast, how deep, how high, vehicle type etc. What we look for here is the company who will give you the best price based on your participation level. Take scuba diving for example. Many companies will give recreational divers their best rates as long as they are diving at less than 50 feet deep. For those who dive a little deeper we will be looking at companies who give their best rates for divers up to 75 feet. Still deeper? Then we have companies that will give their best rates up to 100 feet. It becomes more challenging for technical divers or people who spend extended time underwater. Now we need to find an underwriter that understands the sport and will give us a fair risk assessment. The same is true for other activities. For example, it’s easy to get preferred rates for commercial pilots, while private pilots require a little more research. However, if you have an experimental aircraft then we need to find underwriters that understand that there is far less risk flying a plane with a magneto as opposed to one with a car type alternator. No matter what hobbies or sports you participate in, you can be confident that we will work hard to find an underwriter that will give you a fair price on life insurance.

You will probably have to pay for it out of your own savings. If you're legally impoverished, government programs like Medicaid may cover your nursing home care. Medicare and virtually all health insurance programs will only cover Long Term Care for a short time (less than 100 days) and then, only in part. For everything else, the bill will come to you.

After a hospitalization of at least three days and three nights, Medicare will cover a portion of the cost of care in skilled nursing facility for up to 100 days. If the care you are receiving is considered custodial (and 85% of nursing home care is) rather than skilled medical care, then your stay is not covered. No matter what, after 100 days, Medicare stops paying.

A large number of elderly Americans rely on Medicaid for long term care. For a person with little or no assets Medicaid may be the best solution to long term care needs. The rules vary from state, but in general the person receiving such services can have no more than $2,000 in personal assets (certain assets such as a home, its contents, and one car are exempt) and can keep only about $30 per month in income for personal needs. Everything else goes to the state to pay for the care provided, and that includes any pension and/or Social Security income. The rules for a spouse also vary from state to state but in general the spouse of someone on Medicaid can remain in the family home and keep around $82,000 in other assets and a monthly income of about $2,000.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 makes the Partnership for Long Term Care available to all states. Partnership provides "lifetime asset protection" from the Medicaid spend-down requirement. If you have a Long term Care policy that qualifies, you may be able to increase the amount of personal assets that you can keep and still be able to get Medicaid. The ideal plan is to buy a Partnership qualified policy that pays an amount of long term care benefits allowing you to keep all your assets.

If you have a pension or other income that you want to protect than you may want to consider buying a Long Term Policy that has an unlimited benefit. This will provide maximum protection of your income and assets. In addition a Long Term Care policy can give you options that are not available to Medicaid patients.

The Veterans Administration will cover the cost of nursing home care indefinitely if the veteran is at least 70% service-connected disabled. The VA will also cover other forms of home-based or community-based care if there is a medical need.

Very often the answer is yes and you may be able to get your life insurance at a standard or better rate class. When assessing coronary artery disease, or CAD, and heart attack history the life underwriter will assess the severity of the disease using various factors.

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The answer is highly dependent on a number of factors such as the stage of the cancer, the size and the time since successful treatment.
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There is a major trend for Life Insurance Companies to consider "family medical history" when deciding what rate class an applicant should be offered. Currently they look at the family history of immediate family members. Immediate family members mean parents and siblings. While this may make sense from a statistical standpoint environmental factors play a major role in many diseases. In many cases a healthy person who has a family member with diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke or cancer will be charged more than double for life insurance.
Click here for our full article on how Family History affects your Life Insurance rates.

In general, the maximum would be until age 95 as the age of expiration of a term policy. For instance, the oldest a 10 year term policy can be bought would be age 85, age 75 with a 20 year term, and age 65 with a 30 year term. Limits this high are only available though a few companies; usually the limit is around age 80 to 85.