Sandra Bailey, Life Insurance Broker

Answer: You surely can! If it’s a revocable beneficiary.

You can contact your insurance agent or you can call the insurance company to request the change.

If it’s an irrevocable beneficiary, you cannot change it without their convent. However, most life insurance beneficiaries are revocable, unless you told your agent to make them irrevocable.

Therefore most likely yours is revocable, thus can be changed. I have never written an application with an irrevocable beneficiary but just saying it can be done both ways.

You can check your application that’s included as part of the life insurance contract. Check the beneficiary section to see what type of beneficiary is checked.

Hope this helps. Long answer but all the details :-)

Answer: A mistake I’ve seen is when people purchase life insurance from a tv ad & not speak with a broker. Some plans advertise, no one will be turned down. Many times they will place you in a guaranteed issue life insurance plan. Some of these plan require a 2-3 year wait before the claim is paid. Now if your health is poor, this may be the only plan you’ll qualify for. But you should at least try for a level plan 1st. They”!!

2nd thought ….

I don’t believe you can make a mistake when buying life insurance. However, you must ask yourself: Why do I want life insurance?

Do you want it for a specific period of time? For mortgage protection or to make sure your minor children get through college if God called you home too soon.

Do you want a permanent plan that won’t expire?

For burial or final expenses, for leaving a legacy, estate planning, supplementing retirement with cash value, wanting long-term care or chronic illness included in your plan.

Answer: “Simplified Issue” is when the insurance company does not require a paramed (physical) on you. During the application process, they will ask you to sign a HIPPA form. You’re giving them permission to request your medical history. Your MIB(Medical Information Bureau) report & your RX, prescription drug check. The insurance company will approve or decline you based on this information. No medical exams required.

“Guaranteed Issue” is when the insurance company will not ask any health questions. There is a wait period of 2 years mainly but some carriers have a 3 year wait before they will pay out the death benefit. If you die before the 2 or 3 year wait period, most companies will return your premiums back to you plus interest. Some carriers will pay you 10% interest while other carriers may pay less.

Hope this explains the difference. Thanks for the question.

Answer: Yes you can. It’s called a Life Settlement.

What I’ve seen is you’ll get more money for your life insurance policy if you’re older & have health issues. This makes the companies want to purchase it. You can use the cash to help with long-term care while you’re living if you don’t have long-term care insurance. Or you can use it for whatever you want.

If you’re young & healthy you may not be able to sale your life insurance policy. If you’re older & healthy, you may get less than if you were unhealthy. Hope this makes sense.

The life settlement company purchasing your policy so now they own it. They assume paying the premiums & they are now the beneficiary.

You’ll want to get with a broker so they can check all the life settlement companies for you or you can check around yourself & don’t accept the first offer.

Hope this was beneficial & answered your question.

Answer: Both are permanent life insurance plans.

However WL has riders that UL doesn’t.

WL has a reduced paid up rider. If you stop paying, you may still have a paid up policy.

WL is more expensive as it offers guarantees to age 121. Final expense policies are written with WL

UL is more flexible. If you have cash value(CV) in your policy, it can be used to keep the policy in force until the cash runs out. UL is less expensive so has gotten more popular. Some companies are looking at paid up riders also. There are some Guaranteed UL policies that offer guarantees to age 121 while others offer non guarantees.

Be sure your agent or broker explains these to your understanding before you make a decision & purchase.

Answer: Life insurance is based on age, health conditions & tobacco usage.

The younger & healthier one is, they’ll get the best rate. This is why it’s best to purchase life insurance on children.

The question however: “How can you lower your life insurance premiums?”

If you were a smoker & stop smoking, you can request non-tobacco rates.

You can get with a broker who can shop various carriers for you in an effort to find a less expensive premium. There are a lot of carriers out here so you can shop around.

If you’ve had your policy for a long time, you were younger & may not find anything lower. It all depends. Just shop around to find out before giving up.

Answer: Use the DIME method or approach to determine how much life insurance you’ll need.

D - Debt: How much debt will be owed when passed away. If you have a car loan…Would it be repo?

I - Income: what’s your annual income & how many years will your loved ones need that income if you passed away.

M- Mortgage: What’s the balance on your home mortgage or how much is the annual rent that will be needed in your absence & for how many years.

E- Education: for your young children’s future plus day to day Expenses for your family.

If this is a high number, you can always get a term policy for the length of the mtg & to get your children through college. Purchase a permanent policy for final expenses or to supplement retirement & long-term care coverage.

Good luck in purchasing life insurance. Great question.

Answer: A captive agent works for one company. They are normally an W2 employee so must offer that companies products & services. They may receive employee benefits.

An independent agent/broker works with various insurance companies to determine which is the best for our clients. We are independent contractors who receive 1099s from the various insurance companies we represent.

Some captive companies will also allow independent agents to represent their products while others do not.

Example: Transamerica have captive agents but they also allow independent agents to represent them as well. On the other hand, State Farm & All State only allow captive agents to offer their products.

Hope this is clear. 😊

Answer: You need life insurance if

* someone is depending on your income,

* if someone will need funds to pay for your final expenses like your burial, cremation etc.

* if there is a car that may be repossessed if payment wasn’t made.

* if you’d like to leave a legacy to a loved one or charity.

* if you want long-term care or chronic illness coverage. Some life insurance includes those benefits while you’re living.

If none of these apply, you may not need life insurance. This is all I could think of for now.

Thank you

Answer: A graded death benefit is when the insurance company requires the insured to live 2 or more years before the full death benefit will be paid to the beneficiary.

If the insured dies within the 2 years, the beneficiary will get their premiums back & most times with interest (10% interest on some policies).

If the insured dies after 2 years, the full death benefit is paid to the beneficiary.

Thanks for your question.

Answer: Yes you can reinstate a lapse insurance policy.

Reinstatement allows you to keep the same premiums. The insurance company may ask you to complete a “Statement of Health” form depending on how long the policy has lapsed.

You’ll need to pay all missed payments to catch the policy up.

Reinstatements are subject to underwriting approval.

If your policy has lapsed for a long period of time, check to see if it’s less expensive to start a new policy or reinstate your current policy. It will depend if your health has gotten better or worse.

Answer: The insured/owner of the policy should inform their beneficiary.

The agent may also inform them if it’s ok with the insured/owner.

This happened once: the insurance company received notice from a social security report that their insured had died. They reached out to me because they could not locate the beneficiary. I tried & I couldn’t locate the beneficiary.

Beneficiaries are so important! I tell my clients to please notify your beneficiary or ask if it’s ok for me to inform them.

When adding a beneficiary, please include as much information as you can. Some info may not be required or mandatory for beneficiaries but I ask my clients to gather all information so the beneficiary can be notified.

We also do beneficiary reviews. I’ve had a situation where a client had two beneficiaries pass away before her. We had to update/amend her beneficiaries.

This is such a great question. I also ask my clients to name a contingent beneficiary. Just in case your primary beneficiary dies before you or they can’t contact them.

Answer: Whole life insurance lasts your whole life (age 121) so it depends on what you’re looking for.

Whole life insurance builds cash value. Some WL insurance has a reduced paid up feature & some offer dividends. Most plans the premiums will not change.

If you pay for some WL policies for a certain period of time & stop paying for whatever reason- 2 things could happen

1. If you’ve built up cash value, it will continue paying the premium from your cash value until you start back paying

2. If you stop paying & don’t start back, depending on how long you’ve had the plan in place, it may become a reduced paid up policy.

Example: I have a client who purchased a $25k WL policy on her child. Hard times came & the premiums could not be paid any longer. Now they have a $11k paid up policy. No more premiums need to be paid. She’s a happy client!

I read through a variable WL policy once. I would not offer that plan. Once the client was older, their premiums went up. Be careful & don’t purchase a variable WL policy.

WL (Whole Life) is permanent life insurance. It does not expire as long as premiums are paid or if some of the above riders or options are included in the plan.

Lastly I must mention, a lot of people use WL insurance to build cash value to be used for whatever reason they want. You can take a loan from yourself without a credit check. That’s been a huge thing for many many years. It’s used to supplement retirement also or being your own banker concept.

Final Expense is usually written with a WL policy.

I am long winded so hope this answered your question.

Answer: Nothing happens to it. Once you purchase it in your state, it goes with you to other states. If you die there, your life insurance policy will pay. You don’t have to die in the state your policy was written in.

Just be sure to let your beneficiaries know they are the beneficiary.

Answer: IUL/ indexed universal life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance. Permanent means it does not expire. Well, the policy will show it will run through age 120 years old as no one has lived that long. IULs can build up cash value.

Another type of permanent life insurance is WL/Whole life.

Permanent life insurance premiums normally stay the same. They do not increase.

Term life insurance last for a specific period of time. For example: 10 years to 30 years, depending on your age. When the term expires, you no longer have coverage, the policy expires or ends. Term life does not build cash value.

Some term policies are convertible. Which means you can convert the term to a permanent policy during a certain timeframe.

Be careful as some term policies may increase & become unaffordable.

ART- annual renewable term, increases each year. Some term plans may increase every 5 years. Just be sure to purchase a level term premium where the premium will not increase.

So remember, there only 2 types of life insurance. Term & Permanent.

Permanent plans can be WL, UL, or IUL

Answer: There are many outlets to purchase life insurance.

1. Companies who require consumers to go direct to them. You can call the company directly to purchase life insurance.

2. Companies who hire agents to solicit their polices. If you call them, they may refer you to one of their agents in your area.

3. Lastly there are companies who do not hire agents at all & they do not sell direct to consumers. If you call them, they will require you go through an independent agent or broker. They may also direct you to an agent/broker in your area. These brokers represent many carriers.

Some companies operate as #1 & #3. They will write some of their products direct to consumers while others products are distributed through independent brokers.

So the answer to your question is it depends on the company.

Answer: Yes you can.

Different companies have different underwriting guidelines. You may be declined with one & approved with another.

You may also be denied for immediate coverage & approved for a two year wait plan.

There are options if you’ve been declined. Don't give up!