Personal Finance Tips

Economically Feasible Cost

To be insurable, the chance of loss must be small. The cost of an insurance policy consists of the pure premium, or amount actually needed to make loss payments, and the expense portion. If the chance of loss approaches 100%, the cost of the policy will exceed the amount that the insurance company is obligated to pay under the contract.

For example, it would be possible for a life insurance company to issue a $1,000 policy on a man 99 years of age. The net premium alone, however, would be about $980, to which would have to be added an amount for expenses which would bring the premium total to more than the amount of insurance. To make life insurance rates attractive, the premium has to be far less than the face of the policy.

Chance of Loss Must Be Calculable

Some probabilities of loss can be determined by logic alone-for example, the probabilities involved in the flip of a coin. Others must be determined empirically, that is, by a tabulation of past experience with a projection of that experience into the future.

All types of insurance probabilities are determined on an empirical basis. There are some chances of loss, however, which cannot be determined either by logic or from past experience. Unemployment is an example. Unemployment occurs with such a degree of irregularity that, as yet, no one has succeeded in working out a method of determining its future incidence.

This is one reason why unemployment insurance is not sold by private insurance carriers. If there are no available statistics on chance of loss, it is impossible to predict losses, in spite of a large number of exposures.

Unlikely to Produce Loss to Majority Simultaneously

No insurance company can afford to insure a type of loss which is likely to happen to any great percentage of those exposed to it. True, life insurance companies insure their policyholders against death even though it is well established that every one of them will die eventually.

The life insurance company is really insuring its policyholders against premature death. Its rates and reserve accumulations are fixed in such a way that it can pay claims as the claims mature without causing financial hardship to the company.

If all the policyholders of a life insurance company should die prematurely, this company would be just as bankrupt as would a fire insurance company whose policyholders all lost their houses by fire.

Unemployment runs aground on this last barrier, too. Those individuals whose jobs were secure could never be sold unemployment insurance. Prospective customers would be drawn solely from those who felt their employment situations to be insecure.

When a business recession occurred, hosts of the insureds would lose their jobs at the same time. It would be equivalent to a life insurance company having a large percentage of its insureds die at the same time.

Insurance is an arrangement whereby the unfortunate few who lose are indemnified by the fortunate many who escape loss. Particularly those whose financial well being depends on it, which is often the case with the families of term life insurance policyholders. If the many, however, suffer the loss, then the few will prove inadequate to indemnify them properly, except at an uneconomic premium.

In order to guard against catastrophic losses, fire insurance companies, for example, seek a wide distribution of exposures and set up underwriting standards which prohibit the concentrations of business in small sections of a city. They also put a clause in their policies excluding losses due to wars, thus relieving them of the danger of catastrophic losses resulting from atomic warfare.

Most people shy away from taking life insurance policies, thinking that the procedure is complicated and long drawn out. They are practically unaware of details such as life insurance rates and premiums. As the premium and insurance rates are correlated, it is best to subject a policy to careful and detailed examination before buying it. Life insurance policies can be used for many purposes such as protecting your family after your death, repaying a mortgage, paying inheritance tax, and protecting a business against the loss of a key individual.

Insurance policies broadly fall under two categories – a single life insurance policy or joint life insurance policy. The different insurance policies include health insurance, term life insurance, long term care insurance and home insurance for property protection. The insurance rates for these policies are classified as preferred plus, preferred, and standard. A person in the United States with some minor health problems over his lifetime can easily qualify for standard insurance rates. Preferred rates are provided to persons having a good and healthy physique. These rates are offered only after detailed medical checkups including height, weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. The preferred plus rates are given to people who have no history of drug or alcohol abuse.

Life insurance rates vary depending on the type of policy you choose as well as the amount of coverage you request. Considering the fact that women tend to live longer than men, the life insurance companies offer lower premiums to females than males. In such cases, the insurance rates will also be lower than normal policies. Most of the insurance companies also consider your age while applying for a policy.

There are many websites providing detailed information about the best online quotes and insurance rates. While comparing the rates in various sites, you find that both the standard and preferred insurance rates vary by hundreds between companies throughout Canada and the United States of America. When comparing the rates, care should be taken to compare only standard to standard and preferred to preferred rates.

When you take the opportunity to insure your life you will have to go through a thorough medical examination. The main reason for insurance providers to require a thorough medical check from their customers is to determine how much to charge for their services. If you have a high risk of death at an earlier stage then the company will charge a higher premium in order to collect more money for the service while you are still around. If the risk is low they will put a lower premium because you will be considered a lower risk that isn’t likely to require death benefit payout anytime soon.

Insurance providers use two main factors for defining how it is likely that their client will cease to exist: longevity charts and medical examinations (including history as well).

Longevity charts represent a statistical interpretation of mortality rates across different demographical groups. In other words, by using these charts the insurance company is able to learn how it is likely that a person will die at a certain stage of life and in a certain region. This is crucial for determining how much of a risk a person is when they come to the insurance company’s office. For example, the longevity chart shows that a man of 50 years old is much likely to decease than a woman of the very same age and living in the same area. Taking this into account, the insurance company will charge a man with a higher rate than a woman because the higher is the risk, the higher is the premium paid. That’s why older people always have higher life insurance rates than children, because they represent a higher risk to the company.

Medical examination and medical history give a more personalized and in-depth understanding of the customer’s risk potential to the company. In most cases the examination is undertaken directly at the office or at your home, unless your life insurance provider requires a more thorough examination of any particular system or condition. The following are the most common things you will be asked about when getting your life insurance quotes:

1. Personal medical history
2. Family medical history
3. Your primary physician’s contact information
4. Lifestyle factors (drinking, smoking, substance abuse)
5. The amount of insurance coverage you want to get

The following procedures are very common for the medical exam held by your insurance provider:

1. Height and weight measurement
2. Blood pressure and pulse measurement
3. Blood and blood vessel condition (lipids, glucose, hormones, viruses)
4. Urinalysis

After you pass the medical exam the insurance provider will analyze the results and set a corresponding premium according to the state of your health. Sometimes it takes up to a couple of months to analyze this information. In case you feel that there was something wrong or the company refused you, it’s better to ask the insurance to send you a copy of their final conclusion to you and your doctor. This might be very important especially if you want to get cheap health insurance from another company.