An insurance settlement represents the settlement of an insurance claim made on an insurance company. This could be a claim by an insured person under his own insurance policy, or a third party claim.
Insurance companies could make the settlement payments in different ways. One of these is to defer the payments as when the company promises to make annuity payments over a number of future years.
A life insurance settlement, or life settlement, is something different. It involves selling your life policy for immediate cash to a life insurance settlement company. If you are aged over 65, and have a life insurance policy, you could sell the policy. Life insurance policies are like any other asset that you own, and you are free to sell it.
Insurance Settlements Can be Cashed Out
Life Settlements are cash outs by their very nature. You could also cash out any deferred payments you are receiving under an insurance settlement. We look at both below.
Selling Life Insurance Policies
There are a number of reasons why you might want to sell your life insurance policy.
* Paying the premium has become a heavy financial burden
* You need cash for a prolonged medical treatment
* There are life policies in the market that are more cost effective
* There are investment options that you consider better
* Your business or personal situation have changed and a life insurance policy might not be the best
option under the changed situation
Factors like those mentioned above could make it better to cash out your life policy. In extreme cases, you might even have to let the policy lapse before you are able to make any claim.
The common alternative in such a case was to surrender the policy to the insurance company and get the surrender value. This was a poor alternative as the surrender value could be zero or a very low sum compared to the premium you have been paying for years.
If you are aged above 65, you now have the alternative to sell your policy and get a sum significantly higher than the surrender value. The amount depends on such factors as your present medical condition, statistical life expectation, smoking or tobacco use habit and the policy type.
Selling Other Insurance Settlements Involving Deferred Payments
Where your insurance settlement involves annuity payments, you might wish to cash it out for a lump sum. A lump sum of cash now could help you invest your money better or meet the expenses of a prolonged medical treatment.
In such cases you are allowed to accelerate your insurance settlement payments. A court process is involved to determine that cashing out the annuity payments is in your best interests. If the court approves the acceleration, you could sell your annuities in whole or in part and get a lump sum of cash.
Posts Tagged ‘ Selling Life Insurance ’
One of the benefits claimed for capitalism is that the investment market calls for transparency. That means all companies selling stocks through the various exchanges must disclose reasonably full details of their financial performance – at least enough to allow investors to make an informed decision on whether to buy or sell. If the information is deliberately incomplete or misleading in a real way, the company (and its senior executives) can be prosecuted. In theory, this keeps companies honest. In March 2010, the economists are still arguing about whether the recession is over. Some are passionately asserting that all the major economies will now start positive growth. Others are equally passionate in warning about double dip recession or stagnation. Whichever camp eventually proves right, one very interesting piece of news to come out of the companies selling life insurance is that their more conservative approach to investment has produced steady growth throughout the recession. When you think of all the companies selling their expertise for the management of investments or the exploitation of movements in value through the hedge funds, it is good to see traditional values of prudence paying off. The returns may have been relatively small, i.e. between 3 and 4%, but any investment manager showing a positive return during a recession is something of a superstar.
As indicated in an earlier article, this does not mean you should immediately buy a whole life policy. Ignoring the significant commission payments that cause much of your first year’s premium to disappear, it needs careful financial planning to decide whether whole life or the allied universal life fits your needs. One of the claimed advantages of whole life policies is they represent compulsory saving for your retirement, i.e. the cash value can either be drawn down or used as collateral for a loan if an emergency arises. But that is the purpose of the 401k accounts. Both represent tax-free ways of saving and investing for retirement. But the greater freedom to manage the 401k accounts and the absence of both upfront commissions and high management fees usually means the returns are higher. Do not be deceived by the short-term losses in your 401k accounts over the last two years. Taking the longer view, investments have shown steady growth over the last fifty years. In real terms, you can expect your 401k account to yield more than a whole life policy. Put another way, you should only buy a whole life or universal policy when you have the maximum invested in your 401k and other more tax efficient savings and investment plans.
This does not mean you should not buy life insurance. Making adequate provision for your family and other dependents is a wise move. But you should only buy whole life if you intend to keep the cash value untouched until all the other savings have been exhausted. Otherwise, you are not giving the investment element enough time to maximize the return. When you use this site and get life insurance quotes, take the time to work through your overall financial strategy. If a whole or universal life policy fits into your best possible plans, buy with confidence. Otherwise use the life insurance quotes to find policies to make the right level of financial provision for your dependents without having to rely on a large investment component. If in doubt, work through the figures with an independent insurance agent. Make sure you make the right decision.