Life Insurance Can Help:

1. Replace your income with non-taxable death benefit
2. Reduce the financial burden on your family of having to continue without you
3. Put the kids through school
4. Pay the mortgage, car note, and other debts you leave behind
5. Pay your funeral expenses
6. Pay your estate taxes

How Much Life Insurance Should Someone Get?

• Your life insurance plan should be structured to meet your life circumstances.
• How much life insurance a person should get depends on their life situation. Some people have life insurance through their employer, which sometimes use 1x salary or 2x salary as a coverage limit and may allow the employee to purchase additional term insurance.

Ohio Life Insurance Shopping Tips:

• Your life insurance plan should be structured to meet your life circumstances (for example, a single person may need less life insurance than a couple or a couple with children).
• Life insurance is complicated. Utilize the services of trained insurance professionals. Check with the Ohio Department of Insurance to ensure your agent and company are licensed to do business in the state.
• An agent is not allowed to be the beneficiary of a life insurance policy the agent has sold you - unless the agent is a family member or a funeral director. Nor is the agent allowed to misrepresent any aspect of the policy being sold or a policy you already own or encourage you to put incorrect information on your application.
• Decide what type of life insurance policy you want: term, whole life, universal life or a combination of these policies. Make sure you calculate your total premiums for the life of the policy. It is possible to pay more in premiums than the face amount of the policy.
• Some policies have an accelerated benefits feature, which is a policy provision that lets the policyholder, under certain conditions, collect part of the death benefit before he/she dies.
• Be alert to any promise that you will never have to pay premiums again (the vanishing premium pitch). Also, make sure you are aware of any surrender penalties.
• Don't sign any life insurance application that has not been completely and accurately filled in and dated, and make a copy for your files.
• Immediately study the policy once you receive it and make sure it's exactly what you ordered: many life companies will offer a "free-look" (or "right to review") provision. Take advantage of it.
• The policy owner is the only person who can cancel the policy. If premium payments are not being made the insurer will generally send a payment notice before cancellation.
• Make your premium payment check to the insurance company, not the agent.
• A failure to pay your premium will cause your policy to lapse or it could be terminated.
• Review your policy periodically. Your insurance needs change during different periods of your life.

Life insurance provides money typically to beneficiaries after a loved-one who has life insurance dies. Coverage is often provided by employers but can also be purchased separately through an insurance agent. The Ohio Department of Insurance urges consumers to regularly review their need to secure life insurance as part of their financial and estate planning.

Life Insurance Can Help:

• Replace your income with non-taxable death benefit
• Reduce the financial burden on your family of having to continue without you
• Put the kids through school
• Pay the mortgage, car note, and other debts you leave behind
• Pay your funeral expenses
• Pay your estate taxes

HomeOwnerQuotes.com, a leader online consumer financial quotes has added Life Insurance and Annuities to its list of financial services. 

Consumers shopping for Life Insurance or Annuites can fill out our free Quick Form and get contacted by a qualified local agent with whom they can build a relationship with.

Life insurance is priced based on your life expectancy, the face amount you request and the length of the policy, whether it's the duration of your life (whole life) or a specific period (term life).

Because your current and past health conditions impact your life expectancy, insurers want to know as much as possible about your health condition. Common conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, cancer and depression can all raise your premiums or even result in a declination.

Based on your medical history, you'll be grouped into a category such as "preferred plus," "preferred," "standard" and "substandard." Your category ultimately determines your premiums.

Insurance buyers with severe health conditions or a combination of conditions can find it hard or impossible to find life insurance. They are known as "impaired risks." Local agents may not be experienced enough to find a company that specializes in insuring people with certain medical conditions. Fortunately, impaired-risk specialists have expertise in knowing where to direct applications for folks with medical conditions.

Cash Value/Cash Surrender Value

The amount that is available in cash for loans and/or withdrawals during the life of the insured. Withdrawals may be subject to surrender charges and could have a permanent effect on the cash value. Loans reduce the cash value and death benefit by the amount of the loan outstanding plus interest. If the policy is surrendered, the cash surrender value is paid to the policy owner.

More about Life Insurance

A Life Insurance Beneficiary is the person(s) named by the owner of the policy to receive the life insurance proceeds upon the death of the insured.

This insurance policy continues until you die (as long as you make timely payments) and may provide a savings feature that builds up a cash reserve you can use while you're alive. In fact, if there's enough, you can use the cash to pay the premiums, which can be helpful in times of tight finances. This insurance is more expensive than term insurance. There are a few varieties of permanent insurance:

• Whole life lets you pay a fixed premium for a fixed death benefit. There is a cash savings feature that, over time, provides you with a cash reserve.
• Universal life is a little more flexible than whole life. It may let you change the amount of insurance as your needs change. Some changes may require a medical exam.
• Variable life invests some of your premiums in stocks, bonds, and money market funds. The upside is that your investments may perform well, and provide a larger cash reserve. The downside is the risk that the investments will lose money, but a minimum cash value is seldom guaranteed. Most insurers guarantee a minimum death benefit, although it may not be what you had hoped to receive.
• Variable-universal life combines the premium and death benefit flexibility of universal life with the investment flexibility and risk of variable life insurance.