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subject: Risks Incorporated In Life Insurance [print this page]


People often deem purchasing life insurance as a risk-free venture. Consumers are convinced that the main purpose of life insurance is to transfer the financial risk of your death to the insurance company. However, some life insurance policies return that risk back to you. For that reason, it is indispensable that you comprehend the financial risks built-in on some life insurance plans as well as the inherent disadvantages of the policies.

Premium Payments

Premium payments are anticipated to be completed for a long span of time for almost all sorts of insurance plans. With the trial period of one-year and five-year term policies, it is typical to make out some policy premiums that extend for more than 10 years. Permanent life policy can be paid for 50 years or more, which will be anchored in the date the policy was issued. If you fail to make payments for the premiums, there is a great probability that your policy ends and you will lose your coverage.

Mortality Experience

There is a policy known as universal life that separates the mortality function of the life insurance from its investment function. This implies that the insurer does not collect from you the guaranteed cost of the insurance plan. Instead, the company applies a forward-looking system to its costs. It presumes that the actual cost of the policy will be smaller than what the guaranteed costs are. If the insurer's presumption is right, you pay the estimated cost summarized in the policy. On the other hand, if the insurance company is inaccurate, you risk paying higher insurance costs soon after in life. This may be grounds for the termination of your policy if you can no longer manage to pay for the high cost of policy.

Investment Experience

Universal life insurance comprises an assumed investment interest rate on fixed policies. Assumed investment interest rate is the smallest interest rate that must be collected in the policy owner's cash-value account to cover the insurer's costs and forecasted profit margin. Actually, the assumed interest rate glides with the current market situations. The insurer assumes that investment experience will be upbeat. If this happens, the company will credit the assumed interest rate to your life insurance. Conversely, if the projections of the company are erroneous, you will receive lower than the predicted rate. This seems to be complex when along the way insurers guess mortality charges will be lesser than what has been projected. Your policy might not accrue ample interest to pay for the insurance costs. The outcome would be that you have to pay for added premiums to maintain the policy in effect or reduce the death benefit you are buying in the policy.

by: Cindy McGrant




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