However, why are you giving this information out only to get a quote?  The life insurance website does not need it.  All they need for a quote is your gender, date of birth, state of residence and some basic health and lifestyle information.  There is no need to add any personally-identifiable information to the above.

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Why do some websites require your name and contact information in order to issue you a quote?  There are two very simple reasons:

The online agency wants your contact information so they can follow up with you to try to sell you the policy.  As a salesman myself, I can’t fault another salesperson for following up on, what appears to be, a qualified “lead.”  However, is this why you chose to use the Internet to research life insurance?  If you’re like most folks we speak to, you are using the Internet to avoid high-pressure sales calls.The website is gathering your information so they can sell it.  These “lead-generation” websites generate income by marketing insurance leads to life insurance agents and brokers.  Some of these sites will actually sell your information to multiple agents, who will then contact you to sell you life insurance.  Again, I’m not faulting the agents and brokers for attempting to sell life insurance to “qualified leads,” but, as I mentioned before, is this why you’re researching life insurance on the Internet?

There are some websites that are used solely for the purpose of lead generation that will sell your information to other agents and brokers.  They require you to submit your contact information multiple time – the first for their own marketing efforts, then when you submit the information, you are given access to other vendors.  For each vendor you want a quote from, you have to submit your information again.  Some of those vendors are also lead generators, so they might sell your information to even more agents and brokers.  You might be getting a lot more phone calls about life insurance than you were expecting.  So much for the convenience of the Internet.

If you would like to get life insurance quotes online without having to give out your personal contact information, there are several excellent sites (including Lifeinsure.com)that will give you quotes anonymously.  Then, only when you are ready to apply, will you need to submit your name and contact information.

You should look for the websites’ privacy policies to see how your information is used.  If a website’s privacy policy does not explain what they do with your information or, even worse, if they don’t have a privacy policy, I would advise you to look elsewhere.

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However, in discussing life insurance with my clients, I often use the word Guarantee, so I am now convinced that, yes Virginia, there are other guarantees in life other than death and taxes.  In a term life insurance policy, for instance, the premiums are guaranteed for the length of the term, as is the death benefit.  A whole life policy guarantees the death benefit, the premiums and the cash value.  A Guaranteed universal life insurance policy also guarantees the death benefit and premiums (with certain stipulations).
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Over the past couple of years, as  we have watched the bursting of the real estate bubble, the precipitous decline of the stock market and a rapid spike in job losses, it’s refreshing to see that there are still some things other than death and taxes that are guaranteed.

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According to Buzzle.com, a study by Virginia Tech Driving Institute revealed that those who resort to texting while driving are 23 times more likely to meet with an accident. A comparative study of texting while driving vs. drunk driving statistics published in a leading car magazine in the United States revealed that texting while driving is even more dangerous than drunk driving.  Studies reveal that a person who is texting while driving at the speed of 35 mph will cover 25 ft. before bringing the car to a complete halt as compared to a distance of 4 ft. which a drunk driver would cover at the same speed.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,  5,870 people died in car crashes in 2008, alone.  The same statistics revealed that 515,000 people were injured in various car crashes in the United States.  Around 28 percent of all crashes in 2008 were caused by drivers in the age group of 18 to 29, who admitted to texting while driving.

Just yesterday, I heard of a famous L.A. plastic surgeon who died in a car crash in Malibu.  A preliminary investigation revealed that he was probably texting while driving.

In 2008, a Metrolink train in Los Angeles crashed, killing 25 people and injuring scores of others.  It was determined that the engineer had been texting to a friend when the train crashed into another.

What does this have to do with life insurance, you might ask?  Well, people are dying…that’s what.  However, my intention here is not to get people to think about life insurance.  Rather, it’s to wake up to this cause of many unnecessary deaths, with a lot more to come, if this behavior isn’t changed.  I am compelled to write this post because I see people texting while driving on a daily basis and it’s been getting a lot more prevalent.

Here’s what needs to happen with this problem, as I see it – the same attention that’s given to drunk driving needs to be given to this behavior; public awareness campaigns need to be directed at the target age group that seems to be doing most of the texting while driving; fines for this behavior need to be high enough to at least cause one to pause before sending or reading a text (this would include large financial penalties and jail time for repeat offenders).

Parents need to have honest discussions with their driving-age children and give them the hard facts and statistics about this problem.  A good place to start is  Oprah Winfrey’s No-Phone Zone.  It has some sobering information on it.  Sit your driving age children down and visit the site with them: http://www.oprah.com/packages/no-phone-zone.html.

I appeal to those of you who are texting while driving.  Please stop doing it now – the life you save may be your own…or mine…or…???

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Mortgage insurance or mortgage protection insurance is a life insurance policy that would pay off your mortgage in the event of your death.   You would typically purchase a life insurance policy (usually term) that would pay off the mortgage in the event of your death so your beneficiaries wouldn’t be burdened with mortgage payments.
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We used to see many mortgage insurance products with a decreasing benefit that matched the decreasing loan obligation over the period of your mortgage (typically 30 years).  However, these types of policies seem to have fallen out of favor in recent years as regular term life insurance policies became less expensive.

Most of our clients purchase term insurance to cover not only their mortgage, but also other debts, college education for the children and living expenses for the family.  So, while it is important to have enough life insurance to pay off the mortgage in the event of your death, it’s also wise to have enough of a death benefit to cover other expenses.

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Let me get this straight – he was rude to a passenger (several, according to eyewitness accounts), cursed her out on the airplane’s intercom, stole a couple of beers (he didn’t pay for them) and violated FAA safety regulations by activating the slide exit and left the plane while it was on the runway.

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It must be nice to be a hero.  I am a life insurance broker.  I am far from being considered a hero.  My profession is made fun of in films and TV shows, friends and acquaintances don’t return phone calls when I’m calling to discuss that dreaded life insurance, and I can turn any lively party into a somber affair by answering the question posed by one of the guests, “so, what do you do for a living?”

Steven Slater became an overnight hero with his boorish, irresponsible  behavior.  I have been selling life insurance for over 20 years.  I am kind and polite to all those in the public I deal with, even those few who have been rude to me.  More importantly, I have provided financial security to thousands of families and financial relief to those families who received life insurance benefits upon the death of their loved ones.  I am still not a hero.

However, I think I have learned something from this Steven Slater business.  Next time somebody abruptly walks away from me at party after I answer their question, “what do you do for a living,” I might just grab a beer, curse out all the guests and leap out the window (provided we’re on the ground floor).  Maybe then, I’ll be called a hero.

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When you first set out to  purchase life insurance, you thought it would be fairly simple.  However, being confronted with all these options can make one’s head spin.  Then, you start getting conflicting opinions from different sources – whole life is the best choice, buy only term life, buy term and invest the difference, etc., etc.

I can make it fairly simple for you to make the right choice.  What are your needs for life insurance?  Are you interested in death benefit only or are you looking to accumulate some cash value with your policy?  Are you looking for coverage for a specified term or will you need life insurance for your whole life?  Once we determine the length of time you need the insurance, we then look at what product is the most appropriate for you.

If you are only interested in a death benefit for a finite period of time, the choice is easy – term life insurance is most probably the best choice for you.  You can also look at a return of premium policy, which pays you all your premium back at the end of the term (provided you survive the term period).  Return of premium term is usually priced well for younger ages.  As you get older, the added cost for this type of product might have you looking at regular term insurance again.

If you’re looking for a lifetime benefit with the potential of accumulating cash in the policy, I believe that whole life insurance, when structured properly, is a wonderful product.  It has guaranteed death benefit, guaranteed premiums and guaranteed cash values.  The only reason I don’t recommend it to everybody is because it can be cost-prohibitive to many folks.  However, if you have a positive cash-flow and are fully maxed-out in your qualified plan (401K, IRA, etc.), this is a great vehicle for accumulating additional tax-favored savings, in addition to the life insurance benefit.

If you want lifetime protection and don’t care about cash accumulation and whole life premiums don’t fit your budget, I would recommend a universal life policy with lapse-protection.  These policies will not generally accumulate much cash value and, even if the cash value drops to zero, the death benefit and premium are still guaranteed.  We often call this product lifetime term insurance, because it guarantees the death benefit and premium and will most probably not accumulate cash, and you are covered for your whole life, rather than a specific term.

Once we ascertain a client’s needs (and budget), we will assist in choosing the right product.  Sometimes, we will present a combination of term and permanent, as the immediate need for life insurance may be greater than it will later in life, although there will still be a need (funeral costs, debt elimination, etc.).

We recommend to our clients to do a policy review every couple of years, as needs change and, when needed, policies can be modified, dropped or added to.

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LIMRA’s 2010 Life Insurance Ownership Study has found that 30 percent of U.S. households (35 million) have no life insurance protection at all.

Many U.S. households are under-insured:

Only 44% of U.S. households have individual life insurance, according to the Trends in Life Insurance Ownership study, which is conducted every six years by LIMRA.  This is a 50 year low.Half of U.S. households (58 million) say they need more life insurance – the highest level ever.Among households with children under 18, arguably having the greatest need for life insurance, 11 million have no life insurance coverage.Even affluent household ($100,000+ income) lack sufficient life insurance.  One-third say they do not have enough coverage.
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The struggling economy creates additional challenges:

One in four U.S. households rely only on group life insurance to provide financial proection if a wage-earner dies.  These households may lose their only life insurance coverage if they become unemployed or have their work hours reduced.  In the past year, someone lost their job in 15 percent of households.Decline in owning life insurance has left many households vulnerable if a primary wage-earner died.Among households with children under 18, 4 in 10 say they would immediately have trouble meeting everyday living expenses if a primary wage-earner died today.Another 3 in 10 would have trouble keeping up with expenses after several months.

Next post:  Americans want professional help, but many have no one to turn to.

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What I don’t see are any signs anywhere celebrating Life Insurance Awareness Month (except for a few well-placed ads from insurance companies).  I guess the “holiday” doesn’t elicit the same kind of response as the upcoming fall and winter holidays (I left them unnamed so as not to offend anyone as a result of any absent-minded omissions).
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Well, I’m going to shout it from the roof-tops, “Happy Life Insurance Month to you all.”  If I had the appropriate “holiday” music, I would find a way to play it in the background as you read this post.

How should you celebrate this holiday (it’s a whole month), you ask?  I would recommend reviewing your life insurance policies to see if you have the appropriate amount of coverage.  If not, call your local (or Internet) insurance agent and talk with him or her and work out (and purchase) the right amount of coverage for you and your family.

Don’t forget to wish him/her a Happy Life Insurance Awareness Month.

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One of my associates came into my office this morning and informed me that a mutual acquaintance passed away last night.  He had colon cancer that, obviously, was detected too late.  He had surgery last week to remove the tumors and part of his colon.  He didn’t make it.

Being the life insurance man I am, I asked my associate if this person had a life insurance policy (if I had known him better, he would have).  She told me he didn’t (she’s also an insurance person, so she had asked one of the surviving children).  She told me that he had looked into it but decided against it because he was upset that the premiums were so much more expensive for cigarette smokers.  The sad part of it is he could have afforded it.

As he was only an acquaintance, I am not familiar with his financial matters.  However, I do know that he leaves behind a wife who, on top of grieving the loss of a loved one, will now have to figure out how to survive financially – will she have to liquidate assets (house, etc.) in order to continue living comfortably?

Was there a business continuation plan in place that would be used to pay the wife for his share of the business?  As he didn’t have life insurance in place for his family’s well-being, I highly doubt if he had life insurance in place for business continuation purposes.  It’s now up to the business partner to work it out with the deceased partner’s wife.  If there is no business continuation plan in place, will he do the right thing and compensate the wife for the deceased partner’s share of the business?  If so, will he have to liquidate business assets to do so?

Buying a life insurance policy is a selfless act.  Unless you’re purchasing a cash-value policy with the goal of accumulating cash, there is no personal gain to be had by buying a life insurance policy (other than the peace of mind it gives you that you are protecting your family).  In most cases, you are purchasing it to make sure your family survives comfortably after your death.

Conversely, not purchasing life insurance, as shown by the example above, is extremely selfish.  This gentleman could have easily purchased a policy for less than the cost of his cigarettes and other non-essential items.  Now, his family and business partner must pay the price of his selfishness.

I don’t like this approach, but this story has me so riled up that I can’t guarantee that I won’t relay it to others who need and don’t have adequate life insurance. As a matter of fact, I’ll start using it right now – go and make sure you have enough life insurance so your survivors won’t suffer a similar fate.

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When Google was founded in 1988, its mission statement was to classify everything that is known. Google’s Larry Page said at the time “Basically, our goal is to organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful.”

Thanks to computer terminals built into cash registers and product ID scanning devices, one of the things we have come to know very well is shopping data. Guided by Google economist Hal Varian, Google is developing an alternative means of tracking inflation known as the Google Price Index (GPI). The goal of the effort is to provide more timely price index data based on the price of items sold online.

The often cited Consumer Price Index (CPI) provides a monthly measure of inflation based on pricing data gathered by hand from brick-and-mortar retailers along with other sources. The CPI data is published monthly and can be delayed by several weeks. Google’s method of utilizing online sources of pricing data offers a more real time reflection of pricing indexes.

As reported in the Financial Times, the Google system will not replace CPI since it represents a different sector of goods and services. Housing accounts for 40 percent of the CPI in the United States but only 18% of the GPI. Consumer goods are in line with the CPI while goods like cars, which are bought less frequently online differ.

Google products like Google Merchant Center and Google Checkout also represent a large collection of online pricing data. Using this data to create a price index which might aid economists in creating more accurate price indexes falls in the more “useful” category of Google’s global vision.

As a life insurance search engine that is organizing quotes from America’s leading life insurance companies, Efinancial can more than appreciate the contribution that search technology is making to our society. Find the insurance rates and coverage you are searching for by starting with the quick FREE QUOTE box on the right.

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