Life Insurance - How Does It Work?

Life insurance is a very easy program to understand. The industry has painted a picture to make it seem complicated, so they can offer a product that benefits them. Opppsss!!! Did I say that.

Let me share with you how simple it is.

The older you get, the chances of you dying are getting greater. That means you are a bigger risk to the insurance company every year. So to cover that risk each year, the company will increase your premiums to offset that risk. That's it.

What I just shared with you is know as Annual Renewable Term (aka ART).

Let's break it down.

Annually (yearly), you will be renewing (renewable) your insurance (term).

By the way, the 1st policy ever written was ART, so don't believe the stories that it (term) is new. It is only “new” in the sense that companies are offering it on TV.

I said TV because once the agent is in the home, most will sell you what they call “a better solution” and that is a policy with a cash accumulation. (We will cover that in another training).

Needless to say if premiums are going up every year, it will get expensive and people that are “healthy” will start to drop their insurance.

Well that is exactly what happened. The life insurance industry wondered if they would be able to survive.

So the industry introduced a product where you can keep the same premiums, but let your life insurance – decrease. (Example: The 1st year you were paying $100 a month for $300,000 worth of life insurance. Here in your 5th year you are still paying $100 a month but your insurance is only worth $250,000. Why? You let the amount of insurance decrease, so you didn't have to pay more money.

This is known as Decreasing Term (aka DT). Broken down – You are “decreasing” your insurance (term).

If you followed that explanation, the insurance is still getting more expensive each year which is why you let the insurance amount decrease. The ART is the basis of all insurance. The DT is just offsetting the increase in premium by the decreasing of the insurance.

Now for some people it is very hard to plan for your financial future if your insurance is going down or your premiums are going up. You are not sure what is happening.

To address this issue, the industry introduced Level Term (aka LT).

This means your premiums and your protection stay the same for a certain period of time. They stay level. It makes it easy to plan. You know what your premiums are and you know what your insurance protection is. No guessing or wondering. (Example: Level Term 20 year product – means your premium and protection will stay the same for 20 years. The company figured out the rates using ART and then averaged it out so your premiums are the same. Lets say over 20 years it is going to cost you $100 (to make the math simple). They average it out and charge you $5 a year ($100 divided by 20 years). Now this is a general example because some companies that sell a lot of term may lower it to where you are actually paying $4 a year. Why? Competition. This example was so you can understand how it works).

So now you know there are only 3 versions of Term Life Insurance: ART, DT and LT.

It doesn't matter what insurance policy or company, they are using 1 of these 3 to make up the insurance part of your policy. Cash accumulation policies will use 1, 2 or all 3 in the same policy.

So anyone that speaks against Term Insurance is either uneducated or doesn't have an issue with misleading the public.

The controversy in the life insurance is not about Term vs a policy with savings (as everyone will lead you to believe). The controversy is whether you should save inside of your life insurance or outside of your life insurance. The difference will be covered in later training.

By the way, remember when we said the industry did not know if it would be able to survive? Well they introduced a product (Whole Life) and went into the banking business. Whole life has decreasing term inside of it and most agents don't understand that. You know more than majority of agents by just understanding what was just shared.

It ain't right. It ain't wrong. It's just my opinion

Your Uplifting Life Partner

Ron Simplified Myers

Disclaimer: The information being shared is my personal perspectives and are not the view of any company. You should always do your own homework. My recommendation: Read your own policy and do your own research. When you get through you will know the truth for you and not be influenced by the people who will get paid by your decision.

Votes: 0
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of syndication express to add comments!

Join syndication express