Life Insurance & Pregancy

“Can you get life insurance while pregnant?” Are there special underwriting factors? What is the best way to get life insurance as a pregnant woman?” You are reading some of the most frequently asked questions in the life insurance field.

The most common answer is this: Typically, the best time to get life insurance is before you give birth to your newborn child. But let’s examine which conditions might be cause for concern?

Are your pregnant now? If you have a normal pregnancy and are otherwise low-risk, you can still get life insurance even while you’re pregnant. Expect the underwriter to order your medical records when you apply for insurance during pregnancy. The process may take a few extra weeks when records are ordered from your doctor’s office.

What is the life insurer looking for at this point? The underwriter wants to see what your weight was before and make sure that you’ve added a healthy amount of baby weight. They also want to make sure you don’t have any complications.

Are there actual medical issues that an insurance underwriter be concerned about with your pregnancy? A few complications may pose a risk.

Read on for the complications that can complicate getting life insurance >>>

Life Insurance & Divorce, Part I

The marriage vows promise “Until Death Do Us Part.”  But the striking statistics of divorce in America tell a drastically different story.

About two million Americans get married each year and roughly half wind up in a divorce proceeding. Even more astounding, 20 percent of marrriages end within the first five years, 30 percent of marriages end in 10 years.

The simple fact that a divorce process can take years, during which time two households may need to be maintained and attorney fees have to be paid, means that a family’s financial security hangs in the balance, especially when children are involved.

Answering the questions that arise about life insurance and divorce >>>

Life Insurance for Grandparents?

As we prepare to turn the calendar page at year’s end, and commence a new chapter at the opening of a new decade,  Father Time reminds us of something important.  Life insurance serves many families as the financial binding  in the “book of life,” connecting both family estates and generations as years go by.

A controversial question can arise: Should children consider life insurance for their elderly parents, planning for the eventuality of their passing, so that a sum of money can be left for their children and grandchildren?

The question has both financial and familial repercussions.

How would you decide the controversial question? >>>

The Perfect Gift may be Closer than You Think

At this introspective time of year, it’s worth reflecting that the joy of the holidays isn’t found in a shopping bag and the yuletide spirit isn’t limited to a single day on the calendar.

The perfect gift is one where you give of yourself to others, either in the form of your creativity -— a hand-crafted gift like a tin can pencil holder or a hand-painted paperweight — or your time — the preparation of a home cooked meal, a nature walk in the woods,  or a chess or photography lesson.

As written in A Christmas Digest, “The dictionary defines a gift as simply, ‘a thing given.’ It says nothing about cost  — only the condition of the heart. One person giving to another. That’s all.”

Give yourself away and see what happens. You may just get what you really want for Christmas.

40 Money Management Tips Every College Student Should Know

The average student who graduates from high school today is at a financial disadvantage. We’re not talking about money. This deficit is a lack of financial knowledge. So many young adults lack basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs. Many are unable to balance a checkbook and most simply have no insight into the basic survival principles involved with earning, spending, saving and investing.

The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy is fighting back. The organization offers a Clearinghouse whose aim is to identify high-quality personal finance materials for educational use. Once you find material of interest, you can either download it for free or order it directly from the source. Teachers are encouraged to use these personal finance teaching materials to support their state’s standards in economics, business, math and family and consumer science.

“40 MONEY MANAGEMENT TIPS EVERY COLLEGE STUDENT SHOULD KNOW” helps students get organized and offers tips on financial aid, checking accounts, spending plans, dorms and apartments, savings, jobs and debt. A single copy may be downloaded from the website. Download it here

What financial advice do you have for today’s college student?

Insurance Q&A: How much does it cost to raise a child?

When thinking about life insurance coverage, a central question for parents is “How much does it cost to raise a child?”  The U.S. government has answers.

Middle-income U.S. parents of a child born in 2008 can expect to spend $291,570 for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise that child over the next seventeen years, up from the 1960 low-low price tag of $25,230, and $204,060 in 2007, according to a  report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Read more on getting the right Life Insurance coverage for your family >>>

Teaching Young People to “Finovate”

At the just concluded Finovate 2009 Conference in New York City, the theme centered on innovation in all things financial, with a special emphasis on grooming the next generation of smart investors, savers and budgeters, today’s young people.

Thankfully, entrepreneurs are sensing the need to educate young people about personal finance so they can recognize true value in financial products and services and separate fact from fiction. A wonderful learning tool is Cents City, created by a Washington D.C. teacher of the year and an avid video gamer. With Cents City, Felix Brandon Lloyd and Todd Waits have created a city in cyberspace where kids can learn about saving, budgeting, and credit. The starter version is free, or you can upgrade to the “Passport Edition” for $4.95.

Slightly older kids (aged 15 and up) who have real money to play with can learn how to budget and invest at Tile Financial. Tile Financial teaches teens and young adults how to manage their money, while it also prioritizes giving back to the community.

For the those of us who are basically big kids at heart, there’s Kapitall. Kapitall offers a new way to invest that makes choosing stocks feel like a really slick (yet educational) video game. As co-founder David Neubert says, “We want to do for investing what Apple Macintosh did for computing.”

How are you teaching young people the lessons of finance?

68 Million Adult Americans have No Life Insurance

The national debate over health care reform has brought to life the number of Americans who lack fundamental health insurance.

An equally astounding number of Americans are lacking the financial security of life insurance.

September has become a focal point in the industry’s attempt to address the
problem of too many Americans lacking adequate life insurance protection.

The organization known as LIFE estimates that 68 million adult Americans have no life insurance at all, and most with coverage have far less than experts recommend. In response to this underinsurance problem, hundreds of life insurance organizations and thousands of individual producers participate in Life Insurance Awareness Month each year.

Some of the nation’s top insurance companies participating this year include State Farm, New York Life, Penn Mutual, AEGON, MassMutual, John Hancock, Guardian, Principal Financial Group,
Prudential, Southern Farm Bureau, COUNTRY Financial, American National, Farm Family and Illinois Mutual.

Efinancial salutes Life Insurance Awareness Month and represents a one stop shop for life insurance among America’s top life insurance companies.

Life Insurance Awareness Month: Protecting a College Education

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) which is sponsoring National Life Insurance Awareness Month throughout the month of September wants to make college education a “teachable moment” for parents as well as their college-age children.  The Foundation has made it a point to teach a life lesson to parents about including life insurance in their college-funding plans.

Coming up with the money to pay for college is a challenge for most young people, but the task becomes even more daunting when a parent dies prematurely, especially if that person didn’t have adequate life insurance coverage. With mom or dad no longer able to lend a hand, many young people often have no choice but to set aside or postpone their dream of a college education. Evidence of this problem is well documented in the thousands of submissions that the nonprofit LIFE Foundation receives each year through its LIFE Lessons Scholarship Program.

Efinancial salutes families across America that are funding higher education for their students. The Efinancial E-Learning Center has dozens of Q&A articles on a wide range of life insurance topics including Questions About Shopping for Life Insurance, Questions About Buying Life Insurance and Understanding the Differences in Life Insurance Products.  Learn more about the many aspects of life insurance products and services by visiting our E-Learning Center.

Time Is Running Out To Get The $8000 First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit

The $8000 tax credit is a great deal for people who are first time home buyers.   But let’s review the tax credit and it’s provisions:

First-time buyers can claim a credit worth $8,000 – or 10% of the home’s value, whichever is less – on their 2008 or 2009 taxes.

To qualify for the credit, the home must be purchased between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 30, 2009.

You cannot have owned a house for the past three years to qualify as “first time” buyer. You also must live in the purchased house for at least three years, or you will be obligated to pay back the credit.

To get the credit, homebuyers have to earn less than $75,000 for singles or $150,000 for couples. If you make more than that you may qualify for a partial credit.

Getting the credit should be pretty easy, just claim it on your return.  One caveat, however.  You have to close on your new house by  November 30th.   That may sound like it’s a long way off, but in reality it’s coming a lot faster than you think.

The end of November is also tricky because of the Thanksgiving holidays. Keep in mind that with the holiday schedule, you’d be better off to try and schedule your closing for at least the week of November 16th, just to give yourself some extra time for unforseen issues that can often come up in the buying process (problems with the final walk-through, mortgage documentation problems, etc).

« Previous Page — Next Page »