Friday, October 28, 2011

Life Insurance: Read the Fine Print

Like most other types of investment, life insurance is something that should be contemplated upon. It is not advisable for you to purchase some life insurance simply because the coverage seems good enough and the premium price seems affordable enough. Remember that life insurance comes with a contract, a contract which you must understand fully and completely. Some life insurance policies may promise a certain amount of coverage and then end up giving you only a percentage of the complete value. This is why it is important to carefully study the contract and not rely on what the life insurance agent promises.

The most common type of insurance to purchase is life insurance that grants that your beneficiaries will receive a certain amount of money once you pass away. The value of this type of life insurance does not affect the rules and how this type of investment works. Whether it is worth millions or is considered as cheap life insurance, the truth is, it all works the same. And no matter how small your investment is, some life insurance companies can always include clauses in your contract that prevents your beneficiaries from receiving the full coverage you thought you paid for.

Is this illegal? No. You signed a contract with those clauses. Legally, they are just applying the clauses in the contract. For example, you may purchase some life insurance for a couple of hundreds. This promises to grant your beneficiaries or yourself with a fifty-thousand payout if you end up disabled. However, they may include a clause that says that they consider “disability” as tantamount to losing two limbs. If you lose one limb therefore, you only get half of the promised price.

So here is the deal: whenever you plan to buy some insurance, however cheap life insurance it may be, you always have to read the contract and make sure that you understand everything stated within it.

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