Not How Much But What Type Of Life Insurance Should You Get

(You already know that you need life insurance.)

Even if you do not have a traditional family, chances are you probably will have someone that would be responsible for at least your burial costs if you were to unexpectedly die.

The big debate is always the question of how much insurance coverage you should obtain. The standard is 10 times your annual salary or is that just if you have a spouse and two children? So four times your salary then?

The amount of insurance you apply for depends on a variety of factors and should not be determined by a vague figure. You can use one of a variety of life insurance calculator available over the Internet to get a more precise value.

But the fact is, many people applying for life insurance spend most of their time worrying about how much insurance they need rather than what type.

The article, "Examine the Benefits Catered by Life Insurances," written by Dave Poon and posted on ezinearticles.com examines the several different types of life insurance one can apply for.

Provided you pass the physical exam and can indeed make the necessary payments, you will need to first decide which of the two predominant types of insurance is best for you and then choose a more specific plan within these two options.

The first option is term life insurance. This is going to be the less expensive option.

"This is because the term of making payments for this policy only covers until you are able to make payments. Therefore, if such incident like you accidentally dies within the period you are making payments; your dependents will receive the corresponding benefits according to the duration of your payment."

You have a few different branches of insurance to choose from within term life.

The first one is convertible-life term insurance which allows you to basically convert your term policy into a more sustainable permanent life insurance policy. You will not have to take an additional medical exam yet the cost of the plan will increase.

Another branch is level-term-life insurance, which "allows you to pay for the same amount every year for the whole duration of the term. Along with this, you will be receiving equal amount of benefits if you happen to die during the payment period."

And then there's decreasing-term-life insurance that "compensates a death assistance that slowly decreases in merit over time." The required payments usually stay the same throughout the duration of this policy.

The second premier option for life insurance is called permanent life insurance. "This involves timely payments which means you are entitled to finish paying for the premium even though you are dead already. Your family or relative may continue paying for it if in case such event happened. The good thing of buying this type of life insurance is it provides a saving feature which can be utilized even when you are still alive."

There are four branches under permanent life insurance.

Whole permanent life insurance allows you make a permanent payment for a set death benefit. You will also be able to reserve some money in a side account with this plan.

Universal permanent life insurance "allows you to change the amount of your insurance policy. But these changes may require you for a medical examination."

Variable permanent life insurance is probably the riskiest option because your actual premium will be invested in a variety of stocks, funds and bonds. If the investments flop, your policy will lose money while on the other hand you could make a lot of money in a money reserve.

And variable universal permanent life insurance "is a combination of premium and bereavement benefit flexibility of a universal permanent life insurance with the savings flexibility and danger of variable permanent life insurance."

You can obtain more information on these policies through your life insurance agent. Just take your time and do not worry about how much financial coverage you will need until you decide on the appropriate life insurance policy.

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