In the insurance parlance, Annuitant is defined as a person who benefits from a pension or annuity. It can also be said to be a contract with an insurance company which is designed to give payments to the holder of the policy at specified intervals. The insurance payments are usually made after retirement. There are two types of annuities - fixed annuity and variable annuity. A fixed annuity ensures a certain payment amount whereas a variable annuity does not provide for a certain payment amount. Both the annuities are safe and low yielding. The advantage of the annuity is that it provides a higher payment of the current value at the time of death. In case an individual dies before the policy period is over, the beneficiaries are the heirs who receive the accumulated amount of the annuity. The payments are subject to income and estate taxes.
Factors Affecting Insurance Terms and Rates
The life span of the person affects the annuity. Date of birth is the important factor which is used to determine the annuitant's age. If the annuitant is relatively young, the period of insurance will be long and therefore the premium will be low. Another aspect that an insurance company looks into is the sex of the annuitant. Women generally tend to live longer then men for which the insurance company has to budget in a different way.
Getting yourself insured appears to be a complicated affair, but there is hardly any complication involved. Before an insurance company offers you insurance, it needs a horde of information to determine the insurance rates. The insurance company is taking a calculated risk on your insurance. They need information such as your age, medical history and life expectancy in order to make a proper insurance offer to you. There are no legal complications involved in the insurance policy for which you may have to hire legal experts.
It is you alone who knows which insurance policy is good for you. Two types of insurance - term life insurance and whole life insurance are very popular life insurance options available. Term life insurance protects your family from outstanding debts including mortgage, and also provides security cover for children in case of your untimely death. Term life insurance has low premiums but does not build any cash value. How long you want the ?term? to be depends upon your requirements which will be decided by your age, amount of outstanding debts, and when do you think you want to accrue the benefits of the policy. If you are interested in building cash value over a period, then whole life insurance is the better option.
Term Life Insurance Tax
Since term life insurance cost so little it could be the perfect policy for today. I believe that everyone needs some life insurance at some time during their lifetime. The reason I feel so strongly is that I have seen families who had a breadwinner die without adequate coverage. I have known businesses that had no protection for their partners or shareholders when one of the owners died.
I, on the other hand, have known adequately covered families, corporations or partnerships. I have seen the faces of the heirs who were overcome by fear but on learning of the term life insurance policy that was on the life of the deceased spouse, partner or shareholder had a complete reversal of countenance.
In America today the economy is stressed to say the least. The uncertainty is getting to even those who up until now paid little or no attention to these matters. People know they just have to continue on until the problem turns around. They depend on their elected officials to take care of the problem. They still need to protect the family in the event of death. Term life is ideal for today, even if it is only for a temporary period.
There are several term policies to choose from. For the married couple with young children the longer term policies may be best. The 15 year, 20 year, 25 year or 30 year term policies would work very well. These policies may also be applied to married people with no children at all or those whose children are grown and now live on their own. the amounts would just be different, likely less.
For shorter term needs like covering college costs or may be guaranteeing that a loan is repaid one could use a 5 year or 10 year level term policy. In some cases the yearly renewable term, or increasing premium term policy, may fit.
If you own a house with a mortgage you may choose to take out a decreasing term policy that will last until your mortgage is paid off. The death benefit decreases as the balance owed decreases. If you have a large estate you may want to use your policy to offset Federal Estate Taxes. These taxes have been repealed but it will take until 2011 I believe for you not to pay any Estate Taxes at all.
As these term life insurance policies are quite inexpensive you will find that they can be quite useful. You may decide to keep these policies mentioned for the duration or you may choose to convert to permanent life insurance. As time goes by you may want to consider the combination policies like universal life or variable universal life or , on the other hand you may prefer a whole life policy combined with term insurance.
These permanent policies have cash values and may earn dividends which serve to offset the cost of the policies themselves. Dividends are not guaranteed but the larger and more established carriers tend to always pay a dividend.
More detailed information on Term Life Insurance: http://www.lifeinsurancehub.net/term-life-insurance-3.html
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