INSURANCE PRODUCTS

There are many insurance products available to help individual's and their families to prepare for the future and untimely situations such as: Annuities, Life Insurance, Disability Insurance and Critical Illness Insurance.

ANNUITIES
An annuity is a financial vehicle designed to provide a series of regular periodical income payments over a stipulated period of time, in exchange for a lump sum investment. This may be for an agreed number of years, as in term-certain-to-age-90 annuities, or for life. The payments are a combination of repayment of the principal of the original investment, plus investment income earned by the original amount.

LIFE INSURANCE A life insurance is a contract requiring you to pay an annual premium. In the event of your death, the beneficiary you designate in the policy will receive the face value of the policy. It protects your family from untimely accidents. It guarantees that your family will be financially secure should you die. There are many costs with untimely deaths such as: Taxes, and Final Expenses (Funeral Costs / Probate Costs). There are different types of Life Insurance that fall into two main categories term or permanent.

TERM INSURANCE
There are many term policies ranging from one to 25 years or even to age 65 or 75. At the end of each term, the policy must be renewed. Premiums rise with each renewal, reflecting the fact that you are getting older and are more likely to pass away. Also beyond a certain age usually 65 or 70, you can no longer buy term insurance at all.

There is also Term to 100 that is a flat rate of premium per year till age 100 or 110 depending upon the policy and it is paid up at the time of death or reaching that age. Despite the name, this is really a permanent contract.

PERMANENT INSURANCE

WHOLE LIFE Whole life and other types of permanent coverage are more complicated than term policies. The coverage is for life with no time limit, and premiums generally are set for life at the time of purchase, meaning they will never be increased, no matter what happens. Initially you pay much more than with a term policy. The difference is a "reserve" that is used partly to cover the higher premium requirement in future years. The reserve is also used to generate a "cash value" for policyholders. At some point the reserve may even cover all future premiums

With this cash value, there are many different options in the way you can use it such as:

· Borrow up to 90 per cent of the balance from the insurer
· Use it to pay your premiums for a while
· Discontinue coverage and convert the cash value into income
· Cancel the policy all together and receive the "cash surrender" value.

UNIVERSAL LIFE
A Universal Life policy keeps the savings and insurance components completely separate. You can adjust the premium and the face value. You can pay a single premium for the insurance and then decide how much you want to pay into the reserve staying within the policy limits. You can have a level face value benefit or an increasing face value benefit. Also the largest difference between Whole Life is that you get to choose how the reserve is invested, and can withdraw cash from it, not just borrow against it.

DISABILITY INSURANCE Disability insurance is probably one of the best investments to be made and yet very few people actually make it. This product protects your most valuable asset, your ability to earn a living. It is a contract between you and the insurance company. The contract states that if you become unable to work, they will pay you your wages up to a certain amount for a specified length of time.

CRITICAL ILLNESS INSURANCE
Many people survive a critical illness, only to face financial hardship due to the additional costs they've incurred. Critical illness insurance pays you a lump sum cash benefit in the event you are diagnosed or have surgery of a life threatening illness and survive for a period of at least 30 days from the date of the diagnosis.

Some of these illnesses can be surgery for heart attack, coronary bypass surgery, stroke, cancer, paralysis, blindness, deafness, multiple sclerosis, kidney failure or major organ transplant, but it is not subject to only these illnesses.