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WHAT KIND OF LIFE INS. TO
BUY?
By Chuck Wells
I know, buying
life insurance is a horrible
experience and no one likes it. But if you have decided that you
want to buy some to pay off debts or provide an income to
someone after you die, you should know the basic kinds of life
insurance.
Term Life Insurance: coverage only goes for a certain period of
time and when you get old, the premiums are so high you cannot
afford them. Great policy if you want cheap life insurance for a
limited period of time. No good if you need the coverage for the
rest of your life. No cash value so you get nothing back on this
policy if you do not die. The policy is designed to terminate
shortly before you do.
Whole Life: coverage goes for your entire lifetime and the
premiums are level and do not increase with your age like term
life insurance. The policy also builds cash value so you get
some of your money back which can be used to off-set future
premiums. Good policy if you need coverage for the rest of you
life but premiums are much higher than term life.
Universal Life: this is a combination of the term life and whole
life policies. Premiums can be increased or decreased and the
coverage is for your entire lifetime. The policy builds cash
value (not as much as whole life) and the premiums are lower
than whole life but more expensive than term.
Variable Life: this can be either whole or universal life
offering a combination plan of insurance and investments. The
policyholder assumes the risk for the growth in the policy and
the investment performance has a direct impact on the death
benefit and cash value in the policy. If you are young and like
the idea of your life insurance policy reflecting investments
over a long period of time, this may be good for you. Not good
if you need a large amount of protection for a low premium to
cover short-term obligations.
So you have it in a nutshell. One other word of caution. Don’t
buy life insurance through the internet or mail unless you a
sure the company is licensed in New York. You should buy it
through a New York State licensed agent who will be around when
you aren’t. After all, you won’t be able to fight for the money
if there is a problem. Your agent will.
ANOTHER MCDONALD’S
LAWSUIT?
Three vegetarians,
including two Hindus who don’t eat meat, sued McDonald’s in 1991
because McDonald’s did not tell them that the fries were cooked
in beef-flavored oil.
McDonald’s had to fork out $10 million (think about that the
next time you buy a Big-Mac) and Harish Bharti, the Seattle
attorney who brought this humanitarian lawsuit in the first
place, is steaming because of the distribution of the bucks.
Vegetarian groups would get $6 million, Hindu and Sikh groups
were to get $2 million, and the rest goes to children’s
nutrition and hunger relief and to promote an understanding of
Kosher foods and practices. Really. It seems that some
vegetarian activists (now we have vegetarian activists) didn’t
like some of the groups on the list of benefactors. Hopefully,
none of the lawyers sit down with a cup of McDonald’s hot coffee
while arguing about this windfall.
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