Simple Step To Invest In Life

Buying an insurance policy has always been a tricky affair. In fact, most people find themselves in a spot while buying an insurance product. But no matter how much you dread these, you cannot ignore them either. After all, life insurance products provide security to not just you but your loved ones in every unwarranted situation. Hence, making an informed decision while buying life insurance is imperative and these few basic tips can only help you in making the right decision.

Buy Early - It is best to buy life insurance at an early age as the cost of the insurance goes up as you grow old. This is primarily because on an average, the chances of death are lower with a younger person when compared to someone on the higher side of the age.

Identify Your Needs - It is important for you to exactly know the purpose of buying a life insurance product. Unless, you don’t know what you need, it is sheer waste of time for you to compare. If your main objective is to provide financial cushion to your family in the event of your death; it is advisable for you to buy term insurance as it provides pure insurance cover to your dependents at lower premiums. However, if you are looking at returns from your coverage, then plans with cash value & bonus are an option (whole-life, endowment or investment-linked product). Unlike the plain-vanilla term covers, here you would receive the premium back from the insurer, in case you survive the coverage period. The main problem with such plans is that the premiums are on a higher side compared to normal term plans.

Compare and Analyse - After you have figured out the primary reason behind buying a life insurance plan, it is important to do your research thoroughly. Request a few quotes from agent representing different insurer.

Understand the Document - Wise words: Never buy something which you don’t understand. Buying an insurance plan is no exception to this golden rule. Just like you sit and go through the brochure of any product you are planning to buy for your home, you must do the same for insurance plans as well. Yes, the terms and conditions may seem difficult to understand. Agent will guide you through the process. Determine the sum assured and read the terms and conditions carefully. It would be advisable that you consult an expert to get a better understanding of the policy. Ask till you are not satisfied. Unless, fully convinced, do not sign the document.

While there are many more things that one should remember while buying a life insurance, the above simple tips are just a few to start with.

Reject Bully

Anyone who spends enough time in an office will eventually encounter toxic personalities. Many people occasionally feel belittled, misunderstood or undervalued in their professional roles. But when does a supervisor or co-worker's behavior cross the line from annoying to potential legal nightmare? The answer lies in understanding what constitutes workplace bullying.

Being bullied can have a variety of tells: erratic behavior, depression, anxiety, absenteeism, appearing withdrawn or expressing a sense of isolation. Bullying is "abusive conduct" that feels threatening, humiliating or intimidating, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute, which works to study, correct and prevent abusive conduct at work. ​

Even with these clear definitions and guidelines for noticing red flags, it can be difficult to recognize bullying behavior at work - particularly if you are emotionally upset from experiencing it. You might think that bullies are only a problem for children and turn a blind eye to such behavior in adults. You might also be reluctant to view yourself as the victim of a bully, feeling like it means you are a weak person or incompetent employee.

Here are five signs that suggest you may be bullied at work.

1. Not receiving credit for your work. Failing to receive credit for work that you've done – or receiving an inordinate amount of criticism – could be part of a bullying campaign to make you look bad or incompetent. These critiques often have no merit, but they can impact others' impressions of you if you don't speak up. To prevent this, set clear expectations and roles at the outset of a project, so the bully can't claim your accomplishments or blame you for their mistakes."

2. Being aggressively managed. Even bosses can be bullies. If your manager corrects you in public rather than private, uses impolite or unprofessional word choices when communicating with you or sets your deadlines based on personal whims rather than team goals and priorities, that may be bullying. Tread lightly if you are in this position.

3. Becoming the butt of jokes. While kidding around in the office is common, it's different when you're constantly targeted about character traits that you can't change. If you bully someone for not pulling their weight, they can get better at their job – rude nonetheless but a person can change. People who are targeted for trash-talking, name-calling and mocking – either at meetings or behind the scenes when no one is around to hear it – are being bullied. 

4. Noticing the "mob effect." If everyone in the office suddenly turns against you, avoids you or cuts you out of important conversations, they may be exhibiting bullying behavior. This includes being systematically shunned from meetings, then finding out that important information that impacts your performance is being withheld from you. This one is hard to combat because an employer will typically take the word of many over the word of one. 

5. Feeling sick. The pernicious effects of bullying can take a heavy toll on your health. If the experiences you're having in the office make you feel like throwing up the night before your week begins, this is another common sign of bullying. In the short-term, targets of bullies may experience health problems, such as headaches, difficulty concentrating, depression and sleep and anxiety issues. They are also more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs. Victims may fear meetings, office activities or even going to the workplace. Their work performance often suffers.

Experts recommend that adults who are being bullied at work document all incidents in detail and report bullying behavior to the appropriate body. Other tactics for dealing with bullies are to avoid or ignore the bully. If the situation isn't improving and the strain on their health or work performance becomes too much, victims may need to consider changing jobs.

Insurance On-line

The Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (Liam) is urging insurance companies to sell their products via online platforms to drive the penetration rate to 75 per cent in 2020 from the current 56 per cent. Liam president Toi See Jong expressed hope that the companies could establish their own platform by Jan 1, 2017.

"We only have four years left and the gap between the rates is still big. Broadening the life insurance policy channels would allow various insurance segments to come in and increase the penetration rate as required," he told Bernama after opening a seminar jointly organised by Lian and the Foundation for the Advancement of Life & Insurance here Wednesday.

He said online platforms, being straightforward and secure, allow consumers of all ages to make comparisons and choose a competitive insurance policy.

Malaysia has only a small number of online providers of life insurance products, he noted, adding Liam would continue to work closely with Bank Negara to achieve the target penetration rate.

He suggested that people with low incomes could first buy a simple insurance product such as a personal accident policy for less than RM10 per month.

On prospects, Toi said the life insurance industry is expected to sustain its single-digit growth rate throughout the year driven by demand as well as increased awareness of the importance of protection

Contestability In Life Insurance

The word “contestability” might sound a little frightening when it’s associated with your life insurance policy. “Contest” implies that there’s a winner and a loser, and nobody wants to be on the wrong end when it comes to financial security.

Normally when someone dies who has life insurance, the insurer pays the policy’s beneficiaries soon after a claim is filed. But if a person dies within the first two years of having the policy — what’s typically known as the contestability period — the company has the right to delay payment while it investigates the beneficiaries’ claim, and it can dispute the claim if it finds evidence of misrepresentation.

But unless you lie on your life insurance application, the contestability period is nothing to worry about.

Why the contestability period exists

People occasionally lie on life insurance applications to get better prices or policies they wouldn’t otherwise qualify for. Others make honest mistakes their provider doesn’t catch. The contestability period exists to protect companies in those instances.

The decision of whether or not to investigate a claim is determined by a claim examiner on a case-by-case basis. An examiner may consider investigating a claim if there’s evidence to suggest an insured’s application for coverage may have included a material misrepresentation.

The manner of death could trigger an investigation. Say, for example, an insured person dies of heart disease shortly after buying a policy. A claims examiner may review the application to see if the insured disclosed they were being treated for the disease. Omitting this fact could be considered a material misrepresentation.

What happens if an insurer disputes a claim

If, after reviewing medical and other information submitted with the life insurance applications, the insurer discovers the insured person misrepresented something, it generally will do one of two things:

• Pay the death benefit, minus the additional premiums it would have charged had it known the details. (For example, deducting the additional amount a smoker would have paid, if he was charged a nonsmoking rate.)
• Deny the claim and return the premiums to the beneficiary. That’s likely to happen only if the new information would have resulted in a denial of coverage.

What happens if an insurer approves a claim

If there is an investigation that vindicates the beneficiaries, the payment will include interest to cover any delay it caused.

The length of an investigation varies depending on the circumstances. The interest rate and the timing for when interest begins to accrue after the death of the insured are standardize nationwide. Keep in mind that delayed and denied life insurance claims are fairly rare. 

The contestability period is different from the “suicide clause,” although they’re often confused. Life insurance policies generally include a clause saying they won’t pay out if the insured person dies from suicide within the first one or two years of the policy. The time period varies by state law.

Being honest pays

Remember, as long as you’re honest with the insurance company when you apply for coverage, you can trust your beneficiaries will get the life insurance payout, even if you die the day after the policy goes into effect.

Selling Life Insurance

It isn't easy to sell life insurance. Investing in a mutual fund, you feel like you’re saving money. Purchasing insurance, you feel like you’re spending it. It’s not a pleasant thing to buy and there’s no immediate gratification.

But you might reserve some of the blame for the cautious and conservative industry itself. Buying the right insurance can be tedious and expensive - tallied up the unpleasantness: complex and confusing products, paperwork that takes forever to fill out, salespeople who push their wares rather than provide objective information.

Insurance is still sold much as it was in the middle of the 19th, when many of its largest purveyors were founded. Insurance companies have armies of agents stationed in towns. 

To many experts on personal finance, the whole setup can seem pretty quaint. In books and online forums, a top obsession these days is minimizing fees. “You can’t control the market,” the cliché goes, “but you can control your costs.”

Insurance agents, meanwhile, often charge fat, obscure commissions as compensation for the many hours it takes to find their customers. Even without commissions, insurers can make it hard to figure out the true cost of a policy or to do comparison shopping. 

Insurance companies, like financial advisers, sometimes violate another modern taboo: the one against self-serving advice. In addition to selling essentials such as life and disability insurance, agents may be awarded commissions for selling various kinds of annuities, many of them so mysterious that the agents themselves can get confused.  

Some experts advice customer to avoid any complex financial products as well as the hungry agents who try to sell them to you. He recommends readers skip agents entirely.  

The standard advice on insurance, and it still holds, is that everyone should have disability coverage to protect against the chance that they will no longer be able to support themselves or their families. You also need life insurance if you have financial dependents, with coverage several times your annual income. Experts usually recommend getting "term" policies—temporary coverage, for the time your children will be relying on you—rather than permanent, "whole" insurance coverage, which is usually pricier. The most convenient and cost-effective way to buy disability and life insurance is often through employers, which can get better group rates, though that coverage generally isn’t portable if you leave your job.  

Maybe it's time for life insurers to change things up. The industry have to rethink the way it sells its products and emphasize how insurance can help customers while they're still alive. One way is to link it with people’s retirement needs, including protection against medical and long-term care costs. 

Some are adamant that face-to-face meetings are the best way to sell the firm’s insurance and investment products. Like a personal trainer, “a human being creates discipline to get people to do what they need to do.