Life Insurance

[Hausse 0]

Hey everybody (and everybody else too)

I was considering getting a life insurance out of various reasons. Can anybody give me a broad estimate what it would cost me? My stats:

Skydiver
19yrs old
non-smoker
as far as I know good health

The insurance should cover about 50'000$

Thanks

[newbloomer 0]

I am not licensed, however I can tell you with just the skydiver part, you will be paying a little more than average for your insurance. A lot of companies out there will not cover people who normally engage in extreme sports, and if they do it is at a higher rate. Unless you were already covered and started the sport 2 years later.
I just started jumping recently. I work for a financial institution and one of our licensed Financial Consultants told me that my family would not be covered if something happened to me while I was skydiving. This of course freaked me out. (I have like 4 policies, maybe over covered) In any case I went home and scrubbed the hell out of my policies. There was nothing in there about it so I went for clarification. Thats only if I was just signing up. I have had all of my policies for more than 2 years so they are fine.
I would shop around if I were you. Don't stick with just one quote. And scrub the policy before you sign it to make sure your sport is covered.

"not all grief is bad grief, just ask Charlie Brown"

[peregrinerose 0]

Depends on what you want... term life? Whole life? Universal? Term is cheapest, but only covers you for X number of years. Whole/Universal are more expensive, but cover you your whole life, you can also borrow against your own policy or cash it out later if you desire to do so. I don't completely understand the difference between whole and universal.

On my whole life plan, I am 33, just started it, covered for $100,000, and pay $140/ month. It would have been $40 less if I wasn't a jumper per month. Mine's through state farm. My husband's is $20/month more than mine, he's a year older.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[wildfan75 1]

My parents started mine when I was about two years old (obviously before I started skydiving) and its through Thrivent Financial (formerly Lutheran Brotherhood). I pay about $90 a year for $70,000 no matter how I kick the bucket (with the exception of suicide).

Stephan--Make sure you call around and be sure to check with companies from Switzerland too.

[peregrinerose 0]

I agree with calling around, but also read the fine print. Make sure you are comparing identical plan types and what you will get out of it. I don't like throwing money away, that's why I went with whole life. If I decide in 20 years that I no longer need life insurance, the money I have paid into it has accumulated, grown, collected interest, and I can cash out my policy.... I get all my money back, basically. If I'm disabled and can't pay the premiums but want to keep the life insurance, mine will pay for itself as long as there's money in the account. If I want to take out a loan using my life insurance as collateral, I can do that too.

I pay more than $90/year, but I get a lot of benefits for that extra money too.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[wildfan75 1]

Mine also has a cash value with interest, can take a loan out, etc. Having a policy for 30 years has its advantages and things have changed so much in the market of life insurance. I would be paying way more for what I have if I'd have to take something like that out today. And I totally agree about comparing apples to apples.

[StreetScooby 5]

If you claim you're a skydiver, you can expect to pay a $2/$1000 of coverage surcharge. For a $1MM policy, that doubles the cost of a 100 jump season. You're now paying $40/jump instead of $20.

We are all engines of karma

[Hausse 0]

Hey thank's everybody for the advice.
I don't want an insurance for life or anything it should be as short as possible (the main point of the hole insurance is, that if something doesn't work as it should I don't wanna leave my parents a big chunk of debts for getting my body back to Switzerland and so on).
But it seems to be too expensive. I hoped I would be able to find something like 10 bucks a month to get just a small amount covered but it seems to be way more expensive. I might check into Swiss insurance company they might have a good offer.

[TheCaptain 2]

Finding life insurance for a skydiver is an issue but there are less expensive policies that have very few exclusions. I pay $40 a month for $150,000.00 through a company Great West. Outside of suiside they have no excusions.
Kirk

[peregrinerose 0]

Just get a term life insurance policy then... if you do a short term, and low amount, it won't cost you much.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[adventurechick 0]

I have a 50,000 dollar policy that I pay about $15 a month for. The catch is, I bought it before I ever got into skydiving, but at the the time I was swimming with sharks on a regular basis. So, see what they say. I'm with State Farm.

PMS #449 TPM #80 Muff Brother #3860
SCR #14705 Dirty Sanchez #233

[Hausse 0]

Okey State Farm sounds good. (And so do sharks;)

[Hausse 0]

Just checked out State Farm I could get a 5-year for 13.88/month which sounds like the thing I wanted. They didn't ask the Extremsport question though so I'll have to check on that.

Thanks for all the tips it really helped.

[mailin 0]

I don't skydive anymore because of this issue - couldn't get enough coverage for an appropriate cost.

Keep in mind that a regular high yield savings account or mutual fund does SO much better than a whole life policy - the rate of return on your money is so low.

Term life is a good alternative but as you age it can be harder to get that insurance for a decent price.

Also - for such a small amount what are you needing it for? Generally people get Life Insurance to cover expenses for family left behind. Does anyone depend on your income? If not then why have it? If you do then the general rule is 8 to 10 times your yearly salary. If you make $40k per year that means a $400,000 policy - which will run about $50/month. The younger you get it, for the longer the term, the cheaper it is.

If you work you do have social security benefits that could pay out to family to cover your funeral expenses or other small incidentals.


Jen

Arianna Frances

[Channman 2]

Quote

Depends on what you want... term life? Whole life? Universal? Term is cheapest, but only covers you for X number of years. Whole/Universal are more expensive, but cover you your whole life, you can also borrow against your own policy or cash it out later if you desire to do so. I don't completely understand the difference between whole and universal.

On my whole life plan, I am 33, just started it, covered for $100,000, and pay $140/ month. It would have been $40 less if I wasn't a jumper per month. Mine's through state farm. My husband's is $20/month more than mine, he's a year older.

Just remember, contractually the cash in a whole life policy is part of the Death benefit, i.e. over time as the cash builds up in your policy you are transfering RISK from your insurer to YOU. Every Insurer goes through a Re-insurer to finance there risk and they do so with TERM.

Lets say if you have the policy for 20 years and the Cash Value is $20,000 and you die. State Farm will take your $20,000 and their $80,000 making the total $100,000 and pay your husband $100,000 dollars, he does not get both. It appears on the face of your post you may well be paying the necessary targeted primium to keep the policy in force till the end of your life expectancy.

Borrowing your own money, and paying it back with interest is not financially a good idea. Here is a good example..

A 35 year Level Term Life policy of $300,000 for a 33 year old non-smoker and $300,000 for a 34 year old spouse non-smoker would average around $104 a month. Thats a total of $600,000 dollar. $300,000 for less is best.

You take the $36.00 savings and invest in a good mutual fund compounding a 12% and you could realize a $35,969.33 return over 20 years. (Thats a Win / Win)

[peregrinerose 0]

Quote

Borrowing your own money, and paying it back with interest is not financially a good idea. Here is a good example..

A 35 year Level Term Life policy of $300,000 for a 33 year old non-smoker and $300,000 for a 34 year old spouse non-smoker would average around $104 a month. Thats a total of $600,000 dollar. $300,000 for less is best.

You take the $36.00 savings and invest in a good mutual fund compounding a 12% and you could realize a $35,969.33 return over 20 years. (Thats a Win / Win)

I agree, borrowing against it isn't the wisest move in the world, but in a real financial bind, it's nice to have the option.

I also wouldn't depend on it as a retirement fund, it's not meant for that either.... we both have IRAs as our primary retirement fund.

With your example with the term policy, at the end of the term, I have nothing to show for it other than the $35K from the additional investment. With whole life, at the end of X years, I can cash out the policy if I so desire, hopefully more than $35K. There are pros and cons to both routes, every person is different and needs to figure out what works best for them and their long term goals as well as present financial situation.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[Channman 2]

My example using the Term policy was only to show that you can have effectively 3X the amount of insurance coverage at a reduced rate which in the example would take care of your spouses financial needs for a longer period of time. The 35K was based on accumulation of 240 months, compound that out another 180 months and the sum would surprise you when you reach the age of 68 which would be 35 years from now.

A Cash Value policy takes a great deal of time to accumulate due to Expense Charges, commissions, and policy fees. Most do not even have value for the first 2 years.

But to your question, of Term being Temporary and Whole Life being Permenant and the ability to get something back.

Lets look at what the Insurance Company does with your $140.00 monthly premium.

They re-insure there risk with another company with a TERM policy effectively reducing there internal cost for manageing you possible death sometime in the future. Underwritters have determined that they can get said coverage for $15.00 per month. They then take the difference and invest it over your life time, making them millions and paying you pennies to the dollar.