International Life Insurance

If you’re already familiar with what Life Insurance is and what its benefits are, you can skip this and click on the Get a Quote button.

If you continue reading, what you’re going to discover is the following:

1: What is Life Insurance?

2: What kind of Life Insurance do we offer?

3: Optional Benefits.

4: Who needs Life Insurance?

5: How much Life Insurance Cover do you need?

6: What is Life Insurance used for?

7: How can a business protect itself with Life Insurance?

8: What are the key takeaways about Life Insurance?

9: How renewals are handled.

10: How to Claim.

11: How to apply for Cover.

12: What to do next.

Before we move on, here is an important DISCLAIMER:

What follows is available in the public domain. This is for information purposes only and is intended to provide an overview of Life Insurance. It does not constitute financial or Life Insurance advice. The terms governing any policy are defined by the Terms and Conditions of that policy and not by any information below.

What is Life Insurance?

Life Insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and a Life Insurance Company, where the Life Insurance Company promises to pay the designated beneficiary a sum of money, known as the “death benefit”,upon the death of the insured person.

The purpose of Life insurance is to eliminate financial hardship that may arise from the lack of income the deceased was earning.

What kind of Life Insurance?

Based on experience, we do not believe in promoting Whole of Life cover which is Life Insurance with a cash value in the savings component of the policy.

That’s because Whole of Life cover is generally considered expensive compared to what we are promoting, and we believe there are other financial instruments you can invest in that will give you a far better Return on Investment than a Whole of Life Insurance policy.

Therefore, we prefer promoting Life Insurance that is more affordable which is known as Term Life Insurance and sometimes referred to as Annual Renewable Term Insurance.

• Term Life Insurance is Life Cover without any investment component linked to it. It is life cover only.
• Term Life Insurance offers 1) a guarantee of future insurability for 2) a set number of years for 3) a specified Lump Sum.
• The term of the policy is your choice and can be 5 – 45 years but usually limited to age 65.
• During the stated term, you will be able to renew each year without reapplying for cover or taking another medical exam to reaffirm eligibility.
• Although Term Life is the cheapest form of Life Insurance, premiums do vary between insurance companies by as much as 30%

Optional benefits

Here are a few Optional Benefits you can add to your Life Insurance Policy depending on the Insurance Company you choose to purchase Life Cover with.

 

Critical Illness

This pays a lump sum payment if you are diagnosed with one of the critical illnesses specified in their policy conditions.

 

Disability

This pays a lump sum payment if you become disabled as a result of an accident or illness, as long as the condition meets the disability criteria as per their policy conditions.

 

Terminal Illness

If you are diagnosed with any illness that will lead to your death within 12 months, they will pay the full amount of life cover in advance.

 

Indexation

The indexation option results in your sum assured increasing at a fixed 5 – 9% every year. This option is designed to keep your life cover in line with inflation.

Do you need Life Insurance?

Generally, you need life insurance if other people depend on your income or if you have debt that will carry on after your death.

This is a subject none of us really want to think about, but if we have someone financially dependent on us, we have to be honest and ask ourselves the following:

• “How will my family’s financial situation change if I had to die unexpectedly?”
• If your family will suffer financially after your death, then you need to seriously consider buying Life Insurance.
• Why? Because Life Insurance pays a lump sum benefit after you die, it provides your loved ones with financial security should the unthinkable happen.

For the correct sum insured, your Life Insurance policy help with the following expenses:

• Your family’s ongoing living costs.
• Settle estate taxes.
• Pay off your mortgage.
• Settle outstanding loans.
• Cover the remaining cost of your children’s education.
• Any number of other essential expenses.
• Provide your family with a secure financial foundation.

In other words, having life insurance can protect your family from having to make drastic unwanted & unnecessary lifestyle changes if you were to die unexpectedly.

Here are some common examples of when Life Insurance may be important or necessary.

When You’re Single

Most single people don’t have any financial dependants but there are exceptions. For example, if you’re supporting your parents, siblings, or anyone else for that matter, the life insurance lump sum pay-out can be used to continue helping them.

Or, if you’re carrying debt and don’t want that debt passed onto family members, your life Insurance can cover the debt so that no one is left burdened with your debt.

When You’re a Couple

Many families depend on two incomes to make ends meet.

If you died suddenly, ask yourself: “Would your spouse or partner have enough money to cover your funeral costs, credit card balances, outstanding loans and to continue their standard of living without your income?

A life insurance policy can pay for your funeral costs, your credit card balances, your outstanding loans and help your surviving spouse to continue their standard of living without your income.

When You’re Raising Children as a Couple

Raising children can also be extremely expensive. If you died tomorrow, would your spouse or partner be able to financially provide your children with the opportunities you had planned for them? Would there be enough income to pay for school and college or university as well as all their living expenses along the way? Life Insurance can cover all those needs.

Considering life Insurance for a non-working spouse can be just as important as insuring the breadwinner of the family because a non-working spouse performs important functions that would be expensive to replace such as hiring help to raise the children and running the household.

When You’re Raising Children as a Single Parent

Single parents need to consider life Insurance more so than anyone else as their children are so critically dependant on them. The Life Insurance lump-sum can be set aside to care for the children.

When You’re Servicing a Mortgage

For most people, the family home is their most significant financial asset, and their mortgage is their most significant liability. If you have a mortgage, your life Insurance can settle the mortgage and provide your family with the security of a fully paid home if the worst should happen to you.

When You’re Approaching Retirement

Once your children are on their own and your mortgage is paid off, you may no longer need life Insurance.

However, if you died today, your spouse could potentially outlive you by many years.

Would your surviving spouse have to make drastic lifestyle adjustments to make ends meet? Having adequate life Insurance cover can ensure they avoid financial struggles in their retirement.

When You Have Estate Taxes

The governments of many countries levy some form of death duty, estate duty or inheritance tax on the estate of a deceased citizen or tax-resident, which must be settled by that person’s beneficiaries.

Life Insurance can your family pay these taxes which will help avoid having your estate broken up to pay the taxes due.

How much cover do you need?

The most important, and possibly the most difficult part of buying Life Insurance cover is determining exactly how much cover you need. As each person has different financial obligations and needs, there is no easy standard to use to determine how much life insurance each person should buy.

When considering how much Life Insurance cover you would need, your Financial Advisor should include what your family would need to meet immediate, ongoing, and future financial obligations if you were to die today.

The section below will give you an idea of how much Life Cover you may need by giving you examples of what Life Insurance is used for.

What is Life Cover used for?

Here are some examples of what Life Insurance is used for:

Immediate Cash Need such as:

• Funeral Cash
• Medical Expenses
• Probate Fees
• Legal Fees
• Mortgage Settlement
• Credit Card and other Debt
• Outstanding Loans
• Estate Duties

Ongoing Cash Needs such:

• Food
• Housing
• Utilities
• Transport
• Healthcare
• Clothing
• Medical or Health Cover
• General Insurance
• Schooling

Future Cash Needs such:

• Tertiary Education for your children
• Spouse Retirement

How a business can protect itself with Life Insurance

There are 3 reasons why you may consider life Insurance for a business.

• Key Person

Key Person insurance can help a business protect itself from the sudden death of an important person who generates significant revenue for the business. This could be because of their business relationships, or someone who is the intellectual capital of the business because of their knowledge, experience or skill set; or simply the costs incurred in recruiting and training someone to replace an important employee. Life Insurance can cover the loss of a key person saving the business from financial difficulties while trying to replace that key person.

• Shareholder Protection

Shareholder Protection insurance could allow surviving shareholders to retain control of their former partner’s shares. In other words, each partners Life Cover is seeded to the other partner by means of a “Buy & Sell Agreement” which the surviving partner uses to pay for the deceased partners shares. Not having this protection in place could lead to family members becoming actively involved or interfering in a business when they have no knowledge or experience. It also prevents those that have inherited your partners shares from selling the inherited shares to partners you do not want in your business.

• Business Loan

Business Loan insurance can help settle business loans which are linked to a shareholder or another key employee.

What are the Key Takeaways about Life Insurance?

• If others depend on you financially—or you have debt that must be settled—it’s crucial to have life insurance.
• Life insurance ensures that your financial obligations are taken care of, and your family supported after your untimely death.
• The sooner you purchase life insurance, the better, as it becomes more expensive the older you get due to age increasing the risk — or your premium can be loaded, or your application can be denied due to ill health.
• Term life is cheaper but only lasts for the number of years of the policy term chosen and does not feature a cash component.
• “Key-person/Keyman insurance” can save your business from loss of income.
• “Buy & Sell Agreements” can protect the surviving partners(s).
• “Business Loans” can be covered by the death of a partner or Key Person.

How are renewals handled?

The renewal documents will be emailed to you about a month before the annual renewal. You sign and send them back to the us for processing. They are then sent onto the insurance company for further processing, and you are sent an invoice with instructions on how to make payment.

How to Claim

On the death of the insured, contact us or our financial service partner and you’ll be advised of the relevant paperwork required.

The same applies if you have chosen a “Critical Illness” or “Personal Accident” rider.

Critical Illness: A lump sum will be paid to you if you are diagnosed with a serious or critical illness as determined by the insurers predetermined list of serious or critical illnesses found in their policy wording.

Permanent/Total Disability: A lump sum will be paid to you if you are disabled.

How to Apply for Cover

There are 10 steps to applying for cover.

• Step 1: You request a quote via our online Quote Request Form.
• Step 2: We arrange quotes and send these to you after roughly 1 to 3 working days.
• Step 3: You accept the quote by way of a) signing the quote document and sending it back to us together with b) the Application Form.
• Step 4: We check the documents you sent to us and forward them to the insurance company.
• Step 5: Insurance Company accepts the application form subject to the stipulated Medical Tests and Examinations they require. This is sent to us and we inform you of the same.
• Step 6: You go for the tests and examinations and the Doctor submits the results to the Insurance Company. Depending on the doctor and medical testing facility, there could be a few days delay. (At this point, you may be asked to do more tests or examinations, but this seldom happens.)
• Step 7: Based on the medical tests and examination findings, the Insurance Company declines cover or accepts cover as per their initial quote or requotes with a loading.
• Step 8: Insurance Company sends us your invoice which we check and forward to you.
• Step 9: You pay the invoice and submit Proof of Payment to us, your agents, which we check and send to the Insurance Company.
• Step 10: Insurance Company sends you the Certificate of Insurance (Contract) as proof of cover.

You relax and enjoy life.

What to do Next

In closing, we have to ask you one simple yet very important question:

Based on what you’ve just read…

“Do you need Life Insurance?”

If the above has prompted you to seriously consider affordable Life Insurance, do the following next:

• Click on the Quote button below.
• Fill in the quote request form and we’ll get back to you within a couple of days with 2 or 3 suitable quotes.