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Major trends in American life 2022 insurance market

Millions of people make New Year’s resolutions every year. While the start of a new year traditionally provides a fresh start or a chance to identify new goals or plans to eliminate old negative habits, the stress and fatigue associated with the pandemic have influenced how we approach life, relationships, and perhaps even our resolutions.

ReMark’s latest Global Consumer Report (GCS) provides powerful insights into the changing attitudes of American consumers as a result of the pandemic. Life insurers and other players in the insurance ecosystem may want to incorporate the report’s valuable insights into their marketing and product strategies. The study identified the following key trends.

Americans are interested in learning more about life insurance.

Don’t be surprised to see the word “life insurance” in people’s New Year’s resolutions list this year. Americans’ interest in life insurance has dramatically increased in the past couple of years, mainly driven by COVID-19. 61% of the surveyed U.S. respondents say they need more education about life and health insurance. That is exceptionally high among Millennials.

One-third say COVID-19 has changed their perspective on risk and the value of insurance. This is especially true for those who knew someone who died from COVID-19 (70%). The United States ranked 11th out of 22 countries surveyed by ReMark’s insurance literacy score. Americans want to learn more about life insurance, but they lag behind other advanced countries such as Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. It is both an opportunity and a responsibility for the life insurance industry in the United States to increase American consumers’ life insurance literacy.

CONCLUSION:

We recommend that life insurers make their own New Year’s resolutions this year. With rising consumer interest in and selling life insurance, life insurers face enormous opportunities and challenges, including the ongoing insurance protection gap.

Every insurer’s action plan should include items to empower consumers to improve their life insurance literacy. Companies with visionaries and innovative consumer-focused approaches will gain a competitive advantage — and a leading industry position — in the coming years.

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Life Insurance For Cancer Patients And Survivors

After receiving a cancer diagnosis, is life insurance still an option?

Even though it could be pricey and restricted, you can still get some forms of life insurance if you presently have cancer.

Having a diagnosis of cancer usually makes it impossible to obtain insurance.

Basal cell carcinoma is a condition for which most insurers do not impose restrictions, according to Travis Price, an independent senior market insurance agent in Manton, Michigan (skin cancer).

However, given the nature of small cell lung cancer, there is a good chance that no life insurance would ever be placed with you.

What Kinds of Life Insurance Are Available to Cancer Patients?

Following a cancer diagnosis, you will probably be able to qualify for a guaranteed issue, group life, and final expenditure life insurance policy, which provides coverage for final expenses and burial fees. However, with a cancer diagnosis, you could not be eligible for the two most popular forms of life insurance — term and whole.

These forms of life insurance often don’t allow for application rejection, and the applications don’t typically even include any health-related questions.

The possibility of limited coverage quantities is one compromise. The fact that guaranteed issue and final expense life insurance sometimes have graded death benefits means that your beneficiaries won’t receive the total payout if you die away within two or three years of purchasing the policy. (The timetable will be specified and depend on the policy.) The nature of your disease will also impact what coverage you may qualify for.

How Long Does It Take to Regain Life Insurance Eligibility After Cancer?

Although each insurance provider is unique, you usually need to have been cancer-free for at least five years to be eligible for freshly issued term life insurance, whole life insurance, or other forms of coverage.

Depending on the type of cancer, its invasiveness, and the likelihood that it may return, there may be a waiting time for life insurance after cancer.

Waiting periods for life insurance following cancer. Certain insurers have higher underwriting requirements for specific diseases that need remission for at least a decade.

Life insurance waiting periods after different cancer types

Here are sample waiting periods for various types of cancer from Trusted Choice, a network of independent insurance agents:

Bladder cancer: 2 years

Bone cancer: 5 years

Breast cancer: 2 years

Cervical cancer: 1 year

Colon cancer: 2 years

Kidney cancer: 3 years

Leukemia: 10 years

Lung cancer: 3 years

Lymphoma: 2 years

Metastatic cancer: 5 years

Ovarian cancer: 3 years

Prostate: 1 year

Rectal cancer: 2 years

Skin melanoma: 1 year

What Kind of Life Insurance Is Best After Cancer?

Traditional life insurance may be possible if you have had cancer for at least five years. Here are a few potential choices.

Long-term care insurance If you’re eligible, term life insurance is often the least expensive method to get protection. You’ll probably have to undergo a life insurance medical examination, so be ready to discuss your prior cancer diagnosis and treatment when questioned.

You may lock in prices for term life insurance for a predetermined amount of time, such as 10 or 20 years.

Permanent life insurance Whole life insurance and universal life insurance are two options for permanent life insurance. If you pay the premiums, these plans can offer life insurance as long as you live.

streamlined life insurance issues While simple issue life insurance does not need a medical exam, you might be required to complete a brief health questionnaire.

A simplified issue might be an excellent decision if you are cancer-free but not in perfect health.

Life insurance with a guaranteed issue You cannot be refused guaranteed life insurance because of a medical exam, health standards, or medical history requirements. That may seem enticing, but the cost of the coverage you receive will be high, and the policy’s death benefits will be low.

Life insurance for burial Burial insurance, intended for life insurance purchasers over 50, is designed to cover expenditures associated with the end of life, such as funeral fees and unpaid medical bills. Obtaining this coverage doesn’t need a medical checkup.

How Does Cancer Affect the Price of Life Insurance?

For all plans, including those for cancer patients and survivors, most life insurance firms employ a categorization method to calculate the prices for life insurance. Following cancer, some suggestions to improve your chances of finding life insurance.

Work with a knowledgeable independent life insurance agent first and foremost. Independent brokers deal with various insurance providers and will be aware of those more receptive to covering cancer patients. Find an independent agent that specializes in impaired risk underwriting in particular.

With these techniques, you might be able to get affordable life insurance no matter when you become eligible for it after cancer.

By eating well and exercising, you may improve your general health. Avoid using tobacco. Quotes for life insurance are often substantially more expensive for smokers.

Choose a profession with less risk. Police officers, firefighters, pilots, and construction workers are among the occupations that might see increased costs.

Avoid dangerous pastimes, including scuba diving, skydiving, and mountain climbing. Your quotations will take them into account and increase the Price. Maintain a spotless driving and criminal history. DUIs, prior arrests, and other criminal convictions may impact your rate or ban you from coverage.

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Have we learned anything about disability insurance since the pandemic?

COVID- The pandemic’s 19 fatalities were a shocking and terrifying aspect, and an increase in life insurance purchases — LIMRA reported a rise in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same period the year before — underscored that it made many people consider care for their loved ones realistically in the event of the unthinkable

In contrast, the even higher numbers are those who contracted COVID-19 and were rendered unable to work. This pervasiveness resulted from a greater understanding of the need for income protection in the event of a short-term or permanent incapacity. But enrolment did not always follow from that awareness.

According to LIMRA, ownership of disability insurance fell to 14% in 2021, marking a two-year decline from 20% in 2019. This can be attributed to several factors, including an abrupt increase in layoffs and furloughs of employees that resulted in many individuals losing their workplace coverage, as well as widespread financial uncertainty that prompted some individuals to get rid of certain coverage to save money. A survey conducted by Prudential last fall ahead of the annual 2020 open enrollment period indicated this was an issue, as 59% of employees who selected fewer benefits said they did so to save on monthly expenses.

Another reason was access. Pandemic restrictions in most workplaces affected enrollment, from canceled in-person benefits fairs to U.S. Postal Service delays. The pivot to all-electronic enrollment was seamless for many larger employers, but some smaller employers struggled. Additionally, in response to a shift in employee needs during remote work, some employers boosted nontraditional benefits to provide more support, including financial wellness services and child care resources. While these resources were absolutely needed, they may have also overshadowed other valuable benefits package components, including disability insurance, during a time when it was already difficult to effectively communicate with and educate employees.

While the purchase of disability insurance declined, claims in certain areas increased. The nonprofit Integrated Benefits Institute reported a nearly fivefold increase in the volume of short-term disability claims cases related to respiratory conditions between February and March 2020 as compared to the year before. During the height of the pandemic, 1 out of 5 clients looked to us to make either temporary or permanent adjustments to our contract related to the pandemic and the unusual situation it created. Further, 1 out of 10 clients made formal requests during 2020 for benefit plan changes.

When an individual files a disability claim, it’s because something is wrong, and our goal is to reduce their burden and stress. Prudential’s digital claims process, which we accelerated during the pandemic, enabled us to serve our customers better and faster. From the initial claim, which can be made online by the individual or the employer on an employee’s behalf, to the employee’s ability to sign up for e-delivery of documents and text updates, Prudential has significantly reduced the time it takes to file a claim and enabled an entire filing to be handled online without a phone call.

The pandemic showed us that ‘disability insurance’ still needs a new name

In Prudential’s 2020 open enrollment survey, the number of employees who felt benefits were an important part of their overall compensation jumped 10 percentage points to 77% in 2019. Despite calculations by the Social Security Administration that 1 in 4 workers in their 20s can expect to be out of work for at least a year because of a disabling condition before retirement, disability insurance continues to factor lower in employees’ benefits considerations. Why?

According to LIMRA’s 2020 Insurance Barometer, the most common reason people own disability insurance is that they have previous experience with a disabling event. In addition, Prudential’s open enrollment survey found that close to one-third of people who were laid off or furloughed due to the pandemic said they would have selected more benefits had they known. Both examples show that experience remains the best teacher when it comes to helping.

There is an agreement in our industry that the term “disability” prompts an “It won’t happen to me” response, causing many to eschew coverage. With clearer education on what disability insurance is and what it covers — namely, income protection for the physical conditions that prevent an employee from performing the material and substantial duties of their occupation and/or would result in a 20% or greater loss in their earnings — I believe we can see an increase in coverage adoption, post-pandemic.

Our looming challenges and opportunities

Prior to the pandemic, we were already seeing a trending increase in behavioral health disabilities, with an estimated 1.6 billion workdays lost per year, according to a Milliman research report on the potential economic impact of integrated medical-behavioral health care. It is anticipated they will be the leading causes of disability by 2030, and the pandemic has only accelerated this trend.

Unaddressed mental health conditions not only extend the time needed away from the office but can also result in behaviors often mistaken for performance issues, such as missing deadlines, showing up late, and exhibiting an overall lack of focus. Employers can support employees and provide specific help for those recovering from a disabling event by creating customized return-to-work plans and providing resources that can help them overcome the cognitive barriers that may prevent them from returning to full productivity.

Understanding that mental health plays such a massive role in disability outcomes, Prudential introduced NeuroFlow®, a behavioral health platform with a host of self-service tools designed to help claimants return to work after disability. When individuals are able to return to work with a healthy mindset, the strain on family caregivers is relieved, medical costs are contained and work productivity improves.

Coverage for all who need it

According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, although 78% of employers surveyed offer short-term disability benefits to their employees and 63% offer long-term disability benefits, more than 50 million U.S. workers still lack any disability income protection.

The action taken by the federal government to provide emergency income protection for Americans in the early months of the pandemic through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act is proof that change can happen. Over the years, versions of a federal paid family and medical leave policy have been proposed amid calls for a public-private partnership to help secure financial stability for vulnerable workers when they need it most.

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What Is a Claimant in Life Insurance?

Definition of Life Insurance Claimants

A claimant or beneficiary of your life insurance is the person who will receive a specific sum of money in the event of your passing. When you purchase a life insurance policy, choosing an heir is an essential step because it is the only way legally to designate who will receive the money if you pass away during the policy’s term.

If you are a beneficiary, you should understand how the policy pays out, your options, and anything that might make things more difficult. To learn more about naming or being a life insurance beneficiary, continue reading.

What Is a Beneficiary in Life Insurance?

You can designate an heir, who may be a person or an organization when you buy a life insurance policy. Also possible is having more than one. They receive a predetermined sum of money or a series of payments if they pass away during the policy’s term.

You can distribute the funds however you like as the policy owner:

One person can be designated to receive everything.

You can designate two or more people to split the total sum however you choose.

Your estate may have a name.

You can designate a trust to receive the proceeds from the policy if you have one or desire one.

When they pass away, some people prefer to leave money for a charity; you can mention any recognized organization you like.

If necessary, you can give names to your minor children. It helps to be aware that most states require an adult guardian to oversee minor assets if you intend to do this. The process of choosing a guardian can be expensive and time-consuming.

It’s crucial to contact the insurance provider and present a death certificate if you are the beneficiary of a life insurance policy and your loved one has passed away to begin the payout procedure.

Making a trust or custodial account is one way to hasten this procedure. Your children’s money is placed in a trust, where a trustee will look after it until they are of legal age or the age you specified for them to inherit it. If you don’t determine anyone, the “de facto” beneficiary is your estate.

How Should Insurance Beneficiaries Be Known?

Make sure you give accurate information when naming people to receive insurance money. You’ll need to know things like their birthday, social security number, and contact information. Additionally, make sure everything is correct before submitting it by checking it twice. If there are mistakes, the wrong people might get the money, or your heirs might have to deal with legal issues.

Let’s take the example where you list “spouse” as your beneficiary. Two years later, you get divorced and remarry without altering your insurance policy. After your passing, both your current and former spouses might make an attempt to collect the money.

You’ve created a legal problem that could delay payout because the definition of “spouse” is ambiguous. One was your legal spouse at the time of your death, and the other was your legal spouse at the time the insurance policy was written. Along with all the legal fees, stress, and heartache that always follow fights over money, a dispute over money is likely to occur.

Contingent and Primary Beneficiaries

It is frequently advisable to add one or more supplemental beneficiaries to a policy. If the primary beneficiary (or beneficiaries) passes away or cannot be located, a contingent beneficiary is a person who gets some or all of the money.

Note: If you list multiple people, specify how much money (in a percentage form) each one should receive.

For example, suppose you buy a policy with a $1 million benefit. You designate the beneficiary as your spouse. Your partner will receive the entire sum should you pass away while the policy is still in effect. However, you might pass away before your primary beneficiary.

Your three adult children are added as contingent beneficiaries because you want to ensure that the money is passed on to your children. You include each of them in the policy and distribute the funds equally. In this manner, your children will each receive a third of the money after your passing, even if your spouse dies before you do.

Per Capita and Per Stirpes

The decision of whether to choose per capita or per stirpes when naming beneficiaries is another factor to consider. If no other contingent beneficiaries are listed on the policy, and one or more of your beneficiaries pass away, these specify how the money should be distributed.

Per capita (“per head”) is frequently used as the abbreviation. This implies that you don’t have to describe every potential event in great detail. Instead, an equal portion is distributed to each of your living beneficiaries.

For instance, if you have three adult children and one of them passes away before you do, the other two will instead receive half of the face value each. If you choose per stirpes and one of your beneficiaries passes away before you do, the beneficiary’s children, if any, will receive their share.

A per stirpes arrangement would give your two grandchildren the one-third that your three adult children would receive, for instance, if one of your three adult children passed away before you and was survived by two children. One-sixth of the funds would be given to each grandchild.

Life insurance is a wise choice for estate planning. In light of that, it might not be the best course of action for you and your situation. Consider speaking with an estate planning lawyer who can assist you in putting together a strategy to ensure that your loved ones have what they need after your passing and that your assets go to the people you want them to.

There may be a box to check on some beneficiary designation forms so you can choose per stirpes. If there isn’t a box, ask your agent if you can enter per stirpes.

Who Has the Authority to Alter the Life Insurance Beneficiary?

When submitting a life insurance application, name at least one beneficiary. It doesn’t follow that you can’t alter it later. If you are the owner, you always have the option to remove or add people. You might decide to appoint someone else because of changes in your life, for instance.

In the event of a marriage or divorce, you might want to appoint someone else. A good reason to review your policy is the birth of a child. Alternatively, you might have another justification for the change. However, if you designated a beneficiary as “irrevocable,” you will need to obtain their approval before making any changes (they must sign the policy change form).

Additionally, in some circumstances, your insurance provider or state may limit who you can name. For instance, married couples who reside in states with community property laws might need the consent of their spouse before calling anyone else.

Note: Contact your insurer and ask for a “beneficiary change form” if you want to add or change an heir.

Do beneficiaries of life insurance policies have to pay taxes? A life insurance death benefit received as a lump sum is typically not regarded as taxable income. There are, however, some circumstances in which you might owe taxes.

For instance, any interest paid above the face value of the money if it is received as monthly payments or an annuity is taxable income. Additionally, if the funds are transferred to your estate rather than a specific individual, estate taxes might apply. The good news is that there won’t be any estate taxes assessed unless your estate is worth more than $11.7 million.

Summary

If the insured passes away during the policy term, a life insurance beneficiary receives the death benefit.

Multiple beneficiaries, including primary and contingent beneficiaries, may be named, along with a person or trust.

Your beneficiaries must have accurate identification information so that they can be located and legal disputes are kept to a minimum.

Most life insurance proceeds are tax-free, but in some cases, a portion of them might be.

Before you proceed, be sure you are aware of your state’s life insurance laws and how to handle naming minors.

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Top 5 Reasons to get Life Insurance in your 30s

In your 30s, a lot can happen. You might be planning a wedding, beginning a family, or searching for your first house to purchase. But have you given life insurance any thought?

In your 30s, life starts to get reasonably accurate. You might settle down, get married, start a family, own a home, and bring home the golden retriever you’ve always wanted. That is a lot. Because of this, now is a beautiful time to begin making plans for the future of your family.

Even though it could be difficult, you might need to think about what would happen to your family if something happened to you. The decisions you make today may have a profound impact on the people you care about the most.

In your 30s, consider buying life insurance for the following five reasons:

You Need to Pay Your Monthly Bills

Your life is a series of monthly bills.

Your salary is probably heavily invested in these costs, including your rent or mortgage, auto payments, utilities, credit card bills, and student loans. Despite all odds, you’ve been able to save some money for that Blink-182 reunion tour, but your finances are still tight. Another reason a life insurance policy can be a good idea is this one.

How will your family assist in paying off your mortgage or outstanding loans after you pass away? Your loved ones’ ability to pay the bills you leave behind may be aided by a life insurance policy.

You Have a Family to Support

To create their own families, many are delaying parenthood till they are older. It’s possible that your grandparents and parents were married and had children when they were in their 20s. But more people today are delaying marriage until their 30s or later. Why not, then? It’s simpler than ever to play the field and wait for that ideal match thanks to dating apps like Bumble, Hinge, and the rest.

In fact, women in their early 30s are giving birth to more children than those in their 20s for the first time ever.

Does that circumstance ring a bell for you? If so, you might want to consider what will happen to your family when you pass away. Purchasing life insurance in your 30s could provide your family with financial security in the future.

You are Financing your Kids’ Education

Whether you’re talking about a four-year college, associate degree, or vocational school these days, getting a credential is very pricey. And it won’t get any more straightforward with soaring tuition costs. Even enrolling your children in public the in-state school can be expensive: the average yearly cost after accounting for tuition, room, and board, fees, and other costs is more than $20,000.

Most people’s personal funds just won’t be enough to pay for their education. Although they are an option, student loans could leave borrowers with long-term debt.

If you are unable to provide for your children on your own, the payoff from a life insurance policy may help.

Insurance may be more affordable when you’re young.

Age is one of several variables that insurance companies take into account when determining premiums, but it is one of the most crucial. With all the health tracking apps, recreational sports leagues, and 5ks with pals, young people frequently have fewer health issues, and insurers are aware of this. That might work in your favor.

Purchasing life insurance when you’re still young may enable you to locate a plan that both suits your financial needs and your urgent demands. For those in their 30s, a term life insurance policy is frequently the best option. Compared to a whole life policy, coverage quantities are frequently higher, and costs are created to be reasonable. It’s frequently the best kind of life insurance coverage for a 30-year-old.

Your Loans were Co-signed by Your Parents

Without a perfect credit history, getting a loan to establish a business or purchase a new home is difficult. You might have asked your parents to co-sign your mortgage or other loans, like many other 30-somethings. If something were to happen to you, they would still be responsible for making those payments.

Life insurance can let you pay them back for their assistance when you most need it. Your home, business, or investment might be protected, and your debts could be produced without depleting your parents’ financial resources by using the payoff from an insurance policy.

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Health Insurance Coverage Policies As America Recovers From COVID-19

This issue brief contains a correction.

One year ago this month, the first wave of COVID-19 cases in the United States led to widespread job loss throughout the country . Early in the pandemic, there was serious concern that the impact of these job losses would lead millions of workers to lose job-based health insurance coverage, causing a dramatic spike in uninsurance.

Evidence to date suggests that the number of uninsured people has not risen as great as initially feared. Although the number of jobs in the United States remains about 9.5 million below pre-pandemic levels, workers in the industries that were most affected by the pandemic’s economic damage tended not to have job-based coverage, to begin with. Some of the estimated 3 million people who lost job-based coverage in 2020 gained other forms of coverage through public programs, including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and through the health insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

While total coverage losses were not as significant as projected last spring, federal action is needed to fill coverage gaps for the tens of millions of uninsured Americans and improve protection against medical costs for families facing the financial strain of the pandemic. This issue brief describes the extent of coverage loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, outlines the evidence for why the uninsured population did not increase as dramatically as expected and explains how the American Rescue Plan — the stimulus bill that President Joe Biden is expected to sign this week — will alleviate uninsurance and underinsurance as the United States climbs out of the coronavirus crisis.

What happened to coverage during the pandemic?

Following the passing of the ACA in 2010, 20 million Americans got access to health insurance. The most significant increase in coverage occurred in 2014 when the law’s provisions extending Medicaid and opening the health insurance exchanges took full effect. During Trump’s presidency, this trend reversed, with the uninsured rate among the working-age population rising from an estimated 10.0 percent in 2016 to 10.9 percent in 2019. The COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent recession could worsen these coverage losses. During the Great Recession, the uninsured rate among the working-age population reached 18.2 percent, the highest level in decades.

In 2010, 60 million people reported being uninsured at some point in the previous year. Many analysts worried early in the pandemic that the high levels of job loss might lead to a similar increase in uninsurance. In their May 2020 research, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that more than 16 million workers had lost employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) due to job loss, while the Urban Institute predicted that 5 million to 9.5 million workers might become uninsured. Recent studies, on the other hand, have revealed a lesser — though still significant — loss of employer-sponsored coverage and a smaller net rise in uninsurance. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, approximately 3.3 million people lost employer-sponsored coverage by mid-2020, while the number of uninsured climbed by 1.9 million, according to an Urban Institute estimate. 10 The same study discovered that Hispanic and non-Hispanic Asian individuals had the most considerable reductions in ESI coverage, as well as a rise in the uninsured rate of approximately 4 percentage points among Hispanic adults. Separately, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation examination of insurer administrative data, about 2 million to 3 million fewer people will have ESI by September 2020.

While the lower-than-expected number of workers losing health coverage during the coronavirus epidemic may appear to be good news, there are several reasons why the number of uninsured in the United States did not rise as much. Among them are the following: Many of the laid-off workers did not have coverage via their employer, and Americans who lost health insurance during the epidemic were able to obtain coverage through Medicaid or buy coverage on their own through the ACA marketplaces. Because of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, the creation of markets, and safeguards for preexisting conditions, Americans now have many more options than they did before the Great Recession.

Furthermore, the net change in the uninsured population does not account for changes in the kind of coverage or how the economic effect of the pandemic affects households’ ability to afford out-of-pocket costs.

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Making Health Care Systems Better

As health insurance companies increasingly shift health care costs onto patients through high deductibles and coinsurance, more than one-third of insured Americans report spending more in out-of-pocket expenses than they could afford in the last month. That’s not how insurance is supposed to work.

Many patients may not know it, but there are tens of billions of dollars in rebates and discounts on medicines that are given to insurance companies and other middlemen. Too often, these rebates and values don’t get to patients who need them. As a result, some patients pay more for medicines than their insurance company pays.

Unlike government price setting, which threatens Americans’ access to crucial, breakthrough medicines, we should ensure the rebates and discounts insurers receive get passed on to patients at the pharmacy counter — not pocketed by the insurance companies, hospitals, and middlemen.

Putting an end to the pandemic and strengthening the system

Our first order of business is to end the COVID-19 pandemic. We must also prepare for the challenges ahead. To do so, we need more of the innovation and discovery that led to the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and a more muscular scientific delivery system from top to bottom.

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How to Take Out a Loan Against a Life Insurance Policy

A perpetual life insurance policy’s cash value is readily available for borrowing. The money can be used for any purpose and repaid anytime you choose, and a life insurance policy loan has comparatively low-interest rates. There are no loan restrictions or prerequisites (other than the amount of cash value). The drawback? You run the risk of losing your policy (and its cash value) if you don’t pay the loan’s interest, plus you’ll probably owe a lot of money in taxes. It’s simple to get cash by borrowing against your life insurance policy, provided you can make your payments on time.

Can you borrow against your life insurance policy?

How much can you borrow?

How do you take out a life insurance policy loan?

Pros vs. cons of taking out a life insurance loan

Does your life insurance coverage allow for borrowing?

The amount of money you would get if you surrendered your life insurance policy is its cash value. A portion of the premium you pay for a life insurance policy with a cash value, such as whole or universal life insurance, goes toward the cash value each time you make payment. The policy’s terms specify the interest rate, which is how the cash value increases over time. You can borrow cash from the insurer if your permanent life insurance policy builds cash value by using the cash value as security. This choice is usually only accessible until the cash worth of your life insurance policy has grown to a certain level, which might take five to ten years of premium payments. Due to the absence of a cash value component, term life insurance plans are less expensive than permanent ones. They cannot be used as collateral for loans, and if you decide to surrender a term life insurance policy, you will not be compensated.

How Much Can You Borrow from a Life Insurance Policy?

How much you can borrow from a life insurance policy varies by insurer. Still, the maximum policy loan amount is typically at least 90% of the cash value, with no minimum amount.

When you take out a policy loan, you’re not removing money from the cash value of your account. Instead, you’re taking a loan from the insurer and using the cash value as collateral. This is a significant benefit, as the cash value remains within the life insurance policy and continues to accumulate interest.

You don’t need to pay back the loan in a set period, as many other forms of loan are required. However, if you don’t pay the insurer the annual interest, which can be fixed or variable, what will add the interest payment to the value of your outstanding loan?

Length of the loan

You’ll get hit with compounding interest if your loan stretches over many years. And if the total outstanding loan exceeds your policy’s cash value, the policy will lapse. If this happens, you will lose coverage and hit a high tax bill if the outstanding loan exceeds the amount you’ve paid in premiums.

There is a risk in borrowing nearly the total amount of the policy’s cash value, so if you take out a policy loan, continually carefully monitor its size compared to your cash value. In addition, we would recommend making interest payments whenever possible.

How do you take out a life insurance policy loan?

The process of taking out a life insurance loan is straightforward. You fill out a form from the insurer and often get the money deposited in your account within a few days. You may need to confirm your identity, sign a confirmation document or provide a notarized confirmation before receiving your loan if:

You provided new account information to the insurer in the last month

The policy changed ownership recently

The loan exceeds a specific size, such as $50,000

Pros and cons of taking out a life insurance loan

Life insurance collateral loans are a simple way to get money on short notice with few restrictions. You must be very careful about managing the account’s cash value and paying off interest as required.

However, besides the risk of the policy lapsing, there are a few downsides to borrowing against your whole or universal life insurance.

There are no qualifiers for a policy loan.

You can borrow against your life insurance policy without having to meet the requirements for conventional loans. The loan does not reflect on your credit report because there was no credit check. You also don’t need to present any income documentation. You will need to provide identification and evidence of your loan request at most.

If you need money immediately, as for an urgent medical need, life insurance collateral loans might be a perfect alternative because there are no requirements or checks. They can also be used as a bridge loan while you wait for a loan from another source to be authorized. It usually works in your favor to repay an insurance loan as soon as possible. The loan’s interest accrues annually, and the policy will expire if the balance is too high. If this occurs, you would have paid premiums totaling thousands of dollars with nothing to show (no coverage). You can also owe taxes if the loan balance is more extensive than your paid premiums.

Another justification for repaying the policy loan is that the outstanding sum will be subtracted from the death benefit that will be distributed to your dependents after your passing.

Pay it back anytime

You do not have to repay a debt against your life insurance policy. Additionally, if the total amount owed (initial loan + accrued interest) does not exceed the policy’s cash value, you are exempt from paying the yearly interest. Therefore, if you’re unsure how long you’ll need the money, borrowing from your life insurance policy is a great choice. It usually works in your favor to repay an insurance loan as soon as possible. The loan’s interest accrues annually, and the policy will expire if the balance is too high. If this occurs, you would have paid premiums totaling thousands of dollars with nothing to show (no coverage). You can also owe taxes if the loan balance is more significant than your paid premiums. Another justification for repaying the policy loan is that the outstanding sum will be subtracted from the death benefit that will be distributed to your dependents after your passing.

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Research into Markets and CRM

Customer relationship management is one of the best fields in which market research can be applied. It enables a company to receive precise and insightful feedback on their performance, and through a variety of customer opinions, it enables them to comprehend how their target market feels about them. The subjects listed below are just a few where market research could provide insightful feedback:

Obtaining pertinent information for future market expansion.

Prior to investing in product testing and production, determine whether a new product is feasible and likely to be accepted by consumers.

Determining the cost sensitivity of the target market.

Finding novel product features that will appeal to consumers and being aware of the advantages and benefits they may offer.

Identifying the hidden qualities that a product possesses and figuring out how to use those qualities to get them in front of customers.

Determining the extent to which customers are satisfied with the company, particularly with regard to performance, technology, quality, service, cost, and completion schedule.

Identifying the strong points to build on and the weak points to strengthen in order to ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

Creating a database of competitor information and using this database as a benchmark or reference based on customer feedback.

Identifying the main areas where the company outperforms its rivals and those where they lag behind them

Finding market trends and the causes behind them.

Discovering the causes of bad business and figuring out which regions are most affected.

Offering commercial solutions for common issues in all aspects.

Figuring out which purchasing channels customers prefer. Do they prefer making purchases online or in person?

Finding perspectives for the future.

In many organizations, managers and executives frequently interact directly with customers. Face-to-face interactions with customers result in few negative reviews because doing so could be embarrassing. In a similar vein, they are hesitant to offer compliments out of concern that doing so might reduce their leverage in negotiations with suppliers. Therefore, it is crucial for the company to conduct market research and analyze the real feedback that they are unable to obtain from the customers.

In other situations, where customers are not present in person, suppliers are unable to directly solicit feedback from them. Only agents or middlemen who are infrequently atomistic and do not understand the true meaning can provide them with direct feedback. More thorough and analytical data is needed to produce business results and conclusions. To obtain appropriate and trustworthy customer feedback, it is therefore always imperative to conduct accurate market research or surveys.

This market research is integrated into CRM systems like market intelligence and is based on current customer data. Because of the integration of this data, all organizational departments can access it from a single location. However, it is also verified to ensure that no department without the necessary access cannot access the confidential data. For instance, notifications of customer late payments should only be accessible by the accounting department and not by customer service departments that are open to the public. Despite being centrally stored in a single CRM system, the data is intelligently integrated and customized.

Integration of market research and CRM has proven to be very effective because it reduces the amount of time required for analysis and produces more reliable results than conventional market research methods.

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Working together, startups and established life insurance companies are the way forward.

Although much has changed in the insurance industry over the past 325 years since the Amiable Society for Perpetual Assurance Office produced the first life insurance policy, the industry’s long-standing, reliable procedures have remained primarily unchanged. Insurers have logically concluded that since their industry is risk-averse, nothing needs to be fixed.

That formula makes a lot more sense when consumers aren’t primarily responsible for driving significant changes in the life insurance industry. Most people have little interest in it; only 15% of 1,000 customers polled in late 2020 rated life or health insurance as one of their top three financial priorities.

But therein lay the difficulty faced by life insurers: attracting new clients while keeping existing ones interested and involved. This is especially true for clients who don’t believe life insurance offers much value to their lives. It is simpler to recruit, keep, and engage those most likely to require insurance, but this exacerbates the issue of adverse selection.

The picture for life insurers is obvious once these considerations are taken into account, along with the rise of creative insurance businesses that have proven competent at acquiring clients through customized solutions and elegant user experiences. Insurance companies cannot rely on the industry to remain as it has over the past four centuries while functioning without severe upheaval.

The bright side is that they can count on having support as they go through this change. Working with industry newcomers to build a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts is the best way to accomplish change on the necessary scale.

The Importance of Established Companies for New Ventures

What necessitates this alliance of forces? Legacy life insurers offer the extensive experience, sector knowledge, and resources necessary to function efficiently and create new projects that will produce the intended results; despite whatever inefficiencies have hampered them.

Unlike other types of insurance, life insurance is unique. The cost of a life insurance policy depends on a far more complicated set of factors connected to policyholders’ health and life expectancies than the cost of a home insurance policy, which can easily be insured a house based on its neighborhood, age, security features, etc. This increases the complexity of the actuarial tables used by life insurance and highlights the need for a steady hand when forming new business opportunities.

Reinsurers are the most prominent participants in the insurance industry’s historical legacy. These reputable organizations have a history of overcoming the particular difficulties facing the sector. They have the capital reserves necessary to handle the significant, individualized risk distribution that life insurance requires. In sharp contrast to the $2.7 billion insurance industry size, the whole reinsurance market was predicted to increase from $402 billion in 2020 to $435 billion this year — a growth rate of 8%. Although managing general agents (MGAs), which gives them the same rights as an insurance carrier, is advantageous for some insurance businesses, it’s obvious where the funding required to power customized insurance experiences rests.

The Importance of David in the Face of Goliath

How can established life insurance companies benefit from working with up-and-coming firms when they require the same established firms’ market power, financial resources, and industry expertise?

Although risk aversion is prized in the insurance industry, many life insurers may benefit from the innovation and risk-taking of startups to finally implement the necessary but long-overdue improvements that will boost customer acquisition and retention. A similar dynamic emerged in the auto sector, where the need for greater sustainability is opening the door to accessible, effective electric vehicles. Partnerships between established automakers and EV startups have greatly hastened this transformation.

In the world of life insurance, such partnerships typically aren’t complicated. Working directly with insurance firms that function as MGAs and use their technical capabilities to reach larger audiences allows reinsurers to circumvent insurance carriers.

In addition, new businesses play a critical part in helping established ones transition to the digital era. This is an urgent need in the life insurance industry. A 2018 Deloitte study found that only 11% of respondents who buy insurance do so digitally. However, research shows that digital purchasing options speed up and make it much more convenient for customers than drawn-out, analog processes.

Finally, startups provide the data-savvy attitude, tools, agility, and imagination that legacy firms need to develop excellent services and solutions as the insurance industry shifts away from static evaluation methods toward more dynamic approaches, such as rewarding and incentivizing policyholders to make healthier choices. An AI-driven assessment process, for instance, might be used to match applicants to various tiers of insurance depending on legacy-startup partnerships. The AI may foresee consumers’ requirements and lifestyle changes and present them with new policy options as circumstances change. Without startups by their sides, legacy insurers risk being disrupted and becoming another Kodak or Blockbuster — long-dominant industry titans that succumbed to competitors who were more creative and innovative.

Indeed, life insurance has changed little in principle over the previous 325 years. However, if the new century has taught us anything, change is coming faster than before. The speed with which insurers act to establish new forms of innovation and collaboration will determine whether those winds are at their backs or in their faces.

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Increase Lead Conversions With a Marketing Automation Audit

When was the last time you conducted a marketing automation audit? If your contacts are not converting to qualified leads, your marketing automation may be out of sync with the needs of your potential buyers. Improve your lead conversions with a marketing automation audit that uncovers missteps and gaps in your marketing content and lead nurturing.

What is a Marketing Automation Audit?

A marketing automation audit is an evaluation of your contact database, lead scoring system, marketing workflows, lead nurturing emails, and reporting. The purpose of a marketing automation audit is to determine whether or not your contact segmentation, lead scoring, workflows, and emails are moving contacts through your pipeline and helping you meet your marketing goals.

Marketing automation is essential to running successful inbound marketing campaigns. Well-run marketing automation not only helps you meet your marketing goals, it ensures your buyers enjoy a positive experience with your brand. Over time, your brand and your knowledge of your buyers will evolve. Your segmentation, content, and marketing workflows need to change as well.

If your contacts are not receiving the right content to help them move through the marketing and sales pipeline, it may be because:

Your brand messaging changed

You learned more about your buyers’ needs, but your segmentation is not aligned

You created more targeted content as you learned more about your buyers, but don’t use it in your lead nurturing

Your lead scoring doesn’t reflect your buyers’ behavior

Broken links and outdated content stop leads from moving forward

With all the moving parts in marketing automation, workflow errors are bound to happen. Regular marketing automation audits will help you spot errors and fix them quickly so you can continue delivering the right messaging and content to your buyers at the right time.

How Can a Marketing Automation Audit Improve Lead Conversions?

The goal of marketing automation is to leverage technology to move contacts through your marketing funnel from interested visitor to purchaser. Delivering the right content and the right time in your buyer’s journey warms up their interest in your product or service and helps them make a decision to purchase. A marketing automation audit ensures you are leveraging technology and data on your buyers and their needs to move them from contact to lead.

Completing the audit and making the necessary adjustments to your marketing automation system will enable you to:

Gather the necessary information on your contacts

Put your contacts in the right lifecycle stage buckets

Use tracking to determine contacts’ interest and engagement with your website and content

Deliver content to help qualified leads make a purchasing decision

Move qualified leads to either Sales or a purchase page

How to Conduct a Marketing Automation Audit

Before you begin auditing your marketing automation workflows, it’s helpful to gather data to pinpoint areas of concern. Statistics that indicate there may be issues include:

Low conversion rates or inability to track conversions

Low email open rates

High email bounce rate

High unsubscribe rate

Inaccurate data on leads in each lifecycle stage

Inaccurate lead scoring

Based on the data gathered, determine where you need to focus your marketing automation audit. This may include evaluating the following checkpoints in your marketing workflows:

Forms

Review the forms you are using to collect contacts, including forms on your landing pages and any pop-up forms used on your website. Make sure all your forms are working properly and are directing new contacts to the correct page after submittal. If your forms trigger an automated email reply, make sure the email reflects your current branding and opportunities to engage with you further. Ensure there are no broken links in your email replies.

Are you collecting all of the information you need from contacts, including information that will help you segment contacts based on interests and needs? Is the amount of information you are gathering aligned with their stage in the buyers’ journey? A blog subscription form will typically ask for name and email. Subscribers are generally not ready to give more information and may be deterred by lengthier forms. Downloading a case study, on the other hand, indicates the contact is considering your service or product. Contacts at this stage are willing to provide more details about themselves, such as their company, role, and interests.

Database Segmentation

Segmenting your contact database into subsets based on your buyer persona profiles enables more efficient and effective targeting. Audit your segmented lists to determine whether or not they are still relevant. You may have lists that were developed for one-time campaigns. To keep your lists current, archive any lists that are no longer used.

You may have lists that require a criteria update. Perhaps your lead scoring has changed over time. Look at the parameters for inclusion in your lists and make sure they are still relevant. Make changes as needed.

Segmentation can be streamlined by allowing your contacts to self-select their interests or by adding contacts to lists based on behavior monitoring and lead scoring. Set up workflows that add contacts to lists based on interest, behavior, and lead scoring criteria.

Lead Scoring and Workflows

Lead scoring moves your leads through your contact lifecycle stages and helps qualify leads for your sales team. Over time, you will learn more about your leads and the behavior that signals their interest in your product and readiness to engage further with your company. Also consider that you may add new ways for prospects to engage with you such as webinars, email campaigns, and resource downloads. Inevitably, your scoring criteria will change and your workflows will need to be updated to reflect those changes.

Review your content and the buyer personas and buying stage that each piece serves. Make sure you are delivering the right content to the right people based on their persona and lead score. You may need to edit your triggers and automation rules.

Conversion Points and Tracking

Are your contacts converting from contact to qualified lead at the expected conversion points? If your conversion rates are low, evaluate any issues with the content, timing, and messaging that are preventing contacts from moving through your sales funnel.

Metrics to track and analyze include:

CTA clicks

Form submission rates on landing pages

Open and click rates on emails

Demo requests

Content Delivery

Aligning your content to your contacts’ customer journey is essential to marketing automation success. Automating email workflows triggered by list, lifecycle stage, or lead scoring is at the core of marketing automation. During your audit, make sure you have set up your workflows to deliver content that answers your prospects’ questions based on their current lifecycle stage and leads them to engage deeper with your brand. If you notice that leads consistently drop off at a certain point in your funnel, evaluate the content you are delivering at that point in their journey and align it with their needs.

As your brand matures, you may find that some content assets outperform others. Look at CTA click rates and landing page form submission rates to determine which assets perform best. Also, analyze click-through rates within your eBooks and guides to determine whether or not your contacts are engaging further while reading the content.

It’s common to have an abundance of awareness-stage content and fewer consideration-stage and decision-stage content pieces. Where are your content gaps? Make sure you have consideration-stage and decision-stage content to offer your leads to help them develop trust in your brand.

Email Marketing

Marketing automation software enables email drip campaigns to be sent to contacts. It’s crucial to evaluate the performance of your email campaigns regularly so you can make adjustments as needed. Look at your email open and click-through rates. They will indicate whether or not your emails are well-designed, use effective subject lines, and include engaging copy. A/B testing subject lines, copy, and calls-to-action in your emails can help you refine your email marketing campaigns.

If you notice a low open rate or high bounce rate on your emails, they may be landing in your subscribers’ spam folders.

Another item to check in your marketing automation audit is email frequency. How often are you emailing your contacts? Do different segments receive emails at different frequencies? If your emails are underperforming, consider optimizing the frequency and timing of your emails.

If you currently don’t send a welcome email sequence to your new contacts, consider automating a SOAP sequence that focuses on building a relationship with your new prospect, creating trust as well as interest in your brand.

Contact Database

The goal of marketing automation is to help you connect with engaged prospects and nurture your relationship with them before, during, and after they make a purchase. If you notice a low engagement rate on your emails, the issue could be poor database hygiene. If your list is bloated with contacts that have hard bounced or who are no longer interested and have disengaged from your email campaigns, it will affect your email metrics.

HubSpot explains, “Email senders with high rates of opens and clicks look more trustworthy to email security filters. And most email accounts, including Gmail, automatically filter out emails that recipients aren’t opening or clicking.” Learn how to improve your email deliverability here. It’s a good practice to cull your contact list periodically and archive or remove any contacts that have not engaged with your emails in recent months.

How Often Should You Conduct a Marketing Automation Audit?

A marketing automation audit is not a one-and-done event. Make it part of your quarterly marketing performance analysis to identify issues and gaps that are preventing you from optimizing your lead conversions.

Credits by: Rhonda Bavaro

Date: Jun 3, 2021

Source: https://www.smamarketing.net/blog/increase-leads-with-marketing-automation-audit

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What Is a Claimant in Life Insurance?

Definition of Life Insurance Claimants

A claimant or beneficiary of your life insurance is the person who will receive a specific sum of money in the event of your passing. When you purchase a life insurance policy, choosing an heir is an important step because it is the only way legally to designate who will receive the money if you pass away during the policy’s term.

If you are a beneficiary, you should understand how the policy pays out, your options, and anything that might make things more difficult. To find out more about naming or being a beneficiary of life insurance, continue reading.

What Is a Beneficiary in Life Insurance?

You can designate an heir, who may be a person or an organization, when you buy a life insurance policy. Also possible is having more than one. They receive a predetermined sum of money or a series of payments if they pass away during the policy’s term.

You can distribute the funds however you like as the policy owner:

One person can be designated to receive everything.

You can designate two or more people to split the total sum however you choose.

Your estate may have a name.

You can designate a trust to receive the proceeds from the policy if you have one or desire one.

When they pass away, some people prefer to leave money for a charity; you can mention any recognized organization you like.

If necessary, you can give names to your minor children. It helps to be aware that most states call for an adult guardian to oversee minor assets if you intend to do this. The process of choosing a guardian can be expensive and time-consuming.

It’s crucial to contact the insurance provider and present a death certificate if you are the beneficiary of a life insurance policy and your loved one has passed away in order to begin the payout procedure.

Making a trust or custodial account is one way to hasten this procedure. Your children’s money is placed in a trust, where a trustee will look after it until they are of legal age or the age you specified for them to inherit it. If you don’t specify anyone, the “de facto” beneficiary is your estate.

How Should Insurance Beneficiaries Be Known?

Make sure you give accurate information when naming people to receive insurance money. You’ll need to know things like their birthday, social security number, and contact information. Additionally, make sure everything is correct before submitting it by checking it twice. If there are mistakes, the wrong people might get the money, or your heirs might have to deal with legal issues.

Let’s take the example where you list “spouse” as your beneficiary. Two years later, you get divorced and remarry without altering your insurance policy. After your passing, both your current and former spouses might make an attempt to collect the money.

You’ve created a legal problem that could delay payout because the definition of “spouse” is ambiguous. One was your legal spouse at the time of your death, and the other was your legal spouse at the time the insurance policy was written. Along with all the legal fees, stress, and heartache that always follow fights over money, a fight over money is likely to take place.

Contingent and Primary Beneficiaries

It is frequently advisable to add one or more supplemental beneficiaries to a policy. If the primary beneficiary (or beneficiaries) passes away or cannot be located, a contingent beneficiary is a person who gets some or all of the money.

Note: If you list multiple people, specify how much money (in a percentage form) each one should receive.

For example, suppose you buy a policy with a $1 million benefit. You designate the beneficiary as your spouse. Your partner will receive the entire sum should you pass away while the policy is still in effect. However, you might pass away before your main beneficiary.

Your three adult children are added as contingent beneficiaries because you want to ensure that the money is passed on to your children. You include each of them in the policy and distribute the funds equally. In this manner, your children will each receive a third of the money after your passing, even if your spouse dies before you do.

Per Capita and Per Stirpes

The decision of whether to choose per capita or per stirpes when naming beneficiaries is another factor to consider. If no other contingent beneficiaries are listed on the policy and one or more of your beneficiaries pass away, these specify how the money should be distributed.

Per capita (“per head”) is frequently used as the abbreviation. This implies that you don’t have to describe every potential event in great detail. Instead, an equal portion is distributed to each of your living beneficiaries.

For instance, if you have three adult children and one of them passes away before you do, the other two will instead receive half of the face value each. If you choose per stirpes and one of your beneficiaries passes away before you do, the beneficiary’s children, if any, will receive their share.

A per stirpes arrangement would give your two grandchildren the one-third that your three adult children were going to receive, for instance, if one of your three adult children passed away before you and was survived by two children. One-sixth of the funds would be given to each grandchild.

Life insurance is a wise choice for estate planning. In light of that, it might not be the best course of action for you and your situation. Consider speaking with an estate planning lawyer, who can assist you in putting together a strategy to ensure that your loved ones have what they need after your passing and that your assets go to the people you want them to.

There may be a box to check on some beneficiary designation forms so you can choose per stirpes. If there isn’t a box, ask your agent if you can enter per stirpes.

Who Has the Authority to Alter the Life Insurance Beneficiary?

When submitting a life insurance application, name at least one beneficiary. It doesn’t follow that you can’t alter it later. If you are the owner, you always have the option to remove or add people. You might decide to appoint someone else because of changes in your life, for instance.

In the event of a marriage or divorce, you might want to appoint someone else. A good reason to review your policy is the birth of a child. Alternatively, you might have another justification for the change. However, if you designated a beneficiary as “irrevocable,” you will need to obtain their approval before making any changes (they must sign the policy change form).

Additionally, in some circumstances, your insurance provider or state may place limitations on who you can name. For instance, married couples who reside in states with community property laws might need the consent of their spouse before naming anyone else.

Note: Contact your insurer and ask for a “beneficiary change form” if you want to add or change an heir.

Do beneficiaries of life insurance policies have to pay taxes? A life insurance death benefit received as a lump sum is typically not regarded as taxable income. There are, however, some circumstances in which you might owe taxes.

For instance, any interest paid above the face value of the money if it is received as monthly payments or an annuity is taxable income. Additionally, if the funds are transferred to your estate rather than a specific individual, estate taxes might apply. The good news is that there won’t be any estate taxes assessed unless your estate is worth more than $11.7 million.

Summary

If the insured passes away during the policy term, a beneficiary of life insurance receives the death benefit.

Multiple beneficiaries, including primary and contingent beneficiaries, may be named, along with a person or trust.

Your beneficiaries must have accurate identification information so that they can be located and legal disputes are kept to a minimum.

The majority of life insurance proceeds are tax-free, but in some cases, a portion of them might be.

Before you proceed, be sure you are aware of your state’s life insurance laws and how to handle naming minors.

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How does life insurance work? What is it?

Most individuals will explain life insurance to you as a purchasing policy that provides money to your family during your death. If you ask them to describe the main aspects of the guidelines, the many options, or how they operate, they will likely try to divert the subject.

However, those factors are crucial if you’re looking into life insurance. Your inquiries will be addressed in this post, specifically:

What constitutes a life insurance policy’s essential components? A life insurance policy is a contract between a person and an insurance provider (or legal entity). Every life insurance policy is unique, and every state has a different set of rules that govern insurance contracts.

The insurer: Only a select group of organizations are permitted to offer life insurance, and state insurance regulators oversee these organizations.

The person or organization that owns (or “holds” the policy is referred to as the policyholder. Examples include a family trust or a company. The policy has two options for coverage: either the holder or a third party.

The individual whose life is insured is known as the insured. The sum that the insurer will pay out upon the insured’s death is known as the death benefit.

The recipients of the death benefit are known as beneficiaries. It can be distributed proportionally among many different persons and entities (for example, three children could each receive 30% and 10% could go to a charity), or it can all go to a single person (for example, the surviving spouse).

The duration of time the insurer agrees to provide a death benefit is known as the policy length. This can be for a set period of time, like 10 or 20 years, or it can be permanent, meaning that as long as premiums are paid, the policy will be in effect for the insured’s whole lifetime.

The monthly or yearly payments required to maintain the insurance in force are referred to as the premium. monetary value: Whole life insurance and permanent life insurance both feature a cash value component that accrues over time2 and can be withdrawn or used as collateral for loans. Term life insurance has no cash value.

What are the different kinds of life insurance policies, and how do they work?

There are two basic types of life insurance: Term and permanent life insurance. A term life insurance policy provides coverage for a specific period of time, typically between 10 and 30 years. It is sometimes called “pure life insurance” because, unlike the permanent policy or whole life insurance, there’s no cash value component to the policy — once the term is over, there’s nothing left.

Permanent life insurance provides coverage that lasts your entire life. Unlike term, it’s not a “pure life insurance” product because it includes a cash value component that helps make coverage last while the insured is alive and premiums are paid and while providing other financial benefits. A portion of your premium dollars grows tax-deferred over time — but the entire death benefit is immediately payable from the first day you have the policy. The cash value, on the other hand, may take some years to build up to a significant amount.

There are two main types of permanent insurance: whole and universal life. Whole life insurance is simpler — the premium remains the same for life, the death benefit is guaranteed, and the cash value grows at a guaranteed rate. Universal life insurance can be less expensive, but the premiums, death benefits, and cash value growth rate can vary, making the policy more complex.

What advantages do people receive from life insurance at various times? Most adults should consider getting life insurance because it may be a potent weapon for safeguarding their financial confidence and, more importantly, the economic trust of those who depend on them. However, you should consider what kind of financial protection you require at this time in your life before purchasing a policy.

Questions and answers about life insurance What is the price of life insurance? Depending on the type of insurance (i.e., term or permanent) and all the factors that can affect your life expectancy, including age, weight, health, gender, lifestyle, occupation, and risk factors like smoking, the cost of a policy — for a particular level of death benefit — can vary significantly.

How may my needs be met by a life insurance policy? Riders, which are optional features almost all life insurance policies contain, can offer valuable extra benefits that specifically adapt the approach to your needs. For instance, Guardian offers riders that can assist save family assets by covering end-of-life expenses while the insured person is still alive.

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The Value of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software

Customer relationship management, or CRM, is a system that handles the administration of a business’s contacts with previous, current, and potential clients. By automating sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support, CRM software combines the complete customer relationship cycle.

CRM software is a tool that unifies the variety of organizational tasks needed to implement customer relationship management while automating the many and discrete components of the customer relationship management lifecycle.

Additionally, the CRM software controls how the company interacts with its clients throughout the whole customer management lifecycle, including, among other things, cold calling, customer acquisition, and customer retention. The notion of CRM and CRM software are critically examined in this research study from a variety of angles.

Background of CRM

CRM was first introduced in the 1970s when firms began to place a greater emphasis on their customers than on their products. Database marketing’s introduction in the 1980s set the groundwork for the CRM paradigm, and the development of consumer focus groups prompted the adoption of CRM by SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) Since its implementation ensured that firms could gain significant advantages, CRM as a concept and trend became extremely popular in the 1990s.

Numerous improvements to CRM systems were also made during the 1990s timeframe. The road was paved for the introduction of CRM to enterprises and consumers when the business world began to embrace the internet in the 1990s and consumers began to use it heavily in 1995.

With the information age in full swing at the time, the demand for CRM software spiked in the preceding decade. In summary, it can be concluded that CRM has been steadily and cautiously accepted by businesses since the 1970s and has continued to this day. It has since evolved into a piece of software that every company must have.

CRM: What It Means and Why

CRM is important because it revolutionizes the customer relationship process by integrating the complete customer management process and automating the customer life cycle. As has been mentioned above, what makes CRM particularly important is the use of IT and software to automate the customer relationship process, as well as enhanced customer management through a holistic approach rather than a fragmented one.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of a CRM system given how extensively both the business world and the consumer base use IT. Additionally, CRM provides firms with exponential returns because it expands their customer base statistically and improves their customer relationship management process qualitatively.

CRM’s Advantages and Disadvantages

The use of a CRM system has a variety of advantages, including improved customer management, greater customer acquisition, effective customer retention, and improved prospecting for both acquiring new clients and re-engaging existing ones.

The crucial thing to keep in mind about a CRM system is that it creates synergies across the customer relationship cycle, increasing the productivity and efficiency of the staff members handling client connections. The returns from old, existing, and new clients are also higher since the CRM system integrates the complete customer relationship lifecycle and automates the various customer management operations (sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support).

One of a CRM system’s key advantages is that it streamlines the client retention process and encourages more repeat business, which is always a sign of a thriving and successful business. The CRM system also ensures that there aren’t many mistakes made during the customer connection management process by automating customer touchpoints and enhancing the physical customer relationship effort.

Last but not least, the enterprise-wide automation of all tasks and procedures that many businesses actually implement helps the CRM subsystem to give decision-makers a bird’s-eye view of the customer relationship process, empower and enable them with more visibility over the process by giving them data and useful information.

The biggest drawback of a CRM system is that it may lead to redundancy in the customer management process due to double labor and the inability of sales and marketing staff to adapt to the automation.

The CRM system may increase complexity, which, if improperly handled, can result in chaos and a lack of preparation for crucial operations in the sales and marketing lifecycle, which is the next drawback.

Third, if the implementation and subsequent user training are not done correctly, it could lead to a workforce that lacks basic knowledge of how to operate CRM software. The staff might be unable to use the technology successfully as a result. Finally, sometimes the expenditures associated with CRM deployment outweigh the advantages, which results in losses for the businesses.

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Compare prices from multiple life insurance providers instantly without providing your phone number.

Everyone dreads seeing the dreaded “phone number” section while online filling out information to acquire immediate life insurance quotes.

Why do so many people find that objectionable?

Because you are aware that your phone will ring endlessly until you answer and that you will be added to a call list. Once you respond, the salesperson on the other end won’t stop until he has persuaded you to buy something you didn’t need at a price higher than what you originally desired.

That isn’t how things ought to be. You are, after all, seeking rapid life insurance rates. You don’t want to wait for a commission-based salesperson to call you back at a time that is inconvenient.

In the end, “quick quote” websites that want your phone number do so because it will benefit their business, not because it will make your life simpler or your shopping experience more pleasant.

You won’t have to worry about that inconvenience if you hunt for your quotes in the appropriate location.

We eliminated all the anti-consumer tactics we saw on other websites when we created our fast quote engine, including the requirement for your phone number. Instead, we concentrated on gathering the necessary data we require to offer quotes that are more accurate than those you will find elsewhere online.

If you don’t wish to keep your quotes to refer to them later, we don’t even demand an email address from you — fewer speed bumps and no later regrets.

Of course, we’re pleased to assist you there if you wish to be contacted. We have in-house experts available to chat with you if you give us a call. However, doing so is voluntary, and you’ll never be asked for your phone number. Furthermore, our agents don’t receive commissions significantly sets them apart from other agencies.

Do you know how you feel when a used car salesperson talks to you? This can also occur when you try to get life insurance since many will attempt to upsell you on whole life insurance. Whole life insurance is useless and more expensive when compared to term life insurance. On the other hand, commission-based agents receive a more extensive check.

It seems to sense that customers are hesitant to share their phone numbers.

Calling an insurance agent on the phone shouldn’t make you nervous. Be aware if you are required to give your number to receive immediate life insurance quotations. However, suppose you’re doing your research correctly. In that case, you can wait to call until you’re prepared to apply and keep your contact information to yourself until then.

[mariamajesticblogs]

Six Significant Advantages of CRM for Retail and E-commerce Businesses

CRM technology has advanced steadily in the B2C market due to the recent rapid expansion of eCommerce retailers and mobile shopping. The majority of significant CRM system suppliers now provide a variety of features specifically designed for the e-commerce sector, which they have identified as one of the trendiest business models. If you are interested in learning more about the advantages of CRM for eCommerce and retail business, you have come to the correct spot.

The demand for better customer service has expanded dramatically as online retailers compete more fiercely, and companies are increasingly implementing CRM systems designed specifically for online retail. These days, customer experience is revolutionized by systems like Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Magento, which boost your online sales. But if you pick the right CRM, these platforms combined with one provide you a competitive edge in your eCommerce firm. The various advantages of having a customized CRM for Retail and eCommerce Businesses will be discussed in this piece.

1. Customer Segmentation

My feed is immediately overwhelmed with highly relevant sponsored advertising as soon as I go through my social media accounts after researching search engines, and I end up clicking on most of them. You have likely had the same experience. Social media shows us the advertisements we are most likely to click on since it has learned our search habits. Wouldn’t you want the same relationship with your customers if you were running an online retail business?

Sales agents can interact with clients most effectively by viewing customer groups organized by gender, interests (fashion, gadgets, etc.), spending history, and other factors.

2. Having access to the most pertinent data

How many visitors to your website abandon the page without making a purchase or paying for the things they added to their cart?

The average cart abandonment rate is a staggering 68.81 percent, according to Baymard. You may take action to turn these visitors into customers with a carefully thought-out CRM implementation in your retail firm!

3. Time Management Techniques

It turns out that sales representatives can only devote 11% of their time to active selling. Problem-solving and administrative tasks take up the majority of the time.

A CRM Customization for eCommerce can automate several self-service procedures, freeing your agents’ time to concentrate on their primary duties. Enterprise processes must now be more intelligent, and the easiest way to do so is to hire a CRM consultant before choosing a system.

4. Centralized Use of Social Media

We bet you are not operating an internet retail business without actively managing your social media profiles.

eCommerce traffic is primarily generated by paid advertisements and social media recommendations. Customers ask questions on social media, and how you respond to their questions affects how they view your customer service.

Consumers who complain on social media in 42 percent of cases anticipate a 60-minute response time. Through our Social Media Integrations, our clients have better-managed response times. You can also use the potent tools that many CRMs offer their clients. For instance, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a game-changer for marketing in any eCommerce organization.

5. Payment Info

It can be challenging to analyze payment data if your site accepts various payment channels. You can handle everything using CRM, from billing and invoicing to payment failures. Even better, you can incorporate a payment gateway into your CRM.

CRM’s advanced analytics can monitor payment trends, giving you the power to examine:

● Best sources of income

● The most valuable clients

● Several measures you may use to tailor your offerings

6. Order Administration

Lead generation through revenue generation is all included in the order management process. You can see and take action on each product’s order placement, order processing, shipment tracking, delivery, and customer feedback.

Order management is one of the most critical features in a CRM for e-commerce. CRM for Startups can also help you organize your firm and increase productivity if you are starting out.

Let’s look at how we helped clients in the retail industry overcome various obstacles. — Case Studies in a Few

1. The retail CRM Audio Geer

A California-based independent manufacturer’s representative company, Audio Geer. It offers the professional audio, musical instrument, broadcast, and audio/visual markets with more than 14 years of experience. Ten to twelve manufacturers provided equipment that Audio Geer purchased and sold to its customers. Their staff used Excel spreadsheets to keep track of all communications with suppliers and customers. Additionally, they had never used a CRM system before. Excel sheets were unable to handle the increasing operations as their clientele grew. Audio Geer contacted Rolustech to learn how a CRM may streamline its business procedures to get out of this jam.

2. Retail CRM Refractiv

Refractiv provides online businesses with best-in-class cloud, web, and mobile solutions to spur innovation and expansion. They asked Rolustech to create an iPad app for a well-known multinational fashion firm with headquarters in the UK since they wanted instant access to their product catalog when visiting various outlets.

[mariamajesticblogs]

Top 5 Reasons to get Life Insurance in your 30s

In your 30s, a lot can happen. You might be planning a wedding, beginning a family, or searching for your first house to purchase. But have you given life insurance any thought?

In your 30s, life starts to get quite real. You might settle down, get married, start a family, own a home, and bring home the golden retriever you’ve always wanted. That is a lot. Because of this, now is a wonderful time to begin making plans for the future of your family.

Even though it could be difficult, you might need to think about what would happen to your family if something happened to you. The decisions you make today may have a profound impact on the people you care about the most.

In your 30s, consider buying life insurance for the following five reasons:

You Need to Pay Your Monthly Bills

Your life is a series of monthly bills.

Your salary is probably heavily invested in these costs, which may include your rent or mortgage, auto payments, utilities, credit card bills, and student loans. Despite all odds, you’ve been able to save some money for that Blink-182 reunion tour, but your finances are still tight. Another reason a life insurance policy can be a good idea is this one.

How will your family assist in paying off your mortgage or outstanding loans after you pass away? Your loved ones’ ability to pay the bills you leave behind may be aided by a life insurance policy.

You Have a Family to Support

To create their own families, many are delaying parenthood till they are older. It’s possible that your grandparents and parents were married and had children when they were in their 20s. But more people today are delaying marriage until their 30s or later. Why not, then? It’s simpler than ever to play the field and wait for that ideal match thanks to dating apps like Bumble, Hinge, and the rest.

In fact, women in their early 30s are giving birth to more children than those in their 20s for the first time ever.

Does that circumstance ring a bell for you? If so, you might want to consider what will happen to your family when you pass away. Purchasing life insurance in your 30s could provide your family with financial security in the future.

You are Financing your Kids’ Education

No matter if you’re talking about a four-year college, associate degree, or vocational school these days, getting a credential is very pricey. And it won’t get any simpler with soaring tuition costs. Even enrolling your children in a public, in-state school can be expensive: the average yearly cost after accounting for tuition, room and board, fees, and other costs is more than $20,000.

Most people’s personal funds just won’t be enough to pay for their education. Although they are an option, student loans could leave borrowers with long-term debt.

If you are unable to provide for your children on your own, the payoff from a life insurance policy may help.

Insurance may be more affordable when you’re young

Age is one of several variables that insurance companies take into account when determining premiums, but it is one of the most crucial. With all the health tracking apps, recreational sports leagues, and 5ks with pals, young people frequently have fewer health issues, and insurers are aware of this. That might work in your favor.

Purchasing life insurance when you’re still young may enable you to locate a plan that both suits your financial needs and your urgent demands. For those in their 30s, a term life insurance policy is frequently the best option. Compared to a whole life policy, coverage quantities are frequently higher, and costs are created to be reasonable. It’s frequently the best kind of life insurance coverage for a 30-year-old.

Your Loans were Co-signed by Your Parents

Without a perfect credit history, getting a loan to establish a business or purchase a new home is difficult. You might have asked your parents to co-sign your mortgage or other loan, like many other 30-somethings. In the event that something were to happen to you, they would still be responsible for making those payments.

Life insurance can let you pay them back for their assistance when you most need it. Your home, business, or investment might be protected and your debts could be paid without depleting your parents’ financial resources by using the payoff from an insurance policy.