If ever there was an event that froze in our memories the risks that our critical first responders take in service to their communities, it was the picture of firemen rushing up the stairwells of the World Trade Center towers before their inevitable collapse on “9/11”. While 340 dedicated firemen lost their lives on that day, the average number of annual deaths for the firefighting profession has been on the decline for the past 40 years. In 2010, 72 firefighters lost their lives, roughly one third of those being career workers, and the remainder being volunteers. When one works in a hazardous field where their life is in danger, the issue of having adequate life insurance is paramount.
Life insurance premium levels are determined by a combination of factors. Age, health, and whether you smoke or have other substance abuse in your history are the major factors, but your type of profession and the amount of risk it entails can overly influence how the statistics play out. Insurance is all about statistics, as far as cost is concerned. However, all insurance companies are different in how they price, which can also depend on the markets that they choose to serve. For this reason, comparison-shopping is always advised. There are many Internet firms that will assist you in finding
cheap insurance quotes online, but that step is but the first one in a straightforward process.
Term life insurance is typically the recommended form to acquire, but what options does a firefighter have in this industry? To begin with, one generally wants coverage to be a “24/7” affair, but if you should die in the line of duty, you are already covered by the Federal government, no application necessary. There is also a disability rider and a new amendment that provides additional educational assistance for your spouse and children. This coverage is provided by the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Act, signed into law in 1976 and amended thereafter. Coverage limits are adjusted for the cost of living and today amount to $318,112 in term life benefits.
Outside of this basic cover, your employer and state government may have also arranged for an additional level of benefit. After taking these possibilities into account and doing a little preparatory work to understand the life insurance industry and its terms, planning for your family’s peace of mind is a five-step process:
1) Define Your Needs: Everyone’s financial situation is different. You must think in terms of what your family will face without you present. Are there debts to pay? Were you the only income producer? Do your children have educational costs to consider? For most families, the “rule-of-thumb” is to start at $1 million and work from there. An agent can help with these calculations when you get to that point;
2) Acquire Quotes: There are many services that can assist you here. Calling companies one by one is a waste of time in this Internet age. Focus on term life insurance. The other forms involve complicated investment strategies that can be left to later in life to ponder. You may also want more than one policy and to vary the terms on each policy. Flexibility is good since your situation will surely change in the future. Gather a minimum of at least three quotes to review;
3) Evaluate Your Options: In today’s insurance environment, competition is the word, and even the large, reputable companies are passing their technology savings along to you in lower premium quotes. The first quote may or may not be their best. Ask questions, and ask for a re-quote. Since you are looking for a long-term business partner, you will also want to check the financial soundness of your target companies. S&P and AW Best have ratings for insurance companies. Be sure to check these and any consumer evaluation services for complaints or problems;
4) Make Your Decision: Before you sign on the dotted line, read the fine print of the policy carefully to be sure that you are getting the coverage you want. Study the perils covered and the important exclusion section of the policy to see if any surprises are lurking. Also inquire about any other policy discounts or special allowances that may have been missed, like an excellent credit rating or lack of smoking in your past;
5) Review and Adjust: Life changes quickly, as do your financial conditions and family obligations. Reviewing your life insurance coverage on an annual basis is a good habit to acquire. Term insurance premiums also increase with age, so it may be wise to buy longer-term policies before the premium levels ascend quickly.
Acquiring adequate life insurance for a firefighter need not be a daunting task in today’s competitive insurance market. Persistence, however, is required.
Filed under Term Life Insurance by . Comment. 
Term Life Policy Exclusions
All insurance polices have exclusions, your car insurance policy probably has a age exclusion and an exclusion against taking your car into any foreign country without notifying the insurance company. Term life policies are no different , apart from when your family claim and then find you were not covered it will be a lot more financially disastrous than having a car stolen when it is not insured. Most term life policy exclusions will make sense when we explain them.
Dangerous Activities
Do you think rock climbing is the best exercise ever, maybe you enjoy sky diving on your birthday? If you die doing any number of activities that are considered to be dangerous by the insurance company you stand a good chance of not being covered. You may thing that riding quads round the local hills and mountains for 3 or 4 days at a time is great fun, there is a good chance that your insurance company would think it was an uneccerssary risk and would not cover it. Having seen the results of accidents on off road bikes this is one of the term life policy exclusions I understand 100% and agree with.
If you do take part in anything that is even near the mark of what is safe and what is not then you need to tell your life policy provider before you buy a policy. If you are already covered then you should tell the company before you go and start the activity.
Aviation Policy Exclusion
If you own a private plane or you go in private air craft then you should speak to your policy provider as private aircraft are normally one of the main exclusions from any life policy. All insurance is based on statistical probability and since there is no way to know how much experience the pilot of your private plane has or what condition the plane is in companies generally just exclude all flights taken in private planes.
War
If your death is the result of a act of war then you are not covered. I would assume that if you were a photographer or reporter whose job took you to war zones you would have a separate policy issued by your employers. If you do go into a war zone without any kind of policy I have a question for you, Why?
Suicide Clause In Life Insurance Policy
This is the life insurance policy clause that is the best known and most heard about. People get themselves into dire financial positions and when they can not think of any way out they take out a life policy and commit suicide. Their family get paid and they can clear off the debts. That is the theory, the truth is that there is a two year exclusion, so you must have had your life insurance for at least two years and you must have paid your premiums for that whole time.
Increased Premiums
If you do a sport that may be considered dangerous or fly in private planes then you should speak to the company that cover you as they will almost certainly cover you for an increased premium. They won’t change the suicide clause and covering you in a war zone is not something that the normal term life policy provider would even look at, but for sports or hobbies that are outside the norm they can probably still work out the risk factor and that is what will decide the premium you pay.
Be honest from day one with whichever insurance company you deal with as there is no point paying for a policy which won’t pay out because you forgot to mention that you go skydiiving every month or so. Every insurance policy has term life policy exclusions and it is best to learn about them before you start paying for the policy
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Term Life Insurance With No Medical Exam
Lets be honest about this, there is a good reason why Life Insurance companies ask people to have health exams before they give them a policy. Insurance companies want to be able to accurately work out the risk factors involved. They do not want to insure you and have to pay out straight away, Insurance companies are in the business of making a profit, the more premiums they collect and the less they pay out the happier they are.
No Exams = Higher Costs
If you are looking for a life insurance policy with no health exams required you must be ready to pay higher premiums. The insurance company are taking a risk that you are not ill and they need to charge more to cover the increased risk, it is simple economics. The higher the risk the higher the premium.
Complex Pricing
When you are buying computers, houses or cars you will compare them by looking at the features they offer. Many people will do a spreadsheet with each of the models on and then compare apples with apples. This can be very difficult to do when dealing with life insurance. Companies do not price their policies the same, some will give you a price per $10k of cover some will give it per $1k. Now that may seem like an easy calculation to make, but it is not so easy to compare prices when you are being asked to sign on the dotted line by a salesman.
More Exclusions
Every life policy has exclusions, every policy I have ever heard of excludes suicide for at least two years for example. Any life insurance company that doesn’t require you to go for a complete medical check up would be crazy not to put a minimum policy term in the exclusions. This means that they will not pay out if you die within a year or two years (or whatever time limit they decide). This makes a lot of sense when you think about it, otherwise people would take out a policy the minute their Dr tells them they have something fatal.
Do Not Be Pushed
One of the problems with life insurance is that it pays huge comissions to salesmen, now this is not a problem for the salesman but it can be a problem for the end user if you are unlucky enough to deal with someone who is only after the commission. Do not be pushed into signing anything before you are ready, life insurance is not like buying a car, there are no “buy today or else the deal is gone” deals on life insurance. Take your time to fill in a spreadsheet and read the exclusions before you sign for any policy.
Do You Need No Exam Life Insurance?
Do you really need a life policy that has no exams or do you just think you do. Do you have a medical problem that you know about already (this may well be excluded anyway even in a no medical exam policy) ? Would your medical situation improve if you gave up smoking, maybe lose some weight. All these things should be a factor when you start to look at buying a life insurance policy. You may well find that buying a policy through the normal channels is as cheap as buying one that doesn’t require you to go see any docs.
Cheaper is Not Always Best
Make sure you do some research on the insurance company you are dealing with, buying a term life insurance policy from a company that will go to extreme lengths not to pay out after you are gone is not going to help your family and the money you save will not be worth it. No one but you can decide which policy is right for you and it makes no sense to take advice from anyone who has a financial incentive for you to buy the policy they recommend.
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