A life insurance glossary can help you gain a better understanding of the subject.  I will be the first to admit that life insurance is not a sexy subject.  I dont dare bring it up at parties, as the few times I did mention it at social functions, it was as if I told people I had the plague.  Look, I enjoy what I do for a living because I know I am helping people, but I know its not a subject many people enjoy discussing.

Part of the problem, I found, is in the terminology.  Insurance has a language not spoken by most folks and contains many specialized words that might as well be Martian to them.  In my experience, any subject can be learned by most people, but in order to do so, the specialized words of the subject need to be learned.  That is why we put together the Life Insurance Glossary on LifeInsure.com.  We know that an educated consumer makes the best decisions and purchasing life insurance is not a decision that should be made lightly.

Im not suggesting that you become a life insurance expert..  However, I am suggesting that you learn enough of the language to understand the intricacies of a life insurance policy.  Our life insurance glossary is alphabet-tabbed to make searching for a word a simple process.  Find and clear most of the insurance terms on this website and you will be armed with ammunition to speak to a life insurance agent.

However, I must offer this disclaimer:  I am not responsible for the response you get at parties when you start showing off your knowledge about life insurance.  Dont say I didnt warn you.

Anyone who pays for their own individual health insurance policy knows that premiums go up every year.  And nearly everyone who gets their health insurance from an employer-sponsored plan is aware that costs increase in some form nearly every year (via higher copays and deductibles, a switch to an HSA-qualified high deductible plan, or an increase in the premiums that are payroll deducted).  Some employers manage to shoulder the brunt of the health insurance premium hikes from one year to the next, which means that employees with group health insurance probably arent as aware of the rapidly-rising healthcare costs as their self-employed counterparts (or, increasingly, people who arent self employed but have to find health insurance in the individual market because their employers can no longer afford to offer group coverage).  

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This article from the Colorado Health Institute is quite an eye-opener.  The state of Colorado spent $1,637,000,000 to treat medical issues directly related to obesity in 2009.  And keep in mind that Colorados adult population is the slimmest in the nation - some states spent several times as much as Colorado on treating obesity-related health problems.  Although the figures are eye-popping, we should also remember that although Colorados adult obesity ranking is at the top of the list, our obesity ranking for children is right in the middle (23rd in 2009) of the national comparison.  Si

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Most of us make New Years resolutions every year, but how many people include life insurance in their resolutions?  There are many resolutions we all have in common lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking, drink less alcohol, spend more time with the family, spend less, save more, etc., etc.

Many people have get my financial house in order as a general resolution.  However, what does this mean?

• Unless youre the Federal Government, this would include getting your budget in order so that your expenditures are less than your income (sorry, I couldnt help the easy dig).
• If you have an IRA or other retirement plan, its always a good idea to review your investment mix and modify it, if necessary.
• The end of the calendar year is a good time to start pulling together the financial records you will need to file your tax returns (actually, its a good idea to look at it before the New Year so you can take any last minute deductions available to you.
• Time to review your insurance policies, including home, auto, health, disability and life insurance.  Is your coverage for each adequate or too much or not enough?  Regarding life insurance, if you have had a change in income or significant life changes (marriage, new child, changes in employment) you might want to review your policy with your agent to see if any changes are necessary.

If your insurance agent offers to review your policies, take him/her up on it.  We recommend doing this annually and what better time to do it than when youre making your resolutions?

Dr. Nicholas Genes of Blogborygmi hosted this weeks Grand Rounds, and he made the leap to hosting on Tumblr, which is a pretty neat twist.  One of my favorite articles in this edition comes from David Williams, writing in defense of tiered health insurance plans.  Davids article is a gentle rebuttal to an article that was written about a man who needed urgent surgery and had to choose between a  one-month wait and a $150 copay at one hospital (a cost efficient hospital in a low cost tier on his Blue Cross Blue Shield plan) and a two-week wait with a $1000 copay at another hospital that was covered at a higher cost tier by his health insurance.  H

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What does time have to do with life insurance quotes and how does saving time save you money?

Have you ever considered what your free times worth?  I usually do when my wife wants me to drive a long way to go to some store thats having an amazing sale.  After driving an hour out of my way and waiting in line for a half hour, I usually conclude that, when I factor in the cost of my free time, the savings were hardly worth it.

I consider that what I normally earn in an hour is also the cost of my idle time.  If I am worth $25 or $50 or a thousand dollars an hour (I wish) at work, thats what my free time is worth to me.   Unfortunately, my wife disagrees with this concept and usually wins the argument and so, off to sales we go.

However, if you dont take my wifes side of this argument and do agree with me, I have some advice for you when it comes to shopping for a new life insurance policy.  You can save a lot of time (and money, per my theory) if you follow this advice find a website that provides life insurance quotes from multiple insurance companies.  Also, make sure the website doesnt ask for your contact information prior to showing you quotes.  More on that later.

Dont be fooled by the websites offering life insurance quotes that are nothing more than lead generation sites for life insurance agents and brokers.  What happens on these sites is you fill in your information and several choices pop up.  However, most of whats being displayed are other life insurance websites.  So youve just spent this time on this site only to be directed to other sites.  When you click over to these sites, you will be asked to fill in your information again in order to get quotes.  Not only did you just waste your (valuable) time, but now multiple web sites have your personal information.  Aside from the value of your time were discussing here, do you really want your information spread over multiple websites?

Another similar type of lead generation website is one in which they gather your information, dont show you quotes, but rather sell your information to multiple brokers and agents who will call you and try to sell you a policy.  How much of your precious time will be spent speaking to (or avoiding) these phone calls and emails?

I shop on the Internet for the convenience and, contrary to my wifes opinion, I value what my time is worth.  I do most of my shopping online because it is fast and relatively simple and I can find and purchase what I want in a short period of time.  If I want to buy a new computer, for example, I dont want to go to a computer website that will recommend me to other sites (Amazon.com is an exception to this because, even though I might be purchasing from a vendor that isnt Amazon, they process and guarantee the transaction).  I want to go to a site that shows me all the computers within my price range with the features I am looking for.  Once I find one, I can read up on it and make my purchase on the spot.   This way, I save not only on the price but, if you factor the value of my time into it, the savings are even greater.

There are several excellent life insurance websites, LifeInsure.com being one of them, that will show you quotes from life insurance companies without needing your contact information.  You can then apply for the policy without having to go to one or more additional websites. The price of the poli

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