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The most commonly recognized case of this is parents with young children. Fat Or Thin - Don't Let It Cost You
By Catherine Harvey
It's a well known fact that life insurance companies have guidelines as to the risks they and their customers are going to be taking when embarking on life insurance schemes. It's an obvious statement to make that they want to protect their own assets and are concerned about insuring people who already have long term or chronic illnesses diagnosed. They call it wanting their customers to have long, healthy lives but whatever.
This is why it is absolutely essential to disclose every possible ailment on your life insurance application forms. It may increase your premiums slightly but if they can find a way out of a payout then they will and there's no point in making it easy for them.
Another thing that life insurance companies take into consideration when working out your premiums is your weight and build. They possess their own set of, somewhat outdated, guidelines that suggest healthy weight limits for men and women of different ages. Fall outside of these guidelines and you will see your life insurance premiums soar.
However, the press is full of advice about how to tackle both ends of the problem - obesity and anorexia. Solve these and not only will we all be that little bit healthier but also a little richer. Obesity is, as far as doctors are concerned, a fairly straightforward problem. For all the people that claim their obesity is due to thyroid, hormone or metabolism problems, very few are, in fact. And these can mostly be solved with medicine.
For the vast majority, obesity is due to putting too much food in the face and not taking enough exercise. And one of the biggest problems to overcoming this is will power itself. You cannot buy will power and the person that makes that possible will be very rich indeed.
Various drugs come on the market aimed at reducing obesity and are prescribed through doctors. Only prescribed in extreme circumstances where the extra weight is life threatening, these drugs come with some very nasty side effect. Namely, uncontrollable diarrhoea. Still people see it as a miracle cure, they continue to eat and think the doctor will put it right by prescribing pills to make the weight go away.
An over the counter product is now available that is half the strength of the prescribed pills but available to all. The idea is that you take three pills a day with meals and if any part of that meal contains over a certain amount of fat, that meal will pass through you rapidly and without warning. The manufacturers recommend that until you get used to this event, or until you resist fatty food, you should always carry spare clothes with you!
Now resisting fatty food is not always easy. God knows, I love a regular dose of chocolate and the occasional bag of chips but I know full well that if it was that or opening my bowels in public, I know the chips and chocolate would go first!
Does running with such urgency to the toilet not constitute a health risk, particularly in a restaurant serving greasy food? Slippery floors etc? Would patients on these drugs increase their life insurance premiums thus?
The cost of this so-called 'wonder drug' comes in at approximately one pound per day. IF you follow a strict diet and exercise you can lose 3lb a week instead of the 2lb you would lose on a normal diet and exercise programme. Is it worth it I ask myself. You could easily lose that extra pound a week by slightly reducing portion sizes or, as a more entertaining and much less messy method, have one more round of sex!
For those at the other end of the spectrum comes higher life insurance premiums for the severely underweight - the anorexics. It is widely debated whether or not anorexia is a disease of the mind or body and, speaking from experience, it is very difficult to tell.
I don't believe you are born with any particular gene that would develop into anorexia later in life but you can, from a very early age, suffer with such low self esteem that events in life bring you to such a low ebb that you turn on yourself. Is anorexia brought on by depression or do you get depressed because you do not have the nutritional basis to think straight? An argument that will go on for some time.
However, some preventative measures are being put in place to stop the up-coming generation of young girls from succumbing to this feeling that they have to be underweight to be worthy people. The French government are leading the way in banning all advertising that promotes anorexia. Mostly aimed at websites, fashion magazines and advertisers, anybody seen to be recommending ways of losing excessive amounts of weight will be punished with fines up to 36,000 pounds and/or jail terms of up to three years.
Hopefully, this move will ease some of the pressures that young girls feel to conform to a certain unrealistic and unhealthy size. The rest of the world would do well to follow suit.
Health expert Catherine Harvey looks at ways to reduce life insurance premiums.
Life Insurance Mortgage protection for a safer future
By search
Anyone who is responsible wants to make sure that their family are well looked after and buying a home is the first step to creating a good environment for you and your family to live in. Getting a mortgage can be a difficult and stressful period, yet once you have moved into your new home it can be too easy to forget how hard you have worked to get it. Then it can be easy to overlook the fact that your home could be taken away from you if you do not meet the repayments. Even the most well organised people can have things happen to them which they do not expect and this is where things can start to go wrong.
If you are the sole wage earner, or even if you share the monthly bills could your family cope without your wage for a protracted period of time, or forever? When things are going well for a family mortgage protection is often something that is put to one side, to sort out another day and unfortunately that day might not come until it is too late. Without mortgage protection, which is a form of insurance that will pay your mortgage in the vent of you not being able to through death, illness or redundancy you and your family could run the risk of being homeless. Mortgage lenders expect their repayments to be met and occasionally will allow a missed payment, but not several, and if this happens repossession proceedings can and will begin.
For anyone who doesnt know about mortgage protection what follows is a run down of what is on offer and what you can expect if you take it out:
Fully protected mortgage this is the most comprehensive type of plan and will cover the mortgage holders for things like: their death, redundancy, critical illness, long term sickness and there will also be buildings insurance. Opting for this type of mortgage protection provides the most cover and is often what many people choose to take out as they like knowing that they are protected for many different events. It is more expensive than some of the other protection plans but without it you could lose your home if your repayments stop.
Mortgage decreasing term assurance - this will pay out if the policy holder dies or contracts a critical illness during the term, however like a mortgage the amount of the payment will decrease as time goes on.
Level term insurance this plan will pay out a lump sum if the policy holder dies during the term. If the term passes without the death of the policy holder however the policy ends.
Family income benefit this pays a fixed monthly amount to the family of the deceased. It can help having a set amount coming into the house every month but as soon as the term of the policy is over the payments will end too.
Mortgage payment protection insurance this type of mortgage protection will pay out if the mortgage holder goes on long term sick. However there are terms and conditions attached to this and anyone considering it should go through these before they opt in to the plan.
There are different mortgage protection plans available but these are the most popular. Anyone looking into protecting their mortgage should speak to Go Direct who have trained advisors waiting to answer your questions. Remember mortgage protection might seem like an unnecessary expense but if you suddenly die or are unable to work how will your mortgage get paid? Without it you could loose your home if your life turns upside down.
Here at Go Direct we can offer customers the very best advice when choosing a mortgage protection plan. No question is left unanswered as Go Direct believe that mortgage protection is a topic that people should be informed about after all a home is big investment that should be protected.
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