Supplemental Life Insurance Through Your Employer – A Good Idea Or a Huge Waste of Money?

What is Supplemental Life Insurance? Supplemental life insurance add an additional layer of protection to an already existing insurance policy. Supplemental insurance may include:

Life insurance coverage for your family. If you are married, supplemental life insurance coverage will pay out the death benefit upon your death and the balance of the cash surrender value. Life insurance for your child or spouse. In order to be eligible for this coverage, you must have both a child and a spouse. Supplemental life insurance coverage can also cover you if you are seriously injured or killed in an accident involving a motor vehicle.

As with any other type of insurance, the price of supplemental life insurance coverage changes monthly. The price you will pay for your coverage is based on the age of you, your dependents’ ages and the amount of time you have owned your policy. You may also have to pay a higher co-pay amount if you are younger than 65 years old. There are deductibles that can be applied to reduce the cost of your coverage. You may also have the option to choose from a set of benefits to suit your individual needs. There is a limit on the amount of cash surrender value, you can claim for each year, depending on your policy limits.

There are certain circumstances that make you a good candidate for supplemental life insurance coverage. If you are married, you qualify for the more expensive coverage plans. If you have at least ten thousand dollars of property, you will be able to get additional coverage on that property. If you have a dependent spouse and he or she is between twenty-five and thirty years of age, the premiums for the additional coverage plans will be less than for the basic life insurance policy for an adult.

Most insurance companies have a closed group market for supplemental life insurance. Because of this, the premiums that insurers require from people who would like to buy this type of coverage are less than those required from the open market. In most cases, the premiums are about one hundred percent lower. Many insurers provide supplemental life insurance to employees before the employee reaches the age of sixty-five, or after that age if the employee has retired.

Another reason why most insurers offer cheaper supplemental life insurance quotes is because of their various group insurance plans. These group insurance plans can help to insure more people for less money. Group plan premiums include employees and their dependents. Child care costs can also be absorbed by these plans.

One of the reasons you should buy supplemental life insurance through your employer, or even buy it through your union, is that the premiums will usually be less than for the open market. Also, many workers buying this type of coverage are offered long-term coverage. This means they do not have to worry about changing jobs in the near future. They can afford coverage for the rest of their lives.

If you do not need coverage for yourself right now, but would like to buy additional coverage, then you will need to shop around. Your current employer may offer a good supplemental life insurance policy to entice you to stay with them. You can also check with any associations you belong to. Sometimes, these organizations provide extra coverage that employers cannot offer. If you are unemployed or have become disabled, then you may qualify for Medicaid, which is provided by your state.

Another reason to buy supplemental life insurance through your employer, or even buy it through a union is because the plans often come with a benefit designed especially for people with certain pre-existing health conditions. The coverage will usually cost more but will be a lot better than if you were to go with an open market plan. Usually, these plans offer coverage for health conditions as follows: strokes and heart attacks, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain and eye problems, and dental care. Depending on the state you live in, there may be other coverage benefits available.

One of the reasons so many people do not choose to buy group life insurance through their employers is the high premiums they pay. These premiums can sometimes be double what an individual would pay, and so a person ends up paying hundreds of dollars every year for coverage that they never receive. With supplemental life insurance, however, the premiums are affordable. And, depending on the state where you live, you might even qualify for a discount.

What kind of supplemental life insurance is best? The answer really depends on what kind of coverage you need. If you just need some coverage for a couple of hundred dollars each month, then a basic group life insurance policy may be sufficient. Group coverage policies are usually less expensive than individual policies, but you have to pay the same amount each month regardless of how much coverage you choose to buy. On the other hand, if you are a person who has a large family or expect to have children someday, you may want to consider purchasing an open market supplemental life insurance policy. Open market policies are offered by several different insurers and can cost as much as eight times as much as a basic group policy.