Life Insurance Advice – Who to Listen to and Who to Ignore

Insurance

oi-Sunil

By Sunil Fernandes

Published: Saturday, July 20, 2013, 9:43 [IST]

Everyone seems to be an expert when you set out to buy an insurance policy! If you aren't sure about what you exactly need and turn to others for help, without a doubt you will be flooded with advice. But what is good advice and what is bad advice? Recently, when Mohan asked his friend which policy to buy, he was advised to buy a term plan for 10 years.

The only problem here was that Mohan had a 10 year old daughter and wanted a policy to save for her future educational expenses. So as you can see, you need to be very careful while buying a policy as getting the wrong plan or getting inadequately covered can prove to be very harmful.

People who can advice you well

While you must be the final decision maker regarding the purchase of your policy, you surely can ask around for suggestions. The following people can help you out:
Your insurance agent - An insurance agent can be a tricky source of advice, but you can surely get some good ideas if you are careful. Most agents, in an attempt to promote their own business, push you to buy policies that may not even be suitable for you. However, if you are lucky to find a genuine agent who would pitch the right kind of policies in front of you, most of your problems would get solved. The biggest advantage of discussing policies with an agent is that the agent is always well-informed about the various policies. So speak to your agent and enquire about several policies. But before you buy a policy, make sure you compare all the policies and see which one suits you the most.

Insurance advisor

An insurance advisor is a person who, at a cost, gives you insurance advice. An advisor doesn't sell any policy, so this is perhaps your best source of advice. However people refrain from hiring an insurance adviser simply because it proves to be expensive. But if you can afford it, then surely go for it.

Friends and family

It is very important to remember that insurance policies are specific products and cater to the individual needs of people. As a result a single policy very rarely suits a big number of people. So if you have a friend who bought a term plan because he is single and without any family responsibilities, you (with a wife and aged parents) need not follow suit too. Therefore remember to take insurance advice from people who have been in similar life situations like you. If your father has had a similar life, then ask him for advice. If your friend too has a wife and old parents, see what he has bought. This will help you in identifying the best life insurance policy for yourself.

Thankfully today, with the various internet tools, it is very easy to view and compare policies. When you receive insurance advice, the best thing to do is to make a note of all the suggestions and then run them against your needs. The advice will surely help you in narrowing down a list of policies from which you can make your choice.

Written By: Deepak Yohannan
The author is the CEO of MyInsuranceClub.com, an online insurance price & features comparison portal

For more articles by Deepak Yohannan, please visit MyInsuranceClub.com
You may write to the author at [email protected]