Life Insurance – Learn From an Old Agent

Life Insurance is an insurance product that pays at the death of the insured. It really should be called “Death Insurance,” but people don’t like that name. But it insures the death of an individual. Actually, what is insured is the economic loss that would occur at the death of the person insured.

Those economic losses take a lot of different forms, such as:

- the income stream of either “breadwinner” in a family
- the loss of services to the family of a stay-at-home-mom
- the final expenses at the death of a child
- final expenses of an individual after an illness and medical treatment
- “Keyman” coverage, which insures the owner or valuable employee of a business against the economic loss the business would suffer at their death
- estate planning insurance, where a person is insured to pay estate taxes at death
- “Buy and Sell Agreements,” in which life insurance is purchased to fund a business transaction at the untimely death of parties in the transaction
- Accidental death insurance, in which a person buys a policy that pays in case they die due to an accident
- Mortgage life insurance, in which the borrower buys a policy that pays off the mortgage at death – and many more.

Life insurance has been around for hundreds of years, and in some cases, has become a much better product. The insurance companies have been able to develop mortality tables, which are studies of statistical patterns of human death over time…usually over a lifetime of 100 years. These mortality tables are surprisingly accurate, and allow the insurance companies to closely predict how many people of any given age will die each year. From these tables and other information, the insurance companies derive the cost of the insurance policy.

The cost is customarily expressed in an annual cost per thousand of coverage. For example, if you wanted to buy $10,000 of coverage, and the cost per thousand was $10.00, your annual premium would be $100.00.

Modern medicine and better nutrition has increased the life expectancy of most people. Increased life expectancy has facilitated a sharp decrease in life insurance premiums. In many cases, the cost of insurance is only pennies per thousand.

There is really only one type of life insurance, and that is Term Insurance. That means that a person is insured for a certain period of time, or a term. All of the other life insurance products have term insurance as their main ingredient. There is no other ingredient they can use. However, the insurance companies have invented many, many other life products that tend to obscure the reasons for life insurance. They also vastly enrich the insurance companies.

Term Insurance

The most basic life insurance is an annual renewable term policy. Each year, the premium is a little higher as a person ages. The insurance companies designed a level premium policy, which stopped the annual premium increases for policyholders. The insurers basically added up all the premiums from age 0 to age 100 and then divided by 100. That means that in the early years of the policy, the policyholder pays in more money that it takes to fund the pure insurance cost, and then in later years the premium is less than the pure insurance cost.

The same level term product can be designed for terms of any length, like 5, 10, 20, 25 or 30 year terms. The method of premium averaging is much the same in each case.

But this new product caused some problems. Insurers know that the vast majority of policyholders do not keep a policy for life. Consequently the level term policyholders were paying future premiums and then cancelling their policies. The insurance companies were delighted because they got to keep the money. But over time, they developed the concept of Cash Value.

Cash Value Insurance

With Cash Value insurance, a portion of the unused premium you spend is credited to an account tied to your policy. The money is not yours…it belongs entirely to the insurance company. If you cancel your policy and request a refund, they will refund that money to you. Otherwise, you have other choices:

1. Use the cash value to buy more insurance
2. Use the cash value to pay existing premiums
3. You may borrow the money at interest
4. If you die, the insurance company keeps the cash value and only pays the face amount of the insurance policy.

So, does this cash value product make sense? My response is “NO!”

Cash Value Life Insurance comes in lots of other names, such as:

- Whole Life
- Universal Life
- Variable Life
- Interest Sensitive Life
- Non-Participating Life (no dividends)
- Participating Life (pays dividends)

Many life insurance agents and companies tout their products as an investment product. But cash value insurance is not an investment. Investment dollars and insurance premiums should never be combined into one product. And investment dollars should NEVER be invested with an insurance company. They are middle men. They will take your investment and invest it themselves, and keep the difference.

Think about the methods that agents use to sell life insurance, and compare them to any other type of insurance. What you’ll see is that life insurance sales tactics and techniques are ridiculous when compared to other insurance products.

Would you ever consider buying a car insurance policy, or homeowners policy, or business insurance policy in which you paid extra premium that the insurance company kept, or made you borrow from them? But, curiously, life insurance agents have been wildly successful convincing otherwise intelligent people that cash value life insurance is a good product to buy.

Care to guess why insurance agents have aggressively sold cash value insurance and eschewed term insurance?

Commissions.

The insurance companies have become vastly wealthy on cash value insurance. So, to encourage sales, they pay huge commissions. Term insurance commissions can range from 10% to 50%, sometimes even 100%. But cash value insurance commissions can be up to 100% of the first year’s premium, and handsome renewal commissions for years after.

But it’s not just the commission rate that matters. It’s also the premium rates that come into play. Term insurance is FAR CHEAPER than cash value insurance.

Here’s an example of a 30 year old male, non-smoker, buying $100,000 of coverage:

Term insurance costs $0.50 per thousand for a premium of $50.00. At 100% commission, the commission would be $50.00.

Cash Value insurance costs $12.50 per thousand for a premium of $1,250.00. At 100% commission, the commission would be $1,250.00.

So you see that it would be easy for an agent to place his own financial well-being ahead of the well-being of his client. He would have to sell 25 term policies to make the same commission as only one cash value policy.

But, in my opinion, that agent would have violated his fiduciary duty to the client, which is the duty to place the client’s needs above his own. The agent would also have to set aside his conscience.

My opinion is that life insurance agents operate from one of three positions:

1. Ignorance – they simply don’t know how cash value insurance works.
2. Greed – they know exactly how cash value insurance works and sell it anyway.
3. Knowledge and Duty – they sell term insurance.

Which agent do you want to do business with?

How do I know this stuff? Because I sold cash value life insurance early in my career.

When I started as an insurance agent in 1973 I knew absolutely nothing about how life insurance worked. The insurance company taught me to sell whole life insurance, and to discourage clients from term insurance. But, after some time of reading and research, I learned that cash value insurance is a bad deal. I began to sell only term insurance. I refused to set aside my conscience. I also went back to some early clients and switched their policies from cash value to term.

The insurance company fired me for that decision.

I found a new insurance company that only sold term insurance and also paid high commissions. I made a good living selling term insurance, so I know it can be done.

So, as you shop for life insurance, please accept the advice of an old agent. Never, never, ever buy cash value life insurance. Buy term insurance.

Tafe Fashion Design Course and Merchandiser

The fashion industry has undergone a complete change in the recent times and the distance certifications for same are required for achieving success in fashion world. Fashion technology is becoming the fastest and entrenched industry in today’s world. All budding designers are working hard to develop new designs and brands which help companies sell their clothes, jewellery and footwear. The fashion Industry is widespread and requires creative ideas along with dedication for work for any designer to be famous.

Milan and Toronto are the famous Fashion Hotspots where the best designers and budding talents display their collections and perform shows. Today with various universities and institutes offering Fashion Designing courses which have facilities to teach the technical software’s of CAD and Patternmaker, are becoming increasing popular. Tafe fashion design course with the help of distance education help students reach them removing the barriers of countries. The courses available also offer specialization in Children / Menswear / Womenswear and even Bridal for designers to choose from. One such name in the education arena is TAFE.

TAFE

Tafe offers various courses which include the “Advanced Diploma of Fashion Design and Technology”. This course is specifically designed to train budding designers and help talented students develop their creativity through in specialized areas of Fashion Designing.

Course Details

Tafe fashion design course offers the Fashion Designing Diploma for students who are willing to apply practical, creative and technical knowledge in the field. Various aspects like design application and product development for management level students are also covered in the Course. Complete research is done by students while studying this course on topics from garment realization, fine patternmaking, fitting, interior, construction, merchandising and sizing which shall be used in the Fashion Industry.

Any successful and well equipped course for Fashion Designing shall include garment cutting and block construction which are the most essential aspects of garment design which are a part of the TAFE Diploma Course. The course consists of elective subjects like grading techniques, fashion development through patternmaking, fashion illustration, fabric manipulation, textile fibre, pattern draping, lingerie design, design elements, fabric sketching, swimwear design, sizing design, CAD and specialized software developed for computer fashion designing and selling concepts are available.

Merchandiser concept is also increasing today which is resulting in extensive design research for better quality and designs. Besides the basic cloth, jewelry is also being designed by various designers which is giving the industry a new look and arena to showcase. Students from Indian cities like Delhi and Mumbai which are hubs for fashion designing are aspiring to undergo the certification provided by TAFE. Delhi and Mumbai are two bog fashion centers in India. This course facilitates subject which shall help the student develop expertise in AQF5 level. Fashion production management and supply chain are vital components of the course curriculum which help in developing creative and critical thinking required for the fashion world and merchandiser concept. Applications.

The course is industry specific and is much more proactive than various similar courses offered by universities worldwide. This full time course can be undergone for a period of 3 years which provides Certificate IV LMT41007. This is the Applied Fashion Design and Technology Certification which is recognized all over the world and has greater industry acceptance for employment. Various Managerial level positions can be easily acquired after this certification in the Fashion Industry. The information on tafe fashion design course can be availed online from the websites. The Certificate subjects and details regarding fees and locations are displayed on the website. Before entering the Fashion industry one must get quality certification from renowned institute and TAFE is the first name that comes to one’s mind.

A Fashion Blog For Fashion Bloggers

Blogs have been around, almost since the establishment of the internet. From the beginnings, bloggers learned that fresh content could build a loyal following of visitors, which in turn meant, they could earn money from advertisers. Blog Hosting companies have made it fairly easy to start a blog. You simply sign up for a free blog and start typing your heart away. That’s all fine and dandy, until the competition amongst bloggers heats up. How do you get your blog noticed amongst all those other bloggers out there?

Niche blogging communities are sprouting up across the web like FashionsBlogs.com, that specialize in niche market segments. FashionsBlogs.com offers free blog hosting to fashion bloggers, a unique “Fashion Oriented” url, fashion blogging tips and a community of fashion bloggers that share valuable information on the art of fashion blogging. What are the advantages and disadvantages of starting a blog at a niche blog hosting community or a mainstream blog hosting site like WordPress, Typepad, blogger or blogspot?

Advantages of Niche blogging Communities

SEO- Your site will rank higher in your market segment.
For example: at FashionsBlogs.com you will have a unique URL like myfashionblog.fashionsblogs.com. Search engines will rank your blog higher when people are searching for fashion blogs than a site that has a url like myfashionblog.typepad.com

Social Networking- Build relationships with the movers and shakers in your industry

For Example: at Fashions Blogs you will be able to connect with other, high profile fashion bloggers and discuss tips and tricks of the trade.

Stand out from the crowd.

When people head to the niche blogging community they can search for specialties like: Celebrity fashion blog, Teen Fashion BLog, Womens fashion blog, Designer Fashion Blog and depending on the content of your unique fashion blog, your site will easily be found by potential new fans.

Custom Themes, Templates and Plugins

Useful tools are available like plugins that offer free access to royalty free fashion images. Fashion styled Blog templates are also available.

Disadvantage of Niche Blogging Communities

Not many around

There are not currently a lot of Niche blogging communities around. It is still a fairly new concept online.

Technical Support-
Since these emerging blogging communities are in the infancy stage, they may not have the resources to help you and resolve problems as fast as a larger company like WordPress or Blogspot

Communities start small

when you join a Niche blogging community like Fashions Blogs, you may find there are only a couple of registered members. This is because they are still new sites and have yet to attract the vast quantity of members. Just like eBay started small, so do these Niche blogging communities.

Whether you are a fashion blogger trying to get noticed amongst the sea of fashion bloggers like Girls Trends [http://www.girlstrends.com] or you are an inspired celebrity blogger trying to attain the status of Perez Hilton, there is one thing for sure. BLogging takes time, dedication, passion, commitment. If you have these ingredients, you will surely get noticed amongst the thousands of other bloggers in your industry. Be patient and find a niche that other bloggers may not be writing about. Like Fashion for Dogs:)

Next Generation SEO Courses for You

To become an SEO expert, one might need the proper guidance and professional support to master your skills. Here is why the best SEO institute in Gurgaon has been launched to mold experts. It helps you get the necessary skills so that you have everything to become an expert in the area. There can be different attributes of SEO training that need to be brought to understand the complete concept. It is becoming one of the popular fields. SEO skills are becoming one of the most demanding fields. Anyone can get these skills right by availing proper support from a well-experienced team.

Types of SEO

You can learn different types of SEO like On-Page, Off- Page and Technical. Each type has its own importance. On page helps to optimize the web pages seen online while Off page techniques are done outside your website but the purpose is to still get better search engine rankings. Technical SEO ensures that your website follows all the technical requirements required by search engines.

Identifying the need for SEO training

To become an SEO expert, one needs to clearly understand the available options.
To make the process much easier, SEO Training in Gurgaon can help you to get started in your journey of becoming an expert.
Being an expert brings additional responsibilities. You are supposed to provide the best services to others. So, it becomes necessary to gather the required help from experts who can help you become the best.
There are multiple dimensions like keyword searching, accessing the backlinks, and managing the website preferences that need to be taken care of in learning SEO skills.
These are the reasons why you should take up an SEO training course in Gurgaon from the best institutes to improve your skills and become an expert.

Outcomes of an SEO Training

After successfully completing SEO training, one is expected to master the skills if a thorough understanding of the various topics in SEO has been mastered.
The individual can get a better understanding of SEO in the digital marketing process
Learn the process of SEO in a step by step manner
The training period is scheduled for three months.
The institute provides some projects where the individuals can engage with the institute that helps them to advance their skills in SEO.

Finding the best ways to learn SEO

One of the best ways to learn SEO is to become a part of an ongoing project. Through the SEO training institute in Gurgaon, one can know the complete utilization of all the tools. The course is expected to bring a new change in SEO and help individuals master their skills. Thousands of websites are launching daily. So establishing the website in the search engine becomes important for the clients to identify the business. The exposure of SEO is expected to rise with the rise in the number of websites. So the course helps you to learn the skills at your pace. It helps to understand the minute details and get you started with becoming an SEO expert.

Building Backlinks To Increase Your SERPS

Getting your site to show up when someone searches for a term related to your site is key to getting tons of free traffic. In order to get your site to place higher in search engine results you’ll need to use several search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. There are quite a few different on sight and offsite strategies. Building backlinks is one of the most effective offsite ways. A backlink is any link to a site that is posted on another website.

There are many ways to build backlinks. Some will help your ranking others will hurt it. The best strategy is to get other people to do it for you. This is called organic link building. By creating content that they then share on social media or on their own sites. In order to accomplish this you’ll first want to research what keywords you want to rank for. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to do this. Creating content that is of the highest quality and relevant to your site is key.

There are many ways to get backlinks built automatically. Most are paid services some are free. Be weary of these as search engines will notice if thousands of links show up all at once and may penalize your sites rank. One way to get auto backlinks is to use article spinning software. This takes an article you wrote and rewrites it so that it is original. Then you can post similar but original articles to many sites or blogs. Search engines look at content and how unique it is when ranking a sites link. So posting a bunch of identical content is also bad.

Another good way is to join forums. Most will allow you to add a link to your signature. So every time you comment or write a post it will create a link. It’s best to find people asking questions that you know the answers to. By answering them you’ll also build a reputation that can benefit your brand.

Social media is one of the best ways to build backlinks along with your brand. Creating a viral video or post with your backlink attached is a very fast way to get backlinks. It is very difficult though. It takes many posts to learn what people will share. If you create a Facebook page with a group you can gain followers and engagement of your posts. They are more likely to get shared. All of the social sites are a good way to build backlinks and get traffic to your site.