More from Reviews Staff
How to Choose the Right Homeowners Insurance Deductible
If a tree fell on your home tomorrow, would you be financially prepared to fix it? While most homeowners are protected by insurance, many couldn’t readily cover their deductible—especially in states where catastrophe deductibles apply as a percentage of your dwelling coverage. In hurricane- or wind/hail‑exposed areas, insurers commonly use separate percentage deductibles of about ...
Do I Need Life Insurance?
It’s easy to understand why parents need life insurance. If a family’s main wage earner were to pass away, their surviving spouse and/or children would likely need financial support to help cover things like living expenses, mortgage payments, and college education — and many households say they would face financial hardship within a month of ...
Living or 'Accelerated' Benefit Life Insurance Riders
What are Living Benefit Life Insurance Riders? “Living benefit” riders are provisions on a life insurance policy that let you access part of the death benefit while you’re alive if certain health conditions are met. In life insurance, the most common categories are: (1) terminal illness accelerated death benefit (ADB) riders under IRC §101(g); (2) ...
What is Cash Value Life Insurance
Cash value life insurance includes whole life, universal life (including indexed UL), and variable universal life. All provide lifelong death benefit protection if kept in force and build a tax-deferred cash value governed by IRC §72. Access to that value is possible through withdrawals, policy loans, or surrender, but the tax outcome depends on whether ...
The 10 Most Restricted Dog Breeds for Home Insurance Companies
The hardest dogs to get home insurance coverage for: Pit bull–type (American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier) Rottweiler Doberman Pinscher German shepherd Chow chow Akita Wolf or wolf-dog hybrids Cane Corso Presa Canario Great Dane Owning a dog can materially affect your homeowners insurance because dog-related injuries are a major driver ...
What Happens When Smart Home Tech and Insurance Meet
American Family announced last week that it was exploring a Neos-enabled “smart home insurance” concept years ago; since then, Neos has been fully acquired by Aviva, and there is no current U.S. operating partnership between American Family and Neos. Aviva completed the acquisition of Neos in 2020, and UK corporate records confirm Neos Ventures Ltd. ...
Life Insurance Riders that Affect Death Benefit Payments
Do Life Insurance Riders Affect the Death Benefit Payment? Yes—riders can change both the timing and amount of what beneficiaries receive. Many new policies include living‑benefit accelerations, and optional riders can alter the base death benefit or its payout structure. Under NAIC Model 620, accelerated benefits for terminal, chronic, or critical illness must meet defined ...
The Difference Between Burglaries and Robberies
Some people use the terms interchangeably, but there are differences between “burglaries” and “robberies,” in how the law classifies them, the risks involved, the best prevention strategies, and the insurance steps to take afterward. In federal crime-data taxonomy, burglary is a property crime and robbery is a violent crime, and most states follow similar definitions, ...
How a Home DNA Test Could Complicate Your Life Insurance Application
As morbid as it sounds, life insurance companies estimate longevity by reviewing information you disclose and what’s in your medical records, and—where permitted by law—any known genetic test results documented there. Whether genetic information can be used depends heavily on where you live. In the U.S., federal GINA protections do not apply to life insurance; ...
Ask the Experts: Is Pet Insurance Worth It?
Pet owners have consistently signaled a strong willingness to invest in medical care (see this report). That commitment, combined with broader access to specialty and emergency medicine, has helped fuel rapid growth in pet insurance. Authoritative industry sources report the U.S. market reached roughly $3.9 billion in direct premium written and insured more than 5 ...
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