North Carolina Life Insurance

The North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) governs North Carolina Life Insurance and its industry. In NC we have available to us most life insurance products, the only exception is that the NCDOI is tough on guaranteed issue life insurance products. A guaranteed issue life insurance product is a policy that basically accepts everyone no matter their health conditions. These policies of course have very high premiums and also usually have a waiting period of at least 2-3 years before they pay out a full claim. We do have some final expense products available in NC, but not as many as I have found in neighboring states for example.
NC's current Insurance Commissioner, Wayne Goodwin, has done an excellent job in office and I have been fortunate enough to meet him and see him speak to a group I was in. I could tell that he truly cared about his constituents and doing what was best for them was his top priority. The NCDOI oversees everything from Property Insurance, the Senior Health Insurance Information Plan or (SHIIP at www.ncshiip.com), all forms of life, health and accident insurances, to even bail bondsmen licenses. We are well protected in North Carolina.

As for North Carolina Life Insurance, the products available to us are put into 3 major categories.

1. Term Life Insurance
2. Universal Life Insurance
3. Whole Life Insurance

The first category is term life insurance. A Term life insurance policy is designed to last for a specific duration or term period. The most common term periods are 10 - 30 years. Term is the least expensive of all life insurance products and is the most common insurance sold online today. A person could purchase much more coverage through a term policy for a much lower premium to cover the risk of death for a time period important to them. The most common situations that I see are the 20 - 30 years that children are young and still very much dependent on their parents and when someone has a mortgage. Lastly, there is also a return of premium term life insurance product that will return 100% of the premiums that you pay into the term policy at the end of the term period.

The next major category is universal life insurance, this category can include current assumption universal life, indexed universal life, and guaranteed universal life.  A universal life policy or UL for short is designed to be a flexible premium contract and can build cash value. A UL is a form of permanent insurance and differs from whole life insurance in the flexibility of the policy. If your UL has built up sufficient cash value, then you may choose to let it pay its own premium's from its accumulated cash value, or you may choose to withdraw the premiums that you have paid into the policy. When a UL pays for itself, it does not loan against itself and a withdrawal is not a policy loan so neither option charges you an interest rate. You do have the option to take policy loans with a UL.

The last major category is whole life insurance. A whole life insurance policy is also designed to be permanent coverage and is the first form of life insurance to come into existence. A whole life policy has guaranteed premiums and a base interest rate. You can choose different payment schedules, single pay, 7 pay, 10 pay, 20 pay, pay to 65 and pay to maturity are all examples. If you have what is called a participating whole life policy, then the policy will usually pay what is called a dividend. A dividend is basically an annual return that you receive from the life insurance company based on the profitability of the company for that year. A dividend can be allocated in several ways. A dividend can accumulate in a dividend account for withdrawal or future payment of premiums, a dividend can lower your current premium or a dividend can purchase additional life insurance regardless of insurability. Generally, we recommend a Mutual Life Insurance Company for your whole life needs. A Mutual Life Insurance Company is owned by the policy holders and usually offers a better dividend scale.

There are many great North Carolina Life Insurance products available to us here in the Tar Heel State. For a free evaluation of your situation and free quotes for your North Carolina Life Insurance feel free to contact me.  We represent all major life insurance carriers and our team has over 60 years of combined experience. We have the ability to show a multi-quote of top life insurance companies and we can shop your NC Life Insurance to find you the best rates and policy for you, no matter where you are in NC. If you wish we can even mail you all the necessary paperwork.