New Jersey Life Insurance: Facts About One of Life’s Great Necessities

If you live in New Jersey, you’ll find plenty to keep you busy. You can go to the shore and walk along the boardwalk. You can wade in the water or swim. You can fish off the pier or get some cotton candy.

You’ll find nightclubs with rowdy crowds. Maybe you’ll hit Atlantic City and catch a show or hit the tables. You’ll find the Garden State welcoming and thriving.

However, if you choose New Jersey to settle down and raise your family, you should consider life insurance. The unexpected happens sometimes, and if it does, you should make sure you’ve taken precautions. You must consider your family and who will support them if you’re not there.

Let’s review some New Jersey life insurance facts.

What is Life Insurance?

Many companies offer life insurance in New Jersey, but before we talk about what you might get in your policy, we should make sure you understand this term. Life insurance is a policy you get from an insurance company. It is a legal contract between a person and insurance company.

If the person who took out the policy dies, the policy issuer pays the surviving family members, called beneficiaries, some money. The insured person must die in certain ways to trigger that payout, though. If you kill yourself, for instance, that may void the policy.

In some instances, your family can also collect if you don’t die but you have a terminal or critical illness. You must look over the policy’s details and find out whether that’s the case or not.

Term Life Insurance

You should also know that in New Jersey, you can get different life insurance varieties. You can get what the issuing company calls term life insurance. That means the policy covers you for an arranged time period, usually between 10 and 30 years.

If you die during the designated time, the insurance company pays your beneficiary or beneficiaries. However, the policy has no cash value during that time.

Term life insurance is cheap when you put it up against the other kinds. The money your family gets if you die during the designated period helps them with their bills and other necessities.

Whole Life Insurance

A New Jersey life insurance company might also offer you what they call whole life insurance. That means you get permanent, lifelong coverage. You also get cash-value investment opportunities. As long as you pay the required premiums, you never lose this insurance.

The insurer also invests the money you pay on your behalf. They put it in the “cash value” policy component, and you can access that money under specific conditions.

When you die, the policy will pay the beneficiaries tax-deferred, accumulated cash. You can find policies with increasing or steady premiums. The death benefit might have flexible status, level status, or some combination.

You might like whole life insurance because when you die, your family gets money for funeral expenses, education costs, mortgages, debts, medical bills, and more. However, this kind costs much more as well. When you look at what a company might want for it versus term life insurance, you’ll notice a significant difference.

Universal Life Insurance

New Jersey companies will also offer universal life insurance policies. These cost more as well. With this policy, you can adjust the monthly payments and death benefits as you see fit. Like whole life insurance, it guarantees your family protection when you die.

You can stay flexible with this policy regarding the death benefit payout and premiums. Since your cash flow likely changes over time, this policy makes sense. You can even skip paying a premium, provided you have enough cash value saved up to cover that particular month.

This helps when you don’t have much disposable income. You can get this life insurance variety with many different riders. You might get one with long-term care coverage, for instance.

Why Get Life Insurance?

Everyone dies eventually. It’s sad, but it’s inevitable. If you outlive family members, you want money in place that can support them when you can’t any longer.

That’s why getting a policy makes sense. Universal and whole life insurance cost more, but if you can’t afford them, term life insurance provides a bare minimum during the designated time it’s in place.

Your family members can use life insurance when they have burial and funeral expenses. They might need that money when a younger family member pursues their college degree. They might cover any business loans with the money if you were self-employed.

The money can go toward kids and grandkids. If you suffer from a disability or have a terminal illness, they can use that money. They can also use it when paying rent, utility bills, grocery bills, etc. Replacing lost income becomes a consideration too.

Talk to Your Family About It

When considering New Jersey life insurance policies, you can sit down with the other household adults and discuss your options. Presumably, you should get the policy that makes the most financial sense. 

Maybe that is term life insurance, but the other two forms offer more benefits and have more flexibility. You must pay more for them, but you might feel it’s worth it.

You can’t include the kids when deciding because they’re not old enough yet, and they won’t understand the subject matter. You know what you choose impacts them, though. You’re protecting them when you set up these policies, and you must consider that.

You can approach insurers and compare some rates and policies. Many companies have different ones, and you might find one with benefits that seem ideal.

You should also find a company with polite and friendly representatives, though. If the employees seem rude or surly, don’t give them your business. You can always find different companies with suitable policies, so locate one that appears considerate and well-informed. Your family must deal with them again, and they want a pleasant experience if possible.