If you want to maximize the benefits of life insurance, it’s in your best interest to perform a yearly review of your policy and how it stacks up to your current needs.
Things change, after all, and if your policy isn’t up to date with what’s currently going on in your life then it’s not going to be nearly as relevant when it comes time to put it into action. The thing is, performing a review might seem tricky if it’s not something you’re already in the habit of doing. Don’t fret, though, as the following tips will give you the information you need to get started.
What Might Change During A Policy Review
When it comes to reviewing your life insurance policy, most of the potential changes will fall into one of two broad categories: admin changes or policy changes. Administrative changes include details such as:
- Change of address — if you’ve moved, that’s going to make a difference in where your insurance carrier has to send important documents, so be sure to update them if you change your address.
- Change of bank account — In order for you to make certain payments, or receive payments from your insurance company, they may need to know if the bank account you’re using changes.
- Change of beneficiaries — You might need to add or remove beneficiaries to your policy, in which case you’ll need to alert your insurance carrier.
- Change of policy ownership — The owner of a life insurance policy is not always the one insured, and you may need to transfer ownership to another party in some cases. Again, this is a change you have to alert your insurance carrier so that they can stay up-to-date.
There are also details that might affect whether or not you should increase/decrease the amounts of your death benefits, along with other particulars of your life insurance policy. These include:
- The birth of new family members
- Your dependents have left the house
- You’ve gotten married or remarried
- You’ve gotten a divorce
- A change in your income
- Improvements to your health
- A decline in your health
- You’ve sold your house
- You started a new business
Completing Your Annual Review
As for how you initiate your review, you can start on your own by simply going over the copies of your policy documents that you have in your home. If you want to go more in-depth, you can always get a licensed agent to help you with your review, but for the basics, you can usually figure out what you need on your own and complete your review within an hour if you have all your new info on hand.
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