Life Insurance
Health Insurance
Disability Insurance
Medicare Supplement Insurance
Long Term Care Insurance
Annuities
Discount Insurance?
How are Insurance Companies Rated?
Contacting Northwood
Life insurance is the bread and butter for most insurance agents. Click below on the type
of life insurance you want to know more about. Then return to this Table of Contents to
find out about the other types of life insurance.
- Term Life Insurance
- It's cheap! It's easy! Is it the right type of life insurance for you? Regardless of what
type of life insurance you're considering, you need to understand term insurance, because it is the basis
upon which most all life insurance products are priced.
- Universal Life Insurance
- You pay for seven or ten years and your coverage lasts for life. You even get the bonus of
high cash values. Sound too good to be true? Get the insider's scoop on how it works, when it works, and
when it's a rip-off.
- Whole Life Insurance
- Talk about expensive! This is the life insurance your Daddy used to own. Find out when Whole Life is
right and when it's not.
- Second-to-Die Life Insurance
- Your tax accountant has told you about it. Your estate planning attorney has told you about it. And if you live
in a major metropolitan area, you've seen seminars advertised. Heck! Maybe you've even seen an infomercial
about it. Can Second-to-Die really save your heirs hundreds of thousands, even millions or dollars?
- Variable Life Insurance
- No matter how high interest rates go on universal life policies, and no matter
how attractive the dividend rates may be on whole life policies, the returns promised by variable
life policies stand head and shoulders above the rest. Is variable life too good to be true?
Health insurance is the primary "necessary evil" offered by the insurance industry. Whether
you have health insurance through your employer or an an individual, there's important information
here.
- Individual Health Insurance
- If you're self-employed or unemployed, or if your employer does not provide you with health insurance,
then an individual health insurance program is your only option. And to tell you the truth, that might not be so bad!
- Group Health Insurance
- This is the stuff you get when you work for someone who provides employees with a health insurance program. If
you pay all or part of the cost, you may be able to save money. Even if you pay nothing, you need to understand how
these plans work and how to maximize your claim dollars.
- Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)
- Managed Care is the buzzword in Washington these days. Thousands of employers and individuals all over the
country are enrolling in HMOs in order to lower the cost of their healthcare. What is Northwood's slightly biased
opinion? Read on!
How will you pay your bills if you become disabled and are unable to work? That's
the question that the insurance industry attempts to answer with Disability Insurance.
Read all about it!
- Mortgage Disability Insurance
- "Could you pay your mortgage if you became disabled?" Ads like these shout from newpapers,
billboards, and bus benches. What does Mortgage Disability Insurance really do? And is it worth
the money?
- Disability Income Insurance
- Disability Income insurance is designed to replace your income if you become disabled and can't work. But who
decides what "disabled" means? Who decides if you can return to work? Disability income policies may look alike, but
the important differences are hidden just below the surface, and they can mean the difference between heaven and hell when
it comes to claim time.
- Business Overhead Disability Insurance
- If you own your own business and became disabled, would you be able to keep your company afloat? Even if you have no employees,
you still have rent to pay, insurance premiums to make, phones to keep, and maintenance contracts to maintain. Business Overhead Disability insurance
is designed to do this. Does it work? How much is enough?
Just because you've turned 65 and have become eligible for Medicare, don't think
that you don't have to worry about health insurance anymore. Turning 65 just means
that you're eligible for a new class of confusing insurance plans!
- Traditional MediGap Coverage
- The plans are as old as Medicare itself. Pay a premium to the insurance company, and they will pick up what
Medicare doesn't. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way.
- "No Premium" Medicare Supplement Plans
- Why pay for a Medicare Supplement plan when there are so many out there that promise quality coverage
with no premiums to pay? It's tough to argue against "free" insurance, but you need to understand what you're getting
into when you sign up for one of these plans.
It's an insurance agent's dream! A product to offer to existing clients that
offers high commissions, tons of options, and is nearly impossible for the typical
consumer to understand! The insurance industry's answer to "Where's Poppa?" is
explained below.
- What is Long Term Care Insurance?
- It's probably the hottest market in the insurance industry. If you haven't been pitched on long term care
insurance yet, you won't have to wait long. Insurance companies and agents are seeing big dollar signs in this
emerging market. What is long term care insurance? And why buy it if you already have Medicare?
- "Traditional" Long Term Care Insurance
- It may seem like a misnomer to apply the word "traditional" to an insurance product that is so new. But there
are already so many variations on the theme, that "traditional" is a good place to start exploring the world of long
term care insurance.
- The California Partnership for Long Term Care
- Even if you're not in California, the Partnership for Long Term Care is an idea that will be visiting your state
in the near future.
- Self-Funded Long Term Care Plans
- Some plans promise lower prices, special discounts, and better benefits. How? By bypassing the insurance companies
completely. The idea of bypassing insurance companies may sound good. And not all self-funded plans are doomed to failure. But
you need to understand the mechanics of pricing in order to evaluate any self-funded plan.
Give a salesman a "tax-advantaged" product and he'll go to town with it. Before
you "date", get the inside scoop on annuities.
- Single Premium Deferred Annuities
- Single Premium Deferred Annuities (SPDAs) promise high interest rates, tax deferral, and safety. They
are sold by insurance companies, insurance agents, banks, savings and loans, credit unions and, before long,
might even be available at your local 7-11. What's the big deal?
- Immediate Annuities
- Got some extra cash burning a hole in your bank account. Why not convert that useless cash to a guaranteed
income stream? That's the rap, anyway. Here are the ups and downs.
- Split Annuities
- No, these are not annuities for split personalities! Take some SPDA, mix it with a little bit of
Immediate Annuity, sprinkle generously with sales pitch, and you have Split Annuities.
- Variable Annuities
- With insurance companies, insurance agents, banks, S&Ls, credit unions and your local 7-11 getting in on the action,
what's left for your friendly stockbroker? I thought you'd never ask!
To the casual observer, it would seem that no one in America pays full price
for anything anymore. We shop at discount warehouses, take advantage of discount
long distance services, trade stocks through discount brokers, and expect a rebate
when we buy a new car. Well, what about insurance? Discount insurance is here.
Shhhh.... Don't tell 'em where you heard about it!
- Discount? Yeah, sure!
- If discount insurance really exists, why haven't you heard about it before?
Because the movers and shakers in the insurance industry don't want you to know about it!
- Is it Legal?
- Surprise! Discount insurance is not legal in most states. But you may be able
to take advantage of it anyway. The savings can be enormous.
- How Much Can I Save?
- Depending on what state you live in, it could be quite a hassle to deal with a discount insurance broker. Is all that
hassle really worth it? It depends on what you're buying!
- What About Service?
- Saving money may be great, but what about service? Will your discount broker hide under a rock
leaving you defenseless when the insurance company screws-up? Anything's possible!
Before you buy any insurance, you need to check out the ratings
of the insurance company. There are lots of rating services out there. We've
described some of the more popular and reliable ones here.
- A.M. Best
- This icon of the industry took some punches over the Executive Life fiasco, but they are
still there rating insurance companies. What do their ratings mean? More importantly, are they
trustworthy and accurate?
- Moody's Investor's Service
- Lots of investors know Moody's. But did you know that they also assign ratings to many insurance companies?
- Standard and Poors
- Can this rating service help you avoid the "poor" house?
- Duff and Phelps
- Not the biggest rating agency, but one with something to say. Smart consumers will listen!
- Weiss Research
- Weiss is best known for predicting a major market crash and for seeing the smoke and mirrors that were Executive Life. Is this
gadfly still important to consider? And why do so many "strong" insurance companies get such crummy ratings from Weiss?
- Comdex
- With so many rating services, and so many different rating methods, does anyone put it all together in a cohesive, understandable
package? We think so!
Whether you're interested in purchasig insurance at a discount, would like more
information about Northwood, have questions about a particular type of insurance,
or just want to comment on this page, we'd love to hear from you!
Write to Us!
- You can write to us at:
- Northwood/Roche Insurance Services, Inc.
- 548 South Spring Street, #835
- Los Angeles, CA 90013
Call Us!
- You can reach Northwood toll-free at 1-800-732-2832. For those who prefer
their phone numbers with catchy words, that's 1-800-REBATE-2.
Use Electronic Mail!
- If your browser supports e-mail, just Click Here. If not, then use
your favorite e-mail program and address to Jmoche@ix.netcom.com.
This page last updated January 6, 1996.