When you are seeking out Vermont Life Insurance Quotes it is important that you consider both Vermont specific criteria for choosing your life insurance, and also more general criteria that is applicable to choosing any type of life insurance.
In this article I am going to talk about life insurance in Vermont from both a consumer perspective, and also discuss the importance of the sector to the Vermont economy.
To begin I will give a little background on Vermont.
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Vermont – A Little Background
Vermont is one of the smallest states in the United States both in terms of physical size, and also in the size of its population. It is ranked 45th in the US in total area, 9,620 square meters, (approximately 80 miles wide by 160 miles long), and 49th in population terms with just 625,741 people resident in the whole state in 2010 (only Wyoming has less people).
The State Capital of Vermont is Montpelier, which has the smallest number of people of any Capital City, 7,705 in 2009, and the number of people has actually dropped since 2000 when it was estimated to be 8,035.
The largest city in Vermont is Burlington, with a city population of 42,417 and a metropolitan population of 208,055 in 2010. So approximately one-third of Vermont’s entire population live in or around Burlington.
Vermont has a long and illustrious history, but one relatively recent, quirky claim to fame is that the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream business was founded in Vermont in 1978.
It is also the biggest producer of Maple Syrup in the United States to accompany it!
The largest economic sectors in Vermont are the government, real estate, manufacturing and health care, followed then by the insurance sector.
In purely economic terms Vermont has the least economic firepower of any state in the union, with $26.4 billion in 2010 seeing it in last place. But insurance is still a big sector even in Vermont and on its own contributes more than a billion dollars of that figure to the state’s economy every year.
It is indicative of the overall strength of the US economy on a global scale, that even Vermont, with a GDP of $26.4 billion and in last place amongst the states in the US, is still more important economically than many small countries. For example, Latvia ($23.38 billion), Cyprus ($22.75 billion), or Jamaica ($13.73 billion) all had lower GDPs in 2010 according to International Monetary Fund data.
Vermont Life Insurance – The Facts About VT Life Insurance
There are 324 Vermont Life Insurance Companies who are licensed to sell life insurance in Vermont, and 3 of those are actually domiciled in the state.
There are 2,000 people who are directly employed by life insurance companies in Vermont, and a further 2,000 people in non-insurance jobs which are supported by the life insurance sector.
The residents of Vermont have 300,000 life insurance policies and the average policyholder has $100,000 worth of life cover according to the American Council of Life Insurers.
If we look at 2009 for example, there was over $2 billion worth of life cover purchased, and cumulatively Vermonters have over $50 billion of death benefit cover.
The input into the Vermont economy from life insurance policies that have matured, received policy dividends, been surrendered or gained death benefits for relatives amounted to $700 million in 2009, with a further $160 million from annuity benefits in the same year.
Learning About Life Insurance – The Three Basics
1/ Identify Your Needs
The first thing that you need to do is to properly identify your needs so that you get life cover that is more appropriate for you.
There are a number of different aspects to this:
Identifying your dependant’s financial needs if you were to die
Carefully considering the assets and liabilities of your dependants
Comparing the two so that you can see an overall picture of how much life insurance you need to get.
Once you have a clearer idea of how much life insurance you need, then it is time to consider the different types of life insurance that you can get.
2/ Identify Which Type Of Life Insurance You Need
There are two main types:
Term Life Insurance – This offers the most amount of death cover for the least amount of money. You can choose a specified ‘term’ to be covered under (usually 1, 10 or 20 years). However, as you get older the cost of this will go up, and the policy itself has no cash value, no savings element, and does not pay dividends or interest.
Whole Life Insurance – This is a type of permanent life insurance that stays in force for your whole life. It is more expensive than Term Life Insurance, but it does have a savings element, a cash value, and can potentially pay dividends. As you age, the gap between the on-going cost of whole life insurance goes down in comparison to term life insurance. But a longer term commitment is required for it to make sense financially, because the first few years of the policy will see very little cash value.
Weigh up the different options and start to think about which could be best.
3/ Get Some Quotes For Each Type
It is very difficult to finally decide on which policy is right for you until you have checked out some real world quotes as to what it might cost you.
So go and get some Vermont Life Insurance Quotes now (see the top of this page) and compare the costs of your different options before finally settling on a policy that you are happy with.
Vermont Life Insurance – The Details…
With regards to the rules and regulations that govern how insurance in Vermont is regulated, you need to look at The State Insurance Code of Vermont.
This is a set of laws, rules and regulations that pertain to how insurance business in Vermont is conducted.
The Vermont Insurance Division is responsible for implementing the above insurance code, and states its mission as a threefold task as follow:
“The Insurance Division regulates the insurance industry in Vermont and protects the public in these general areas:
Solvency laws require insurance companies to operate in a fiscally responsible manner so that, after taking their customers' money (premiums), they can be counted on to pay claims down the road.
Consumer protection laws require companies to sell legal insurance products through licensed producers, treat consumers fairly, and pay claims in a timely manner.
Finally, the Insurance Division reviews and approves all life insurance and property casualty policies sold in Vermont to ensure that they provide the protections required by Vermont law.”
Vermont Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association
If a life insurance company in Vermont were to become insolvent, then it would be the Vermont Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association who would step in to provide some safeguards and protections to Vermont policyholders.
