It is important when looking to get Wyoming Life Insurance Quotes to consider all your different options so that you can get the best possible deal on your policy. In order to do that you need to understand both Wyoming specific insights, and also more general insights that relate to life insurance in any part of the country.
In this article I am going to address both of those concerns as well as taking a look at how life insurance in Wyoming impacts on the state’s economy from a wider perspective.
To get going let’s first check out a little background information on Wyoming.
(If you would like to get some Wyoming Life Insurance Quotes right now, then simply put your zipcode in the box above, click Start and choose from the specially selected companies to get some WY Life Insurance Quotes right now.)
Wyoming – A Little Background
Wyoming is a state of contrasts. It is one of the largest states (10th) in terms of physical land area with a land mass of 97,814 square metres (approximately 280 miles wide by 360 miles long); but the smallest state (50th) in terms of population, with only 563,626 people in 2010.
In practice then the idea of wide open spaces with no people is true of Wyoming like virtually no-where else in the United States and on average there are only about 5 people for every square mile of land.
The Capital and largest city in Wyoming is Cheyenne, which had a city population of just 59,466 and a metropolitan population of 88,854 in 2010.
It is one of the windiest cities in the United States, and so the local government have recently been taking advantage of this fact by stepping up efforts to make Cheyenne a leading light in wind energy programs.
It is also home to the largest outdoor rodeo in the United States, which is called Cheyenne Frontier Days, and is held every year in the last week of July. The event is a major tourist draw, and close to 200,000 people descend on Cheyenne for the event, with camping often having to be the order of business, because there simply aren’t enough beds to go around!
The federal government own 48% of all the land in Wyoming, and the State Government 6%, and much of this is forests and grasslands, with a smattering of military facilities.
Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote on December 10th 1869 and was also the first state to elect a female governor in 1924, the first to have a female justice of the peace in 1870, and the first to have a woman serve on a jury. It is for these kind of landmarks for women’s rights that Wyoming carries the nickname ‘The Equality State’.
Economically the biggest forces in the Wyoming economy are mineral extraction and tourism, as well as agricultural production and ranching.
Coal is a massive contributor to the economy as Wyoming is the number one producer of coal in the United States, and is also the second biggest producer of natural gas, and the 5th biggest producer of crude oil.
The state GDP of Wyoming was $38.2 billion in 2010, which is roughly equivalent to the GDP of countries like Kenya ($32.41 billion) or Lebanon ($39.14 billion).
Wyoming also has one of the friendliest business environments of any of the states. This is reflected in the fact that in 2011 Wyoming was ranked as the third most ‘business friendly’ tax environment by Washington D.C based think tank, Tax Foundation. (The ‘friendliest’ was South Dakota, and the least friendly New York in case you want to know :-))
Wyoming Life Insurance – The Facts About WY Life Insurance
There are 420 Wyoming Life Insurance Companies who are licensed to sell life insurance in Wyoming.
The numbers of people employed in the life insurance industries are relatively small in the state, just 900 people directly employed, which is perhaps not surprising as the state is geared to make money from mineral extraction and tourism, not finance and insurance.
Nevertheless, the residents of Wyoming do own 230,000 individual life insurance policies, and the average policyholder has $110,000 worth of cover according to the American Council of Life Insurers, with a total of $40 billion worth of death benefit cover.
And even though Wyoming has the smallest population it still managed to purchase $3 billion worth of individual life cover in 2009.
When you consider that the entire states GDP is $38.2 billion ($37.54 billion in 2009), then it gets into perspective the figures of $450 million which are paid out annually (2009 figures) in policy dividends, matured endowments, surrender values and death benefits from insurance policies and the additional $90 million which are paid out in annuity benefits.
In effect the life insurance sector contributes almost 1.5% of the states GDP.
Why Getting Wyoming Life Insurance Is A MUST Not A Should…
There are still a surprising number of households in the United States that don’t have any life insurance. Latest research puts the figure at around 35 million, and of those eleven million contain children that are younger than 18.
Think about how shocking that is for a moment. If the bread winner in those households dies then that family could very quickly find themselves with their home dispossessed, out on the streets, or at the very least wondering how they are going to pay the bills.
Now, this “disaster scenario” may not reflect your own reality. You may be more comfortably off, your wife may work, or you may not have any children. But the fact is that you should still give some careful thought to life insurance and how it should slot into your finances, because life insurance is not just about averting disaster. It can also be about how you can maximise the amount of good you are able to do, even if you are aren’t around to see it! And that is simply looking at term life insurance where the main benefit comes from a death benefit payout.
You could also opt for a whole life insurance policy (permanent life insurance), or variable life insurance which has an investment element, and you could then reap the benefits of life insurance BEFORE you depart this world.
The point is that you have more options than you think. Life Insurance is not all doom and gloom. It can be a force for positive change if you grasp the nettle and sort out a policy that works for you, and it is also the best backup plan you can ever buy for the unexpected treats that life has in store for us.
There is no excuse not to take action right now and at least check out a few quotes.
What have you got to lose? Ten minutes of your life? That really is all. If it’s too expensive, then don’t buy it! Seek out a better deal. There are hundreds of life insurance companies, and an even greater variety of deals on offer. You simply need to find them, and the internet has made doing this easy, fast and convenient.
You no longer have to take a trip to downtown Cheyenne to see an agent to get this happening.
Instead you can do it all from the comfort of your own home!
Wyoming Life Insurance – The Details
The regulatory and legal environment that surrounds how life insurance in Wyoming is regulated is governed by The State Insurance Code of Wyoming.
This is a set of legal rules and statutes which lays down how insurance in Wyoming is regulated, and is useful to know because these are essentially the rules of the game, and are what Wyoming Insurance Companies will be referring to when they design your policy.
If you later have any issues with them, then being able to read the Wyoming Insurance Code (which is ‘Title 26’ in the statute book) yourself can be a big help to getting clarity over what to do next.
The Wyoming Insurance Department is responsible for ensuring that the above rules and regulations are followed. It is also actively involved in educating Wyoming residents about insurance and also with providing proper regulation to Insurance Companies in Wyoming.
Their website has a fairly basic design and could do with an upgrade, but the information it contains is very solid and is worth reading.
Wyoming Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association
If you purchase life insurance in Wyoming and the company becomes insolvent, then the Wyoming Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association is tasked with assisting Wyoming policyholders by offering advice and financial assistance as laid down by statute. (The relevant statute is Title 26 - Chapter 31 – Wyoming Insurance Guaranty Association Act .
You can find the direct link above in the ‘Wyoming Life Insurance – The Details’ section).
