What Does Colorado Life Insurance Cover?
Life insurance is a way of helping your family deal financially when you die. It’s intended to provide financial help to your loved ones when your salary or income is gone.
The money (death benefit) can be used to pay: your funeral expense, pay off debts, pay the mortgage, fund your children’s education, cover everyday expenses and more.
When you start thinking about purchasing a CO life insurance policy, you should first look at your assets. Are you wealthy enough to help with the bills you leave behind? If you are, you might not need a large life insurance policy. The money you leave behind may be enough to cover funeral and burial expenses as well as other bills such as estate taxes. Do you have enough money to cover lost income should you become unable to work? If you don’t have enough to act as a supplemental income, you may want to purchase a larger life insurance policy.
What Types Colorado Life Insurance Are There?
There are two main types of CO life insurance available, and some of them offer more ‘living benefits’, in addition to the payout upon the death of the insured.
- Term Insurance: Term life insurance is considered to be the most basic of life insurance available. Term lofe only offers death benefit protection – if you die during the policy term your beneficiaries get a payment.
- Permanent Insurance: This form of life insurance is different from term insurance because it offers in addition to offering a death benefit, it also offers cash value component that can be accessed during the insured’s life. The cash build up is not taxed under current law.
Term Life Insurance – Term is a temporary type of life insurance that covers you for a set period (term) of one or more years – typically 10, 20 or 30. It pays a death benefit only if you die during that term. Term insurance generally provides the largest amount of death protection per premium dollar.
Below are some of the most common forms of permanent insurance:
Whole Life Insurance – Whole Life a permanent type of life insurance that protects you for as long as you live as long as you pay the premiums. With the most common type, called straight life or ordinary life insurance, you pay the same premium for as long as you live. Whole life is used to extend the coverage past a certain term, and can also build a cash value tax free over time.
Universal Life Insurance – Universal Life is a newer, permanent and flexible type of life insurance policy where the premiums you pay, less expense charges, are deposited into a policy account that earns interest tax free. Charges for the insurance are deducted from the account.
Variable Universal Life Insurance – Similar to universal life this type of permanent insurance is flexible where the premiums you pay, less expense charges, are deposited into a policy account that invests in mutual funds or other investments. This means that the funds have the opportunity to grow more than some of the other types of permanent insurance, and it also means there is risk for losses in value if the stock market declines. Charges for the insurance are deducted from the account.
Survivorship Life Insurance – Survivorship Life covers two people (like husband and wife), and pays a death benefit at either the first death (first to die) or after both have passed away (last to die). Survivorship costs less than two individual permanent policies, so it can offer a larger death benefit for your beneficiaries.
Final Expense Life Insurance – Final Expense also know as ‘burial insurance’ is purchased by seniors to pay for high cost of CO funeral and other related expenses such as a headstone, burial, flowers, and memorial service, so their remaining family does not have to be burdened by the bills.
What Colorado Life Insurance Doesn’t Cover
Life insurance typically will not pay the death benefit if the insured:
- Commits suicide. If the insured kills themselves. In some states there is something called a ‘suicide clause’, which means if the insured commits suicide within a certain time frame, the beneficiary would not get the death benefit.
- Commits Fraud. The insurance company is going to investigate the cause of death. They will look at the events that led to the death and compare them to the original application. If the insured smokes or has some other health issue, or skydives, cliff jumps etc. and did not disclose it on the original application they can deny the claim.
- Does illegal activities. If the insured dies while committing a crime or participating in any kind of illegal activity.
- Involved in Acts of War. If the insured dies in a war.
- Permanently moves outside the USA. If the insured moves to certain countries.
How Much Does Colorado Life Insurance Cost?
How much does CO life insurance cost? The premiums vary depending on the company and their underwriting rules, and it depends on the type of policy an amount of coverage selected. Following are some of the main ‘personal risk factors’ that go into the price of a policy:
- Age – Life insurance gets more expensive as you get older. There is a saying, “The best time to buy life insurance is yesterday.”
- Non Smoker or Smoker – Smokers pay for life insurance.
- Health – Healthier people pay less. Overweight people, those with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diseases like diabetes etc. will pay more.
- Gender – Women live longer than men and pay less because of that.
- Occupation – Accounts will pay less than people who build skyscrapers.
- Travel amp; Hobbies – If participate in extreme sports like skydiving or travel to dangerous parts of the world, you might pay more.
- Personal Risk Factors – These include your credit history, driving history and criminal history.
CO Life Insurance Quotes
Request a Colorado Life Insurance quote in Alamosa, Arvada, Aurora, Boulder, Brighton, Broomfield, Castle Pines North, Castle Rock, Canon City, Centennial, Colorado Springs, Commerce City, Craig, Delta, Denver, Durango, Englewood, Erie, Evans, Federal Heights, Firestone, Fort Collins, Fort Morgan, Fountain, Frederick, Fruita, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Grand Junction, Greeley, Greenwood Village, Johnstown, Lafayette, Lakewood, Littleton, Lone Tree, Longmont, Louisville, Loveland, Montrose, Northglenn, Parker, Pueblo, Rifle, Steamboat Springs, Sterling, Superior, Thornton, Trinidad, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, Windsor and all other cities in CO.
Colorado Insurance Regulations & Limits
When it comes to insurance regulations in Colorado, there are a few things that you want to be aware of. Let's take a look at the laws and rules surrounding insurance in CO.
Colorado Commercial Insurance
The most common type of business insurance is liability insurance. Commercial liability insurance is required to cover things like property damage, bodily injury, personal injury, advertising injury and legal defense and judgments. Colorado is a fault state, and businesses are not required to carry liability insurance in order to operate. There is a cap on damages that are not economic set at 468 010 USD with a higher limit set at 936 030 USD for non-economic damages in which it can be proven that the original damage amount is too low. However, these cases are rare.
Punitive damages in exemplary damages are almost unheard of in Colorado, but there is no limit on economic damages. The statute of limitations to file against types of damages is two years - or three years if the damages were sustained in a vehicle. Most experts recommend the businesses carry anywhere from 500 000 USD to 1 000 000 USD in general liability coverage.
The only other requirements for businesses that you need to be aware of is the requirement for any business that hires hourly or wage employees to carry Worker's Compensation insurance and for those same companies to have minimum insurance coverage on their vehicles which for a vehicle used for business purposes means that you will have to purchase a commercial auto insurance policy.
CO Personal Insurance
The most common type of personal insurance is the one that everyone is required to have - auto insurance. The law requires that you have at least 25 000 USD per person and at least 50 000 USD per accident in liability insurance; as well as an additional 15 000 USD for property damage. These are the main regulations covering auto insurance in Colorado and they are very similar to the regulations found in most of the other states.
The only additional regulation that you need to be aware of when it comes to personal insurance has to do with life insurance. If you have life insurance, your insurance provider is required to give you a one month grace period before they can cancel your policy due to nonpayment. This protects consumers against having policies canceled due to having a late payment. This is the only regulation you should know when it comes to life insurance.