California Life Insurance

At its most basic level California Life Insurance is a contract between you and a life insurance company to pay a sum of money to your beneficiaries in the event of your death, to cover expenses and make up for the lack of your income. Regulations regarding California Life Insurance usually come into play when a claim is filed, and have to do with payment terms and other issues surrounding the disbursement of death benefits.  

Why Do I Need California Life Insurance?

You may wonder why do I even need California Life Insurance? Take a look at these figures.

California has a fairly high Life Expectancy rate, and is ranked 10th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia with a life expectancy of 78.2 years.  Still, for every 100,000 people in California, close to 800 between the ages of 55 and 64 pass away every year. Between the ages of 65 and 74, that number more than doubles to over 1800, and at 75 to 84 nearly 5000 Californians die for every 100,000 residing in the state. Last year almost 64,000 Californians died of Heart Disease. More on mortality by age, sex and race, and the leading causes of death in California can be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/data/California09.pdf

For more reasons why you should apply for California Life Insurance, and for help in finding the best kind of life insurance for your needs, at the best value, take a look at our Family Guide to Life Insurance.

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California Life Insurance Specifics

California regulates its insurance industry through The State Insurance Code of California. Under the code those purchasing California Life Insurance are afforded certain protections such as:
Free Look: Under State Code a “free look” means you are entitled to change your mind.
All sellers of California Life Insurance plans are obligated to include the Free Look provision. With Free Look, you can chose to cancel your life insurance policy for any reason, even after you have signed the contract with the insurance company and received all policy documents. In most case the free look period is at least a 10-days without penalty - some California Life Insurance Companies give as much as 30 days to review a policy and cancel without penalty.
Grace Period: The California State insurance code also allows residents to be a little late with life insurance premiums and not face immediate cancellation of their coverage. A grace period of at least 30 days is required on late payments. If you miss a premium payment, regardless of the reason, the insurer must give you 30 days to bring the account current before they can cancel the policy for non-payment. 

Life insurance purchasers are not the only ones protected by state regulations. California Life Insurance sellers can also rely on the Code to protect them against consumer fraud.  Under these provisions, a California Life Insurance company can question any information you stated on your California Life Insurance application for up to two years from the purchase of the policy. Any discrepancies, especially those related to medications or tobacco use, can result in revocation of the policy. Allowances for misstatement of age are given., If age is found to be incorrect, the policy rate will likely be adjusted to reflect the accurate age, and not terminated entirely.

California Life Insurance State Resources

California Department of Insurance The purpose of the Department of Insurance is to faithfully execute the state insurance laws in a manner that protects insurance consumers and the California Life Insurance industry.
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/

California Life & Health Insurance Guarantee Association State guaranty associations are there to provide protection and continuing California Life Insurance coverage, even in the event that a life insurance company becomes insolvent.
http://www.nolhga.com/policyholderinfo/main.cfm

California Department of Insurance Blog  News and Views regarding California Life Insurance issues
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/blog/index.cfm

California Life Insurance Company Ratings These companies provide ratings for California Life Insurance Companies based on financial strength and past performance
http://www.ambest.com/