Hey, it looks like the underwriting departments of life insurance companies may be willing to look at modifying “rigid” guidelines for what they consider “good” risks to be. For example, I read that The Hartford has started paying more attention to a person’s capacity to exercise as a marker of good health and better longevity. That doesn’t mean that insurance companies won’t look at your blood pressure, cholesterol, height and weight, etc. when considering you for life insurance. It’s just that now they seem willing to look at a couple other factors, too.

People who are athletic aren’t always thin; some have a lot of muscle mass. They may not fit in neat height/weight ratio categories, but they still may be in excellent physical condition. As companies are trying to be more inclusive of those who may be outside the historic underwriting physical benchmarks, they are also sharpening their pencils on other things like aggregate cholesterol, fractionated cholesterol (how your LDL compares with your HDL), a1(c) levels and other factors to try to give very healthy folks not only “preferred” but “super preferred” rates.

When I first started in the business, the underwriting categories were pretty much “standard” or “rated.” And if you were rated, it meant your rates for term insurance, for example, could go up by about 25% for each “table” you were rated—Table 1, Table 2, etc. Since then, companies introduced non-smoker rates, preferred rates, standard-plus rates, super-preferred rates and a number of other categories that you may qualify for.

While super good health may qualify you for special discounted rates, these many different categories also mean you need to be a discriminating shopper. Companies may advertise or illustrate their very best rates in order to attract your inquiry. Just remember that the final rate will only be determined when your medical underwriting is completed. And, make sure when you are comparing companies, that you are comparing the same underwriting class, i.e, preferred to preferred. There could be a 40% pricing difference between a preferred rate and a standard rate.

But the most important advice is to make sure you have enough life insurance. If you don’t, do some shopping. All the comparisons will show you that rates are lower than they have ever been. And if you need help, don’t hesitate to contact your agent or to find one in your area with LIFE’s agent locator.

Life throws us curve balls. We all get them: Spraining your ankle while chasing around in the yard with your kid means having to cancel your upcoming hiking trip. Your car in the repair shop means dipping into the vacation fund to the tune of a thousand bucks to get it back out. Cutbacks at work mean taking on extra work without extra money in your paycheck to show for it.

These curve balls can throw us off course, some for a small amount of time, others for longer periods. We grouse, we complain, we wish for different circumstances—or at least I know I do. But it’s all relative. A bad day is a bad day; a bad week lasts just a week. And, are they really all that bad to begin with?

This has never been clearer for me than after watching the LIFE Lessons scholarship videos. These short videos have been created by young people who find themselves struggling to pay for college because their parents died with little or no life insurance. In watching these videos, you realize that your “curve ball” may, in fact, be a soft lob.

Take Mashell. When her mother died suddenly of a heart attack when she was in high school, there was no life insurance to help provide for her family’s financial needs. She and her brother were forced to take on jobs to pay rent and other bills, as well as care for their younger sister.

Or Giavanna. Her father had not renewed his life insurance policy the year he died and he didn’t have a will, leaving her and her sisters with nothing. To provide for herself, Giavanna has taken on jobs singing in nightclubs and working in restaurants.

And then there’s Massih. When his father lost his battle with stomach cancer, his family found themselves in financial trouble. He became the man of his house, playing father and brother to his younger sister and also worked many hours after school to pay for his personal expenses and help contribute to the household.

Instead of being carefree college students as they had dreamed of, they are struggling just to make ends meet. You can help. While each of these young people has already been awarded a $2,500 college scholarship from the LIFE Foundation, the young person whose story receives the most online votes will receive an additional $2,500 in scholarship money. Votes can be cast at www.lifehappens.org/vote. The deadline to vote is Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 at 5 p.m. Eastern.

I urge you to find a moment to watch these videos and vote, and in the process take a bit of the curve off the ball that life has sent their way.

I received a phone call from a person I had never met to review his insurance. He had recently moved from California, had a 1-year-old baby and felt he needed to replace his group term life insurance, which his company had reduced after recently being acquired by another firm.

I spent time with him and his wife reviewing their financial needs and asking a series of questions about their current and future goals, and then I suggested they go to LIFE’s online Life Insurance Needs Calculator and the Human Life Value Calculator on the LIFE website. We scheduled a follow-up appointment for the next week.

When they returned to my office, I asked if they had run their own numbers based on their requirements. They had, and they determined they needed substantially more life insurance than they currently owned, including new coverage on both the husband and wife, along with a small policy for their baby.

While I guided them through the decision-making process, they determined the amount they actually needed. It worked out to be a similar number to what I had originally calculated, but now it was their number, not mine.

If you are unsure about how much life insurance you and your family need, check out these insurance calculators on our website. It may be one of the best decisions you make for your family.

AARP recently published the article “Love Is Not All You Need” about a couple struggling with the costs of long-term medical care. According to the article, the number of new Alzheimer’s disease patients dealing with these problems may reach 600,000 per year in the near future.

This couple had been married almost 40 years and were nearing retirement when the husband was diagnosed with early-stage dementia. He took early retirement, and his wife started caring for him at home. She was able to cope for a while by hiring in-home help for about $1,000 a month, but as the dementia worsened, her husband required full-time adult daycare which depleted their savings at a rate of $7,500 monthly.

She consulted an elder-care attorney for advice, and after analyzing all of the options, he recommended divorce. Once the husband drained down his portion of what had been their marital estate to $2,000, Medicaid would pick up the cost of his nursing home coverage, and she would save a significant portion of their net worth.

Would this be an easy decision for you? Probably not. But the point is you do not need to be put in this position. With a little bit of planning and perhaps a reallocation of assets, you may be able to purchase a plan to cover some or all of your long-term care needs. You can plan now to cover potential expenses, or you can lose your assets to these devastating costs. The choice is yours. Contact an insurance agent today.

It’s a bit wistful to pack up the red, white and blue decorations and leftover sparklers. I always enjoy spending time with family and friends to celebrate Independence Day. But for me it really isn’t just about beer and BBQ. I’ve traveled to enough countries to have seen firsthand what independence—and lack of it—really means. So whenever the 4th rolls around, I do reflect on the great fortune we have here in the United States.

This 4th of July, which is my first overseeing this blog, I also got to thinking about personal independence and specifically personal financial independence. I read a wide range of other personal finance blogs, and follow a number of them that focus on financial independence. While The Insurance Word focuses mainly on insurance, we realize how important it is to have all areas of your finances in order. So, I recommend that you check out these blogs/websites that will get you thinking about how you can organize your finances and move closer to financial independence. Each of these bloggers/sites comes from a different perspective; see if one speaks to you:

WiseBread: This is a comprehensive site that covers a range topics—from personal finance to “life hacks.” A recent post covers some free, mostly online personal finance tools (giving good suggestions on Wesabe alternatives, which will shut down on July 31).

Wealth Pilgrim: The financial advisor who writes this blog, pulled himself up by his financial bootstraps as an orphaned teen. He offers very straightforward explanations of complex topics like the overlooked tax consequences of converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA or why an irrevocable life insurance trust is something to look into if you will have a high taxable estate.

Cash Money Life: It brings up useful “topics” that I don’t see covered elsewhere. For example, I found the recent post on the new overdraft rules interesting, as it made me reevaluate what I wanted to do with my own checking account. (A caveat: it’s a bit ad heavy, which I find distracting.)

LearnVest: I’ve talked about this site before in a post, and continue to be a big fan. If you are a woman in your 20s who is serious about financial independence, this is a must. And, they are on the same page as we are when it comes to financial independence.

If you have a suggestion for personal finance blogs we should be reading, please send a link or post a comment, and Happy Financial Independence Day.