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Mortgage Insurance

When you buy a home, you need to put mortgage insurance on that home to make sure that you can repay the mortgage when you die.

The Home Protection Plan Mortgage Insurance program was designed to help teachers do that simply and inexpensively.

See, when you bought your home you were probably offered insurance through the bank. This is what's sometimes called "creditor insurance". It's called that because it's protecting the creditor (the bank) -- not your family.

You pay for this insurance, and if something happens to you, the bank decides what will happen with the money. You pay for it, and the bank owns it.

With mortgage insurance, you pay for it and you own it. If you die, your family gets the money -- and they get to decide what to do with it. Maybe they will pay down the mortgage. Maybe they'll pay part of it. Or invest the money and keep paying the mortgage. It's their decision.

If you sell your house, no problem -- the insurance travels with you to your new house. And unlike the insurance from your bank, with the Home Protection Plan Mortgage Insurance program, your premiums and benefits are guaranteed -- you know exactly how much you'll pay. And because it's medically underwritten at the start, you know exactly what you'll receive.

Questions you should ask your mortgage insurance provider.

Question: Are you licensed to sell life insurance?

Answer: Licensed insurance agents must go through comprehensive licensing requirements to prove that they have the understanding to help you protect your most important investments (like your home).

If I die, where does the money go?

Answer:With bank insurance (sometimes called creditor insurance), the money goes to the bank - not your family. Neither you nor your family have any say in how this works. With our Home Protection Plan Mortgage Insurance, your money goes to your beneficiaries - your heirs - and they can decide what to do with it.

Question: How much will my family get?

Answer: A mortgage insurance product from Capital Estate Planning will be contractually guaranteed. You'll know exactly how much will go to supporting your family. With bank insurance, the bank will keep the whole amount and use whatever it needs to pay down the mortgage.

Question: When does underwriting happen?

Answer: In order for an insurance policy to be contractually guaranteed, the company needs to underwrite at time of application. That is, when you apply for insurance, they get you to answer questions about your medical history so that they know going in what your risk is. What does this mean? If you have a claim your policy will be paid out to your heirs.

With many bank insurance policies, they underwrite at the time of the claim. Which means that when you die, your family puts in the claim, and the bank goes back and decides if you were insurable. Even if you have been paying premiums for decades.

Knowing all of this, where do you feel safe putting your insurance dollars?