Life Insurance

Life Insurance...Facts You Should Know!

Life insurance or life assurance is a contract between the policy owner and the insurer, where the insurer agrees to pay a sum of money upon the occurrence of the insured individual's or individuals' death or other event, such as terminal illness or critical illness. In return, the policy owner agrees to pay a stipulated amount called a premium at regular intervals or in lump sums. There may be designs in some countries where bills and death expenses plus catering for after funeral expenses should be included in Policy Premium. In the United States, the predominant form simply specifies a lump sum to be paid on the insured's demise.

As with most insurance policies, life insurance is a contract between the insurer and the policy owner whereby a benefit is paid to the designated beneficiaries if an insured event occurs which is covered by the policy.

The value for the policyholder is derived, not from an actual claim event, rather it is the value derived from the 'peace of mind' experienced by the policyholder, due to the negating of adverse financial consequences caused by the death of the Life Assured.

To be a life policy the insured event must be based upon the lives of the people named in the policy.

Insured events that may be covered include:

    * Serious illness

Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations of the insured events. Specific exclusions are often written into the contract to limit the liability of the insurer; for example claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, riot and civil commotion.

Life-based contracts tend to fall into two major categories:

    * Protection policies - designed to provide a benefit in the event of specified event, typically a lump sum payment. A common form of this design is term insurance.
    * Investment policies - where the main objective is to facilitate the growth of capital by regular or single premiums. Common forms (in the US anyway) are whole life, universal life and variable life policies.


Prudential Financial, Inc.

(NYSE: PRU) is a Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the United States and in over 30 other countries. Principal products and services provided include life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, pension- and retirement-related investments, administration and asset management, securities brokerage services, and commercial and residential real estate in many states of the U.S.

It provides these products and services to individual and institutional customers through distribution networks in the financial services industry. In 1981, the company acquired Bache & Co., a stock brokerage service now operating as a wholly owned subsidiary. Prudential has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America and has organized its principal operations into the Financial Services Businesses and the Closed Block Business.

Prudential is composed of hundreds of subsidiaries and holds more than $2 trillion of life insurance. Its logo is the Rock of Gibraltar.

Started in Newark, New Jersey in 1875, Prudential Financial, Inc. as it is known today, was originally called the "The Widows and Orphans Friendly Society" and was founded by John F. Dryden, who later became a U.S. Senator. It sold one product in the beginning, burial insurance. John F. Dryden was president of Prudential until 1912. He was succeeded by his son Forrest F. Dryden, who was the president until 1922.

Prudential has evolved from a mutual insurance company (owned by its policyholders) to a joint stock company. It is now traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PRU. The Prudential Stock was issued and started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 13, 2001. On October 16, 2007 the Fox Business Channel picked Prudential as part of its Fox50 Index.

In 1999, Prudential sold its healthcare division, Prudential HealthCare, to Aetna for $1 billion.

On May 1, 2003, Prudential formalized the acquisition of American Skandia, the largest distributor of variable annuities through independent financial professionals in the United States. The combination of American Skandia variable annuities and Prudential fixed annuities was part of Prudential's strategy to acquire complementary businesses that help meet retirement goals.

In April 2004, the company acquired the retirement business of CIGNA Corporation.

On August 1, 2004, the U.S. Office of Homeland Security announced the discovery of terrorist threats against the Prudential Financial headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, prompting large-scale security measures such as concrete barriers and internal security changes such as X-ray machines.

On August 28, 2006, federal and state securities regulators and the Department of Justice announced parallel settlements and a total of $600 million in monetary sanctions against Prudential Securities, Inc. (now known as Prudential Equity Group ) for misconduct relating to improper market timing.

On November 28, 2007, Prudential Financial board of directors elected a new CEO

"The board of directors of Prudential Financial Inc. has elected a new chief executive officer. Vice chairman John R. Strangfeld will take the reins of the Newark-based insurance and financial services company on Jan. 1. Strangfeld, 53, currently runs all of Prudential's U.S. businesses. He succeeds Arthur F. Ryan, who is retiring as CEO at the end of 2007. Strangfeld also will become chairman after Ryan retires from that job in May 2008."

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