Archive for March, 2007
Just finishing up today and getting ready to drive to where my parents live. My father has bladder cancer and is meeting with the oncologist tomorrow to discuss what steps might be best. At his age 84, he of course has long since quit worrying about life insurance and neither the cancer or the treatment will impact him in that manner. Just say a prayer for him if you are so inclined. At his age the treatment can be extremely rough, almost as rough as the disease itself.
As I was wrapping up I got a call from a son looking for life insurance for his 48 year old father who has liver cancer and is still undergoing treatment. I explained that at this juncture there really was no option other than guaranteed issue life insurance, a whole life policy that is “graded”. What that means is that the death benefit doesn’t become fully “vested”, for lack of a better term, for two years, three with some companies. So, if his father were to pass away during that period all that would be paid to the beneficiaries is a return of the premium paid, plus interest.
The son, of course, wanted something with an immediate benefit and said he would just continue looking. Logic would of course lean toward the fact that if an insurance company was going to offer insurance with an immediate death benefit, and that person was in the throes of a potentially fatal cancer, they would have to charge a premium almost equal to the death benefit. Logic did not dissuade the son. He said he would keep looking.
I say all of this for two reasons. Most importantly, get insurance while you are healthy and keep it in force. Even if it’s only a small amount and term insurance. No one knows what is coming, or when……and immortality is just not part of the human makeup. Don’t leave your children scrambling for a way to come up with enough money to bury you.
Second. Don’t overlook guaranteed issue insurance unless you have been told that the person who needs the insurance won’t make it two years. Most independent agents will have access to this type of coverage. There is no magic insurance out there for situations like these.
Time to hit the road.
March 22nd, 2007
Coronary artery disease (CAD), heart attacks, angioplasty and bypass surgery are generally enough to make the average life insurance agent run for the hills. As they close the door or hang up the phone they will probably be sputtering something about uninsurable. Time to seek out an experienced and knowledgable independent life insurance agent for those quotes. Get someone who understands that heart attacks don’t always kill people and don’t generally make people uninsurable.
Some life insurance companies really do believe that heart issues are the end of the world and therein lies the logic of the independent agent. A good independent agent will have four or five companies that are good with just about any impairment that pops up, whether heart related, build related (height and weight challenged), diabetes or cancer related. Not all companies are good with everything, but generally speaking there are usually a few “go to” companies for most health problems.
What the underwriters want to see is a clear picture of the history of the problem. For heart related issues that would mean a copy of a stress test. For cancer, a pathology report , and for diabetes a blood workup. Then they want to know what was done about it and how it is being currently treated and monitored. Underwriters are definitely up for giving a break to someone who is doing all the right things.
What they don’t want to see is someone who is ignoring sound medical advice, such as continuing to smoke after a cardiac event, only taking medication when you feel like you need it rather than as prescibed, and skipping regularly scheduled followup.
In a nutshell, take your health problem seriously and the insurance companies will bend in your favor.
March 22nd, 2007
Life insurance these days has so many options available as far as products go that it has become easier and easier to hone in to just exactly the right product for your life and your needs. Along with the huge increase in options is the need to have a professional independent insurance agent help you understand how best to choose or combine different options.
The good old days were simple. There was whole life insurance and you had a choice of what company you wanted to purchase it from. Today, while whole life is still an option, there is now universal life, universal life with no lapse guarantees, variable whole life and universal life. Along with all of those permanent options there are guaranteed level term insurance options from 5 to 30 years and return of premium term insurance. And for those small needs there are final expense policies or burial policies and finally, for the technically uninsurable, there is guaranteed issue graded whole life.
I’m not saying you can’t figure out the appopriate route on your own. All I’m saying is that professional advice can save you huge amounts of time and money. With the number of people who die each year “looking into” life insurance, time is an important consideration.
March 21st, 2007
There is certainly no lack of unjustified respect for some of the biggest names in life insurance in the country. If you’ve seen their name on television or in magazines it kind of sticks with you and you probably, like most folks, assume that big and famous, means good prices. In life insurance you can just about take it to the bank that the opposite is true.
Those companies that we all know, with the notable exception of Prudential, are making a killing selling overpriced term insurance, whole life and universal life to customers that really don’t check it out and find out what they can really get. Just today I saw an example of a Hartford quote on a woman who is a breast cancer survivor. The Hartford quote was fully 200% higher than the competitive companies like Prudential for the exact same product.
Don’t get caught up in big names. Get an independent life insurance agent to shop the market for you and find the best possible rate, still with highly rated companies, and be rewarded with fair prices. It doesn’t matter if you are completely healthy, or have had cancer, coronary artery disease, type 1 or type 2 diabetes, a stroke, or hepatitis, a good independent agent will beat the rich and famous companies every time.
March 20th, 2007
On the way up this weekend I got the chance to talk to two pilots and three professional skydivers. One of them asked me what I do and when I mentioned that I am a life insurance agent, the questions started flying. Can I get it even though I skydive? Why do pilots have to pay so much more? How can I tell if I’m already covered with my current policy?
The bottom line was I told them that while both the pilots and skydivers were taking part in activities that a lot of insurance companies deem dangerous, not all insurance companies take the same view and many independent insurance agents have the experience to advise them in how to maximize their coverage in spite of the downsides in the underwriting.
After promising them all business cards we headed for the door. This was my first experience, a tandem jump with Nick from Mile-Hi-Skydiving in Boulder, CO. Just as I had suspected for all the years I had considered doing this, the first step was absolutely unbelievable. While I’m not sure I will make a habit of it, I would highly recommend everyone experience it at least once. Tell Nick I sent you. Contact info is at www.mile-hi-skydiving.com.
But back to life insurance. While there is no escaping the dreaded extra cost that comes with some hobbies, a good independent life insurance agent can guide you to the lowest possible life insurance quotes.
Then consider this. I don’t know of a private pilot that really believes their demise will occur while flying. After this weekend I can tell you that skydivers feel the same. So say you have a family and you really believe in the need to provide life insurance protection, but you don’t want to bust your budget. Carry two policies!
Carry one term insurance policy where you bite the bullet and pay the extra cost to cover your hobby or profession. Make it a large enough policy to have a meaningful impact on your family’s future, but not so large that it damages your ability to feed your family.
Carry another policy where you exclude aviation activities, thus keeping the cost of that policy very low.
Together they do everything you want. In the event of a death due to your hobby, your family is still left with a substantial amount of life insurance. Any other cause of death would result in the full amount of both policies being paid. Just like staggering your insurance (not putting all of your life insurance in one term length), layering your coverage around an occupation or avocation is an option worthy of study.
March 18th, 2007
Probably nothing rubs me the wrong way worse than an insurance agent who tells someone they are uninsurable just because they don’t represent a company that will make an offer on a particular health problem. Sometimes these agents don’t even understand the health problem well enough to know that they can in fact get the person life insurance. And come on. If all else fails there is always guaranteed issue life insurance. It is a choice of last resort, but anyone can get it.
It just tears me up when agents don’t even shop a case the way a good independent life insurance agent should. I don’t know if it’s just too much work, or they’re just ignorant of their own industry or products, but just because some has had cancer, a heart attack, a stroke, type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or their build is just off of the standard charts, DOES NOT MEAN THE PEOPLE ARE UNINSURABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Agents, I think, get lazy and only want to work on the easy cases. Ma and Pa Healthy. I know a few years ago the internet giant brokerage Matrix Direct would only write preferred business and farmed out all of their other leads to independent agents. They didn’t want to do anything that had to be worked on and earned.
I can tell you that there is nothing more satisfying than getting someone the insurance they need after they have been told that they are uninsurable. It’s nice to be able to help someone who has been beat down by the lazy people in our business.
Bottom line is that everyone is insurable for a price. Most people who have been told they are uninsurable, have been told that by someone too lazy to do the work or refer them to someone who will do the work.
March 17th, 2007
For those of us who grew up around wilderness areas, “leave no trace” was something we learned early and really took to heart. It meant not only cleaning up after ourselves, but very often cleaning up someone else’s left behinds.
Having adequate life insurance in force has the same kind of meaning to it. When a father or mother dies prematurely without life insurance, the impact is often harsh and irreparable. It can smash dreams, change futures for the worse and cause hardship that could have been easily avoided.
I know it’s just an analogy, but think about the legacy you would want to leave if you died prematurely. The difference is stark. The wilderness, your family’s future, could be ruined, or you could choose to leave it just a little better than you found…….and certainly no worse.
Call an independent life insurance agent and get an insurance quote today.
March 16th, 2007
I know I’ve been guilty of putting off going to the dentist and much to my dismay it ended up costing me much more than I would have liked to pay. Instead of getting my teeth cleaned and checked, and maybe getting a filling, I would end up with a root canal and a crown. Sometimes it seems that doing the more prudent, maybe more adult thing, might actually save you money in the long run.
But the analogy here is about buying life insurance. The worst thing that can happen if I really wait far too long to go to the dentist is that I will lose all my teeth and spend some of my hard earned money getting false teeth (do they still call them that?). If I wait too long to buy life insurance it might cost way more than what I wanted to pay…..or I may not even be insurable for some health reason……or I might even be dead.
Now with the dentist scenario, the worst thing that happens to my family is that I waste some money that could have been used for more wise investments and my family may have to suffer some embarrassment because my teeth fall out or something.
With life insurance I might very well leave my family with nothing if I wait too long. They could lose my income, the house, the path to their futures. I could actually ruin my family’s future just because I drug my feet too long.
Men! I am mostly talking to you fathers and husbands. Don’t be irresponible. If you don’t have life insurance, contact an independent life insurance agent today and at least get started on putting some term insurance in force. Don’t get caught up in thinking it to death. Pick an affordable amount and term length and just do it. Then, when you have life insurance in force, do some studying and see how you might change or supplement what you already have. It’s not like you are stuck once you’ve bought a term policy.
Bottom line, don’t put it off. It could end up being the worst decision you ever made for your family.
March 16th, 2007
In response to a less than reputable business practice, life insurance companies now offer at no additional charge a feature called an accelerated death benefit.
It wasn’t that long ago that there was a prolific market in praying on the terminally ill and especially those whose families were suffering not only the loss of a loved one, but a financial disaster with loss of income and medical bills. Along would come these less than reputable business people (we’ll call them pigs), who would be willing to pay you half of the value of your life insurance policy in exchange for ownership of the policy. A lot of people went for that usually because the terminally ill insured person didn’t want to see the family suffer financially. So, the pig would bail them out and take over ownership of the policy and keep it in force until the insured’s death, netting a 100% profit when they received the full death benefit.
Now, whether you have term insurance, whole life or universal life, the insurance companies have put the pig out of business. If you are terminally ill and have an accelerated death benefit rider, you are allowed to take a portion of your death benefit from the company (usually 50% or more) to use before your death. Consult your independent life insurance agent to make sure your policy has the rider. With the rider the policy remains under your ownership and upon your death the unused balance goes to your beneficiaries.
March 15th, 2007
A large percentage of life insurance customers know very little about the products they are inquiring about. Especially true for first time customers but very often just as true for customers who have purchased before. A quick confession right up front to your independent life insurance agent that maybe you could use some education and guidance will go along way toward ensuring you end up with the right product and actually understand why. Don’t be afraid to ask. No life insurance question should be too tough for a good agent to answer in simple enough terms that you will gain useful knowledge and confidence in what you are doing.
The top 10 questions we hear! 1. Should I buy whole life? 2. What term is best for me? 3. How much life insurance should I have? 4. Is the quote I got on the internet accurate? 5. Why are the rates on my current policy going up all the time? 6. How do I know this company will be in business if when my family needs them? 7. Why do you need to know all of that (referring to our health questions)? 8. Don’t you have something cheaper? 9. Where are you from? 10. Is it better to have a local agent?
I won’t blog you to death with detailed answers here, but….
1. Determining whether you need whole life, universal life or term insurance is really just a matter of answering the question, do you need that much coverage forever, or will the need go away after a certain time (term).
2. The length of the term should be as long as the need for the coverage and if you are unsure, and it is budgetable, take a longer term. You can always drop it, but you may not always be able to get it.
3. There are a hundred different ways to do a needs analysis, but the big three come down to replacement of lost income, dependent children and college if you want to cover that, and mortgages. Even if you can’t nail it down exactly, get close and put something in force. You can always add later if you see the need. ****Special note for husbands/fathers**** I have a personal philosophy about your role. If affordable, you should always strive to carry enough insurance to leave your family better off than they are right now. Why? Because you just don’t know what challenges they will face down the road.
4. The quote you get when you quote yourself on the internet has less than a 20% chance of being accurate. You need to review health, hobbies and family history with an agent to be able to get an accurate quote.
5. The rate is going up because you were sold a level term that has come to the end of its’ guarantee, you bought a yearly renewable term (bad idea), or you bought a whole life or universal life policy that was not guaranteed. All three of those situations are fixable and if you don’t fix it, it will get worse.
6. You don’t know if the company will be there, no matter how long they’ve been around or what their ratings are. That’s offset by the fact that if your company goes out of business it is highly unlikely that it will not be purchased by another company. The good news is that by law, the new company has to keep all the guarantees in place. Kind of like your mortgage being purchased. The check goes to someone else but everything else is the same.
7. I need to know all of that (the health questions) so I can provide you with an accurate insurance quote. I don’t want to call you up down the road and say that the wonderful quote I gave you didn’t come through because of health issues you could have told me about if I had asked.
8. Good question. In most cases there is something cheaper. In order to get there it takes less insurance or a shorter term. While I believe a good agent should always quote you the solution to your problem, budget always plays a part. And the bottom line is that something in force is always better than nothing.
9. Salida, Colorado. Right in the middle of the state.
10. Not necessarily. I know that sometimes it feels better to know that you have someone close, a hometown agent. You need to weigh that against an agent that has access to more companies. An agent who is licensed in all 50 states (and DC), so that if you move or if you have family in another state, that agent can service your needs. An agent who has a staff to serve you even if they are on vacation. Get quotes from both and talk about what you really want and need an agent to do for you.
11. I know this was a top 10 thing, but, can we get good rates for private pilots? Absolutely yes.
March 15th, 2007
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