Archive for October 14th, 2007
Here I go again! The truth is that affordable life insurance is out there for those with diabetes, but the life insurance underwriter mantra, “monitoring, compliance and control”. Oops, that’s just 3.
I just read an article on 7 steps for good diabetes care, and the truth is that adding the other 4 to my 3 will certainly increase your chances of acquiring the family protection you need at prices that will work with your budget.
The real jewel in this article about diabetes is that whether you have diabetes or not, you can benefit from the advice. Their 7 steps….
- Healthy Eating - Can’t you just hear your mother now? But the truth is that we live in a world full a mostly bad choices. Making the right choices can prevent health problems.
- Being active - This is a tough step if you lulled yourself into a lethargic lifestyle, but start small. Walk around the block once a day this week. Next week add a day with two blocks instead of one. The biggest problem with being active is the first step out the door.
- Monitoring - For someone with diabetes this refers to glucose. For everyone it should include an annual checkup. Remember, health fairs are free!!
- Taking medication - If you don’t need medication, eat proactive foods. I’m looking at an issue of The People’s Pharmacy that says that cherries, grapes and pomegranates are good for prevention of heart disease.
- Problem solving - Developing problem solving skills that decrease stress is certainly a healthy direction.
- Reducing risks - Not walking out in front of buses is good! It seems to me that 1-5 above are also a good start.
- Healthy coping - It’s a busy, crazy world out there, and whether you are coping with diabetes or children or rush hour traffic, finding healthy ways to deal with the anxiety and stress should be at the top of your to do list.
Bottom line. Having a plan in place for your health will be the same as having a plan in place to make sure your life insurance remains affordable.
October 14th, 2007
Writing a check for your life insurance premium may not be up there with getting a hot stick poked in your eye, but it certainly isn’t as soothing as writing a check for a Carribean vacation either.
So, if I asked you this. Do you like writing checks to the IRS? If you could avoid writing a check to the IRS by writing a smaller check to a life insurance company, would it make that premium payment at least slightly more pallatable?
I’ve had clients on complete opposite sides of the mountain when it comes to the issue of estate taxes. Some are right with the program. Show them an affordable way to keep their estate intact for their heirs and they are on board. Others have point blank told me that they don’t really care because they’ll be dead.
Let me just turn on the lamp over this mess on the table. If you have a substantial estate and have not put anything in place to protect it, when you die, your heirs will have 9 months to make sense of it all, determine the value, and liquidate enough of the estate to pay the estate taxes. It is precisely this scenario that plays out with easily half of taxable estates.
The result is that often as much as half of what you worked your entire life for will not be passed on to your family, many of the assets you have accrued will be sold off for pennies on the dollar due to the time limit, and your heirs are probably going to wonder how, if you were smart enough to create all of that wealth, why weren’t you smart enough to protect it.
Bottom line. Estate taxes are a fact of life. Even if the US government repeals estate taxes, states stand ready to increase state death taxes to continue the taxation from another direction. Life insurance owned by a life insurance trust can pay those taxes for pennies on the dollar. Who would you rather write a check to?
October 14th, 2007
A TIA (Transient ischemic attack), or mini stroke, is generally a disurbing, but not life threatening or even lifestyle threatening event. It generally incurs a night at the hospital and a recommendation for followup testing and possible treatment. In most cases there is no treatment at the time, because with a mini stroke the symptoms resolve fairly rapidly.
A stroke, on the other hand, is life changing at best and life threatening in many cases. From a life insurance underwriting standpoint there is an underwriting view that distinguishes between the two, a mini stroke or a stroke, to a degree that matches the impact the two have on your life.
Both are going to require some waiting period before insurance is written. With a TIA this has more to do with seeing if there will be a recurrence, or a stroke. With a stroke it has to do with recovery from the neurological effects, how severely impacted the person is, and success of treatment in preventing recurrence.
A recent study
pointed out that the medical community may be having too lax an attitude about mini strokes. As I mentioned, there is often a waiting period before any treatment is started. In many instances this can be weeks or months. The study concludes that if treatment is started within 24 hours of a mini stroke, it cuts that person’s chances of having a full blown stroke in the next three months by 80%.
We’re not talking about rocket science when they suggest starting treatment immediately. In most cases, after testing and study, mini stroke patients are put on cholesterol and high blood pressure controlling drugs and aspirin as ongoing treatment to prevent a stroke. Seems it might make a lot of sense to start that treatment immediately. Even if the doctors ultimately decide on a different course of action, they certainly won’t have done any harm in the short run. They may very well save the person’s life.
As with all health problems, and especially major health problems, the less impact it has on your life, the less impact it will have on your ability to find reasonable life insurance rates. If there is a way to keep a less damaging health issue like a TIA from leading to a huge issue like a stroke, it makes sense that the medical community would leap on it as common sense.
Bottom line. Life insurance doesn’t just look at the medical event, but also at the damage done and how prone that makes a person to additional mortality effecting events. Hopefully common sense will lead to common practice on the issue of mini strokes.
October 14th, 2007
