Mammograms have been around since the 1920’s and have saved countless lives through early detection of breast cancer. For that we should all be thankful. But, like most medical exams, you just don’t hear many women come away saying that they should do that more often. Truth is, according to my wife, the procedure is a bit uncomfortable.
For that reason a recent invention may make screening for breast cancer a little less traumatic. Called the Halo Breast Pap Test, the testing device as I understand it, is something akin to a breast pump.
It functions as just that, a breast pump. It pumps fluid from the milk ducts which is then tested in a lab for any abnormalities that could indicate cancer. It has about the same accuracy of detecting early cancer as a mammogram, about 80%. That’s the good news.
The one thing I see missing is that with a mammogram, a tumor or cancerous beginning is located. With the new Halo test, you may know if you have cancer, but you still won’t know where it is. The only way to see what’s really going on is a followup mammogram. And then what if the two tests disagree?
I think overall this is a good thing. The more non invasive ways we have to detect early stage cancer, the more women will be inclined toward testing, and more lives can be saved.
Bottom line. From a life insurance standpoint, if cancer is found on a self exam, mammogram, or the new Halo PAP test, at an early stage and grade, mission accomplished. Early detection is the key to survival and early stage and low grade are the key to a quick road to low life insurance rates.
November 6th, 2007
For those of us who maintain that there is some value in keeping our life insurance licenses unscathed and not getting our pants sued off, the life settlement business has just been one of those things that just hangs out there.
The life settlement business has created a whole new breed of insurance agent. For those that aren’t familiar, a life settlement happens when a person sells their term life insurance policy to a third party. When this happens, the term life policy is converted to a universal life policy. The insured receives compensation from the life settlement company for a policy that would have likely lapsed with no value anyway. That seems like a pretty OK thing to do.
So, the agent gets a commission from the conversion of the term policy. Just to put that into context, a conversion is generally a very nice payday for almost no work. But, if an agent chooses, they can place your business with a life settlement company that will give them a portion of the settlement, so in essence they get a commission on the settlement money. And the agents that are really in the life settlement groove, will talk the insured into dumping their settlement money into another life insurance policy, so they get paid a third time.
Unscrupulous life settlement practices don’t often make the headlines unless the insured happens to be someone famous. Someone tried showing Larry King how to make money by buying and selling life insurance policies on himself, and now he gets to show the whole scenario to a judge.
It seems to me that if an agent would just skip the greedy part, and if a client has a policy that is going to lapse, suggest that selling it might be worth considering, things might be ok. As long as the temptation is in place to have one client that you can make multiple large commissions from, there are going to be slime ball agents that will take advantage.
Bottom line. If a life insurance agent suggests a life settlement to you, make them disclose how much money they are going to make and how many sources they will be getting money from. If they are getting paid multiple times, they are taking money out of your pocket. If a life insurance agent suggests you buy a policy simply with the idea of turning around in a few years and selling, run. It may sounding tempting, but run. This is not what life insurance is about and an agent that suggests it, is not worthy of your business, and I contend, not worthy of the license that they will likely lose before too long anyway.
November 6th, 2007
