Archive for November 27th, 2007

Advocacy Feeds On Itself!!

There are days when you think things just can’t get any more ridiculous. That would not be in the world of advocacy groups. Webster defines advocate as “one that supports or promotes the interests of another”. Today one advocacy group advocated another advocacy group knowing full well that neither of them are doing a good job of advocacy for the groups the purport to be advocates for.

I have long railed on AARP for the way they mistreat their constituency when it comes to life insurance advice. AARP has been in bed with New York Life forever in an effective effort to sell poorly constructed, overpriced life insurance to old folks like us. I mean really!! If you are putting a product together to sell to people primarily in their 60’s, with today’s life expectancies really reaching into the mid 80’s, would you create the product so that it ends at age 80? That is AARP’s idea of good advice and it is New York Life’s idea of a cash cow.

Another advocacy group, the ADA (American Diabetes Association) purports to serve the needs of those with diabetes. Even though it has been brought to their attention on a multitude of occasions, the ADA won’t even talk about life insurance on their website. They don’t talk about how hard it can be for someone with diabetes to find fair rates. They don’t talk about what a person needs to do to find those rates. They don’t even acknowledge that one of the challenges faced by people with diabetes is obtaining life insurance to protect their family.

Well, today they hugged. It was one of those moments when you add two negatives and everything they taught you in school doesn’t come to pass. You still end up with a negative.

The ADA just spouts pure bunk with “Their contributions to the diabetes community and dedication to diabetes awareness directly support ADA’s mission to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people living with diabetes.” These two are up to something and you can bet it is not all about the good of their constituents.

Bottom line. Neither the ADA or AARP care if you have affordable, quality life insurance.  AARP has 39 million members. I have no idea how many of those members they have talked into buying their life insurance, but if it is 1%, there are 400,000 people out their with truly bad life insurance contracts because of their advice. As agents we have to complete ongoing ethics education expressly geared toward our dealings with the elderly. Why isn’t AARP held to the same standard?

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Pack Your Parts And Move To The Country!!

Being a longtime small town dweller, it is my personal belief that just driving through a large city can be dangerous to your health. There is the obvious risk that goes with driving along with a bazillion other cars, but just the stress and anxiety that goes with having to work your life around the craziness has to take a toll.

1-2 hour commutes with nothing but stop and go traffic. People cutting you off, flipping you off, and honking their horn because they believe it makes a difference. The extra hours added to your workday. The stress of figuring out what restaurant to eat at.

And now, a study from the UK that seems to indicate that women in big cities have denser breasts. I still haven’t wrapped my mind around what that means or how that could be true or relevant, but the one fact that did make sense is that the big city women are less likely to have regular screening for breast cancer such as mammograms.

This makes sense since planning time for the extra hours needed to accomplish a visit to a clinic in a life that is already so insanely busy, seems at least much harder than out here in the country where the nearest clinic is no more than a 5 minute drive.

As most studies assert, more study needs to be done, but at the very least it seems that anything that causes women to be less proactive about breast cancer screening, and for that matter, causes men to be less proactive about prostate cancer screening, can’t be good. Regular screening has proven its’ worth in early detection and better survival rates. For those in the big city, it is worth using one of those coveted sick days so that the screening can be done, and done regularly, without adding stress.

Bottom line. The more regular the screening, the earlier the detection, the better the prognosis and, of course, the more likely to obtain reasonable life insurance rates. It’s good for you. It’s good for your family and, big city or not, it’s the right thing to work into that busy schedule.

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