Ed Hinerman On Life Insurance

There’s Free Life Insurance And Then There’s Free Life Insurance!

I’ve talked in the past about a product called return of premium term insurance. It is often touted as “free life insurance”, because if you outlive the term insurance you get a refund of all the premiums paid in. A little more comprehensive take is in the attached Forbe’s article on the subject.

forbes-return-of-premium.pdf

That is not to be confused with employer offered free life insurance. I always recommend that you take part in any offer of free life insurance to bolster your portfolio. I also always caution against making anything free be the foundation of your life insurance plan. The reason is that, if it’s free, it’s a benefit that can be taken away, or lost if you leave a job. If you counted on that as your foundation, you could be caught in a situation where your family isn’t covered for a while. If your health has changed, you may not be able to get them coverage at all.

I recently structured a program for a company in which each employee was offered the chance to get $50,000 worth of free life insurance. It was owned by the employee and paid for by the employer, so if a person left that job they would have the choice of keeping the insurance simply by taking over the payments.

I was explaining the offer to one of the employees and he indicated he wasn’t interested. When I asked why he wouldn’t be interested in free life insurance he was adamant about the fact that $50,000 wasn’t enough to be of any value, so he would just pass. I still shake my head over that one.

If I was offered $50,000 of free life insurance and my family didn’t need it, I would make the beneficiary of the policy my church or some charitable organization, or perhaps just a friend. $50,000 may not have seemed significant to him, but how many people or organizations would benefit tremendously from a gift that size.

Bottom line. If it’s free, take it! Just don’t put all your eggs in a free basket.

Add comment December 10th, 2007

Type 2 Diabetes Link To Colorectal Cancer!!

I become more amazed each day with the way diseases are linked to each. We’ve talked many times about obesity and the link to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And we’ve talked about the link between diabetes and heart disease in the absence of obesity.

Today brings a new, very serious link between diabetes and colorectal cancer. The link from diabetes to cancer was often, in the past, seen as an aside to the link between obesity and cancer, but a new study is suggesting that isn’t necessarily the case.

Dr Andrew Flood, assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, said that, “In general, the idea is that if elevated insulin levels create a biochemical environment conducive to cancer growth, it provides one mechanism by which diet and lifestyle can really influence cancer risk”.

While this may be seen as heaping more bad news on those with type 2 diabetes, the truth is that the more these types of links are understood, the better the testing and prevention will be to keep one health issue from progressing into another. From a life insurance underwriting standpoint, I don’t believe a lot more needs to be said (although I likely will anyway) concerning the reason people with well controlled diabetes are rewarded with competitive, better than standard rates in many cases.

Bottom line. At times there probably really is the feeling that if you have one health problem, you are doomed to a life of wandering from disease to disease. Such is certainly not the case if you and your doctor take the situation seriously and stick to the treatment and make the lifestyle changes that can alter the course.

Add comment December 10th, 2007