Archive for February, 2008
I’ve been told that all guys will get prostate cancer to some degree if they live to a moderately old age. The good news that, for many, it will have little or no impact on their lives or their mortality.
Prostate cancer that is slow growing, that is to say a low stage and grade, is quite often not treated in older men, but rather just monitored. If it ever does become more aggressive or dangerous then treatment can start and because it will be caught early in its’ aggressiveness, the treatment would likely be successful.
But let’s talk about the rest of us guys. There really is good news when it comes to prostate cancer and life insurance for the majority of cancer survivors. Especially if you get annual checkups (health fairs are great for this) prostate cancer can often be detected while it is still a very beatable illness.
If a prostate cancer is a stage T1 or T2, and a Gleason grade of no more than six (this is the majority of cases), and the psa at the time of diagnosis was less than 10 (this again is the majority of cases) better than standard rates should be attainable within a year after a prostatectomy and within two years after a radioactive seed implant. The underwriting guideline at that point would be that if they took the prostate out, your psa needs to be 0, and if they did a seed implant it needs to be .5 or less.
When you start talking about better than standard rates after cancer, that is not the norm. Getting those rates within a year or two would be completely unheard of with other types of cancer. And the key is early detection. A small price to pay for protecting your life, let alone your ability to purchase life insurance.
Bottom line. Us guys are famous for not going to the doctor when we should. Regular physicals, while I’ve heard that as high as 50% get them, really aren’t the norm. I think the guys that responded to that survey are counting every time they see the doctor for a cold and get their blood pressure taken. This is one of the reasons that women outlive us and pay less for life insurance. So get serious about your health. Go to that health fair. See your doctor for something other than your annual cold sympathy visit.
February 29th, 2008
When is DUI not a DUI? Trick question? Well, of course it is. The answer is never even if your attorney was able to plea bargain your DUI by having you plead no contest to DWS, driving while stupid.
Clients will, and honestly in their mind, answer no to the question of having been charged with or convicted of DUI, because their clever lawyer was able to plea bargain them out of having to attend AA as a consequence of their actions. Truth is that attending that AA meeting might have been what they needed.
Anyway, when a life insurance underwriter pulls your motor vehicle record it shows what really happened. You really were DUI, but the end legal result was you didn’t have to suffer the full consequences. DUI is a serious matter with life insurance underwriters, as it should be. There is nothing safe about driving under the influence for you or anyone around you. Plea bargained or not, your DUI will be treated just like any other DUI.
Underwriting of DUI is treated much the same as auto insurance. The further you are from the incident, the more likely you are to get back to the best rates. It varies from company to company, but at best you can assume it will take 5 years before it doesn’t impact your life insurance rates at all, 10 years with some companies. The closer you are to the incident, the higher the rates will be.
Another underwriting note with DUI is that the underwriter is interested in if you’ve changed your drinking habits. The best underwriting will go to those who were so moved by the incident that they quit drinking. You are scrutinized a little more closely if you are still drinking. Assume that if you are still drinking and you happen to have elevated liver functions on the labs, the underwriter will ask for an alcohol marker to be run. Alcohol markers are a very accurate measure of your current drinking habits and if you have a positive CDT, you will be declined.
Bottom line. A DUI by any other name is still a DUI for life insurance purposes. That plea bargain might impress your banker, but not your underwriter.
February 27th, 2008
Let me just reiterate from previous posts that if you have bipolar disorder, you can expect for almost all life insurance companies to decline you. They don’t care to what degree the disorder impacts your life. They put the completely functional CEO of a company in the same boat as the person who is on disability due to bipolar.
Insurance companies, even though they are in the job of assessing and accepting risk, will often simply put an entire risk pool into the decline bucket rather than learning about the vast differences that can occur within that pool. Are they mean? Probably not. They make business decisions about the time and resources and the risk and simply decide that, for instance, bipolar is not an arena they want to become a player in.
The good news is that there are a handful of companies, a dozen or so, that have done their home work and have decided that within certain perameters bipolar disorder is an acceptable risk. That is to say that within those perameters, standard or better rates can be had, which puts the person that has been stigmatized by the disorder and puts them squarely back in to average and above average rate classes.
So, how to get there? Like any health issue, underwriters are looking for control. They don’t want to see out of control high blood pressure or cholesterol and they really aren’t interested in underwriting out of control bipolar. Control in the context of bipolar is measured by how stable and functional a person is in life. If they have a stable work and family life, well, let’s face it, they are probably above average.
Like other health issues, underwriters want to see compliance with treatment. They decline people with diabetes or heart disease because they don’t follow the doctor’s orders and recommendations. If you have bipolar and march to the beat of your own treatment drummer, ignoring prescribed treatment and missing appointments, don’t expect to get a gold star from an underwriter.
Being on disability due to bipolar, or obesity, or diabetes screams lack of control. If your situation is well controlled there is no reason to be on disability. So forget the argument that everything is under control as long as you can stay home and not have to deal with the real world.
If you have attempted suicide, whether you are bipolar or not, for obvious reasons there is some concern about you as a life insurance risk. Even the dozen or so progressive companies that are willing to work at leveling the playing field for those with bipolar, will call the game on account of suicide attempts.
The last hurdle is hospitalization. Most people with bipolar have visited a hospital at least once, generally when they were diagnosed. Sometimes it just takes that structured inpatient setting to get to the bottom of things. That particular stay in a hospital isn’t of great concern to an underwriter because that is the end of the confusion about whats going on and the beginning of the treatment.
Being hospitalized after diagnosis and treatment have begun is more problematic. To a significant degree, that breakdown represents lack on control or yet to be achieved control. Expect that some years will have to pass after these episodes before life insurance underwriters will want to jump on your wagon.
Bottom line. It takes an independent agent to know where to go and where not to go to help you find life insurance if you are anything but young, healthy and unscarred by all the possible afflictions of life. Seek out an agent who has knowledge and understanding of your situation. There is good news out there for a large percentage of those with bipolar, so don’t be discouraged.
February 26th, 2008
I field a high number of calls asking about whether people should buy term insurance, universal life or whole life, and in some cases they will have heard of, and ask about return of premium term insurance.
Now is not the time to hold back my feelings on this, so I am going to lay out the arguments I hear for not buying term and then you get to find out how I really feel.
1. But if I buy term and don’t die I will have wasted all that money…..
2. I want something that builds cash value so I can borrow against it……
3. What if I get to the end of my term and still need insurance……
I’m just going to address these questions in the most common scenario. Husband and father providing life insurance for the benefit of wife and children. For the average person in this scenario, your life insurance needs are not permanent. If you are in your 30’s or 40’s, married with children, most of your needs for life insurance will be gone by the time you are 65 or 70. Before you scream, I did say most, not all.
Unless you have a child that will be dependent on you for life due to a physical or mental disability, you have absolutely no obligation to carry life insurance for them past the point where they go out on their own. “But I’d like to leave them something!” Good! When they leave home, drop the insurance and start contributing to a retirement fund for them. In fact, if you bought term insurance rather than the other types you would have had enough money left over to be putting money away for them all along.
Sorry, I got emotionally off track. Wasted all that money?? You protected your family against disaster for all those years and that was a waste of money? You did it as inexpensively as it can be done and it was a waste? Try this for an exercise. Get gut honest with yourself and write down what you spend in a month that is just “blow money”. Money you spent that didn’t do anything but satisfy your desire at the moment. Beer, cigarettes, satellite TV, pay TV, new clothes when you have plenty already, sodas, snacks, eating out rather than cooking meals. Add all that up for a month and in most cases it will come to more than it would cost to very adequately insure yourself with a 30 or 35 year term policy.
But you say you don’t want to give all that stuff up? Do you get your money back when you’re through blowing it? Did it protect your family?
You want to buy whole life insurance so you can borrow against the cash value. Just two quick points. The cash value comes from you. Whole life is not a magic money machine. And, you have to pay it back or your policy will either collapse or the death benefit will be smaller than you intended. Ok, three points. You can’t afford to adequately insure yourself with whole life insurance. So, you want to put your family at risk by underinsuring so that you can borrow against the policy and possibly make the death benefit even smaller or nothing at all?
If you get to the end of your term and still need insurance, it will likely be a small amount having outlived children, jobs and mortgages. Once you are past the big three of life insurance needs, a small universal life policy should suffice, and you can convert that from your term policy without evidence of insurability.
Bottom line. Talk it through. Think it through. Don’t throw money away.
February 26th, 2008
I have frequently been dismayed by how doctors don’t share information with their patients. They seem to have some 7th sense that lets them know whether a patient will be able to understand the information, so it goes in their records and comes back to bite them in the rear years later when a life insurance underwriter, who does understand it, uncovers the information.
I am currently working with a client who is quite athletic and sees his doctor regularly just because it’s the right thing to do. Several years ago he had an echocardiogram that if you just glanced quickly at, you would say he was the perfect picture. But buried in the middle of the narrative summary was a reference to AI, cardio for aortic insufficiency.
His doctor never mentioned this to him, and while it may not have been medically significant in the whole context of things, AI can have some serious risk factors. In my mind this is another case of a doctor who should have mentioned it, educated the patient concerning it, and let the patient make a decision about the importance in their life.
Bottom line. The only way to keep up with what is really going on with your health is to review, after each visit, what your doctor puts in your records. If you understand that offhand comments like the one described can cost you substantial money down the line, possibly your doctor can decide just how important it is to have that mentioned in your records.
February 25th, 2008
I just spent the last week working with a gentleman who had applied for life insurance through Selectquote and was approved, but wanted a second opinion on what products were available to him.
Over the course of a week I presented multiple options to accomplish what he thought he wanted to do, something he said Selectquote had not done for him. I also responded quickly to his questions and provided straightforward answers, something he said Selectquote had not done. I also provided him with the best price for the product he finally decided was appropriate, and this was something Selectquote had not done. They had, go figure, quoted and had him apply for the 6th best rate available.
This policy was already approved and Selectquote was pushing to get the check to put it in force. I apparently presented a bit of a wrinkle in sheets. Over the course of one day Selectquote gave him three different prices in an effort to get him to pull the trigger and put the coverage in force. One of those was the correct price. One was backdated to lower the premium, but was still higher than what he qualified for through another company, and one was a price that came from left field on Mars. It had no basis in earthly reality.
Saying all that, understand that Selectquote and the other big on line agencies do two things that set them apart from independent agents such as myself. Because they do huge volume, they have contracts or agreements with certain companies to push their products whether it is the best for the customer or not. Based on their level of production at the end of the year, this devotion turns into a large bonus.
The other thing they do is do and say whatever is necessary to consummate the deal. As evidenced by their agents frantic misquoting when it looked as if the deal was going south, they will do whatever it takes, including misleading the client, to get the check and move on to the next customer.
Bottom line. There must be a purpose on earth for these mega agencies, but that purpose is not service. They want your business. They want it quick. They want it done and then they don’t want to talk to you ever again. Overall I would say that used car dealers offer better service.
February 24th, 2008
I was reading an aricle in a trade publication today concerning orphan life insurance policyholders. No, this isn’t some group of lost children’s life insurance clients. An orphan, in the industry sense, is a client whose agent has moved, died, or more likely taken all too common route today of treating a sale as a one time event. These agents sell and are never heard from again.
I’ve often railed on the big internet agencies that have hundreds of thousands of clients and have had to abandon ongoing service as too expensive and too hard. I’ve shared my experience of working for a short period for one of those agencies and leaving because of the lack of service mentality.
The article in National Underwriter 2/11/08 written by Warren Hersch details the size of the problem, which would be much smaller without Selectquote, Reliaquote, Intelliquote and the like. The problem with lack of service is that clients are left to fend for themselves, and when they do, they are not going to spend their time trying to track down their agent who abandoned them, but rather find a new agent.
This is bad for the client and bad for the agent. The client who isn’t serviced over the years is left often not knowing what coverage the have and what their options are for continuing or improving their situation. The will come to the end of a term insurance policy with no one to help with a transition into a new policy or a conversion.
For the agent, and this is what slays me, clients are a gold mine of new sales and referrals if they have been serviced. My clients that hear from me 1-2 times a year don’t buy from someone else, and they don’t know anyone else to refer family and friends to. As important is the fact that my clients are never left with questions or concerns about their coverage. It is personally reviewed and discussed annually so that they never lose track of where they stand. If health changes occur, there is time to work on the long term solution rather than scrambling to find affordable coverage with a new agent at the end of a term.
On the upside for me is the fact that a good number of my new clients were abandoned or orphaned by another agent or agency. On the upside for my new clients, they will not be left behind again.
Bottom line. When you buy life insurance it is fair and prudent to ask your agent how often you will hear from them after the sale. If there is any hesitation in the answer, you are going to be orphaned. Find an agent who is committed to service.
February 22nd, 2008
I swear, where a year ago I was thinking New York would probably miss this century also, they have now rocked the life insurance world by approving return of premium term insurance for sale.
Return of premium has been available in the rest of the country for years, but today ING Reliastar the first ever ROP products in New York. Until this release New Yorkers were left only to wonder what it would be like to use term insurance for protection, and having outlived it, get a full refund.
Forbes ran article almost three years ago extolling the virtues of ROP (every where but New York and Utah). Attached is that article.
forbes-return-of-premium.pdf
While there isn’t any doubt that the younger you are the more attractive the product becomes, it can still fill needs that no other products can. For instance, a key man business insurance policy. You can use a return of premium policy as an insurance/bonus program. If the key employee dies, the money is there to help the company through a transition phase. If the key employee lives, the company can bonus the tax free premium refund as a retirement gift.
Bottom line. Let’s all welcome New York to the rest of the country. Past due, but welcome. Question now is, will Utah ever jump on board. Don’t hold your breath.
February 21st, 2008
Whether or not you agree that there is an obesity epidemic, you would have to have on some pretty serious blinders to not see that lifestyle changes over the past 40 years have definitely packed the pounds on the average US citizen, if not the whole world.
An article I read today was referring to an “obesigenic environment”, a world where we walk less, eat poorly, and basically sit on our butts so much that they widen by the day.
It really does come down to lifestyle choices. I sit behind a desk every day for 10+ hours, and if I didn’t watch what I eat and go for a run instead of watching TV at noon everyday, I can see me weighing 250 instead of 175. I’m not bragging and I darn sure won’t be caught saying that it is the easy path to go down. But don’t tell me it’s too hard. If my 85 year old dad who is recovering from cancer treatment can get out and walk a few miles several times a week, well, all it takes is a desire to live and live well.
Unfortunately the lifestyle changes that adults have adopted over the past few decades are the only lifestyles that our children know. Long gone is physical education. Completely ingrained is fast food and video games. Most kids don’t walk anywhere.
From a life insurance standpoint we are a nation that is, because of obesity, on the brink of epidemics of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity related cancers. While someone who is overweight, even obese, can still get fair rates, they need to do it before the health issues start crashing in.
Bottom line. Globesity is real. The world is getting larger every year and breaking the cycle is something that has to be attacked at every level.
February 21st, 2008
As the word sneaks out a little further each day, I have more and more people contacting me and asking if it’s true. Can they get life insurance at affordable rates even though they have bipolar disorder? I wish I could claim that the answer is unequivocally yes, but that isn’t true for any portion of the population.
All people have to meet criteria. If you are in the disgustingly healthy group then you to have meet all of the disgustingly healthy criteria to get the best rates. If you have diabetes you have to show that you are compliant with your treatment and have good control of the disease. If you have high blood pressure you have to show that you are compliant with your treatment and that it is well controlled.
While there are a few more disclaimers with bipolar, it is underwritten essentially the same as other health issues with about 2% of the life insurance companies. Assume going in that 98% of life insurance companies will run screaming DECLINEEEEE into the dark if you mention bipolar. The 2% that are left won’t insure you if you have high blood pressure that is out of control, diabetes that is out of control or bipolar that is out of control.
I would say something like, “At the risk of being redundant”, but the truth is I rather thrive on redundancy. I even invented my own word, redundiferous, to describe how exponentially redundant I can be. Lost my train of thought there……
The criteria for getting good rates if you have bipolar disorder are as follows. 1. No hospitalization for bipolar in the last 10 years unless it was a short stay to determine the diagnosis. 2. No suicide attempts ever. 3. You can’t be on disability for bipolar (if it disables you it hardly meets the qualification of being controlled) 4. Medical records would need to show that you are compliant with your treatment and 5. You need to be able to present a stable family and job life.
You can present an A+ report card on all of those items to 98% of the companies out there and they will decline you. It takes an independent agent with knowledge of bipolar disorder and where to find the hidden 2% in order to turn that report card into an approved life insurance policy.
Bottom line. There really is nothing different with underwriting bipolar versus heart disease or epilepsy, diabetes or hypertension. Out of control doesn’t get it. In control does.
February 19th, 2008
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