Archive for March, 2008
If you are planning a trip to the Olympics this summer, it’s time for a life insurance checkup to make sure you are covered for foreign travel, and if you are considering increasing coverage before you go, you need to apply now.
Most life insurance you have in force will cover foreign travel as long as it was either not planned or admitted to at the time of the application. There is an assumption in all life insurance that opportunities will pop up and you should be able to take advantage of them without losing coverage. I used that very assumption last year when I went skydiving for my first and probably last time. The bucket list, you know!
If you are thinking about increasing coverage and are planning to go to the Olympics, you should act now. Make sure you have the policy in force before you go as companies aren’t real crazy about putting a policy in force when you are overseas. From a legal standpoint you are also supposed to accept, sign and pay for the policy while in the the states.
Bottom line. The good news is that there are quite a few companies that really won’t have a problem with you going to Beijing for a week or two (depending on travel warnings due to terror threats, etc). So, whether you are going to the Olympics or on an African safari, don’t wait until you’re packing your bags to decide to increase your life insurance.
March 19th, 2008
Getting by on less sleep is something of a badge of honor. I’ve heard people state and sometimes brag about the fact that they only need 4-5 hours of sleep a night. For all of those hardworking people who are holding down two jobs, or are single parents, a lack of sleep is just the price they pay for staying on top of things.
But that price may be much higher than we think. I watched a news story a few nights ago that showed part of a study where sleep was interrupted just enough to keep deep sleep from occurring, but not enough to actually wake someone. The results were not exactly what you would suspect. Sure they were tired when they woke up, but over the course of several days, physiological changes actually started to occur.
Then I ran across an article that covered the same study. In a nutshell it seems pretty apparent that a lack of quality sleep can contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
In the show I watched it was amazing to see how, in six days time, a healthy 20 something guy’s eating habits changed and his body’s ability to regulate glucose levels. Admittedly this was someone who was deprived of all deep sleep for six days, but the same effect seems to occur over longer periods of built up deprivation.
Bottom line. From a life insurance perspective, all of these health issues impact rates and mortality. At the very least it seems we should collectively get over feeling guilty when we have the chance to go to bed early, or take a nap, and actually do it.
March 18th, 2008
There are plenty of life insurance companies out there who will look the other way on cigar smoking as long as you are truly an “occasional” smoker. Each company has their take on what occasional means.
For a few companies you need to save those cigars for true celebrations, and then only for a few a year. You need to pick and choose your occasion wisely if you want them to ignore the habit in underwriting with some companies allowing as few as 2-4 per year. There are companies that must have golfing, cigar smoking CEO’s, These companies have stretched occasional to as many as a dozen a year.
Keep in mind that while these companies are allowing this use without underwriting penalty, they expect you to have negative nicotine results on your labs (yes they test for it). So, if you are an occasional user and would like the break offered, let your agent know so that they can advise you to lay off any occasions for a month prior to your exam. All of us in the business have had clients who have just been overcome with the joy of the moment and can’t resist smoking a cigar the day before an exam. Positive nicotine results lead this group of companies to assume that you are a common smoker and if you stay with them you will pay smoker rates, easily 2-3 times what you were expecting to pay.
The big alternative, and there is really only one left, is Prudential. They stand alone. They allow tobacco or nicotine use, except for cigarettes, even with positive nicotine in the labs at non smoker rates. So, for all of those who chew, smoke pipes or cigars, Pru has a deal that today is not found anywhere else. This is not a small deal if you fall into the category of a tobacco user other than cigarettes. This is huge and can cut your life insurance cost in half.
Bottom line. You’ll never hear about this if you don’t use an independent agent. You’ll never know about this if you aren’t completely honest with your agent about your tobacco habits. Don’t make yourself and your agent look foolish by assuming that you can slide that cigar use past the underwriters.
March 18th, 2008
Over the years I believe I have heard most, if not all, of the whining responses from people who, after an exam and a review of their medical records, didn’t get the best rate available on life insurance. Don’t get me wrong. I want those rates also. But hear me clearly, I don’t qualify for them. Therefore I don’t deserve them and I don’t try to blame someone else for my imperfect health or family history.
If insurance companies didn’t draw the line in the sand somewhere, everyone would get the best rates and the risk pool would out of balance and insurance companies would go broke. While it is not uncommon for someone who is completely healthy to let their life insurance lapse, if someone with acknowledged health issues got the best rate, the likelihood of a lapse would be substantially less. The company is then left holding the lower end of the risk pool at the higher end of the rate classes.
I am the first to defend and go to battle with insurance companies if they bump someone a rate class and there is truly no discernable risk increase. A case just recently is a good example of this. The cholesterol guidelines for the best class with ING Reliastar up to age 70 are 220 total cholesterol and a total cholesterol/hdl ratio of no more than 5.0. My clients numbers came back at 227 total and 4.95 ratio. So, a little over on the total and a little under on the ratio.
I would have discussed this with the underwriter anyway, but notice those are the guidelines through age 70. My client is 70 so technically falls in those guidelines. But my client is actually only 5 months from being 71. At age 71 ING’s guidelines change to a max total cholesterol of 280 and a ratio of 6.5. My question to the underwriter was simply, if both of those quidelines are reflective of the actual preferred plus risk, isn’t there some logic that would say that this client may be in a very rare gray area and worthy of another look. To their credit they reopened the door to preferred plus rates and as long as his medical records don’t pose any further issues, he should qualify.
Back to the title of this post though. You don’t deserve it! You know it! Quit whining! If you are obese, don’t whine because you don’t get the rates you see on TV ads! If you have a family history of parents dying prior to age 60 of heart attacks (and especially if you are finally doing the math and figuring out that you are approaching the age of their death), don’t whine because you don’t get the best rate. If you have had cancer and it is in remission or even cured, don’t whine when the best rate available is standard or standard plus. If your liver functions are out of whack on your exam, don’t try to pin it on a bad blood test (unless everything else is out of whack and you have a retest to show that our result was wrong).
Bottom line. If it was easy to get the best rates, the best rates would have to be much higher for the companies to survive. If you don’t like the rate you approved at, don’t whine. Do what it takes to change the information that drove the rates higher.
March 16th, 2008
I have often had clients who had cholesterol tests come back well out of the normal range and blamed it on forgetting to fast, or in the case of a recent client, a nurse that called and said it would be better for her if she came that particular evening instead of the scheduled next morning. This moved his exam from a pre breakfast fast to a blood draw 2 hours after dinner.
We always encourage fasting, as do the insurance companies, as do doctors when they are trying to assess your lipid profile. But, is there really a huge difference between fasting and non fasting results?
One of the most argued results is the cholesterol ratio, total over hdl. Most insurance companies are looking for a ratio under 5, some under 4.5. I had a client recently whose ratio was 7.8 and he blamed it on forgetting to fast. I told him to have it checked independently and this time his fasting ratio was 7.6. He was simply lacking in hdl since in both tests his total cholesterol was in the 190 range.
Another argument that is often thrown out is that “the last time I had it checked” everything was much lower. Well, if the last time was 2 years ago, guess what. If you haven’t maintained the same diet and exercise regimen, big changes can happen.
A blog I read recently made the point that there can be some change between fasting and non fasting lipids, but not to a huge degree. The doctor answering the question made a point that hdl is impacted more by exercise than other factors.
From talking with doctors and life insurance underwriters, there seems to be some agreement that the most volatile of the lipid results is the triglyceride level. This is why I not so jokingly tell clients not to eat a double cheeseburger and fries right before the exam.
Bottom line. Life insurance underwriters look closely at lipid profiles, as they should. The best results will come after properly fasting for at least four hours, preferably eight hours. The likelihood that forgetting to fast is going to blow your entire health picture out of focus is more myth than fact.
March 15th, 2008
I’ve often discussed the fact that out of the nearly 2000 companies that purport to be in the life insurance business, there are only a handful, maybe 2% that are serious about working to get you the best deal. When you throw in health issues of any consequence that probably drops to 1%.
The stock answer from the other 98% if you have had a heart attack, you have diabetes, you’ve had cancer of any type at anytime in your life, you suffer from depression or maybe bipolar disorder, or if you are a private pilot, is NO! Read their lips. You are declined. They don’t want your business. You are too risky for them. They don’t want to hear about any mitigating circumstances. Go away!
I guess what needs to be said, for the sake of all of the people that have been abused by the majority of companies, is that the other 2% are easy to find through an independent agent. It is amazing the number of cases I have seen go from a decline with one or more of the 98%, to better than standard rates and even as good as preferred plus rates.
So, what is the difference? How can two companies have such a different opinion of the same risk? It is unfortunately just a fact that the majority of companies don’t want to take the time to accurately assess the risk and they would really prefer not to have anything but perfectly healthy clients on the books.
Bottom line. If you’ve been told no, get a second opinion. Google the reason they gave you for the decline and life insurance. For instance, “bipolar disorder life insurance”, and find an independent agent who knows how to get the job done.
March 13th, 2008
The PSA, prostate specific antigen, test has been the standard for decades for determining the chances of a man having prostate cancer and the need for further diagnostic testing through a needle biopsy.
The problem that has become apparent in the medical and life insurance world is that, in reality, an elevated PSA is actually not an accurate indicator for either of those assumptions. PSA levels are more frequently indicative of prostatitis, an inflammatin of the prostate, or BPH, benign prostatic hypertrophty (enlarged prostate).
Studies recently have shown that the predictive value of an elevated PSA, as it is associated with prostate cancer, is not, by many, considered strong enough to warrant the invasive needle biopsy. Scientists and physicians agree that some new marker needs to be found that can more accurately assess the need for further procedures.
From a life insurance standpoint, a new and better marker would be helpful. Many clients are postponed due to elevated PSA’s pending further investigation. At this point, with no other tests available, what they are saying is go have a biopsy and then let’s talk. The problem for the client is that they are being asked to have a test that is truly a hit or miss test in itself, along with not being risk free.
Bottom line. Anyone would want to have their prostate cancer detected early. Early detection leads to better survival and lower life insurance rates. Nobody wants to have an unnecessary needle biopsy though.
March 12th, 2008
Most life insurance policies issued in the past 5-10 years have a rider called the accelerated death benefit rider. It doesn’t cost anything and it allows the insured to receive, depending on the company, up to half of the death benefit (usually up to a limit like $500,000) if they are terminally ill.
I’ve had clients question why they would want this rider. If you’ve never had a terminally ill relative, it might seem kind of foreign to think about the last year of someone’s life when you know that they aren’t going to survive.
The primary reason we buy life insurance is to take the burden of loss off of our beneficiaries. In the case of terminal illness, that burden can begin to take its’ toll months before someone’s death in the form of lost wages because they are too sick to work or huge medical bills if you are among the 50 million uninsured or underinsured people in our country. With the accelerated benefit it allows you to meet that burden as it comes and not after it has already crushed the family finances.
Bottom line. Before you take exception to the idea of an accelerated benefit, talk to your agent and make sure you understand what it can do for your family at a time when extra hardship and burdens are least needed.
March 11th, 2008
I know I’ve been beating this drum quite a bit, but the word needs to get out. Having bipolar disorder is not the frosting on a decline cake if you need life insurance. Can everyone qualify for good life insurance rates with bipolar? I won’t even tell you that everyone can be approved, but given certain criteria, a lot of people who have been declined in the past, can be approved and at very good, better than standard rates.
Obviously, like depression or anxiety disorders, there are extremes when it comes to bipolar. And let’s be blunt. It ranges from mentally ill and disabled to completely normal and stable. There are a huge number of people with bipolar who’s best friends wouldn’t know it if they weren’t told. Which brings us to the criteria for finding and locking in good rates for life insurance.
Stability is the key. For obvious reasons life insurance companies see a larger than acceptable mortality risk in someone with bipolar who hasn’t figured out how to control it and become functional and stable. So, guideline #1 for good rates is you can’t be on disability. If you are disabled by your bipolar, that kind of rules out functional and stable.
#2 is that, other than for the purposes of diagnosis, you shouldn’t have had any bipolar related hospitalization in at least the last 10 years, and #3 is, at least I think, very obvious. No suicide attempts.
With all of the no’s out the way, let’s get to what underwriters really want to see. Compliance and control. Compliance is documented in your medical and psychiatric records. How well have you compllied with your treatment? Do you just take medication when you feel like you’re losing a grip, or do you take it as prescribed? Do you see your attending doctor as scheduled, or do you just go in if you have to refill a prescription?
And very important. Is your family, work and community life stable? We are finding huge numbers of people with bipolar who have been declined simply because they “have it”, without anyone ever looking at their life and finding out they have things under control as well, if not better than, most of us. We have found great insurance rates for CEO’s with bipolar, community leaders with bipolar, and solid family people with bipolar.
Bottom line. 99% of life insurance companies will go screaming into the dark if you tell them you are bipolar. The other 1% seriously look at you and weigh the risk. The only way to that 1% is through an independent agent.
March 11th, 2008
I’ve written posts on the subject of the “revolutionary” ultra fast CT scan, the snap shot of the heart that would finally put an end to invasive diagnosis methods such as cathaterization. In those posts you may remember that the problem was that the reports were only marginally accepted in the medical community and that most positive results led to exactly what they were trying to do away with, cathaterization to confirm or discount the findings of the scan. What seems like an honorable goal of early detection of heart disease and prevention of heart attacks, is clouded by an increase in unnecessary invasive procedures
Now, as if it were new news, comes an article from the University of South Carolina extolling the virtues of the CT scan without any acknowledgment of the so far inherent inaccuracies of the technique.
One of the issues from a life insurance perspective is that the test, with its’ inherent inaccuracies, can leave a cloud over an applicant’s purported cardiac health. Some companies, inspite of followup cardiac evaluation have a problem letting go of the fact that there might be, just might be a problem. Fortunately there are some companies we have worked with who are a bit more studied on the subject and seem to be able to move beyond the test.
One of the problems, as I see it, with the ultra fast CT scan is that it has become a money making machine for those that like to prey on people’s fears. It is marketed on television and radio as the quick, easy and inexpensive way to ensure that you don’t have heart disease. Unfortunately it is also a great way to throw your cardiac health into question as the test is far from definitive in it’s results.
Bottom line. Before you decide to pony up the hundreds of dollars for the panacea of an ultra fast CT scan, study what you are about to do. The jury is so far out on this subject and until all the questions are answered, a prudent approach to considering the ups and downs of the test is wise.
March 10th, 2008
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