Ed Hinerman On Life Insurance

Estate Planning Is Not Looking For A Good Auctioneer!

According to the aficionados, the only thing better than a garage sale is an estate sale. In the best of situations this is after all the good stuff has gone to family members and the executor of the estate throws the rest of it in the front yard so their job can finally be done.

Many times though, this is a serious attempt to raise money to pay the expenses of the estate, whether that is debt, state death tax or federal estate taxes. This is when families see all that a loved one has worked all their life to accumulate go to strangers for pennies on the dollar. This is what happens when there is no estate planning.

While we generally think of the wealthy as those who use life insurance for estate planning, the truth is that a lack of life insurance can cause an equally devastating event with the less well to do when a person dies with debt that needs to be paid or with a mortgage on their most valuable asset. Unless someone’s estate plan is to leave a mess and not worry about it, a visit with an independent life insurance agent is a prudent idea. Even if the outcome isn’t perfect (and most estate plans aren’t), the truth is that having some life insurance in force is far better than having nothing.

You don’t need to worry about buying life insurance to add value to your estate, but do your loved ones a favor and have at least enough that they still have fond memories of you once the mess you’ve left behind is sorted out and cleaned up.

For those with larger estates, let’s just get practical. Your estate can go to your family if you plan properly, or you can give half to them and half to the government if you don’t.

Bottom line. There are those who honestly don’t care what kind of mess is left behind. For them, while not a nice thing to do, doing nothing is probably an adequate plan. For the rest of us, it’s time to take this part of life seriously, not for us, but for those we leave behind.

Add comment June 23rd, 2008

Gastric Bypass Isn’t Cheating!

There is a real tendency in our society to brand the morbidly obese as taking the easy way out of the problem they’ve created by considering gastric bypass surgery.

Gastric bypass reduces the size of the stomach by stapling off the majority. This causes massive weight loss due to the inability to take in enough food to amount to significant calories and simply curbing appetite. Saying that gastric bypass is the easy way out is a bit like saying heart bypass surgery is the easy way out of having a heart attack.

The truth is that chronic morbid obesity can lead to diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Studies have shown that diabetes can actually be cured by the forced weight loss that comes with gastric bypass. And as much as those of us who have never been obese would like to think it’s no big deal to drop 100+ pounds, get a grip. It is a big deal and it is not easy. Dropping large amounts of weight and keeping it off is a mental and physical battle. Just like being a life insurance agent, if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

From a life insurance perspective gastric bypass is a good thing….after some time. The rule of thumb with the best of companies will be a year to two years after weight loss stabilizes. It can take one to two years to reach that point, so post gastric bypass it can take three to four years before companies will consider you at rates commensurate with your actual weight. Why the caution? There can be post surgical complications such as infection or intestinal leakage. Weight loss can be reversed in some cases where the new, smaller stomach stretches. Underwriters want to know that everything has worked out and generally, given those timetables, they can be pretty confident that the issue is gone.

Bottom line. Any stigma that gastric bypass has should be stuffed away. It is a life saving procedure, not an easy way out.

Add comment June 23rd, 2008