Archive for October 27th, 2008
Several years ago Cigar Aficionado ran an article on life insurance for cigar smokers. It was a poorly researched article at the time and fell well short of giving the information needed for the cigar enjoying public to get the best rates possible.
I have offered more than once to write a new article with updated and accurate information and they don’t seem to be interested. I guess they don’t see the significance in their clientele being able to, in many cases, cut their life insurance bills in half, or perhaps double their life insurance for what they are currently paying.
The issue is that with most companies cigar smokers as well as pipe smokers and tobacco chewers are all treated the same as cigarette smokers. The news is that there is at least one company out there that offers competitive non smoking rates in all three of those categories. Even with positive nicotine results on your labs. There are a handful that will offer non smoking rates no matter how much you smoke (other than cigarettes) if you have a negative nicotine lab result. There are a bunch of companies that will entertain “occasional” cigar smokers with negative nicotine, occasional being defined as anything from 4 a year to 2 a month.
Bottom line. It’s just a fact that the more affordable your life insurance is, the more likely it is to stay in force. Wake up Cigar Aficionado! The more they save on insurance the more they can spend on cigars.
October 27th, 2008
We certainly have our good days and our bad days in helping those with bipolar disorder obtain life insurance. Fortunately the good does outweigh the bad. I think we do need to throw a reality check water balloon on this party though.
I have often mentioned that one of the most critical components of putting together a successful quest for life insurance if you are bipolar is that you have to be able to demonstrate a stable life, both work and personal.
What I am going to say here is very critical, so please, if you are considering applying for life insurance…..understand that just telling me your life is stable isn’t going to get an approval on your life insurance. What you tell me has to match up with what’s in your medical records, psychiatrist’s reports, etc. Your stability has to be real and we have to be able to back it up.
We have helped so many people, from homemakers to CEO’s, all with bipolar disorder and each of those we have been successful in helping has one thing in common, brutal honesty. It isn’t easy to talk about the things that aren’t right in our lives and as Americans I think we are somewhat prone to putting a bit of spin on how we present ourselves.
As an independent agent I am armed to the teeth to be able to pull off approvals that can’t be found elsewhere, but our exchange of information has to be an absolute no spin zone.
Bottom line. Whether it is bipolar disorder or cancer, the end result in underwriting is going to come from your medical records. I end first interviews with potential clients by asking if there is anything that I haven’t covered that might show up in their medical records. A last attempt to make sure we have everything we need and there are no hidden gems.
October 27th, 2008
Following the recent bailout/takeover of AIG by the government, other life insurance companies including Prudential are holding their hands out wanting a little of our tax money to soften the impact of their unwise investment in risky real estate loans.
Investment of premium dollars is, of course, one way that insurance companies can take small premiums and hold out the promise of large death benefits. But the truth is that this is more true in cash value policies such as universal life and whole life. Term insurance seems more self sustaining simply because of the anomaly I’ve written about before where most term insurance policies never get to the point of a death benefit because they are either lapsed by the insured or the insured lets the policy go at the end of the guaranteed term.
I can’t seem to find the article now, but if my memory serves me Prudential was asking the Fed for a little less than $2 billion to help defray the poor performance in their investment portfolio that supports cash value policies. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the $120 billion AIG fiasco, not quite knowing what to think, but this one seems to me to be a case of companies trying to get off easy and not bother their policy holders about their goof up.
Keep in mind that this problem with their investment strategy doesn’t impact guaranteed policies, but it can be slam dunk detrimental to variable universal life and UL’s that rely on assumptions and not on guarantees. It seems to me that the appropriate thing for the company to do is to exercise its’ option to raise the rates on all of those policies to offset their losses. I know that makes me sound mean, but non guaranteed policies are non guaranteed for a reason. It allows for potential upside gains and it also allows for risk to hurt those who choose to insure themselves in that way.
Bottom line. I don’t think I agree with the AIG bailout, but I darn sure don’t think insurance companies need to start lining up to beg for help that they should be able to put together internally.
October 27th, 2008
