Archive for May, 2009
I’ve written before about the dramatic and often amazing results that extremely overweight people have see in regards to their diabetes when they undergo gastric bypass surgery.
Gastric bypass is a procedure that essentially creates a dramatically smaller stomach by stapling off the majority of the stomach and leaving just a “pouch” for the food to pass through. With this much smaller stomach a person gets full quicker, and that combined with eating the right things, a healthy diet, creates rapid weight loss and in many cases an almost instant reversal or cure of type 2 diabetes.
Such is the case in an interview posted by TuDiabetes today. The story tells about a woman whose diabetes was really poorly controlled even on medication and within a week of the bypass she was able to come off of medications completely and her glucose levels were lower than they had been in years.
The decision to have gastric bypass surgery is not to be taken lightly and has risks that need to be considered, but for many those risks pale in comparison to the risks face by continued obesity and out of control diabetes. There really is no soft way to explain how damaging the combination is and how it can lead quickly to a loss of the quality of life, if not the loss of life itself.
Life insurance underwriters view gastric bypass carefully knowing that there are risks from the surgery and the dramatic weight loss for the first year or so, but within a few years the weight loss and improved overall health often lead to much better rates than a person would have received prior to the surgery, if they were insurable at all at that point.
Bottom line. Gastric bypass has always had a stigma attached, just as obesity has. To put it bluntly, there are a lot of people who probably say under their breath that it’s just a case of a fat person taking the easy way out. But let’s be real. There isn’t anything easy about the situation they are in and when they choose the surgery there’s nothing easy about the way out…..and it saved and changed their lives.
May 29th, 2009
American Heart Association twitter this morning, “80% of sudden cardiac arrest victims collapse at home. Are you ready to save someone you love?” It provided a link to a CPR website.
This Twitter @HeartofDiabetes is all about education on the link between diabetes and heart disease. This is a subject that we have continually talked about, the fact that when a life insurance underwriter looks at obesity and/or type 2 diabetes, they know that without effective management and excellent control other health issues are likely to follow. It’s not like the only thing they have to weigh is the chance of a person with diabetes going into a diabetic coma.
It’s the combination of risk factors and collateral health issues that an underwriter has to weigh when they consider an application. Especially in the overweight population having type 2 diabetes puts them at risk of high blood pressure, stroke, coronary artery disease and kidney damage along with a host of issues that have a lower mortality risk. The key to avoiding the downhill slide into health issues that will change your life and can end your life is taking the situation seriously.
Education, compliance and control should be the mantra. Know about your diabetes. Know what it is, what makes it worse and what makes it better. Know how worse and better are measured. Educate yourself on diet and exercise programs. Learn about the direct correlation between obesity and diabetes. Learn what the hbA1c is and why it’s important to keep it in a controlled range.
Compliance is all about listening to your doctor and following recommendations and prescribed treatment. When you don’t feel like you’re getting the information you need from your doctor, finding a diabetes education forum or a professional diabetes educator to help you take control of your condition and your life.
The good news with life insurance is that a diagnosis of diabetes doesn’t knock you out of the running for competitive, affordable life insurance rates. Given good control and no other risk factors, standard or better rates are not uncommon. If you are over age 60 and diagnosed in the last 5 years you actually have a good shot at preferred plus rates with one of our companies.
Bottom line. Diabetes is a destructive disease if not taken seriously. The diagnosis is a wake up call that you should definitely not be hitting the snooze button on.
May 29th, 2009
I will tread carefully with this since the last time I questioned Zander Insurance, well, frankly I kind of over stepped my point and pounded on them a bit. I publicly apologized and we all walked away feeling OK and deciding that while we both believe Dave Ramsey is right on the money, Zander does business a little differently than I do.
A friend pointed out to me that Zander’s website had a few errors on it. I looked at it and decided that was no big deal. On one page they quote rates for a company that no longer sells insurance. US Financial hasn’t written business in a few years and it was just their rate on a child rider so really, as I said, no big deal.
While I was there though I decided to dig a bit like we all do to each other’s websites (checking out the competition), and I ended up on their tobacco use page. I ran rates on myself as a smoker since Zander stated that “Many of our competitors simply treat all tobacco users the same eliminating any potential savings but we have companies that offer competitive preferred tobacco.” The best rate they showed was Transamerica at $6295.00 annually.
I then ran the exact same scenario on our website and found both Liberty Life ($5210.00) and Western Reserve Life ($5375.00), around $1000 a year less. Let me just state for the record that “Many of our competitors simply treat all tobacco users the same eliminating any potential savings, but we have companies that offer competitive preferred tobacco rates.” And these aren’t impossible to get fantasy quotes. Both of these companies have been kicking everyone’s rear end for some time in the preferred tobacco arena.
Bottom line. Zander is a fine agency and they made a case the last time we conversed that they don’t do business with some companies for administrative reasons. And I respect their decision. What I don’t respect is them indicating their competition is doing something bad when their accusation should be spoken into a mirror. Personally, administrative reasons or not, I’m thinking Dave would have a problem with the fact that Zander isn’t really offering people the best option for their hard earned dollar. Dave busts his rear getting those dollars freed up after all.
Just an aside. I am currently facilitating a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University, which I’ve been through myself and highly recommend to everyone. Dave admits freely that he doesn’t sell insurance so his opinion isn’t biased and I agree with Dave’s philosophy on the best way to buy and use term insurance. I know I’ll get yelled at for this, but personally I think Dave has placed a little too much trust in Zander in the life insurance arena. So, holler away!
May 28th, 2009
While the words CEO and flying may cause a little angst among some, the truth is that CEO’s are flying privately more often and whether that is on a corporately owned aircraft, a chartered jet, or their personally owned airplane, it is generally more efficient and cost effective to the company.
Life insurance underwriting for the pilot in all three of those scenarios is all over the board, but really that’s true of almost any underwriting topic other than the common cold. But private aviation and how different companies view it is about as diverse as you can get. While one company might give a private pilot preferred plus rates, another company will have them pay a flat extra fee for aviation coverage. Corporate pilots and charter pilots get the same wide variance in offers from best rate class to companies that really don’t want to cover them at all.
With the exception of airline pilots, underwriting of pilots really comes down to five primary questions.
1. Age of the pilot
2. Pilot rating – Commercial, private (IFR/VFR), or student
3. Total hours as pilot in command
4. Hours flown annually
5. Type of aircraft
Optimally the best rate class would go to someone over 26, IFR, 250+ total hours, 26-250 hours annually flying a proven, certified plane.
The truth is that private, student and commercial pilots can get very competitive rates and in most cases have the tough part of life insurance already whipped because they fall into that rare category of people who get regular physicals, so they actually know what their health is and it’s almost always good.
Bottom line. With good health being a given, even pilots that don’t meet the optimal criteria above can still get life insurance without paying a flat extra charge.
May 28th, 2009
Just got back from a conference in California and am catching up on the latest news. Life insurance giant New York Life, AARP’s partner in crime with their term insurance and whole life products, doesn’t seem to be making enough soaking us old folks.
They just announced today that they are raising rates on their no lapse guarantee universal life. This is coming from a company that has always made it’s name synonymous with being above all the fray because they have so much money.
I love the way they work. Actually I don’t care how they work because I’m not one of them, but if I was an agent from NYL and was told that I could only have my quotes illustrated by the home office because they don’t want to release their rate increase, I’d be upset. But again, I’m not one so it doesn’t affect me.
In their memo it states to the agents, “Only illustrations provided by our sales team will have the appropriate pricing incorporated. Applicants will be required to sign an acknowledgment that they are aware of the additional charge.” That’s just weird.
Bottom line. Just like New York Life’s AARP rip off and their overpriced cash cow whole life, it now appears their universal life portfolio is heading for the underground shelter where no one can really tell what they are up to.
May 27th, 2009
AXA Equitable announced recently an easing of foreign travel restrictions for both term insurance and universal life products. These new guidelines now allow, depending on the destination, 4-12 weeks of travel and in some cases living abroad for extended periods.
To say these guidelines have eased is putting it lightly when they will now allow up to 4 weeks travel to such notables as Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan with restrictions only for high risk occupations. Up to 12 weeks travel is allowable to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and India.
They define high risk occupations as arms dealers, diamond/jewelry merchants, missionaries, political and government officials and other occupations that would, by their nature, put you in harms way.
This is no small shift in the underwriting world. It’s right up there with man bites dog, or “don’t worry, if it was only one heart attack we won’t hold it against you”. Unfortunately they will hold the heart attack against you, but if you happen to have a policy through AXA Equitable that covers your foreign travel, the good news is that if you have a heart attack and die in Afghanistan, you’re covered.
Bottom line. AXA is sticking their head out where no one else is currently going and for that reason I have to wonder how long they will hold this stance. If your foreign travel has caused issues in the past with life insurance, contact an independent agent today.
May 22nd, 2009
I read a post on Twitter @bpluv today that really kind of drives home one of the points that I’ve been trying to make about the bipolar disorder/life insurance experience. It starts with the oh so true supposition that “Mental illness doesn’t make me crazy, just different”.
And more often that not the only person that notices the difference is the one that has bipolar disorder. But they live feeling different and when they are forced to openly admit they have bipolar disorder, such as on a life insurance application, they are often treated as if crazy until proven otherwise.
It is at this point that I truly believe not all life insurance agents should be allowed to talk to clients who have impairments that they are not familiar with. If the agent doesn’t know the nature of the disorder they won’t know what questions to ask. They won’t know what company to go to and they won’t know what will constitute a good shot at a good result. In a nutshell, they will be primed to waste the client’s time.
There are websites and forms out there that will tell an agent what questions to ask, but if they don’t understand what the answers to the questions mean, or what followup questions to ask to clarify the first question, well, it’s just doomed.
With the help from underwriters from several companies we have been able to develop a concise pre-screening set of questions for bipolar disorder. These questions don’t guarantee optimal results, but for those who get through this trial run, the likelihood is that we can get an approval at a reasonable rate.
1. Someone who has not been hospitalized for bipolar disorder other than for diagnosis?
2. Someone who has not attempted suicide or had bouts with suicidal ideations?
3. Someone who is compliant with their treatment, both medications and regular followups?
4. Someone who is leading a stable family life or social life?
5. Someone who is exhibiting a stable work life?
6. Someone who is not on disability for bipolar and does not have issues with drinking or drugs? If there’s a problem here, then the answers to 3, 4 and 5 are no.
7. We have found companies come through with better offers on single medications and with anti-seizure meds versus anti-psychotics.
Bottom line. There is hope out there for those challenged by bipolar disorder. The hope lies in finding agents that understand that while every tree in your forest might have bipolar disorder, it doesn’t mean that the entire forest is crazy.
May 21st, 2009
I was just tallying up the life insurance companies that hadn’t jumped on the rate increase bandwagon the other day and was pleased to see some of our best impaired risk companies holding firm. Lost one today though.
Banner Life and their New York cousin William Penn announced rate increases on their term insurance portfolio. To lock in their current rates applications need to be in the home office in the next two weeks. Again they are going with the no lead time approach, so if you are considering Banner quotes you might want to think a little quicker. They didn’t build any foot dragging time into this change.
As with other companies who have either done away with or increased rates just recently, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, these increases don’t impact anything you already have in force. Those guarantees are still guaranteed. The other thing to keep in perspective is that while rates are going up, the increases are modest. I would certainly recommend taking advantage of the current rates if you’re in a position to do so, but don’t trip over the dog trying to get to the phone to apply.
I thought it was particularly interesting the Banner endeavored to spread the bad news a bit by keeping the rate increases modest and decreasing the agent’s commission by a modest amount also. Not being a big commission watcher, I don’t have a problem with that approach. I know agents who will probably move business to other companies because of this even handed approach to Banner’s needs to bolster their reserves a bit. As for me, it is and always will be what’s best for the customer.
What started in January as the tip of the iceberg with term insurance rate increases and rate changes on universal life with external no lapse guarantees has now become a pretty clear picture of the whole chunk of ice. I predicted at the first of the year that this would impact most of the top companies by summer and it would appear that we are on track for that.
Bottom line. If you are in the market for term insurance or for permanent coverage, this is a good time to consider moving on that. While the increases may be modest, as discussed before, a modest increase over a 30 year guarantee can add up to some serious money.
May 20th, 2009
A person contacted me a few months back looking for a policy to replace his current universal life which is going up in price on every anniversary date. He has been paying on the UL for about 15 years and just two years ago he received notice that the policy no longer had sufficient cash value to support the death benefit. He either needed to lower the death benefit or pay a significantly larger premium if he wanted to keep it in force.
The first time this happened he assumed it was a one time adjustment and he paid the extra premium to keep the policy in force. This year brought another large adjustment. It was now at a point where he couldn’t afford the coverage. He called me because he needed a policy at a rate he could afford, he needed that rate to be guaranteed to be level, and he had a history of prostate cancer.
We shopped the case and in spite of his Gleason grade 7 prostate cancer we were able to get a trial offer of standard from Lincoln National on a term insurance policy. The 10 year term fit well with his plans as he will be retired by then and his assets will allow him to self insure. All of the other companies offered either very highly rated policies or a decline so he indicated that he wanted to move ahead with Lincoln National. But he wasn’t quite ready. He still had a few months left on his UL that was paid for and he didn’t want to pay for double coverage. I encouraged him, in spite of the extra cost of double coverage, to take advantage of the Lincoln National offer sooner rather than later.
The next time we talked he was calling from the hospital. He had blood clots in his lungs, likely caused by a seasonal asthma that his doctor treated with prednisone. He is now on coumadin to prevent any further clotting, but Lincoln National now wants to put him off another 6 months so they can be assured that the clotting issue is under control.
So he is trapped by the universal life policy with another price increase on the way and unable to switch due to essentially being uninsurable for the next six months. I wonder what the long gone insurance agent that sold him that UL based on nothing more than assumptions would say to him today. How can an agent look someone in the face and explain what he had done to them so many years before based on the assumption that the economy would always be just peachy? The answer is they don’t. Those agents that do what his did have a way of disappearing when things turn sour.
I have encouraged the client to keep his policy in force on a monthly basis to minimize the out of pocket disaster and Lincoln has indicated that if everything is OK with the blood clots they will be willing to entertain a new application in November.
Bottom line. If you have a universal life or whole life policy that has a surprise price increase, move immediately to do something different. Almost without exception, once a policy jumps in price it will continue to do so at each opportunity the company has. And, if you have a good offer, don’t put it off until your old policy comes to another due date. Things can and will change.
May 20th, 2009
Most of the life insurance cases I work are shopped to multiple companies just so I can be assured that the insurance quote I am providing really is going to be as good as it gets and ultimately the client gets the most bang for their buck.
When I shop I am looking for the company that sees a subtle difference in the mortality risk. Most of the time the trial offers I get are bunched around the same rate class and the winner is the company that sees a case as standard plus rather than standard, preferred rather than standard plus, or a table 2 rather than a table 4. Every once in a while I get a reaction from an underwriter that is incredibly out of line with the information I provided and obviously a knee jerk reaction to, well, to something.
A case I am currently working on brought this kind of reaction from Banner Life. This client had a condition called Fuch’s dystrophy of the eye. It is asymptomatic at this point and truly, in a worst case scenario, at some point in the future might require a cornea transplant. All of the other trial offers I got ranged from preferred to standard based on treatment for mild depression, disregarding the Fuch’s as insignificant from a mortality standpoint. This was what I expected, except for Banner. They declined to make an offer due to the Fuch’s dystrophy.
I emailed back and asked for an explanation of their trial non offer and so far haven’t received anything, but I suspect that the underwriter reviewing the case had a knee jerk reaction to the word dystrophy and didn’t bother to research this particular malady to see what impact it would really have on the overall life expectancy.
Another case I was working was for someone that was being treated for depression, rather mild depression, but was being treated with a drug that is used for bipolar disorder. Most companies came back about where I would expect them to, somewhere between preferred and standard, but one company declined to offer due to bipolar disorder. It was the underwriter’s knee jerk reaction to the medication, which is a primary drug for bipolar disorder but is also used for depression that led them decline rather than clarify the facts.
Bottom line. Underwriters are human too and they occasionally misread the information presented or I present it in a way that doesn’t clarify a situation enough. But, for whatever reason the knee jerks and that company is out of the running for now. That is why we always shop to multiple companies. The more eyes that see the case the more likely that we will get a fair hearing and a good offer.
May 19th, 2009
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