Posts filed under 'AARP'
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has held themselves out as the private pilot’s friend for a long time, the advocate, the go to organization, the one stop shop for all of your needs.
For all I know they may in fact be the shining star they claim to be, except when it comes to life insurance where they stand out as being very limited in scope for the average pilot and amazingly like AARP, my least favorite advocacy group, in their other offerings.
From the life insurance information page of their website they throw out these offerings:
AOPA Group Term Life Insurance
Most likely you have some life insurance coverage. But is it enough to adequately provide for your loved ones if you’re no longer there to support them? Right now, AOPA members and their spouses under age 65 can apply for $5000 up to $1 million in affordable coverage with no aviation exclusions. Go ahead and get your quotes, but I’m not getting a warm, fuzzy feeling about a group product with face amounts available from $5000 to $1mm. Being group with super small face amounts it almost certainly has to be a simplified issue product and the way companies make it simple to issue is by overcharging or not guaranteeing. And what’s with only offering it up to age 65?
AOPA Level Term Life Insurance
AOPA members and their spouses can lock in affordable rates and benefits from $200,000 up to $1 million for 10 or 20 years. Every year you can trust that your rate won’t increase, making it easy to plan and budget from year to year. This is their Minnesota Life offering which, by the way, can be purchased through any independent agent. And when you go through an independent agent Minnesota Life opens up the offerings to include all the term lengths, 10, 15, 20 or 30 years, and face amounts from $100,000 to $10,000,000.
AOPA Senior Term Life Insurance
Often times obtaining quality, affordable coverage after age 50 is difficult. That’s not the case with AOPA Senior Term Life Insurance. It’s specifically designed for members over age 50. AOPA Members age 50 to under 75 and their spouses age 45-75 can obtain $10,000 to $50,000 in economical life insurance without submitting to a medical exam. This is the product that stinks like they robbed right off an AARP truck. Guaranteed issue whole life. Viciously overpriced permanent coverage that, because of the high cost, will rarely be still in force at the time of your death unless you can manage to die early on as a “senior”, say at age 50. Guaranteed a bad deal even if you’re just looking for a final expense policy.
Bottom line. AOPA is pathetically far down on the list of places that a private pilot should go looking for their best options on life insurance. There are plenty of independent agents out there that can get better deals in almost every circumstance.
February 24th, 2010
January 7 and I have already received several emails and a mailing from AARP basically asking me if I have somehow missed the last 200 attempts to get me to buy life insurance from them.
I see the way my Mom trusts AARP, not a view shared by my Dad when he was still around, and I wonder if there was some point in the past when they really were selfless advocates for us over 50 folks. I wonder if “back in the day” they really did try to steer the elderly in the right direction when it came to making financial decisions. Or does that unwarranted trust come from those four letters being branded to death on the minds of old folks for so long that, even if all they’ve ever done is rip people off, as long as the keep claiming they love us, all is good?
But, what wasn’t good last year and still isn’t good this year is the awful marriage of AARP and New York Life that produced the hideous products that they offer for life insurance. They suck you in with their how easy life can be product, their five year term insurance. They guarantee that the rate will go up every 5 years. They won’t guarantee by how much. And the prices start off bad.
And to make matters worse for you and easier for them, the price goes up in 5 year increments by age, so if buy a policy at age 65 the rate will change at 70. If you buy it at age 64 it will change at 65.
And of course my favorite feature of this product is the fact that at age 80 the overpriced term insurance ends and you are either forced to go without or convert to their mega overpriced whole life insurance. Why would you market something as being good for people our age when it ends about the time when most of us start needing it?
Bottom line. AARP! New York Life! Poison Ivy! A hot stick poked in your eye! All the same genus and species.
January 7th, 2010
I can rant and rave all day long about the perverse way AARP treats its’ members with their insurance programs, and I do, but that’s just my professional opinion.
I recently received a personal opinion from a person whose mother is an owner of one of the AARP/New York Life insurance policies. In his words, “I recently found out that my mother has been paying monthly for an life insurance policy through AARP. My sister and I will each received $5,000 at her death. She has already paid them nearly $14,000 for this $10,000 policy. If she lives another 10 years, they will have received double that. She could have been putting that money in just a pathetic savings account and had a better return. AARP is ripping off their members and should be ashamed.”
I think one step further than being ashamed. Personally I think they should be required to discontinue sales of these horrendous products and refund all the money paid in for those who still have these policies in force. I’ve said it before. If this wasn’t AARP and was just some group out there preying on the elderly in our society with these awful products, they would be out of business and likely in jail.
Bottom line. If you have parents that have purchased AARP insurance of any type, get a professional second opinion. AARP has managed to weasel their way into a position of trust that they don’t deserve and they are ripping off anyone they can.
September 9th, 2009
I know it seems like about half of my adult life has been spent shooting arrows at AARP for their mistreatment of their constituency with their pet program, AARP’s Life Insurance underwritten through New York Life. You would think this organization would have enough rip offs under its’ belt that it wouldn’t need to create anymore, but nooo……
I got an email yesterday, AARP Messages, a kind of newsletter letting all of us old folks know how they want to stick it to us this month. They always seem to start off so, well, helpful I guess would be the word. The first shot out of their newsletter is an article, “Today’s Featured Money Tool: Home Budget Calculator”. I’m all for trying to live life within a budget and because I am a Dave Ramsey fan I’m also all about getting rid of credit cards as a way to create a controllable budget.
Scrolling on down the newsletter I then ran into something that didn’t work real well for me. The same folks that were offering me a home budget calculator wanted me to get an AARP credit card. Before I even went to the terms of their credit card offer I had this feeling that just like their life insurance and auto insurance, this latest offering was somehow a money making sucker for them.
Now, I’m not in the credit card market anymore so I honestly could tell you if their terms are normal or not, but I can tell you that what I’ve seen as normal in the past was a much better deal than this. If the folks with the best credit can only get a 13.24% variable rate (knowing that the prime rate isn’t going to go any lower so the only variation is going to be up) , I’m thinking there is a couple of %’s in their for AARP.
But I’m not Ed Hinerman on Credit Cards, so I’ll let that slide. But I can tell you from having analyzed the AARP life insurance offering that it is, if not the worst, certainly competing for the worst life insurance program on the market today. New York Life should be ashamed to underwrite it and AARP should have to explain themselves to Congress or their mothers and fathers who are their market.
Bottom line. AARP is one of the most recognizable brands in our country and they are using that clout to rip off anyone over 50 they can get to. It’s wrong to offer the kind of life insurance products they put forth period. It is quadrupally wrong to offer it to people who trust you because of your brand and are at a place in life where a mistake in buying the wrong product might be irreversible.
August 20th, 2009
AARP is on a soapbox concerning health care reform, once again purporting to be the mother of all advocacy groups on behalf of all of us who are over 50, and of course if we want to buy something our spouses of they are over 45.
I won’t even get into the health care debate, but I got this email from Barry Jackson, AARP this afternoon. After Mr Jackson addressed a few issues he wrote this, “So what is AARP fighting for in health reform?
Stopping insurance companies from charging older Americans unaffordable premiums because of their age.”
I guess my question for AARP is if we can’t trust them from “charging older Americans unaffordable premiums” in their New York Life sponsored life insurance program, how can we trust that they don’t have completely self serving agenda on this issue as well.
The life insurance program that is so near and dear to their heart is so unbelievably overpriced and inappropriate that it continues to amaze me that they are allowed to sell it under the veil of being a non profit advocacy organization. The huge profits made by New York Life on this overpriced rip off in part flow right back through AARP. So either they are a non profit ripoff or they are an illegal for profit business.
Bottom line. I’ll start being appreciative for their advocacy when AARP stops abusing the fact that they have a successful brand.
August 5th, 2009
New York Life must be on a revenue generation mission. My latest AARP magazine had an advertisement for their AARP group term insurance with an increased limit I hadn’t seen before. You can now “add to your family’s financial security with up to $100,000 in affordable life insurance” through this overpriced, hideous excuse for senior advocacy. Oops. Let my feelings out again.
We’ve run the numbers on $50,000 when that was the max and in previous posts found out just what a horrid deal they are offering. Now they want to double your pain. I just wonder how in the world spending far too much money for something “adds to your family’s financial security?”
If AARP and New York Life are anything, they are consistent. They have used the bully pulpit of advocacy for the elderly for as long as I can remember to pad their pockets. It amazes me 1. How they can do it with a clean conscience and 2. How they can do it legally at all? It seems to me if you turned someone in that was going door to door preying on the elderly selling a total rip off life insurance product they would be out of business in no time and probably sitting in a prison somewhere thinking up their next sick scheme.
The truly sad part about this is that AARP has the attention of most of the elderly in this country, not because they’ve done them well, but because they have branded themselves into our minds. They could sell good, fairly priced products and probably do better than they are right now because they would pull in a whole group of people who are too savvy to fall for their current game. They could do the right thing and win too.
Bottom line. The only way I can see this whole thing getting any worse is if Suze Orman goes on Oprah and comes up with some pea brain reason why it’s a good idea.
June 18th, 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
It’s been literally days since I’ve popped a gasket and spewed my lack of respect for AARP all over the place, but they just mailed and want me to renew my membership. Obviously they must think there are two of us out here and their mail is going to the good one, not the evil one.
The last time I got one of their newsletters I it sent me sputtering through the office over watering plants and counting the herd of chickens in the back yard over and over again. My staff is under orders not to have me committed as long as I stay within certain boundaries. But, as you can see, AARP had one of its’ attorneys going off on organizations that change the rules on us elderly folks just when we get to the point where we really need to rely on them.
Shame on those companies and double shame on AARP for doing exactly the same thing and bad mouthing it as if they were pure as the driven snow. Just when I was about over that I got this offer to renew as a member and have access to such things as their term insurance and whole life programs. Well, there went another gasket.
If there is a polite way to say that an organization that touts itself as an advocate, but blatantly offers terrible products at terrible prices, I haven’t found it. Hiding behind New York Life’s skirts doesn’t change the fact that AARP and New York Life have partnered to provide some of the worst products imaginable to folks that due to their age and their money constraints really need someone to stand up for them and give them the best the industry has to offer.
Bottom line. If you are considering buying life insurance through AARP, don’t do it. Even a quick bit of shopping will make it clear that you were about to jump off a cliff with no safety line.
May 18th, 2009
I often hear to comment from clients that “they should do this before they turn 50 or 55 or 60″ because they have heard the urban myth that at certain ages life insurance rates take an obnoxious jump, a way to offset all the benefits we get from our beloved AARP.
I would be the last to say don’t worry about age because rates absolutely go up with age, but it is a gradual curve through the years, not an extreme punishment for any particular birthday. And keep in mind that this is just for a new policy. If you have a guaranteed, locked in rate, you’ve beat the aging process.
One possible birthplace of this myth is folks that have 5 year renewable term or in some cases 10 year renewable term. I wrote a post about AARP’s term insurance products not long ago, and if you take the numbers from that I can see why it might lead you to believe that certain ages are definitely not your friend. For instance, with AARP, if I take out $50,000 of 5 year renewable term at age 59 I actually pay the same rate as I would have at age 55, $74.58 per month. Of course you wouldn’t know that because why would you run rates for 55 if you’re 59? Since their product changes at ages versus anniversaries when I turn 60 my rate goes up to $108.65 per month and you go, “Wow, 60 must be the age where life insurance takes a giant leap.”
But, not true. Just a quick sample will kind of give you the scene. We’ll assume I buy $100,000 of 20 year term starting at age 50 and that I am a standard rate risk. Of course those rates are locked for 20 years, but let’s see what it would cost given the same parameters at 56, 57, 58 and so on.
At 50 the rate is $36.34
51 is $40.08
52 is $43.67
53 is $48.20
54 is $53.53
55 is $58.36 (compare to AARP $50k rate guaranteed for 5 years, blah!!!!! on AARP)
56 is $62.26
57 is $66.13
58 is $71.55
59 is $79.89
60 is $91.85
61 is $104.04
62 is $116.03
63 is $128.19
64 is $136.94 and
65 is $145.69
There was a little larger bump at age 60, but keep in mind that we were using a 20 year guaranteed level term insurance product. Unlike a 5 or a 10 year guaranteed term, with those rates there is no opportunity to raise your rates for 20 years and at age 60 that 20 years is guaranteeing your rate past average mortality. You would not have seen that bump on a 10 or 15 year term. Even given that, the bump isn’t significant.
Bottom line. Age absolutely affects life insurance rates, but there is no magic age. Buy life insurance when you need it, not when you think you need to because it might cost more next year. Truth is with the reversal in the trend of downward term insurance rates, better buy now if you want the best rate.
May 15th, 2009
The ADA continues to strike me as an incomplete advocate. Just try to find information on what it takes to get affordable life insurance if you have diabetes. Unbelievable! I called them this morning and then sent the following email in an attempt to break through to someone that cares.
“I have attempted in the past to share information about how diabetes impacts a person’s ability to get life insurance and what it takes and how a person can find affordable life insurance rates with a history of type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
I am struck by the lack of information provided by the ADA website on this challenge. Life insurance is mentioned more often in the context of planned giving to the ADA than it is as an everyday need for people and families dealing with diabetes.
The only page you have that goes into life insurance at all, is less than informative, and at least in the first few sentences, inaccurate and misleading. I suspect a lot of people, if they can even find that page, are turned off and don’t read the entire article. If they do read the entire article, they certainly don’t have a clue where to go from there.
I have been treated rudely and unprofessionally by your staff in my attempts to provide useful information in this arena in the past. I would like to believe that there is a way to get valuable information on to your website, information that positively impacts your member’s everyday lives.
Is it possible to speak to someone about how we might collaborate to provide real, insightful, valuable information to those that face the challenge of protecting their family and/or doing planned giving through life insurance when diabetes stands between them and doing those things affordably?”
Bottom line. I certainly haven’t hidden the fact that I have no love loss for “advocacy” groups that don’t deal with, or deal inappropriately with their member’s need for life insurance. What the ADA isn’t for those with diabetes is the same as what AARP isn’t to older people is the same as what AOPA isn’t to private pilots.
March 24th, 2009
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