Posts filed under 'children's life insurance'
How can you charge so much money for the education it takes to become a doctor and never teach them about the impact of poorly kept medical records? There is a huge problem in the integrity of the information that is put into medical records. It runs from casually putting irrelevant information in the records to nurses actually filing someone else’s information in your records. Just like credit reports, when you apply for life insurance the underwriters assume that your records are accurate. They make decisions based on that assumption.
I read recently that 90% of medical records contain erroneous information. Much can be attributed to doctor doodling, and plenty of it is due to the difficulty of transcribing doctor notes, be infamous as they are in regards to their handwriting.
A good example was a client of mine, a woman in great health, who got an approval at a standard rate because the underwriter read in her medical records that her mother had died of colon cancer at age 44. We knew that her mother had colon cancer at age 44. We also knew that she was now 64 she was still cooking Thanksgiving dinners for the family. The entry was in error. Once that was resolved she was approved at preferred, half of what the standard rate would have cost.
Another case was a fellow Coloradan. Athletic, good habits, and in all aspects should have been preferred plus, the best rate class. He was approved standard because it said in his medical records that he was being treated for depression. The real story went like this. The man was at his doctor’s office with a common cold. His father was dying and he had been kind of down about. He felt especially burdened because he was the executor of the estate.The doctor gave him a sample of an antidepressant and a prescription for more if he needed it. The man never took the samples and never filled the prescription. He did call the doctor’s office and told them that he was doing well and didn’t feel like he needed it. The doctor never made any mention of that phone call in my client’s records. We were able to clear that up with a letter of explanation from the doctor.
Bottom line.The point is that everyone should review their medical records at least every year or two. You should always pay attention to what a doctor writes when you visit them. You’re paying them good money. Ask them to stick around for a minute while you read their notes and ask them to correct anything and clarify anything that doesn’t seem right.
April 4th, 2008
Well, I certainly haven’d hidden the fact that my opinion of Suze Orman’s opinion on all matters life insurance is lower than a lizard’s belly. She is product ignorant and a few bubbles off when it comes to common sense on the subject.
Now comes Walter Updegrave who has earned himself the title of Senior Editor at Money Magazine. Mr Updegrave has proven himself to be the male equal of Suze Orman. He may even be a few steps ahead just because of the title he has attained and the expectation that he should know what he’s talking about. I honestly don’t think many people other than Oprah buy into Suze to any great extent.
Mr Updegrave wrote an article about life insurance for children, actually answering a letter from someone who had received a mail solicitation for children’s whole life insurance. His response was, like Suze, product ignorant and painted with such a broad brush that he gives the impression that 1. He knows what he’s talking about and 2. One size does fit all…..always.
He is obviously under the impression that 1. All children’s life insurance is whole life with cash value. 2. All American’s that don’t have health insurance can afford the final expenses of a child’s untimely death. And 3. He doesn’t seem to understand that guaranteeing a child’s insurability is worth something. In a post some time ago I made my case for children’s insurance.
Bottom line. Mr Updegrave should do his homework before professing expertise in an area he is obviously a bit short in. Children’s life insurance is a gift.
February 9th, 2008
There are nearly 2000 companies in the US that purport to be life insurance companies. When you work your way through all of the “sort of’s” and “wanna be’s”, and get down to those companies that are serious about the products they offer and their approach to underwriting, the field narrows to maybe 50, at the most. When it comes to narrowing the field down to the serious life insurance companies I can offer a few helpful hints.
- Stay away from property/casualty (car/homeowner) insurance companies. These agents will always be glad to take your money, but the majority truly don’t have a clue that their products aren’t competitive (really, really not competitive), and they don’t understand life insurance underwriting. A little like going to a boat mechanic to get your car fixed.
- Steer clear of life insurance companies that attempt to bulk mail you into submission. Like most bulk mail offers, if they were truly worthwhile, they wouldn’t have to keep mailing it over and over and over.
- Steer clear of advocacy group offerings. AARP is not the senior’s friend when it comes to life insurance. Gerber’s life insurance products aren’t a good deal for your children’s life insurance. The AOPA is padding their own pockets at the expense of private pilots that sign on for their life insurance program.
So, where should you turn? Put as simply as possible, an online independent life insurance agent is your best bet for meeting your needs. They offer all the life insurance products you could possibly want or need. They have the education and experience to help you decide what is appropriate and affordable. They are independent, so they truly have no allegiance to a company, freeing themselves up to represent you 100%.
Bottom line. There are some legitimate reasons to be declined for life insurance, but the majority of declines are the result of your situation being handled by the wrong agent and the wrong insurance company. I’ve seen hundreds of declines turned into reasonable offers. Don’t take a decline as the industry answer to your life insurance needs. Get a second opinion.
December 26th, 2007
Some time ago I started on a quest to find out the facts about mortality experience of children with type 1 diabetes. The issue I had initially run into was that insurance companies simply would not offer life insurance to children with type 1 diabetes, almost across the board. A few said they would consider it as a highly rated policy if they were over age 15 or over age 19, but most just said no thanks.
I enlisted the expertise of Mike McFarland with Prudential to help me understand why insurance companies were so freaked out by this age group with this problem. I was thinking that surely 1 in every 5 must die before age 20 or there would be at least some high priced product for them. Mr McFarland clued me in that the problem wasn’t the death rate at all, it was the lack of statistics on which to base rates. Insurance companies use mortality tables that go from 0-100, not 0-20, 20-40, etc. They simply didn’t know what mortality experience they would be looking at, making it impossible to design and price a product.
Today the Center for Disease Ccntrol released a study that really centered around the difference in mortality in children with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, depending on whether they were white or black.
The point I would like to take from this 25 year study is not the difference in deaths per ethnic background, but the fact that compared to other causes of death, death due to diabetes is minuscule. Even using the higher level for blacks, we are talking about 2.5 deaths attributed to diabetes per million.
A child is 60 times more likely to die in a car accident than due to diabetes, 10 times more likely to die of heart disease, 3 times more likely to die from influenza, 4 times more likely to die of respiratory disease, 4 times more liikely due to falling or poisoning and 40 times more likely due to drowning.
Bottom line. It’s time for insurance companies to quit crying wolf, or ignoring the wolf or whatever they are trying to do. There is no fact that would lead to the conclusion that a type 1 diabetes child is uninsurable.
November 21st, 2007
I had an email from a potential client today that said “I am looking for reasonably priced life insurance where there are no health questions and/or physical exam. If your group can fullfill these requirements than you can contact me”.
There are a lot of people who think life insurance companies are too nosy. Consider people purchasing business life insurance where the company would like you to simply divulge every financial detail of the business. I actually share the business person’s concern that much of what the companies ask for is unnecessary to the life insurance company and rather confidential.
“No health questions and/or exam?” “Reasonably priced?” I’m thinking he wishes his mother would still do his laundry too.
Since all life insurance pricing is based on mortality assumptions, the more a life insurance company knows about the risk, the more reasonably they can price the product. If they don’t know anything about the risk, it follows that the only way to cover themselves and the risk pool they represent (that would be you), is to offer less reasonable rates and products to those who don’t want to talk about their health or be examined.
To meet his needs we’re really talking about a guaranteed issue product. Guaranteed issue, just as the name implies, will issue insurance to anyone with usually the only caveat being that they have to fall between 40 and 60 years old. How can they do it? First, it is a whole life policy, so the premiums are high. The death benefit is generally limited to $50,000, so the risk is held down. And lastly, they have a 2-3 year waiting period before the death benefit is activated, giving them some cushion before they really assume the risk. During that waiting period, if a death occurs, the company will normally return all premiums paid plus a modest amount of interest to the beneficiary. That’s what you get with no questions and no exam.
Another option is no exam but some questions. Usually call a simplified issue policy, it relies on the application and information from the medical information bureau. These policies can be applied for on line and issued within hours. They are generally at standard or worse rates no matter how good your health is and they are generally capped at $250,000 to $300,000. This is the type of product that is usually used to underwrite children’s life insurance.
Bottom line. The best prices for life insurance, whether term insurance, universal life or whole life, will come with a full medical disclosure and an exam. Make the company comfortable with the risk and they will reward you with the best rates.
October 30th, 2007
How often do we hear it? A friend or family member has had a heart attack or been diagnosed with cancer at an age that is just, well….wrong! We expect health problems and death when someone gets into their 80’s. It’s not nearly so common in their 50’s and 60’s, or even 70’s anymore. But there’s that once a year shocker where somone we know that is in their 30’s or 40’s has some serious health issue diagnosed. Quite often we hear about their death. The question is, if they knew it was coming, would they consider life insurance differently?
I’ve been there and understand that bomb proof, immortal feeling at that age. We see bad things happen to the wrong people at the wrong age all the time and, because we have a shield of immortality (or denial) around us, we think we are somehow living in a different world. Certainly it could happen to them, but not to us.
Consider for a minute that there is something that would cost less than a dinner out every month. Life insurance can be that inexpensive and in will ensure the future of your family in the event you happen to get being one of them. It can not only insure you now, but it can also guarantee, or lock in your insurability for later years when the chances of health problems increases. Wouldn’t it be great to know that you were still insuring your family’s future for the cost of a dinner a month when you had recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, breast cancer or melanoma. Once you have that great rate, it can’t be changed just because your health does.
Maybe life insurance isn’t the most popular subject, but it’s one that should be discussed earlier rather than later. Better that business partners set up a buy/sell agreement and buy business life insurance when they are both healthy. Better that a husband and wife discuss the real needs and make a purchase that will ensure financial security while they are young. I personally think buying juvenile or children’s life insurance with a guaranteed insurability feature is a tremendous gift. One they may not understand for years, but one that can make a huge difference for them down the road.
Like I said yesterday…..it’s time to talk about it. Too much is left undiscussed and as a result, not acted upon. How about we have a very frank discussion for the forseeable future about this whole idea of pulling all of our collective heads out of the sand and taking a look a reality? I’m up for it!!
May 3rd, 2007
Advocacy is defined in the dictionary as “supporting or promoting the interests of another”. There are several “advocacy” groups that promote life insurance to their members or to the group of people that they would suggest they are advocates on behalf of.
I have a particular problem with three advocacy groups that you would suspect would offer the best possible life insurance products to their members or audience, when in fact they offer downright bad deals and try to gloss it over by appearing to be your “friend”.
Let’s talk about Gerber. They may be pretty good at baby food, but I can tell you that the juvenile life insurance, or children’s life insurance they offer, is far from a good deal. They offer a guaranteed issue product, but from a price and benefit standpoint it pales in comparison to what can be found through an independent life insurance agent. Cute baby on the jar. Lousy advice on life insurance!
And then there’s the AOPA. For non pilots, that is the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Go to their website and you will see how they purport to be advocates for private pilots in just about every area, including life insurance. Their recommended company is Minnesota Life. There are so many companies out there that can beat Minnesota Life for aviation covered life insurance, that if you weren’t depending on them to be your advocate, it would be laughable. If you search under life insurance on their website you will actually find where they admit that they get a kick back from Minnesota Life. They use the money to enhance their advocacy. Maybe Minnesota Life’s rates are high because they have to pay the AOPA to steer business their way.
And last but not least, being old enough to be a member, our beloved AARP. Claiming to be an advocate for us elderly folks and really not doing it is, well, WRONG!!!!!!!!!! AARP pushes a New York Life term product that is overpriced to start with, the price goes up every 5 years, and after age 80 it goes away. “One that supports or promotes the interests of another?” Now I don’t know if AARP gets a kickback from New York Life, but I do know that they don’t allow any other life insurance advertising in their periodicals or on their website.
You want an advocate? Someone who really provides what the definition suggests? Get your insurance quotes for your term insurance, universal life insurance or whole life insurance from an independent life insurance agent. Get unbiased advice from an agent that isn’t being an advocate to a specific insurance company or an organization, but to you.
March 28th, 2007
Life insurance on a good day is considered by many to be a necessary evil. On a bad day, just a waste of money. Consider the following on a young couple that had just received a quote for term insurance from, of all sources, an AFLAC agent. The wife and husband were quoted a whopping $200+ per month for $200,000 of 30 year term. At her age 25 and his age 31, the odds are well in their favor that they will live longer than that. That is a lot of money. $70,000 or so over 30 years.
An independent life insurance agent could present the same couple with an option of a return of premium term insurance policy. The same couple, for $250,000, would pay $250 a year for her, $19 a month and $350 a year for him, about $30 a month. Now we have already determined they will outlive a 30 year term. With this new direction they will spend about $600 a year, making their total outlay over 30 years come to $18,000.
If that’s not good enough, at that point they get their return of premium. A tax free check for $18,000. So, at the end of 30 years they can look back at the $70,000 they spent or forward to how they are going to spend their $18,000.
I won’t even go into what AFLAC wanted to sell them for children’s life insurance except to say that it was an equally bad deal. Kind of makes me dislike ducks…………….
March 2nd, 2007
My experience is that there is actually a mindset, especially with parents, that if they carry life insurance on their child they could somehow increase that child’s chance of an early death. Let me assure you that there is no statistical link between a child’s mortality and whether or not they had a reasonable amount of life insurance.
Why carry juvenile life insurance? The first reason, the one most parents don’t want to think about, is that even though the chances are very small, occasionally a child will die prematurely. While we all say that we can probably scrape together the money it takes to pay final and burial expenses, the truth is that is the purpose of life insurance. There is a very good chance that a child’s untimely death will be far more expensive than you would have ever imagined, and a small insurance policy is only going to help defray those expenses, not pay them in full.
Now back to the greater value of life insurance for children. Now that we have gotten over the bump of dealing with the thought that a child might die prematurely, here’s the reality. They probably won’t!
The greater value, the gift in a children’s insurance policy, is the fact that it generally is guaranteed issue life insurance so getting it is not a traumatic event and the policy will generally guarantee the child’s insurability as an adult. I worked with a 22 year old client the other day who had battled leukemia through his teenage years. It appears he has won that battle, but $100,000 of term life insurance is going to cost $1200 a year. If his parents had bought the right policy when he was young, his insurability would have been guaranteed at a rate that would have allowed him to have a universal life policy for about $200 a year. He is an adult paying for his own insurance, and the gift of juvenile life insurance, whether purchased by his parents or grandparents, could be saving him $1000 per year now. It would save money and give him permanent instead of term insurance. That is huge!!!!!
Parents and grandparents. Give the gift of life insurance!
February 11th, 2007
Advocate is defined in the dictionary as “one that supports or promotes the interests of another”. There are several “advocacy” groups that promote life insurance to their members or to the group of people that they would suggest they are advocates on behalf of.
Let me suggest three advocacy groups that you would suspect would offer the best possible life insurance products to their members or audience, when in fact they offer downright bad deals and try to gloss it over by appearing to be your “friend”.
Let’s start with Gerber. I’m not sure if their baby food is any good, but I can tell you that the juvenile life insurance, or children’s life insurance they offer, is far from a good deal. They offer a guaranteed issue product, but from a price and benefit standpoint it pales in comparison to what can be found through an independent life insurance agent. Pretty baby on the jar. Lousy life insurance!
Next let’s talk about the AOPA. For those that don’t fly airplanes, that is the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Go to their website and you will see how they purport to be advocates for private pilots in just about every area, including life insurance. Their company of choice is Minnesota Life. There are so many companies out there that can beat Minnesota Life for aviation covered life insurance, that if you weren’t depending on them to be your advocate, it would be laughable. If you dig into the life insurance end of their website you will actually find where they admit that they get a kick back from Minnesota Life which they use to further their advocacy. Maybe Minnesota Life’s rates are high because they have to pay the AOPA to steer business their way.
And last but not least, being old enough to be a member, our beloved AARP. Now claiming to be an advocate for us old folks and really not doing it is, well, WRONG!!!!!!!!!! AARP pushes a New York Life term product that is overpriced to start with, the price goes up every 5 years, and after age 80 it goes away. “One that supports or promotes the interests of another.” Now I don’t know if AARP gets a kickback from New York Life, but I do know that they don’t allow any other life insurance advertising in their periodicals or on their website.
You want an advocate? Someone who really does what the definition suggests? Get your insurance quotes for your term insurance, universal life insurance or whole life insurance from an independent life insurance agent. Get unbiased advice from an agent that isn’t being an advocate to a specific insurance company or an organization, but to you.
February 9th, 2007
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