Posts filed under 'insurance quotes'
I’ve heard some good ones. “I don’t want to make her rich”. “She only needs enough to get by until she can find another husband”. “What happens if I’m still alive when I reach the end of my term insurance”?
A lot of excuses for not stepping up and buying adequate life insurance. How about we put ourselves in the other shoes? If I was left behind suddenly with a house to pay for and children to raise, how much life insurance would be too much?
Mark Twain once said, “The man who dies without adequate life insurance should have to come back and see the mess he’s left behind.” Let’s value our spouses and children and, as their caretaker, be glad that we can buy adequate life insurance to make sure they are as well, or better off, than we left them.
April 25th, 2007
The question often comes up, “why is type 2 diabetes a big deal when a person is trying to buy life insurance”? After all, you take your medicine and keep your blood sugar down and, well, what’s the problem?
The truth is that if all it involved was taking your medicine, diabetes wouldn’t really be a big concern to life insurance underwriters. The problem comes because treating diabetes is more intensive than just taking medication. It also involves, done properly, regular and frequent monitoring, more trips to the doctor than we might normally do, and almost an obsession with educating yourself about and fighting the disease. If that commitment to the battle is not present, type 2 diabetes can lead, in fact is likely to lead, to other health complications.
It is diabetes and the potential complications combined that lead life insurance companies to take a careful, thoughtful look before committing to low rates. Low rates are possible and even fairly common, but only for those who are taking their diabetes seriously and doing all they can to avoid the complications that can occur.
The concerns of the underwriter are the same complications that the American Diabetes Assocation points to as the concerns in the larger picture. Those include an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. There is little denying the mortality risk involved with those issues. For a diabetic who already has had a heart attack or been diagnosed with coronary artery disease, there is a compounding of that mortality risk.
Another big issue is kidney disease. Out of control diabetes can damage the kidney’s ability to filter out waste products. Too much damage can lead to kidney failure. Again, an issue that is a readily apparent mortality risk.
Other issues can include neuropathy, or nerve damage, eysight problems even leading to blindness, and quite often depression.
An understanding of the risk factors that life insurance underwriters look at when working for someone with diabetes is the role of a good independent life insurance agent. Many agents will yell uninsurable and run for the door if you mention diabetes. A good agent will just start asking questions.
Be prepared. Know your medical history. Know what your hbA1c level is. If you don’t know right now, call your doctor and ask. It was on your last full blood workup. Make your doctor explain what it is and what it means in your life. Know you medications. Know your blood pressure averages. If you’ve had any kind of cardiac workup since you were diagnosed with diabetes, get a copy of it. Start keeping all of your lab results, a copy of notes from each doctor visit. Be a wealth of knowledge when you talk to an agent about life insurance quotes.
There are plenty of bad things that can happen if you let your diabetes get out of control. The good news is, you can keep it in control and stay healthy and live long and get good rates on life insurance.
April 17th, 2007
The various skins cancers and the way in which they are viewed by life insurance underwriters continues to evolve. The three primary skin cancers are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma.
Not even five years ago it was a given that basal cell carcinoma just didn’t affect your life insurance quote at all. It was considered insignificant from a mortality standpoint, simply because no one dies from basal cell carcinoma. Squamous cell, while more serious than basal cell, in most cases doesn’t carry any real significant mortality risk. Both of these skin cancers are also called “non melanoma” skin cancer.
On the other end of the skin cancer spectrum is melanoma, a cancer known for its’ tendency to spread quickly and metastatize throughout the body. Defintely a mortality issue.
Now, to complicate the underwriting issue, comes a study that shows that people who have multiple basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas, have a higher than average chance of having a melanoma. This has caused many companies to take a new look at their old underwriting. As I mentioned earlier, the general rule of thumb was that basal cell carcinoma was a non issue in underwriting. With most companies, five years ago, a person could expect the best rate class even with multiple instances of basal cell.
New thinking from underwriters is that multiple instances should now incur some rate change due to a higher risk of melanoma. Not all companies are on board with that, but the trend is in that direction. This is where an independent agent is a good idea. The more companies you have to choose from the better the likelihood you can still get the best rates.
My personal opinion on this is that the companies that have freaked out over the study are forgetting something very important. Undiagnosed melanoma is generally the killer. Someone has never had a skin cancer problem and they kind of ignore it and then, by the time they think they should have it checked out, it’s too late. If someone has had basal or squamous cell carcinoma and especially someone who has had more than one, they are likely to get regular checkups from a dermatologist. The likelihood of a melanoma sneaking up on them and doing any real damage is actually pretty slim.
Bottom line. If you’ve had skin cancer and are shopping for life insurance, bring all the facts and even the pathology reports to your insurance agent. The more infomation they have the more likely they are to be able to find good rates.
April 14th, 2007
Most sleep apnea is diagnosed first by the spouse of the person who has it. Usually they would consider themselves to be the one that suffers from because one of the possible signs of sleep apnea is extraordinarily loud snoring. Actually sleep apnea, left untreated, is a real health issue and can lead to collateral health problems.
The American Sleep Apnea Assocation on their website www.sleepapnea.org kind of sums of sleep apnea like this” Sleep apnea is very common, as common as adult diabetes, and affects more than twelve million Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health. Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Yet still because of the lack of awareness by the public and healthcare professionals, the vast majority remain undiagnosed and therefore untreated, despite the fact that this serious disorder can have significant consequences.
Untreated, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and headaches. Moreover, untreated sleep apnea may be responsible for job impairment and motor vehicle crashes. Fortunately, sleep apnea can be diagnosed and treated. Several treatment options exist, and research into additional options continues.
So, from a life insurance standpoint there is good reason to evaluate the risk carefully. While most well controlled sleep apnea can be underwritten at better than standard rates, it still comes down to compliance and control. The use of a cpap machine while sleeping is not the easiest thing to get used to and many people with sleep apnea are not as compliant with doctors orders as they should be. Occasional use is not what was prescribed and does not provide the control that is needed to avoid collateral health issues.
Sleep apnea can cause sleep deprivation and underwriters, for instance, will take an especically cautious look at a private pilot with sleep apnea. Falling asleep at the wheel can have definite mortality risk ramifications.
Surgical repair of obstructive sleep apnea often completely resolves the issue with no further treatment needed. In these cases, as long as all other risk factors are in balance, preferred rates may be available. Remember though. All other risk factors in balance!!!! If you have the apnea surgically corrected and still weight 290 #’s, don’t expect preferred rates.
Seek out an independent life insurance agent to help you analyze your situation and track down the best possible life insurance quotes for you.
April 7th, 2007
I don’t know if New York state employees have an exceptionally hard time in getting help with retirement planning. I hope for the rest of the country sake that their situation is an exception rather than a rule.
Recently a retiring state employee wanted life insurance quotes. Based on the cost of the life insurance it looked like it would be prudent to take the larger income at retirement and make up for the spousal survivor benefit cut back with the insurance. All they needed to do was meet with the retirement planner to finalize the direction they wanted to take. While I urged them to put the life insurance in force and then adjust it if need be after the fact, they insisted that the process wouldn’t take long so they would just hold off.
Seven months and two new sets of quotes later they called to let me know that they finally had their meeting and wanted the insurance now as their retirement was only a month away. The only problem was that he had had a severe stroke in the interim, so severe that all we could get him was a $50,000 guaranteed issue policy. Not enough coverage to take the retirement plan they wanted and too expensive based on their new budget.
If I’ve said it once, I know I’ve said it a lot of times. Don’t wait for some occurrence in the future to purchase your life insurance. Buy it now.. Buy it when you’re healthy. If you’re still healthy when you get to that occurrence you can always change the policy or replace it with one more appropriate. What you won’t be when you get there is uninsured and without options.
April 4th, 2007
With the Center for Disease Control stating that type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, life insurance companies are faced with the challenge of how to underwrite the disease so that it is properly assessed in the context to the risk pool they need to protect.
Layman’s terms. Life insurance companies take diabetes and how you treat and manage your own diabetes seriously. They don’t want to sink the ship by taking the issue of diabetes too lightly. Conversely they also don’t want to over react and throw all diabetics overboard.
There are good rates available for life insurance on diabetics. What underwriters want to see can be summed up in just a few words. If you are diabetic and want good life insurance quotes you need to be educated about your condition, concerned enough to do all the right things to control it, and be compliant with the treatment program you are on.
Here are two situations. I will leave you to guess who gets the best insurance rates. To make all things equal we will start with just one person and assume two different courses of action.
Our person is 56. At 5′9 and 270#’s, not dainty by any stretch of the imagination. He finds out on an insurance exam that his A1C is 8.5 and the insurance agent suggests he see his doctor because that indicates some very high glucose levels. He is diabetic!
So, #1 soaks in that information and decides to take action. Since he isn’t all that keen on going to the doctor, he assumes that role himself. He knocks off some of the bad eating habits that helped him earn that 270# and goes on a diet because he has heard that obesity can affect diabetes. By culling out some of his favorite hobbies like donuts and ice cream….well, pretty much at least, he is finally, after two years, able to get down to a lean and mean 255#’s. He decides he has taken care of the problem and therefore never looks into the issue any further.
Now #2 takes that information from the insurance exam to his doctor. The first thing he asks is what an A1C is. After finding out that it indicates extremely elevated glucose over a long period, he asks the doctor for educational material so he can learn more about diabetes. He starts an oral medication to help bring his glucose under control and because the doctor indicated his blood pressure was running a little high, he starts medication to keep that in check. He then follows doctor’s orders for a diet and exercise program that over the course of two years brings his weight down to 220#’s. His A1C is now down to 6.5, he feels great, and is no longer in need of blood pressure medication. He continues on the diet and exercise with a goal of eventually being down to 190#’s.
OK. I won’t make you guess. Client #1, if purchasing a 250,000, 20 year term policy would likely have to pay in the area of $3600-$4000 per year after working on getting his diabetes under control for two years. Client #2 would probably pay about $1700 per year.
Talk to your independent life insurance agent today about your diabetes and how to earn the best rates possible.
March 31st, 2007
Four tips for type 1 and type 2 diabetics who are looking for life insurance and don’t want to pay through the nose for it.
1. Learn about your diabetes. Be able to explain to an independent agent when it was diagnosed, exactly what your treatment is, and if there have been any collateral health issues. For type 1 diabetics collateral health issues might be kidney or eyesight problems. For type 2 diabetics, neuropathy or hypertension are often associated problems.
2. Know your lab results. If you are taking care of yourself, then you not only check your glucose frequently, but you also will likely get quarterly labwork and a consultation with your doctor. Your labs will have a lot of valuable information on it. Ask your doctor what the results mean. Ask if they are good or bad. Keep a copy for yourself each time you go so you have your own record. Ask about and remember what your A1C level is each time you go. Also keep a record of your blood pressure readings. Your doctor will take them every time you are there. If you already have hypertension, monitor your blood pressure at home as well.
3. Understand control and what it means for your life (and life insurance). With good control of your diabetes you can expect a long healthy life. If you don’t stay on top of your treatment and don’t avoid the temptation to be slack about your lifestyle, you can end up with coronary artery disease, retinopathy, and a host of other life changing and life ending problems.
4. If you are diabetic and are taking care of yourself, never, NEVER, let a life insurance agent tell you that you are uninsurable. A good independent agent will be able to find what you need at a reasonable rate as long as you have done your part and taken your diabetes seriously.
March 29th, 2007
As treatment for all types of cancer have improved, life insurance underwriters have been forced to re-evaluate their guidelines for different types of treatment and how the mortality experience has actually changed.
One good example is with prostate cancer. While the base guidelines are still pretty much the same, that being that the diagnosis level psa is 10 or below, and the cancer is a medium to low grade and stage, there have been some shifts in acceptability of treatment methods and post treatment results.
The historical majority of prostate cancer treatment has been by radical prostatectomy. In medium to lower grade cancers this is usually sufficient without chemo or radiation to resolve the issue. Because there is no prostate, the resulting psa is 0 and from an underwriting perspective that would be the approvable result.
A little fuzzier underwriting guideline has to do with men who chose to forego the prostatectomy and instead have a radioactive seed implant. Because the prostate remains in place, there is a psa level post treatment. The guideline for years has been that a person can get better than standard rates when their psa reaches .50 or less with a seed implant. The problem has been, while the seed implant has been very effective in treating the cancer, it is not uncommon for the psa to never quite make it to the benchmark .50.
Recent thinking from underwriters has been, especially in older men, to cut some slack on that bench mark and allow readings as high as 1.0. This will have a substantial impact on the number of cancer survivors who will qualify for better rates than in the past. It may not seem like a huge leap of faith on the part of the insurance companies, but rest assured it is a quantum leap for someone whose psa came down to, say, .65 and bottomed out.
It will take a good independent life insurance agent to determine the right company for you to seek insurance quotes from. These are not changes that will be quickly embraced by the New York Life’s and Northwestern Mutual’s of the industry. They will likely stick to the more conservative approach for some time to come.
As treatments improve and the success and mortality experience improves, expect to see underwriting changes follow for breast cancer survivors. We have already seen quantum leaps from 10 years ago and it’s only going to get better.
March 28th, 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
In the excitement of starting a new business all the focus is generally onward and upward and the tendency is to kind of overlook the downside to success. This is more prevelant in partnerships, but is also a real problem for sole proprietors and corporations. Business life insurance can protect your family from losing the fruit of your labor and can also keep someone else from owning part of your business if a partner dies.
The obvious need for a business owner is to carry enough term insurance to make sure that all the debts of the business are taken care and don’t become a burden to your family. Most small businesses don’t have any real “market value”, so your heirs won’t really have anything to sell if you die prematurely. A life insurance policy can replace the lost income value of that business to your family.
In the case of a partnership it becomes more complicated. In most states if a partner in a business dies, their portion of the business is left to their heirs, their family. So you could go home one night and come back the next day with a new partner, one you may not want to work with at all or one that may not have any qualifications to work in the business. This problem is best solved by putting together a buy/sell agreement and funding it with buy/sell life insurance policies.
Then, in the case of an untimely death, the life insurance policy would provide the funds necessary to buy out your partner’s portion of the business. I know in my business I would much rather come in that morning and know that all of this was planned for and everyone will get what they need. Contact a good independent life insurance agent for quotes today on business life insurance.
March 27th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts
