Another One Bites the Dust!

Would everyone who has a whole life or universal life policy please stand up and raise your hand so I can see you! There is not a day that goes by that a case doesn’t cross my desk where someone believes they have a permanent life insurance policy (defined as you can’t outlive it) and when we dig into the guts of their policy we find out if they continue paying as they are, it collapses within a short period of time. When I say collapses what I mean is that they no longer have insurance unless they agree to pay substantially more than what they were led to believe would be their level premium for life.

Today I spoke with a doctor in Alaska whose parents had carried a whole life policy on him from childhood. They gave the policy to him several years ago and he just let it sit until a captive agent from the company called him up and suggested the do a conversion to another type of policy. So, the doctor tells me that this life insurance agent showed him rows and rows of numbers and assured him this was a policy guaranteed for life. He said he was so overwhelmed by all the numbers that he finally just caved in and told the guy to sign him up.

The doctor was 55 at the time. Today we looked at the guarantees in his policy, and it collapses at age 71. We worked the numbers and found him a new policy that will be paid in full in 15 years and will be GUARANTEED not to lapse before his death. The  life insurance quotes are almost identical to what he is paying now for a life insurance policy that will likely be gone at his age 71. His supposed “permanent” policy isn’t guaranteed as long as his term life policies.

Life insurance agents that don’t have the moral and ethical values to sell guaranteed policies should be asked to leave the business. If you have purchased a whole life or universal life insurance policy in the last 20 years, find an independent agent and have it analyzed. As they used to say in the Navy, “this is not a drill, this is the real thing. The cost of waiting is much higher than you can even imagine.

Again, please raise your hands!

This post is somewhat dated. Life insurance underwriting is changing and evolving continually. For more updated information check out some of the key word links. If you have a specific question or topic you need information for do a search. If you don’t find the answers you need contact me and we’ll make sure you get the information that is important to you.