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.