How To Avoid Buying Life Insurance!

I have run into a dearth (something just short of infinity) of people over the last 18 years in life insurance who have decided that getting proper coverage for their business or family is just going to be too much work, or the game will be rigged so that no matter how they try they will be declined. What a waste of time.

Speaking of time I just had a client who had put off the purchase of additional life insurance for his family for the last five years, finally throw out the bait and ask me to send an application. He was ready to get off the fence and do what he had told me he was ready to do 5 years before, 2 years after he put his first policy in force. There was always some excuse for not following through, mostly just too busy. No matter what time of year we addressed the issue it somehow ended up being his busiest time of the year. Betcha you thought I said he died suddenly and left his family well short of what they needed. But no. We sent out the application and ordered an exam. He set an exam in December and then refused the examination saying he wasn’t told to fast prior. We aren’t talking about starving. The truth is if you don’t down 15 jelly donuts right before or six cups of coffee if you have high blood pressure, fasting is pretty unnecessary. Have a cup of coffee and a prudent breakfast and you’re going to be just fine.

So he sent the examiner packing after reaming them out for their less than professional service. I found out later that his wife, also applying for life insurance, was told about fasting and had reminded him. Hmmmm! So he reset the exam 3 weeks later. His wife completed her life insurance exam with a blood draw, urine specimen, a review of the medical questions and an ekg. When it was his turn he announced that he there was just something about the examiner he didn’t trust and sent them packing! Lesson here is always have your wife go first in case it’s dangerous. At this point his wife has sent her application, completed her exam and is in underwriting. So I enlist another exam service because the client had been sufficiently rude to the first two paramedics that Exam One didn’t want to play anymore. The details are far ruder than I just described.

So, examiner # 3 shows up. The client leads him into a small room in a very large house, a room that had only a chair and a coffee table. Exams always start with height and weight, so the examiner sat the scale down and the life insurance client said they didn’t look professional so he didn’t want to use them. His wife was there and knew her weight, stepped on and it was accurate. The examiner said what his weight was and stepped on and it was right. But the client refused to be weighed saying the scale looked like it came from the examiner’s own (expletive) bathroom. There was no room for the examiner to place the exam material anywhere but on the floor and in order to draw blood and fill out forms he would have had to be on his knees while the client sat in the chair. The life insurance examiner asked if there was another room that offered a little more space, and the client went off on him with a string of expletives. The examiner packed his stuff and left. The client then emailed me to withdraw his life insurance application because I used unprofessional examiners.

You know I’m a pretty calm guy and try to give clients the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t buy into the life insurance customer always being right. This guy whose file is now closed, is either avoiding the exam because he has something that he can’t quite quit long enough to get out of his body, or he’s an arrogant ass. He mistreated three examiners, almost single handed eclipsing the total number of exam complaints my customers have experienced over the last 18 years. I can think of 5 single instances where there were examiner issues so it’s a bit hard to suck into the idea that he could have 3 all by himself.

Bottom line. If you want to avoid buying life insurance just, man up and just do it (avoid it). If you had a problem with a para medical exam and have given up on the life insurance process, know that any issue with the exam can be accommodated. We can even have the exam done by your doctor’s office. I suggested that to the guy above and he refused that too. If you have questions about life insurance and the application process, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.