There is a real tendency, especially among the guy population, to not really have a firm grasp on what life insurance is all about! I have been staying in touch with a guy in Connecticut,  for two years now. He inquired about life insurance, but decided because he was not going to be in the best rate class due to his weight, that he would just put it off until he could lose the 15 pounds necessary to get the rates he coveted.

Now I can almost see the logic if he already had life insurance in place to cover the possibility of him leaving a widow and two children behind. He does not!!!!! That puts his decision to wait in the “you just can’t fix stupid” category. His family is totally dependent on this income and he won’t put any life insurance in force unless he gets the same rates as Superman.

I encouraged him from the get go to put some amount in force while he jousted with windmills over this weight loss thing. His response was that it wouldn’t take that long, that he was in good health, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!!! I have stayed in touch with this person every 3 months. Each time I talked to him and no weight loss had occurred I would again encourage him to put something in force. “No go” he would say. He would just swear on a stack of South Beach Diet books that he would get it done.

Two years have passed. I emailed him the other day and asked if he had dropped the weight and if he was finally ready to take care of his family responsibility. His response, “thanks for the e-mail, but I think you better take me off your list.  I am still overweight for the preferred rate and in no danger of losing the necessary weight.”

The bizarre thing in this whole story is that if the obesity fairy came tonight and relieved him of his extra pounds, because he is now two years older, the insurance would cost more than if he had just sucked it up and bought it when we first talked. Now he is just going to blow it off completely because he will never lose the weight. He will never get the coveted preferred rate class. To him, IT IS ALL ABOUT HIM!! Taking care of his family is secondary to his ego need to be able to tell…..whoever…..that he qualified for preferred rates.

And this is not isolated. It infuriates me when someone with enough cholesterol to plug a two inch waterline will put off getting life insurance because they want it at a better rate. Why not put it in force and then work on getting rid of the cholesterol? Then replace the policy you have in force with one at a better rate? Do you think his widow is going to say,”He was such a good husband. I admire the way he worked so hard to get great rates for life insurance. If he hadn’t had that heart attack he would have been there in another six months, and then he would have bought that policy he always wanted to get.”

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.