Could I please get your opinion on something?
A few weeks ago posted a question concerning my UL life insurance polices being in trouble because the insurance costs were now to the point where they're going to start eating up my cash value and will terminate long before the maturity date. After that post I got a lot of excellent advice about what to do that has guided me up to a point and I appreciate all of the advice I've been given. However, in addition to this posting, I also posted the same question on another insurance forum and received a slightly different but very adamant bit of advice from one individual on this other forum. Just because he was adamant doesn't mean his advice is the best advice and I wanted to come back to this forum to get some additional input.
After getting advice from members of this forum, my view ia that I only have two options (1) take the cash value out of my $60K Country Financial policy as a 1035 and add that money to my $100K Thrivent Financial policy in the hope that Thrivent doesn't drastically increase their costs or (2) take a different option and convert both policies to paid up whole life policies. If I take option 1, my death benefit would decrease from $160K to $100K but if I take option 2 my death benefit would drop to somewhere near $75K.
Where fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) comes into play on option 1 is the potential for Thrivent's cost of insurance to rise significantly. In every in force illustration I received from Thrivent as long as their cost remain at what they've referred to as their "illustrated costs" the policy will survive and in some cases actually thrive. However, in all of their other in force illustrations where their costs increase to a midpoint between their illustrated costs and the maximum costs they can charge, every scenario they've given me fails. The position I was somewhat thinking was that it would be highly unlikely that Thrivent, being a very conservative company with a conservative client base, would not significantly increase their costs to ever come close to the midpoint numbers in their in force illustrations.
When I posed the same question on the other forum one individual on that forum suggested that I really didn't have 2 option, I really only have option 2 and that I should convert both policies to paid up whole life policies immediately. This individual said that Thrivent is just another insurance company trying to survive and since the economy has been so bad, they will do whatever they feel they need to do and that Thrivent will eventually increase their costs to the midpoint and perhaps beyond the midpoint.
So, this is where the big insurance gamble is today. If I take option 1 and their costs do increase, I'm screwed as I'll be back to the same point I am today but will no longer be able to convert my Country Life policy to paid up whole life policy and Thrivent says that I can't include any of that 1035 money brought in from Country in any paid up whole life policy I might be able to take with them later. On the other hand if I take option 2 and take a paid up policy from Country and Thrivent and the cost of insurance stays the same or only slightly increases I'll be throwing away about $25K in death benefit.
So I'm still seeking an opinion as to what is the correct course to take. Is this other individual from the other forum correct that it's silly of me to believe that Thrivent's costs aren't going to significantly rise to the midpoint and beyond or is this opinion just the safest way to insure that I'll have something there when I need it. Thoughts?
A few weeks ago posted a question concerning my UL life insurance polices being in trouble because the insurance costs were now to the point where they're going to start eating up my cash value and will terminate long before the maturity date. After that post I got a lot of excellent advice about what to do that has guided me up to a point and I appreciate all of the advice I've been given. However, in addition to this posting, I also posted the same question on another insurance forum and received a slightly different but very adamant bit of advice from one individual on this other forum. Just because he was adamant doesn't mean his advice is the best advice and I wanted to come back to this forum to get some additional input.
After getting advice from members of this forum, my view ia that I only have two options (1) take the cash value out of my $60K Country Financial policy as a 1035 and add that money to my $100K Thrivent Financial policy in the hope that Thrivent doesn't drastically increase their costs or (2) take a different option and convert both policies to paid up whole life policies. If I take option 1, my death benefit would decrease from $160K to $100K but if I take option 2 my death benefit would drop to somewhere near $75K.
Where fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) comes into play on option 1 is the potential for Thrivent's cost of insurance to rise significantly. In every in force illustration I received from Thrivent as long as their cost remain at what they've referred to as their "illustrated costs" the policy will survive and in some cases actually thrive. However, in all of their other in force illustrations where their costs increase to a midpoint between their illustrated costs and the maximum costs they can charge, every scenario they've given me fails. The position I was somewhat thinking was that it would be highly unlikely that Thrivent, being a very conservative company with a conservative client base, would not significantly increase their costs to ever come close to the midpoint numbers in their in force illustrations.
When I posed the same question on the other forum one individual on that forum suggested that I really didn't have 2 option, I really only have option 2 and that I should convert both policies to paid up whole life policies immediately. This individual said that Thrivent is just another insurance company trying to survive and since the economy has been so bad, they will do whatever they feel they need to do and that Thrivent will eventually increase their costs to the midpoint and perhaps beyond the midpoint.
So, this is where the big insurance gamble is today. If I take option 1 and their costs do increase, I'm screwed as I'll be back to the same point I am today but will no longer be able to convert my Country Life policy to paid up whole life policy and Thrivent says that I can't include any of that 1035 money brought in from Country in any paid up whole life policy I might be able to take with them later. On the other hand if I take option 2 and take a paid up policy from Country and Thrivent and the cost of insurance stays the same or only slightly increases I'll be throwing away about $25K in death benefit.
So I'm still seeking an opinion as to what is the correct course to take. Is this other individual from the other forum correct that it's silly of me to believe that Thrivent's costs aren't going to significantly rise to the midpoint and beyond or is this opinion just the safest way to insure that I'll have something there when I need it. Thoughts?
