Real price of WL insurance?

[Carol]

Win, excellent post.

Carol, if you want I can get you a good quote for term life and you will at least know the costs and all. If you are not in CA I can't sell it to you but you can probably find an agent on this board to write it (or I can find one), won't cost you a cent.

Win, I have to agree for two reasons, 1. it was an inappopriate proposal and 2., the majors offer crappy term products. When I was with Northwestern Mutual they only had term to age 70....WTF? And it was only convertible like in the first five years. Junk!

Majors sell whole life, term houses sell term.

Thanks, Dave. I would not want to take your time, but if you can give my, just approximately quotes for term, I would appreciate it. This situation with Wl made me a little bit less confident in my agent. I’m not sure anymore that he is “on my side”. He didn’t print out a quote for term, he calculated and said it will be about $600/year.

 

[NewHealthStrategies]

"............The only reason I'm messing with you and some of the other termites on this site is because of the product, not the client. With this particular lady I would look a little deeper first. Yea, I would lean towards a non wl product in her case. That makes sense. I just want to be certain it makes sense to her "after" she's reviewed her choices...

I disapprove of the snap of the fingers answers. It doesn't mean you have to apply physics, but again, everyone should have a full set of tools to offer to a situation. You may not need em, but carry em just in case.

As far as nasty people, every company has em. That why if you're going to work for an ahole... work for the one in the mirror.

I'm curious just what Carol might have rendered in this heart-touching counseling session of yours that "might" have suggested to you that a Whole Life policy WAS appropriate.....

C'Mon LGilmore, you tout the ever present needs analysis as though somehow this game is more difficult than rocket science.... and only those blessed with the sacred inner-working knowledge of a HP12C can do financial math.

Please pontificate on what scenario, given the facts that Carol ALREADY presented and being at least somewhat common sensical about the situation.....

What would Carol need to say in order for you to recommend that she purchase a whole life policy?

Just curious as to the answer, perhaps we can learn a trick of the trade here.

 

[Carol]

I am a Super Genius! I am a Super Genius! I am a Super Genius!!




Why? ...Anyway, I like it. Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL!

 

[Carol]

Fill the ins need completely and the only way to do that with one in her shoes is Term, and lots of it... Probably even laddered policies to account for the age difference and financial demand once the first child grads from college. So that might be an ART (kept for the remainder of college of first child) and a 10 yr term which works for the educ need and expenses of the 2nd child.

Thanks.
I have no idea what is “laddered”. Let me make sure I understand the rest. You mean ART for 2 years, should not be expensive. And, in parallel, guaranteed level 10-year term. Sounds reasonable.
I would only add: This time period doesn’t cover my future mortgage, therefore it has to be convertible, without medical, just in case I will decide to convert it to permanent later on. Am I right?

 

[GreenSky]

Carol:

To shop term prices go to term4sale.com.

Rick

 

[Dave020]

Thanks, Dave. I would not want to take your time, but if you can give my, just approximately quotes for term, I would appreciate it. This situation with Wl made me a little bit less confident in my agent. I’m not sure anymore that he is “on my side”. He didn’t print out a quote for term, he calculated and said it will be about $600/year.

Hi Carol,

You can just (if you like) e-mail me your DOB and state of residence and I will e-mail you back exact quotes for term life insurance. Also let me know if you anticipate non-tobacco rating.

It will only take a few minutes and I have lots of available time between cases and such so I am happy to do this for you.

Dave
[email protected]

Put your first name and Forum in the subject in case it goes to the junk box so I don't accidently delete it.

 

[Dave020]

Dave,

Could you please explain, what do you mean by “majors” here? I guess you mean big insurance companies. How about Guardian? Is it "major"? As far as I know they have good rating.

I don't know a whole lot about Guardian's term, but in my experience with Northwestern Mutual and MassMutual, I found that the major companies in the whole life arena tend to have somewhat weak products compared to the term houses like Banner and West Coast Life.

Often their term is only convertible for a few years (not to age 65 or 69 like the term houses), and often they don't have term life that goes beyond age 70.

They are not term life specialty companies and while they have it, are not really able to compete head-to-head with companies that specialize in term life products.

 

[Dave020]

PS - I would consider the following companies as "majors" in the life insurance field:

Northwestern Mutual
MassMutual
Prudential
NY Life
Guardian
MetLife

 

[Guest]

I don't know a whole lot about Guardian's term, but in my experience with Northwestern Mutual and MassMutual, I found that the major companies in the whole life arena tend to have somewhat weak products compared to the term houses like Banner and West Coast Life.

One thing that customers should take into consideration is the strength of the house. The financial markets are in turmoil and even some large houses are in trouble... witness the front page headline in today's WSJ about AIG.

Since I'm ultra-conservative(with client money) I will only write with a major house that has little if any stock market exposure and which has enough diversification to weather the next 36 to 48 months of further financial dislocations (and please pray that China continues to buy our debt or we're 'goin' down!') I know West Coast has been around for a long time, but I sleep better these days putting client funds into a company that I am 99.99% confident will be around twenty years from now. I can say that about NWM, MassMu, NYL, Met., etc. I can't say that with any of the term houses.

Yes you pay a bit more with the major mutual houses, but maybe you will sleep a bit better at night. Like everything, there is no right or wrong answer (although many here will purport that there is... and that THEY have it.) You just have to determine your own tolerance for risk and go with that. Personally, I will always pay for "top quality." Others are more able to "live on the edge" than I am.

Yes, I sell for Mutual of Omaha, but I am also allowed (by MoO) to sell any carrier I choose, so I'm not touting the major houses because I'm aligned with one (depending on whom you ask!), although I know I'll be accused of doing so by some people here.

Al

 

[Dave020]

Thanks.
I have no idea what is “laddered”. Let me make sure I understand the rest. You mean ART for 2 years, should not be expensive. And, in parallel, guaranteed level 10-year term. Sounds reasonable.
I would only add: This time period doesn’t cover my future mortgage, therefore it has to be convertible, without medical, just in case I will decide to convert it to permanent later on. Am I right?

ART- annual renewable term. This is pure life insurance with a rate annually based on your mortality (age group). Goes up every year but is cheaper in the first years since your mortality is lower.

Level- more premium early on to account for leveling the annual/monthly premium over a period of time (10, 20, 30 and so on). You pay more in the early years since it must be amortized over the level period and you mortality would be higher in year 15 than in year 1.

Laddering - mutliple policies equalling a desired death benefit.

I see where part ART could potentially be beneficial if you had a short window for that need and were going to drop that coverage amount in a short time.

Example: Need $350K long-term 10 years minimum, additional 100k until kid gets out of college in two years

You could buy 350k 10, 15 or 20-year level term and add on an ART policy
for $100k additional for the two years at the pure insurance cost and drop it after kid gets out of college leaving you with the $350k policy in force.

Given the costs of term these days, it is not much if any more expensive to purchase $450k 10-year term and drop the extra 100k in two years leaving a 350k term policy.

Since you want conversion privilege, I would think doing one policy and either reducing DB if not needed or converting to permanent would be a great option.

Good term products offer convertibility to permanent insurance with no underwriting. Just convert as you please up to the face amount.