Reputable? Whole Life with Northwestern Mutual...

yes, eventually i will consult a lawyer, planner, etc...i am not in a position for this now. however, i was hoping to get a jump on the situation.

that is basically where i stand.

mx
 
yeah, all asset shielding. i wasn't really into it for the death benefit. my agent knows this too.

i am in PA now and will be in SD for the next 2 yrs

mx
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If you are only looking for asset protection, I'd find someone who specializes in that field, not a life insurance agent....sounds like you really need a good disability insurance policy though if you don't have one already.
 
wow, where do i start? first let me thank all of you for your time and welcoming a naive, non-professional to your forum place.

i will discuss this with my agent. i would appreciate anymore comments if you guys want. i will probably print this out so i do not forget what i need to discuss.

my very brief situation if it would help any of you (my agent knows this info as well):

1) 32 yr old white male in excellent health, non smoker etc

2) resident physician of lower paying specialty

3) in about 3 yrs (35 yrs age) i think i will have 50-100k of investment/savings per yr depending on how i live

4) single, no kids...no one needs this life insurance money if i die. my motives were elsewhere. i do not anticipate this changing anytime soon

5) would like to be in position to retire at 50 if at all possible

6) i was under impression that whole life can offer incredible asset protection in cases of med malpractice and divorce?

7) for the next 3 yrs, i am very limited on how much i can put in...maybe 200 to 600 a month depending on moonlighting etc. 200 initially is what we were starting with. i believe my agent set it so i could put up 10k a year.

nothing is finalized yet. i am glad i received all of your inputs before i did. i know none of you are my agent, but any bones you want to throw my way is much appreciated.

again, most of all, thanks for your time. believe me, i know forums can be addicting and time consuming.

one of my greatest concerns now is this Direct vs Non-direct recognition.

this definitely was not mentioned. with regard to the percent interest...i am pretty sure what my agent said coincided with what you guys mentioned as cautionary. i dont believe he was misleading me in that sense.

this is difficult because it seems so complicated to me...

mx


32 "lower paying specialty" and wants to retire at 50, I love it :) and it sounds like you know what kind of sacrifices will be needed to make that happen (most don't unforuntatley).

We have a slight problem though. 200 per month in base premium gets about 200k in death benefit. Overfunding to 10k per year would turn the contract into a Modified Endowment Contract in year one (you don't want this to happen). I'm convinced there something eskew with this information; I highly doubt your agent would make this mistake. There are all sort of strategies that could be employed to avoid this.

YES whole life insurance is an incredible tool to protect assets in the examples you listed.

Direct recognition isn't so bad so long as Northwestern has a different dividend rate for policy loans (a higher one).


On a completely different note, please tell me you and your agent have talked about disability insurance--you just spent all that time and money on med school, don't chance it--and please tell me you don't have a northwestern policy. I can give you mountains of reasons why I state this.


Good luck to you. You are headed in the right direction.



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As an aside, Boooo to the people who keep mentioning dividens aren't guaranteed and pretending like they might go away. Even top companies that have demutalized continue to pay dividends on their whole life policies, some of them rather decent dividends as well.

And as Massmutual has proven, some companies will use more than 100% of their revenues on dividends, I suppose just to look good :nah:
 
in light of the new info, what do you all think of Direct vs Non-direct recognition?

sounds like NWM is not good for this. what if my agent does not offer Guardian? am i supposed to find someone else?

this issue sounds like a big enough deal for my purposes...

:(

mx
 
On a completely different note, please tell me you and your agent have talked about disability insurance--you just spent all that time and money on med school, don't chance it--and please tell me you don't have a northwestern policy. I can give you mountains of reasons why I state this.

x2, can't stress that one enough. One word - Guardian.
 
32 "lower paying specialty" and wants to retire at 50, I love it :) and it sounds like you know what kind of sacrifices will be needed to make that happen (most don't unforuntatley).

We have a slight problem though. 200 per month in base premium gets about 200k in death benefit. Overfunding to 10k per year would turn the contract into a Modified Endowment Contract in year one (you don't want this to happen). I'm convinced there something eskew with this information; I highly doubt your agent would make this mistake. There are all sort of strategies that could be employed to avoid this.

Direct recognition isn't so bad so long as Northwestern has a different dividend rate for policy loans (a higher one).


On a completely different note, please tell me you and your agent have talked about disability insurance--you just spent all that time and money on med school, don't chance it--and please tell me you don't have a northwestern policy. I can give you mountains of reasons why I state this.


Good luck to you. You are headed in the right direction.
forgot to mention, agent took care of MEC. my numbers are probably a little off, but he maxed out certain parameters to fall just below MEC

then i guess in a few yrs i would have to get a new physical and redo? the policy so i could start putting a lot more in and NOT be a MEC.

i dont know how i feel about disability. i am only doing family or maybe sports med. i would have to be f-ed up pretty bad to be "disabled". i dont know i am ready to bite that yet.

i am considering practicing bare...ie no malpractice insurance. any of you hear of this?

mx

ps i know the retire at 50 is probably a no go, but i believe in goal setting :biggrin:. obama is a jerk
 
All I know is I have a lot of clients that were told that dividends would allow them not to have to pay a premium after X amount of years. They usually end up calling me to fix the problem. All of a sudden the anticipated dividends are lower than expected and now they owe money on their policy or else it will lapse.
 
i am considering practicing bare...ie no malpractice insurance. any of you hear of this?

Then you're an *** and no amount of life insurance that you buy will help you with that.

I wouldn't even TALK to people about buying insurance unless I had E&O (errors & omissions) insurance.
 
Then you're an *** and no amount of life insurance that you buy will help you with that.

I wouldn't even TALK to people about buying insurance unless I had E&O (errors & omissions) insurance.
well thanks for judging me. it is being done, successfully...it's not my idea. i shouldn't have even mentioned it. i take it back. i was joking

mx
 
"The first couple of years have almost ZERO return"

DHK, yup. But for some reason you didn't mention what happens down the road on a whole life policy.

I just had my 20th year notice from one of my policies. I paid around $1100 in premium for the year and the guaranteed value and dividend bump for the year was around $2300. So what was my return that year? ;) so, not too bad. For the "RISK" this money is subjected to, I get a reasonable return.

Dividends aren't guaranteed because they can vary up or down over time.

BUT COME ON FELLAS, QUIT ACTING LIKE THEY'RE "IFFY".. The companies that use dividends have been paying them for how long? I know mine is up in that 150-160 year range. Basically the year after they opened. They paid dividends through the great drepression. They helped keep many businesses open during bad times. It's a diservice to our industry to imply something that is extremely unlikely to occur.

Don't complain about a mutual agent selling an illustration number while at the same time implying because dividends aren't guaranteed they shouldn't be counted on. That's just as bad. All you're doing is pissing in the well of somebody else's client, that you won't get.

Again to the poster of this question... talk to your agent, give him a chance to answer some of these questions you have. Take what everybody here says with a bit of caution, yes, including me. All I know is I would want my client to talk to me about any questions they have. I would do my best to answer those questions.

You're right. I didn't go into further detail... because when most people hear "6%" or some other magical number, they think it will happen EVERY YEAR in the contract. That isn't so. The return is FAR less in the first few years and rewards you very well in the later years.

As far as dividends being "iffy"? I'm sure you know as well as I that new premium is one area of return for an insurance company - and life premium has been DOWN SEVERELY this year. Investment returns and real estate portfolios all count towards the general investment fund of the insurer. Now, MassMutual declared their dividend at 7% - which is a good divisible surplus to be divided amongst their policy holders. They're trying to inspire confidence in consumers AND agents to continue to sell their products.

However, it is a far better practice to sell how things will work out on the GUARANTEED side of the ledger, and then talk about how the NON-GUARANTEED elements can play out over time.

The OP has been sold on cash values and the protections. I say that the protections are based on state law and the performance WILL change. The rule of 1 to 100 applies. In one year, 100% of your illustrations will be WRONG! What we don't know is if the actual results will be HIGHER or LOWER.

Sell death benefits and the permanent nature of the death benefit... and the cash values are just "icing on the cake".
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well thanks for judging me. it is being done, successfully...it's not my idea. i shouldn't have even mentioned it. i take it back. i was joking

mx

Okay, so you're joking. That's fine. Just don't expect people who help others to build a moat around their castle to be laughing with you. They'll laugh at you instead.

It just wasn't funny. Sorry that your meaning wasn't interpreted correctly in an online text forum.
 
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