Parents and Grandparents! Life insurance for children and grandchildren is a gift, not a jinx!

My experience is that there is actually a mindset, especially with parents, that if they carry life insurance on their child they could somehow increase that child’s chance of an early death. Let me assure you that there is no statistical link between a child’s mortality and whether or not they had a reasonable amount of life insurance.

 Why carry juvenile life insurance? The first reason, the one most parents don’t want to think about, is that even though the chances are very small, occasionally a child will die prematurely. While we all say that we can probably scrape together the money it takes to pay final and burial expenses, the truth is that is the purpose of life insurance.  There is a very good chance that a child’s untimely death will be far more expensive than you would have ever imagined, and a small insurance policy is only going to help defray those expenses, not pay them in full.

Now back to the greater value of life insurance for children. Now that we have gotten over the bump of dealing with the thought that a child might die prematurely, here’s the reality. They probably won’t!

The greater value, the gift in a children’s insurance policy, is the fact that it generally is guaranteed issue life insurance so getting it is not a traumatic event and the policy will generally guarantee the child’s insurability as an adult. I worked with a 22 year old client the other day who had battled leukemia through his teenage years. It appears he has won that battle, but $100,000 of term life insurance is going to cost $1200 a year. If his parents had bought the right policy when he was young, his insurability would have been guaranteed at a rate that would have allowed him to have a universal life policy for about $200 a year. He is an adult paying for his own insurance, and the gift of juvenile life insurance, whether purchased by his parents or grandparents, could be saving him $1000 per year now. It would save money and give him permanent instead of term insurance. That is huge!!!!!

 Parents and grandparents. Give the gift of life insurance!

Who is your life insurance advocate?

Advocate is defined in the dictionary as “one that supports or promotes the interests of another”. There are several “advocacy” groups that promote life insurance to their members or to the group of people that they would suggest they are advocates on behalf of.

 Let me suggest three advocacy groups that you would suspect would offer the best possible life insurance products to their members or audience, when in fact they offer downright bad deals and try to gloss it over by appearing to be your “friend”.

Let’s start with Gerber. I’m not sure if their baby food is any good, but I can tell you that the juvenile life insurance, or children’s life insurance they offer, is far from a good deal. They offer a guaranteed issue product, but from a price and benefit standpoint it pales in comparison to what can be found through an independent life insurance agent. Pretty baby on the jar. Lousy life insurance!

Next let’s talk about the AOPA. For those that don’t fly airplanes, that is the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Go to their website and you will see how they purport to be advocates for private pilots in just about every area, including life insurance. Their company of choice is Minnesota Life. There are so many companies out there that can beat Minnesota Life for aviation covered life insurance, that if you weren’t depending on them to be your advocate, it would be laughable. If you dig into the life insurance end of their website you will actually find where they admit that they get a kick back from Minnesota Life which they use to further their advocacy. Maybe Minnesota Life’s rates are high because they have to pay the AOPA to steer business their way.

And last but not least, being old enough to be a member, our beloved AARP. Now claiming to be an advocate for us old folks and really not doing it is, well, WRONG!!!!!!!!!! AARP pushes a New York Life term product that is overpriced to start with, the price goes up every 5 years, and after age 80 it goes away. “One that supports or promotes the interests of another.” Now I don’t know if AARP gets a kickback from New York Life, but I do know that they don’t allow any other life insurance advertising in their periodicals or on their website.

You want an advocate? Someone who really does what the definition suggests? Get your insurance quotes for your term insurance, universal life insurance or whole life insurance from an independent life insurance agent. Get unbiased advice from an agent that isn’t being an advocate to a specific insurance company or an organization, but to you.

Life insurance waiting period??

One of the most common misconceptions is that there is a waiting period before the insurance would pay. Most people say they’ve heard life insurance doesn’t pay if you die in the first two years of a policy.

 The confusion lies somewhere between two different types of life insurance policies and the public’s concern that life insurance companies are less than honorable.

 The truth is that “guaranteed issue life insurance” does, in general, have a two year period before it becomes fully in force. If death were to occur during that two years no benefit would be paid, but all premiums plus interest would be returned. Keep in mind that the only people that buy guaranteed issue life insurance are those who cannot qualify for a fully underwritten term of universal life policy, or those who fall for advertising telling them they can get insurance without an exam or medical questions.

That truth gets mixed up with the “two year suicide and contestability period” that pertains to all fully underwritten life insurance policies. During that two years the company would not have to pay if the insured were to commit suicide or die from something that they misrepresented on the application.

Claims during that two year period will almost always be reviewed. If you’ve told the truth and your agent has done a good job, they will always get paid.