Life insurance...Yikes

Well.......Farm Bureau has quoted me a price of $330/year for a $250,000 policy (20 year term) for me. (I am a very preferred guy), in fact a $500,000 policy on me is $425/year for 20 years. (I guess eating right and exercising paid off)

Now for my wife, she is a type 1 diabetic, anemic, high cholesterol, 30 lbs overweight, high stress job.......Not good.
The insurance agent told me that at this time she is not insurable.......They will continue to watch her A1C1 numbers but it may take 6 months to a year to get insurance for her. I was originally quoted $260/year for a $100,000 policy for 15 years of term. But after all the medical info is given to the insurance comp., actually over 50 pages of info over years they decided to put her on hold.
I will likely have to get one of those policies for old people that is $20,000 when you die and it costs $15/month or something.
Luckly my wife has a year of her salary through her work at a low group rate.
I just had to vent a little.

What are you trying to accomplish with the life insurance money. Is it care for your children in case of death of one or more parents? Is it an attempt to pay off a large debt or pay for a college education for your kids? The reason I'm asking is $250,000 seems like it would not go very far for a families care and keeping in the event of your untimely death.

25 years ago I carried a $500,000 policy in order to take care of my kids care and keeping and future education. It seemed like that was not very much at that time. Now that the kids are on their own and the wife has a pension I have reduced my life insurance to a level that would take care of any debt and pay off the funeral expenses.

Good thing to sit down and figure out exactly what the money is to be used for and how much will be required and how much the surviving spouse will be able to supply.

Gun guru: Why do you want term insurance? Except for the immediate peace of mind, they are a huge profit maker for the insurance companies. If recent conversations with my financial coordinator, he tells me that less than 5% of all term insurance policies pay out. Yes, I bought one myself when I was in my late 50s for the same peace of mind thing, so if something happened to me, at least the Mrs. had a roof over her head free and clear. Several times over the years I have tapped into the cash value of my whole life policy for things and always paid myself back, if you will, by repaying the loan asap. That is not possible with term insurance. You may want to consider splitting your insurance dollars between some term and some whole life. Yes, it will cost more but that way in the long haul at least you are paying yourself (or your estate) back. Just my $.02. BTDT.

Whole life is the big money maker for the insurance company, not term. They hate term.

My wife and I each have a $450,000 term 25 year policy. I beleive it is $58 a month for the both of us. We took it out to cover the farm debt if one of us passed. I am considering looking into whole life because many people sy the term is just wasting the premiem, as whole would be a higher premmiem, but we could get access to it. Not sure how it works so I need to find out motre facts

What it is is what it is. I am diabetic, and take the pills for b/p and chloresterol. I bought some term insurance years ago to cover myself thru work. I checked prices a year ago, decided to keep what I have. My numbers are quite good, but at 54 I am basically uninsurable. The insurance industry basically run Lansing, btw.

I have $250,000 and my wife has $150,000. Our land is paid off, the debt is low (so far) and we live cheap. I just don't see any good out of paying an insurance company any more than I have to.

Life insurance agents like to push a policy on your children to get you and your children hooked early. We bought into that when our kids were real young. We got both of them each a $50,000 policy that was to be paid up in 20 years. The agent's (Northwestern Mutual) spiel was we would have enough for the funeral if one of them passed or the child would have a paid up policy when he/she is in the mid-twenties and starting a family.

Both of our kids did end up with a paid up $50,000 policy when they were in their middle 20's. Our daughter cashed hers to pay bills, then she passed away suddenly shortly after that. Our son still has his and the cash value is building every year. He is the sole breadwinner for a wife and two kids and also has a budding trucking business. In his position the $50,000 policy isn't enough, but at least it's something.

My daughter worked for an insurance agent and had her health and life insurance licences, so she had taken out a $100,000 policy on herself about a year before she passed away at 27, so her husband and three young daughters did have a good shot in the arm to help them continue on with life.

So my message is - you are never too young to need life insurance. Just make sure you are connected with a company that pays well. Jim

Whole life is just the cost of term plus paying the Ins. Co. to invest some part of your money for you with small returns. Keep your term and do your own mutual funds or other savings. Go to DaveRamesy.com as he explains it well.

Term life is the only way to go IMHO. It's protection for the unthinkable - premature death. It is real insurance, not an investment scheme. If you buy whole life or some variation thereof and live to old age (like me) then you'll probably realize the mistake you made, still paying premiums on a policy that is now way too small to do much good anyway due to inflation over many years. Term life is cheap when compared to whole life. Save the extra you'd pay somewhere else and be ahead of the game. If you can't force yourself to save the extra, then maybe whole life could make sense - but you are locked in for your entire lifetime, either pay up or lose.

I have always heard that life Insurance is you betting that the Ins company will not get all your money before you die. Some how that just doesn't compute to me.
Walt

Gene, my dad has always had that philosophy, and somehow he was able to discipline himself through life to see the fruits. "Save, save, save and never trust an insurance company" has been what he's preached, and it's worked for him. He now has more money than he knows what to do with. Well, he does know, it's called invest wisely. He has only had a cheap little life insurance policy that's just enough to bury him very cheaply. Visitation will be in his home and I'm going to be the one to dig the hole for his ashes. He didn't even have health insurance until my mom died of cancer in '71. He had enough saved to pay the medical bills, but it got him to thinking a little bit, so he bought a cheap little health policy. Instead of buying hail insurance for the crops he invests the money he would have paid for the premium. He's 85 and probably can live his life out on just that investment. It's too bad his ways never rubbed off on his son! Jim

My wife has a good education, BS and an MBA.
She also has a good job, If she dies I would like to have a lump sum to live off of and put my son threw college and stuff.
$100k would pay off the house.
I assume I would remarry in time too.

I was originally quoted $260/year for my wife which is a $100k policy for 15 years...Term of course.

If I croak the wife will get $250k and I have another policy of $100K that expires in 7 years.

Term life insurance is cheap, immediate protection. Whole life is a savings plan. If you buy term, then invest the difference from buying whole life, into a long term fund, like mutual funds, stock market, etc, you will usually have more saved than if you let the whole life people invest it for you, depending on which investment(s) you choose. The key is to actually invest that money, rather than spend the difference. For those who don"t have that discipline, whole term makes sense.

Term is good for the buyer.

Whole Life is good for the broker/insurance company.

That's the bottom line.

Wife has been after me to stop chew'n baccer and get some more life insurance. I went and talked to our guy at the FB office. Going to do both now but got to wait a while on the insurance. Cost of Cope wasn't "that" bad till I added in the price of insurance.

Dave

Gun, Please Go visit with an Independent Ins. Agent he will have more than one flavor of Insurance to choose from! F.B. typically is more expensive that others. Depending on what your Overall Goal is here on what type of insurance is best for you.
If Lo cost Protection for the rest of your life: then 30 or 35 yr Term. No cash value
If more of a blended approach then: Then maybe a Universal Life, (Term w/an interest sensitive side fund) be sure to fully fund it to age 100 or there about. There are only a couple of Whole Life policies I would recommend for income growth.
Then there are the small burial policies that do a lot, but there is a lot junk out there, and most folks are not savvy to them.
If you would like I would be glad to visit with you about your needs, Though I am A Texas agent I can point you in the right direction and you will be armed with some info to ask an agent in your state. My # is 512-577-3837.
Hope this helps.
Later,
John A.

Thanks for the offer, but I just need some term for the wife.

MIL is 80 and her life insurance was canceled due to age. She knows other this has happened to. If your uninsurable and old enough(but not too old), New York Life through AARP will help you a little. First 2 years policy is no good though. Might get premiums returned though. Learned my lesson about whole life years ago. Friend with enthusiastic agent put his life savings 30K into policy. Agent said you will be a rich man. Next year agent came back and said where 30K premium for this year. Fella almost killed himself. Very popular company. Agent went into our church and sold almost everyone on this. What a shame and travesty of justice. Let your agent get pumping and tell him you are a personal friend of State Insurance Commissioner and see if he flinches. Most of them hit the road for me. And it was the truth, of course, so it was easy to say.

(quoted from post at 23:53:11 12/17/09) MIL is 80 and her life insurance was canceled due to age. She knows other this has happened to. If your uninsurable and old enough(but not too old), New York Life through AARP will help you a little. First 2 years policy is no good though. Might get premiums returned though. Learned my lesson about whole life years ago. Friend with enthusiastic agent put his life savings 30K into policy. Agent said you will be a rich man. Next year agent came back and said where 30K premium for this year. Fella almost killed himself. Very popular company. Agent went into our church and sold almost everyone on this. What a shame and travesty of justice. Let your agent get pumping and tell him you are a personal friend of State Insurance Commissioner and see if he flinches. Most of them hit the road for me. And it was the truth, of course, so it was easy to say.

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f you have young/at home children there may be a need for term life insurance. If not, then none whatsoever is needed. What do you want to do, pay your hard earned dollars now so that your spouses new partner can live the good easy life??!!