Owner: Ed Hinerman on Life Insurance URL:www.hinermangroup.com/blog Join Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 12:25:32 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Everything you didn't know about life insurance. Site statistics:Click here
Bipolar Disorder and Life Insurance 2007-08-19 21:33:39 I was getting an annual physical not too long ago and the doctor was a woman in her 30’s. When she found out I was a life insurance agent she took the opportunity to vent about her husband having recently been declined for insurance due to having bipolar disorder. I asked her some of the usual bipolar questions and found out that he was not uninsurable at all, but rather the victim of an agent attached to a company that just happened to have ultra conservative underwriting. As I explained to her, the reason independent agents were invented.
In this case, even with the moniker of bipolar disorder, we were talking about a person who was compliant with his medication and completely socially functional because of it. He held a good job, was a great parent and is likely one of those people that you would never know had bipolar if someone didn’t tell you.
So what is bipolar disorder? Also sometimes called manic depression, the disorder is noted for it’s dramatic highs and Read more:Bipolar
How Much Life Insurance Do I Need For My Family? 2007-08-17 19:18:02 I think the easiest way to approach this is to carry $25 million or so and just suggest to your spouse that if you die prematurely, and the $25 million seems too high, give some to charity. Or buy a new spouse with a longer life expectancy!!
OK, OK. That really isn’t my first recommendation. We’ve discussed before the types of things that should be considered in a needs analysis. Income, assets, retirement accounts, social security, etc, just to name a few.
Just to get your head going in the right direction I am going to offer a few links to life insurance needs calculators. Just keep in mind that none of these should be taken as gospel and the best way to get a true picture is to team up with a financial advisor and an independent life insurance agent.
But, here’s a few calculators I scared up. MSN offers this one. A student financial aid site offers a slightly dated, over simplified option . And finally Ipipeline , a company that provides life insurance forms and q Read more:Family
Life Insurance With More Than One DUI? 2007-08-17 18:40:43 I have vivid memories of a DUI accident that I witnessed when I was in my 20’s. 30 years later I can still feel the disbelief that flooded my brain that day as I was crossing the Montana border going north on a four lane highway. I was in the right lane and a semi was in the left lane, side by side northbound, and suddenly, from nowhere came a pickup. He was on our side of the four lane and headed straight toward us, fast. In a few quick seconds I veered off the right side of the road and he hit the semi head on.
I jumped from my car and ran to his truck. The semi driver was dazed but not hurt. As I got to the truck this guy fell out of the door, got up, looked me straight in the face and asked if I could give him a ride home. He had no idea what had just happened.
It happens that way a lot. The person who is blasted out of there mind walks away. Far too many times the people on the other end of the accident don’t. Several year later a friend lost his wife and three child
Life expectancy! Mortality Experience! Can Someone Just Tell Me How Long I Can Expect To Live? 2007-08-16 18:38:56 As a life insurance agent I’ve become used to the term mortality experience, how long a person can expect to live given a set of health issues. It was kind of creepy the one and only time I spoke with someone in the life settlement business. I gave him a scenario based on age and health issues and he said that the client’s mortality experience should be 6 years and 4 months. I asked what day the client could expect to die and the life settlement guy didn’t think that was all that amusing.
But the reason I bring this up is that there are very real, very stark differences in how long you can expect to live depending on your health and lifestyle.
In an article put out by a Dr Rutledge in Nevada, he had this to offer.
” First, How Long will you live?
Life Expect
ancy calculators are tools that use your personal information to predict how long someone can expect to live. Factors that have been shown to determine life expectancy include the your age, weight, smoking,
You Just Can’t Fix Stupid! 2007-08-16 18:07:25 I love that saying! I have it hanging in my office. I don’t, however, have much fondness for those that it applies to. It would not be hard, or take long to write a book about stupid, harmful life insurance recommendations made by, and I use this reference loosely, my colleagues. The life insurance business is full of agents that will not put their customer’s best interests above their 0wn desire to make money.
Just yesterday I spoke with a woman who was in the process of trying to get life insurance on her and her husband. Both in their mid forties. She is a full time mom with five kids ranging in age from 16 to 5. She said they had life insurance in the past, but her husband let it lapse. He just wasn’t OK with paying on term insurance just for the protection. He wanted some return on his insurance premium.
They also wanted small policies on all of the children.
In steps a local agent. A young guy with American Family. He suggests that they get a $150,000 variable Read more:Stupid
The Dirty Little Secret Of Life Insurance Really Isn’t! 2007-08-16 07:34:01 I mean really. What one of you hasn’t wondered at some point how a company can offer $500,000 worth of life insurance for for $14 per month. You die after 10 months (made the math easy on myself) and they’ve taken in $140 and paid out $500,000, a net loss of $499,860. Doesn’t sound like very good business to me.
Quick and simple! The majority of life insurance policies never pay a death benefit. I’m not talking about the majority, as in 51%. I would be surprised if 5% of policies actually pay a benefit. I can hear everyone screaming now about the dirt ball insurance companies not paying claims, but the truth is that nearly every claim filed is paid. There is an occasional fraudulent claim that doesn’t get paid, but those are rare.
So, why only 5%. I think the reasons probably go in this order.
1. A person gets tired of paying premiums and not seeing the benefit. Personally, I’m not all that anxious to use my insurance, but some people really do look
Don’t Shoot The Messenger! 2007-08-23 18:56:40 It’s been one of those weeks that will drive me to repeating myself. I know I just smacked doctors over the head a few days ago about how they don’t quite explain all the relevant details to their patients. That really puts the patient in a awkward position when it comes to purchasing life insurance.
Let me explain in a little more detail how that works. Say a person wants to buy life insurance and they have had a 3 vessel bypass surgery in their past. No heart attack. Just had chest pains. The bypass got things back in order and the doctor let the person know that it was no big deal and as long as he watches everything going ahead, well, no problem……on followup stress tests the doctor reiterates, no problem.
So, 6 years after this little run in with heart disease the person applies for insurance and tells his agent about the bypass and passes on his interpretation of what the doctor told him. It was minor blockage (no big deal) in 3 vessels. No heart attack. Read more:Shoot
, Messenger
Estate Taxes And Life Insurance! 2007-08-22 20:06:23
Well, in the world according to me the answers would be NO, NO and NO! The $3.5 million exemption that will go into effect in 2009 is, I believe, where congress will vote to keep it in 2010. They will have accomplished what the real objective was and that was to end the devastation of smaller estates, the areas that hit small business owners and agricultural families the hardest.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a “State of the Estate
Tax” article recently that reviews in detail what has been accomplished. There isn’t any doubt left when you read the article that the increase in exemption limits was the right thing to do. Abolishing the tax altogether would, in my opinion, not be.
I believe that the life insurance survivorship policy, the long time estate preservation tool, will continue to be the choice in the future. Even if the federal government abolishes the tax (again, very doubtful), the missing funds will be made up by an increase in stat Read more:Taxes
How Critical Is The Link Between Heart Disease and Diabetes? 2007-08-22 19:46:46 Oh how I go on sometimes about the compounding effect that heart disease and diabetes have on each other. Life insurance underwriters know all too well that the combination is a dangerous one, and not to be underwritten lightly. If there isn’t good control of both problems, life insurance rates will likely be something wished for but not offered. With good control at least companies are willing to underwrite and approve good life insurance rates.
I have often harped on just how important the hbA1c is for the underwriting of someone with diabetes. Remember, an A1c of less than 6.5 is excellent control, 6.5 to 7.5 moderate and anything above 8 is poor control.
Now there is a study noted on the American Diabetes
Association website that states, ” Diabetic patients undergoing heart bypass surgery can markedly reduce their risk of serious complications by keeping their blood sugar levels in check before the operation.”
No real surprise there. With the complications that co Read more:Heart
Take Vitamins For Better Life Insurance Rates! 2007-08-22 19:20:18 Mom always said to take my vitamins. Actually she really didn’t, and the truth is that she wasn’t all that big on taking vitamins herself. Who would have ever thought that if she had been taking vitamins regularly and specifically vitamin D, she may not have had breast cancer.
The link between vitamins and health has been overstated in so many instances that sometimes it’s tough to figure out when the advice is right on the money. In a Medical News Today article they cite a study that concludes that regular use of Vitamin D could lead to 150,000 less cases of breast cancer and colorectal cancer each year in the US. 600,000 worldwide.
Any guarantees? No. Worth popping a multi vitamin with D every day. You bet!
You know, most days I am talking about how to get better life insurance rates by managing your health issue, whether it is diabetes, heart disease or whatever ails you. The truth is that the best rates come when you don’t have health issues.
Bottom line. Ex Read more:Vitamins
, Rates
Are Doctors Really Educating Patients With Heart Disease or Diabetes? 2007-08-21 19:57:21 Doctors
are famous for leaving out details. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to whose doctors only told them the feel good parts of their health issue.
It is fairly common for a heart attack victim to get stress test follow ups. When I ask them about the results I don’t believe I have ever heard one say anything worse than “the doctor was happy with it”. Of course the doctor is happy with it. He just made a bunch of money and you aren’t dead so he’ll probably get a chance to do it again.
I had one client who was told he was doing just fine with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 25%. The LVEF is a measure of how effectively your heart is pushing out blood. 25% is not “just fine”. It may be as good as can be expected considering how damaged your heart is, but just fine doesn’t accurately describe that result.
Diabetes
is another area where doctors don’t all seem to want to burden their patients with too Read more:Heart
Fat March Taking A Toll On Life Insurance Rates! 2007-08-21 19:24:43 The ABC show Fat March
is meeting my expectations in that it is bringing attention to the fact that people can get life insurance at affordable rates even if they are overweight. It has also shown that dramatic impact that weight loss can have on life insurance rates. Feeling good is not the only benefit to weight loss.
Just to reiterate, the basis of the quotes are what one could expect due to weight alone, with no health issues. While we don’t have the luxury in a short program, there is also an assumption that the weight lost is kept off for more than a year. All quotes are based on $250,000 of 20 year term insurance. In all cases I am using the best possible underwriting in the industry to make sure the prices are as good as it can get.
There are, at this point, just 9 participants remaining with Wendy quitting. I am revising weights and life insurance quotes. Remember, last episode everyone’s rates came down and Will went from uninsurable to insurable. Keep in mi Read more:Rates
, Taking
Final Expense Life Insurance Policies! 2007-08-21 08:57:57 It’s time I quit beating around the bush about this subject. I get numerous requests for people who are looking for $20,000 of life insurance or less. Generally I am talking about retired folks who only need final expense or burial insurance. Some times health is an issue. I have tried to find a better product in that size policy, but the truth is that nothing I have found beats Colonial Penn . It is not a company that uses agents. that is to say it is a direct company on line, so I can’t offer their products, but I can recommend them.
From $25,000 on up, which I consider legitmate amounts for final expense policies, there are a number of better options available. A good independent agent can guide you to the best product and the best rate in that area.
Bottom line. Whatever the size of your life insurance need happens to be, you should know where to go for the best possible price.
Read more:Final
, Expense
, Policies
The Silent Killer And Life Insurance! 2007-08-27 19:12:38 Thanks to a discount provided by Genworth Life and Annuity, since I have life insurance through them, and thanks to my wife who doesn’t want me to die because she likes my blogs more than anything she can find on Oprah.com, I had a screening today of my carotid artery for any blockage, the aorta for any sign of aortic aneurysms, and I had my blood pressure measured on both arms and both legs to check for any indication of peripheral vascular disease.
Now, any one of those things could be a silent killer. Certainly they are things that can get to the point of bursting, blocking or otherwise causing damage that can kill you, and do it in a very quick fashion, all with no symptoms to warn you to run for cover. The one that actually captured the nickname though is high blood pressure.
Why the silent killer? It seems that, according to the American Heart Association, one in three Americans have high blood pressure and one third of those aren’t aware of it because there are no sy Read more:Silent
, Killer
Radiation Cancer Treatment Improved! 2007-08-27 17:57:47 I know when my father was undergoing radiation treatment for his bladder cancer, I was amazed at the computerized system they had for aiming the radiation exactly where they needed it. One of the down sides to the whole system is the fact that, inspite of the best effort on the part of the patient and doctor, movement can occur. When precision is a necessity, movement is the enemy.
There is now a system being used in the treatment of prostate cancer that can make automatic adjustments to compensate for small movements. Hopefully this type of system will be available for larger target cancers before long.
It is innovations like this that will make treatment more effective and anytime treatment is more effective, the end result is more acceptable to a life insurance underwriter.
Of course radiation is just one option for prostate cancer treatment. Depending on the aggressiveness of the cancer when it is diagnosed, determined by the stage and grade of the cancer, the treating physician ma Read more:Radiation
, Cancer
, Treatment
Family History and Life Insurance! 2007-08-27 17:22:51 I kind of like those cholesterol med commericals on TV. “Is it from bow tie pasta, or your Uncle Bo? Well, family history has been a bone of contention in life insurance underwriting for some time and companies have been all over the map with their treatment of the issue.
I’ll just offer this scenario and a real life underwriter response just to kind of pave the way for the logic of it all. Let’s say your father died at age 59 of a lung cancer. He was obese, smoked heavily since he was a teenager, and drank whenever there wasn’t a cigarette in his mouth. You on the other hand, because of your father’s example, have never smoked, never drank, exercise regularly and wouldn’t be overweight on anyone’s build chart.
Most companies out there will bump you down two rate classes due to family history. The underwriter’s logic! How do we know that your father, and possibly you, are not genetically predisposed to cancer? We have to err on the side o Read more:Family
, History
Life Insurance And Wishful Thinking! 2007-08-27 12:53:54 I know when a serious health problem strikes a family member it seems as if the world is crumbling. There is a deep need for a life buoy of some kind out there that will take some of the edge off of the situation. This is the point at which I get many calls wanting to know if life insurance can be purchased.
For many that life buoy is attainable, usually after a waiting period. Life insurance underwriters want to see, in situations like diabetes, heart attacks, etc, some period of stability and control before they are willing to offer a life insurance policy. I remember a man who called one day asking about life insurance. Everything was going along just fine until we got to the health questions concerning heart disease. He admitted that he had recently had a 2 vessel angioplasty. Actually, very recently…as in the day before. He was still in the hospital. Realistically, the underwriter will want to see a longer period of recover and control.
In some cases there really isn’
I Almost Had Great News For You! 2007-08-24 08:27:26 I have always been an advocate of, if a moderate amount of something is good for, then a huge amount should be great for you. A glass of red wine a day is supposed to help your chances of avoiding heart disease. So, why not a bottle a day and have the heart of a 20 year old forever?
So, get my blood pumping when I start reading about all the benefits of eating dark chocolate . I will not only be relieved of chronic fatigue syndrome (don’t think I have it, but sure don’t want it), but the chocolate is going to keep me from getting high blood pressure, help my blood flow and keep me from getting clogged arteries. How good is life?
As I pour a glass of wine and crack open a one pound bar of dark chocolate, I read on. Some articles should never be finished.
I really hate it when someone gets you all pumped up to attack the world with gusto and then suggests that moderation is the key. Whoever heard of moderate gusto?
Bottom line. As a life insurance agent I am really about what Read more:Almost
, Great
Killer BBQ? 2007-08-24 07:56:02 As I head off to a family reunion this weekend, thoughts of good times and plenty of food fill my head. It’s summer and of course BBQ
will be the mainstay of our evening meals.Always the consummate life insurance agent, I had pegged the travel as our biggest mortality risk. No problem. I’m a pretty safe driver, especially when my wife is with me.
So, as I am packing up and getting ready to head for Wyoming I come across an article that I clearly don’t want to see about the dangers of BBQ’d food. Coming on the heels of finding out that my favorite bottled water, AquaFina, is nothing more than filtered tap water, well, my world is a bit shaken.
The warnings were of increased risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer. I was relieved to find out that BBQ was not on the banned list, but rather that certain guidelines should be used when preparing the food, guidelines that I seemed to be at least already somewhat aware of.
I remember a time recently when I came to the Read more:Killer
Know Your Enemy! It Isn’t Your Weight In High School! 2007-08-24 07:19:32 I’ve been accused of harping on some subjects, but I will never be accused of glossing something over or falling short of driving a point home. In our own health, as well as in our quest for lower life insurance rates, knowledge of our own health and educating ourselves as to our health risks is critical. If you don’t know your enemy and how to recognize it, how can you possibly expect to avoid it.
There’s a new game show on TV called the Power of 10. In this show contestants try to guess the percentage of Americans that believe some statement or another. Just as an example, they asked what percentage of Americans would rather watch a hot dog eating contest than a presidential debate. The results are always a little surprising.
Well, if the question were posed, are women more likely to know their weight in high school than their current cholesterol level, what would you think? A news story a few days ago answered that question, and you guessed it….I would not Read more:Enemy
, Weight
, School
, High School
Word Games Won’t Impress Life Insurance Underwriters! 2007-08-30 19:49:43 I am always amazed at the thought process (or lack of) that people go through when we are discussing life insurance application questions. They must think that life insurance underwriters are really not very bright. While I have, on occasion, shared that opinion, let’s get real.
Real conversation!! A person is asked if they have, in the last five years been convicted of, plead guilty or no contest to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs? They said, “Do you mean DUI?” Yes! “Then the answer is no.” Why, I asked, did you ask about DUI? “I was convicted of driving while impaired a little over a year ago, but that is DWI, so the answer is no!”
This person really believed they were answering the question honestly. When I explained how that would be viewed if an underwriter happened to order a motor vehicle report he sort of started getting it. When I explained that, even if it was missed in underwriting, but he died during the policy&rsquo Read more:Games
, Impress
Life Insurance Labs! What Are They Looking For? 2007-08-30 19:21:44 A question that comes up quite often when we discuss the examination part of a life insurance application is, just what is they are looking for? They are going to take blood and urine specimens so they must be on the hunt for something! I think the best way to answer that question is to say that they are really looking for the tip of the iceberg.
Occasionally something big shows up on an insurance exam, something that the client had no idea about. Occasionally lives are saved because people who never really got physicals got an insurance exam that tipped them off to a dangerous situation.
For example, a client had an hbA1c of 11.5 on his labs. He had no idea that he had diabetes and with that lab result, he wasn’t just borderline, he was dangerously diabetic. He went straight to the doctor and 9 months later he had his diabetes well controlled and was able to get a good price on life insurance.
It is fairly common for a person to find out their PSA is elevated for the first tim
Universal Life Exposed! You May Want To Look The Other Way! 2007-08-30 12:12:42 When someone exposes themselves, often the exposee really doesn’t want to see it. If someone exposed your universal life policy today, would it send you screaming into the dark.
There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t yell at the top of my blogging lungs about the fact that millions of universal life policies that families are depending on, are doomed to fail even if you continue to pay exactly as you were told to do.
I have explained in previous posts (a lot of them), that the reason that agents sell these types of policies is simply to beat the competition on price. They never show the client the downside to the low price, or if they do, they poo-paw it off by saying how great the company is and how you can count on the current projections and not worry about the guarantees.
I have two illustrations that I would like to offer, aptly named Good UL and Bad UL, attached to this post. These illustrations are not reflective of the companies, but rather Read more:Universal
The Really Good News About Seat Belts! 2007-08-29 19:32:17 I guess if it’s my blog I can occasionally stray from my mission of folding back all the layers of the life insurance onion and just throw out a bizarre one.
In Eugene, Oregon recently a man was saved by his seat belt when he blacked out and ran into a parked car. Not that big a deal, right? Well, according the article in the Oregonian, he blacked out because he was choking on some fast food, and when he hit the car, his seat belt induced a Heimlich punch and he chucked the sandwich, saving his life.
Bottom line. Wear your seat belt.
Read more:Belts
, Good News
If Smoking Doesn’t Kill You It Will Certainly Kill Your Budget! 2007-08-29 19:16:49 I’ve often written about the fact that smoking generally increases life insurance rates by at least 100%, all else being equal. The average is really closer to 150% to 200%. Some companies are substantially higher than that.
Life insurance underwriters don’t mince opinions about the impact that smoking has on your life expectancy. They know it increases your chances of heart disease and cancer. In a post recently I talked about prostate cancer and smoking. Even though smoking doesn’t increase your chances of getting prostate cancer, it increase dramatically the chances that the cancer will kill you.
My nephew forwarded this article from The Motley Fool recently. Titled, What Smoking
Cost Me, it is written by a man who found out how seriously life insurance companies take the issue of smoking.
While most of the article is a very good lesson on the life insurance rate hazards of smoking, I take exception to the fact that this guy’s agent couldn’t find a comp
Obesity Explodes!! 2007-08-29 18:49:56 Kind of an ugly image, but the reality is that the US is outgrowing itself by leaps and bounds. You know I will jump on my life insurance band wagon about that, but think about the strain that this will put on the government and health care systems and the increase that will have to come in health insurance premiums to compensate.
Obesity leads to diabetes, vascular and heart diseases, and a host of other high dollar health issues. The most obese places in the country also happen to be some of the poorest places in the country. When these health issues hit the health care system, a big part of the bill will be split among us all.
According to an article by the Trust for America’s Health, adult obesity rates rose in 31 states last year. 20 of those states were repeat performers. See how your state ranks.
From a life insurance standpoint this is alarming. What is happening is that people who purchased life insurance when they weren’t obese are becoming obese and changing thei
Should I Pay Up Front When I Apply For Life Insurance? What Is A Conditional Receipt? 2007-08-28 19:29:53 Many agents and agencies require money with your application. That is their requirement, not the requirement of the company that you are applying with. My feelings on this subject are that it takes a lot of gall to ask someone to pay for something that hasn’t been delivered and, until it has gone through underwriting, really has no set price. You may have a quote, but it is subject to an exam and medical underwriting.
Knowing that the money thing can be kind of a sticking point, when they ask for money they offer what is called a “conditional receipt” and sometimes called a “binding conditional receipt”. I’ll get a little deeper into that in a minute, but let this soak in for a minute. In an article by John Dwight Ingram in the winter 1998 Federation of Insurance and Corporate Counsel Quarterly, he states “Insurers are willing to provide temporary coverage for most applicants because in return they gain the advantage of the applicant’s ps Read more:Front
, Receipt
How Long Does It Take To Get Approved For Life Insurance? 2007-08-28 18:49:06 Every time someone applies for life insurance they ask the question, “so, how long will it take?” After 500 years in the business I have only been right 3 or 4 times………….but in general!!
Let’s review the variables. Applying for insurance sort of insinuates that a person has to make a decision to buy. I have seen that take anywhere from minutes to years. Even though I have been blamed for that period of time also, well, out of my control, not my fault! I refuse to push anyone to buy. I am not a closer. Don’t like being closed so I don’t use “closing techniiques”.
So, let’s assume the decision has been made. Again, applying for life insurance takes two things to get the ball rolling, a signed application and an exam. Most often that is done simultaneously as the examiner takes an application with them to your exam. You donate blood and urine, tell them all about your sordid medical history, get your blood pressur
If Cholesterol Has Been Here All This Time, What’s The Fuss? 2007-08-28 18:15:52 When it comes to reasons why life insurance quotes change, right up there with being 10 pounds off on knowing your true weight, is not having a clue what your cholesterol is and finding out on the exam that it’s out of whack.
So what’s the fuss with cholesterol? Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s you never heard anyone talk about high cholesterol. Of course people were falling over left and right due to heart attacks, but back then we all assumed that there must just be some major flaw in hearts in general. People with flawed hearts had attacks and if you didn’t have a flaw, you didn’t.
The whole concept of cholesterol, good cholesterol (hdl), bad cholesterol (ldl) and triglycerides (MCBS, multiple cheeseburger syndrome) caught us all off guard. It was no longer a genetic flaw in our heart, but rather our own behavior, or a genetic predisposition to out of whack lipids that was causing our hearts to, well, just stop.
Life insurance underwriters didn&rsq Read more:Cholesterol
Fat March Participants Make Progress On Life Insurance Rates! 2007-08-28 08:05:05 Episode 4, nearly 300 miles into their “march”, I continue to watch the progress both as an interested spectator and a life insurance professional. My goal in following this program has never been to be actively involved in it’s progress, but rather to use the real life examples of the weight loss to illustrate that overweight and obesity do not have to stand in the way of getting life insurance. Further I wanted all to know that it may not take a huge change in weight to make a huge change in life insurance rates.
Will was voted off last night. Will hit the wall and couldn’t work through it and the other participants decided that he was hurting their chances of reaching their own goals. While I understand the team aspect of the program, in real life, you pick your team and you pick a team that will offer you the best chance of success in regards to your own goals. You surround yourself with people whose goals are common, part and parcel, of your own, not money. Read more:March
, Participants
, Rates
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