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
Is the cart before the horse? 2007-05-12 23:56:09 I read an interesting blog on www.thediabetesblog.com today written by Chris Sparling. Citing a study done by Northwestern University, he takes exception to their conclusion that depression can cause diabetes.
My take on that is that it is probably the other way around. When someone is pre-diabetic or borderline diabetic, they usually don’t feel quite right. Not feeling quite right over a long period and not knowing why can certainly be a depressing thing. I think you would find a similar phenomenon in undiagnosed cancer and coronary artery disease victims.
Looking at it from another direction I can see where depression could actually have an impact on the onset of type 2 diabetes. The reality is that when depression sets in there are very often unhealthy life sytle changes that occur. A depressed person is likely to set aside healthy eating habits, quit exercising and gain weight, all risk factors that can contribute to diabetes.
From a life insurance perspective, an underwrit
When it all comes down to the shape you’re in! 2007-05-12 01:55:06 Probably the most disgruntled life insurance clients get is when they are told that their insurance is going to cost more because their estimate of their weight was off, or they weren’t really 5′9, but 5′8 1/2 (which examiners round down, not up).
All insurance companies have build charts and they really do stick to them. A good independent agent might be able to get an underwriter to fudge a pound or two if all other risk factors are good, but generally speaking, if you don’t fit into the height and weight it takes for a certain rate class, you will be bumped to the next higher rate class. More weight. Less height. More money!!!
My advice. Find out what your REAL height and weight are before you talk to an insurance agent and don’t fudge. Don’t round your 1/2″ up. Tell them agent exactly how tall you are. Don’t round your weight off to the nearest 10 pounds. Tell them exactly what you weigh and when you checked it last. I swear if you Read more:comes
Good question! 2007-05-11 02:39:25 Allie Beatty who writes for www.thediabetesblog.com brought up a question about how staunch life insurance underwriters are about the HbA1c being the benchmark for determination of control for type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It was her contention that, especially with type 1 diabetes, the c-peptide was at least as important, if not more relevant to the issue of control than the standard HbA1c.
After reading a few articles indicating that Ms Beatty may in fact have a point, I put the question out to some of the top experts in life insurance underwriting. That is in process and I will let you know what I find.
In the meantime, just as a refresher, the following are the standards that I know most underwriters will look at and how they will view it. For someone being treated for diabetes, an A1c below 6.5 is considered excellent control, 6.5-7.5 good control, 7.6 -8.0 moderate control and above 8 would be considered poor control. Generally speaking an A1c above 10 would not be insurable.
Again
Easier insulin treatment will impact life insurance rates! 2007-05-10 02:28:46 There is a new treatment being developed that will allow insulin to be administered via a rubbed in cream versus a needle stick. Allie Beatty’s blog on “Insulin skin gel” can be found the www.thediabetesblog.com and outlines what would be an amazing breakthrough for insulin dependent diabetics.
From my perspective it is exciting to know that an easier, more humane method of treating type 1 diabetes will lead to better compliance with treatment. As we’ve discussed so many times, better compliance brings better control which brings improved health and mortality experience which brings………………lower life insurance
rates.
The idea of rubbing in a cream versus injecting insulin will remove the whole downside stigma of diabetes treatment. Right now so many insulin dependent diabetics feel uncomfortable “treating” themselves. Highly unlikely that a young person feels comfortable treating themselves in public and they p Read more:impact
Now here’s something worth talking about! 2007-05-09 02:21:21 Quite often the habits that lead to coronary artery disease, diabetes, cancer and several other major health conditions start when our kids our young. What a great service we would be doing for them and ourselves if we made these health issues a topic of discusssion……what if that discussion led to lifestyle changes that helped prevent health issues down the road…..what if we just made a point out of communicating with our children (and spouses) and helping them to self educate their way to a long, healthy life???
On the American Heart Association website, www.americanheart.org, there is a great discussion prompter, the top ten way to help children develop healthy habits. Print this one out and use it as a discussion tool.
“Be a positive role model. If you’re practicing healthy habits, it’s a lot easier to convince children to do the same.
Get the whole family active. Plan times for everyone to get moving together. Take walks, ride bikes, go swimming, gar Read more:something
Another way to get everyone talking about it!! 2007-05-08 02:33:54 I just read a blog by Jen Creer on www. thediabetesblog.com about teen using the internet as a resource to self educate about their type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Teens (and adults) found out more about the disease, and how to monitor and control it. They found community in the blogs. Somewhere they could go and didn’t seem out of place.
It occurred to me that along the same line, a great way to open lines of communication with your children would be to challenge them to find a good blog or article on a weekly basis, or bi-weekly basis on a health issue. It could be something relevant to them, but certainly wouldn’t need to be. After all, can educating yourself about any health issue be bad for you. If in their research they found out how they could make lifestyle changes that might keep them from developing coronary artery disease, diabetes, cancer, or high blood pressure, well, that seems like that might be a good thing.
Let’s take that idea a step further. Maybe the c Read more:everyone
Diabetes! Let’s talk about it!! 2007-05-04 15:29:32 According to the American Diabetes
Assocation website, www.diabetes.org, the numbers of those with diabetes are growing by leaps. “There are 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease.”
The majority of those are type 2 diabetic, also called adult onset diabetes. I suspect that the adult onset title will be dropped before long as more and more children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. While diabetics with good control of their diabetes and associated health issues don’t have a big problem finding affordable life insurance, it does take the assistance of an independent life insurance agent with experience in the area. It is the long term complications of diabetes that causes concern with life insurance underwriters. Diabetes alone is a major healt
If you really knew what was coming, would you do things differently? 2007-05-03 03:33:19 How often do we hear it? A friend or family member has had a heart attack or been diagnosed with cancer at an age that is just, well….wrong! We expect health problems and death when someone gets into their 80’s. It’s not nearly so common in their 50’s and 60’s, or even 70’s anymore. But there’s that once a year shocker where somone we know that is in their 30’s or 40’s has some serious health issue diagnosed. Quite often we hear about their death. The question is, if they knew it was coming, would they consider life insurance differently?
I’ve been there and understand that bomb proof, immortal feeling at that age. We see bad things
happen to the wrong people at the wrong age all the time and, because we have a shield of immortality (or denial) around us, we think we are somehow living in a different world. Certainly it could happen to them, but not to us.
Consider for a minute that there is something that would cost less th
Just talk about it! 2007-05-02 01:09:35 According to a recent survey most people (at least the grown up variety) agree that they need life insurance. The reason they cited for not having made the purchase…..no one ever talked to them about it. As a professional this concerned me. How could there be more life insurance agents than there are “other” people and somehow no one has talked to this huge number of people?
Well, it may be a slight embellishment to say that there are more of us than there are them (you all), but life insurance agents are certainly not on the endangered species list. After talking this whole thing over with my wife it was her take that the problem really didn’t come down to some lack of effort on the industry’s part, but rather a lack of desire for people in general to learn to intelligently deal with financial education.
We don’t teach kids how to balance a check book. We don’t teach them how to budget or save. Husbands and wives are famous for not wanting to
The farther we get from home the closer we get!! 2007-04-28 21:03:19 Just having returned from a week in Jamaica thinking to escape one of my greatest passions about life insurance, diabetes, the more a I got whacked up side the head with the fact that it seems to epidemic everywhere.
Turns out Jamaica has a real problem with juvenile type 2 diabetes. Kind of interesting since the normal contributing factors present in type 2 diabetes really aren’t readily apparent in the Jamaican culture. Turns out the childhood obesity is the culprit, not unlike the US. Just not something one would expect.
Bottom line. Anyone, Jamaican or otherwise, who slips into bad eating and exercise habits can put themselves at risk for diabetes. As with coronary artery disease, the additional stress on the body can cause collateral health issues.
Then we’re back to talking about how to do all the right things, not just to take care of yourself, but also to find affordable life insurance. Remember, all the information you can possibly get is not too much when you visi Read more:closer
Think ahead! Group insurance may not be your friend!! 2007-05-17 02:47:27 So many out there assume they are all set because their job offers this great group life insurance
plan. Now don’t get me wrong. If it’s inexpensive I think you ought to take advantage of that. What I’m talking about is putting all of your eggs in that basket. There are some serious downsides to that approach.
That inexpensive group life insurance is great unless there is an OCCURRENCE!!!!! No, I’m not talking about your death. Group
insurance will pay like any other life insurance if you die. The occurrences I’m talking about are 1. A change in your benefit package or 2. You quit or get fired (or downsized) or 3. You retire.
With any of those occurrences you will be told that you can convert your group policy to a personal policy. What they won’t tell you while you still have time to plan is how outrageously expensive that converted policy will be. It is going to go from some barely noticeable deduction from your paycheck to a very noticeable bill e Read more:ahead
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Gestational diabetes takes a hit!! 2007-05-16 02:27:07 I just learned today that due to pressure from reinsurance companies, many life insurance companies will be charging higher rates for women who have had gestational diabetes. Again, why do you want an independent life insurance agent?? While many life insurance companies will now charge a higher rate for up to 10 years after a woman has gestational diabetes, not all of them will. Just like type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, it pays to have an agent who knows which companies have their head screwed on right.
This is a huge change as gestational diabetes was, in the past, considered a non issue from an underwriting standpoint as long as it resolved itself after the pregnancy. This caught a lot of agents off guard like the change in the stance on multiple basal cell carcinoma did a few years ago.
I will be researching the gestational diabetes issue to see if I can determine the logic and will share that with you when I get an answer. Can’t promise it will make sense or bear any se
Family history! How does it impact you? 2007-05-15 02:13:51 When completing a health interview before receiving a life insurance quote from your independent life insurance agent, you will be asked a family history question. Most companies want to know if any member of your immediate family (defined as mother, father and full siblings) has had an occurrence of heart disease or cancer prior to their age 60. Some companies go a little further and include type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes and ask about disease prior to age 70.
If the answer is yes to any of those, your agent will ask about that family member and whether they survived whatever illness occurred prior to that age. If you were keeping score, in general an occurrence of disease before 60 would be one strike and a death prior to 60 would be 2 strikes. With each of those you would normally take a one rate class bump up in your life insurance quotes.
Often argued is the relevance if the person being interviewed is healthy, a non smoker and non drinker, and we are discussing a parent who d Read more:Family
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Chances of a stroke and where you live?? 2007-05-19 01:25:54 Apparently there is a significantly better chance of suffering a stroke if you live in the south, with Mississippi leading the way. The percentage of people who have strokes in Mississippi is about twice the national average. I did some relief work there after Katrina and I can tell you that the heat and humidity alone can almost kill a Rocky Mountain guy, but apparently that isn’t the reason for the high incidence of strokes.
The study I read cited the usual risk factors for stroke, only in more abundance in the south. Obesity, diet, diabetes and lack of exercise seemed to be the thread that was more common in the south than the country in general.
Now before someone starts screaming at me, remember that I am just the messenger. The same risk factors play heavily into strokes everywhere. They also seem to be common with heart disease and obesity, diet and lack of exercise contribute to type 2 diabetes.
The life insurance underwriting common thread here is a tendency to not take
Frequently asked question! 2007-05-18 02:24:17 Since 9/11, in fact starting that day, the question of whether life insurance covers you if you die during an act of terrorism or war has come up often. No doubt that we all feel more vulnerable since that day, but the answer from all the insurance companies I talked to was that there was no intention of adding a clause and that unless you had a very old policy (35-40 years at least), there shouldn’t be any such clause in your current policy.
The last time I saw life insurance policies with any exclusion for acts of war was in the late 70’s and those policies were old at that time. And of course terrorism is a fairly new term and no clauses have been written to exclude it.
Keep in mind that I am talking about life insurance, not accidental death insurance. I really don’t know what exclusions might be buried in that type of policy. The last time I reviewed one it seemed a little restrictive, so if you are inclined to look into AD&D insurance, read the exclusions ca
What impact does high blood pressure really have!! 2007-05-22 19:44:16 Well, I guess that depends on the context of the question! I’ll break it into two parts and see if we can make some sense of it.
We’ve all had our blood pressure taken at some time and we know that there is the top number (systolic) and the bottom number (diastolic). My normal blood pressure usually looks something like 109/68.
Life insurance companies draw a fine line between acceptable and not as acceptable and not acceptable blood pressure readings. Just a sample from a life insurance underwriting guide for a pretty average company shows that in order to get their best rate a person can’t have any blood pressure readings in the past two years higher than 136/86. For the next best rate they allow a little higher level at 146/90. The next two rate classes top out at 152/92 and 156/94. I doubt if you would find any insurance companies that would find a reading like 180/110 acceptable.
Life insurance underwriters put extra emphasis on the diastolic pressure (lower nu Read more:impact
Breast cancer and life insurance! More home runs to come! 2007-05-21 19:19:09 Everyone seems to know someone who has been affected by breast cancer. While still a horrifying diagnosis, breast cancer is emminently more cureable than 30 years ago and as early diagnosis and treatment success increases, affordable life insurance
is becoming more and more available.
Life insurance seems to evolve with diseases. Just 30-40 years ago it seemed we usually found out someone had cancer at the same time we found out how many months, or weeks, they had to live. Back then a history of cancer, if it was survived, was generally an automatic decline if a person wanted to purchase life insurance. As people have become more health conscious and detection testing has become more sophisticated, cancer is now more often detected when there is still time to do something about it. Now insurance companies are allowing cancer history and good rates to be uttered in the same sentence.
There are still criteria to get to those good rates. The severity (stage and grade) of the cancer is one Read more:Breast
Manage your medical records, or else!!!!!!!! 2007-05-24 19:53:25 I swear the medical
community could use one extra course before someone is given the license to practice medicine. There is a profound problem in the integrity of the information that is put into medical records. It runs the gammut from casually putting irrelevant information in the records to office staff actually filing someone else’s information in your records. Eveyone knows how much damage can be done when you apply for a home or car loan and there is erroneous information in your credit records. The same is true when you apply for life insurance and the underwriter runs into something that results in a change of your rate class and, in the extreme, a decline to offer coverage.
A few examples may help make some sense. A woman was applying for life insurance. She was very healthy and we anticipated her being approved with very good rates. Once the underwriter got the medical records, they postponed the case until she would have a cardiac evaluation, a stress test, at her own Read more:Manage
How much is enough? How much is too much? 2007-05-23 19:30:35 Private pilots are often caught in a dilemna when buying life insurance, a dilemna that can be overcome if you use an independent agent with experience in working with pilots.
The dilemna is that most companies want you to fly the number of hours they feel it takes to remain proficient, but not so many hours that they feel you are pushing the envelope of their risk tolerance. On average insurance companies want you to fly between 26 and 150 hours annually. If you fly less they want to penalize you and also if you fly too many.
Insurance companies purport to make their decisions based on mortality experience, taking emotion out of the process. Unfortunately in the case of pilots they haven’t really updated their mortality tables in quite some time when it comes to aviation. There are fairly new tables that have to do with health issues, but little new data that relates to better training and equipment available to private pilots.
There is also no distinction made as to the geograp
Collect on your life insurance before you die?? 2007-05-26 18:13:46 Terminal illness! How many times a day is a person told, or a family told that a person only has months to live? Often this news comes after a stroke that requires extensive medical care in ICU, or after a long battle with cancer. Medical bills pile up and, because the person is usually no longer able to work, the family is short of money due to the lack of income. There isn’t any part of terminal illness that cuts a family slack.
Several years ago life insurance
companies started adding an accelerated death benefit to life insurance policies. This was in response to a practice that began early in the AIDS epidemic. The epidemic spawned a business of “helping” the victims out by offering to purchase their life insurance policy for a reduced amount. This gave them the cash they needed to keep up with medical bills and continue treatment. These helpful business people would usually offer one half of the death benefit in cash in return for ownership of the person’s Read more:Collect
Lead, follow or tell your clients the truth!! 2007-05-31 19:12:24 I think I’ve mentioned before that there is a real propensity in the life insurance business for agents to be so protective of a potential sale that they will actually tell a customer they are uninsurable, rather than admit they are the wrong agent for the job.
There isn’t a week that goes by without hearing from people who are desperate to find affordable life insurance. They have been told they are uninsurable because they had a heart attack. They’ve been told they will never get insurance because they’ve had breast cancer or because they are type 2 diabetic. I’ve had clients who are never called back by another agent because they admitted they had been through alcohol treatment.
Agents actually tell these people “you will never get life insurance”. In the whole scheme of things I get to talk to only a handful of these abused people. I can only imagine how many just give up and leave their family without protection because some lame excuse fo
Snakes are the root cause of high life insurance rates! 2007-05-30 18:55:15 Having done a rather narrowly focused, completely unscientific survey, I have determined that snakes should probably have some underwriting significance when it comes to life insurance
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Here are a few examples. A woman in her 60’s who was known to have heart disease, albeit well controlled, suffered a fatal heart attack upon discovering a snake in her house. This woman, who died in her 60’s, might well have lived another 20 years if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of an unwanted reptile.
Now I know there are people who aren’t afraid of snakes. I admit that I am one of them. I am interested and if they are the venomous variety, I am cautious, but not scared……..unless I step on one or see one suddenly move in very close proximity, with no warning. Then I do move quickly and my heart rate probably does increase. I may even suffer, depending on the situation, from a temporary bit of high blood pressure.
Then there is my wife. Again, not really sca Read more:Snakes
Alcohol and drug abuse leaves a life insurance hangover!! 2007-05-29 19:14:55 Whether it is youthful indiscretion or taking the wrong route in dealing with with real life grown up issues, alcohol and drug abuse
are no stranger to anyone. If we haven’t been there ourselves, we certainly know of someone who has. Some never get past it. Either they avoid treatment or go from program to program never quite finding the answer.
Because of all the the health and lifestyle repercussions of substance abuse, life insurance
companies take a very serious look at the issues of drug treatment and alcohol treatment.
Even the most agressive companies want to see at least 5 years after treatment before they will offer even standard rates. Most want to see 10 years post treatment before they will offer preferred rates. Coverage can be obtained in less time than that, but it is likely to come in the form of a rated policy. Even then, time is not the only factor. Insurance companies want to see that you are part of a support group such as NA and AA. They know the chance of se Read more:Alcohol
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Is it really all about you?? 2007-06-03 18:12:14 There is a real tendency, especially among the guy population, to not really have a firm grasp on what life insurance is all about! I have been staying in touch with a guy for two years now. He inquired about life insurance, but decided because he was not going to be in the best rate class due to his weight, that he would just put it off until he could lose the 15 pounds necessary to get the rates he coveted.
Now I can almost see the logic if he already had life insurance in place to cover the possibility of him leaving a widow and two children behind. He does not!!!!! That puts his decision to wait in the “you just can’t fix stupid” category. His family is totally dependent on this income and he won’t put any life insurance in force unless he gets the same rates as Superman.
I encouraged him from the get go to put some amount in force while he jousted with windmills over this weight loss thing. His response was that it wouldn’t take that long, that he was
Lifestyle choices help choose your life insurance rate! 2007-06-07 18:32:56 There are many health things in life that just jump up and grab you. You never see it coming and you would have never dreamed of the impact it could have on your life. The question inevitably runs through your mind. What did I do to deserve this? What could I have done to avoid this?
The truth is there are a lot of health problems that you truly don’t have any control over. Type 1 diabetes for instance. Doctors know what it is and for the most part they know something about treating it, but the cause is illusive. While many times type 2 diabetes can be linked to lifestyle choices
, lifestyle doesn’t seem to be a part of the picture with type 1.
Lifestyle choices, and specifically the way we eat, can have a direct impact on health problems such as obesity, colon cancer and heart disease. Making poor choices can lead to the problem. Making good choices can help you avoid them. Family history can also play a part in what happens to you, but more and more we are seeing that fami Read more:choose
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Remember that song? 2007-06-06 19:24:19 A Simon and Garfunkel song with the line, “my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none”. Well that may be just fine for most life insurance agents, but the fact that it hasn’t “hurt them none” isn’t really the point. How many clients are financially damaged every day by life insurance agents who refuse to learn about their own business?
You should see the test it takes to become a life insurance agent. It’s not even meant to weed out those that who were to lazy to study. Even the continuing education courses are for the most part a joke.
So it’s just sales right? What do you need to know other than “what will it take to get you to drive away in this life insurance policy today”? Well, allow me to express my opinion on this based on far more years in the business than the average agent will ever last.
If I were teaching the school, closing the sale would be left out. Knowledge of impairments, knowledge of insurance and estat Read more:Remember
Ultrafast CT scans and heart disease!! 2007-06-05 18:14:04 You gotta love technology. Sometimes the medical science types can come up with a test that is so……….so………..all inclusive, that it falls short in the category of providing statistically significant useful information. One such critter is the “Ultrafast CT scan”.
Most of us have heard of CT scans. They have been around for over 20 years and have been very useful in analyzing such things as cancer, the brain and most internal organs. Where it has fallen short is it’s ability to scan anything that moves. In layman’s terms, it takes such a long, slow, detailed picture, that if something is moving it would be blurred. A great example of an organ that cannot be scanned using traditional CT equipment is the heart.
Well now, or at least in the very recent past, along comes the ultrafast CT, which snaps a much quicker picture. Now mind you it still doesn’t take a perfectly clear picture, but they have apparently improved it Read more:disease
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Does your business have a life? 2007-06-13 19:23:23 Most small businesses, which provide the majority of employment, kind of fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to the area of life insurance and a business continuation plan. Just some food for thought. In the US today, you are more likely than not to either own a small business or be employed by a small business.
Whichever category you fit in to, there is a critical question that needs to be addressed. It affects your family. What if the owner, or a partner (oneof the owners) in a small business dies? Obviously, in the absence of adequate life insurance, whoever passes away will leave behind a family with some very hard choices.
Does the family sell the business? Truth is most small businesses are worth what the company earns while the owner is alive. Does the family try to continue the business? The truth is that generally family members aren’t interested in or capable of running the business. What usually happens in the absence of adequate life insurance is the employee
Wrong time to ask!!!! 2007-06-12 19:39:43 The discussion went smoothly. A wife looking for insurance to replace a term policy on her husband that was coming to the end of the guarantee. Good health. A little family history hiccup, but not a big deal. Then I asked about foreign travel and she said, well, yes he does travel. After a little beating around the bush it seems that her husband had become a little bored with retirement and had decided to do contract work….. kind of where ever he might be needed. He was currently in Iraq for 12 months. Wrong
time to review his insurance portfolio!!
To all of you husbands/wives who have a husband or wife who is considering changing careers or taking up hobbies, review life insurance while it is still in the considering stage. Once plans are in place and commitments have been made, whatever is coming down the road will impact your life insurance.
A few examples might help clarify this. Let’s say I’ve always thought it would be kind of fun to take up skydiving, but I&rs
Does the idea life insurance raise your blood pressure?? 2007-06-11 07:28:00 When faced with the reality that life insurance
rates are going to be higher than expected due to high blood pressure readings on an insurance exam, denial is the mode of the day. People don’t deny that their blood pressure was high. It just follows that there will be a string of excuses such as, 1. I had to fight traffic all the way home to make the appointment. 2. I had to watch the kids while the exam was being done and they were a bit crazy. 3. The examiner was annoying me with all the questions. 4. I didn’t sleep well the night before.
The truth is that all of those things can raise
the blood pressure of someone who is susceptible to spikes in their blood pressure. So what’s the big deal? Why don’t life insurance underwriters just accept the excuse and ignore the readings?
High blood pressure is a contributing factor to stroke and heart attacks. If a person is prone to spikes in their blood pressure over things that normally occur in life, that means that t
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