Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with insurance and lifeinsurance

How do I sell this life insurance policy without getting swindled?

telegraph — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:57:22 -0800

What are/how do I find reputable firms who will buy my father's life insurance policy? How can I determine what a fair price would be? Is there anything special I need to know before I proceed? (Asking on behalf of a friend) "My father suffers from a degenerative disease which is sure to take his life within the next five years if not sooner. He has a substantial life insurance policy, but in order to continue to make payments on it for the rest of that time, we would be forced to sell our house. The possibility of selling his life insurance to an external firm has been suggested to us -- as I understand it, based on the payout value of the policy, the required monthly payments, and the expected time until payout, a company would pay him a lump sum now and take over the payments.

Has anyone had experience with this in the past? It seems like sort of a shady/loan-shark type transaction so I'm very anxious about finding the most reputable people to deal with if we decide to go forward with this. I'd greatly appreciate any advice anyone can offer. If I need to provide any other details, please let me know and I'll post more." (Well, I'll post more, but you know)

Life insurance help?

zardoz — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:35:23 -0800

It's time for me to look into purchasing a life insurance policy. I was married about a year and a half ago, and my wife and I are expecting our first child in a little less than a month. So you can imagine I've got my mind on an insurance policy in the event of my death or serious injury; they would need to be taken care of.

Can someone give me some research pointers? What's a good basic policy I can get now and perhaps augment in the future? And what pitfalls should I avoid? (Difficulty level: I'm an American living and working in Japan. My wife is currently unemployed, natch because of the pregnancy, and likely won't be working for a year or so.)

I want to put a small price on my head.

wabashbdw — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:51:26 -0800

Why should I refrain from buying a very modest 30-year term life insurance policy from a financially unstable company like AIG? Ok, I want to purchase a 30-year term life insurance policy. The value of this policy is within the limits guaranteed by the applicable state guaranty association. At this point, what is the benefit of paying a little more for an insurer with a strong financial position vs one that may not last 30 years?

My understanding is that if I buy the cheapest policy and the company goes under, then the state guaranty association takes over the policies and finds them a suitable home with another insurer or simply administers the policies itself. I was informed that my rates and coverage would remain the same. So why should I not save a couple bucks a month on the premium?

Party On! The finer points of term life insurance policies

brandman — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:24:15 -0800

Life-Insurance-Filter (again): There have been some good threads in the past on understanding/buying life insurance, but I wanted to get a bit more specific this time around. To supplement my current coverage, I've decided to buy a term policy (possibly renewable), the duration and amount of which will fit my situation. What I wanted to get some insight on are the finer points of these policies. That is, if there are specific "fine print" items to look for (or conversely, to look out for), I'd like to know what those are.

Of course, it's not just the fine print I'm interested in - I'll be evaluating the overall value of the package, based on coverage, price, rating/health of the company (!), etc. Just curious about any additional differentiators I should consider that might influence my overall decision. Thanks!

Should I cancel my life insurance policy and use it to pay off my consumer debt?

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:33:49 -0800

Should I cancel my life insurance policy and use it to pay off most or all of my consumer debt? I'm Canadian, 50 years old, single, self-employed, with no dependents. I have about $15,000 in consumer debt and about $200,000 owing on my house. I'm covering my mortgage payments well, and am currently spending about $300/month on servicing the credit card debt. (I have 3% interest until October, but it goes up to 9% after that). There's a good chance that things will be busier for me in the spring, and I may be able to increase my debt repayment to about $1200/month, but I can't count on that.

My retirement savings are lower than I would like them to be, but I do have house equity, several RSPs, and two life insurance policies. One policy will pay out $250,000, which will cover the house and any outstanding debts. This policy costs $25/month and has no cash value. The other whole life policy would only pay out $100,000 but can be cashed in when needed. I'm paying just over $100/month for the latter policy, and it is projected to be worth $40,000 when I'm 60, $55,000 when I'm 65, and $120,000 if I make it to 80.

To my understanding, there are three reasons to have life insurance: to cover debts when you die (my major debt is the mortgage, which is fully covered by the $250,000 policy); to provide for dependents (again, I have none); and to act as an investment vehicle (I have other investments I'd like to improve).

This whole life policy's current cash value is just under $15,000. If I cash it in and apply most or all of this to my debt, it would allow me to put a lot more money towards my other retirement investments every month ($400-$1300, counting the insurance premiums and current/projected debt payments), and give me some peace of mind and breathing space. I have been watching my budget and have been paying down my debt as much as possible, but it's been a horrible year on a number of levels and I'm actually deeper in debt than when I started. Optimistically, I'm about 18 months away from clearing the consumer debt. Pessimistically, it could be another 5 years before it's clear. If I cash in the life insurance, I could be free of debt significantly faster.

The possible drawbacks of cancelling the whole life insurance:

1) The tax hit of about $3000-$4000 on the $15,000 I get from the policy. This would mean paying only $11,000-$12,000 to debt immediately, which is still a huge improvement, or paying it all off and budgeting carefully for the rest of the year to cover the expected taxes.
2) The loss of potentially $40-55,000 (taxable income) at retirement age. I could almost certainly make this up or exceed this with other investments once my debt is gone.
3) At 50, if I do need to buy a new life insurance policy for any reason, it could be much harder to get and more expensive. But I can get $10,000 of coverage for $20/month from the same company that provides my supplemental medical insurance. I don't need lavish life insurance, just something to cover any remaining small debts and a funeral. I do need to be out of debt as soon as possible and to have a much larger retirement fund.

Given these issues, is it worth cashing in the policy? I think it is, but I could be missing something important. If necessary, you can contact me at debtclearance@gmail.com.

Can I get business travel (only) life insurance?

NailsTheCat — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:25:39 -0800

I have to travel to Johannesburg for 3 weeks on business so I thought I'd check our corporate travel / life insurance. I'm covered for $20,000 which I consider way below par. I need business travel life insurance options. Our health insurance (Blue Anthem) dictates a minimum level of life insurance cover, which we have: $20,000. We also have business travel insurance which covers medical expenses extra -- but no life cover. Our UK staff have life insurance at 3x / 4x their annual salary (depending on number of dependents).
I don't need extra comprehensive life insurance for my every day life - at least not from my company. But I would like to be cover in the event of a plane crash (wherever I travel on business) or a carjacking in Jo-Berg say.

Does anyone have experience of specific business travel life insurance or similar plans? I'd like to approach HR with some good background knowledge.

How much is a life worth?

anastasiav — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:16:37 -0800

Educate me about life insurance. I'm female; under 40; non-smoking; the primary wage earner in our family (I earn 2/3 of our income, my partner earns 1/3); we own a house and have a son who will be one year old in July.

For many years, I had $100,000 in life insurance through my employer, however this benefit is no longer available to me so I've started shopping for insurance and, I have to say, everything seems prohibitively (ie: $100+ per month) expensive, and I'm having a lot of trouble sorting out the options. We're guessing that I need about a $250,000 policy (which would pay off our house and car, my funeral, plus leave some savings for our son).

What are the real-world differences between Term Life, Whole Life, Variable Life, and Universal Life? Which is the "normal" thing for someone in my situation to buy, given that our budget is very tight? I know we can't afford to be without insurance if something happens to me, but honestly an extra $100 per month would put a huge strain on our budget right now, so is this a "reasonable" price for a young-mom-non-smoker to expect, or are the internet quotes I'm seeing too high?

I realize I should speak with an agent about this, but a) I'm working two jobs and its difficult to take time away from work to make an appointment and b) frankly, I feel as though if I go into a conversation with an agent uneducated I'll end up getting sold something more than I need or want.

So please, educate me about life insurance.

Relatively speaking, how good is my life insurance quote?

neilkod — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:49:12 -0800

Help me determine how fair my life insurance quote is. I received a quote from Fidelity for $1M 20-year term life insurance for $970/year. I'm pleased with Fidelity for other accounts so I figured I'd give them a shot for life insurance.

I have no real frame of reference to see if this is a fair bid. I'd rather not go through the application experience with other companies to get comparative bids-I'd like to know where my quote fits in the overall ballpark. Additionally, I'm supposed to respond to Fidelity's bid soon.

I've tried the online quickie-quotes but those aren't really meaningful.

I'm 35 years old, in fine health, great heart, etc. Not a smoker, not a pilot/cliff diver/etc. A red flag to Fidelity is that I recently lost a bunch of weight, and that affected my rating, thusly my premium.

How do I get life insurance without disclosing the skeevy details of therapy?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:40:43 -0800

Is there a way to get life insurance without the underwriter seeing the complete records of my two-plus years in therapy? There's nothing earth-shattering: Just a standard-issue case of depression and anxiety that, thanks to psychotherapy with a good shrink and a low dose of Lexapro, is now well under control. But the insurance company won't accept a letter from my doc saying simply that he treated me and that I have responded well. The rep assures me that only the underwriter will see the records of my treatment, and, like I said, there's nothing terribly shocking in there ... but it's intimate, personal stuff that I'd like to keep as private as possible. Any thoughts?

Life insurance--where/what kind to get?

MrMoonPie — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 08:03:48 -0800

Life insurance--where/what kind to get? My wife and I just bought a house, and I realized we need to get some life insurance. I have some already with my daughter (from a previous marriage) as a beneficiary. My work-provided insurance isn’t having an open season for a while. So who do I call?

Life Insurance

keep it tight — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 15:34:27 -0800

Life-InsuranceFilter

Ok, I just noticed that I'm paying a fortune for my work sponsored life insurance. I need to figure out the best plan for a 35 year old divorced dad with one kid...any thoughts?

Term Life Insurance

dhacker — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 06:25:16 -0800

We've talked about Health Insurance a few times - what about Term Life Insurance? I'm +40 years old with two kids and would like a bit more insurance than my job provides (basically 1 year salary). Should I go with a place like Reliaquote and just pick the best offer? Or is there a better approach?