Senseless Sunday Sarcasm : Insurance
Right now, this seems to express my Insurance quandary sarcasm quite well
When hubby#2 died on me (figuratively, not literally) in 1983, I took out a life insurance policy a few months later so that if anything happened to me, the family members taking care of my children (5 and 7 at the time) would have enough to help them through it.
Little did I know that…
Insurance is nothing more than roulette gambling at a casino.
One that’s allowed to change the rules in mid-spin.
I suppose there are reasons why car insurance can get expensive…
…but when it comes to life insurance?
You either need it or you don’t.
Judging from my present situation, you’d think I bought life insurance from this guy
or this one
More than likely, it was this one
Had I been stupid and died from “Hey y’all, watch this!!” syndrome, my family would have enough money at this moment to buy all new kitchen appliances.
But noooooo…. I just had to be to ornery to die!
In 1984, I trusted my insurance agent and believed him when he said…
What he recommended was something new on the market called Universal life insurance.
Only this month did I truly understand the meaning of that term.
They failed to advise me that they had dropped an important descriptor and one very important word: Bad.
As in Universally bad life insurance.
I know. It seems so hard to believe, but here are the lies and the facts
Lie: You can use it as a savings account. It’s your money and you can use it when you want to.
Truth: If you put $7,000 into it and take out $3,000 to repair your roof, you have to pay back the “loan” or have the face value of your life insurance policy reduced by that amount.
Lie: We’ll tell you when your premium goes up.
Truth: Once a year, you get a statement. If the premium went up a month after your last statement, you’ll find that the shortfall has been deducted from your “savings.”
And, hey, the policy has only been sold off 4 times to entities I’ve never heard of.
Well, I was very, very lucky this time. My statement arrived 3 months before my next birthday. My premium shot up from $75 per month to $266.
Yep. You read that right.
I think they do this to induce a heart attack so I’ll be too busy recovering to notice I don’t have a policy left until I’m out of the hospital and owe $250,000 in medical bills.
Little do they know that I do yoga, take vitamins, and have 6 dogs.
Want to know more about why it’s a universally bad policy?
I can surrender the policy if I want, but can only take out about 75% of the money that I put in there 30 years ago.
Yep. You read that right.
If I do start paying $266 this year, there’s no guarantee that it’s not going to go up to $1,266 next year.
As for what you should do instead, here ARE 2 Ideas:
- Shop around for only what you need.
2. Invest in something you can sink your teeth in.
Food for thought.
If I’ve prevented one other person from making the same mistake, I’m happy.
My agent drove a luxury car and retired to Arizona. I kept telling him what I wanted was a supplementary income to other investments when I retired. “Oh, the other guy in the office sells those, but they are too risky. What you need is [what he was selling that paid him a nice commission each year from all of us who bought it…]”
I eventually woke up and found out that my financial advisor where I had other investments that actually provides me that income I wanted from the insurance but would never see because I had to die and leave it to someone before that money showed up in hand…whew…was able to transfer that insurance account to my investment with him. I didn’t even have to let the insurance agent know I did it!
The type of policy I had was similar to one that was part of the money-making (and paying) product I had with the financial advisor, and all he needed to turn it into a money-making investment was to know the policy number, move the money over into the new money maker, and let me know it was done.
Best thing I ever did.
All of that insurance would never have helped me a bit, and I have no heirs to get the money after I die. The insurance agent is dead. So much for getting all the money all those years. Luxury cars and Arizona vacation-retirements aren’t transferable to the “next life”, if there is one.
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You made the case very, very clearly to me and, I hope, to others who read your reply and take your advice.
Thanks.
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We have a cheap life insurance which was taken out in 2002 to cover our then £50K mortgage should one of us die. It was ‘loaded’ because of my weight, but still good value for what we wanted, and more importantly, what we could afford, and premiums were fixed for the duration. There is no surrender value, and it will automatically expire when we are 75. It will only pay out once, so if one of us died and the other shortly after, tough. No problem, we have no children and the last to go wouldn’t exactly be worrying about funeral costs. If we were to take out a similar policy today, it would cost us hundreds of pounds A MONTH instead of the £360 a year we are paying.
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I thought I was getting an insurance policy that was going to stay the same over time. Undoubtedly, when I was deep in grief and not looking any further than “what would my family need if I died tomorrow” I got taken.
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It makes me mad when people take advantage like that.
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Over the years I’ve come to understand something I wished I’d understood when I was younger: If you walk into a doctor’s office or insurance office and the lobby looks like it belongs in a 5-star hotel, they’re not there to help you.
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Good point.
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Too funny! Luv it!
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Thanks. 🙂
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Makes about as much sense as gravity insurance.
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Ain’t that the truth!
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I have one of those policies and it is getting more expensive every year–not as bad as yours yet. You are very accurate though. I have a very old and much less expensive term life policy that increases in price with age but it was sold that way and has no cash value, Got rid of my last car this week–no more lizards taking my money so I can afford to pay life a little longer. Heard a good line from a movie I watched but forget the name, “There is no luggage rack on a hearse!”
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That is a good line. 🙂
It seems to me to be ageism to force people who no longer have the incomes they once did and price their life insurance into oblivion until it’s useless to try to keep the policy.
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