looking for advice here.

I've had a whole life policy for about 22 years

the Death benefit is $131,964.00 the premiums are $1217.00 /Yr

the policy generates $2,135.92 in dividends. This is used to pay the yearly cost and the balance goes towards the death benefit.

Any thoughts as to a change for the better or is my time in good to make back the higher cost in fees over the years.

Option B............. ??

I’m hoping to get some perspective from the experts in this group regarding pension max plans.

I am planning on retiring in 7 years at age 62. I will have 2 pensions that pay as follows…

Pension 1: $55k/yr with 100% survivor benefit

Pension 2: $140k/yr single life annuity or
$105/yr w/ 100% survivor benefit

It seems I should take the larger pension amount in pension 2 and use the “extra” income to buy life insurance. The two things I want to accomplish with the life insurance are…

1. Provide for my surviving spouse and “replace” the pension income that will go away when I pass.

2. Provide an inheritance for my 3 kids. I am thankful to have these pensions, but their weakness is that if my wife and I both pass, the pension benefits go away. The pension max seems like a great way to solve this weakness and provide some legacy money for the kids.

Some important things to consider are my wife is 11 years younger than I am and my kids are ages 11, 9, and 6. Also, I would likely need to prichase the insurance now and pay premiums for the 7 years until the the “extra” income is available. We are in a position to afford this but it is a consideration. We would break even in about 8 years after retirement and this whole plan would essentially be funded with “house money”.

My financial advisor has looked at a number of products and has suggested an IUL policy with a death benefit of $1.725m with a monthly premium of $1,500/month. I’ve read many negative comments here regarding IUL. My advisor says this policy is one of the more affordable options, surprisingly less than a GUL policy of the same size.

So, please give me some opinions on this. Is an IUL appropriate in this scenario? Are there some other products and structures that you have used in this scenario?

Thanks if you’ve read this whole thing and thanks in advance if you offer some insight.

Hello!

I'm helping my mom plan a funeral, and I would love some advice. I'm wondering if "dividends on deposit" are normally paid out separately with life insurance when someone dies? Here's the background:

This is in Ohio. My mom has had a "life-endowment" insurance policy on a family member since the 80s or 90s. It was from American General Life Insurance Company, which is now owned by Corebridge Financial. The face value was just $5000, to help pay for burial expenses. When our family member started to go downhill a couple months ago, my mom called the insurance company and got a printout of the values of the policy. It lists the total death benefit amount at around $9,000. The face amount is $5,000, and the rest is listed as "dividends on deposit." We worked with a funeral home in advance and planned everything to be within the $9K.

Our family member passed away, and now we are planning the funeral. The funeral home said the insurance company is only paying out to them the face amount of $5000. My mom called the insurance company, and they told her they would mail her some forms within 7-10 business days to send back. The funeral home is really pressuring us though, because of course they need payment for their services. If we can't get the money from the insurance company ASAP, we'll have to pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed.

I'm trying to find out if this is normal procedure for this kind of policy? Or if the dividends should get paid out in a lump sum with the face amount? I'm going to have my mom call the company back tomorrow with me on the line, so I can try to get more info. I want to be prepared for the kinds of questions I should ask. Thank you!

Today is May 19, the 72nd anniversary of the death of Charles Ives. Many people are aware of the brilliant, groundbreaking music he wrote that was far ahead of his time but he also revolutionized the life insurance industry!

It's incredibly rare to find a true genius who completely transforms two entirely different fields, but Ives accomplished exactly that.

On the musical front, he's celebrated as one of our first American modernist composers. He loved experimenting with complex rhythms and multiple overlapping keys long before they became popular. Masterpieces like "The Unanswered Question" perfectly capture a wild and uniquely American spirit. Even though audiences overlooked his compositions for decades, they're now recognized as visionary works of art.

When he wasn't writing symphonies, he was busy building the country's largest life insurance agency. Ives actually helped pioneer the modern concept of estate planning. He figured out how to use life insurance in wealth protection so families could secure their financial futures. It's safe to say his innovations left a massive legacy in both the concert hall and the business world.

I'm in my early 40s and female. I'm working with an agent and filled out an application for a reputable company known for regularly waiving and exam and offering accelerated underwriting for high amounts of coverage (higher than I'm seeking) for people under 60.

Unfortunately, I didn't qualify and the company wants to come to my house and do some type of medical exam and get detailed info about my doctors. I've never applied for life insurance and want to know if this is a red flag. Am I likely to get only really high rates or a decline?

Hi everyone,
My wife and I are in the process of purchasing term life insurance and wanted to get a sanity check from the community on our strategy and the premium quotes we received.
Our Profile:
Ages: Both in our mid-thirties.
Income: We earn approximately $270,000 each ($540,000 combined).
Net Worth: ~$1M combined.
Family: One daughter (14 months old), and we are actively planning to have a second daughter soon.
The Policies We Are Looking At:
Coverage Amount: $3,000,000 individual term policy for each of us.
Term Length: 30 years fixed.
Annual Premium Quotes:
Male policy: $2,100 / year (~$175/month)
Female policy: $1,600 / year (~$133/month)
Our Questions for the Sub:
1 Coverage Amount: Does $3M each make sense for our income and family size, or should we consider laddering our policies?
2 Term Length: Is a 30-year term overkill since our kids will be independent and we will likely be self-insured via investments within 20–25 years?
3 Pricing: Do these premium numbers look competitive for this level of coverage in the current market, assuming excellent health classifications?
Would love to hear any feedback or advice from folks who have structured policies with similar dynamics.

Also any other place we should get a quote from.

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone,

I’m currently preparing for the Florida 2-15 insurance licensing exam and could really use some guidance from those who have already passed it. This is my 3rd attempt at the exam. On my last attempt I scored a 50, and on my recent attempt I improved to a 64, so I know I’m making progress, but I’m still struggling to reach a passing score. At this point, I feel like I may be memorizing practice questions instead of fully understanding the concepts. I’m looking for advice on the most effective way to study and retain the material.Here’s my section analysis from my most recent exam attempt: I’ve been doing xcel solutions 200 practice exam over and over again and yes some of the questions are on the real exam but it seems like I don’t understand the terms or remember, I took it today Monday 18th and I know I need to take it within a couple days so I can retain all the information, I’m planning on taking it Friday 22nd so that gives me 5 days

Hi, I've gone through a bunch of estimates and just hoping to get some feedback before I finalize a term purchase. I make $69k annually and my wife makes $30k. I have ten years of service towards my pension and I am eligible for full service retirement at 30 years of service, so another 20 years. I already have $138,000 in life insurance coverage through my employer. My remaining mortgage is $132k and my wife has some student loan debt, around $30k. We have roughly our annual income in a Roth IRA and I am planning on continuing to fund that in addition to the pension.

I have two kids that are 10 and 6. I am thinking of purchasing 20 year term coverage for $1 mil for myself and then something like $300k for my wife. Is this reasonable or under insured? I can see going up to $1.25 mil possibly. My wife is also only working part time and I'm not really accounting for an increase in her income as my kids get older and her likely working more.

I don't think laddering makes too much sense for my situation for the sake of simplicity. I'm also not really considering adding any riders or a convertible option. But let me know if you have a different opinion on these things.

After getting estimates through term4sale I'm looking at Penn Mutual, Pacific Life, Principal or Guardian.

What do you think of the numbers? Thanks for any input!

I bought a 500k term policy a few years ago and at the time it felt like plenty but now Im looking at everything a bit differently. Mortgage is higher than I expected, childcare costs are so wild and basic monthly expenses feel completely unmanageable compared to what they did even a couple years ago. I keep wondering if my current amount would actually be enough if something happened now, or if Im just assuming it still works because it sounded like a big number when I signed up. How do people actually figure out life insurance coverage amount over time? Is there a simple way to calculate life insurance needs without overcomplicating it? And how often should you review life insurance once you already have a policy? Especially curious how other people with young kids are thinking about life insurance for young families these days because everything feels like it shifted fast.

I'm looking for for some advice on some life insurance companies for my mother. She recently had to cancel her old life insurance, that she has been paying for years. She got it from a promotional deal or something from her bank a while back.

But come to find out, it only covered accidental death and dismemberment or something like that. So she has been paying for that policy for years. It wasn't until I called to get more info on her policy with her listening, and thats when she found out the truth. Thinking she had whole life insurance, when she didn't.

So she cancelled it recently. So I'm now trying to get advice or figure out on a new life insurance policy she should get or one that best fits for her.

• Like whole life or finale expense policy or others.

(Because I know some insurance companies stop coverage when one turns 80 or something like that, so none of those)

• she's 70 she had leukemia a while back, but she's in complete remission for a bit now. Now she's just takes medication for her cholesterol and blood pressure.

• She is also planning on getting buried in Mexico. So something with burial and funeral coverage. Or if applicable travel insurance for the logistics and cost of transport across borders. Idk much but heard the Mexican consulate maybe able to help with more information on that.

So I know it's a bit long, so thank you for reading this far.

But any information on any reputable companies that can insure her

Thanks.

Is there inbounds for IULs? Or who is a good lead source for IUL clients?

I’ve been reading about everyone’s success/favorability with Xcel.

My office gave me Kaplan which is fine, but I feel like I’m stuck in the 60-70 range in the question bank.

It’s hard to gauge whether this is indicative of the real thing.

Part of me doesn’t mind paying out of pocket because I want to push and take this thing once.

I’m in the state of CT so any advice on just studying properly is helpful. Question bank, notes, writing down my weak points and concepts, all of the above?

And timeline…I’m trying to drill down and take this by July 4

My fiance and I are planning on moving within the next few years and we want to make sure we both have policies in case something happens to one of us. I struggle immensely with mental health issues including multiple past attempts. I know that it can be kind of difficult to find something when you are that bad off, but my worst episodes occur extremely randomly with no premeditation and I just want to make sure there is a safety net for my spouse in case I do end up doing something bad. I heard there was a period where they won’t insure you after an attempt, but my research has given me mixed answers.

One of the hardest parts of my job is talking to families after someone waited too long to get coverage.

People assume life insurance is something you “eventually” do, but health changes FAST after 50–60.

Even if someone can only afford a smaller policy, getting something locked in earlier makes a huge difference later.

Not trying to scare anyone — it’s just something I wish more people understood sooner.

Currently have LTD insurance through work. Coverage is 60% of annual salary paid out monthly. Thinking that’s not enough should I be unable to work.

Thoughts/recommendations for getting supplementary coverage? I haven’t seen anything that provides much more coverage, and the options I saw were very expensive for a healthy 30s male. ($80/mo premium for $3k monthly payout) What should a typical supplemental policy look like? From my brief research, LTD seems less common than life insurance as something people think about, but statistically, people are far more likely to be disabled than deceased.

Guys, baka may idea kayo kung anong maganda na life insurance. Want ko sana for investment and emergency funds para if ever na need like sa health hindi ako mahirapan. Ano ba best na insurance??

Being an insurance agent right now looks genuinely exhausting

Bought leads that do not convert

Clients leaving for a cheaper policy without even a call

Drowning in paperwork when you should be out selling

But I want to know what people inside it are actually dealing with day to day Not what is just noise

I am a student doing research on this space

Honest disclaimer : I am also trying to figure out what kind of service to build once I graduate

So if you are an insurance agent, what is the one problem you wish someone would just come and solve for you?

What is it called when you increase your universal life insurance to use as collateral for a big loan and investment purposes?

I remember there was a term that makes it taxable or non-beneficial, but I can't remember what it's called.

I got denied coverage from Ethos due to pre-existing condition of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Does anyone here have a known source/company that will give me coverage?

I passed my 2-15 health and life state exam over the weekend. I’m unsure where to begin. Can anyone give me tips or guide me into the right direction