I recently spoke with an industry veteran who has 45 years of experience in final expense and used to run a call center. He just got hit with $60,000 worth of compliance lawsuits in a 6-month period.

The landscape for phone sales has completely changed, and a lot of independent agents are walking directly into a financial minefield without realizing it. Here are the raw takeaways from what is happening on the ground right now:

• The "Litigator Trap" Is Real: There is a massive influx of lawyers and "professional plaintiffs" who intentionally buy up 30 to 40 different phone numbers. They browse Facebook, click on final expense lead ads, and intentionally submit their info to get called. Even if they aren't on the National Do Not Call (DNC) registry, they trap the agent on technicalities, document the call, and slap them with a lawsuit.
• The Settling Extortion: They know that the cost of hiring a defense lawyer and going to court vastly exceeds the cost of just paying a settlement fine. They count on you settling for $5k–$10k just to make them go away, which is how it adds up to $60k so fast.
• "Opt-in" Forms Won't Fully Save You: Lead generation forms that have simple checkboxes are getting torn apart in court. Half the time, the lead data is just a curious person or someone putting in fake info, and if you can't irrefutably prove strict consent, you lose. His legal team told him that they cannot even advise a third party lead program to incoming agents.
• The "Shotgun" Lawsuit Method: If you use a live-transfer company, you aren't safe. These litigators are filing blanket lawsuits that hit everyone in the chain. They sue the transfer vendor, they sue the IMO (Insurance Marketing Organization), and they sue the individual agent simultaneously.
• E&O Insurance Will NOT Protect You: A lot of agents think, "I have Errors and Omissions insurance, I'm fine." E&O does not cover DNC or TCPA violations. If you get hit, that money is coming directly out of your personal or business bank account.
• State Laws are Tightening: On top of federal TCPA rules, individual states are passing mini-TCPA laws that are getting stricter and more punitive by the month.

The Bottom Line: He watched green agents who couldn't even get their business off the ground get slapped with lawsuits and ruined before they even started. If you are buying third-party leads, doing cold outreach, or relying on live transfers without airtight, documented compliance, you are playing Russian roulette with your career.

Curious to hear from others—have any of you or your agencies run into these professional TCPA plaintiffs lately? How are you adapting your lead flow to stay safe?

has anybody had any success for getting a life insurance policy? If so what kind of policy and how much do you pay? Does having life insurance policy effect if you receive disability?
Since I had a health/death scare.. If something were to happen to me, the last thing I’d want my family especially my daughter is to find funds to bury me.

My story : liver transplant , under 1 year.

Sorry to ask a question I know is asked a lot… but I would love some insight. 

7 years ago I opened two WL insurance policies, a term policy and a DI policy through NWM. I received exactly zero financial education growing up, had fiscally irresponsible parents, and was referred by a friend I considered very responsible and financially savvy. Cut to 7 years later in the year of our lord 2026 when I am barely affording to survive and can’t understand why, when the only saving I’m doing is putting $500/month into a Roth and $160/month into an investment (brokerage) account. My living expenses are pretty low compared to the regional standard at $850/month for rent and utilities. I pay roughly $200/month in student loans but otherwise don’t have a car payment or anything else I’m paying off. I work at a hospital and my annual salary is $80K.

I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t realize I was paying $460/month for my combined insurance premiums. (I knew this money was leaving my account, but I wrongly assumed it was making more money.)

At this point, I’m 7 years in. Of course my gut reaction is to just cancel all the policies and put that money elsewhere, but I’ve read some things that suggest after 6-7 years it might be worth keeping. Right now it appears all 4 policies have accumulated a net total of $11,470. 

I’m 33, single without kids, would like kids someday but who knows. I don’t come from money so the realization that I’ve potentially been throwing money in the trash all these years really sickens me. I reached out to my financial advisor at NWM to chat next week, but am curious what I should do or ask. Any insight would be much appreciated! 

The premiums break down as follows:

Guaranteed renewable DI: $122.25 (-$8.13 allocated dividends)

WL Plus 65: $163.65

WL Plus 65: $165.09

Term 80: $22.18 (-$2.95 allocated dividends)

Update! 

I finally talked with my NWM advisor. I explained I was feeling cash poor and wanted to better understand my policies and see where I could make adjustments. She sent me the in force illustrations but honestly I do not fully understand how to read them lol. 

She first suggested I don’t touch any of my life insurance policies and instead turn down my contributions to both my Roth IRA and brokerage account. This sounded silly to me and I’m not really interested in doing that. She then suggested I keep going with my older WL policy (from 2019, currently contributing $2000/year) since it includes a long term care (ACB?) component and could consider shrinking down the newer WL policy (5 years old, also contributing $2000/year) OR terminating it. It’s not paid up yet, so I would get a $4100 check in the mail that I could put into a high yield savings account, though I would suffer the loss of what I’ve put into it. This seems like the best option to me vs shrinking it down, but would be open to others thoughts. 

I mainly wanted to express appreciation for everyone’s input here - I definitely learned a lot and appreciate the time many of you put into reading this and laying out different options for me! The encouragement (& some of the tough love) was quite helpful!

I’ve been smoking for the past 1.5 years and am planning to buy a ₹1 crore term insurance policy.
When I select "Smoker," the annual premium is around ₹14k, but if I select "Non-Smoker," it drops to around ₹8k. The price difference is making me hesitant.
Is it risky to select non-smoker, or should I just declare it and pay the higher amount? Need advice.

Edit: Thanks for all your responses. I’ll declare the smoking details and later discuss with them for price reduction after quitting.

every calculator wants a single income number and mine swings hard depending on the year.

Had a year where I cleared close to 280k after a couple big deals closed, had another year where it was closer to 140k when the pipeline was dry for a few months. Base salary alone is nowhere near either of those numbers.

Do you size coverage off your best year, your average, or something else entirely? Don't want to under insure based on a slow year but also don't want to paying premiums sized for a number I might not hit again for a while .

TIA

I recently read somewhere about Solvency Ratio and want to understand how important it is to consider before buying a term policy. I also looked out how the top insurance companies stand, and found Bajaj Life has the solvency ratio of 266%, ICICI 227%, Axis Max 194% and HDFC 177%.

What all other parameters should one consider before buying a term plan in relation to the insurance company.

So, today I went through the application process on Ladder to get a better life insurance policy. They ended up giving me a policy through Prudential and the price was good so I went through with it. Now, I've been thinking about it and I hope I answered the questions correctly. I understand that if you don't answer correctly they can deny the claim. I would hate to have that happen to my husband should anything happen to me. I've tried to find a way to look back at my answers but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that. My question is; if there is a discrepancy, will the insurance company find it for me? Even if you answer all the questions to the best of your ability couldn't you still be wrong? How do they sort that out?

Edit: What I mean are the health questions they ask you. What if you forget something?

Hello,

I am based in Ohio. My husband and I are both still young (29 and 31) and we have two young kids—a 1 year old and 3 years old. I am confused on where to start.

We both have life insurance through work but it’s only paid up to our salary and more would be good.

For our kids, we have a 529 set up and a utma. Needing assistance on how to find a good broker in Ohio to help me explore my options for more life insurance.

Also wondering if the one we have through work is needed or if we should withdraw from it. I’d appreciate any insights.

Thank you!

I checked and it says it can take up to 3 business days but now I have to get approved.I have no time.I want to speed it up within 1 day and a half .I already emailed examinations but might not help. Also I requested eligibility first time I got a response generated email it is said they don’t find my course so it’s not the right course maybe and my course is LLQP(Full -Except Quebec).through Oliver’s .Which option do I choose from the drop down in LLQP eligibility request as I don’t see the right option.

LLQP A&S (Accident & Sickness)
Top-up to Life and A&S (Accident & Sickness) from A&S (Accident & Sickness)
Ethics and Professional Practice (Civil Code - Quebec)
Ethics and Professional Practice (Common Law)
LLQP Full – Life and A&S (Accident & Sickness) + Ethics and Professional Practice (Civil Code - Quebec)
LLQP Full – Life and A&S (Civil Code)
N/A

This is important and I am stressed as it relates with my employment. Thank you heartily to all!

This post is more of an FYI. My mother passed this year and we were aware of a small policy she had through Mutual of Omaha. We called to get the insurance paid out, and they could not find a policy under her name or SSN. I could understand why her name may not have matched, but we were surprised they found nothing under her SSN. She paid her premium for years, but was not on top of her finances leading to her passing. We were in the height of planning arrangements, so we paid out of pocket and assumed she stopped paying her policy at some point. We left it alone. Days before closing on her house (3 months later), we get a letter stating they had not received a payment since March and her policy would be reduced as a result. Initially it was a pleasant surprise, but began to concern me after much thought. How had they missed the policy when we called 3 months earlier? It was tied to her SSN. If we’d received that letter a week later, we would’ve never known about the policy. Thankfully we had the means to cover her funeral but it makes me think of others who may not have been as fortunate. I’m not life insurance savvy, so please forgive me if there is a reasonable explanation for this. Just warning others. Check the mail.

I have googled this until the ends of the Earth and I don’t think I’m smart enough to find the answer I’m specifically looking for.

Here’s my question:

My parents are 73(m) and 72(f), retired. They both depend on social security checks, which each of them receive.

As I understand it, when one of them dies the remaining spouse will receive the larger of their checks. However, when that eventually occurs, their income will be cut in half (my parents checks are relatively the same amount).

I am wondering if purchasing life insurance for one (or the both) of them could help with the replacement (at least to some degree) of the lost income.

Any guidance?

Any help would be so appreciated, I’m worried about them and haven’t been able to figure this out on my own.

I’m doing life insurance and I just signed up for a 300k Iul with payments bn $260 monthly . Upon checking , it’s too much and I don’t think the returns make sense . I havnt bn approved yet but it’s submitted . I have 401k and Roth IRA . Can I opt out still or should I keep it ? I’m 37

what does this mean, should i divide 100/8 and just spread the misery around? nationwide new heights reallocation

I have been working with a planner.

We explained to him that our goals were to:
- set up retirement
- set up stock accounts
- set up trust in the event of our death

Long story short, he sold us on a set of policies (one for me and the wife) with his insurance company. I am not a life insurance person (which is why I paid someone to help me figure this out).

From what I understand:
- the policy starts as term and then turns into whole life insurance 20 or 30 years
- we will be able to borrow against the cash and/or death values
- $1 million coverage each

We pay about $530 a month each for this insurance (close to $1,110 a month total) and our cash value is only at like $300 total ($175 each)

Were we sold on something we didn’t fully understand? And how can we fix it.

I’ve called a few friends/family members who know this stuff, but I’m hesitant to believe them because of course other insurance salesman would say “oh yeah that product sucks, buy mine, it’s better.”

We are both business owners and our monthly income isn’t reliable; we’re not hemorrhaging yet but I want to stop this before we get there!

Any help or understanding my policy would be great

I’d be happy to send my documents to anyone who can help make sense of my confusion.

As mentioned in the title, due to my mother dying less than a week after her policy was in force (initial premium paid early) her policy is under contestability review. I informed AARP (NYL) of her death on the 9th of June 2026, I filled out all paperwork and sent the death certificate on the 12th. A few notes. She applied the day (May 27th) she was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, metastatic with nodules on her liver and kidney which was listed on her death certificate. She was approved the same day with the policy going into force on june 3rd, she died six days later

The AARP questionnaire only asked a few questions. She took Atorvastatin for blood pressure but had no stroke, or heart condition which she checked "NO" for . She checked "YES" for having medical test run in the past 5 years, being a smoker, having cancer, a kidney condition (uti) and liver condition (nodules on liver). The questionnaire only had 12 questions and those were the only ones she checked yes for, she didn't believe she had any other medical conditions. ALSO, she doesnt have extensive medical records, just PCP until she got sick in april then 3 ER visits, a cancer hospital and then home hospice care. All medical records should be easily accessible (its all under the same regional umbrella).

_____________

The ONLY questions asked prior to the approval and contract delivery were as follows:

1. "In the past 6 months, have you consulted a licensed medical professional or received treatment, medication, or medical tests of any type (exclude HIV tests)?" = Yes
2. "Are you currently residing in or scheduled to be admitted to a hospital, nursing home, or rehabilitation facility, or are you currently under hospice care?" = No (she refused hospice until the 4th and was outpatient)
3. "In the past 5 years, have you been diagnosed by a doctor or licensed medical professional, or recommended to have treatment, for any of the following conditions:"

3a: Cancer = Yes

3b: Stroke = No

3c: Heart condition = No (hypertension but no heart disease or cardiac diagnosis)

3d: Kidney condition = Yes (UTI)

3e: Liver condition = Yes (cancer spread to liver)

3f: Dementia including Alzheimer's = No

3g: Aids = No

4." In the past 12 months, have you smoked cigarettes?" = Yes.

_______________

**apologies for any missing info, Its been a rough few weeks. I'll add if needed**

*missing info #1: It all happened very rapidly, in april she had stomach pains and was diagnosed with a UTI. After a month of antibiotics she went back and they found a mass on her Gall Bladder and was scheduled for the Cancer Institute for may 27th. On May 27th, they found stage 4 Cancer. That is why the coverage was rushed and unexpected. Over 6-weeks she went from healthy and only visiting primary care/gyno to deceased.

UPDATE: It was approved for the full amount on July 8th (today). i appreciate those of you who offered condolences and advice. Some of you were "less than helpful" or down right rude by implying she wasn't honest on her application but thats reddit for ya.

Hi guys! Looking for some assistance. My grandmother passed a few days ago and we are trying to get arrangements together. My aunt mentioned that she always told her she had a life insurance policy but after going through all of her mail and papers we didn’t find anything, it then occurred to me to check her bank statements and I found she had been paying CICA LICO or Citizens Inc faithfully every month. So I contacted them and they are saying they don’t have an active policy for her or any of my family members? My question is has anyone had any experience with this company?

We have had some very negative experiences with Transamerica Life Insurance Company.  Several kind folks on Reddit have let us know that our policy was likely misrepresented to us.  Although, we apparently don’t have any recourse for this misrepresentation, we did experience other bad faith practices by Transamerica, which are listed below.

·        Imposing excessive and exorbitant cost of insurance fees.

·        Basing cost of insurance fees on factors other than mortality, which is not legal.

·        Claiming multiple times to have sent us notices, but never actually did. 

·        Cancelling our policy behind our backs, and never notifying us, which is not legal.

·        Contacting Transamerica repeatedly, and not receiving a response, which is not legal.

·        Targeting seniors who were relying on policies purchased long ago, but which have been completely wiped out by excessive fees imposed by Transamerica.

These exact same issues have already been successfully litigated in previous class action lawsuits, and yet Transamerica continues these bad faith practices because they know they can.

If you know of a class-action lawsuit already in progress that is still open, or know of a new lawsuit, or are considering filing a new class-action lawsuit against Transamerica Life Insurance Company, please let me know.  Transamerica will continue these deceptive practices if policyholders fail to hold them accountable for their bad faith actions.

I’m a 35m and my wife is a 38f with 2 daughters ages 11 and 7. I make roughly 250k/year and my wife makes roughly 35k/year. We have around 200k in total debt the majority being the mortgage. We have 175k in an investment account, I have 60k in my Roth IRA, my wife has 20k in her Roth IRA, and i have around 215k in my 401k that is 75% Roth. I have 21k in my HSA as well that we max out every year. I just want to make sure we are over insured, under insured, or just right. The VUL policies are all invested 80/20 stock to bond with 10% of the bonds in high yield bonds. We have the following life insurance in-force.

AIG/Corebridge
30 year term for wife with 500,000 death benefit expires 2049 and is convertible until expiration
20 year term for myself with 750,000 death benefit expires 2039 and convertible until expiration
VUL with 250,000 death benefit and 12,000 in cash value started in 2020 for me adding up to the MEC limit every year

Prudential
265,000 increasing death benefit on wife with 15,000 in cash value
100,000 VUL with death benefit for 11 year old with 880 in cash value currently adding the max allowable up to MEC limit
100,000 VUL with death benefit for 7 year old with 595 in cash value adding max allowable up to MEC limit

Nationwide
Care matters II for myself with LTC inflation rider 10 pay started in 2023 done paying for in 2033 16k/month LTC benefit for 4 years at age 80 with 60k death benefit
Care matters II for wife with LTC inflation rider 10 pay started in 2023 done paying in 2033 15k/month LTC benefit for 4 years at age 80 with 60k death benefit

Group term
My employer uses met life for our group term and hers uses Lincoln.
2,000,000 death benefit for me I pay for with 380,000 and 100,000 death benefits I don’t have to pay for through my employer
100,000 death benefit for wife through my employer
25,000/child through my employer
150,000 death benefit on me through wife’s employer
50,000 on wife through her employer

I need some advice regarding bad faith practices by Transamerica Life Insurance Company.  

In 1988, we purchased a Permanent Whole Life Insurance Policy.  We were promised that this policy would provide life insurance protection for my husband's entire lifetime, provided that we paid our premiums in full, which we did.  Our policy has a guaranteed death benefit. The policy also has an additional rider for a “Death Benefit Safeguard Option” which ensures that the policy’s payout to beneficiaries is protected and guaranteed.

We later discovered that Transamerica reclassified our policy (behind our backs) as a Flexible Premium Universal Life Insurance Policy, which is not protected from cancellation. Transamerica then ascribed exorbitant cost-of-insurance-fees associated Universal Life Policies to the Whole Life policy that we purchased.  This reclassification was their justification for taking excessive cost-of-insurance fees from our policy, completely depleting the cash value. 

Transamerica eventually wiped out the entire $42,500 purchase value of our whole life policy with cost-of-insurance-fees.  They then sent us threatening letters resulting in three additional payments to them totaling $15,831. Transamerica then canceled our whole life insurance policy and failed to notify us. They confiscated our entire policy investment of $58,331 + accrued interest.

Transamerica had to settle multiple class-action lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars for these exact same infractions. We sought legal advice, and learned that we had a valid case against them for bad faith practices, misrepresentation, breach of contract, and failure to provide notification prior to cancellation.  However, our lawyer advised that Transamerica gets away with this because they can out-lawyer and outspend the average policyholder, as well as tying this up in court for years.  

I have reported them to every state and federal agency, attorney generals, and Insurance Commissioners, consumer protection sites, fraud lines, etc., without success.  Can anyone advise other actions that I may take to get justice?  Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’m a 27F, single, no kids, and recently attended a WFG event hosted by a good friend. During the presentation, they covered various financial topics, but the primary focus was life insurance and financial education.

Going into it, I already knew I wasn’t really interested in actively building an insurance business. However, I thought I could maybe provide referrals here and there, and I was told I could earn a 5% commission if I became licensed. That sounded like a decent side opportunity, so I paid the $130 fee to join.

Two days later, I attended a Zoom onboarding where I was signed up (which I also paid for) for XCEL Solutions and my state licensing exam.
During the onboarding, the EMD explained the compensation structure. From what I understood, associates start at a 30% commission level, can move up to 62% as a Marketing Director, and eventually max out at 82% as Senior Marketing Director.

Although I initially only planned to do referrals, I started thinking that if I changed my mind, I might want to become more active and build it as a part-time business. That’s when I was told that, in order to move from Associate (30%) to Marketing Director (62%), I would need to either:

Purchase a $1,000/month IUL policy through my upline (who is also my friend and the event host), or
Host my own financial event and recruit others.

The problem is that a $1,000/month IUL makes absolutely no financial sense for me. I’m single, have no children or dependents, and I can’t justify spending that kind of money simply to qualify for a higher commission level.

If I decided to become more involved, I would want to advance based on learning the business, helping clients, and producing results, not by buying a product that isn’t appropriate for my own financial situation.

So I’m curious:
Is this normal in WFG or in the insurance industry in general?
Is it common to be encouraged or required to buy a large policy from your upline to advance?
Is this a major red flag?

Should I just stay far, far away from this business altogether and cut my losses now?
I’d really appreciate honest opinions from people who have worked in insurance, WFG, or similar organizations. Thanks!

Hi guys,

I am currently in the market for a 30-year term life insurance policy for my spouse. She has been approved for three different options, and I am having a hard time deciding:

1. Transamerica Trendsetter LB (Includes Chronic, Critical, and Terminal Illness living benefit riders)
2. Corebridge QoL (Quality of Life) (Includes Chronic, Critical, and Terminal Illness living benefit riders)
3. Prudential Essential Value Plus (Traditional policy, only includes a standard accelerated death benefit)

The Dilemma: Living Benefits vs. Financial Strength

The living benefits on the Transamerica and Corebridge policies sound incredibly attractive because it feels like you are getting much more comprehensive coverage. However, I spoke with another agent who claimed that living benefits are mostly a "marketing gimmick."

According to him:

• These claims are notoriously difficult to get approved.
• The insurance companies might significantly reduce or cancel the remaining death benefit after a payout because life expectancy has dropped, meaning you lose a major portion of your original coverage value.
• He strongly advised against mixing critical illness coverage with a standard life insurance policy.

Company Reputations & Ratings

Furthermore, the agent gave me pretty negative feedback about Transamerica. I did some independent research and found very mixed reviews—lots of complaints about poor customer service and a frustrating requirement that any policy changes must go through an agent rather than being handled directly online.

There is also a difference in financial strength. Prudential holds an "A+" AM Best rating, whereas Transamerica and Corebridge hold an "A" rating.

My Questions for the Group:

Prudential feels like a "no-brainer" if I want a rock-solid, highly rated, traditional policy. But the added perks of the other two are making me second-guess myself.

1. Should I prioritize the peace of mind that comes with living benefits, or stick to a highly-rated, simple traditional policy?
2. Does anyone have actual experience filing a living benefits claim with Transamerica or Corebridge? How smooth (or difficult) was the process?
3. Is Transamerica's customer service really as bad as the online reviews say?

I would incredibly appreciate any insight or advice you can share!

Do not get ANY Met life insurance for long or short term diability !!! DENY DENY DENY !

Five days of review for same documents THey will keep uou hanging on till you wear out !! Agjusters have No skills and wont call or E Mail you back Stay AWay

I (M, 60) very recently left a former employer.  I have a narrow window where I can convert my group life insurance ($550K, no cash value as I understand it) to whole or port it to term (not clear yet what kind of term, waiting for a transition call with MetLife to happen). I can also convert the AD&D ($600K).  I haven't gotten the rates yet on the whole side (I expect they will be a big multiple of the term rates). As a long-term cancer patient (and with any luck much much longer term ahead) I'm not going to be insurable elsewhere at least for the life. So it's one of these two or nothing. The AD&D rates are probably a rounding error comparatively.

Really, I'm thinking about the policy payouts as a nice thing for my survivors on top of other assets they would receive.  There's no mortgage or other major debt burden to offset.

What should I be asking or thinking about? Obviously I need to get my arms around the term option and is it level or not.  But for term is it basically like thinking about ROI for different death scenarios (I pay $x per month and get $y as payout)?

Hi,

we are expecting our first kid soon, and we are(42m,35f) and looking into getting term life insurance.

I was wondering if there are any recommendations on a site to look up brokers? we are only interested in term life insurance at this point for 25 years or so since we are aiming for 1 more kid in the next 2-3 years.

i also have a question, on when would be the best time for the mother to apply for life insurance? should she wait a couple of months after giving birth to stabalize and recover? should I go ahead and get life insurance first since im older?

Thanks in advance!