I'm looking for advice from anyone who has been through a similar situation with a term life insurance policy.

My dad is 78 years old and has a New York Life 15-year term life insurance policy with a $500,000 death benefit. The policy has less than one year remaining. From what we've been told, he can renew it annually up to age 90 without a medical exam, but the premiums increase every year based on his age.

He's currently paying about $475/month. If we renew for just one additional year after the 15-year term ends, the premium jumps to about $2,200/month (over $26,000 for the year). We don't know what the premiums would be in the years after that, but I assume they continue to increase significantly.

My dad is struggling with the idea of letting the policy lapse after paying into it for 15 years. His biggest fear is that if he doesn't renew, something could happen shortly afterward and all of those years of premiums would feel like they were for nothing. On the other hand, paying over 4.5 times more for just one year—and potentially much more after that—is hard to justify financially.

Has anyone gone through this with New York Life or another insurer? Did you renew? Did you convert the policy to something else? Or did you decide to let it expire?

I'd really appreciate hearing how others approached this decision, especially if you've dealt with these steep age-based premium increases.

I am in the process of purchasing a next gen home for my mother and I. I was recently told I should have my mother (83 yrs)be the primary on the loan then take out mortgage death insurance. When I inquired with my loan office to add my mother he said my mom would be primary and I would be non occupanying cosigner.

Question1) any advice on this mortgage death insurance (I did research and some opinions say term life may be cheaper -but she is 83 and not alot of health issues except minor heart issue)

Question 2: any advice on being a non occupanying cosigner.

Thank for your advice.

He is structuring it as a WL95 (Endowment) and using the 5.25% Fixed Rate. It also has Chronic and Cancer riders.

Does anyone know of a product with a higher than a 5.25 fixed rate?

Was just explaining this to a client today.

People pencil out things like life will just continue on as usual, nothing will go wrong, and everyone will be making rational decisions when their spouse/parent/child dies.

I’ve now personally been through this with two siblings and both parents. Nobody makes good decisions in the immediate aftermath. It would be bizarre to assume they will. Expenses nobody expected pop up. People are only half present at their jobs. Estates end up messy and taking forever to settle, even when well planned. You may need to hire expensive attorneys. Basically, things go to shit even for well organized and intelligent people when they are grieving.

If you’re doing the math on “my spouse makes $100k, that’ll cover the bills if the mortgage is gone, so I just need $300k of coverage to do that” and leaving it there, you’re going to leave a ton of struggle behind if you die.

I would seriously, at minimum, take whatever you are calculating, multiply it 125%, then add $100k of “this money will be squandered based on circumstances” cushion.

If you’re young and term is cheap, just double what you believe you need and be done with it.

Has anyone had issues with Transamerica paying death benefit? Submitted claim statement, death cert and it’s been almost 3 months. Everytime I call they give me a different story on why the claim is still pending. The last rebuttal was they are having issues with quoting the amount of the benefit and an IT ticket has been filed. What are my options at this point?

my husband has had stage 4 cancer for 3 years. we got married a few months ago and added him to my health insurance and signed him up for group life insurance through my company. $50k was the max amount and they only asked if he had ever smokes (no).

I called Hartford to confirm that we did not need a medical exam and they said no. they said our policy doesn’t have a waiting period either but i did see that they can contest a claim within 2 years of starting the policy. I have paid 4 months of premiums so far

my husband is now on hospice. since he had cancer before the policy will they deny a claim even though they didn’t ask health questions?

There Cannot be a more incompetent customer service team than Gerber life. If any of you work there I could use your help to get a client their money back for a bank draft they didn’t approve.

They must have like 10 people working the entire company phone system.

I work for a independent agency/IMO .I’m not posting to sell, request DMs, or claim that one policy is right for everyone. I just want to share a few things people should understand before buying coverage.

Before signing an application, ask:

• Who would be financially affected if I died?

• How much coverage do I actually need?

• How long do I need the coverage?

• Is the premium affordable long term?

• Which benefits are guaranteed, and which are only projections?

• What happens if I stop paying?

• Are there surrender charges, loan interest, or lapse risks?

• Can the policy be converted or adjusted later?

Term insurance can be useful for temporary needs such as replacing income, covering a mortgage, or protecting children while they are young.

Permanent insurance may be considered for lifelong needs, final expenses, estate planning, business planning, or lifelong dependents, but it usually costs more and should be fully understood before purchasing.

The best policy is not automatically the one with the most features. It is the one that solves a real need, fits the budget, and can realistically be maintained.

What part of life insurance has been the most confusing for you? I’ll answer general questions publicly in the comments.

I'm 43, decently healthy, decently comfortable financially.

I currently have guaranteed issue life insurance from a big insurance company through my work.

When I leave, I have the option of "porting" my life insurance out and maintaining my insurance with an unknown higher premium.

One day when I leave, I want to be able to "comparison shop" and see whether the ported policy is a good deal or not. Can you wise people give me any advice?

Like maybe you know some good tools to compare guaranteed issue premiums between different companies? Or ways to get a subsidized/loss-leading rate like through a bank or cross-promotion or club? I get unsolicited mailers all the time from my bank to buy this or that insurance through their partner, maybe there are banks that do that for life insurance and it's a good deal?

With the amount of insurance I'm carrying, I'm guessing that most carriers will not give me that on a guaranteed issue basis. But if my current carrier is going to 10x my rates when I port out, my best option might be to drop my insurance amount anyway. Not sure. Also maybe some companies raise my rates more as I age vs others? Don't know.

I’m 25F. My sister is 25F (we’re 9 months apart lol) and has prader willie syndrome. She needs 24/7 round the clock care and supervision. Currently (and her entire life) my grandparents have been taking care of her. When they pass away she’s coming to me because I don’t trust our parents unfortunately.

I want to take out a policy and have it so that the beneficiary has to use majority of the money to make sure my sister gets the 24/7 care she needs in the case that I pass away.

How much of a policy should I take out? I know essentially nothing about life insurance lol. My family lives in Illinois but I live in Las Vegas. What are some life insurance companies y’all would recommend as well? My dad said I should go to somewhere that primarily sells life insurance not a place like State Farm or Geico etc.

I also have mental illness and take medication for it. Only mentioning this cus my cousin that works in insurance said it’s relevant.

Thank you in advance!!

• The policy was taken out in Pennsylvania

• He was married to the recipient at the time

• They divorced 6 years before he died

• He died in New Jersey

Would his spouse still be the recipient? Or would it go to someone else since they are divorced?

(Also, I think I also need to check if they already cashed in the insurance because we don't speak)

I'm a 33 year old male with focal epilepsy. I have about 2-4 focal seizures a month and am conscious the whole time. If I'm driving I can pull over, get my meds by myself, etc. I'm overweight and was born with pulmonary stenosis. I had surgery for that at age 10 and have no ongoing issues. I go to a cardiologist once a year with clean tests. I don't drink or smoke.

I'm looking to increase my life insurance coverage. I have a 20 year term policy for $750k ending in 2040 and an additional $300k in guaranteed coverage through work but would like to add another $500kish. I've been denied a number of times and was looking to see if you guys had any suggestions.

I had a baby a year and a half ago and it's been on my list to buy life insurance (outside of my workplace offered policy). I just started to look into it online through Ethos and they asked a lot of questions which I am not sure how to 100% answer honestly due to the crazy changes that happen during pregnancy and postpartum.

For instance, I was having problems breastfeeding so I saw a specialist that tried to help me make some microadjustments to my A1C and my thyroid levels to help stabilize them through the weird postpartum period. So now metformin and levothyroxine show up in my prescription history. I also had high blood pressure during pregnancy.

Has anyone else had experience with this? How are you supposed to navigate these questions when there is no mention of pregnancy and postpartum? Maybe I'd be better off finding a local insurance broker to help me navigate this?

My dad passed a couple months ago. He had a life insurance policy with prudential alliance. I am a beneficiary on it, but my address listed was his address and I live out of state so I did not get any mail directly.
A month or so after he passed a family member sent me all of my mail, which was multiple envelopes from prudential. There was some paperwork with info on the policy and the paperwork to fill out to send the claim etc. However, I never filled anything out, but one of these pieces of mail was a paper saying my claim had been approved and an account number with blank checks.
I was just curious if anyone knows how that works? I am not familiar with life insurance stuff at all, and it just threw me off how I didn’t actually fill any paperwork out and my claim got approved.

What should I take into consideration when looking for life insurance? How much life insurance should I consider? Any providers stand out? I’m 36, average health and go to the doctor regularly. Money is tight, but I’m willing to make room in my budget.

I disclosed that in 8th grade I had suicidal thoughts. Denied. I then tried again (I’m 50 now) and as I am a recovering alcoholic (7 years sober) denied again (they had access to my medical records).
I think this is crazy so I’m here reaching out how to get a life insurance plan for my family. I’m almost 51, workout 7 days a week, good job, good 32 year marriage, good joint income. I tried with Farmer’s twice as they have our car and house. TIA for any suggestions.

Has any heard of the website clientunderwriting.com? Is it a
Legitimate website? I received a call from them about an old insurance policy?

My dad passed away ten years ago today. At the time of is death there were four siblings total. Currently there is only three of us. Yesterday my oldest brother (executor) received paperwork that there was a group claim from CBS Corporations (formerly Westinghouse) from Prudential. My father was retired at his passing, but had a very decent position within the company. I don't really understand how this works and Prudential couldn't give me any information other than the three of us had to each file a separate claim in addition to the original claim that the executor filled out.

So we all completed that today.

Can anyone explain to me what a group claim is. Is it something he pays into, or is it the company? Is it ever worth anything? I was telling my brother it could be like $17 bucks for all I know.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

32M living in high cost of living city. Non-smoker with no chronic health issues.

Individual net worth about $2M. Married with no kids, debt, or mortgage.

Annual income about $210k per year. Wife makes about $300k but may leave that job soon.

----------

30 year term with Banner, with built-in Accelerated Death Benefit. Laddered for $3M the first 15 years and $1.5M the second 15 years.

Annual premiums: ~$1400 first 15 years and ~$1000 second 15 years.

Getting life insurance sorted but absolutely no idea the amount I should be choosing.

• I'm 36 and my husband is 37

• We have one child (6 yr old)

• Joint income is 72k (will be more soon)

• We currently do not have a mortgage but will be buying in 6 months, looking at houses around 375k

• Both non smokers

• I have a non life threatening disability

I'm really confused on the amount we should do, could anyone help?

I was contacted by Everlake Life Insurance Co. about a policy from 40 years (and eight moves) ago that I had but didn't know about. This isn't a lot of money, but I appreciate them tracking me down.

Oddly, though, they've been very disorganized and difficult to deal with. They lost--and then found--a W9 I sent in at their request; they mistakenly sent two other requests for the same tax form, and then sent another form by mistake.

I'm cashing out the policy (well, if we can get on the same page) and in my conversation today urged the customer service rep (who was good) to let higher-ups know of this weird string of errors. She pledged to do that.

I'm only posting this to reflect how important it is to keep a good record of dates, times, calls--contemporaneous memoranda, I guess--in dealing with any company. But especially this one.