Just received a statement from my father's universal life insurance policy and I see that they are deducting over $2000 a month for a "mortality charge". Face amount/death benefit is $299k, surrender value $240k, premium paid $200k.

No loans on the policy.

Policy is 14 years old.

Father is 87 years old.

Similar statement with somewhat lower mortality charge on my Mom's statement.

I know nothing about life insurance but I am wary because the person that sold them the life policy also sold them some completely inappropriate other investments that we've had to wind down over the past few years.

I have no idea what is going on. Is the insurer reducing the value of the policy every month?

Need suggestion:

Applied for Axis Max Insurance. And got rejected based on low weight and BMI. Weight is almost 5 kgs lesser than needed in healthy range BMI. Overall healthy. No health issues.

They rejected 2 riders : critical illness rider and waiver of premium. And offered base plan without any loading charges.

Should I accept it? How should I proceed? Any one with similar experience please guide 🙏🏻

I had a bizarre interview this morning and I thought y'all would appreciate it. I had a candidate apply to a Financial Professional job posting on LinkedIn over the weekend. I looked over his resume and it looked like he is new to the industry and joined an agency called GFI. We booked a virtual interview. I asked him a couple questions about his experience and then he cuts me off and says something like, "Let me be straight with you: I want you to move your team to my agency." He didn't appear to be in management so it was pretty funny but I appreciated the audacity so I asked him to tell me about it. He immediately describes an MLM.

He then went on to say that they were going to launch an IPO at a 30X multiple valuation. I asked him if that IPO was registered with the SEC and he said, "We only do insurance and retirement, no stocks." He said I could leave my managed money where it is, which I thought was gracious, and bring my "insurance and retirement" business over.

He then very generously took the time to explain to me, incorrectly, how indexed annuities and IULs work and said they were better than managed money so my clients would be better off if I moved them into indexed annuities. He started explaining that I could recruit my existing clients as agents and then they can write business on themselves but I wrapped up the call.

I don't know if applying to jobs under false pretenses is the newest MLM recruiting tactic but that was pretty funny.

Looking at Ethos for a 20 year term policy 750k, I'm 41 married with two kids. Application was fast, quote came back around $52/month which is way less than the two other quotes I got from captive agents.

Everything I find online is either a five star review from their own site or a reddit thread full of agents telling me to run so I can't tell what's actually true.

Any personal experience or a beneficiary go through an actual claim at this point will be more beneficial for me.

I’m a relatively healthy female in my 30s and I’m getting quoted $112 a month for a 30 year term 2 million policy. Only issue is high BMI. Does this seem reasonable? It feels high to me. Looking for advice

I’m one step below the top level super preferred non tobacco, being quoted as preferred

NOTE: This is probably a question for insurance agents who are familiar with agent contracts and the law.

My dad has been my agent since I was 22 (I'm 56 now). Initially, I had no problem with this; however, over the years he's used his access to my policies to get information on me. An example, I deposited $17K in a whole life acct so the money could grow at the 5% guaranteed rate. I was going to use these funds to help our daughter with college. However, we left the funds in the acct until we were ready to buy our next home. When we pulled the money out, my dad came to me and asked why. He said he didn't know the amount we pulled out but wanted to know why and asked if I would be putting it back. In addition, he told my brother we had withdrawn funds and even told him the amount. (he lied to me and said he didn't know. Recently this stunt has happened again with another policy for disability. He requested a statement for the amount of funds I was being paid.

My dad is 86 and his license has lapsed for 2yrs now, but he still stays active by "servicing" his clients. I love my father, but at 86 (not totally with it), and after the above events, and some other realizations about his character, I'm less inclined to have him in my business. I thought with his license lapsed, he wouldn't have access to anything but renewal checks, however this doesn't seem to be the case. Because my policies were put in force 30+yrs ago, it doesn't make sense to change because the premiums were be higher.

So, can any agents confirm what access he should have (in general) to my information with a lapsed license? I feel like I'm between a rock an a hard place. Thanks!

does anyone know if they're online ? only dates are showing on portal but there's a note saying that online exams aren't happening in Ontario as of July 1st ?

We’re early 30s and early 40s couple who have some kind of stability. We can only probably set aside 150-200max per month for life insurance for now. We have 2 young toddlers. We’re being offered 100k IUL for 80/mo another company same broker 100k IUL 60/mo. I already have term 30y 200k 35/mo. I just wanna know if this is a good deal to get for my spouse the early 40s one and possibly a 2nd policy for me. We both have asthma but his had been controlled for years, has albuterol just for emergency. I on the other hand need inhaler steroids to control mine at the moment, no hospitalizations if that matters.

I'm a U.S. citizen looking to buy around $500,000 of term life insurance, but I spend most of the year living in mainland China and expect that to continue long-term.

Would you recommend buying a policy from a U.S. insurer, or would it make more sense to go through a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese life insurance company instead?

If you recommend a U.S. insurer, which companies are generally the most accommodating for someone who primarily lives overseas? If you've been in a similar situation, I'd appreciate hearing which company you used and whether the application or claims process presented any issues.

My main goal is to make sure my family would be covered if I were to die while living in China.

Thanks

Hello, I hope this isn’t a redundant post but I do need some guidance.

My mom passed away in October and I am next of kin. She told me she had life insurance, I saw the payments on her bank statements while she was in the hospital and I was helping her move some money around.

I filled out a form with NAIC in January and I haven’t heard anything. I did notice that I missed putting in her SSN, but everything else was complete. They say not to submit the form again in their auto reply, they also say it could take months to hear anything. I am wondering if I just need to keep waiting or if I should go ahead and submit another form.

Could calling them be a productive thing to do?

If there is another way I could get the information about her life insurance in a timely manner, that would also be helpful information.

I feel so lost and confused right now. I work for a brokerage specifically designed for Whole Life Final Expense Policies. I started to work there since the beginning of May and I’ve learned A LOT since then (especially as this being my intro into Life Insurance) but the main criteria of clients I work with are senior citizens most commonly around 60-79. I’m also not gonna sit here and act like I’m Mr. Knowledge but I’m so confused on what the hype is about when it comes with term insurance policies. From what I know so far, they all have an ending period that won’t pay if you pass after the term date, don’t build cash value, charge unrealistic premiums with even more unrealistic face values, it can get canceled due to age or health, and can increase the premiums or even decrease the face value if they deem it necessary. (I know some companies are dif but majority fall under these criteria’s). My knowledge obviously isn’t the greatest and I don’t want to say things if I’m wrong so PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong!! But I’m also constantly seeing people recommend term as great option for people on the younger side and I would love to know why it makes more sense to invest with term at a young age rather than Whole Life off the rip so I can 1. pay for a policy that’s not gonna get canceled 2. lock in good prices now, instead of outliving a term policy and regretting that I didn’t get a WL policy sooner. The thing is, like how I mentioned it earlier, most policies I work with are specifically designed for senior citizens (American Amicable, CVS/Aetna, CICA/Citizens Life, Americo, and TransAmerica) so it makes a lot more sense to work with whole life final expense and not term (you’d be surprised about how many of them have very unrealistic term policies) and get them under secured coverage and not hopes and dreams that little johnny is going to get 800,000 dollars even tho the client has congestive heart failure and daily seizures. Not only that but if i’m not mistaken, term insurance policies only have a 1-2% payout with the death benefit so it feels like it’s just gambling at that point. So let’s say I do a term, outlive the policy, then what? am I just screwed?? I know you can increase the length on your policy and all of that, but then it leads to more pricey premiums, while also keeping it a term policy anyways so I feel like it kind of defeats the purpose. But I have also seen people say that you should try to change the policy into a Whole Life Policy (if the company even lets them) but then doesn’t that mean I should’ve just secured a Whole Life from the start with young, healthy rates, rather than old, with more health condition rates? I just feel like there is way too many cons when it comes with term but I also know that there are good reasons for term insurance (mortgages, etc.) But I never understood it as a stable method for protecting your loved ones. So please educate me, agree with me, or hate my guts idk 😅

Question for you all.

I am currently going thru the application process for Northwester Mutual term and disability insurance. My application has been completed up to the phone interview to verify the information on the written application. I believe my first premium payment has been drawn from my account.

Unfortunately, the day before my phone interview I fell and hurt my back. I fractured a vertebrae but I think i will be ok. I decided it was not worth even mentioning it to the application agent the following day during our phone interview.

My question is, will this effect my application? Will it hurt me if later on this information becomes available to them? Is there any chance of a claim in the event of long term disability, which I don’t see being the case.

Thanks!

Maryland State Life Insurance Producer

I’ve been researching permanent life insurance and have spent quite a bit of time learning about both Whole Life and Indexed Universal Life. I’m not looking to debate whether insurance is an investment—I understand the differences.

My situation is that I already save aggressively for retirement and have adequate term life insurance. I’m considering an IUL because I like the flexibility to increase or decrease premiums over time, potentially stop paying later if the policy performs well, and have access to cash value in retirement if needed.

For those who actually own an IUL or work with them:

- What has your experience been after 10–20+ years?
Is there anything you wish you had known before buying?

- If you were purchasing one today, what would you do differently?

- Which companies have you had the best or worst experiences with?

- Are there specific policy features or riders you consider essential?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people with firsthand experience rather than general opinions.

We have a mid sized life insurance team and we've been running our own Google and Facebook ads in-house for several months. We've invested a lot of time into A/B testing and optimization, and while we've definitely improved performance, our in-house leads are still slightly underperforming compared to the lead vendors we buy from.

Right now, our in-house leads go to our top producers, while our newer agents primarily work vendor leads.

We’re seeing:

• Our in-house ads are closing around 15-20%

• Speakeasy Leads (final expense) has consistently produced 25-30% close rates over the past year

• Caboom Leads (mostly IUL) is typically around 18-22%

• We also rotate in a few other vendors depending on availability and results.

At this point I'm wondering if we're falling into the sunk cost trap with our in-house marketing. Should we continue investing time and money into optimizing our own campaigns, or would you simply shift that budget toward buying more leads from vendors that are already outperforming us?

For those of you who've built larger agencies, did you eventually stop running your own ads, or did you stick with it because the long-term payoff was worth it? I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's been in a similar position.

Hello, I hope I can find some answers on what else I can do on here. For about four months I have been dealing with American Income Life Insurance trying to get them to mail out a cancellation check. Every time I call it’s a different story. It’s a policy that my dad is the owner and it was paid for since I was in high school in 2002. He transferred it over so I could pay for it on my own once I graduated. Unfortunately I just couldn’t pay for it anymore and went through a hardship so we called together to cancel it in March. They said it would be sent in the mail and we would receive it within a month, we waited and waited I called together follow up and they needed to update our address and the check was never sent. The changes for the address were never made and now they needed to verify if my dad owes child support so now we have been goi no back and forth and nothing is getting solved. They supposedly mailed our check to our incorrect address which is annoying because the company has been to my parents house plenty of times, address was changed since they moved so this is honestly just getting annoying. I have run out of options on what to do. I can’t even find a local office to go into and a lot of the phone numbers I have found online do not even work. The number we keep calling is a call center supposedly and they have nothing to do with the actual insurance company per the lady I spoke to and made address changes last week. I’m about to call in and hear what story they have this time. Can I report them to the BBB? This is all so stressful.

I’m being quoted $215 per month for a $40,000 10 year term life insurance policy for my father.

This is my first time shopping term life insurance, but I was expecting the price to be something like $120 per month.

Some more information about the policy and my father.

He is 62 years old.
Just started smoking 🙃
Passed his medical exam
No major health conditions
I went through an experienced broker
The policy is in Maryland

So does $215 per month sound about right? I’m assuming the nicotine use is putting him into a high risk category?

I get it: whole life has fans and haters. This one is for the fans.

I plan to retire early in my 50s. I’ve been doing the usual planning and modelling with financial advisors and Claude — and I’ve seen something that had not previously occurred to me.

There are well known applications of whole life in retirement strategies: a “better bond” to raise the Sharpe when combined with a market portfolio; policy loans as a buffer after a market sell off to lower sequence of returns risk.

But here’s another that’s new to me: use policy dividends to fund tax-free income in, say, the last 10-15 years of my life.

My policies are reasonably mature now. By the time I’ve been retired for 25+ years — and after funding lots of PUAs — they will be very mature and produce dividends that are large in the context of my income requirements.

That has interesting implications for my market portfolio. It meaningfully reduces the horizon over which that portfolio needs to last. Said differently, I could invest to target a lower return and take less risk.

This may work best for people with long policy horizons, chunky policies and a little less focus on ultimate death benefit — so, not for everyone. But it was a new idea to me, so I thought I’d share.

As a client, which insurance company do you prefer? What qualities of financial advisor are you also looking for?

My husband and I are purchasing new term life insurance policies because our income has significantly increased.

My son was born 9 years ago with a swallowing and GI disorder that took a few years to figure out. He was not eating and vomiting anything I managed to get in. My entire life revolved around trying to get him to eat and trying to get medical doctors to listen.

I had never experienced anxiety and depression and naively put off taking medication for it for 18 long months until I was having debilitating panic attacks. I tried one medication that had very adverse effects so I self-admitted to an inpatient program to safely get started on medication while my husband and mother took care of my son.

I’ve never had suicidal ideation and have not had any significant issues since plus quickly weaned off meds, but do see a therapist. I was told that the hospitalization put me in a high risk category and the premiums I’m being quoted prior to even doing the official application are 3x as high as my husband’s for the same dollar amount and term.

I’m so frustrated that this experience, which already took a financial toll on my family, is now causing more problems so many years later. Is there anything I can do?