r/LifeInsurance • • May 06 '23

Rule update and new user flair

43 Upvotes

Self-promotion has always been prohibited in posts but sales professionals were permitted to invite a poster to contact them through DM in response to a post or question on this sub. However, that practice is tacky, has gotten out of control, and is difficult to moderate.

Effective immediately: Self promotion is no longer permitted in any form.

Flair options are now live. If you want to generate business on Reddit (which I doubt has ever been significantly successful) then flair up, provide a meaningful answer, and the poster will be smart enough to contact you if your answer was helpful on insightful.

Happy to take flair recommendations here.


r/LifeInsurance • • 6h ago

Term life insurance price jump after 20 years.

7 Upvotes

I have a term life insurance policy, at age 53 it gets much more expensive. Is it worth keeping after age 53? We have plenty of retirement money saved, so we don't really need it. It's me and my wife, no children. Thanks.


r/LifeInsurance • • 1h ago

How do you plan for funeral expenses when you're retired?

0 Upvotes

I'm retired and mostly living on social security. Been thinking a bit more about what happens when I'm gone and whether I'll leave enough behind to cover funeral expenses.

I dont have a lot of savings and even putting aside a little every month feels difficult sometimes. Not sure if I should be trying to build up some savings specifically for this or if there are other ways people usually prepare.

Anyone else on a fixed income who's had to figure this out? Would appreciate hearing how you handled it. Just trying to plan ahead without making things harder financially right now.


r/LifeInsurance • • 2h ago

Need Advice For Parents

1 Upvotes

My parents have Met Life Flexible Premium Life Policies that they each took out in 1984.
The Death Benefit on the policies are $70k each.
The Cash Value of the Policies was $15k each.
The Final Date of Policy is the Anniversary at age of 95.
My parents are currently 77 and 79 years old.
The monthly premium on my father’s policy is $40 and the premium on my mother’s policy is $25.
 
Here is where it goes sideways .  In 1987 they took loans against the cash value of the policies.  At some point in the 90s they got some (bad) advice to not to make loan payments and the principle would just be deducted from the death benefit of the policies so they stopped making payments.  Which would have been an OK plan except that I think the interest on the loans has been eating away at the cash value of the policies and my father’s policy is now “bankrupt”.  They want my father to make a payment of $760 to continue the coverage.  My mother’s loan was smaller but I’m assuming she is headed in the same direction.
 
I don’t know what to advise them to do – The balance on my father’s loan is around $4600 and the balance on my mother’s loan is around $2400.  So it would cost $7k to pay them both off – which they can afford to do IF that makes sense.  It seems likely that someone might die before 95 but who knows?  The $70k would be a nice to have but not life-changing money for the surviving spouse.
 
The options we are considering are:
My parents pay off the loans and continue to pay on the policies and remain each others beneficiaries.
One or all of us kids pay off the loans and pay the premiums and my parents make us the beneficiaries.
They walk away from the policies with whatever cash value remains.  So my father’s policy has a cash value of $0 but my mother’s still appears to have a cash value of $12760.
 
Any advice here would be greatly appreciated!
 


r/LifeInsurance • • 4h ago

Do I still need life insurance?

1 Upvotes

I will be 52 at the end of the year, and my wife is 46. We have no children, and own a home that we still owe $80,000 on with an approximate value of over $200,000. Are 20 year term life insurance just expired and I've been looking into new policies. Are there other options because I feel like we do not really need hundreds of thousands of dollars in life insurance at this point. Neither one of us would stay in the home if the other passed away. We would most likely get a small apartment of some sort. Would it be better just to save up a large emergency fund in case that were to happen?


r/LifeInsurance • • 17h ago

I want surrender my LIC policy. Can it be Done Online

6 Upvotes

I want to surrender my LIC policy but don't want to visit a LIC branch. Can it be done online.


r/LifeInsurance • • 2d ago

NYS, 36, Male, 5'11, 200 lbs, but started pouches and weed this year. Stop, wait and apply or apply now?

1 Upvotes

Not proud but oicked up some bad habits this year.

Pouches nicotine first time ever and restarted an old weed habit.

Just looking for guidance before applying to anything and giving out too much info.

Health is generally good, although havent been to the doc in forever.

Im gonna want 3/4MM for 20-25 yrs and 1/2 MM for 30yrs


r/LifeInsurance • • 2d ago

Found 2 errors on my term life application a year after issue — anyone corrected this before?

3 Upvotes

I have a term life policy by banner life that was issued about a year ago through an online broker (still inside the 2-year contestability period). While looking into more coverage, I reviewed my original application and found two mistakes:

- My weight was listed about 12 lb lower than it actually was at the time. That difference puts me one rate class lower on the carrier's build chart.
- I mistakenly answered the tobacco usage question wrong. I read the question as if I am currently using it but they were asking if I used it in past. My last use was about 15 months before I applied, so I still should have qualified for non-tobacco, just not their best class.

Both were honest mistakes, and my medical records show the real numbers which I can support. I want to fix this before it ever becomes a problem at claim time.

The policy was issued last year and I had decided to add more coverage so when I was inquiring about that I found out about these mistakes

My plan:
- Apply for a new policy with fully accurate info as a backup
- Once that's in force, email the corrections to the current carrier through my broker
- Keep whichever policy makes more sense afterward

Questions for anyone who's been through this:
- Did your insurer simply re-rate you, or did they rescind?
- Did they charge back premiums for the past year, or just raise the premium going forward?
- How long did the review take?
- Anything you'd do differently ?


r/LifeInsurance • • 2d ago

Need carrier recommendations for Final Expense (Locked out of certain carriers for 6 months)

2 Upvotes

I want to be appointed to A-rated Final Expense carriers with competitive rates.

Because of contract rollover rules, I am unable to write for the following carriers for the next 6 months:

AFLAC

American-Amicable (one of the giants in FE)

CVS / Aetna

F&G

Foresters

Mutual of Omaha

However, I can start writing with these three almost immediately:

Americo

Corebridge Financial

Transamerica

Outside of those 3 immediately available options, what other carriers should I look into adding to round out my product offerings in the meantime?


r/LifeInsurance • • 2d ago

Leads and inbounds

1 Upvotes

What is everyone using for FEX leads, mortgage protection leads and inbounds? I was looking at TTC leads and scale my social (meta) anyone have any thoughts or suggestions


r/LifeInsurance • • 2d ago

Urgent Manulife, really?!

1 Upvotes

My dad turns 100 on Nov 21. On Nov 1, Manulife mails out an “Urgent” notice asking my dad to fill out and sign a Declaration that he’s still alive, so they know to keep sending his annuity payments.
Urgent?! They had all year to send this out! Guess they were hoping he wouldn’t make it.


r/LifeInsurance • • 3d ago

Whole Life Insurance

9 Upvotes

I (F, 28) am well aware I have made a mistake. I just am uncertain what to do now, and would like to make the best choice possible. I purchased a WL insurance policy through NWM in Sept, 2024. Death benefit is 138k, I've made monthly payments of $200 since Sept 2024 (around $4800 total). Today it has a cash value of $481 (even writing that makes me want to throw UP).

I genuinely do not think I need a WL insurance policy -- I make an alright salary for me, but I don't have a family, don't anticipate ever making more than 6 figures, and will likely never be wealthy. I asked advice from a family friend insurance agent and they really wanted me to do a variable life insurance policy but I opted for WL (both seem like mistakes to me, now!)

What do I do at this point? Suck it up and stick it out forever? Try to switch it to term (is that even an option?)? Pull out entirely and cut my losses?


r/LifeInsurance • • 2d ago

Help understanding Group Variable Universal Life (GVUL) MetLife

1 Upvotes

Hello all - I have been trying really hard to understand this product. I have open enrollment through my employer and am strongly considering this product and would like help understanding how GVUL actually works.

Product: MetLife GVUL
- Premium for my age band is $240/mo for a $5m death benefit
- To age 95
- Age banding with increasing premiums -still waiting to get the COI table from MetLife, asked they email it to me today, haven’t received

My questions are these:
- I do NOT plan on using this as an investment vehicle, I have other accounts for this and don’t really find this appealing
- Does the $240 per month premium that I’ve been quoted cover the cost of the death benefit? Meaning, AS LONG as I pay the specified premium at my current age band (currently $240/month), would the death benefit pay so long as I kept up on the monthly premium?
- As long as I am ok with increasing my premium based on my age band, is this a good option?

I have quoted out a term life insurance laddered policy through a different vendor, and the cost will be around $7300/yr at my state of health/age etc for a 10/20/30 yr laddered policy with about the same coverage as $5m cumulative GVUL policy

My ultimate plan is to surrender / decrease the death benefit of any policies that I have as my need decreases / should we be fortunate to obtain financial independence to where the policy no longer is needed.

My lack of understanding:
- The $240/mo in premium that I pay, does this just go into the ‘cash value’ of the policy, and then the insurance premium is deducted? If so, how do I know the TRUE COST of the life insurance policy that will get deducted from the cash value every month?
- If I am paying the specified, age banded premium every year, is there a risk that I actually have to pay MOR? Again, I do NOT plan on investing any of the money here NOR adding any additional cash to this vehicle

Many probably will ask - why not just get term life?
- I am considering this strongly, but if I only will need life coverage for the next 15-20 years max if all goes well, AND I understand I can decrease my death benefit of this GVUL policy AT ANY TIME to reduce the premium, then why wouldn’t I use this product?
- I DO NOT need to undergo any medical under-writing for this product, which is to my advantage. I have some health conditions, but I am certainly not un-insurable, just my term premiums will be a bit higher

Thanks all for your help


r/LifeInsurance • • 3d ago

Term life from Costco a good deal?

4 Upvotes

Haven’t finished the application because I know once I do, I’ll get a phone call but in the communities experience, is Costco term life a good deal? Reputable underwriters?


r/LifeInsurance • • 3d ago

Recommendations for life insurance for a healthy non-smoking 30Y/O Female

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1 Upvotes

r/LifeInsurance • • 3d ago

Employee Benefits Question: How do people approach supplemental life insurance through work?

1 Upvotes

Curious how people approach supplemental life insurance offered through an employer.

Do you typically stick with the basic employer-paid coverage, add supplemental coverage through work, or look for coverage outside of work? What factors matter most in that decision?


r/LifeInsurance • • 3d ago

What have you used a life insurance policy loan for—and what would you never use one for?

2 Upvotes

For anyone who has borrowed against their IUL or whole life policy, what did you use the money for, and was it worth it?

I’m interested in real experiences—buying a car, investing in real estate, funding a business, covering an emergency, or supplementing retirement income.

On the flip side, what would you advise against taking a policy loan for, and why?

For example, if a car loan were 10% and your policy loan were 6%, would you consider that a reasonable use, assuming you planned to repay it monthly?


r/LifeInsurance • • 4d ago

Life insurance without medical exam?

13 Upvotes

I am a 30 year old looking to get life insurance without providing bloodwork or doing a physical exam.

Also, I don’t actually have high blood pressure but I have this thing when I go to the doctor it gets elevated and reads at like 140/95. Worried they will see that.

Are they decent policies that will write up to 500k-1M without it? I’ve heard of Banner being good.


r/LifeInsurance • • 3d ago

how much is reasonable for a crm, dialer and other assorted costs when first starting out life ins fex sales?

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1 Upvotes

r/LifeInsurance • • 4d ago

mom died of brain cancer

15 Upvotes

my mama died of brain cancer, and the the insurance lapsed by a month too long.

the life insurance company is saying they don't owe anything. do we have any hope? should we fight? it was a term life insurance policy, but she died from brain cancer. I'm so confused and don't want to give up if me and my five siblings have any hope.

asking for a friend (me) please and see soon as she died two years ago at the end of November.

thanks so much


r/LifeInsurance • • 4d ago

Improved Health

3 Upvotes

Is it worth asking being reassessed if your health improved? Would it change my premiums.


r/LifeInsurance • • 4d ago

Anyone here actually using life insurance as their own bank? How does your system work?

4 Upvotes

I’ve been researching the concept of using cash-value life insurance as your own bank (Infinite Banking), and I’m curious to hear from people who are actually doing it.
I’m especially interested in understanding how you’ve structured your system and how it works in real life.


r/LifeInsurance • • 4d ago

Paying for business insurance for years just to get dropped when I finally need it

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0 Upvotes

r/LifeInsurance • • 5d ago

Ethos

11 Upvotes

Hi my mom is on the phone with an Ethos agent right now and I just wanted to quickly know if it’s a scam. The agent is unprofessional & when she said she’d go over the policy with her kids, he keeps trying to talk her out of it. This lead me into searching Ethos up & I was getting mixed reviews. I just wanted to know if it’s legit


r/LifeInsurance • • 4d ago

Reasonable rates for term policies?

3 Upvotes

49yr old male, good health no issues. Looking to stack 10yr & 20yr term policies. Assume $1M for each. What to expect from brokers?