Insurance Pro Blog

Buy Term and Invest the Difference Is Still Broken
Buy Term and Invest the Difference Is Still Broken

Buy term and invest the difference is an academic argument that suggests you should skip the “expensive” whole life insurance et. al. and instead by “cheap” term insurance.  You should do this because it will free up financial resources to then inves...

Posted: Mar 14, 2019

New York Issues Warning on Universal Life Insurance
New York Issues Warning on Universal Life Insurance

We've all seen articles chronicling the woes faced by policyholders who own universal life insurance.  The names change, but the theme tends to remain the same.  Joe insurance purchaser bought a universal life insurance policy years ago and recently...

Posted: Mar 07, 2019

Is it Better to Work with the Largest Life Insurers?
Is it Better to Work with the Largest Life Insurers?

Buying whole life insurance or universal life insurance as a cash accumulation tool or even because you want a permanent death benefit requires you to make a long term commitment to the life insurer.  Even buying term life insurance commits a rather...

Posted: Feb 28, 2019

Overfunded Life Insurance
Overfunded Life Insurance

Overfunded life insurance, what on earth is that?  I hear you cry out.  Perhaps you ran across the concept mentioned briefly somewhere on the internet.  Or maybe someone suggested that you buy an overfunded life insurance policy. If you're trying to...

Posted: Feb 21, 2019

Life Insurance Commission: A Great Evil According to the Internet
Life Insurance Commission: A Great Evil According to the Internet

Few subjects related to life insurance cause more hot-tempered debate than life insurance commission.  Some believe it's an evil incentive that encourages agents to push “expensive” products like whole life insurance to land a huge payday. Others loo...

Posted: Feb 14, 2019

Cutting Whole Life Insurance Expenses Means Cutting Whole Life Insurance Guarantees
Cutting Whole Life Insurance Expenses Means Cutting Whole Life Insurance Guarantees

In most interactions with prospective clients who are interested in exploring a whole life policy, there's often a conversation that arises about life insurance guarantees. Given that most of the general personal finance writing out there nearly alwa...

Posted: Jan 31, 2019

Reducing Whole Life Insurance Dividends When Running Illustrations
Reducing Whole Life Insurance Dividends When Running Illustrations

For years, insurance agents, companies, and purchasers have looked at hypothetical ledgers that delineate future policy values in an attempt to articulate policy functionality and understand how one policy's features come together and work compared t...

Posted: Jan 24, 2019

IPB 136: Leaving One Life Insurance Company for Another
IPB 136: Leaving One Life Insurance Company for Another

No one wants to quit or be forced to change the primary life insurance company that they are writing business with. Unfortunately, there are times when it is unavoidable…either because the company has changed a key product or because a company decide...

Posted: Jan 17, 2019

IPB 135: The Ohio National Variable Annuity Episode
IPB 135: The Ohio National Variable Annuity Episode

Ohio National officially closed its VA biz and cut trail commissions (fees?) owed to B/D’s and brokers on December 13th, 2018 for any VA sold with a guaranteed minimum income benefit. We don’t know exactly how many VA’s this is but assume that it’s a...

Posted: Jan 10, 2019

IPB 134: Holistic Financial Planning is Poised to Win Big
IPB 134: Holistic Financial Planning is Poised to Win Big

To kick off the new year, we are raising the white flag.  We have to concede a position we've long held because consumer sentiment appears to overwhelmingly head in the opposite direction.  For years, we've lampooned the notion of the “holistic” fina...

Posted: Jan 03, 2019