Best Life Insurance Companies in the US
so you have decided that you want to purchase a life insurance policy but still wrapping your head around the commonly used terms conditions and which insurance company would be the most suitable for your needs a decent life insurance policy may one day be essential for your familyâs financial stability to stick around and I will help you make up your mind and provide you with an overview of different life insurance plans and the best life insurance companies in us.
first things first a life insurance policy is a binding contract between an insurance company and a policyholder where the policyholder pays regular premiums in exchange for the insurance company paying a death benefit to the planâs beneficiaries the beneficiaries are the recipients of the death benefit if the insured person dies.
the life insurance policy you purchase may be sufficient to replace your previous income and cover other costs your family members may face such as funeral expenses college tuition fees and even taking care of an old family member through adding riders to the policy so riders are provisions that offer additional benefits in exchange for additional cost writers enable.
the customization of the life insurance policy in a way that is most suitable to the policyholder and sustaining the future of their families before we get into the best life insurance companies in us let me help you with your homework and pin down some key terms that you must know before going forward with your plan to purchase a life insurance policy in the u.s.
whole life insurance which is sometimes referred to as straight life or ordinary life insurance is a policy that covers the policyholders entire lifetime in exchange for the payment of premiums these premiums are typically paid up to a maturity date which is when the paid amount matches the death benefit of the policy whole life insurance requires consistent premium payments and guarantees cash value accumulation.
the cash value accumulation is the sum of the initial investment and interest earned to date which you would obtain if you decided to give up the policy to the insurer or you decided to forfeit your coverage the cash value is distinct from the death benefit in a way that your beneficiaries would not receive the cash value if you died another type of life insurance is the universal life insurance policy.
which differs from the whole life insurance in terms of premium payment flexibility universal life insurance typically provides higher flexibility when it comes to premiums and death benefits in a way that can be tailored to the particular needs of the insured party first letâs start with the universal life insurance comes in a lot of different flavors.
where the policyholder would pay a cost of insurance in exchange for what is known as a death benefit in the beginning the policyholder pays a premium which is compared to the annual cost insurance and the difference between both is deposited in a side account these side account funds may cover the rising cost of insurance as it rises with the aging of the policyholder.
it is typically desirable to work closely with an advisory team to check the performance of such policy and its alignment with the policyholderâs requirement another type is index universal life which allows the policyholder to allocate funds to an equity index account such as Nasdaq or SMP to a restricted amount.
the huge advantage of the indexed universal life is its capacity to exploit compound interest and generate a large amount of non-taxable cash within the policy cash that can be later accessed to fund a well-planned retirement another type is variable universal life insurance policy it allows the holder to invest their premiums in one or multiple accounts with various investment options including stocks mutual funds bond and many more investment venues.
the amount and method of investment are dependent on the policyholders risk tolerance and investment objectives to determine the amount of risk to be undertaken now term life insurance plans are inexpensive when compared to other options since it has no cash value until the policyholder passes away term life insurance provides coverage within an established term only unlike the other options that provide insurance over.
the whole life of the policyholder but it is worth noting that the premiums will possibly go through the roof when the term life insurance lapses and you want to commit to a new policy when deciding on which company you would like to get a life insurance policy from looking into the historical reputation and financial stability are of utmost importance some companies even help you make an educated and well-informed decision by providing one-on-one support resources and even calculators.
some companies such as prudential financial even provide an online quote for up to 250 000 now letâs dive in and take a look at the top life insurance companies in us first letâs start with prudential financial this company has been providing people with insurance for more than 140 years as of this date this reflects the companyâs trustworthiness.
they provide term life insurance policy coverage universal life insurance policy index global life insurance coverage and variable global life insurance policy you could also add writers to your plans that include any unexpected survivor benefit a living leads benefit as well as childrenâs protection writer the company has outstanding financial stability.
when it comes to the ratings of am best and also standard and poor this helps the insurance holder to have some peace of mind in a way that the company wonât rip them off as mentioned previously prudential provides you with online term life insurance quotes for up to 250 000 when compared to other top life insurance providers prudential can satisfy the biggest range of needs.
when it comes to peopleâs requesting life insurance in us talking about old and well-established companies state farm is another outstanding insurance company with a proven success it was established in 1922 by a retired farmer and has grown from its humble beginning to a highly reputed fortune 500.
that offers a wide range of insurance products it is financially robust as it secured the highest possible rating from am best they offer term life insurance coverage whole life insurance and universal life insurance like prudential financial state farm also provides potential customers with free online quotes for various insurance plans including permanent life policies by answering some questions you can even extend term life insurance online without the need for a medical exam and from the convenience of your home.
another amazing contender for our overview is new york life which has been in business for a whopping 175 years if this is not proof of their outstanding reliability we donât know what is similar to the other top tier life insurance companies new york life has a very strong rating from am best and standard import they offer several insurance products such as term life insurance.
whole life universal life and variable universal life policies one of the best services provided by new york life is the ability of the policyholder to convert the term policy to a whole life policy later in addition to providing a wide array of customizable add-ons that may be valuable for the policyholders nonetheless newer clock does not provide you with the convenience of generating an online quote and instead,
you would fully in your contact information and a financial advisor would get in touch there are many other great insurance companies in the u.s including Transamerica northwestern mutual of Omaha and us double a that provides terrific services and can provide you with even more resources about life insurance and financial planning.
What Types Of Life Insurance Policies Are The Best?
Welcome back in this episode we are going to address the question of what types of life insurance policies are the best weâre going to go through different types of terms permanent whole life universal life and Iâm going to show you how you can more or less by term and invest the difference on steroids.
which is my favorite way to go but I want you to understand the power behind accumulating your money tax-free accessing it tax-free and then when you ultimately pass away it blossoms and transfers tax-free how to use life insurance for living benefits more than just for the death benefit my name is Doug Andrew and I started in the financial services industry clear back in 1974 and I was a big buy term and invest the difference proponent from 1974 to 1980.
I helped thousands of people in fact over 3,000 people in 13 western states learn how to set aside money in a term insurance policy and automatically invest the difference because the biggest problem with buy term and invest the difference is getting people to invest the difference in a safe environment that passes liquidity safety and rate of return test a lot of people donât even invest the difference.
so why did you do all of that well as I would go out and show people the math behind it I could outperform at that time traditional whole life insurance because there was only a term or whole life insurance clear back in the 1970s it was in 1980 when EF Hutton changed all of that and they basically said why donât we buy term and invest the difference under a tax-free umbrella.
now some people still donât understand how this works but they realized that life insurance policies were sort of a sacred cow in the in the Internal Revenue Code allowing that any money that you put into the insurance policy that accumulated cash value would grow with interest or dividends tax-free because why would they penalize somebody trying to protect their family be responsible that if I happen to die and leave my wife with our six children.
why would they want to make it harder to create financial independence if I happen to die so Iâm insuring myself to make sure that if there was an economic loss incurred by me passing away sooner than later what we call an untimely death that my wife would have the wherewithal to continue to educate my children have music lessons.
I try out for football things like that well thatâs why they allowed money inside a miniature policy to grow tax-free well also there is a way that you can access that money tax-free and thatâs under Section 7702 of the Internal Revenue Code and when you ultimately do die it blossoms in value okay the premiums you paid usually increase and you leave behind a hundred thousand a half a million ten million.
whatever insurance you purchased and thatâs totally tax-free because they want to take pressure off of the government not to have to use welfare programs to take care of widows and orphans and so forth and thatâs why itâs a sacred cow itâs been that way for over a hundred years under Section 101 an of the Internal Revenue Code.
so you have term insurance and that is where youâre just paying the pure cost of your chance of dying in any given year and thatâs based upon mortality costs for example when I first started there were four thirty-year-olds in the country 2.13 deaths per thousand well for every thousand of life insurance the cost would be two dollars and thirteen cents.
so if you have a thousand thirty-year-olds we all put two dollars and thirteen cents into a hat and when 2.1 three of us died at age thirty that year there is a thousand dollar death benefit for two point three one three widows okay thatâs the pure term insurance now itâs a little bit more complicated than that but sometimes people didnât want to have to pay higher rates because term insurance goes up every year.
because more people died at age thirty-one thirty-two and when you get up to age sixty sixty-five by eight sixty-five one third of American males have already passed away so the cost of insurance goes up well thatâs where they came out with permanent insurance where instead of paying the pure cost there is a term component in permanent insurance.
but instead of paying the pure cost your way overpaying the actual cost of insurance in the younger years but later thereâs a crossover point and then you are underpaid in the later years because youâve built up equity or what is called cash value in the permanent life insurance policy the problem was up until 1980.
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that cash value is only being credited with maybe two and a half three and a half percent some companies touted dividends in the six seven and eight percent range now a dividend was tax-free because itâs really just a refund of overcharged according to the IRS if the insurance company is charging you this and your chance of dying was only that that overcharge building up that cushion for.
when youâre older and you donât want to pay higher premiums that were growing tax-free and so if you had a dividend or the insurance company was operating more profitably by not just insuring anybody on the street they required physical exams and so forth that profit would be refunded back or you could use it to buy paid-up insurance or whatever and that was tax-free but it was really just a refund of overcharged and so that was a refund that was tax-free well thatâs all there was in 1980.
EF Hutton came out with the idea hmm why donât we use life insurance for the tax-free accumulation of money more for living benefits instead of death benefits people want to use this to accumulate their money tax-free be able to access income tax-free and then when they ultimately die yeah itâll blossom in value and transfer-tax-free but you know what instead of trying to get this much insurance for the least premium letâs flip it letâs try to get the least amount of insurance.
the IRS will let us get away with and put in the most money and it turns into a cash cow and this is where I have earned average rates of return after the cost of insurance of seven eight nine ten percent average some years Iâve earned twenty-five and netted twenty-four so the cost of the insurance is what the IRS requires for it to be classified as tax-free insurance in the Internal Revenue Code.
if you violate those sections of the code is no longer tax-free it becomes a taxable investment so when EF Hutton came out with this they called it Universal Life because you could use it for universal applications if you wanted to use it for a cheap way to buy permanence and the economyâs doing well you could do it but on the other end of the spectrum.
if you wanted a maximum fund for living tax-free income benefits you could take the least amount of insurance and put in the most premium and it turns into cash that knocks the socks off of putting money in a tax-deferred IRA or 401k in the market so there are three types of universal life I like universal life because itâs more flexible.
I can put in money and then I can skip several years and Costa not out of dime you canât do that with whole life but in any given period especially at the end of the day, Iâve usually been able to earn at least two percent higher rates of return in universal life than whole life because Iâm able to structure it under IRS guidelines to perform better with an internal rate of return, in other words, some of the best whole life insurance policies out there.
if they werenât going to credit you as much as eight percent youâre only netting six percent and it takes you until your age 90 to realize an internal rate of return within two percent of the growth rate of return I can earn nine and net eight I can net eight which is what most whole life policies at best gross.
so I would rather have the universal life but I can put in money to stop Coast make up for the lost time or do whatever I want we donât have that kind of flexibility in whole life because whole life was primarily designed for the death benefit Universal Life was originally designed for living benefits so look at the three types Iâm going to explain right now back in 1980.
when EF Hutton came out with this idea it was called maximum funded tax-advantaged life insurance contracts and whole life they tried to respond and they became more competitive and instead of earning rates of return of three and a half or four percent they became more competitive with their products but still, the flexibility isnât there and I can usually earn a rate of return of two or three percent higher with the same amount of money in universal life and I can fund it in four years in one day.
most whole life takes at least seven years or seven pay to do that because there were tax citations passed in 1982 1984 and 1988 they spelled the acronyms tephra Defra and Tamra and they allow a universal life policy because of the greater flexibility to be funded quicker and allow you to get an internal rate of return so Iâm partial to Universal Life because of those reasons and there are three types of universal life.
when EF Hutton first came out with this idea it was fixed and thatâs where the insurance company is just paying you interest-based upon their fixed general account portfolio of triple-a and double-a bonds maybe a few mortgages on shopping malls and skyscrapers maybe 15% of the money that an insurance company manages.
which is in the billions might be on that if they were to put money into stocks theyâd have to use very very secure stocks most insurance companies only put about 5% of their general account portfolio in that and so generally speaking the fixed gives you whatever theyâre earning and then indexed is my favorite but in the 1990s variable came out now I prefer the indexed one but that didnât come around till 1997.
hereâs why I prefer it fixed and theyâll guarantee you like maybe three percent so thatâs the lowest you will earn but see I have usually on mine earned no less than four even though the guarantee is three but things could get bad enough thatâs it but since the year 2000, Iâve only averaged about six point three percent.
if I just say just pay me what interest youâre earning minus about one percent for your cost and so forth but to see the highest I earned was back in 1980 to 1990 was about thirteen and three-quarters percent on this one and this is with a large company but see over 25 years Iâve probably averaged about seven point five two so thatâs okay tax-free well variable came out of the nine you said hey.
why donât we get money out in the market and letâs assign the money in our insurance policy to the market out there and with mutual funds well you just took away the guarantee and so there are periods where people have lost 50 percent of the value in their insurance and so they had to hurry and pay more money in there since the year 2000 sometimes this has been as low as 1.8 1% pretty pathetic there are been times that people have earned as high as 35 but the average is about nine point one four thatâs not bad.
now youâre not netting 9.14 on a variable because theyâre management in ten see maybe only knitting 7 the reason why I like indexing is that 0 is the floor I will not lose during a year that the market goes down during the downturns during crashes I donât lose 0 is the hero so to speak when the market goes up I participate and Iâve earned as high as 39 points to 2 percent since 2000.
Iâve averaged eight point four seven percent and thatâs not with the second strategy I teach rebalancing but look at this the twenty-five-year average has been ten-point oh seven you notice thatâs about two and a half percent higher than fixed and so I know that in any 10 year period my chances of earning two and a half percent higher tax-free rate of return than fixed is very very likely based upon 25 years of history.
so this is my favorite some years if I feel like weâre headed for a major recession or a terrorist attack happens I can just switch back on indexed policies and just settle for the general account portfolio rate until the market turns around and then I can switch back thatâs called rebalancing and this is where people can tweak their rate of return even higher than 10 percent or use multipliers or performance factors.
so those are the three types of universal life I prefer indexed but it must be structured correctly and funded properly in order for it to knock the socks off of the same amount of money being deposited into a tax-deferred IRA or 401k and people say how can that be thereâs fees with this no the insurance cost is a minuscule portion thatâs being paid for with what most people will pay out in income tax sooner or later on.
other types of investments I hoped that helped to understand the difference between term and permanent insurance whole life insurance the variable the index and the fixed you can tell my favorite is an index to universal life but itâs critical that itâs structured properly and funded correctly thatâs what motivated us to write our 11th book.
I call my Max Bennett insurance contract the laser fund because it passes the liquidity safety and rate of return tests with flying colors when itâs structured right so in this book we talk about how to tell if one that an advisor is proposing to you is structured correctly and youâll tell real quick if they understand and get it in fact people who read this book know more than probably 99% of insurance agents or financial planners out there.
I would love you to have a free copy you can go to laser fun.com and youâll have a chance Iâll send it to you absolutely free itâs 300 pages of information and you just pay a nominal shipping and handling fee and youâll also have some options if you want the audio version of the digital or some mini-classes.
but the first thing I want is for you to have a copy of this if this resonated with you and you want to dive deeper and understand golly how does this work and what are the historical rates of return even and different than what Iâve shown you here this is about you and your future not about me Iâve already done all this itâs from me learning the hard way that I want you to avoid the mistakes I made and youâll be way ahead of where I am and Iâm not in too bad a shape because of these strategies I want you to be in better shape.
How To Compare Life Insurance Companies
Using the wrong company or wrong product is bad. But an agent not proficient, worse. In this episode, Iâm going to address the question that Iâve been asked numerous times ââHow to compare insurance companies?â And as I show you ways that you can do this, itâs not so much the insurance company or product even though itâs very, very important.
Itâs the proficiency of the agent that is designing the insurance policy based upon your objectives. So, Iâm Doug Andrew. Iâm here in my radio studio. I have produced a weekly radio show broadcast nationally now for 12 years. And prior to that, I began writing books at the turn of the century. And Iâve written 11 books so far. We were so blessed in 2007.
That book was the 4th one I wrote. It was written to an audience of 78 million baby boomers in this country that weâre going to outlive their money if they kept their money in the market because many baby boomers saw their nest eggs dwindle in value by 40% after 9/11. 2001 to 2003. None of our clients lost anything.
They actually doubled their money from 2000 to 2007. And then in 2008 as Warren Buffet would put it when the tide went out, he said it revealed whoâs swimming naked. A lot of people lost 40% again for the second time in the decade. And it took until 2012 to make back what they lost. Many of our clients tripled their money by 2012.
A million in the year 2000 without adding a dime to it had tripled to 3 million where most Americans were barely back to break even. It was more of the function of how we designed and structured their insurance policies rather than the company. Having said that, Iâm going to share it with you. Iâm very, very picky about which insurance companies Iâve put my money in.
So, let me share with you the criteria I use to choose the right company, the right product but itâs really most importantly the way itâs designed correctly and funded properly. And Iâm going to give you some horror stories to understand this. So, when I broadcast my weekly radio show here, Iâm usually limited to about 12-minute segments where I can explain everything and thatâs all I have here.
But I want you to click on the link below and Iâm going to gift you a free copy of my most recent best-selling book, The Laser Fund. It has over 300 pages of graphs and explanations. 62 actual clientsâ stories. Iâll pay for the book. It retails for 20 bucks. Iâll buy the book. You contribute $5.95 towards the shipping and handling and Iâll send out a copy of the book to you for free and you can learn more.
But let me share with you why and how you can compare insurance companiesâ products. And then how to fund it correctly. So, when Iâm looking for an insurance company, I want to make sure the company is strong and so you want to make sure they have high ratings. What I do is look at the various ratings that an insurance company has.
Such as the Standard & Poorâs rating or Moodyâs or Duff & Phelps, Weiss, the Comdex scores. So, if thatâs confusing, I like the Comdex score. And that simply takes all of the ratings and assigns a company a score between one and 100. I usually put my serious cash into insurance companies ranked 90 or higher on the Comdex score.
This means that 90% of insurance companies are rated less, strong, or whatever than the one I choose. And so, Iâm in the top 10%. Now, frankly I only put my money into legal reserve insurance companies. Thatâs the vast bulk of companies. That means insurance companies that have to have reserves on hand that are liquid and safe in case of a disaster in the economy or a run on the bank.
And so, thatâs why insurance companies, legally reserved insurance companies have not honored a legitimate claim. They cross insure each other if one were to become insolvent, all the other insurance companies license in the state where you live have to any up there prorate of share of the percent of the insurance.
And thatâs why thereâs never been an insurance company not honor a legitimate claim. They cross insure each other whereas banks, credit unions, pay a premium to the federal government for FDIC. Federal deposit insurance corporation. And there have been times FDIC has been broke. When weâve had a run on the banks. But you know, government, they know they can tax us.
They know they can print money. And so people are fairly secure. But do you know where banks, credit unions, many brokerage firms put 30 to 40 percent of their tier 1 assets for liquidity and safety? In to insurance companies, okay? Many banks borrow our money and pay us 1% interest? And they turn around and they put it into insurance companies and earn 5%.
Every million they pay 10,000 a year in interest. And they make 50,000. Thatâs 5 times. Thatâs 500% returns. You can do that. But see, most insurance companies are ranked 6 notches higher in safety than the banks in credit unions. Many of them are only rated triple B. Most insurance companies where I put my money are rated triple-A.
Thatâs like 6 notches higher in safety. So, you can choose companies based on those rankings. And so, out of all the companies and theyâre several thousand in America, there are only a couple of hundred that offer indexed universal life. And out of all of those, I only put my money in maybe 6 because Iâm extremely picky about where I put my money.
I want it to go into an insurance company where they are benefiting the policyholders more than their pocket. They are extremely generous in the rates of return. They keep a very small portion of the profits for them. If theyâre out there earning as I did in the 1980âs they were earning 11 and paying me 10. They were earning 15 and paying me 14.
See, they were only using 1 of the percentage points for them. And lately with interest rates at a 50-year low, if Iâm earning 6 percent in the insurance policy, they only use one of those percentage points still. And I net 5. But I can link it to an index and theyâre able to credit me more like 8, 9, 10 percent some years as high as 25% and itâs tax-free.
So, itâs how you structure it. But only about half of a dozen companies do I really like the product. So, you choose the right company based on strength and so forth. And make sure theyâre generous. Number 2, you want to choose the right product. But let me tell you the horror story. Iâve had people who came to me and they said, âDoug, we read one of your books 10 years ago.
So, we wanted to set up an index universal life policy. But we have a nephewâ or âWe have a brother in law who is licensed. And so, we went to them and they said, Oh, I can do that. And then we heard you on the radio say, well, itâs been another 7 years. If you put a half-million into your index universal life, that half a million should be worth a million now 7 years later.
Shouldâve doubled. Doug, ours didnât double. We put in half a million and itâs only worth 250,000. It shouldâve been worth a million. Whereâs the other 750,000?â And I go, âWell, let me see.â And I sit down and I flip it. It takes me about 30 seconds. And I look at their policy and I go, âYeah. You used the company, one of the companies I use.
In fact, you used the right product. But who set this up?â And they go, âUhm, our nephew. He had a license.â I go, âOh my heavens. He had no clue what he was doing. You may have been earning a gross of 10% but youâre only netted 1% and that was gobbling up⊠The cost of insurance was gobbling it up. He had no clue or she had no clue what they were doing.â
That was an expensive relationship with your nephew just because they had a license. So, I have the vast majority of people that have non-performing index universal life insurance policies or any kind of insurance. Itâs because the advisor is not proficient for the reason. To separate the sheep from the goats back in 2007 and 2008, I designed a proficiency exam.
Itâs a 100 question exam and 30 additional questions essay. To be honest with you, most insurance agents, most advisors that you see on TV or so forth, wouldnât even score 30 percent on this exam because theyâre not taught these things. They wouldnât even understand the questions about Tefra, Defra, Tamra. I can stump them in less than 60 seconds with my questions.
And so, if youâve never been taught, how can you answer a question that you donât even understand? Now isnât that something? And so, one of the things that Iâve done in my most recent book is I have a chapter in here that has 14 questions that you should ask a financial advisor, an insurance agent. And if they canât answer these 14 questions right off the cuff without having to say, âI donât know but Iâll check it out.â
If they say that, thatâs a warning sign. So, you want to make sure the advisor is proficient. That they set it up so that if you earn 10, youâll net 9. If you earn 11, youâll net 10. So that the cost of insurance is as low as possible. And that if you put in 100,000 a 500,000, a million, it will double every 7 to 10 years. And when you retire, every million can generate 70, 80, 90, 100 thousand a year of tax-free income.
If itâs not designed correctly, good luck. You may earn 10% but youâll only net 3 or 4 percent. Maybe at best. My heavens, thatâs huge. And so, when people say, âHow do I compare life insurance companies, I can show you how to compare companies based on strength of and everything else. But I can have you choose the right company.
You can even choose the right product. But if your advisor doesnât know what theyâre doing, youâre doomed, okay? It will not perform. So, make sure you donât make that mistake. You can see if the advisor is proficient and is designed correctly. We can look at that and tell you. We can audit your insurance policy to see if it was designed right.
But I would recommend you read the book. So, go to laserfund.com and claim your free copy. This is a 300-paged book. It retails for $20. Now, I will gift you 1 copy absolutely free. To claim your free copy, you contribute $5.95 toward the shipping and handling. It cost usually a little bit more than that. And I will send out a copy of the book for free.
Iâll buy the book, you contribute $5.95 toward the shipping and handling. It has 300 pages of charts, graphs, explanations, and actually 62 actual client stories. There is usually one story for every chapter of how it didnât work. And almost every time. Itâs because it wasnât set up correctly by the advisor. So, donât make that mistake.
Learn, get your free copy of the book. See how you can choose the right company, the right product. But most importantly determine if the advisor knows what theyâre doing. If they donât we can point you to an advisor who I am confident knows what theyâre doing.
How Much is Life Insurance and How Much Do I Need?
a recent survey found that the average American overestimated the cost of life insurance by over 300% and nearly half of Millennials thought premiums were 500 percent more than they really were how much does life insurance cost and how much do you really need weâre talking life insurance questions today on.
letâs talk money beat day come on make your money work free in the financial future you deserve talk money so how much is life insurance and how much do you really need now these are two of the most frequent questions I got after our last Article covering insurance misconceptions that question about.
how much does life insurance cost was a big one with a study from in the insurance industry finding that people on average think policy costs are three times more than they actually are forty four percent of Millennials overestimated the cost of insurance by five fold five times more than it actually costs in fact a 2015 study showed people estimated the premium for a healthy thirty year old individual between four hundred to a thousand dollars a year.
actual cost closer to thirteen dollars a month I was as surprised as you were in our last article about those misconceptions and the facts about insurance I didnât even think about life insurance until my mid-30s but when I did these were the two biggest questions that I had how much is it and how much do I really need now thatâs why Iâm teaming up with quota see the countryâs leading broker for buying life insurance online to get those answers those real answers to your questions over these.
weâll be looking at exactly how much life insurance you need how much it costs and how to get the lowest premiums by shopping your life insurance policy online quotas he has built out an online process that really takes the guesswork out of insurance the application takes less than five minutes and then gets shopped around over 20 carriers for that best policy in fact youâll be able to get estimates on your premium in seconds with their pre application process.
the team at quotas who works on salary instead of Commission so itâs there to find you the best policy not the one with the fattest kickbacks so Iâll cover more about quota C later but I want to get to those two big questions first I want to look at how much itâs actually cost because honestly I think this is really surprising Iâm gonna use quota Câs pre-application estimator to find a high and a low rate for males and females.
at every decade of life the estimator takes all of 30 seconds to use you know youâll first put in how much coverage you want and then the term then some basic health information like height weight and whether you smoke whether youâre on medication for blood pressure or cholesterol and any history of cancer or heart disease in your family the resource is then going to check on some of those largest carriers.
to estimate your premium so to build out this chart on how much life insurance costs for each decade I went through the estimator 16 times each time I looked at a good health and poor health scenario for each decade and then for males and females separately for the good health scenario I assumed a nonsmoker and no health issues or family history for our poor health scenario.
I assumed a daily smoker on medications for both both blood pressure and cholesterol and a history of heart disease so yeah this was a one unlucky sucker for our poor health scenario for our policy I chose a three hundred thousand and covers on a 15-year term life policy now one thing I do want to point out besides the fact that these are estimates and your rate might be different is that.
the rates we see in each decade is if youâre getting a new policy at that point now this is important and something we talked about the rate on a term life policy stays the same throughout that term so if you get a quote for a 15-year policy that that monthly amount stays the same for those 15 years now if you get a 25-year policy the rate stays for that same period as well.
so here I am in the estimator and Iâm gonna spare you the full seven minutes it took to find 16 life insurance quotes which actually isnât too bad when you think about it thatâs literally less than half a minute to get an estimate on life insurance and you get to see multiple quotes from some of the largest carriers for each of our scenarios.
I used that same 15-year term life insurance policy for a three hundred thousand dollar coverage I went through the good health and the poor health scenarios for males and females and then note noted the lowest and the highest estimates in monthly premiums and here we are with the finished table showing how much a 15-year term life insurance policy might cost for that $300,000 in coverage.
now obviously we see the younger you are the less expensive it is to get insurance but there are a few really interesting things we want to see in this table first is that for the love of all that is take care of your health you canât change a family history of health problems and it might be tough if youâre already on some of these medications but stop smoking and get on an exercise program now.
I donât want all the smokers or anyone thatâs in less than perfect health out there to think that these are gonna be your monthly insurance premiums remember our poor health scenario for the high estimate was a daily smoker on multiple medications and had a family history of heart problems so so most likely youâre gonna be seeing better numbers than this.
in fact quota C specializes in that forty percent of the population that isnât in perfect health or has maybe some special insurance needs they have a team of brokers that can help you find that best carrier for the lowest rate no matter what your condition now the table also shows the benefit of getting insured early and locking in that lower premium for example we see in the chart that.
what it costs a forty five-year-old male is about twenty five dollars and forty one cents a month for that 15 year policy to protect their family until theyâre age sixty and I ran the estimate again on that same individual could have gotten a twenty five year term at age 35 so still protecting themselves till the age of sixty and locked in a rate of twenty dollars and seventy seven cents a month now what else do we see in the table well itâs good to be a girl with women saving from ten dollars to over a thousand a year versus males.
when it comes to buying an insurance really for both sexes though we see that life insurance really doesnât cost that much even for an old-timer like myself approaching mid-40s I can get a three hundred thousand dollar policy protecting my family until Iâm 64 less than a third of what it costs to eat out at a restaurant so now that we know about how much life insurance costs.
how much do you really need and we use that $300,000 policy as an example but how do you know if thatâs gonna be enough or not enough so first itâs important to understand the why youâre getting life insurance the things that you need to cover to better understand how much you might need then weâll talk about some basic rules for what kind of policy you need and some things that might mean you need more or less coverage.
so the top three reasons people give for buying life insurance are those final expenses so that average seven to ten thousand dollars in burial costs leaving something as an inherit and protecting their family from their lost income on top of this though you want to include savings and educational expenses as well so yeah your insurance policy needs to cover living expenses from your lost income.
but do you want your family just to squeak by or or wouldnât you rather be able to help them save a little and pay those college costs that you were planning on covering now the basic rule for insurance has always been about ten times your annual income so according to the u.s. census a median income of around $38,000 means we were just below on our example.
so maybe it should have been the three hundred and eighty thousand dollar policy but you know I hate these kinds of one-size-fits-all estimates it is so easy just to take a few minutes think through just a few questions to decide how much insurance you need now this means looking at your current salary and how much youâre able to save now.
if your salary is covering living expenses with savings despair maybe you donât need that ten times for a policy on the other hand if youâre barely scraping by now Iâm not able to save anything for retirement or education costs maybe you want a little bit more than that ten times your salary does your spouse work and do you want them to be able to do that.
if you lose you if they lose your income if so then you almost definitely need more than that simple ten times rule life insurance doesnât have to be a mystery and itâs not nearly as expensive as you might think whatâs really expensive is gambling on your familyâs future when protecting them is so easy to do quota C makes it easy to get your pre-application quote to see how affordable life insurance can be and then the team works with you to shop your policy around.
How Long Does It Take To Get Life Insurance Proceeds?
Your heirs can be millionaires about 3 weeks after you die. In this episode, Iâm going to address the question âHow long does it take to get insurance proceeds?â And so, put on your seatbelt. Youâre going to be blown away with some insights that you may have never had before. But get ready. I will answer that question and expand upon your opportunities.
So, my name is Doug Andrew and Iâve been a financial strategist and retirement planning specialist for more than 45 years. And so, Iâve helped many many people optimize their financial assets, minimize taxes and empower what I call their authentic wealth. And Iâve also held not only securities licenses and insurance licenses but Iâve helped a lot of people plan for their future by using life insurance instruments primarily for living benefits.
But many, many people pass away sometime sooner than later because the reality is nobodyâs going to get out of here alive. I mean out of this life, right? And so, when death occurs when you own life insurance, âHow long does it take to get the life insurance benefit, the proceeds, the death benefit after somebody passes away?â Or âHow long will it take my wife or my children?â
And so, the quick answer is usually about 3 weeks if thereâs no contestability going on. And if you file all the paperwork. So, Iâm going to share with you some ideas why many, many people use life insurance to actually endow their children, their spouse, or a charity with millions of dollars of tax-free proceeds. And my own family, my children, theyâll be endowed with millions within about three weeks after I die.
So, when people say, âWell, Doug. What do you mean by thereâs the dumb way, smart way, and sad way to access money out of a life insurance policy?â Well, I say, âWell, the sad way is obvious. Itâs one heck of a return but I wouldnât recommend it.â But I sometimes tease my wife and say, âHoneyâŠâ When she sees me going away to Alaska fishing and she maybe is afraid that a grizzly bear is going to attack me and eat me or something.
I go, âHoney, do me a favor. When I die, if I get eaten by a grizzly bear, would you promise me to sort of look down and look sad at my funeral?â She rolls her eyes. I said, âBecause youâre gonna be loaded with cash in about 3 weeks.â So, let me explain the process to file a death claim. And Iâm going to give you a couple of other insights on why you may use more of your insurance capacity.
So, when a death occurs, if you are the one claiming the life insurance death benefit, you need to fill out a claim form. And so, youâre going to need a lot of information about the deceased social security numbers and what have you. And when you send in the claim form, you need to accompany that with a certified death certificate.
And so, I often recommend to families because Iâve been there many many times when they passed away or a few hours after or a day or 2. âHey, this is your most inexpensive time to order death certificates.â Because a lot of people say, âOh, I only need 2 or 3 of them.â No. I say, âGet get a dozen at least.
You will be shocked how many times you have to give a bank or a financial institution or somebody a certified copy and itâs more expensive to order them later from the state or the county wherever youâre getting the death certificate.â So, get a couple of dozen copies if you really have a lot of claims and accounts that youâre going to go and prove that you need to take over and change the ownership of this account at the institution.
So, you send in that certified death certificate and you need to surrender or give them the insurance policy. Now, a lot of people canât locate it. No problem. You fill out one-paged affidavit thatâs the policy has been lost or destroyed and you can put that in. Now, I recommend also if you have an obituary that you put in a copy of the obituary and so forth.
Now, if everythingâs in order once they have that it usually only takes 2 or 3 weeks to pay the death claim. And they may give you a check if you ask for it in one lump sum or sometimes people ask for it to be left with the insurance company earning interest. Because did you know the insurance company will usually pay you interest on the death benefit.
If it was a million bucks, theyâll be paying you interest on a million from the date of death. Until they give you the money or a checkbook where you can write out checks uh with a million-dollar bank account so to speak. So, they will credit you interest and then they will settle that with you in usually 2 or 3 weeks unless the policy was taken out in less than 2 years before.
Because most insurance companies have a two-year contestability clause where they could contest if you lied on the application about your health or something like that. Or for example, I had a client one time that he took out a sizable insurance policy. And when I was filling out the application, he was sort of coughing and says, âGolly, Iâve got this nasty cough it wonât go away.â
Well, the policy was approved. And the next day, he was diagnosed in fourth stage of Hodgkinâs disease cancer. Now, he lived about 13 months but it was within that two-year period. And they could not believe, the underwriters, the insurance company that he didnât know he had a terminal illness when he applied for the life insurance. So, they can contest it.
But they asked for all the doctorâs records and everything and they realized, âGolly, he didnât know.â And so, they promptly paid the life insurance death benefit. So, thatâs called the contestability period. After that period expires, no they canât contest it even if you lied. If you mistaked your age or something like that, they may adjust the amount or deduct the premium you should have been paying.
But pretty much, itâs over. In fact, usually suicide clauses expire within 1 to 2 years that even if somebody takes their own life, the life insurance will pay after that expires.
Now, let me give you a few insights. Did you know that life insurance is one of the very few financial instruments that when a death benefit is paid out, I donât care if itâs 10 thousand 100 thousand, a million, 10 million, I have delivered many many life insurance death benefits to widows, widowers, families, children, charities, boy scouts of America, whoever they named as the beneficiary. Hereâs 2 big benefits of life insurance proceeds: When they are paid out to the named beneficiary, they are totally income tax-free.
Now, in a family, it could cause the estate to go over maybe the estate tax limit. They could make the estate tax be doing payable on life insurance proceeds. But life insurance is always income tax-free that is protected under section 101 A of the internal revenue code. Itâs been a sacred cow for over 107 years of the recording of this episode, okay? Because you are providing the wherewithal to be self-reliant to your widow, the orphans that youâre leaving behind.
And so, the government realizes this is saving them money. Why would they tax something that would end up causing them to have to provide more welfare benefits or whatever? So, life insurance is tax-free. Hello? Well, not only that. The money, the cash value inside the insurance policy is tax-free, if you need it for living benefits, for retirement benefits.
When I structure a life insurance policy, I do the opposite of what most Americans do. Most Americans try to get at the most insurance for the least premium. No. I get the least amount of insurance the IRS will let me get away with and I put it the most premium that the IRS allows as fast as they allow and it turns into a tax-free cash cow.
So, this is where I accumulate my retirement and knocks the sox off of ira 401Ks. Iâve averaged between 7 to 10 percent tax-free rates of return. Every time I put in letâs say 100,000, the 100,000 doubles to 200. 200 doubles to 400 about every 7 to 10 years. If you do the math, that will knock the socks off of an IRA, 401K which is taxable at the end of the day.
So, let me give you a secret. When you take out life insurance, okay? If youâre taking it out on your life, youâre the insurance. You usually are the owner but you donât have to be. Thereâs a beneficiary. And when you take out life insurance, you must prove to the insurance company underwriter that the beneficiary youâre naming will suffer an economic loss by virtue of your death.
Okay? You just canât take out a bunch of life insurance for nothing to make somebody rich. You must prove that they will be dependent. They will suffer economically. Itâs called an insurable interest. Most people underutilize their insurance capacity. When I was 30 years old, my wife and I had 6 children. If I was making 100 grand a year, I can get insurance for up to 30 times my income.
No more, okay? So, I could have qualified for 3 million. That if I died, my wife would have 3 million dollars to have the kids get their music lessons and do things go to college that I would have provided had I stayed around. The older you are, when youâre 60, you maybe only can have 6 to 9 times your income or one times your net worth. Well, a lot of people say, âI donât need insurance anymore.
Because if I die, thereâs just my spouse and sheâs thereâs enough money.â I go, âQuit looking at what it is. Look at what it does.â So, for example, if I have several million dollars of capacity because of my net worth or my income, when I was 50 years old, I had a serious talk with my kids. I said, âKids, I have news for you. Your dad is not immortal.â
What? âSomeday Iâm going to die.â Now, if I have capacity, Iâm not using, kids I want you to buy a policy on me for 500,000 or a million. Do the math. A thousand bucks a month into a million-dollar life insurance policy on me, my kids, or me on my parents. Do you know Iâve owned life insurance on my father? I couldnât on my mother, she had heart attacks early in life. On my father-in-law, my mother-in-law.
Do the math. What that allows you to do, if a child put $1,000 a month into a million-dollar policy, it grows tax-free. They can use for retirement. But whenever I die, theyâre automatic millionaires in about 3 weeks. Reverse engineer the math. An IRA or 401K would have to be earning 12, 13, 14 percent for 30, 40 years to generate the same amount of money tax-free.
An IRA, 401K would have to have a million and a half in it to net people a million after paying tax. Think about it. Your kids could be millionaires in about three weeks after you pass away. So, as Iâve mentioned, Iâve been a financial strategist for more than 45 years. Iâve been very blessed to have written 11 books thus far. One became a new york times wall street journal number one bestseller.
My most recent bestselling book is in its sixth printing. I want to gift a copy of this to you free. Itâs called The Laser Fund. And it talks about what Iâve been sharing with you. How you can maximum fund an insurance contract for living benefits, tax-free or when you ultimately pass away. The Laser Fund stands for liquid assets safely earning returns. Itâs actually two books in one.
This white covered side is about 200 pages, 14 chapters of all kinds of charts graphs and explanations. If youâre more right brain, you flip the book over and you read this one. This one is 100 pages, 12 chapters with 62 chicken soup for the financial soul stories. So, if you want to use your whole brain, read both books. But I would love to gift you a copy.
Iâll pay for the book. Go to laserfund, (L-a-s-e-r) laserfund.com. You contribute a nominal amount towards the shipping and handling. Iâll cover the rest of that and Iâll cover the book, the cost of the book. I want to empower you with this knowledge and information that is so critical.
Life Insurance Scams 2020 [The Biggest Scam Of All]
the way nearly all life insurance contracts are sold is a total scam youâre going to learn what I call the one question test to determine if youâve been scammed with your life insurance and stick around till the end because I have a great resource youâre going to want to get your hands on that will help you look at life insurance like youâve never looked at it before and since there are a number of ways you can get scammed.
when it comes to your money youâre going to want so you can scam proof your bank account there is one simple question you need to ask yourself about your life insurance and the answer to that question determines if youâve been scammed or not hi Iâm best-selling personal finance author Tony Manganiello and since 1995 my business partner John communi and I have taught over 3 million people.
how to accumulate real wealth with their current income now accumulating wealth with your current income means youâre not getting scammed when it comes to purchasing things like life insurance and finding out if youâve been scammed into buying life insurance is real simple you just have to ask yourself one question are you ready for that one question here.
it is was the death benefit what you are thinking about when you bought your life insurance another way to look at this question is to ask were you thinking about how much your loved ones would get if you died if the answer to either of those questions is yes then I hate to say it youâve been scammed now what I mean when I say youâve been scammed is that you were allowed to make a buying decision.
while asking yourself the wrong question instead of focusing on what your family would get when you died you should have asked yourself this question what will this life insurance contract provide for me and my loved ones while Iâm alive the reason most people donât ask that question is because they think of life insurance as death insurance but a properly structured life insurance contract can do some pretty amazing things for you and your loved ones.
while youâre alive things like pay off your debt while building tax-free wealth pay for juniors college education purchase cars go on vacations a properly structured life insurance contract can help you build a stockpile of cash tax-free while protecting your family at the same time now there are five reasons why you probably ask yourself the wrong question.
when you bought your life insurance contract the first reason is because only certain types of companies can offer the type of contract that will allow you to do the things I just mentioned the contract has to be with the mutual life insurance a mutual life insurance company is not publicly traded so you canât buy stock in it meaning it doesnât have stockholders a mutual insurance company is a company owned by its policyholders.
the second reason you probably ask yourself the wrong question is because not all companies offer the right kind of contract that does the things we teach you to do with a life insurance contract the company has to offer a participating contract which means you as the policyholder slash shareholder participate in the profit of the company.
the third reason for that poorly worded life insurance question is because the company has to offer the type of contract that allows you to use the cash thatâs building up in your contract while it continues to earn you interest in dividends some companies actually penalize you for using those funds for things like paying off debt or paying for juniors college these types of contracts are called direct recognition contracts.
you donât want a contract like that you want the type of contract that allows you to use the cash your cash and still have that same cash earning you interest in dividends while youâre using it this is called a non direct recognition contract so direct recognition not good non direct recognition a okay but when the question you ask yourself.
when you buy life insurance is focused on what happens when you die you focus on that event and overlook the decades of life that will take place between now and then now be honest when you bought your life insurance contract were you focusing on what your family would get when you died let me know in the comments if you did donât be ashamed.
I mean most people do just think of that comment as your way of crying out for liberation from being focused in the wrong direction the fourth reason why you ask yourself the wrong question when you buy life insurance is because thatâs the way most insurance agents are taught to sell life insurance the emphasis is always on protecting the family in the event of the loss of the breadwinner.
now itâs not a bad thing but you really need to stop and think about this for a moment insurance companies are huge ginormous companies and they donât get that way paying bills family the half-million dollar death benefit he purchased for twenty seven dollars a month now that math simply doesnât add up and thereâs a good reason.
it doesnât insurance companies have scores of people called actuarial scientists and underwriters using things like mortality tables and a whole host of other data to make it almost mathematically impossible for them to lose money and when it comes to losing money isnât that what life insurance is all about I mean youâre trying to protect your family from the loss of money.
which is your income and the insurance company is protecting itself from losing money too but they have a huge team of people analyzing tons of data every way from Sunday to make sure they donât you well you have you and you have that noble and responsible attitude you should have however who do you think is right most of the time think about it.
if youâre offered a life insurance contract itâs because that huge team of people at the company youâre buying that contract from have already determined that statistics say youâre going to live a good long while I think youâd agree that you should consider betting with them just a little bit the fifth and final reason is perhaps the biggest reason you ask yourself the wrong question.
when you focus on how much your loved ones will get when you die the answer to that question is called the death benefit and the death benefit is where the big commissions get paid now Iâm not trying to put life insurance agents down you know theyâre nice people doing what theyâre trying to do but when you reword that question to focus on what the contract will do for you while youâre alive that means a properly structured contract takes the majority of your premium dollars and funnels them directly into the cash value of the policy.
now trust me this makes a huge difference and you being able to do the things I mentioned before like pay off debt and pay for college buy cars take vacations but most agents donât even know this is possible because theyâre not trained to reduce their commissions and thatâs exactly what happens when you funnel your premium dollars directly into the cash value of your policy.
if the agent doesnât know itâs possible how can they show you how to do it doesnât it just make sense that you modify that question you ask yourself when youâre buying life insurance just a little bit donât you think you should at the very least consider what youâll get from your life insurance while youâre alive.
if you answer yes to that question then you have to click the link below to get your hands on the ebook the banker secret the permanent family wealth written by my business partner John communi itâs the most complete resource on how to put a life into your life insurance it will show you how you can transform a life insurance contract into an efficient tax-free cash accumulation engine an engine that accumulates cash that you can use while youâre still alive now.
if you like this video please let me know by clicking the like button and while youâre at it it only makes sense that you subscribe to our channel so you can continue to discover smart ways that you can scam proof for your money and seriously I would love to hear from you let me know in the comments.
if youâre now willing to look at what life insurance can do for you while youâre still alive and if you have any questions about what we covered about any personal finance topic drop me a quick comment now life insurance premium payments can do so much more for you and your family than just answer the question.
what happens when I die they can truly improve all the life that the statistics say you will experience between now and then I know you deserve better and so do you you also deserve some more free scammed proofing education.
