Category: 2013

American General’s new Guaranteed UL has very good rates

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October 18, 2013

4:53 PM

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2013, 55 year old, 55 years old, 56 year old, Age 55, Age 56, American General Life Insurance Company, lapse protection guarantee, lapse protection rider, lifetime guaranteed death benefit, lifetime no-lapse guarantee, No-lapse guarantee, universal life policies with secondary guarantees

Guaranteed Universal Life, GUL, for life insurance coverage is a great low cost alternative to Whole Life with fixed rates and coverage available to age 120 and beyond.

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Looking over quotes for a client in his early 50’s, I found American General’s new Guaranteed UL, called “AG Secure Lifetime GUL II” has very competitive low rates.   Doing my latest revisions this week on permanent life sample quotes for 54 years old, 55 years old and 56 years old, American General has the lowest rates for female preferred best for $500k, $1m and $2m, and for male at preferred best $500k.  That is not a complete survey, it does not include for example the preferred rate classification, or age rates for those in their 60’s and 70’s, but it is an indicator that American General is now very competitive for certain face amounts and rate classifications and should be part of any comparison for permanent life insurance, no-lapse guaranteed Universal Life.  This product also builds guaranteed cash value and has a option surrender the policy after 20 years and with a guarantee to receive back 50% of the premiums paid.

Lost Life Insurance Policy in California: Search, Find and Recover A Valid Claim

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June 24, 2013

3:50 PM

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2013, California, life insurance policy, lost life insurance policies

Detail California seal

The California Department of Insurance advises here how to go about locating a life insurance policy.

California has reached a settlement with 18 life insurance carriers on unpaid life insurance benefits   In a June 2013 press release of the settlement with 11 carriers the agreement provisions include:

Like previous settlements, the agreements announced today require the companies to do the following:

  • Restore the full value of all impacted accounts dating back to 1995;
  • Fully comply with California’s unclaimed property laws and cooperate with the Controller’s efforts to reunite these death benefits, annuity contracts and retained asset accounts with their owners or, in many cases, the owners’ heirs;
  • Pay the policy beneficiaries 3% compounded interest on the value of the held amounts from 1995, or from the date of the owner’s death, whichever is later.

Shadow Insurance Risk Warning

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June 19, 2013

5:03 PM

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2013, Consumer, Policy holder

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The superintendent of New York State’s Department of financial Services Benjamin M. Lawsky has issued a report “Shining a Light on Shadow Insurance”  describing practices derided as “financial alchemy”.

In a typical shadow insurance transaction, an insurance company creates a “captive” insurance subsidiary, which is essentially a shell company owned by the insurer’s parent. The company then “reinsures” a block of existing policy claims through the shell company — and diverts the reserves that it had previously set aside to pay policyholders to other purposes, since the reserve and collateral requirements for the captive shell company are typically lower. Sometimes the parent company even effectively pays a commission to itself from the shell company when the transaction is complete.

Some commentators to this report weren’t overly concerned about the practice. The financial crisis of 2008, the role of insurer AIG, the complicit enabling by the ratings agencies, the lack of accountability to the perpetrators, the absence of reform does not engender trust to insurance companies that paper over risk in opaque shells to boost quarterly profits. Policy holders have to rely on their life carrier’s ability to pay claims for a very long period of time.

Consumers shopping for life insurance should be aware of the distinction between publicly-traded life insurance companies, answerable to their stock holders, and those mutual or privately held, and to what extent a company has reinsurance is ceded to affiliated captives.

AARP life insurance simply much more expensive

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June 14, 2013

12:00 PM

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10 year term, 2013, 66 years old, 67 years old, full underwriting, guaranteed acceptance Whole Life, guaranteed issue whole life, guaranteed universal life, In your 50's, In your 60's, In your 70's, life insurance quotes, no blood test, No Lapse Guaranteed Universal Life, no physical exam, Permanent Life Insurance, preferred rate, Simplified issue whole life, standard non tobacco rates, Term Life Insurance, Underwriting, universal life policies with secondary guarantees, whole life vs. universal life

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I first posted about AARP’s high priced life insurance program two years ago. Has there been any reform to that profit mill taking advantage of seniors?  No.  AARP member options are only among the most expensive.

AARP now promotes “The AARP Life Insurance From New York Life” on a separate website.  It’s “exclusively for AARP members.” Their mission statement: “To help make it simpler for AARP members to apply for affordable life insurance protection, AARP selected New York Life to provide a life insurance program just for its members.”  (italics mine)

simple = more expensive

The AARP New York Life insurance web page has three choices, all of them no physical exam, i.e. paramed exam.  Simple.  Higher priced simplicity.

Are you in good, average or even slightly below average health?  Focus on fully underwritten life insurance requiring a paramed exam. It’s free, at home or wherever you choose at your convenience, takes about 20 minutes and saves you a considerable amount of money.

Best value in rapidly descending order:

  1. full underwriting:      paramed exam
  2. simplified issue:      no paramed exam
  3. guaranteed issue:   no health questions

Unsure if qualified for fully underwritten coverage?  Find out. You’d be surprised. Type 2 diabetics with good control can get standard rates. Always check first before applying. Even if a simplified issue product is advisable, shop around for the lowest prices. There are much better deals than those offered through AARP.

Doubly more expensive permanent

For example, $25,000 permanent coverage female 66 years old, monthly premiums

$70.00     Transamerica at preferred non-tobacco, GUL*, age 121
$74.00     Transamerica at standard non-tobacco, GUL*, age 121
$127.52    AARP Life Insurance program from New York Life, age 121

Why would an organization, supposedly acting in its members best interest, not promote fully underwritten life insurance options?  How about: ease of issue, faster turn around, lower labor costs, higher premiums, higher profits.

Term:  At your age?

Term is to replace lost income or to cover a debt like a mortgage. If there is a shorter duration need, term life insurance might be suitable, but generally retirees should get permanent life insurance for estate planning and final expenses, not term.  Outlive the term period, and there’s zero benefit.  If for some reason term is needed, get fully underwritten coverage. No physical exam term is much more expensive. The AARP program term rates are five-year age bands: e.g., 65-69, 70-74.  Tiered rate term insurance is an inferior product and much more expensive. Level premium term is the best. The rate is the same for the entire term period.

Please contact me for a free and confidential quote.  Many more options available.

sean's profile picLicensed Agent:  Sean Drummey
phone: (910) 328-0447
email: spdrummey@gmail.com

* Guaranteed Universal Life (GUL), also called no-lapse Guaranteed Universal Life, look for lifetime no-lapse guarantee level premium to age 120 or age 121; three major life carriers have GUL products starting at $25,000.

Product and carrier details:
Transamerica Life Insurance Company: “TransACE”
Genworth Life Insurance Company: “Colony Term”

quotes 6/14/2013, rates subject to change

Trigger Method Fixed Indexed Universal Life (IUL) with Allianz

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May 30, 2013

10:36 AM

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0% Floor, 1 year point-to-point, 2013, Allianz, Cap, Cap Rate, crediting method, crediting strategy, EIUL, Floor, Index Cap Rate, Index floor rate, Index Segment, Index universal life, Index universal life insurance, indexed life insurance, Indexed Universal Life, IUL, S&P 500, trigger method

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Allianz recently announced enhancements to their Fixed Indexed Universal Life (IUL) product Life Pro+.  Why does Allianz call it fixed?  Well, that’s their terminology.  Known mostly as Indexed Universal Life (IUL) or sometimes as Equity Indexed UL (EIUL), the name may differ, but all these Indexed UL products have interest returns tied to a market index, most commonly the S & P 500 Index, and have a floor guarantee of at least 0% as downside protection against losses. That’s why Allianz presumably uses the word fixed as opposed to Variable UL which does not have a 0% floor.

One noteworthy feature in Allianz’s enhancements is a trigger method of interest crediting. If the S & P 500 Index annual point to point hits anywhere greater or equal to zero, will trigger 9% credited to the policy. This Trigger Interest Rate is subject to change on an annual basis but is guaranteed never to go below 2.50%. In years the S & P goes below zero, the floor crediting rate is 0%, and if the index measures in that annual point to point above 9%, the credit remains at 9%.

Most of the Indexed UL product caps are currently in the 11% to 13% range and in this strong market those higher caps make them a more alluring crediting strategy. Historical data does not show that 0% to 9% range to be as prevalent as 10% or higher. Allianz still offers the higher capped S& P 500 annual point-to-point option. Their trigger method is an added option in times when S & P 500 performance expectations were not very high.