Category: Age 71

Term life insurance and conversion

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September 11, 2013

3:18 PM

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20 year term, 30 year term life insurance, 68 years old, 71 year old, 71 years old, Age 68, Age 70, Age 71, Conversion, exchange, term

Carpe Diem

In follow ups with clients and talking to life insurance term policy holders shopping for coverage,  I am struck again and again how important conversion is to term life insurance.  The lowest term price is the easy part to figure out. Conversion is the quality feature.  If you have a health problem during the term period, conversion may be the only game in town for new coverage. For example:

Timely conversion:
John, 42 years old and in excellent health, starts a $500k 30 year term policy at the preferred best rate.  At 61 years old he has a heart attack. At 62 years old with the term coverage ending, he converts $250k of his term coverage into a universal life policy at the preferred best rate, no underwriting,  by just signing a couple of forms.

Past the conversion deadline:
Jill, 51 years old and in good heath, starts a 20 year term policy with the preferred non tobacco rate.  At 68 years old she develops stage I breast cancer.  At age 71 with the term policy ending, she discovers her conversion period ended at age 70.  Instead of converting her policy at preferred a year before, the most favorable offer she finds for new coverage available has a flat extra charge of $7 per thousand for 5 years at the standard rate.

Pay close attention to which carriers has the best conversion options when shopping for term. Policy holders note term conversion or exchange rules and the deadline for conversion as a vital record.

Levon Helm and the risk factors for throat cancer

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April 20, 2012

4:46 PM

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Age 58, Age 71, In your 50's, In your 70's

Levon Helm died yesterday, April 19th, of throat cancer at age 71.  He was diagnosed in 1998, the year he turned 58, and during that time had 28 radiation treatments that helped give him over a decade more to live. Before his diagnosis he was reportedly a heavy smoker, a many as three packs a day.

It’s wonderful that modern medicine gave them those extra years.  Alarm bells should go off for oral sex as a risk factor as well as tobacco.

Who are at risk?
– Big time smokers
– Alcohol users
– People with poor diet
– People with HPV
– People who are actively pursuing oral sex
– Genes
– Those who were repeatedly exposed to asbestos
– Those with GERD and human herpesvirus

As a music fan, I did see Levon Helm perform with The Band at Watkins Glen in the summer of 1973.   So many people were there, over 600,000, seeing isn’t really the right word.  We could see the stage at a distance, so it was more a background listening experience through the crowd noise.  I played some of The Band’s songs as a disc jockey at Colby College in Maine from 1974-1976, but not much because most of their best songs were from the ’60’s, and my focus was on newer releases. I didn’t care for their 1975 Northern Lights – Southern Cross. I remember being annoyed listening to “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” on the radio, especially Joan Biaz’s cover in 1971 which became a hit and got a good deal of radio airplay.  Any ballad gets a tedious after repeated air plays, especially a cover.  I never bothered to buy any of their records, or back catalog as I did many of my favorites when CD’s became established, but The Band were certainly an enjoyable and essential part of that era’s music.  The opening lyrics to “The Weight” sometimes rolls through my head.

  I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead;
I just need some place where I can lay my head.
“Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?”
He just grinned and shook my hand, and “No!”, was all he said.

(Chorus:)
Take a load off Anny, take a load for free;
Take a load off Anny, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.

The need for life insurance

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September 9, 2011

1:07 PM

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Age 56, Age 61, Age 66, Age 71, Estate Planning, guaranteed universal life, Term Life Insurance

Since September is life insurance awareness month, here a few thoughts on the need for life insurance.

Real life testimonials of life insurance beneficiaries are compelling.  Neil Frankle of the WealthPilgrim.com has a memorable personal story of being orphaned at 17 and unexpectedly receiving $25,000 in life insurance that his father inadvertently signed up for as a loan condition.

Yes, but aren’t the odds of dying before one’s time fairly rare?  Modern life is certainly not as prone to unexpected death as it was 100 years ago with tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid scarlet fever and pneumonia.   There was the flu pandemic of 1918 and another could conceivably happen.  The West Coast could see an earthquake on the order of magnitude as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

But in America today, on a day to day basis, the main risk to one’s life is in a car.  It’s routine to travel at speeds above 50 mph, trusting your life to drivers passing by who may be drunk, distracted, unskilled or infirm. Fatalities run around 33,000 a year in the US.   It’s possible to be another one, and entirely not your fault.

If you are raising children, get some life insurance.   Term is cheap.  Don’t let your kids down.

For example, Genworth, preferred non tobacco, 10 year term rates for men, $100,000 in coverage:

age 31 – $8.11 a month
age 36 – $8.37 a month
age 46 – $13.64 a month
age 51 – $19.68 a month

Genworth has $50,000 10 year term that’s even cheaper.   Woman’s rates are even less than for men.

Continue reading “The need for life insurance” →

Permanent life insurance more suitable for seniors than term

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June 6, 2011

12:50 PM

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Age 60, Age 61, Age 62, Age 63, Age 65, Age 66, Age 67, Age 68, Age 69, Age 70, Age 71, Age 72, In your 70's, In your 80's, Product

Over the last few days, I compared life insurance websites for seniors in ages 60 through age 72 by Google searching life insurance and adding an age, “life insurance age 68”  for example.   It’s misleading for those in their 60’s and 70’s to see at the top of Google’s list websites with term life insurance given such prominence. Term is not usually the right product for seniors.  The primary purposes of term are to replace lost income or settle an outstanding debt like a mortgage.   Sure if you have less than 10 years to go on a mortgage, term life insurance might make sense.   I would surmise term gets promoted and sold simple because it’s less expensive.  But if one buys term in your 60’s or 70’s, chances are you will outlive your term, and then you’ve paid all that premium for nothing.  Even if you take the best term out there, Genworth, and have the option to convert to a fixed rate universal life, you have to pay higher premiums as your age goes up.

For the majority of people in their 60’s and 70’s permanent life insurance is the most suitable coverage.  If at all healthy, guaranteed universal life insurance is the best.  Coverage starts at a $25,000 benefit amount, and premiums are affordable.  North American has an excellent G-UL right now.   There are also small whole life policies, called simplified issue because there is only a short questionnaire and no blood term.  Coverage starts at a $2,000 a $3,000 benefit amount.   Either choice is better than term because it’s fixed rate coverage for life.