Brandon Roberts | The Insurance Pro Blog

The Five Must Have Features of a Cash Value Focused Whole Life

If you are looking to buy whole life insurance as a way to save for the future there is a huge mistake you might be making. I'm going to try and help you avoid that mistake with five rules you must follow

A Financial Planner’s Insurance Advice: Case Study

The financial planning industry changed quite substantially since I arrived on scene a little over 10 years ago. In that time, much of the regulatory shifts seek to establish new standards (e.g. the

Indexed Universal Life Insurance Still Not Market Correlated

Following up on my long established position that indexed universal life insurance is not market correlated, I want to share a story about a recent client situation involving IUL. As you all well know,

The Top Five Truths Insurance Agents Tell

Looking back on our years of selling life insurance, we see a past of lessons learned. Some of these lessons taught us about the methods best avoided regarding life insurance selling. Other lessons

Top Five Lies your Life Insurance Agent is Telling you

Life insurance agents are people, too. They have social lives, families, and dreams. They aspire to make as much money as possible and desire nice things–or at least financial peace-of-mind.

Universal Life Time Bomb…Myth?

Did you buy universal life insurance between 1980 and 1999? If you did, you might be entitled to compensation from predatory life insurance sales tactics that duped you into thinking that you could buy

Is Whole Life Insurance a Good Investment?

If I had a dollar for every time someone asks me is whole life insurance a good investment, I'd have quite a few more dollars in my pocket. But this is a seriously good question, and I know many

A Critical Review of A Critical Review of Indexed Universal Life Insurance

Indexed universal life insurance reviews are in no short supply all throughout financial media as well as the internet. Recently, a review came from a source that most of us would consider authoritative

The Life Insurance Loan Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

With COVID-19 shutting down lots of major business activity in the United States, it's no surprise that a lot of people are experiencing fluctuations in cash flow. For many, the exact impact this will

Whole Life Insurance Versus Stock Market: New and Updated

Several years ago, I published a blog post that used real whole life data results to compare to passive index investing results. The results showed that a well designed whole life policy that maximizes

Building Safety Against Bad Market Conditions

Investing in the stock market certainly has its advantages. It can produce some incredible new wealth for those who are disciplined (and in some cases lucky). But the market is not the panacea when

How the Current Market Affects Life Insurance

The U.S. stock market just wrapped up one of its worst weeks ever. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped around 17% this week alone. The S&P 500 finished the week down 13%. And the NASDAQ

How Indexed Universal Life Insurance Minimizes Sequence of Returns Risk

We started sounding the alarm about the sequence of returns risk way back in 2013. Since that time, others jumped on our train to warn retirement savers that one of the most dangerous risks they face

Why Bloggers Hate on Whole Life Insurance

Some financial bloggers appear to hate whole life insurance. A good lot of them have blog posts dedicated to extolling the virtues of term life insurance over whole life insurance. According to them,

Whole Life Insurance Study 2020

The Whole Life Insurance Study began as a question concerning the impact modern communication technology had on the sale of life insurance–specifically whole life insurance. Given the freedom to

Should You Borrow Against Your Life Insurance to Buy More Life Insurance?

I appreciate creativity. When I first started selling life insurance, I spent hours studying the product. Prodding it in various ways to see what it did. When I happened upon a few tricks I could

Why Paid-Up Additions Matter

If I had to pick one, and only one, additional feature of whole life insurance, it is hands down the paid-up additions feature. Even if I lose the ability to blend death benefit, if I still have the

Indexed Universal Life Insurance Sales Success Myth

Industry chatter about indexed universal life insurance spans a wide spectrum of woohoo! and boohoo! Regardless of your position on the product, the one apparent consensus is: the product is on fire!

The Doomed Index Universal Life Insurance Policy

You don't have to look far on the interwebs to stumble upon a blog post, video, or infographic that throws a little shade at indexed universal life insurance. The product is attacked relentlessly

The Ups and Downs of Automated Life Insurance Underwriting

One of the coolest things going on in the life insurance industry is the rapid adoption of an underwriting process that seeks to streamline the process of applying for life insurance. This so-called

Indexed Universal Life: Market Neutral?

The other day I was part of a conversation with another agent about Indexed Universal Life. The conversation was more of a challenge to my position that, like whole life insurance and current

Consumer Reports “Study” on Whole Life Insurance

In April of 2015, Consumer Reports published a report on life insurance titled: Is Whole Life Insurance Right for You? The report used the subtitle: Follow our Advice to Assess this Most

The Incredible Flexibility of Blended Whole Life Insurance

Today I want to talk about a subject that comes up every time we discuss whole life insurance with someone. The flexibility of whole life insurance is a major concern among our clients and prospective

Life Insurers Focus on Safety Not Risky Returns

It's no secret that interest rates are not in a place that life insurers favor. With interest rates so low, one might think that life insurers will move to more exotic investment ideas to recoup

Likely Changes Coming to Indexed Universal Life Insurance Illustrations: Actuarial Guideline 49 Updates

In 2015, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners's (NAIC) Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF) codified new rules for life insurance illustrations with indexing features. Actuarial Guideline

Mutual Life Insurers Investment Income Vs. Obligations Analysis

I often field questions about what financial metrics I hold most important when analyzing life insurance companies. While my answer can be a tad complex, I do have a short list of key metrics on which

Comparing Permanent Life Insurance Policies: The Linton Yield Method

There are numerous ways to compare cash value life insurance policies. Some of them are pretty well recognized though of relatively little use like the Net Cost Surrender Index. Others are known within

New York Best Interest Rule Regulation 187 Everything you Need to Know

Earlier this year, New York State amended Regulation 187 to establish what we're all calling the “Best Interest Rule.” After taking some careful time to pick through the entire amended regulation,

The End of the Insurance Pro Blog Podcast

We started podcasting seven years ago. It seems a little crazy to me to write that. But our first foray into the podcasting began in early September 2012 with the Financial Procast. Here's the

Is the Cash Surrender Value of Life Insurance Taxable?

The taxability of life insurance cash surrender value causes much confusion. Agents often extol the tax free nature of life insurance. But the marketing brochures often have numerous footnotes on the

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