Life Insurance Illustration: Basic vs. Supplemental Ledger

A life insurance illustration is a tool that agents use to detail the various features of a proposed life insurance policy.  These rather lengthy documents contain a lot of information and sometimes delineate

Should I Buy Whole Life Insurance?

Should I buy whole life insurance if I'm young and have no dependents?  This is a question that we field more often than you might think, so today we want to address this question for those who might

Whole Life Insurance as an Investment

If you spend any time looking around this site, you'll find plenty of content detailing the various features of whole life insurance.  We've detailed at length the use of whole life insurance specifically

Annuity Buyers Can Do Better But Should They?

What drives annuity buyers?  I mean with all the negative press about the evils of annuities, what on earth possesses these people to actually pull the trigger and purchase an annuity? Let's not forget

The Definitive Discussion on Whole Life Insurance Dividend Recognition

Whole life insurance dividends are a fun subject we discuss quite regularly.  But a more obscure and advanced topic on this subject is the way life insurer adjust dividends (if at all) whenever a policyholder

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

How Do Life Insurance Policy Loans Work?

Can you borrow against life insurance and how do life insurance policy loans actually work?  For a lot of life insurance policies out there, the answer is yes. However, there are some types of 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

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. 

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 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

Whole Life Insurance Dividend Options

Whole life insurance dividend options are one of the ways a whole life policy provides the policyholder robust versatility.  Understanding these different options is crucial for the proper use of a dividend-paying

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

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

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

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

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,

Why don’t more Financial Advisors Sell Life Insurance?

The holiday season now firmly has its grip around many of us and since we opted not to produce an end of the year podcast that answered questions we receive from various readers and listeners, I figured

Questions About Dividends, Direct Recognition, and IRA Liquidation to Fund Whole Life Insurance

Whole Life Insurance Rates: What’s the Cost of Waiting to Buy?

You are never going to pay less for whole life insurance than the amount you will pay this year.  Whole life insurance rates become dramatically more expensive (actual dollar cost and the cost of lost

2019 Whole Life Insurance Dividend Announcements

It's November and that means it's time for most major U.S. life insurer who have any significant focus on whole life insurance sales to announce anticipated dividends for next year.  We've already heard

Should You Intentionally UNDERfund Whole Life Insurance?

Last week I was having an email conversation with a member of our audience. As part of an email that I sent out (to those lucky enough to be on our subscriber list), I asked a question and I got quite

Is Universal Life Insurance Collapsing?

Universal life insurance is really not that interesting, but you'd never guess that by reading pretty much anything that gets published about it in the mainstream press. In fact, it has been featured in

Do You Pay Taxes on Life Insurance Payout?

There are so many questions about what taxes one must pay on life insurance proceeds. But one that we get a lot is, do you pay taxes on life insurance payout?  The subject can be a bit intimidating for

Working With Bad Life Insurance Companies

Today's episode is all about the evils of working with companies that turn out to be major disappointments. Who are we talking about specifically? Well, we're not gonna name names here. Not today.

The Key to Selling More Whole Life Insurance

Seven years ago the Insurance Pro Blog started as a resource to "demystify life insurance."My original purpose was to spread the good word on life insurance--specifically whole life insurance and eventually

Whole Life Insurance Pros and Cons

First, I feel the need to provide context for this post. 99% of our clients want to use cash value life insurance as an asset class. Which means people need to distinguish whole life insurance from

Whole Life Insurance Dividend Rates Exposed

Every year, usually sometime in November, life insurance companies that sell participating whole life insurance report their plans to pay dividends to policyholders. When the insurance companies talk about

TEFRA DEFRA TAMRA: How Taxes Effect Life Insurance

Life insurance enjoys some unique tax benefits, but it also faces limits imposed by legislation we know as TEFRA DEFRA and TAMRA.  These pieces of legislation established specific guidelines as to what

Is 10 Pay Whole Life Insurance Any Good?

http://traffic.libsyn.com/insuranceproblogpodcast/IPB_122__Why_Not_Use_10_Pay_Whole_Life_Insurance_.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download Using whole life insurance as a place to store cash