IPB 080: Black Box Baloney

  Whole life insurance is often maligned by the rest of the financial services world (those who sell registered investment products) as lacking transparency. It’s referred to as a “black box” for its lack of disclosure. Opponents say that it’s not so much about how various pieces and parts are calculated, but more about the …

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IPB 078: The Bondex v2.6.4.3

The Bondex

  To continue on with the discussion of potentially rising interest rates… We actually get into what it might mean for life insurance companies and for your life insurance policy–whether it happens to be participating whole life or universal life. Major discussions in this episode: How quickly can you expect your dividend (WL) and/or interest …

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IPB 077: The Perilous Bondex

The Perilous Bondex

  Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, believes the next bubble to burst will not be in the equity markets…it will be a normalizing of yields in the bond market as inflation ticks up. During a Bloomberg interview, Greenspan said… “By any measure, real long-term interest rates are much too low and therefore unsustainable” And …

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IPB 076: The Consequences of Outliving Your Life Insurance

Consequences of Outliving

  Did you know that it’s possible to outlive your permanent life insurance? That entire sentence is discombobulating. When does permanent not really mean permanent? Recently, a pending court case was brought to our attention on Joseph Belth’s blog (former publisher of the Insurance Forum) that raises some interesting debate. You should really take a …

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IPB 075: Stay for the 401k?

In episode 75, our discussion revolves around a suggestion that comes from this article over at Fox Business. In particular, the article points out that many larger and well-known employers are aggressively raising their matching contributions for their employees in the company 401k plan. The article goes on to suggest that companies believe this is …

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IPB 074: Whole Life Insurance Litigation

  Recent settlements have been reached between policyholders and a couple of mutual life insurance companies. Turns out an obscure bit of insurance regulation from 100 years ago might get you an extra $22 that you weren’t expecting. We’ve been asked a few times about these lawsuits over dividend underpayment, so we’d share our perspective …

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IPB 072: How Do You Define “Best Interest”?

Best Interest

Well, the day of reckoning has come and gone. The new Department of Labor’s new Fiduciary Rule is largely in effect across the financial services industry. Discussion over the rule and its implications have been debated over the last couple of years with a fair degree of intensity. Still it seems that the smoke screen …

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IPB 071: Nationwide Sued for Increasing Cost of Insurance

Nationwide Sued for Increasing Cost of Insurance

Are increasing COI charges really a problem with universal life insurance? Or could it be that competence in understanding policy design (from the outset) and management is actually more important? Today we’re discussing an ongoing lawsuit between a family and Nationwide regarding a couple of variable universal life policies that are owned by an ILIT (irrevocable …

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