The Best Way to Do Whole Life Insurance

The Best Way to Do Whole Life Insurance

When buying whole life insurance, it’s tempting to want to figure out all the ways to optimize the policy.  I don’t just mean the foundational stuff like blending the policy and making heavy use of paid-up additions–but also the bigger picture stuff like “when should I take a loan,” “what’s the best amount to put …

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When Whole Life Insurance Fails to Deliver

When Whole Life Insurance Fails to Deliver

Life insurance agents often sell whole life insurance policies by presenting the prospective buyer with an explanatory document that projects future values.  This document often goes by the name “illustration” because it seeks to illustrate the features and functionality of the product.  This document helps to explain not only the features of a specific product but …

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Don’t Get Screwed by the Whole Life Man

Don't Get Screwed by the Whole Life Man

A fight rumbles within the life insurance industry about product selection and this often results in some agents pledging their allegiance to a specific type of life insurance.  While both parties find value in the use of cash value life insurance, they disagree quite aggressively about which type of cash value life insurance is appropriate.  …

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What Other Mutual Whole Life Company Faces De-Mutualization?

What Other Mutual Whole Life Company Faces De-Mutualization?

With the recent news that Ohio National Life will demutualize and become a stock-owned subsidiary of a Canadian insurance holdings company, we unsurprisingly received questions about the probability of other mutual life insurers taking the same action.  This is an understandable question, as current and future policyholders try to gauge the risks they face in …

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Ohio National Decides to Demutualize

Ohio National Decides to Demutualize

Earlier last week, Ohio National Life announced that its board of directors approved an acquisition transaction.  If approved, the company will demutualize and become a stock owned-subsidiary of Constellation Insurance Holdings, Inc. out of Canada.  Ohio National announced that this transaction will strengthen the company’s financial position, enhance its market position, and give it the …

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How Inflation Affects Whole Life Insurance

How Inflation Affects Whole Life Insurance

With inflation discussions ramping up and the Fed appearing open to a new policy on inflation metrics, we wanted to address the topic of its impact on insurance.  While there is no evidence today that exceptionally high inflation is headed our way, we might see moderately higher price level increases versus the past several decades …

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What About the Paid Up Additions Load Fees?

What About the Paid Up Additions Load Fees?

Paid-up additions are the way to add significant value to a whole life insurance policy.  Used as both an elective rider and a dividend option, this unique feature of whole life insurance will deliver the best bang for your buck with respect to cash value accumulation.  It will also add significantly to your outstanding death benefit …

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Financial Advisors Giving Advice on Life Insurance

Sometimes you see or hear about rules and you might think “man I’d like to know the story that led to this.”  Within the financial services industry, we have lots of rules.  Rules that are intended to protect people from unscrupulous salespeople and also rules to help protect people from themselves.  We have rules about …

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Whole Life Insurance vs. Bonds (Updated for 2021)

Whole Life Insurance vs. Bonds (Updated for 2021)

Back in 2015 we published this blog post detailing a scenario looking at whole life insurance as an alternative option to buying bonds.  The details for the individual who approached us included a desire to invest a sum of $500,000 into bonds, so we looked at how we could best deploy that cash into a …

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