Life Insurance

Anyone who has looked into cash value life insurance has probably come across the term Modified Endowment Contract (MEC). Those with flexible premium policies may have noticed a portion of their statements that stipulate whether or not the contract is a Modified Endowment Contract.

You may have even seen numbers indicating the amount of money that can go into a policy before it turns into an MEC. What does it mean, and why do we care? We’ll explain that and more today as we cover MECs in their entirety.

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The last few years have certainly seen an unprecedented amount of chaos in the global financial markets. And life insurance companies have not been immune to the aftershocks. We all know that in large part, the turmoil was caused by the collapse of the derivatives market.

All of the financial unrest has lead to a much greater awareness and concern regarding life insurance company ratings, overall financial stability and how the carriers are being overseen by third party rating agencies.

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If you were to spread sheet quotes from life insurance companies (or have your agent do it) near the top of the list for low price premiums would likely fall a tiny insurance company owned by a massively huge British multi-national, and this tiny life insurer is typically well known for its competitive term rates; this company is the somewhat unique Banner Life Insurance Company.

Banner is a well known competitor in the term quoting game, where it competes quite well with the likes of Genworth, Ohio National, Cincinnati Life, and that other life insurance company with Massachusetts in it's name: Savings Bank Life (SBLI).  But even more enjoyable to Banner is that it's one of the darlings for the term quoting world due to is wide availability to pretty much all of the large life insurance brokerage conglomerates.

You see, unlike Ohio National and Cincinnati Life, Banner–like Genworth and SBLI–focuses its marketing and distribution strategy through large brokerage channels, rather than through smaller, more localized agencies.

In fact, if you run out to Google and search for Banner, you'll find Select Quote–a huge player in the transactional term sales–ranks in Google's top 10 results for Banner Life Insurance as a keyword search term, and we're betting, they really like that.  Legal & General, the large multi-national that owns Banner, is also a strong competitor for cheap term rates in the state of NY, where it's NY version of Banner: William Penn does business.

So is Banner life insurance reviews a great term choice?  Let's find out.

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Today we begin our foray into dissecting all of the different life insurance companies that are available in the market today.  Perhaps more importantly we will review their specific policies and the nuances that lurk within.

The first company we’re going to look at is Prudential life insurance and more specifically we’re going to dig into their Term Essential,Term Elite, and WorkLife 65

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Indexed Universal Life has hit the financial world in a big way over the past decade.  It's been loved by many agents and clients, and loathed by stock brokers and insurance companies that didn't have a product.  FINRA has attempted a power grab by making indexed products subject to securities regulation, and lost the fight somewhat badly a few years ago.  Now, the 2nd largest life insurer in the United States Prudential Financial has joined the indexed UL world by introducing PruLife Index Advantage UL.

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This week the New York times ran a piece on their web site that took a little knock at Whole Life Insurance.  So, when a writer at the NY Times takes a shot at whole life insurance like so many financial wannabes have in the past, what do you suppose its readers do in response?  The answer might shock you…

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Are you a discerning individual looking for a term life insurance policy?  I don't mean large $1 million, I mean large at the very least $10 million and more.  Think it's crazy?  Remember life insurance companies will right 25-30 times earnings for people in their 20's and 30's so $400,000 in annual income gains admission to the club.

We're talking about you dear Wall St. hot shots.

We know that you're busy buying up cars, real estate, and wrist watches the size of dinner plates to show everyone else how much money you make, so life insurance on the cheap is typically you're approach, for now.

So, does buying buying life insurance and sorting through the term life insurance quoting game differ for you and your special income?

In a word…yes.

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