Insurance Pro Blog Podcast | Life Insurance and Annuity Insights

 

Typically when someone says, “we've decided to go in a different direction” I get the image of sitting in the conference room of my very first job post-college. The conference room was affectionately known as the “fish bowl” because it was all glass and all of your co-workers could gawk at you being admonished by the boss. It always felt more like a terrarium with a heat lamp to me.

Great memories…[side note] I think my first trip to the bowl was for taking too much time talking with customers. You know, you gotta talk to at least 50 people a day or you're not getting the job done (sarcasm light is glowing).

At any rate, these sort of meetings often end with bewilderment.

Now, imagine that you've bought a life insurance policy from a company that decides they don't wanna be in the business anymore, they sell the business to another company (you've never heard of) and then proceed to under-deliver on your questions (i.e. servicing your policy).

Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens in our industry.

But what does it mean for you? Well, that's kinda hard to say with certainty, however we are happy to share our experience with you in today's episode.

Do you have any experience that you'd like to share? Reach out and let us know.

The debate between life insurance company structure rages on into the 21st century. It's not as big a headline as it once was in the industry. So, does that mean that we've decided that it really doesn't matter? Obviously, there are real structural differences in the capital structure and there are perceived differences in the ... Keep Reading

 

The debate between life insurance company structure rages on into the 21st century. It's not as big a headline as it once was in the industry.

So, does that mean that we've decided that it really doesn't matter? Obviously, there are real structural differences in the the capital structure and there are perceived differences in the culture of the two types of life insurance company, but are there any real, practical differences?

For more of a primer on the distinction here's an excerpt from a post Brandon wrote back in 2013:

Maybe you’ve heard this one before, the claim that mutual life insurance companies are better than public life insurers. Of course, the mutual life insurers all think so. But we’re willing to bet that the so-called public life insurers would tell you differently.

So is it true that the non-mutual life insurers are just out to swindle everyone out of their money and represent all that is wrong with American capitalism? Or are the mutual just stodgy companies that have a problem embracing modernity…and the capital markets.

After taking another week off from recording a podcast we're back and we're taking another slight detour from diving into the minutiae of life insurance. Not to worry, today's episode is related to life insurance but the relationship is tangential. Something we've seen repeatedly over the last several years is a notion that taking baby steps ... Keep Reading

 

After taking another week off from recording a podcast we're back and we're taking another slight detour from diving into the minutiae of life insurance. Not to worry, today's episode is related to life insurance but the relationship is tangential.

Something we've seen repeatedly over the last several years is a notion that taking baby steps with your finances and in particular your saving habits is something to be praised. Now, we're always in favor of consuming less and saving more. So don't get any ideas that we're knocking a philosophy that seeks to improve financial behavior.

Our problem isn't with the philosophy of consuming less.

We just think that most of us are pansies when it comes to saving a greater portion of our income.  So many people pay lip service to how they wanna change their financial future and they're willing to do anything to make it happen.

That's good, no criticism for that way of thinking. But…

If you're like most people we talk to you need to stop cutting your bad habits i.e. spending money on a bunch of crap in small bits. Start cutting with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel. Progress will come much faster and your time to financial independence (my definition: unearned income is greater than your expenses) can be bent to your will.

For many of us, our behavior doesn't align with the “willing to do anything” language. And lest you think I'm suggesting you pursue some sort of scheme that shortcuts your way to riches, I'm not. Prisons are full of people who were looking for a shortcut.

I'm not suggesting you chase returns or convoluted investment ideas. In fact, I'm an advocate of doing neither.

Listen to the episode to find out more!

 

Today's episode is not one of our episodes where you're going to get a bit-by-bit breakdown of a life insurance policy or concept totally dedicated to life insurance. No, today we get into a discussion that keeps popping up and that is one of designing the financial planning process to work as a more systematic ... Keep Reading

Today's episode is not one of our episodes where you're going to get a bit-by-bit breakdown of a life insurance policy or concept totally dedicated to life insurance.

No, today we get into a discussion that keeps popping up and that is one of designing the financial planning process to work as a more systematic process. The idea being that most people prefer to check off a few boxes, select from multiple choice responses and voila have a “to do” list of financial related items spit out the other side.

A picture of the Mechanical Turk comes to mind. It's a wonderful idea and not 100% flawed thinking but the practical application leaves much to be desired.

Obviously, we have much more to say about it…listen the full episode to hear more.

 

Sorry to disappoint you–we don't have any free beer or life insurance. But we do have our first podcast of the new year and it's a good one. Something we don't often discuss oddly enough in our podcast that discusses life insurance…the death benefit. Typically, the death benefit is a secondary and necessary component of ... Keep Reading

 

Sorry to disappoint you–we don't have any free beer or life insurance. But we do have our first podcast of the new year and it's a good one.

Something we don't often discuss oddly enough in our podcast that discusses life insurance…the death benefit. Typically, the death benefit is a secondary and necessary component of what we're talking about with our clients. But lately, we've been rethinking some of that.

Turns out that the death benefit is actually a pretty good deal and adds to the overall utility of the product as it relates to being a solution to fill multiple gaps.

Listen to find out where we're coming from.

Something we hear and/or read repeatedly is that a life insurance contract is simply too complicated for any mere mortal to understand. The complexity is just too great. How could ever understand what you're actually buying? We don't disagree that if you were to sit down and ready your policy from cover to cover it ... Keep Reading