It’s early September and the bags of Halloween candy are already lining the shelves in the grocery stores.  I’m guessing, due to the state of the economy, the retailers will start dusting off Christmas decorations and get them up soon to remind us that it’s that time of year (of spending, hopefully, for the retailers). […]

When purchasing life insurance, you are often presented with the choice of term or permanent insurance.  The choices for life insurance term life insurance policies are typically 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years.  Choices for permanent insurance are usually whole life or universal life.  Universal life can be broken down further – traditional universal […]

life insurance is important to American families, but they procrastinate.  According to LIMRA (life insurance and Market Research Association): life insurance beat out all other sources of financial assets or income that Americans expect to use to help pay bills, and to maintain their lifestyle if the primary wage earner dies. About 7 in 10 […]

Eating a healthy diet dramatically reduces the risk of many illnesses and makes many more other ailments easier to treat but a healthy diet alone will do little to reduce the premium rates of an insurance policy. Individual insurance premium rates are based on mathematical formulas that determine how likely a policyholder will be to […]

There are as many opinions about life insurance as there are life insurance agents and brokers hat sell it.  If you ask 100 insurance professionals their opinions about which type of policy is best for you, you will get that many varying viewpoints on the subject. Captive agents who only represent one company’s products, will […]

I have been seeing more applicants lately who have been diagnosed with sleep apnea.  What is sleep apnea it and how does it affect life insurance underwriting? Apnea is cessation of breathing.  There are three types of apnea that occur during sleep:  obstructive, central and mixed.  According to Prudential life insurance, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) […]

I sometimes have clients who are looking to pay all the premiums of a cash-value type policy (whole life, universal life, etc.) up front in a single lump-sum premium.  While I don’t always agree with this strategy, in some cases, I don’t believe it’s a bad idea. One of the benefits of a cash-value policy […]

Consumption of alcohol is common in American society.  For the majority of drinkers of alcoholic beverages, there is little risk to health or longevity.  It is only when alcohol consumption becomes excessive does it have any effect on life insurance underwriting. There are many studies suggesting that alcoholism is genetic, while other reports suggest social […]

This is a question we are asked quite often, typically when we are doing annual policy reviews with our clients. Unfortunately, the answer is always “no, the term is set when the policy is issued, after which time it cannot be extended.”