Whole life ins

by Guest » Thu Jul 30, 2009 03:03 pm
Guest




Hi everyone,
Hope you can help. My husband and I were convinced that whole life insurance was a good thing for ins. as well as investment for retirement.
We have a total of three policies which we have been paying for 20 some years. Now I'd like to "cash" in some of that investment, but here's SOME
of the catches. First, there seems to be very little growth if any on the money we have "invested". Second, the amount we can take out is almost equal to the amount we've paid in and if we take it, we must close the policy, hence no insurance. Third, we can 'borrow' against the policy, but must pay back the "loan", or the interest on it which is 6.4% annually. It can be arranged to have 'dividends' pay this, thereby reducing that amount which could be used to pay premiums, now that I am working only 1/2 time.
In addition, after the dividend money runs out, they will use the accummulated insurance value to pay the premiums - kind of like a snake eating its own tale until, oops, nothing's left? :shock:

At this point, we need to keep the insurance. I'd like to take advantage of having 'invested' in whole life but it looks like the best I can do is just stop paying the expensive premiums, using the dividends to do that.

Please let me know what you think.
Peggy in CA

Total Comments: 26

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:50 pm Post Subject:

They would sell it to her because they think that if enough 76 year old females in her health buy insurance, they can be profitable. She will buy it because to her the premium is worth the death benefit.

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:04 pm Post Subject: insurance

Well.......(thinking outloud) Was this policy sold to her, for HER benefit or the Insurance Co's benefit? Did she REALLY understand the policy,etc? I have Elderly 'clients' who have signed Insurance policies and really din't understand what they were 'getting into'. They find out later, the Insurance policy wasn't as 'beneficial' as they thought.

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:49 am Post Subject:

An insurance company will only sell a policy if they think that the insurance company will benefit. A policy owner will only buy a policy if the policy owner feels that they will benefit.

All sales should be done in this manner. Both the seller and the buyer should be happy with the sale/purchase.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:25 pm Post Subject:

You can deal with it as a investment. It is not bad. You give more choose about the life insurance, and you can make the right decision. But i think the whole life insurance is important, if you have more spare money and time you can invest other projects too.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 03:16 pm Post Subject:

Insurance is not an investment.

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 06:48 am Post Subject: wholelife

First of all, if the agent sold you this policy as an investment for "living" benefits, they should'nt have. The definition of insurance is to create an immediate estate.You will never be allowed to make a "profit" until you die. Period. I don't know of any regular whole life policies that ever allow you to have both the death benefit AND the cash value.

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