Life insurance companies don't "raid" cash values, they can't. It's not like a pension fund. The money is being held for the benefit of a 3rd party (the beneficiary). As the policyowner, you outrank everyone else in connection with that policy.
There wouldn't be a reason for them to not give you the cash value unless the surrender charges prevented you from having a positive balance, there was fraud on your part in connection with setting up the policy, or you borrowed all of the available funds from your policy.
Comdex scores give a good idea of how a company has behaved in the past. If you are good at valuing a company (a reason to study value investing, not just index investing), you have a better opportunity to see what lies ahead.
I'm not blaming you for what happened, but you are making unfair sweeping generalizations about ALL insurance companies that simply aren't true. I'm sorry that you had an unpleasant experience with a life insurance company. Not sure what the exact blow-by blow details are though...you stated earlier:
"After several missed payments (I was in the midst of a divorce, commuting between the US and Europe on business, and wasn't paying close enough attention to what I thought was automated banking- and I never received an overdue premium notice from them...) they declared the policy in default and informed me that I had forfeited the "guaranteed cash value" and the insurance coverage"
Not paying premiums on the whole life should trigger a red flag. Several missed payments - they are going to assume you are surrendering the contract. They can't refuse premium payments as life insurance is a unilateral contract and governed by the principle of "utmost good faith". Did you contact the insurance company? Your State Insurance Commissioner? Generally, if you had net cash value available, it should be yours when you surrender it.
OK, you seem to be enjoying those adult beverages too much, so I will go slower:
1. The policy was set up with AUTOMATIC WITHDRAWAL from my checking. They deliberately quit taking the payments, not the other way around. They never sent an overdue premium notice. The first correspondance I received from them was the notice informing me the policy had lapsed and would not be reinstated, have a nice day.
2. Conseco bought Lamar- I had no say in the matter, so checking their Comdex scores in advance wouldn't mean jack.
3. Of course I contacted the Insurance company- re-read my post and you will notice I mentioned how concerned and helpful their customer service staff was. I called them several times, and then followed up in writing. My "Estate and Financial Planning Specialist" (herinafter referred to as Peter Leech) contacted them on my (his) behalf -they stonewalled him, too.
4. After a couple of months of dealing with this as a sideline issue, (remember that pesky divorce I mentioned) I wrote it off as a good financial lesson, and vowed to never again get involved with
a. "Estate and Financial Planning Specialists"
b. Any life insurance product with a descriptive prefix.
Using the terms "utmost good faith" and. "Insurance Company" in the same sentence is, I believe, outlawed in most states. (notice I was careful to separate them...)
I believe there probably are probably honest, competent hardworking financial planners out there- but the shysters who are lining their own pockets at the expense of their clients by pushing questionable products give the financial planning sector a bad name.
