should i get term life and a little bit of whole?

[73ss454]

I was also sold my whole life policy with a guarantee 10 pay. I was not a happy camper when my bill for 7K showed up on the 11th year. Turns out my whole life policy is to be paid till the age of 99. When I was sold the policy I saved the document the agent/thief had given me to prove I was only to pay for 10 years. I entered into a class action and in the end the Judge awarded me 31K because I had the proof. Seems this was a standard practice and that's why there were so many class actions.

I still hold this policy as the dividends pay a large portion of the 7K a year premium. But the Mass Mutual is still getting the 7K a year one way or the other. I've had this policy for 23 years now and since I'll be 62 next year I may cash it in to add to income. The cash value is 169K and goes up about 6 or 7K a year at this point.

When I spoke with Mass Mutual after the settlement I told them I wanted to speak directly with them and not have to go through an agent. They reassigned my policy to another agent and he called me promptly to help/rip me off. He said I was right about the 10 year payout and then promptly tried to talk me into selling the policy and buy an Annuity. Perfect!

 

[dgoldenz]

I was also sold my whole life policy with a guarantee 10 pay. I was not a happy camper when my bill for 7K showed up on the 11th year. Turns out my whole life policy is to be paid till the age of 99. When I was sold the policy I saved the document the agent/thief had given me to prove I was only to pay for 10 years. I entered into a class action and in the end the Judge awarded me 31K because I had the proof. Seems this was a standard practice and that's why there were so many class actions.

I still hold this policy as the dividends pay a large portion of the 7K a year premium. But the Mass Mutual is still getting the 7K a year one way or the other. I've had this policy for 23 years now and since I'll be 62 next year I may cash it in to add to income. The cash value is 169K and goes up about 6 or 7K a year at this point.

When I spoke with Mass Mutual after the settlement I told them I wanted to speak directly with them and not have to go through an agent. They reassigned my policy to another agent and he called me promptly to help/rip me off. He said I was right about the 10 year payout and then promptly tried to talk me into selling the policy and buy an Annuity. Perfect!

Ah yes, the old "vanishing premium" scam of the 80's....agents would take out the "guaranteed" pages of the illustration and only show the projections based on dividends that were never going to happen. It's illegal to tell someone they won't have to pay a premium after "X" amount of years unless it is guaranteed by the contract. As an example, Guardian has a 10-pay product that you are guaranteed to have paid up after 10 years. Their life-pay product would take ~25-30 years of the current-rate dividend to require no further premiums (assuming the dividends kept going), but you can't just tell someone "you'll only have to pay for this for 25 years" since the dividend scale can change at any time.

 

[dgoldenz]

But what I didn't realize was that additional paid up insurance cost me a large portion of my dividends and is not convertible to cash if the policy is canceled.

Paid-up additional insurance has it's own separate cash value. You should be able to cash them in at any time if you want to...

 

[jimnjana]

Paid-up additional insurance has it's own separate cash value. You should be able to cash them in at any time if you want to...

Thanks, my rep didn't share that with me. Next time I have to talk to one, I'll be sure to ask about it.

 

[73ss454]

Funny, I was also told my dividend would buy paid up additional ins.. I told them I don't want any extra ins and to apply my dividend to my payment.

We grow old too fast and smart too late.