harley
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I just got a call from the owners of my 30 year term life policy. I bought it back in '99 from Allstate, but this was some other company that partners with them. I had expected him to try to get me to convert it to Whole Life or something, so I told him right up front I wasn't interested. But then he crossed me up and told me he was advising me to drop the policy, since the odds were against me ever getting paid for it.
I told him that I had bought the policy as this thing called "insurance", intended to replace income in case I died. I don't actually need it now, since we're FI, but it's cheap enough that I have been leaving it in place as a nice buffer of cash for DW if I die before it expires in 2029 (I'll be 74). That would give her plenty of cash to learn how to handle the finances after I'm gone, or move closer to DD and family without having to sell the other house first.
So he was spouting all sorts of statistics at me, like "there's only a 2% chance it will ever pay off" - duh!, that's why it's insurance. "Nobody would ever go to a casino if they only had a 2% chance of winning" - they play the lottery, though, don't they? "It will get too expensive and you'll eventually drop it, so might as well do it now" - 30 years of premiums will only total 8.5% of the policy value. He was jolly the whole time, and kept saying "I bet you didn't expect me to recommend this, did you?"
So, what was that all about? I got the policy back before there were changes in the insurance industry regarding term life, and I think it's pretty damn cheap. Especially for someone with diabetes, high BP, and high cholesterol. I wonder if they got hold of my medical records (didn't have any of those back when I got the policy). Or if it's just a policy with too high a payout for the price? Any ideas from those in the know?
I told him that I had bought the policy as this thing called "insurance", intended to replace income in case I died. I don't actually need it now, since we're FI, but it's cheap enough that I have been leaving it in place as a nice buffer of cash for DW if I die before it expires in 2029 (I'll be 74). That would give her plenty of cash to learn how to handle the finances after I'm gone, or move closer to DD and family without having to sell the other house first.
So he was spouting all sorts of statistics at me, like "there's only a 2% chance it will ever pay off" - duh!, that's why it's insurance. "Nobody would ever go to a casino if they only had a 2% chance of winning" - they play the lottery, though, don't they? "It will get too expensive and you'll eventually drop it, so might as well do it now" - 30 years of premiums will only total 8.5% of the policy value. He was jolly the whole time, and kept saying "I bet you didn't expect me to recommend this, did you?"
So, what was that all about? I got the policy back before there were changes in the insurance industry regarding term life, and I think it's pretty damn cheap. Especially for someone with diabetes, high BP, and high cholesterol. I wonder if they got hold of my medical records (didn't have any of those back when I got the policy). Or if it's just a policy with too high a payout for the price? Any ideas from those in the know?