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Here's a great piece I came across re buying life insurance. Sound familiar?
11 Most Nonsensical Reasons for Not Having Life Insurance
By Jonathan Pond
11) “I can’t afford the premium on the amount of coverage I need.”
Pond: There’s no doubt the economy is putting a strain on all of us these days, but you’d be surprised how little a term policy costs. A 20-year, $500,000 policy may cost about a dollar a day. Surely you’d agree your family is worth such a small sacrifice.
10) “I’m single. I don’t need any life insurance.”
Pond: OK, but there are many other situations that require life insurance. Do you own a small business, and would your business make it if something happened to you? Are marriage and children on the horizon? Are you or may you become a caretaker of a loved one? More people rely on you than you think.
9) “Life insurance is for families. We have no kids, so we don’t need any life insurance beyond what our employers offer.”
Pond: I cringe when I hear that one. Besides the fact that insurance offered by employers is almost always inadequate, having no kids does not mean you don’t have people relying on you, as mentioned above. Think about it: Could your spouse pay the mortgage if you died? That’s just one of many examples of why you need a policy.
8) “I’ll wait for an insurance agent to contact me.”
Pond: Terrific. Oh by the way, will that solicitation come before or after you pass away and leave your family’s future in jeopardy?
7) “Look, I started with nothing. Now I own a home, have some retirement savings, and my family wants for nothing. If I die, they’ll have a much bigger head start than I had.”
Pond: They’ll also have a lot more debt than you ever had. The cost of living keeps going up, and the mortgage payments and tuition bills won’t go away, even if you do.
6) “I’m in lousy shape. Why go through the effort of applying for a policy only to be rejected.”
Pond: This isn’t true. Insurers offer a variety of rate levels for every waistline. However, the better your physical condition, the lower your rate will be. So start making positive lifestyle changes now, not only for your policy but also your long-term health.
5) “I’ve already got plenty of life insurance coverage. If I die, my family will be rich.”
Pond: You may want to double-check. A 2007 LIMRA (Life Insurance and Market Research Association) study revealed that most Americans are underinsured. Make sure you’re not one of these people by calling a life insurance expert today.
4) “I’ve got great genes. My ancestors lived a long time, so I’ll live a long time.”
Pond: This one is frightening. The only thing for sure in life is that nothing is for sure. Look no further than Tedy Bruschi of the New England Patriots, who now is also an SBLI spokesperson. Just days after completing a championship season, he almost died of a stroke at 31.
3) “I’ll wait until I get older.”
Pond: Not only does this jeopardize your family by leaving them unprotected, it’s a terrible financial decision. While it’s never too late to buy insurance, the younger you are, the lower your rate will be.
2) “I don’t want some stranger coming to my house for an insurance physical. Anyway, I’m afraid of needles.”
Pond: These “strangers” are trained, licensed medical professionals from reputable medical institutions. They are coming to you to make the life insurance purchasing process easier. If you don’t want them visiting your house, ask your life insurance professional to schedule an appointment at your office, a nearby clinic, or a hospital.
1) “I’m too busy now to be bothered with life insurance, but it’s on my “to do” list.”
Pond: Too busy to protect your family? Now that’s nonsense!
These are just 11 nonsensical reasons not to buy life insurance. For more, or to get some free no-nonsense advice on how to protect your family’s future with low-cost, dependable life insurance, visit SBLI.com or call 1-888-GET-SBLI.
Pond, known as "America's Financial Planner" simplifies all things financial and discusses topics from annuities to zero coupon bonds in plain English. With Emmy award, critically-acclaimed television specials, newsletters and best-selling books, Pond's work in educating the public on financial matters has been far-reaching and widely recognized. He is widely sought as an objective and entertaining observer of the investing and personal financial planning scenes and has made regular national appearances on all of the network and cable television stations, including regular segments on CNN and over 50 appearances on NBC's Today Show.
11 Most Nonsensical Reasons for Not Having Life Insurance
By Jonathan Pond
11) “I can’t afford the premium on the amount of coverage I need.”
Pond: There’s no doubt the economy is putting a strain on all of us these days, but you’d be surprised how little a term policy costs. A 20-year, $500,000 policy may cost about a dollar a day. Surely you’d agree your family is worth such a small sacrifice.
10) “I’m single. I don’t need any life insurance.”
Pond: OK, but there are many other situations that require life insurance. Do you own a small business, and would your business make it if something happened to you? Are marriage and children on the horizon? Are you or may you become a caretaker of a loved one? More people rely on you than you think.
9) “Life insurance is for families. We have no kids, so we don’t need any life insurance beyond what our employers offer.”
Pond: I cringe when I hear that one. Besides the fact that insurance offered by employers is almost always inadequate, having no kids does not mean you don’t have people relying on you, as mentioned above. Think about it: Could your spouse pay the mortgage if you died? That’s just one of many examples of why you need a policy.
8) “I’ll wait for an insurance agent to contact me.”
Pond: Terrific. Oh by the way, will that solicitation come before or after you pass away and leave your family’s future in jeopardy?
7) “Look, I started with nothing. Now I own a home, have some retirement savings, and my family wants for nothing. If I die, they’ll have a much bigger head start than I had.”
Pond: They’ll also have a lot more debt than you ever had. The cost of living keeps going up, and the mortgage payments and tuition bills won’t go away, even if you do.
6) “I’m in lousy shape. Why go through the effort of applying for a policy only to be rejected.”
Pond: This isn’t true. Insurers offer a variety of rate levels for every waistline. However, the better your physical condition, the lower your rate will be. So start making positive lifestyle changes now, not only for your policy but also your long-term health.
5) “I’ve already got plenty of life insurance coverage. If I die, my family will be rich.”
Pond: You may want to double-check. A 2007 LIMRA (Life Insurance and Market Research Association) study revealed that most Americans are underinsured. Make sure you’re not one of these people by calling a life insurance expert today.
4) “I’ve got great genes. My ancestors lived a long time, so I’ll live a long time.”
Pond: This one is frightening. The only thing for sure in life is that nothing is for sure. Look no further than Tedy Bruschi of the New England Patriots, who now is also an SBLI spokesperson. Just days after completing a championship season, he almost died of a stroke at 31.
3) “I’ll wait until I get older.”
Pond: Not only does this jeopardize your family by leaving them unprotected, it’s a terrible financial decision. While it’s never too late to buy insurance, the younger you are, the lower your rate will be.
2) “I don’t want some stranger coming to my house for an insurance physical. Anyway, I’m afraid of needles.”
Pond: These “strangers” are trained, licensed medical professionals from reputable medical institutions. They are coming to you to make the life insurance purchasing process easier. If you don’t want them visiting your house, ask your life insurance professional to schedule an appointment at your office, a nearby clinic, or a hospital.
1) “I’m too busy now to be bothered with life insurance, but it’s on my “to do” list.”
Pond: Too busy to protect your family? Now that’s nonsense!
These are just 11 nonsensical reasons not to buy life insurance. For more, or to get some free no-nonsense advice on how to protect your family’s future with low-cost, dependable life insurance, visit SBLI.com or call 1-888-GET-SBLI.
Pond, known as "America's Financial Planner" simplifies all things financial and discusses topics from annuities to zero coupon bonds in plain English. With Emmy award, critically-acclaimed television specials, newsletters and best-selling books, Pond's work in educating the public on financial matters has been far-reaching and widely recognized. He is widely sought as an objective and entertaining observer of the investing and personal financial planning scenes and has made regular national appearances on all of the network and cable television stations, including regular segments on CNN and over 50 appearances on NBC's Today Show.
Insure your future. 5/7/08
I'm very glad to join the group. Insuring your future is extremely important, I don't say this because I myself am a life Insurance agent/broker, but in regard to life's surprises', bank rate's, and inflation. It is essential for families, as well as individuals. You are able as well to insure the certainty of being able to pay your existing mortgage in case of emergencies. It's great!. Daphine.
Long term care insurance
We are big fans of long term care insurance. My wife and I each have two policies. Just wondering what others are doing. Our agent tells us not many people are walking in and buying this stuff.
excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered
Some of you will read this and say "I knew that" but did you really. Some of you
will relate to her words because of personal experience, and some you will go
"no shit". Which ever, I have heard this lady speak, she is concise, eloquent,
and so matter of fact it's scary.
Hi to all
Joe
Editor's Note: Below are selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC
We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mind set and intention of the enemy. The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah.
I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to survive, as the perpetrators shouted, "Allah Akbar!" My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word "infidel."
I had a crash course in survival. Not in the Girl Scouts, but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. At the age of 13, I dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends--killed by Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York , or Britons in London . We were Arab Christians living in Lebanon .
As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw Americans waking up on September 12, 2001, and asking themselves "Why do they hate us?" The psychoanalyst experts were coming up with all sort of excuses as to what did we do to offend the Muslim World. But if America and the West were paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had to ask the question. Simply put, they hate us because we are defined in their eyes by one simple word: "infidels."
Under the banner of Islam "la, ilaha illa Allah, muhammad rasoulu Allah," (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel, massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then. Now infidels worldwide are paying the price for indifference and shortsightedness.
Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise.
America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam. You hear about Wahabbi and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam. All the other Muslims, supposedly, are wonderful moderates. Closer to the truth are the pictures of the irrational eruption of violence in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed printed by a Danish newspaper. From burning embassies, to calls to butcher those who mock Islam, to warnings that the West be prepared for another holocaust, those pictures have given us a glimpse into the real face of the enemy. News pictures and video of these events represent a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the infidel and dominate the world. An Islam which has declared "Intifada" on the West.
America and the West can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental disease are starting to attack the body, and if they don't take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be knocking soon. If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world.
This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals such as doctors and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature life in society is ever capable of giving them.
The United States has been a prime target for radical Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and its people. The radical Islamist deeds have been as vile as their words. Since the Iran hostage crisis, more than three thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of Islam.
America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must engage our terrorist enemies, that we must address their grievances. Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are.
Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization.
If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslim community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion. For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America 's learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect.
.
Brigitte Gabriel is an expert on the Middle East conflict and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East television and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com. More bio info at view link
Fee For Service Health Care Make A Comeback
Consumer Driven Fee-For-Service Health Care - Makes A Comeback:
Remember when the choice of a doctor was yours and your care and treatment was left to just him/her and not some distant stranger whose only interest is “cost containment” and not your well-being?
If so, then you’ve lived long enough to appreciate “what goes around comes around”.
Consequently what is coming around is the return to Consumer Driven Fee-For-Service medical and dental care.
The leading proponent of the “new” old approach to health care is a Seattle based non-profit group named American Association of Patients and Providers (AAPP). They named their approach “SimpleCare”.
SimpleCare was the brainchild of two Seattle physicians, Vern S. Cherewatenko and David McDonald, who tired of 3rd party payers underpaying to the point of loosing money on each treatment performed.
The doctors decided to offer substantially lower fees to patients who would pay cash at the time of service. That change in procedure allowed them to avoid 3rd party payers and dramatically lower their administrative costs.
In a typical treatment scenario, the doctor sees a patient who has come in suffering from the flu. The visit lasts 10 minutes for diagnosis and medication prescription. The staff submits a $79.00 bill to the patients HMO. After a wait of 90 days the doctor’s office receives payment of $43.00 for the service.
The administrative cost for processing the bill is about $20.00, leaving the doctor with a “profit” of $23.00. Not so fast, the overhead for that patient is $30.00. Simple math shows the doctor lost $7.00 treating that patient.
This is not a hypothetical situation. Before SimpleCare, Cherewatenko’s practice had 55 doctors and was losing $80,000 a month due to 3rd party underpayments.
Since implementing SimpleCare, the doctors now charge the flu patient $35.00 if they pay by cash, check or credit card. Again, simple math shows the doctor earned $5.00 instead of a loss of $7.00. The doctors can now avoid bankruptcy, a very real threat to many doctors due to low reimbursements from all 3rd party payers, both public (Medicare and Medicaid) and private (HMO’s, PPO’s etc.).
The consumer wins too. They get the full attention of the doctor, free of “maximum per-patient time limits” and not treatment determined by a distant stranger. The concept of SimpleCare represents a dramatic departure from the “business as usual” model in health care financing. Most important, the patient receives the best healthcare at a reasonable cost.
Today, most health care is paid for through an expensive system known as 3rd party payers, where the 3rd party is an insurance company or a government agency. Many health care experts point to this system as the primary reason we in the U.S. face double-digit health insurance premium inflation and intrusion into our doctor’s decision-making process.
According to renowned economist Milton Friedman, in his analysis, “How To Cure Health Care”, two simple observations are key to the high level of spending on medical care and the dissatisfaction with that spending. The first is that most payments to physicians or hospitals or other caregivers for medical care are made not by the patient, but by a 3rd party. The second is that nobody spends somebody else’s money as wisely or as frugally as he/she spends their own.
Friedman also adds, “no 3rd party is involved when we shop at a supermarket. We pay the supermarket clerk directly. The same for gasoline for our car, clothes on our back and so on down the line.”
The majority has no choice in their health plans since the plans are employer provided. As a result they have no incentive to spend health care dollars wisely, nor do they have much, if any, opportunity to participate in the health care process.
Studies have shown that consumers tied to 3rd party payers may feel they are spending “someone else’s money” and therefore tempted to request unnecessary tests, treatments and other services. Insurers have responded by installing “gate keepers” to review and approve or deny requests for treatments.
James Henderson, author of Health Economics and Policy (Southwestern Publishing, 1999) and professor of economics at Baylor University, describes a classis example of how spending someone else’s money distorts the decision making process.
Henderson writes about a documented case where a 70-year-old man suffering from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm was brought to the hospital and spent weeks in an intensive care unit. The bill approached $275,000, none of which was paid by the patient.
The man’s physician determined that poor eating caused by poorly fitting dentures caused his slow recovery. The doctor requested the hospital dentist perform the needed adjustments. Later the doctor discovered the man had not allowed the hospital dentist to perform the needed adjustments. When asked for a reason, the patient replied, “$75.00 is a lot of money.” Medicare would not pay for the adjustment, so it would have been an out of pocket cost.
The nations reliance on 3d party insurance is expensive and getting more so every year. The cost of health care and insurance coverage has been inflated many times over to cover the expense of having a 3rd party involved in the process.
Is it any wonder then, that programs that promise to return to the older model of patient choice and responsibility are increasingly more popular?
What started out with two doctors has grown into about 500,000 doctors and providers in all disciplines serving nearly 6,000,000 patients in all states. Even some of the largest insurance companies are venturing into the world of Consumer Driven Health Care, but their efforts look a lot like their insured plans with controls and “cost containment”. They just will never learn.
Compliments to Conrad F. Meier and Milton Friedman.
Remember when the choice of a doctor was yours and your care and treatment was left to just him/her and not some distant stranger whose only interest is “cost containment” and not your well-being?
If so, then you’ve lived long enough to appreciate “what goes around comes around”.
Consequently what is coming around is the return to Consumer Driven Fee-For-Service medical and dental care.
The leading proponent of the “new” old approach to health care is a Seattle based non-profit group named American Association of Patients and Providers (AAPP). They named their approach “SimpleCare”.
SimpleCare was the brainchild of two Seattle physicians, Vern S. Cherewatenko and David McDonald, who tired of 3rd party payers underpaying to the point of loosing money on each treatment performed.
The doctors decided to offer substantially lower fees to patients who would pay cash at the time of service. That change in procedure allowed them to avoid 3rd party payers and dramatically lower their administrative costs.
In a typical treatment scenario, the doctor sees a patient who has come in suffering from the flu. The visit lasts 10 minutes for diagnosis and medication prescription. The staff submits a $79.00 bill to the patients HMO. After a wait of 90 days the doctor’s office receives payment of $43.00 for the service.
The administrative cost for processing the bill is about $20.00, leaving the doctor with a “profit” of $23.00. Not so fast, the overhead for that patient is $30.00. Simple math shows the doctor lost $7.00 treating that patient.
This is not a hypothetical situation. Before SimpleCare, Cherewatenko’s practice had 55 doctors and was losing $80,000 a month due to 3rd party underpayments.
Since implementing SimpleCare, the doctors now charge the flu patient $35.00 if they pay by cash, check or credit card. Again, simple math shows the doctor earned $5.00 instead of a loss of $7.00. The doctors can now avoid bankruptcy, a very real threat to many doctors due to low reimbursements from all 3rd party payers, both public (Medicare and Medicaid) and private (HMO’s, PPO’s etc.).
The consumer wins too. They get the full attention of the doctor, free of “maximum per-patient time limits” and not treatment determined by a distant stranger. The concept of SimpleCare represents a dramatic departure from the “business as usual” model in health care financing. Most important, the patient receives the best healthcare at a reasonable cost.
Today, most health care is paid for through an expensive system known as 3rd party payers, where the 3rd party is an insurance company or a government agency. Many health care experts point to this system as the primary reason we in the U.S. face double-digit health insurance premium inflation and intrusion into our doctor’s decision-making process.
According to renowned economist Milton Friedman, in his analysis, “How To Cure Health Care”, two simple observations are key to the high level of spending on medical care and the dissatisfaction with that spending. The first is that most payments to physicians or hospitals or other caregivers for medical care are made not by the patient, but by a 3rd party. The second is that nobody spends somebody else’s money as wisely or as frugally as he/she spends their own.
Friedman also adds, “no 3rd party is involved when we shop at a supermarket. We pay the supermarket clerk directly. The same for gasoline for our car, clothes on our back and so on down the line.”
The majority has no choice in their health plans since the plans are employer provided. As a result they have no incentive to spend health care dollars wisely, nor do they have much, if any, opportunity to participate in the health care process.
Studies have shown that consumers tied to 3rd party payers may feel they are spending “someone else’s money” and therefore tempted to request unnecessary tests, treatments and other services. Insurers have responded by installing “gate keepers” to review and approve or deny requests for treatments.
James Henderson, author of Health Economics and Policy (Southwestern Publishing, 1999) and professor of economics at Baylor University, describes a classis example of how spending someone else’s money distorts the decision making process.
Henderson writes about a documented case where a 70-year-old man suffering from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm was brought to the hospital and spent weeks in an intensive care unit. The bill approached $275,000, none of which was paid by the patient.
The man’s physician determined that poor eating caused by poorly fitting dentures caused his slow recovery. The doctor requested the hospital dentist perform the needed adjustments. Later the doctor discovered the man had not allowed the hospital dentist to perform the needed adjustments. When asked for a reason, the patient replied, “$75.00 is a lot of money.” Medicare would not pay for the adjustment, so it would have been an out of pocket cost.
The nations reliance on 3d party insurance is expensive and getting more so every year. The cost of health care and insurance coverage has been inflated many times over to cover the expense of having a 3rd party involved in the process.
Is it any wonder then, that programs that promise to return to the older model of patient choice and responsibility are increasingly more popular?
What started out with two doctors has grown into about 500,000 doctors and providers in all disciplines serving nearly 6,000,000 patients in all states. Even some of the largest insurance companies are venturing into the world of Consumer Driven Health Care, but their efforts look a lot like their insured plans with controls and “cost containment”. They just will never learn.
Compliments to Conrad F. Meier and Milton Friedman.
check out your AARP benefits
I PM'd to Aiole, but I thought all of us need a reminder to check out the benefits of belonging to AARP, especially if you are looking for group insurance. They insure thru United Healthcare, and one of the overlooked benefits of belonging to any group, fraternal or otherwise, is access to group health coverage (as well as many other things). You can sidestep underwriting issues because you're ina group. Also they offer car insurance. Best wishes to you.
AARP Policies
AARP does have good coverage but the cost goes up each year on their Health coverage. I started in 2004 at $129.00 and by 2007 it was $210.00. I talked to several other companies and found 1 with the same coverage line per line and the same benefits at quite alot less closer to what I started paying. This includes Drug coverage also. I still get my most expensive from Canada Drugs Pharmacy and ust my drug coverage for the $4.00 drugs from Walmart and Target. I also use them, Walmart and Target, if I need it now.
As far as car insurance it was $250 dollars less thru another company. I guess it pays to shop around and compare policies.
As far as car insurance it was $250 dollars less thru another company. I guess it pays to shop around and compare policies.
New to group
I've been in insurance for over 35 years with most of my experience in personal auto, home, and umbrella coverage. I worked in claims for 2 years. I'm hoping to bring my experience to this group and to keep learning new things
Insure your future 101
Money Talk: Let's talk insurance. The topics will range from reviewing your current policies -- life, auto, healthcare, disability, long-term care -- to determining your needs for the future. We'll also address the question of where annuities might fit into your retirement plan. Bring your experiences to the table and share them with other Eons members.
