Bill Boersma: On Life Insurance

Clients need to pay attention, as the world has changed
By Bill Boersma

In my ongoing effort to educate people on how life insurance works, I seek out new analogies and examples on a regular basis.

Along with others, I’ve written exhaustively about underperformance and management of life insurance. Charlie Ratner is fond of saying it isn’t underperforming, it’s under-explained. I completely agree. If your car runs out of gas and stops along the side of the road, is it really underperforming? Life insurance policies need gas, and if they don’t get it, they stop too. Fortunately no one at the dealership needs to explain this to society because a critical mass of people understand this and help educate others as they come along. For full post, click here…

Warn clients not to bail on policies.

An advisor recently called me regarding a client who has a $2.5 million second-to-die guaranteed universal life policy. The contract was put in force in 2012, so those who are familiar with the market understand that was near the bottom of the pricing curve. Nonetheless, the clients want to bail on this policy, purportedly due to the change in estate tax laws.

Given the fact that this policy is an unduplicable contract with a premium so relatively modest they probably can’t notice it, and noting the sunset provision and probable estate tax uncertainty moving forward, I’m not sure this is a wise choice, but it’s not for me to say. Maybe the kids have been ticking them off lately. For full post, click here…