Bill Boersma: On Life Insurance

Dear Mr. Client:

It was a pleasure to speak with you last week and I appreciate the opportunity to review your life insurance policy. Per our discussion, this note is intended to be a follow up summary of our conversation. If there is any additional information you were looking for which I have forgotten to include, or if you have questions about what I have written, please do not hesitate to get back with me.

Your $1,000,000 was originally an Alexander Hamilton policy which was acquired by Jefferson Pilot and subsequently merged with Lincoln Financial. Though I do not have the original sales ledgers, the original premium of $13,750 was likely calculated to maintain the policy indefinitely given the interest crediting and expenses assumption in play at the time the policy was issued in 1995.

Since that time interest rates have come down significantly; probably 300 basis points or more. For full post, click here…

Last week, I was contacted by an agent with whom I’ve had a long-term relationship regarding a question from a client. The client is a gentleman who’s the surviving insured on a $1 million second-to-die policy and he’s very old. His policy has little cash value and it may or may not last as long as he will without throwing a lot more money at it. In fact, next year the policy has no cash value and it’ll lapse in four years.

What initiated the call was something the client received from the carrier. It was an “Enhanced Cash Surrender Value” opportunity. The bottom line is that the insurance carrier is offering the policy owner a chance to surrender the contract for more money than the cash surrender value and, in this case, more than the gross policy cash value. For full post, click here…