Positive experiences with Life Insurance brokerages????

[kaiservontexas]

If you are Catholic join the KoC, they are financially doing well and a non-profit life insurance company to boot, which means lower overhead. Only advice I can give since I am a member and the only one I deal with. They also offer various packages.

[JackOSU]

State Farm has a clause that allows for a variable premium over the life of the term, which I do not like.

Not sure where you got this information, but it's not true. Your rate is locked in for the agreed upon term.

[JackOSU]

[QUOTE=Left Sig;529207]
Avoid any insurance company that also does P&C (Property & Casualty, i.e. car, home, etc.) - stick with one that specializes in life insurance. You will get an agent that knows the product better because of the specialization. Also avoid companies that are stock based - stick with mutual companies.
QUOTE]

This is asinine. I will grant you that there are many bad agents out there. I deal with and compete with them every day, but to label all that also happen to sell P&C as not up to snuff with someone who only sells life is just wrong. I can probably name as many "financial advisor" or pure "life insurance" agents out there that are just as bad as agents who sell all products in the insurance market. An agent who knows his shit can work anywhere. Those that sell the other products usually have serveral staff member who worry about the P&C and service work while they solely work on the financial services and big life cases solely.

[Left Sig]

[QUOTE=JackOSU;529345]

Avoid any insurance company that also does P&C (Property & Casualty, i.e. car, home, etc.) - stick with one that specializes in life insurance. You will get an agent that knows the product better because of the specialization. Also avoid companies that are stock based - stick with mutual companies.
QUOTE]

This is asinine. I will grant you that there are many bad agents out there. I deal with and compete with them every day, but to label all that also happen to sell P&C as not up to snuff with someone who only sells life is just wrong. I can probably name as many "financial advisor" or pure "life insurance" agents out there that are just as bad as agents who sell all products in the insurance market. An agent who knows his shit can work anywhere. Those that sell the other products usually have serveral staff member who worry about the P&C and service work while they solely work on the financial services and big life cases solely.

Just because you disagree with my opinion, doesn't make it asinine. My opinion is based on my experience, and was provided in response to the OP. If you disagree, fine, say so without insults.

Based on your previous post it appears you represent State Farm. I happen to be a State Farm customer for Car, Home, and Liability. But I went with Northwestern Mutual for life insurance and financial planning - a company much more highly rated than State Farm for these products.

I've had enough clueless P&C (and even dedicated life) agents trying to sell me investment and retirement products that they clearly had little experience with, and minimal ability to answer basic financial questions in the terms commonly used by financial professionals that aren't insurance agents. All they knew was the script.

Not saying that's how you are, but that's my experience and that's what I recommended.

If you do represent State Farm, you might want to think twice about how you speak to your company's customers online or in any other forum.

[signal4l]

I have purchased 2 policies through Select Quote. Fill out the onlie application and wait for the call. I would shop around first with SF, Met Life, etc. When I did this Select Quote offered a better deal.

[SHIVAN]

Not sure where you got this information, but it's not true. Your rate is locked in for the agreed upon term.

http://www.statefarm.com/insurance/l.../term/term.asp

"Adjustable premiums:Term life insurance policies have adjustable premiums. This means that State Farm may raise or lower premiums at some point specified in the policy based on projected changes of investment earnings, mortality experience, persistency, and expenses. However, premiums may never be raised above the maximum premiums stated in the policy."

Would you like to temper your, "it's not true" comment?

[Left Sig]

I have purchased 2 policies through Select Quote. Fill out the onlie application and wait for the call. I would shop around first with SF, Met Life, etc. When I did this Select Quote offered a better deal.

Remember that the best policy is not necessarily the one that costs the least, it's the one that you can be sure will be paid when the time comes. Financial condition of the insurance company is a huge consideration now given what has happened to the financial industry. You don't want your carrier going belly up and then having to settle for whatever a state-level life insurance guaranty fund might provide.

AIG writes life and almost went out of business due to horrendously bad risk management in other parts of the company. Even though the life branch was reasonably well managed the whole thing would have collapsed without the massive taxpayer funded bailout. If AIG had been allowed to fail, where would their life customers be?

If your car insurance company fails, no big deal, just find another one. Life and disability are different because they are based on your age when the policy is written.

[JackOSU]

[QUOTE=Left Sig;530639]

Just because you disagree with my opinion, doesn't make it asinine. My opinion is based on my experience, and was provided in response to the OP. If you disagree, fine, say so without insults.

Based on your previous post it appears you represent State Farm. I happen to be a State Farm customer for Car, Home, and Liability. But I went with Northwestern Mutual for life insurance and financial planning - a company much more highly rated than State Farm for these products.

I've had enough clueless P&C (and even dedicated life) agents trying to sell me investment and retirement products that they clearly had little experience with, and minimal ability to answer basic financial questions in the terms commonly used by financial professionals that aren't insurance agents. All they knew was the script.

Not saying that's how you are, but that's my experience and that's what I recommended.

If you do represent State Farm, you might want to think twice about how you speak to your company's customers online or in any other forum.

First off let the record show that I did not "insult" you as you have described. You gave your opinion and I gave mine. I think we were agreeing somewhat to the same thing. In the end the facts are the facts. There are great and horrible agents, financial advisors and solely life agents out there. There is no one "right" answer to the OP's question, but you based on your experience painted incorrect facts with a broad brush if you will.

I do not work for State Farm and they do not pay me. I do however have quite a bit of knowledge on this, but I will not elaborate on how/why for personal/professional reasons. Even if I was a State Farm employee I think you need to calm down with getting so offended about an insult that wasn't even made in the first place. You also have to remember that this is an online forum and being a customer of a State Farm agent in a completely different state has nothing to do with the facts. You are by the way with a very solid and financially sound company for your P&C needs.

[JackOSU]

http://www.statefarm.com/insurance/l.../term/term.asp

"Adjustable premiums:Term life insurance policies have adjustable premiums. This means that State Farm may raise or lower premiums at some point specified in the policy based on projected changes of investment earnings, mortality experience, persistency, and expenses. However, premiums may never be raised above the maximum premiums stated in the policy."

Would you like to temper your, "it's not true" comment?

While I think you had the correct intentions the overall issued is skewed. I do not retract my "it's not true' statement because I know I'm correct. No personal attack was meant in my words just merely letting the OP know. My apologies if this came off the wrong way. This online policy statement does not mean that once you have accepted the terms of the policy and pay your premiums the company will change your rates. This is absolutely against the law and you could sue the hell out of them or any company.

The process works like this. You would sit down with said agent of this company. Once you both come to an agreement on things you apply for the policy at a certain rate and if you wish to bind coverage you will pay premiums. This by law has bound the policy to a certain extent since money has changed hands. You will then be called by an independent company who will ask you a series of preliminary questions about smoking, family medical history etc. You will then be called to schedule your medical exam performed by a third party vendor.

Once the lab has all needed info they send that to the underwriting department with in the said company for their underwriters to evaluate and issue the policy at the rate you qualify for. If this happens to be worse than what you applied for you must sign the Amendment form in person agreeing to the rate you have been qualified for per underwriting. This is part of your 14 day free look period where you can accept or decline and get a refund for all monies that exchanged hands in full. Once the policy is issued and things are wrapped up said company can NOT by law change any rates or pricing agreed upon by both parties.

The language that you have cited refers to the said company at any time being able to change rates accordingly to be profitable and maintain a very high rating level and continue to be able to pay off all policies if worse case scenario occurred, but not in the middle of the contract period. It is just like auto and homeowners insurance. Said company cannot raise your rates in the middle of your 6 month or annual renewal. They can however change the rates after the policy you agreed upon after the 6 month or yearly contract has been fullfilled. You can either agree to the proposal by paying the premiums for your new renewal or go elsewhere.

So in a nutshell once you have locked in the rate for the life policy it IS locked in for the agreed upon timeframe. Yes, once that 10 or 20 year term is over they can make the rates whatever they want to. Let's say you went in tomorrow and wanted to buy a policy. You are given a quote. You discuss things with the agent or whomever it may be. You apply for the policy. Once the underwriting is finished and you have paid the premiums they cannot change the agreed upon amount. It's clearly listed in the contract. I've read the entire thing before myself.

They however can change the rates etc up to things being finalized. Mainly it's a dislaimer on their website to inform you that rates will change just like in any industry based on mortality tables and what the acturaries have determined the best route at their corporate office for success.

[JackOSU]

Remember that the best policy is not necessarily the one that costs the least, it's the one that you can be sure will be paid when the time comes. Financial condition of the insurance company is a huge consideration now given what has happened to the financial industry. You don't want your carrier going belly up and then having to settle for whatever a state-level life insurance guaranty fund might provide.

AIG writes life and almost went out of business due to horrendously bad risk management in other parts of the company. Even though the life branch was reasonably well managed the whole thing would have collapsed without the massive taxpayer funded bailout. If AIG had been allowed to fail, where would their life customers be?

If your car insurance company fails, no big deal, just find another one. Life and disability are different because they are based on your age when the policy is written.

This is great advice. Most folks want the best deal on price they can find. It's very sad to see those that think they are getting one policy, but are not informed of the fine print or do not think to read things before they finalize things. I have seen the ads in papers and infomercials on the radio forever stating things like " I got a man aged 40 with high blood pressure a $500k policy for 20 years a policy for $35/month". This is completely crazy. Any company that did this truly would be out of business real soon if everyone on their books died at once. The biggest thing is the rate is usually only good for 10 of a 20 year policy and there are so many death and dismemberment clauses in there you are basically screwed unless you die a certain way.