Search found 22 matches

by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:18 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

To paraphrase a great American, "whole life insurance ain't got no mortality charges, Lieutenant Dan." This is another example of a Boglehead forum denizen (whose posts I've actually admired and respected for about five years now on another forum) not grasping the difference between WL and UL (which does have mortality charges). And this is an experienced producer! Now, that's a pretty fundamental misapprehension of how whole life is structured and built. But the fact remains that even the insurance professionals on this very board don't understand their own products. I guess that's a strike against the insurance industry as a whole, though. Now, all insurance has mortality expenses. And these show up as premiums for term, and as ...
by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:32 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

Mortality charges? Inwhole life?!?!?!

ROFL!!!!!
by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:41 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

Maybe. I'm open to ideas.

I know there are some very good products available in the brokerage channel.

My answers aren't out of sales material though. I never read that stuff. I hate our sales material, because it's so lawyered up and vague as to be useless. I've never seen material pass compliance that was actually much use.

I read the language in policies and contracts. Nothing else matters, and my clients very rarely see sales material.

I use factfinders, a legal pad and common sense. Emphasis on factfinding.

What do you think I would see differently if I left mother mutual?
by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:28 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

I think the life insurance on children question would be a good subject, but better dealt with in a separate thread.
by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:26 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

Pinnacle Point,

You are confusing variable life with whole life. Your investments within the VL policy didn't pan out. If you were a better investor, then your results would have been much better.

At any rate, BTID would not have saved you, because your investments would have performed poorly during that period of time whether they were in or out of a life insurance policy. Them's the breaks with variable life. You would have been better off in a WL policy, over that period of time.

Your experience, however, has ZERO to do with the OP.
by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:15 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Military Investing
Replies: 125
Views: 65533

[misleading "information" from banned insurance agent removed by admin alex]
by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:55 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

[ inflammatory remarks removed ] In the right circumstances, there's nothing wrong with using LI as a college accumulation vehicle on a young child. I can think of two reasons off the top of my head: self completion in the case of disability of the breadwinner, and the noncountability of assets for federal aid protection. I can think of two more: The possibility that a child will lose insurability and still eventually want to start a family and need life insurance, and the transferrability of the insured riders some carriers offer. You can disagree with it. But to call the strategy "evil?" That's a load of bovine scatology. See, I referred to the Boglehead community (really, the BTID community) as a 'cult,' and the mods had a prob...
by fiddlestyx
Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:13 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

red Very few of us have a need for permanent insurance. In the event that we don't, then BTID will almost always beat WL In other words, if there is no need for permanent insurance, then other strategies will beat permanent insurance. Oooh, there's an insight! The need for permanent insurance, though, is much more common than you may realize. Most insureds need insurance only until they can no longer self-insure. Huh? I presume you meant 'most insureds need insurance only until they can self-insure.' But I'd argue that there's no such thing as 'self-insure.' You either transfer risk from your own pocket to another or you don't. In permanent life insurance, the insurance and investing are combined. Nope. You could argue that with VUL, maybe...
by fiddlestyx
Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:21 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Military Investing
Replies: 125
Views: 65533

[misleading "information" from banned insurance agent removed by admin alex]
by fiddlestyx
Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:10 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

You can get a better death benefit for much less money with term life
.

I still don't see a crystal ball. Depending on when the insured dies, you may be able to get the same death benefit for much less money, or even have it net out for free, with a whole life policy.

Depending on when the insured dies, you may lose money with a term policy, even if you hang on to it long enough to collect a death benefit. Cumulative premiums will eventually outstrip the death benefit.
by fiddlestyx
Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:56 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

If the point is tax-advantaged college investment, 529 plans and series I savings bonds are tools that are intended to do that job. Not if the payor is disabled. They are not intended to do so. DI insurance is not neccessarily more cost-effective. A big chunk of that depends on the insured's occupation. Many won't be able to get decently priced LT DI at all, but will easily qualify for the disability waiver on LI. fiddlestyx wrote: Here's the rub: Whether the firm pays dividends or not, cash value, once credited to the whole life policy, does not go down. That in absolutely no way amounts to "zero downside risk." I would argue that it does precisely that, by definition. fiddlestyx wrote: *Because treasuries have downside risk, wh...
by fiddlestyx
Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:19 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Military Investing
Replies: 125
Views: 65533

Good post!

I'd add that once you separate, if you are in good health, VGLI isn't necessarily a good deal. It will pay to shop around for your life insurance.

You can get VGLI rates at VGLI.gov and compare them to others.

[comments aimed at trying to get career service members to buy long term care insurance deleted by admin alex. Poster is a banned insurance salesman]
by fiddlestyx
Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:01 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

Re - Whole life: It's a fixed product with a lower payout on account of the expenses. Oh? You know what the payout is going to be? I guess you have a contract out on the OP's life or something? No? Then you have no idea what the payout is going to be. Furthermore, there is no such thing as a guaranteed investment with no downside risk. Not even TBills are that safe . T-Bills are variable investments. Whole life insurance is not. I wouldn't characterize a whole life policy as an 'investment' per se, but other than that, WL is, indeed, a guaranteed vehicle with zero downside risk. Everything inside a WL policy is guaranteed, first by the issuing company (in this case, NY Life, backed by a AAA company), then by State law (up to a certain death...
by fiddlestyx
Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:03 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

disagree that they compare favorably to CDs. CDs are easy to understand. WL is not. That gives CDs a huge advantage right there.
[Inflammatory remark removed]

I don't think the OP is a qualified investor, in that regard.
by fiddlestyx
Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:44 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whole life Insurance as an investment for High Income Family
Replies: 73
Views: 11746

1.) Do you need or want life insurance? 2.) What's the mix of whole life/dividend option term the NY Life rep suggested? Do you understand how that works, and why? 3.) Do you believe income tax rates will be higher in your retirement years or lower? 4.) Is the total death benefit sufficient to keep your children in their own world if you or your spouse were to die? 5.) Will that be true even if the Variable Life policy takes a nose dive? (Chances are that the variable policy will nose dive at the same time your stock assets nose dive). 6.) If the face value on you and your spouse is sufficient, and accumulating funds for college is a key consideration, did you explore putting permanent insurance on the children? 7.) Is there a plan in place...
by fiddlestyx
Sat Jan 16, 2010 6:49 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Fixed annuity in place of Short Term Bonds?
Replies: 12
Views: 2689

Some single-premium hybrid life insurance/LTC policies are crediting well over 3%. Same with single-premium life insurance policies. Yeah, they're MECs by definition, but that just means they're treated like annuities, anyway.

Have you looked into anything like that?
by fiddlestyx
Sat Jan 16, 2010 5:56 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: anybody had experience with AXA Advisors aka AXA Equitable?
Replies: 53
Views: 34738

You mean just charge by the hour like other honest services? I'm not a huge fan of AXA (though the AXA agent who serviced my former employer was terrific). But this notion that anything in financial services must be charged 'by the hour' is just ridiculous. Ever bought a decent suit? Do you buy a suit by the hour? No. You buy a suit. The guy selling it to you earns a commission by adding value - making sure the suit matches your requirements, is well-tailored, is ready on time, ensures your questions are answered, gets your shoes shined, and works hard to earn your referrals because he adds value to the sale. Is the suit salesman dishonest because he earns a commission on the sale? No. That's just absurd. Some people do fine paying a fee. ...
by fiddlestyx
Sat Jan 16, 2010 8:35 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I want to contribute $15,000 to my Roth IRA
Replies: 31
Views: 4613

Edited to eliminate a double post.
by fiddlestyx
Sat Jan 16, 2010 8:35 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I want to contribute $15,000 to my Roth IRA
Replies: 31
Views: 4613

If you want to avoid being penalized by the financial aid system for being a diligent saver, it's easy. The FAFSA folks divide all assets into two categories: Countable and noncountable. There are two kinds of countable assets: Parental and nonparental assets, or child-owned assets. The latter are weighted more heavily against the student when calculating need-based financial aid. What you want to do is move as much as you can from the countable to the noncountable column. It's not hard to do, and telling you to spend more than you otherwise would on, say, laptops, cars, etc., is bad advice IMO. Obiously, you can't contribute more to the Roth than the law allows this year. But yes, your instincts are correct, the Roth IRA would be in the no...
by fiddlestyx
Sat Jan 16, 2010 8:07 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: anybody had experience with AXA Advisors aka AXA Equitable?
Replies: 53
Views: 34738

You can't be an advisor and be registered with FINRA?

That's a new one.


:roll:
by fiddlestyx
Sat Jan 16, 2010 8:00 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Fixed annuity in place of Short Term Bonds?
Replies: 12
Views: 2689

Is this for a lump sum? Or are you dumping money into it on a regular basis?
by fiddlestyx
Fri Jan 15, 2010 7:30 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio Help Needed -- very worried
Replies: 18
Views: 3218

If you are banking 3.5k/month in SAVINGS, you might not be eligible for the full IRA contribution, because you're making more than the income limits. Look before you leap. Don't know for sure because you haven't mentioned your income - deductions yet. If you like having a nice cash cushion, and you need life insurance, you might look at putting some of that cash to work for you in permanent life insurance, and/or the savings component in a high deductible health plan, potentially lowering health premiums and increasing cash flow for other things. Is there a reason you keep so much in cash/cash equivalents? Practical, emotional or otherwise? Is the wife on board with taking on more investment risk? Also, before you run pellmell to sell compa...