Whole Life... Why Not to Love It?

[Larry Tew]

Yungstar, I know you're getting a charge out of stirring the pot, but I have one question for you, and one question only. I'll be happy to treat you with professionalism and courtesy IF you answer my question...

What do you tell your prospects to invest in? Be specific and tell me exactly as you would tell your prospect. What financial product and what should I expect as a rate of return?

If you can't or won't answer the question then you really don't have the courage of your conviction and are here to see if you can rile up a bunch of real agents.

What's your answer?

 

[Norwayguy]

I have no problem with selling term. The question is why would you not sell a term policy that has a lower premium and the option to convert in case 30 years from now they still have need for coverage and they are no longer as healthy?

 

[yungstar]

your approval is far from needed we invest in different mutual funds there is not a specific one growth equity moderate growth theres different funds that apply to different people
if you research the theory of responsibility then you would realize that people dont need life insurance their entire life IF they invest with the right people and not the ones that try to rip off the consumer for a high commission apparently like my current head strong audience i didnt try to stir the pot its a bunch of bad people trying to justify how ripping people off is a good thing Which one of you would pay 500 a month to have nothing the first 1-4 years or borrow your money from a policy that you are paying for or willingly give up a savings account that you have been paying for your WHOLE LIFE i didnt think so

 

[goillini52]

your approval is far from needed we invest in different mutual funds there is not a specific one growth equity moderate growth theres different funds that apply to different people
if you research the theory of responsibility then you would realize that people dont need life insurance their entire life IF they invest with the right people and not the ones that try to rip off the consumer for a high commission apparently like my current head strong audience i didnt try to stir the pot its a bunch of bad people trying to justify how ripping people off is a good thing Which one of you would pay 500 a month to have nothing the first 1-4 years or borrow your money from a policy that you are paying for or willingly give up a savings account that you have been paying for your WHOLE LIFE i didnt think so

Nice run-on sentence! That just might be the longest sentence I've ever seen!

 

[DHK]

That's okay. You just keep thinking what you're thinking and keep drinking that Kool-Aid.

I'd recommend finding out more about permanent products or ANY financial product and ask "In what situations would these products make sense?" Instead of classifying everything as a "rip-off".

BTW, Mutual Funds... are a rip-off. There are no guarantees with mutual funds. And you don't understand the sequence of returns scenario that would explain why so many people lost 50% of their investments in 2008... and had to delay their retirement plans.

In addition, I would never take investment or insurance advice from anyone who can't bother with proper capitalization or punctuation in their writing. It shows that they can't and don't bother with details.

----------

Which one of you would pay 500 a month to have nothing the first 1-4 years

You don't know how to structure a policy. And that sounds like a cheap policy to me. You don't know what I know.

or borrow your money from a policy that you are paying for

You don't know the power in this strategy. However, since you already think the base policy is expensive... you are already blinded to these possibilities because of the indoctrination and brainwashing you have already received.

or willingly give up a savings account that you have been paying for your WHOLE LIFE i didnt think so

Never heard of death benefit "option B" on a universal life policy, huh?

The cash surrender value is the amount that secures the death benefit for the insured. Without reserves, insurance companies cannot issue insurance and pay claims. You just get the legal access to borrow or surrender these funds (with the resulting decrease of death benefits). This is called "non-forfeiture" rights that were granted in the late 1800's in regards to life insurance policy values.

You should take a look at the FDIC website and look at various banks that purchase BOLI (Bank Owned Life Insurance). Ask yourself this: If this product is such a rip-off... why does Bank of America own so much of it?

----------

BTW, it's YOUR kind of thinking that has encouraged the boom in the Senior marketplace and buying "Final Expense" policies.

If term made the most sense... then why are so many seniors buying life insurance?

If Seniors are buying life insurance (in record numbers too)... then why didn't they buy more, for the SAME price when they were younger?

Wouldn't that make better financial sense?

Wouldn't it make more sense to have purchased a permanent plan when younger and build up some cash values with the same money?

----------

your approval is far from needed we invest in different mutual funds there is not a specific one growth equity moderate growth theres different funds that apply to different people

And what is your investment criteria for picking mutual funds? Do you do a comparison of alpha, beta, r-squared, traynor, and sharpe ratios? Where on the scattergram of investment returns (compared to an appropriate benchmark) do you recommend clients look for a greater return and less volatility?

if you research the theory of responsibility then you would realize that people dont need life insurance their entire life IF they invest with the right people

The more times you say 'if'... the less you are talking about insurance, promises, protection, and guarantees.

So, how do you pick "the right people"? (Or are they just all the mutual funds that your B/D makes available to you because "they did all the due-diligence"?

 

[deadhead]

DHK, will you be my insurance agent?

 

[rousemark]

your approval is far from needed we invest in different mutual funds there is not a specific one growth equity moderate growth theres different funds that apply to different people
if you research the theory of responsibility then you would realize that people dont need life insurance their entire life IF they invest with the right people and not the ones that try to rip off the consumer for a high commission apparently like my current head strong audience i didnt try to stir the pot its a bunch of bad people trying to justify how ripping people off is a good thing Which one of you would pay 500 a month to have nothing the first 1-4 years or borrow your money from a policy that you are paying for or willingly give up a savings account that you have been paying for your WHOLE LIFE i didnt think so

You can't be that uninformed.. If they are as successful as you claim they can be, they will need life insurance more than ever as a part of their estate plan.

Even if that is not true, are you willing to guarantee the amount of money that will be available when needed, no matter when that need occurs if they invest based upon your recommendation since apparently you are one of the "right people" that will not rip them off?

If my grandson buys from you and invest exactly the way you recommend, will you guarantee that his death will not occur and his family need the money at a time that the market has tanked and the amount of his investment is not severely reduced?

Are you aware that the people that own the most permanent life insurance as a percentage of their income and/or assets are high net worth individuals.. The very type of people you are telling your clients you will make them into if they will just listen to you?

I have been around since the Art Williams days and guess what, I have written many applications on folks who got to the end of their term and suddenly realized they still needed life insurance.

 

[Cornelius]

Youngstar what exactly is the rip off going on with the "cash value" policies? Is it the cost per face amount? If so you seriously have to consider the pricing of the products you offer compared to what's offered by other carriers. It's basically the same argument.

You also mention BTID. What exactly do you have to offer that others can't? As for income potential it's great you make whatever you make but what you have to understand is you have a specific target market and some agents can make what you make in a year or more with one transaction.

As for the ALW comparison those days are long gone. Back then ALW was the only game in town but today it's much different. Just consider back in those day from what I was told ALW had a field force of over 200,000 strong yet today with all the recruiting that has gone on over the years I have read that the field force hovers around between 90K-100K.

IMO Primerica isn't a bad company out to scam people but if you plan to make Primerica your home it might be a good idea to not debate on message boards because at some point you will have to research for facts rather than hype.

Once you do some research on the industry and the available options with the license(s) you may have the closer you may be toward the door.

 

[xrac]

ok let me break it down for the slow ones i made about 20k my first year 80 my second and over 100 my third so its a little more than 33k a year genius next primerica is the only company in this entire industry of crooks that only sells buy term and invest the difference so it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out just someone that knows how to calculate the cost of insurance and read a packet that is supposed to guarantee your family wont suffer when something happens to you does that clear things up dead brain?

Would you please care to post your 1099. Pardon me but I am skeptical.

 

[BNTRS]

As someone who attended a Primerica pep rally once (sort of) and had a chance to speak with the grand poobah of the hive I have a few thoughts.

If buy term and invest the difference is the way to go and permanent life insurance is evil because of it's expenses, then it's pretty reasonably to assume that the term we buy should be purchased with price in mind (i.e. as low priced as possible so that we may maximize investment dollars).

I've been selling term insurance (and permanent insurance) for a while now. Whenever someone wants to talk term, I typically skip on over to compulife's consumer web site and run a quote. In all the years I've done this, I've never once seen Primerica land in the top 10 (I don't even think in the top 20). In fact I've often seen the mutuals (well known for their pricey term insurance) come in well under Primerica pricing.

Now, I've also not met that many Primerica agents who were particularly good at the investment side. In fact, the General Agent (or whatever they are called at Primerica) tried to tell me that capital appreciations of muni bonds were also tax free (lol!). Given this, I'm not convinced that your kind espouses BTID because you really believe in its implementation (I'm sure some of you do) but rather embrace it out of convenience.

You see, there's a market for replacing life insurance. I used to work with a company out of Florida that would call business owners and tell them that they should talk to me about their current life insurance because there was a good chance they were getting screwed (oh the young punk days). For those with permanent products, it would have been mighty easy for me to tell them they didn't need to spend all that money on permanent life insurance, and that they should just buy term and invest the difference. I'm quite sure the majority of them could have been persuaded, not because that information was correct, but because they had no idea what they had.

So I don't buy the crusade BS. You're all the same tin-foil-hat rabble-rousers in my experience. I and many others here have forgotten more about personal investing and the equities and bond markets than most of you will ever know. And I and many others here have probably written more in trade tickets than you and your office ever will.

Your version of buy term and invest the difference is merely a replacement schtick evidence by the fact that:

1. You were unwilling to elaborate at all about what investment strategies might make sense.

2. You've conveniently ignored numerous claims already that what you sell is near criminally expensive all the while deriding permanent insurance for its fees.

3. Your vitriol, it's necessary to perpetuate the illusion your company has been trying to build for years about how corporate insurance America is just out to screw everyone

4. The vast majority of you aren't securities licensed.

You can't compete term for term so you choose to compare your term insurance to whole life insurance premiums, and you market it most often to the lower 5th of society.


PS: When I was at the pep rally Mr. Misinformation-in-Chief told everyone there not to worry about Citi Stock as it would return to its pre 2007 free-fall days and greatly exceed it. It's been over 5 years since that day, and I'm still waiting.