June 16, 2012

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE INSURANCE TURMOIL


road to nowhereCompanies change in undesirable ways. These articles are from this week:

Insurance

Earlier, we learned that
This week, there have been important changes in the Canadian life and health insurance business

Why?

We've looked at the challenges in the insurance world before: low investment returns, tough capital requirements.

Increasing rates is easy since competitors are now quick to follow. Exiting a market is a much tougher decision.

SACRED

No company has announced major reductions in advisor compensation to dampen the price hikes. That’s tough for one company to implement. Since most advisors are independent, they'd simply start selling products from other companies.

Now

What proactive advice has your advisor given you?

If you have term life insurance, maybe now's the time to exercise your option to convert to permanent protection without underwriting.

If you have savings in your permanent policy, when's the last time you got an updated projection to show how your policy is performing? You may need to add more money or adjust your investment choices or both.

You may want to add more coverage or more types of coverage while you can. Newer products tend to have higher prices and fewer guarantees. Newer products may have more tough-to-evaluate gimmicks to increase the perceived value.

The Future

Permanent life insurance has attractive tax advantages. The rules haven't changed since 1982. The 2012 federal budget is making changes that reduce the benefits.
A detailed discussion of the proposals is … better explained by an  actuary. --- FORUM (Jun/Jul 2012)
Please don’t ask me.

Permanent insurance helps you plan for the future decades in advance. However, insurers can't predict the future. When changes occur, they take corrective action.

Reality

You can't see the future no matter how much financial planning your advisor does for you. Maybe it's time to make your own hard decisions.

In times of turmoil, you see how well your advisor is serving you. This doesn't mean trying to sell you something new and shiny. This means contacting you to ensure you remain well protected.

You buy insurance for peace of mind ... or did.

Links

Podcast 173


direct download | Internet Archive page | iTunes

PS Don’t panic. Take action instead.

1 comment:

  1. Life insurance can be very intimidating to someone that has never bought
    it before. It can easily lead to information overload because of all of
    the resources available. If you think,why do I need it? with sort of negligence, I hope, things do not go worse, before you find the answer.

    ReplyDelete