Are whole life policies a big rip off like I hear on the radio??

Question

I hear Dave Ramsey says these are a rip off and only do low cost term life insurance. I have a whole life policy with the Knights of Columbus and I might cash it out, but not sure.

Answer 1

Yes, I paid $50/month for my whole life policy ($600/year) for $75,000 in coverage. At the time I was a young healthy person.

Now 6 years later, I cashed it out (Only received $2200; I put in WAY more than that) and I bought $250,000 of term life for around $200 PER YEAR!!! If something happens to me, my husband and daughter will actually be ok now!

Dave Ramsey isn't the only financial adviser that doesn't like whole life insurance. Read Suze Orman, Money magazine, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, etc.

I suggest you don't cancel the whole life until you have a term life insurance policy.

Check out: http://www.zanderinsurance.com/ for a quote.

Answer 2

Life insurance, and insurance in general is a very complicated subject. Its hard to find an agent who will take the time to tell you everything about a policy because most people dont really understand insurance, and most agents have become jaded. ( I was a life agent, and left the business because health insurance is in such bad shape.)
BUT, you ask about whole life.... if you have had this policy for awhile, and it is for the face amount that you need, and the payment is affordable for you, then there is really no reason for you to cash it in. There are several reasons for this.

First of all, you were younger when you got the policy, probably with better health. If you cash it in today, you will be throwing away the equity, or cash value of the policy, which increases more in the later years of the policy.

Lets say you cashed it in now. You are older, ands the term policy will cost you more. Are you in excellent health, non smoker, preferred rate? Do you have a job that is safe? Any previous illnesses? All these things can affect if you get insurance and for how much. You could very well cash in your current policy and not be able to afford a term policy anyway becasue of age or health. Depending on your health or job, you may not get any insurance at all! For instance, people with dangerous jobs, like soldiers cant get life insurance!

Here is what you can do... shop around for term policies. Your best bet is to seek out an independent agent who sells insurance for numerous companies, not just one of the big guns, like Allstate. See what you can find that suits your needs, and have the agent do a preliminary application on you. He or she will be able to tell you what you can get. There are many companies who dont spend alot of money on advertising who have great rates and you could get a term policy to supplement what you already have, and then you can let the whole life build cash value.
Be sure the company has an A+ rating and has been in business for a long time successfully.
Do some math to see how much you will have paid when the policy reaches 20 years, and how much cash value it has compared to the face amount of the policy.

Good luck, and dont give up the whole life without a very good reason, and without putting in place a term policy with the same or better face amount for the same premium FIRST. You want to be protected, and those radio personalities make their money by upsetting the public. Get the facts before you react.

Answer 3

It's not a scam or a ripoff to have whole life.
But it really only fits a small number of people.
You have to back up and determine what is your purpose for life insurance.
If you are looking for an investment vehicle, you can almost always do better putting the money in some other investments.
If you need to have financial protection to replace income that would be lost if you were to die.....then you need life insurance.
For most people, you can get the best deal by buying a sufficient quantity of term life insurance...then use whatever you saved by buying term vs. whole life and invest a part of that.
Be diligent about investing and you will turn out the better.

One note about term....you have to pay all the time....you can't miss the premium payments or you lose the coverage.
(some whole life policies will let you use the cash accumulation you've built up to 'pay' the premiums and thus you don't have to pay the premiums at some point).

Also....you'll have to reconsider your need and the amount of coverage when the term is up....after 10, 20 or 30 years.....
If you were using it for income replacement....you may not need as much as you get older and pay for things like college and a house.

Answer 4

OK, the minority (all two of you) that are recommending dropping the WL are complete and utter idiots. Did you read the question? The insured has diabetes! Dear Neutralparty, Listen to the sane answers of the majority of the responses you've gotten. That term insurance policy that you have is only going to keep you covered for a while. If you purchased a 20 year level term policy you can expect your premiums to increase in year 21 by 500% or more, possibly much more. What these term pushers won't tell you is that 95% of term insurance never pays a death benefit because the policies are lapsed or replaced. Don't take this as a rant against term insurance. By all means, you need it. Just be sure to KEEP THE WL because it will be your husband's only coverage once the term policy is dropped. Also, stay away from anyone who tells you how much coverage you need by multiplying your income by an arbitrary number. And don't believe the Primerica hype, they aren't advisors, they are term insurance salespeople.

Answer 5

I think Golf Drivers (the golf club) are a rip off too. Just ask Phil Mikelson. His driver costs him a major championship.


Seriously, Whole Life and any Life insurance policy is a tool. It works well when used as intended. It works poorly in other situations.

Does Dave Ramsey or anyone on the radio know YOUR particular situation? NO! Neither does anyone on these message boards. You may have a special needs child so you will need permanent life insurance for your whole life. You may have a pension that disappears when you die leaving a spouse without that source of income. What if you die 2 weeks after retirement? These are just some of the reasons that people need and purchase permanent insurance.

Go talk to several licensed professionals in your area to determine what is best for YOU.

Good Luck

Answer 6

well, its not ethic to just swtich wholelife to termlife.

its depends on situtation. But the idea of whole life is when you are very very young, you can have a policy very cheap, and the payment will be the same throughout the years.

term life is for a segment of your life you need to protect the most. for example, a term life when you are in mortgage-debt, while children still young. You need a large coverage but lower cost.

Wholelife has its beauty, but term life agents are pushing only the negative points of wholelife. have 2 or 3 agents from different companies to take a look. See whats their opinion.

Answer 7

99% of whole life policies are rip-offs.

The other 1% are sold to rich individuals who have rather unique financial situations requiring certain tax and estate considerations.

You can decide for yourself which category you belong to.

The agents that sell policies to the rich people may very well be honest, people of high integrity and professional conduct. The agents selling to the other 99% are not. Again, you can decide.

Answer 8

HI, your friendly insurance guy here again.

Generally, I find that radio and TV shows tned to have some useful indeas, but only have each call-in listener or viewer on for a short period of time - WAY too short a time to adequately understand his or her needs and situation clearly. Ask any reputable licensed agent or broker and they'll tell you that we can get in a LOT of trouble for advising clients in real life the way they are advised on the radio. We have standards that must be met for finding suitable solutions for clients, etc, which require us to know more than 30 seconds of "backstory."

Also, each show host is biased towards his or her favorite methods. Some are biased towards real estate, some towards investments, and rarely, towards insurance. You're better off getting a good local advisor who will really do a solid case workup for you before offering direction and advice than listening to a radio show as your only guide.

Whole life is a specialized product only really appropriate in specific (and somewhat rare) situations. If someone already has a whole life policy in place, I generally do not tell them to replace it. First, it's generally a bad idea to replace existing coverage because it's already in force and you're covered by it. Replacing it generates a commission for whoever writes the new policy. If I have a client who has $100,000 of whole life but wants $200,000 of coverage, I'll generally consider helping them buy another $100,000 of whatever type is best for their case, rather than writing a brand new $200,000 policy and telling them to cancel what they already have.

MCBRATZ is correct when she says life insurance is a tool, not an investment, as is the poster below her. One example of a reason to use whole life is as a tool to pass wealth on to your inheritors while skipping nastythings like probate and estate taxes.

I'd normally recommend a good, guaranteed no-lapse, single premium UL policy or a whole life policy for those cases, depending on the situation.

To the poster who said that the policy either pays out the cash value OR the death benefit, but not both, I have to say that person is somewhat misrepresenting the situation.

Generally, the dividends paid to whole life policy owners (which are typically comprised of profit sharing, mortality savings, expense reduction and other factors) are used to buy paid up additions (meaning, they increase the face value along with the cash value). Thus, when you die, yes, the insurance company does not pay you the cash value - but the death benefit will typically have gone up substantially, so it's generally a relatively even trade-off.

So yes, technically you don't keep the "cash value" but you do get more insurance, so as long as the face value increases are substantial and approximate the cash value, what's the gripe?

Answer 9

Knights Of Columbus Life Insurance

Answer 10

Knights Of Columbus Insurance Reviews