The CEO of a Denver based company contacted me today. He was shopping for life insurance and because he was a private pilot with almost no current flight time, as in none for 4 years, he was getting quotes that were through the roof. When you need millions in life insurance and companies want to charge a flat extra, well, it’s just not pretty.

The client had mentioned that he had an old buy/sell policy for a lot more than he needed and wanted to replace that with a  smaller personal policy. I asked him when the guaranteed level term was up on his buy/sell policy. He dug it out and it turned out that the policy had a guaranteed level premium for another year and a half. I suggested he contact the company and ask them to do a face value reduction to the amount he needed and change the beneficiaries to his family and then use that year and a half to get the current hours needed to get a new policy at preferred plus rates with no flat extra.

I have to admit that when I get a call or email from an executive wanting a substantial policy I drool a bit. I love helping people above everything else but paydays are really cool too. But Buyer Beware. This man had just been through several agents including the one that does all of his company insurance and none of them suggested this wasn’t the right time to buy. They all quoted him new insurance at huge rates. It’s that instant gratification thing. Far too often agents can’t  or won’t put off a payday for a year or two even when it’s obviously the best thing for the client. Is there any question how one of those agents would feel if they caught someone doing that to them?

The same do unto others backslide happens a lot of times when people’s health has gone severely downhill and their term policy is running out of guaranteed level premium. I have talked to a lot of clients over the years who had agents trying to sell them new term policies that were highly rated, borderline decline, when the customer is sitting there with a policy that could be converted to permanent coverage at preferred or preferred plus rates. When you throw that kind of gap in the rate classes suddenly permanent coverage can be less expensive than term insurance. The agents that go that direction seem especially clueless since they could just volunteer to do the conversion if it’s a company they can get appointed with and make a decent payday with no underwriting. But they also need to be honorable enough to give the same advice even when they won’t make a dime because they can’t get the appointment needed to do the conversion.

Bottom line. Life is full of opportunities for life insurance agents to give the wrong advice just to make a buck. If they are busy there are probably opportunities every day, but what you give, you get. What goes around comes around. Do unto others and rest assured it will be done unto you. If you have any question at all about whether your current policy can cover your current situation without changing, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.