Advice on life insurance whole/term, company,

I used to have my license and sold L&H insurance

DO NOT GET WHOLE

GET TERM

You need term as a hedge to not being around for your money making years. 20 year would be enough as your daughter would be 26 at term. If you are going to have more kids, maybe 30 year.

There is a lot more than life insurance to make sure she is taken care of though. Make sure to talk to talk to a lawyer and get your estate planning done.

Wills
Trusts
Financial & Medical Powers of Attorney
Directive to Physician ("Living Wills")
Survivorship Agreements
Transfer on Death Deeds
Etc.

Whatever you do, think long term. I was recommended by an agent to go with a 20 year term when my first child was born.

As a parent, you're on the hook for much longer than 20 years.

I'd like to kick that agent in the nuts today.

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Also don’t forget that each state has different Medicare look back requirements. Louisiana is 5 years. If you or your parents have to go into assisted living you would have to pay your own way with whatever money it assets is in your name. You’ll need to “donating” your assets to your children 5 years before going into assisted living or a nursing home. Same holds true if you have elderly parents. Get it all in your name to protect your and your children’s inheritance.

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Excellent point, we just did this a few years back with my MIL in TN.

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I checked out Ethos prices online looking for a cheaper than Lemonade replacement or an addl policy to stack. Pretty cheap prices but I decided against signing up. Their app process was a bit longer and more detailed and info popped up about old medications and medical conditions that I’d long forgotten about. A Rep called me before 9am the following morning to sign me up and have texted and emailed me almost daily reminding me that “my quote is about to expire”. Aggravating company and had to finally block their texts.

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I worked for them once. Their prices are outrageously expensive and you can literally get the same exact policies from the same exact companies at other brokers for 10x cheaper. And yes, management makes those agents send those aggravating arse texts constantly. I quit working for them because they're a terrible employer and treat their customers like idiots.

You should check out selectquote or policygenius and if you're healthy, buy a TERM policy from Corebridge (AIG), Pacific Life, or Banner Life. You can't go wrong with either of those companies and if you're healthy, you'll get a very cheap rate. Do NOT let them talk you into buying a permanent policy (policygenius will try to do this but tell them you're not buying unless you can buy a term policy, remain strong).

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You can contact Zander insurance. They shop around different companies and can get you the best price.

Dave Ramsey

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Bottom line: shop a broker not named Ethos. Ethos will have much higher pricing than you'll get anywhere else. You want to shop with a legitimate broker like Zander, Policygenius, or SelectQuote. Either of those should be able to get you pretty much the same price with the major carriers, which would be the same price you'd get by going directly to the carrier itself except you'll save a lot of time by using one of these brokers. These three brokers are very legitimate and will take care of you.

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OK. here's a follow up. you bought your 20 or 30 yr term, now the term is up and you're in your late 50's. Now what? that same policy is sky high expensive but you've still got 11 yrs left on a small mortgage (2.125%) and hopefully many yrs left to live.
yes, savings could easily pay of the house but wouldn't want to.

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This is precisely why you should buy term and not permanent. By buying term, you're going to have more of your monthly income to save and invest over those 20 or 30 years. This means that if something were to happen to you with 11 years left on a small mortgage balance, your savings and investments will be enough for your surviving family to cover the rest of your mortgage, thus not having to suffer without your income. Suddenly the income they're losing by burying you is wayyyy less impactful than it was before they paid off the remaining mortgage balance.

You cover the majority of (or all of) your working years with term coverage and you still invest throughout the life of that policy so you can use the policy as an emergency payout in the event something happens to you between point A and point B of your life.

For two of our policies we have return of premium term insurance. This basically returns every penny you spent on insurance over the course of the term should you not die.
Both my wife and I will get a decent size check when we turn 67 years old that is a nice lump sum that is tax free. It becomes another basket for retirement funds.

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There's got to be some kind of catch otherwise everyone who wanted insurance would do this.

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The catch is that the insurance company made all the earnings on investing that extra premium instead of the customer.
Almost nobody does this because the insurance company makes all the earnings on investing that extra premium instead of the customer .


Those premiums are much higher than regular term coverage for a reason. The higher cost still allows the insurance company to remain "rate adequate", meaning they're able to actuarily make enough money off the policy to justify paying out the death benefit if you die, while still returning the premium to you if you don't die. They can return the premium to you if you don't die because they charged so much extra for it that the investment earnings off it made it worth it for the company. The impression is that both parties win but the reality is that only the insurance company wins in this case because the customer could have bought cheaper flat term coverage and invested the difference and still made out better but they didn't, instead they just gave all that money to the insurance company to invest instead.