re: Whole Life Insurance Lapse Rate

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To me, this is like saying the quality of the pitcher has no bearing on whether a hitter gets a hit or not, getting a hit is entirely within the control of the hitter.

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No. The reason I say it is a starting point is because projecting past results as a perfect indication of future results isn't wise.

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I believe that the high lapse ratio of WL is directly related to the aggressive salesmanship of agents who sell to people who are either too dumb to understand they should hold on to the policy forever, too dumb to realize what they are buying so they change their mind and drop it, or are too poor to afford it over their lifetime.

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Ah, finally, you've stumbled into the correct realization. People don't understand the product, agents are dishonest, and sell it to people who are not in the situation to need or afford it. Thank you for finally admitting it. None of this makes WL bad. It makes agents who don't do their job bad.

A much more accurate way to interpret the study (though i'll disagree with the overall number) is 80% of people shouldn't have been sold WL. Obviously this isn't an accurate number considering the most lapses are after year 10 when the lapse could be due to surrendering the policy for its cash.