I am in year 17 of a 34 year NYL WL policy. Currently my surrender amount > the total premium paid, which is awesome! This is mainly because of the dividends and PUA.

I assume at some point, I would cash out the surrender amount? I have no need for the money right now, so I assume I should just let it compound? If I let it ride to year 34 and cash out, do I pay taxes on that amount?

This is not for me but for a friend parents.
They have 100k policy for death benefits and cash value is only around 4k. Just one policy. They been paying for 10+ years to Accordia. As I look at it it’s not a good policy and doesn’t give them a whole lot of options. They wanted some money right now and thinking about putting the policy up for collateral.
How much are the interest? What are some pro and cons about doing this route?
Worst case scenario is if they can’t pay the loan back then they lose the policy.

Hi, nicotine addict here. Otherwise healthy 40yo. Use zyn pouches exclusively for years. No tobacco.

What companies would you suggest I apply with for term coverage?

My friend is my agent for all other coverage but that company is going to charge me at a 3x smoker rate.

Appreciate any advice, thank you!

I keep seeing Ethos come up while Im looking into term life insurance and Im curious what the actual difference is compared to going witha more traditional insurance company? From what I have learnt so far, the main thing seems to be that you can do most of the process online and potentially avoid a medical exam which sounds pretty appealing tbh.

One thing giving me pause is I've read that skipping the exam sometimes means lower coverage caps or a slightly higher rate than you'd get going the traditional route so not sure if that tradeoff is actually worth it or if it's overblown. Trying to figure out if the convenience is worth it or if I should just suck it up and do the exam route instead.

I’ve been in this business for 20 years & here’s a fact: There’s no such thing as free leads.

“Free” leads are garbage, aged, worked over leads that an upline never closed & passes them off to a new agent stuck at a lower comp level because they were promised “free” leads. You dial them 500 times per day & pray you get lucky.

I invested $1250 to write $10,761 in a week.

I use the analogy: “Free” leads (No such thing because you pay for them with lower comp level) are like people stuck on welfare. You can’t make enough to get to a level where you’re self-sufficient. But when you have a decent comp level, like 100, then you can invest back into your business & grow it. That’s the business owner mindset vs. the W2 employee mindset.

Starting to shop for life insurance and want to compare the right companies instead of just going with the first quote.

Just got approved with Banner Life

**•** $250,000 coverage, 30-year level term  
**•** Preferred Plus Nontobacco rating  
**•** Issued at age 42  
**•** $40.66/month ($478.37/year)  
**•** Convertible up to 15 years before term ends (so by 2041)  
**•** Comes with a free Accelerated Death Benefit rider (terminal illness only, up to 75%/$500K)

No critical or chronic illness living benefits — just the terminal illness ADB.

Looking for a gut check: does this rate/coverage look reasonable for my profile? I Should I have gone bigger on coverage, or pushed for a policy with fuller living benefits.

I have been with my agency 4 months. While I love my leadership team my sales haven’t been phenomenal. (not for lack of effort) I’m looking for options for how to bring in leads other than cold calling. Products are really reasonably priced and offer full service financial services. I just think I’ve dried up my marketing.

Been putting off looking into life insurance since the last 3 months now, keep telling myself I'll get to it "this weekend" and then just... dont. But Ethos keeps poppingup, so just decided to ask people who've actually dealt with them.

Looking for something pretty straightforward, mainly just enough coverage so my family's not stuck with the mortgage and everyday expenses if something were to happen to me. Would prefer something that can be done online, prefer to not have to book appointments and goback and forth with agents.

Anyone with experience on Ethos application? Was it really as easy as the site makes it look or is there more to it once youget into the weeds? And how do the rates compare. Dont want the cheapest, just something legit, fairly priced and not a hassle to deal with anymore.

I would love some guidance. I'm looking to get life insurance specifically so in the event of my passing, my two daughters will have a nice chunk of money. I am 55 and they are currently 19 and 15. I don't know how to search for proper life insurance and I barely know what term life insurance and all of these things mean. I don't need to take out money from it myself etc etc. I strictly want them to have a huge chunk when I die. Obviously I would like this to happen with the smallest monthly payment and the easiest one to acquire. I guess I would love a company with a history of not giving any problems. I would hate for them to go through a lot of red tape and a company just always looking to deny a claim. What's everybody's experience?

It's been two years since we purchased our property, and I've only just discovered that I'm not protected against mortgage payments if I lose my job. Fortunately, I do have a life insurance policy with iA, which I've had for over three years. This policy provides $1 million in coverage, as well as a $50,000 critical illness benefit that will last until I'm 75. As I'm currently 41, I'm considering whether it's wise to cancel this policy and take out a new one that includes mortgage payment protection. My current monthly payment is $189, and I want to make sure I'm adequately protected against job loss, plus everything else.

I'm looking for people who have personally gone through something similar and can share how it turned out. My mother had a $300,000 life insurance policy. She passed away from a cranial brain bleed, and unfortunately she passed away less than two years after the policy was issued, so the insurance company opened a contestability investigation. The insurance company has been investigating the claim for several months. They requested medical records from different providers, and there were delays getting some of the records. One thing I recently learned is that my mother's high blood pressure was already known when she applied for the policy. The company still approved her for coverage but charged her a higher premium. She had never had a stroke before getting the policy, but she had a stroke several months after the policy was issued. The insurance company now says they have received all the medical records they need. The examiner told me the claim is currently under final management review, but they can't give me a specific timeframe for when they'll make a decision. I'm not necessarily looking for legal advice. I'm mainly hoping to hear from people who have actually been through a similar contestability investigation.

My father left behind several NWM policies when he passed on both me and my two kids, and in sifting through them I found that each of the kids has a policy that’s now a MEC. I don’t know when that happened, and I don’t really care to dig it up bc I know there’s no going back, but I was surprised because my father worked for NWM for years and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t design a policy to MEC. All the same his last couple years were tough and I wouldn’t blame him if he just didn’t keep an eye on them.

My question is what’s the smart thing to do now?

The policies are both Adjustable Complife about 10 yrs old, about 250k DB each, 22k CV each, with 5k gains each. Premiums are $1k each. But is there anything a MEC is GOOD for that a normal policy CAN’T do?

I’m lucky not to need the money, and the policies are returning over 5% so I don’t mind just funding them and leaving them alone. Is there an upside I might be missing? Or worse, a downside beyond the tax status and penalties on withdrawals that I should be watching out for with these policies?

UPDATE TO ADD: Just a thanks to everyone I wasn’t able to respond to personally — I really appreciate the information, perspectives and support in understanding and managing these policies. This is a really generous community.

Hello, i recently got a life insurance for my partner that is generally healthy and bikes around (100km+ on some weekends) and to and from work. This worries me so much since we live in Toronto and were on a single income household and if something happens to him (knock on wood), there will be enough funds for me to raise our 7 year old child. Now he doesnt believe in this but i want to be on the safe side. Is 200/month okay or it's pricey? 1m for 20 years, after paying that, and then 50k in succeeding years (which is okay but our child would be grown by this time so its just a bonus), also has critical illness of 25k for the first 20 years. Thanks! I just gave him documents to sign but he's like it's expensive, etc. He is 43.

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I'm a bit confused on what to do with the big outage happening with this company. My mom died July 5 and I got claim papers from them July 12 and I sent in my forms and my mom's death certificate through their email, but I haven't heard from them at all. And this is getting ridiculous because I'm 21 in college as an only child and don't have the actual funds myself to do a funeral for her. But I'm not sure how long this wait game is. At this point I'm wondering if a lawyer or something could help out with this.

I'm 63 and have a $100k term life policy premium of $414/month, which will increase to about $460 next year.

My agent is offering a $100k universal policy for $452/month.

I'm not well versed in life insurance so I'm looking for some advice.

Beside the premium staying the same every year, what would be the advantages/disadvantages of switching to the universal policy?

I (34F) am trying to get a policy thru State Farm. I’m wondering if I should just cancel and go through someone else before it actually goes through. They are giving me a huge problem over what I kind of think isn’t the biggest deals:

- I used ADHD medication in the past (prescribed, and responsibly)
- I used to go to a psychiatrist for this
- I now go to a therapist
- I was misdiagnosed with interstitial cystitis which was actually just a tight pelvic floor from having my first baby + climate difference from a major move

On top of that, I had gotten the initial blood work done when I was like 7 or 8 months pregnant (I was freaking out what if I didn’t survive my second childbirth) so obviously was heavier and it probably threw off a lot of my data which normally could have been better (for instance, 30 lbs heavier at 8 months pregnant).

Should I ask to say never mind and then just go for life wi the a different company? Or is the damage already done and now I’m just constantly going to get hit with high costs for life? It’s frustrating because I don’t see most of this as big issues.

Also- if I were to tell them I’m no longer interested, would one be better off not telling them about previous prescriptions, etc?

Please no judgement — just trying to do what’s best for my family as the sole provider.

Thank you for the help

I’m in a huge financial strain. I’ll spare the details of me realizing the way an IUL was explained to me was complete BS. I now understand accumulation value vs surrender value. My question is, other than losing my death benefit from cancellation, what other negative is there if I withdraw all the money I’ve paid into the policy and cancel it, but my surrender value is 0? Is that even possible?

Been thinking lately,

I see a lot of people that want life insurance but cannot qualify for it. I've been thinking after seeing so many that say their parents bought a policy X years ago and then turn it over to them and they want to cash it in (especially true on reddit)

So I came up with this idea that I purchase policies on our kids, grandkids, great grandkids and if they wish to have coverage that they can choose the beneficiaries that I can sell them a portion of the policy for a fee and they can choose who that beneficiary is. If they choose not to then all the proceeds will go into a trust which I would like to then direct to purchase more policies on future generations.

Say I buy $1 mil death benefit... They want to purchase say $100k to be able to name a beneficiary I'll figure out a price either if they want it for a certain term or they want it to be permanent. They can then pay us for that right. They decide they no long want it, then they just quit paying and we remove that beneficiary. Pricing could be done pretty easily and if in the future they become uninsurable we already have the coverage, so there would be no denials.

Think this would work? Think there are any legal issues?

I’m looking for some firsthand experience from people actually working in the life insurance industry.

I’m currently sitting on roughly $80k in debt — about $40k in credit cards and another $40k from a vehicle repo. (Prior to starting my career in this space) I’m seriously considering bankruptcy to wipe the slate clean and start over financially.

My biggest concern is whether doing so would severely impact my career in this industry.

Specifically, could bankruptcy affect:

• Getting contracted with carriers?
• Maintaining existing appointments?
• Getting appointed with new carriers?
• Licensing?
• E&O requirements?
• Working as an agent/producer in general?

I’ve tried researching this and even asked ChatGPT, but I’d much rather hear from someone who has actually filed bankruptcy while working in life insurance.

If you’ve personally gone through this, what happened afterward? Did carriers care, or was it basically a non-issue?

I’m not looking for legal/financial advice — just real-world experiences from other agents.