s/o Those of you with high life insurance policies...

[niq]

I have a $1MM 20 year policy, and a $500K 30 year policy. I pay about $85/month total, it'd be a few bucks less if it were annual.

Originally I was going to get a 1.5MM 30 year policy, but the agent suggested splitting it up, since after 20 years the house would be mostly paid off and college savings would be mostly done.

ETA I'm 36 and I bought this policy at age 35.

[WinterWine]

I have a $1.3m 30 year term. I pay $200 each quarter. Bought last year when I was 28. Great health for me but a family cancer history.

[lys]

Why the whole life added in with the term life policy?? I would think you would come out better with plain term. 
Hybrid policies make more money for the insurance agent - but is it really better for you?

[biscoffcookies]

I have $1.25 million 30 year term and pay about $675 a year. DH has $1.5 million 30 year term that costs about $1,000 a year. He was 30 when we got our policies, which knocked him to the next tier of premiums - if we had acted a few months earlier when he was 29 it would have been a bit less.

[starlily]

Today I was quoted $98/mo for $1M coverage and $147/mo for $1.5M, for a 20 year term policy.

I'm almost 40, overweight, and had gestational diabetes twice.

[tres3]

We have 30 year term. $2m on DH and $1m on me. We got it when I was 32 and DH was 38. I got pertussis during underwriting so I could only get "standard" rates and DH has high cholesterol so he got standard rates too. We pay a little over $300/mo. It is the best $300/mo as I sleep at night

[tres3]

Feb 3, 2016 23:42:34 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

Feb 3, 2016 20:08:50 GMT -5 lys said:

Why the whole life added in with the term life policy?? I would think you would come out better with plain term. 
Hybrid policies make more money for the insurance agent - but is it really better for you?

If you've heard anything about this, please let me know. We haven't purchased our policy yet and I'm skeptical and trying to find more information about this, especially after reading this article. I'm leaning towards NO on this. 

thechicagofinancialplanner.com/2013/01/21/life-insurance-as-a-retirement-savings-vehicle/ 

It only makes sense if you are a really really high earner. 

[lishie]

DH & I each have a $1 million 20 year term policy.

My premium is $35/month. DH's is $50/month.

[lolalolalola]

You reminded me that we recently converted part of our term policies to universal. DH likes it as an an estate planning tool. I personally don't think it's worthwhile so we compromised and converted 25% of our life insurance, the rest remains term. Universal costs like 5x term or something like that. I can't remember the specifics.

[tres3]

Feb 4, 2016 12:01:46 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

Feb 4, 2016 8:09:08 GMT -5 tres3 said:

It only makes sense if you are a really really high earner. 

what would you say the min HHI would be to consider it?
our expenses/ annual spending is around 90 and HHI is around 3.5/4x that is why it was recommended.. I guess because our spending is low compared to HHI but I'm still thinking it seems like a lot

The only time to do a whole life policy for retirement planning IMHO is if you are maxing out your 401k, executive deferred comp plan at work and still think you need to save more for retirement. Basically it is a device for the top 2% of wage earners. 

[Pom]

Mr. P's $1 mil policy is $1440/year. 20 year turn purchased at age 39, poor family health history. I think his new employer will provide another policy, not sure how much, $200k maybe.

[lolalolalola]

Feb 4, 2016 12:01:46 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

Feb 4, 2016 8:09:08 GMT -5 tres3 said:

It only makes sense if you are a really really high earner. 

what would you say the min HHI would be to consider it?
our expenses/ annual spending is around 90 and HHI is around 3.5/4x that is why it was recommended.. I guess because our spending is low compared to HHI but I still think it seems like too much

Ours was recommended when our HHI reached $500k. Not sure if that was a magic number for it just a coincidence. We were also topping out all of our registered retirement vehicles. Unfortunately our income has dropped significantly since then. Which is the other negative -- Don't forget - you can not stop contributing (at least not for a decade or more) without losing much of what you put in because the premiums are all front-weighted
ETA- the whole life proceeds will be for our estate/children. Not for us to use in retirement. That's the big mind shift.

[4speedy]

Feb 3, 2016 23:27:44 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

Feb 3, 2016 20:08:50 GMT -5 lys said:

Why the whole life added in with the term life policy?? I would think you would come out better with plain term. 
Hybrid policies make more money for the insurance agent - but is it really better for you?

It's not exactly a whole life policy. It's similar to a retirement savings account/ investment vehicle that you can take out tax free in retirement. Monthly is $800. It has a min and a cap on annual returns. There is a death benefit that is $500k but that is not the purpose of it.. you can stop paying at any point.. This is how H explained it. I'm a little confused myself but it's recommended because we exceed the max for a Roth IRA and this would just be one way to diversify our retirement savings after maxing out 401k and IRA. have you heard of this? It is called a LIRP. This  seems like a lot of money to put into this. I definitely want to get a 2nd opinion.

1.5 is a term policy that sounds on par with others monthly payments and the rest is through work. 

Your explanation here sounds very similar to our situation.  We have an independent financial planner who told us we were the rare case where this sort of investment makes sense because we've maxed out everything else available to us.  (He put the plan together for us for a flat fee, he does not receive any sort of compensation from the purchase of this type of insurance policy and does not work for the insurance company)   Your policy sounds very similar to ours.  If you don't mind me asking, which insurance company is this?

[barefootcontessa]

You can get an instant quote from Zander insurance.

[Cicero]

$2M on H--30 year term super preferred rate and we pay about $100 a month for it.

$275k on me--same price. My rate is one level above uninsurable. It can be all over the board and entirely depends on what rate they give you.

[allhis]

Feb 4, 2016 12:04:30 GMT -5 tres3 said:

Feb 4, 2016 12:01:46 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

what would you say the min HHI would be to consider it?
our expenses/ annual spending is around 90 and HHI is around 3.5/4x that is why it was recommended.. I guess because our spending is low compared to HHI but I'm still thinking it seems like a lot

The only time to do a whole life policy for retirement planning IMHO is if you are maxing out your 401k, executive deferred comp plan at work and still think you need to save more for retirement. Basically it is a device for the top 2% of wage earners. 

We max out our executive deferred retirement plan (around $60k??) and then just put the remaining money into an investment account that is a basic mutual fund account. We currently only have term life insurance and we could use some additional tax deferred accounts, can anyone explain why it might be a good idea to look into whole life vs just putting more into other investment vehicles?
We live well below our means and my husbands job is very stable (physician), but he currently makes more than we anticipated he ever would make or would ever want to rely upon. Admittedly we currently keep far too much in a basic checking account and I know we need to make more savvy choices moving forward.

[M]

The lastest $1mm policy that we signed up for was a 30 year term at age 28. It is $540/yr for me and $680/yr for H. The first ones we did at 22 is $250/yr each.

[dr.girlfriend]

I got 1 million, 30-year term, right before I turned 35. It's about $670 a year. Both parents living, squeaked into the "preferred" weight class on Prudential's more "generous" height/weight chart.