Do you have life insurance?

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PistolPete

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Who here has life insurance? If so, what was it like for you going through the underwriting process? What company and amount/length of time did you settle on?

I'm looking into 20-30 year term life, 2-3 million. Haven't made up my mind yet though.
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I do for myself and my wife. 10 yr term to cover me into I start making money and can convert it into universal or whole life policies. By having insurance now, I will not have to go back through the "process" and can just transition over. I went with StateFarm. Got a better rate since they have my house, cars, jewelry, life, and balls insured....lol

Then, I can tax shelter some money away into my policies as well my 401K and other tax shelters. It is all about reducing my taxable income to keep as much as I can for myself. I will have a good accountant explain more to me as I get there. But, that is my general plan.
 
PistolPete said:
Who here has life insurance? If so, what was it like for you going through the underwriting process? What company and amount/length of time did you settle on?

I'm looking into 20-30 year term life, 2-3 million. Haven't made up my mind yet though.
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I don't have one but thinking of getting one as a resident. Just brought my own disability and now on the prowl for insurance.
 
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PistolPete said:
Not even if you have kids later on?
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I agree it makes near universal sense to have once you have 1 or more children until you have a nest egg that would take care of them. I hate the idea of any insurance but I will still begrudgingly get life once I have a kid.
 
I have both term life and disability. I don't think I got enough term, though-- 1.25-million for a 20-year term. That seemed nice as a resident and fellow. As an attending, it's not nearly enough. I do have DI with transitional own-occ from Principal. Especially when you have a family, both are entirely worth it. I would consider it quite frankly irresponsible not to have them--at least for someone in my situation with 4 kids and a wife depending on me.

I see no reason for life insurance if you're not married or have no kids, for the record. Look on Term4sale for life insurance if you are looking and go with the cheapest. For me, that was Banner Life. Buy from a broker. You don't want to buy from someone who is only selling from one company.
 
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Information Underload said:
I have both term life and disability. I don't think I got enough term, though-- 1.25-million for a 20-year term. That seemed nice as a resident and fellow. As an attending, it's not nearly enough. I do have DI with transitional own-occ from Principal. Especially when you have a family, both are entirely worth it. I would consider it quite frankly irresponsible not to have them--at least for someone in my situation with 4 kids and a wife depending on me.

I see no reason for life insurance if you're not married or have no kids, for the record. Look on Term4sale for life insurance if you are looking and go with the cheapest. For me, that was Banner Life. Buy from a broker. You don't want to buy from someone who is only selling from one company.
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How much would you wish you would have bought? Mind sharing what company you're using?
 
MD Financial Services Scott said:
If you do it soon enough you can use the same lab work for the life as you did for the Disability Insurance.
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I'm single, no kids, late 20s,and healthy. How much should I expect to pay for life insurance. Or should I just wait till I get married and have kids.
 
Information Underload said:
I have both term life and disability. I don't think I got enough term, though-- 1.25-million for a 20-year term. That seemed nice as a resident and fellow. As an attending, it's not nearly enough. I do have DI with transitional own-occ from Principal. Especially when you have a family, both are entirely worth it. I would consider it quite frankly irresponsible not to have them--at least for someone in my situation with 4 kids and a wife depending on me.

I see no reason for life insurance if you're not married or have no kids, for the record. Look on Term4sale for life insurance if you are looking and go with the cheapest. For me, that was Banner Life. Buy from a broker. You don't want to buy from someone who is only selling from one company.
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Term4 sale is a software system that is powered by CompuLife which is the service we subscribe to, it really does allow for us to quote sometimes 600+ carriers in a matter of 5 seconds. Great company, we have partnered with them for 10+ years.
 
heysexylady said:
I'm single, no kids, late 20s,and healthy. How much should I expect to pay for life insurance. Or should I just wait till I get married and have kids.
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You would probably be $20 per month per $1 million of coverage but if nobody is counting on your income then no need to buy in my opinion.
 
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heysexylady said:
I'm single, no kids, late 20s,and healthy. How much should I expect to pay for life insurance. Or should I just wait till I get married and have kids.
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$0. From a financial perspective, does anybody depend on your income? Sounds like no.
 
Information Underload said:
I have both term life and disability. I don't think I got enough term, though-- 1.25-million for a 20-year term. That seemed nice as a resident and fellow. As an attending, it's not nearly enough. I do have DI with transitional own-occ from Principal. Especially when you have a family, both are entirely worth it. I would consider it quite frankly irresponsible not to have them--at least for someone in my situation with 4 kids and a wife depending on me.

I see no reason for life insurance if you're not married or have no kids, for the record. Look on Term4sale for life insurance if you are looking and go with the cheapest. For me, that was Banner Life. Buy from a broker. You don't want to buy from someone who is only selling from one company.
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If you haven't already and depending on your risk tolerance, you might want to consider switching to a true own occupation policy. This is because with the Transitional Occupation rider, your monthly benefit is reduced by "Other Disability Coverage" which includes:
  • Individual, association, or group disability coverage;
  • Benefits from an employer-sponsored plan or payroll deduction plan that provides sick pay,
  • Salary continuation, salary replacement, disability income, disability retirement, or retirement;
  • Worker’s Compensation monthly benefits or settlement received in lieu of monthly benefits.
 
Depending on the state you live in you should look at Principal, Ameritas, Guardian, Standard, Ohio or Mass Mutual. All of these have the best design and there are typically discounts out there for everyone to use.
 
MD Financial Services Scott said:
You would probably be $20 per month per $1 million of coverage but nobody is counting on your income so no need to buy in my opinion.
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Well unless you think you will be guilty in the afterlife for not paying off your debts in this life, the answer only lies in the needs of your beneficiary after you are gone.

Disability coverage is a different animal altogether.
 
PistolPete said:
Who here has life insurance? If so, what was it like for you going through the underwriting process? What company and amount/length of time did you settle on?

I'm looking into 20-30 year term life, 2-3 million. Haven't made up my mind yet though.
Click to expand...
Not bad, I had the option of no nurse coming to my house or going through a para-med company. It was cheaper going through a para-med company where they weigh you, measure you, and draw blood. This was for 30 year term. Since I am a little older and a little fatter than when I was in my 20's I signed up with Prudential because they were the best price for my weight and height. I picked 400k on 30 years. Price was less than 200 month but I am in my mid 40s. If I was 25 would have cost me less than 50/month. Big difference but better late than never.
 
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roundtown98 said:
Not bad, I had the option of no nurse coming to my house or going through a para-med company. It was cheaper going through a para-med company where they weigh you, measure you, and draw blood. This was for 30 year term. Since I am a little older and a little fatter than when I was in my 20's I signed up with Prudential because they were the best price for my weight and height. I picked 400k on 30 years. Price was less than 200 month but I am in my mid 40s. If I was 25 would have cost me less than 50/month. Big difference but better late than never.
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You should really re-address that life policy, not sure you got a good deal at all. When I run $400k for 30 years on a standard rate class (accounting for your potential current weight) and 44 year old the rate would be $126 a month not close to $200.
 
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I`m married but my wife can take care of herself, plus I have no debts. No plans to get life insurance, probably won`t get one ever. For me PERSONALLY I don`t think it`s worthed. I think it`s a very personal decision at the end of the day.
 
Life Insurance
10 year 1 mil
20 year 1 mil
"ladder" strategy since in 10+ years I should have enough invested/saved for family to get by comfortably even with just 1 mil payout. probably gonna retire fully in at most 20 years.
this was fairly cheap - like $60 / mo total. started in early 30's, good health. Company: lincoln.

Disability insurance
$10k / month policy. own occ/spec. level premium.
went with massmutual. pretty expensive ($300 + / month).

spouse isn't a high income earner and we have a kid + one on the way so I need to make sure they are provided for. have some family support if things go really bad but don't want to depend on that.
 
brazilianpsych said:
I`m married but my wife can take care of herself, plus I have no debts. No plans to get life insurance, probably won`t get one ever. For me PERSONALLY I don`t think it`s worthed. I think it`s a very personal decision at the end of the day.
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Life insurance is basically for people with kids or for spouses that are not high earners. No reason to insure against catastrophe if you don't have dependents. Conversely if you do have children and the idea of covering all their living expenses + college is appealing then carrying 1-2 million per child is very reasonably priced, particularly if one ladders it as above like Father.
 
Merovinge said:
Life insurance is basically for people with kids or for spouses that are not high earners. No reason to insure against catastrophe if you don't have dependents. Conversely if you do have children and the idea of covering all their living expenses + college is appealing then carrying 1-2 million per child is very reasonably priced, particularly if one ladders it as above like Father.
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Its worth having something even without dependents to cover the cost of you dying. Funerals are expensive. If you own a house but have a mortgage, that has to be paid while getting it ready for sale. If there are expenses associated with your death, those often aren't covered by insurance.

You can probably get 100k for less than $20/month. Possibly less than $10 as my wife's 500k policy is $24/month.
 
VA Hopeful Dr said:
Its worth having something even without dependents to cover the cost of you dying. Funerals are expensive. If you own a house but have a mortgage, that has to be paid while getting it ready for sale. If there are expenses associated with your death, those often aren't covered by insurance.

You can probably get 100k for less than $20/month. Possibly less than $10 as my wife's 500k policy is $24/month.
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I'd be a little saddened if an attending MD didn't have enough assets on passing to cover a funeral. If you are at the point in your life without a net worth to cover the funeral and really want to make sure you have such a funeral, I suppose there are worse things to spend $200 a year on. I do think insuring yourself like this really runs the risk of being in an over-insured mindset (you cannot hedge against all risks and some are not worth hedging for), but fair enough for those who do.
 
I had to google how much a funeral costs in America, I was afraid it was like 100k, lol
From what I looked, its around 10k, is that right?
 
brazilianpsych said:
I had to google how much a funeral costs in America, I was afraid it was like 100k, lol
From what I looked, its around 10k, is that right?
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That depends on what you want. Smaller headstones can easily cost over $1,000, bigger ones easily hit 5 figures.

FatherPsychiatry said:
Life Insurance
10 year 1 mil
20 year 1 mil
"ladder" strategy since in 10+ years I should have enough invested/saved for family to get by comfortably even with just 1 mil payout. probably gonna retire fully in at most 20 years.
this was fairly cheap - like $60 / mo total. started in early 30's, good health. Company: lincoln.

Disability insurance
$10k / month policy. own occ/spec. level premium.
went with massmutual. pretty expensive ($300 + / month).

spouse isn't a high income earner and we have a kid + one on the way so I need to make sure they are provided for. have some family support if things go really bad but don't want to depend on that.
Click to expand...

That seems awfully high for Mass Mutual. I've got disability through them (I think $7.5k/mo) and I pay under $100/mo for it.
 
Can one change their whole life insurance to term life insurance?
 
Merovinge said:
I'd be a little saddened if an attending MD didn't have enough assets on passing to cover a funeral. If you are at the point in your life without a net worth to cover the funeral and really want to make sure you have such a funeral, I suppose there are worse things to spend $200 a year on. I do think insuring yourself like this really runs the risk of being in an over-insured mindset (you cannot hedge against all risks and some are not worth hedging for), but fair enough for those who do.
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If that's the only cost, sure. But you'll notice I listed several.

It's also why you'll see folks doing the tiered approach since you should be building wealth over time. So maybe a 10 year term plan while that happens.
 
Merovinge said:
No, completely different products. Term life insurance is a commodity, whole life insurance makes salesman rich. Get on whitecoatinvestor yesterday if you have whole life insurance to figure out if you can salvage the mess.
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Every time I get irritated at how many shyster physicians there are, I remind myself just how many "financial advisors" sell whole life and immediately feel better about our profession.
 
Stagg737 said:
That seems awfully high for Mass Mutual. I've got disability through them (I think $7.5k/mo) and I pay under $100/mo for it.
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Wow that's really good. I wonder if its location dependent? Everyone around where I work and went to training with (northeast) was at at least $150 even in residency for a $5000 policy and it went up to $200+/month after increasing it to $7500+. These are level premiums of course. I think graded was much cheaper but with my plan of 20 years, it came out cheaper long term than graded.

VA Hopeful Dr said:
Every time I get irritated at how many shyster physicians there are, I remind myself just how many "financial advisors" sell whole life and immediately feel better about our profession.
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Definitely. I keep getting messages from them on various networks and know several doctors who unfortunately bought in. What a waste!!!
 
FatherPsychiatry said:
Wow that's really good. I wonder if its location dependent? Everyone around where I work and went to training with (northeast) was at at least $150 even in residency for a $5000 policy and it went up to $200+/month after increasing it to $7500+. These are level premiums of course. I think graded was much cheaper but with my plan of 20 years, it came out cheaper long term than graded.



Definitely. I keep getting messages from them on various networks and know several doctors who unfortunately bought in. What a waste!!!
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My not-for-profit community healthcare system farms out every new MD's information to NW Mutual (which makes me ill to this day). I went to a meeting just to see the sheistering in action, it's pretty hilarious how things change with them when they realize you aren't a whale to slay and know the basics of personal finance.
 
FatherPsychiatry said:
Wow that's really good. I wonder if its location dependent? Everyone around where I work and went to training with (northeast) was at at least $150 even in residency for a $5000 policy and it went up to $200+/month after increasing it to $7500+. These are level premiums of course. I think graded was much cheaper but with my plan of 20 years, it came out cheaper long term than graded.
Click to expand...

I’m in the Midwest, so that could certainly make a difference. Also can’t remember if mine is graded or level, so that could be a big difference as well. Though I think mine is level with a premium increase when the monthly coverage increases, but I honestly don’t remember the details. Could pull out the contract if you’re interested.
 
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