By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
I was really mad the first time I wrote this post. It was full of zingers and attacks against specific insurance companies and specific insurance agents who have been taking advantage of doctors using the terms TFRA and 7702 Plan. My staff convinced me to take them all out because they were too personal and because there were libel liability concerns (even though everything I said was 100% true). I hope the post is still worth reading. Let's just say this instead:
If you are using the words “TFRA” or “7702 Plan” to sell cash value life insurance to doctors, I think you're a dirtbag.
I feel like I've written about the schemes of insurance salespeople ad nauseam over the years. However, it seems I have to keep writing about it because the same old lies about it keep being told over and over again. Just today, we got two more emails about different ways salespeople are trying to sucker doctors into buying cash value life insurance policies they don't need and, once they understand how they work, don't even want. Here are the latest examples:
“I'm reaching out to get your take on IRC 7702 “plans.” The reason I ask is because I don't think I've heard them mentioned on your site or daily mailings before and, if I'm reading correctly, it sounds like a cash-value life insurance policy. I know you've said that we shouldn't mix investing with insurance policies, but I just want to be sure I'm understanding this correctly. The same tax company I mentioned before that said a Backdoor Roth may not be in my best interest, is now offering this 7702 plan to me as a way to possibly decrease my overall tax burden. I'm not sure this is the best way to do it, though.”
and
“Are there any blog posts or info on TFRAs? I recently saw an advertisement on this and was interested as another form of retirement savings.”
Let's get into it.
What Is a 7702 Plan?
What exactly is a “7702 Plan”? No, it's not some complicated insurance scheme. Section 7702 of the Internal Revenue Code is simply that section that explains the basic requirements that a life insurance policy has to meet to not be a Modified Endowment Contract (MEC). A MEC does not qualify for the usual tax benefits of life insurance (like being able to do tax-free partial surrenders up to basis and to borrow tax-free against the policy.) A MEC does still provide a tax-free death benefit. That's it.
A 7702 plan is just a cash value life insurance policy, like whole life, variable life, or any of the types of universal life policies (such as the agents' current favorite, index universal life (IUL)).
Take a look a section 7702. Here's what it says:
26 U.S. Code § 7702 — Life Insurance Contract Defined
(a)General rule
For purposes of this title, the term “life insurance contract” means any contract which is a life insurance contract under the applicable law, but only if such contract-
(1) meets the cash value accumulation test of subsection (b), or
(2) (A) meets the guideline premium requirements of subsection (c), and
(B) falls within the cash value corridor of subsection (d).
That's it. Pretty much every cash value life insurance policy being sold out there is a “7702 Plan.” So when an agent comes touting one of these to you, just recognize it for what it is. If you wouldn't buy it because they call it a “whole life insurance policy,” then don't buy it because they call it a “7702 Plan.” It's the same thing.
TFRA Retirement Account
TFRA, according to the agents selling life insurance using this term, stands for Tax Free Retirement Account. Obviously, it's not an account. It's an insurance policy. Be sure to not confuse it with the Canadian equivalent of a Roth IRA, known as a TFSA or Tax Free Savings Account. It's not some new thing. It's not something “most financial advisors don't know about.” It's just a new name for the same old thing they've been hawking for decades to young doctors who owe $300,000 in 7% student loans. You can't make this stuff up.
Who Offers TFRA Accounts?
If you find a website selling this, you often find a very pretty (and, to the financially illiterate, a very attractive) package. But that's all it is: a package. They're just dressing up cash value life insurance policies to look like something else. This is the part of the post where I deleted nine screenshots I had taken from an actual website by an agent trying to sell Index Universal Life insurance policies to people as a “TFRA.” Instead of posting the screenshots, I'll just vaguely refer to what they said.
Confusing the Reader
The first thing the site does is confuse you about what tax-free retirement accounts really are. If you're financially literate, you know what they are. They typically start with the word “Roth.” We're talking about Roth IRAs, Roth 401(k)s, Roth 403(b)s, and Roth 457(b)s. Once the money is in the account, it grows tax-free, and withdrawals for retirement purposes are tax-free. That's a tax-free account. A tax-free account is NOT an insurance policy. It is certainly not an insurance policy that only allows you to borrow against your cash value. If you have a cash value life insurance policy and you surrender it to get all of your cash value out, you will not only pay taxes on all of the gains, but you will pay ordinary income tax rates on all of your gains. That's not a tax-free retirement account, no matter what an insurance agent puts on their website. Let's keep going.
The next screenshot showed a section of the site telling you that your financial advisor is not going to tell you about TFRAs. This agent is going to let you in on a secret that your financial advisor has been keeping from you. In fact, your advisor apparently DOESN'T EVEN KNOW about cash value life insurance and even if they did, they couldn't help you get any. While he has a good point that there are a lot of brokers and mutual fund salespeople out there masquerading as financial advisors, a real financial advisor certainly knows about these “TFRAs.” They also know they're not a good idea for almost anyone. My favorite part of this marketing schpiel is that the agent added “taxable” to the front of 401(k) to further emphasize how awesome this “TFRA” is. Never mind that the 401(k) contribution provided a huge tax deduction and that there was no deduction for money put into this “TFRA.” We'll just ignore that little inconvenient fact.
The next screenshot I had included was more marketing copy disguised as biographical information about the agent. The agent sounds so wonderful. He wants to help his clients. He has “new and exciting” strategies. He walked away from a “robust package” just to be better for you. He puts your interests first. He has access that other people don't. My favorite part is that “the vast majority of my clients have never seen [these strategies] before we started working together.” You know why? Because those who HAVE SEEN these strategies would never work with this guy.
When I went to BrokerCheck, I discovered the agent has been selling insurance for seven years and had only been in business for himself for one. Previously, he worked for three different companies that compose a who's who of insurance companies to avoid if you're a doctor. I won't mention them by name, but if you've been around this space for long, you know who they are. The first one might rhyme with Schporthpestern Tutual. The first two are companies that sold me inappropriate life insurance policies for my needs. Needless to say, none of these companies would ever show up on the WCI recommended financial advisor or insurance agent list.
The Arguments for a TFRA
OK, let's get into the only actual arguments on the website and point out all the half-truths. The next screenshot (again deleted prior to publication) was from a section of the website where the agent compared traditional (i.e. real) retirement accounts with his TFRA. First, we'll start with what he says about the problems with retirement accounts.
#1 You have to pay taxes.
Yup, you have to pay taxes before you put money into a Roth IRA. Oh wait, you have to do that before putting it into a “TFRA” too. Half-truth.
#2 Your money is not liquid.
Yes, it is. Remember you can take the principal out of your Roth IRA tax-free and penalty-free any time you want. Earnings come out tax-free, too, but you would have to pay the 10% penalty if you're under 59 1/2 and don't qualify for an exception (many do). With a tax-deferred account, you would have to pay the taxes (remember that tax deduction you got?) and penalty if you don't qualify for an exception. But to say it isn't “liquid” is just BS. You can pull every dollar out of all of your retirement accounts tomorrow if you want. Yes, it will cost you something, but it will cost you something to pull everything out of a life insurance policy, too.
#3 You are limited to how much you can invest.
This is true, but the reason the limitations are in place is BECAUSE IT'S SUCH A GOOD DEAL. There is not a corresponding limit in the tax code on life insurance policies (perhaps because they aren't a good deal), but there is still a de facto limit. Go ahead: try to buy a $100 million life insurance policy. They won't let you do it unless you have enough income to justify it. A doctor might not even be able to get a life insurance policy with a $10 million face value.
#4 Your money is not guaranteed against loss by a financial institution.
This is not necessarily true. If you want to invest your retirement accounts into CDs or annuities, you can get guarantees against loss. However, the point is that you don't actually want those guarantees because they cost too much in the form of lower returns.
#5 You are required to report your earnings to the IRS when you withdraw the money.
This one is true. Even though you don't have to pay taxes on qualified Roth IRA withdrawals, they are reported on Form 1040 line 4a. Tax-deferred account withdrawals are taxable, of course. But you know what? If you surrender your life insurance policy with a gain, you will also have to report that. You can borrow against your life insurance policy, car, brokerage account, or house and not have to report that money as income, because it isn't.
Now let's look at what the agent says about TFRAs cash value life insurance policies.
#1 You don't pay tax on principal or growth. Ever!
Unless you surrender it, and it has gains.
#2 You participate in the uncapped growth of the stock market with a ZERO FLOOR.
The most important part of that vague reference to an index universal life policy is the word “participate.” What does that mean exactly? What it means is you're giving up some of the upside to eliminate the downside. What happens in reality is that you give up so much of the upside that you end up with whole life-like returns in the long run.
#3 Your money is liquid.
We already addressed this one. But my favorite part is the half-truth here: “You can withdraw any amount at any time without penalty.” That's true. But you can't withdraw any amount at any time tax-free. Funny how that got left out.
#4 You are not required to report earnings to the IRS.
This one really plays on the distrust of the government that most of us have to a certain extent. But the IRS doesn't classify income inside retirement accounts or a life insurance policy as taxable income because it isn't. If you don't take money out of a retirement account, you don't pay taxes on it. If you don't take money out of an insurance policy, you don't pay taxes on it. The only difference here is you can borrow against the insurance policy tax-free but not interest-free (like your car, house, and brokerage account) and you can't borrow against a retirement account.
The Survey
My next few screenshots (again that I deleted prior to publication) came from a survey you were supposed to take to determine if a TFRA was right for you. You would think this survey would ask about health problems and dangerous hobbies, important aspects of qualifying to purchase life insurance. Nope, the survey simply asked if you believed the sales pitch you had already been given and whether you had at least $1,000 a month to invest. It was a two-question survey followed by the opportunity to sign up for an appointment with the agent.
I'm still mad at the agent and others pulling the same stunt, but it just wasn't worth the legal hassle to run this post as it was originally written. Hope you still found it useful.
The Bottom Line
7702 Plans and TFRAs are just marketing terms for cash value life insurance policies. Ask yourself why an agent is trying to hide what they are doing by calling it a name you don't recognize. Run, don't walk, from any “advisor” who feels like they have to hide what they're doing behind vague terms like these. If you don't already know why a cash value life insurance policy is inappropriate for the vast majority (including doctors), start here (and then maybe read this).
What do you think? Had you heard of 7702 Plans and TFRAs before? What can white coat investors do to immunize themselves against falling for pitches like these? Comment below!
I’d love to read the original version of this article before it got watered down.
yeah seriously I’m with Hank I’m intrigued. Jim, anyway to post the original article with screenshots in the Bogleheads forum? I guess it’s because you have to login to read, but they have no qualms making potentially libel like comments towards Schporthpestern Tutual.
Jim, I enjoy seeing you jousting with the life insurance agents. Let’s see if any of them respond to this article.
Keep up the good fight.
Dr. Dahle is the reason I didn’t get sucked into buying a whole life insurance policy when I was financially illiterate. If he hadn’t fought hard to warn people about the dangers of agents and insurance companies trying to sell these enslaving contracts, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge and empowerment to say “no” repeatedly over the years.
Keep up the fight ! You may not be able to save everybody, but you are saving some careers, marriages and families by helping people avoid costly long-term mistakes and the stress that come with them.
Absolutely! Francois thank goodness you didn’t get suckered. It was pretty painful for me, but thank you Jim for pulling me back from Schporthpestern Tutual hell!
Thanks for your kind words.
Awaiting the influx of insurance salespeople. Getting the popcorn ready.
Interesting that this post was ignored by the insurance salespeople. Maybe it’s because they don’t have bots searching for ‘7702’ or ‘TFRA’?
Maybe they actually agree with me.
Or the handful of people doing this haven’t seen it.
This article is so timely as this concept has been popping up in my world a lot lately. The one thing this article doesn’t touch on is the big selling point on these- that you can take a loan against the cash value on these policies (which are sometimes leveraged in a way that cash value is higher than what you’ve paid in-still dont understand those mechanics, but that’s a secondary issue). Essentially, you take the loan and can never pay it back but it gets paid off at death with the death benefit. So you essentially have tax free income. Seems like it could be a nice way to be able to be a cash buyer on real estate by borrowing from the policy, getting in front of a lot of other buyers by buying a deal property in cash, THEN financing the real estate and paying back the policy to do it again. Of course, it will take years for the policy to be large enough to actually do this. That’s just one application. You could just take a loan every year in retirement and live off of that. Anyways, I’m not confident enough in it to pull the trigger so I’d love to hear what other people have to say. Appreciate the article. I would like to hear the loan aspect against the policy adressed because that seems to be where all the (at least purported) value is in these.
“The big selling point” of being able to borrow against something has been covered many, many times before in articles about whole life insurance on this site. Like any loan, it’s tax-free but not interest free. The mechanics aren’t complicated. If you don’t understand them, please don’t buy a policy. It’s important to understand the difference between direct and non-direct recognition too.
The idea of using it to buy real estate is a little wonky. You have to put the money in the policy before you can borrow it back out. If you have the money to put in the policy, you have the money to buy the real estate! You may be able to get a little higher LONG-TERM return on your cash than a savings account, at the expense of a crappier return the first decade. More info on this particular use of whole life here:
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/infinite-banking-bank-on-yourself/
Dear Dr. Dahle:
I thank you for the keen insights provided in your blog. Many physicians, new to their practices or seasoned professionals have benefited from your knowledge.
While I don’t want to turn this into a back-and-forth debate on whether cash value life insurance policies, in this example, WL and or Indexed Universal Life are a fit for anyone, I would like to give my 35 years-in-the-business-two cents into this topic as well as identify myself to you.
I truly despise the tactics that some agents and brokers use to sell CVLI. I will not accuse anyone of being a dirtbag because I rather be a Witness than a Judge. CVLI / WL is not a person. It’s not a demon. It’s an insurance product/policy and it has served many well-known business icons in the past. People like Walt Disney, Henry Ford, and even college football coaches have benefited from this type of policy.
It served the needs of the only hero I have ever had: my father. That is to say, until in 1985, an inexperienced and money-hungry “friend” /Primerica Insurance agent convinced him, at the age of 65, to surrender his $300,000 DB, indirect recognition, dividend-paying WL policy of 15 years and had him replace it with an undisclosed term insurance policy. I was still a rookie in the industry but had no knowledge of what he had done until 5 years later until I researched it and found out that it was a 15-year term.
Said term policy expired at age 80. By this time, he had had two cardiac infarctions, was a Type II diabetic, and suffered from chronic DVTs. Needless to say, the policy had no conversion privilege, leaving him uninsurable. He passed away at the age of 89, leaving my 80-year-old Mom with little savings and a small mortgage.
For 2 years, my dad borrowed over $7,000 from the cv and dividend build-up in the policy to keep me in art school in Columbus, Ohio. Without any due diligence on his part, this agent and his absolute life insurance ignorance, wronged all of us, specifically my Mom. I thank God I had the resources to help them both up to their last day on this earth.
WL/CVLI is wrongly or incorrectly been sold as investments. This is totally wrong! Life insurance is not an investment; Life insurance is and should be used as a bank; That’s what banks are there for. Advisors using tactics like TFRA continue to taint or tarnish the years of hard work, building reputations, one client at a time, of many veterans such as myself and even the true legends of life insurance such as Ben Feldman, John Savage, et al.
Further reading into your blog, insult is further added to injury when I read that the conversations about Roth accounts are further exaggerated by confusing or comparing life insurance products and their true purpose in the financial world to these qualified accounts. I am in full agreement with 98% of your blog content.
What I do not agree with is the manner in which you disparage WL insurance and its role as asset insurance, something that appears in most of your blogs, yet I have never read you write about the gigantic commissions being paid by the insurance carriers for term life insurance. Are you aware that some of these policies sometimes pay brokers or MGAs as much as 125% commissions the first year,.. and even a trailing commission for up to 10 years?
Something else I have not read in any of your blogs is any kind of research on what WL policy commission schedules are.
There are early high cash value policies that pay only 15%. I have never been paid more than 55% on a WL policy, but have over 10 carrier contracts in great standing that pay no less than 90%. I choose to sell convertible term insurance that pays 45% but has helped many of my clients that have been left totally disabled due to sustained illnesses and injuries.
Furthermore, in full agreement with one of your philosophies, I cannot and will not offer or recommend anyone either a Variable Life or Indexed Universal Life. Life insurance should be offered completely separate from investments. IULs not only have no guarantees: The way most have been written in the past, they are one market correction awaY from imploding, completely damaging, and at times eliminating the most important part of a life insurance policy: The death benefit.
I am not challenging you nor wish to challenge you. I read all of your blogs with a great deal of interest. I do find that at times you tend to pigeonhole your audience into just buying term insurance. To alienate insurance, financial product, or strategy without conducting a thorough suitability-based fact-finder is plain wrong and it can lead to unnecessary and avoidable E & O claims, let alone, God-forbid, irreparable, and unrecoverable financial losses for the consumer. Our jobs are to present our due diligence findings to the client(s) once all data has been gathered, address each product with its pros and cons, and make suggestions or recommendations that are in the best interest of the client.
It is at that time when the client has been given suitable choices, that the real work and strategy design begins.
By the way, in an atmosphere and spirit of full disclosure and transparency, let me mention that I am not a “Fiduciary” by today’s industry standards. I have conducted myself in the role of a fiduciary for 35 years for all that I have come across in my business. My wife and I have operated an Insurance, Employee Benefits, and Financial Services firm for the past 17 years and I hold a FINRA Series 6-license. I have specialized in Life, DI, and LTCI. since 1985 and started the business as a Commercial Lines Underwriter trainee for P & C lines in 1984, migrating to these mentioned lines when I became licensed in 1987. I have focused on and served the Medical industry in the South Florida area ever since, and to this date still retain over 1250 of their accounts with a focus on protecting their ability to create cash flow, mainly through IDI and Worksite IDI.
I could go on and on because I have read and found other areas of interest within your past blogs that I differ in opinion. i just wanted to respectfully comment on some of your comments in your last blog without animosities of any kind. We share the same goal and common good of educating and helping (medical) professionals and the public at large financially protect what is most important to them: Their personal, business and families’ financial plans and goals.
Yes, I’m aware there are commissions on term life. Doesn’t surprise me they are 125% of first year’s premium. But 125% of a term premium is dramatically less than even 50% of a whole life premium. Seems like a good deal to me.
Sorry your dad still apparently had a life insurance need and a mortgage at 89. Not sure how he would have afforded a whole life policy until age 89 when he had little savings though. Something doesn’t add up.
Dr. Dahle,
Interesting post. However, a lot of what you’re raging against is more on the marketing/sales side, than what an actual 7702/TFRA/CVLI/etc. plan does. It’s like you’re saying cars are bad because you don’t like the tactics car salesmen use.
You might ask who I am and I would tell you that I’m the guy that advisors call when they want a “7702” plan built and built properly. One that actually fits a clients’ needs from a fiduciary standpoint rather than just selling a policy for a high commission and moving on to the next thing. I don’t work for an insurance company. I have about 40 different companies I can represent.
However, I’ve built plans for multiple folks that fit the need. They’re high earners, they want to save more for retirement than what current Roth guidelines allow, and most importantly, they have a specific need for death benefit for either income replacement or estate planning.
These people have the means and desire to do more than what a Roth allows them to do. They want more flexibility in their retirement planning, and maybe a larger portion of their retirement plan should involve some access to income-tax free dollars.
Are these plans ALWAYS a good fit? Absolutely not. That’s why it’s so important to speak with someone who’s a true fiduciary in their retirement and is willing to look at what the client wants and needs in order to build a proper plan that represents those goals.
But for anyone that reads this article, I implore you to seek out an advisor who looks at everything through the lens of deciding whether or not it can help you achieve your goals. ANYONE (including this author) who says that something is 100% bad or 100% good is looking at it through their own bias, and maybe, just maybe, it’s because they also stand to lose something if you don’t invest in a Roth IRA with them…
But again, you can disagree with the salesman, but it doesn’t mean the car ain’t worth buying.
For sure my main problem with permanent life insurance in general is with the way it is marketed and sold. Nothing new there.
Of course, everybody who sells it says what you are saying. “I only sell it appropriately.” Except I keep running into docs who own policies inappropriately. So I’m left to conclude that the agents are either
# 1 Lying or
# 2 Ignorant
Stop calling yourself an advisor. You’re not an advisor. You have no fiduciary duty to the people you’re selling these policies to. The fact that you’re claiming to suggests to me that you’re in the category of agents that I’m railing against.
Whole life insurance isn’t a Roth IRA. Not even close. Selling it to people who want “more Roth IRA” is a dishonest way to sell it.
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/8-reasons-whole-life-insurance-is-not-like-a-roth-ira/
I’m also skeptical that all these clients of yours really have a specific need for a permanent death benefit. I meet so few people who have that, even among doctors who own whole life policies.
Sounds like hit dogs hollering to me.
I’m not an advisor. I work at an IMO. I build these plans for advisors who have clients that have a need for these types of plans.
Your reply is full of language that I never used. That’s not responding. That’s projecting.
I don’t know much about your practice, but what I do know is that doctors are high earners more often than not. Very rarely can they even qualify for a Roth IRA. In that situation, a properly built cash value life insurance plan can fit the need as a Roth Alternative. I’ve used them as Section 162 plans for a way to have an employer offer a plan that doesn’t fall under ERISA guidelines, but allows them to take care of themselves or a key employee to help their business thrive. I’ve used Whole Life in 412e3 plans to help small business owners save much larger sums than a Simple or SEP would allow.
If your scope is that “all cash value life insurance is a scam” then you have a whole book of business who will be up a creek in their retirement with the taxes they’ll owe on their income, or their beneficiaries will be eat up with taxes when their estate needs to be liquidated within 10 years.
I know the work I do every day. My character is not in question. I tell plenty of advisors that what I offer isn’t a fit for what their client is trying to do. I sleep fine at night because of that.
However, cash value life insurance is a shovel for people who need to dig holes. It’s a tool. It does very specific things. You can’t control how other people market it. What you CAN control is your understanding of it so that when you have a client who fits that need, you’re ready to help them.
If you need help in understanding it better, I’m happy to help in any way I can. Lots of people benefit from life insurance and I work every day to combat the stereotype that other people’s actions have put it in.
Classic salesspeak. A good demonstration of what I tell people. Keep demonstrating what you don’t know about physician finances. If you knew these things (and weren’t compensated to sell them crap they don’t need) you’d realize they don’t need whole life.
For example, you seem really worried about the ability of docs to do a Roth IRA. Amazing to me that you haven’t heard of a Backdoor Roth IRA.
You talk about SEP IRAs, without realizing they’re a terrible choice for a doc compared to a solo 401(k).
You think life insurance is an alternative to a retirement account.
You think “whole life is just a tool” so surely there must be someone who needs it. Nope. Almost no one needs. I’d estimate less than 1% of docs. The truth is it’s a tool that almost no one needs.
You think I look at my blog readers as “a book of business” just because you do.
It’s not other people who are giving it this terrible stereotype. IT’S YOU. PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU. You think you’re helping your clients. But you’re not.
Here’s the thing: I’ve been pretty fair with what I’ve said. I haven’t put any words in your mouth, but you consistently have been doing that to my replies. It tells me that you’re not open to dialogue on this issue and that’s fine. It’s your website; do what you like with it.
However, if I were you, I would seriously consider opening Google and just do a quick search with what Congress would like to do to Backdoor Roths, while also looking to see how much MORE money they would allow you to place in a 7702-based vehicle. That might give you a good idea of where Backdoor Roths are heading.
And stop saying “whole life” over and over again. No one’s specifically talking about whole life. It falls under this scope, but it’s not the entirety of the scope. In fact, the only thing I find valuable about whole life is using it as a potential bond alternative inside of a portfolio.
By the way, I don’t work directly with clients. I work with advisors. Ones like yourself who might need help in navigating this space. I can answer client questions about a plan, but I never make recommendations. That’s up to the client and their advisor.
All this said, I believe this will be my last comment. I was open to having dialogue about this, but it’s a big internet and it’s your bully pulpit. You can run it how you like, but I’m not too keen on people who don’t know pretending to talk about my motivations or the way I approach my business.
However, I’ll leave you with the encouragement to seek out WORTHWHILE AND UNBIASED information on cash value life insurance and how it’s used for high-net worth individuals and business owners. I think you’re missing out on a very valuable tool that can help the clients who are fits for it.
After all, it was John Wooden that said “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
All the best to you and yours.
What Congress would like to do with the Backdoor Roths you just learned about a minute ago? Really? I follow that issue pretty closely. Have been since 2007. And I don’t even call myself a “fiduciary” inappropriately. I’m not sure why you think I’m an advisor either. You might check out the about page. I’m a blogger. I’m a doc. But I never claimed to be a financial advisor.
I don’t really care if you’re “open to a dialogue” on this. I didn’t invite you to have one nor do I care to have one. You’re not the target audience of this blog, you’re its subject. I’ve met some great insurance agents. None of them make much of their income from cash value life insurance because they recognize it’s an inappropriate product for just about everyone.
The most important analysis to do is to calculate the actual rate of return in the proposed whole life using any free financial calculator app. For example, my $100,000 (death benefit) whole life policy issued at age 25 had a premium cost of about $80/month with a guaranteed cash or loan value of $47,500 at age 65. Calculate as follows: Present value (at start) 0. Payment -$80. Future value $47,500. Periods (of monthly payments) 480 (40 yrs X 12 months). Then calculate Annual Percentage Rate (beginning of month mode). Answer: 1.027 % APR. And then you will be charged 6 to 8% interest on top of that. Alternatively, do calculation using same figures for Present Value, Payments, Periods but with change to 9% APR (NYSE historical average APR for each 20 yr period). Then calculate Future Value: $377,314.41. Even if you paid Capital Gains tax (20% of gain -$67782.88) on investment (mutual fund or stocks) you would net, tax free and interest free, $309,531.53. Which is a better use of your money? PS: that was the policy sold to me by a “Screw Nork” life agent as a “tax free supplemental Annuity for $100,000/ yr income at age 65” when I was employed by USPS. I am now retired financially independent 73 yr old former life insurance prelicensing and securities prelicensing instructor for 21 years and financial advisor for 31 years. And I STILL share the white coat investor’s anger over the immoral reprehensible duplicitous sales tactics that have been employed by virtually all agents who recommend permanent life insurance (whole life, universal, index universal, variable universal, variable or any policy with cash or savings or loan or “investment” element)! I would be happy to personally assist any one who has been proposed or victimized by one of these policies.