Fee Only Life Insurance Consultant

I offer qualified opinions for complex life insurance transactions on a fee-only basis. I have no financial motivation for you to buy a life insurance policy. As a Life Insurance Analyst my work is strictly consultative. I can make you aware of features of your life insurance plan you may not be aware of. I can alert you to potential problems in the future of the plan. I can confirm what you’ve been told by your agent. I can keep you from being sued under your fiduciary role as a life insurance trustee. And, I can make you aware of the fees and costs of whatever life insurance transaction you’re considering.

The more complicated your life insurance plan is, the more important a fee only evaluation becomes. When you’re being advised to buy a life insurance policy and borrow the money to pay the premiums (premium financing), put the death benefit into an irrevocable life insurance trust, and gift the cost of insurance to your heirs, you better know exactly what you’re getting into. And, if the only opinion you’re relying on is that of the agent — who will only get paid if you buy the plan — you’re not taking all the precautions you have at your disposal.

There are only a few of us in the United States: Life Insurance Analysts who are approved by State Insurance Departments to charge a fee for the evaluation of life insurance transactions. I’m one of them. It takes 5 years of active experience just to be able to take the examination for this credential. You can look-up my credential at the California Department of Insurance website: www.insurance.ca.gov  I also have more than 25 years of industry experience, and 10 years as an expert witness opining on complex life insurance transactions in front of judges, juries and attorneys.

Some of the topics of evaluation I’ll perform for you include:

• Itemize the fees and costs of the policy for each year.
• Demonstrate the rate at which the cost of insurance is likely to increase each year.
• Inform you of embedded risks in the policy that may not be obvious.
• Alert you to red flags that may cause your policy to lapse in the future.
• Demonstrate how dependent your life insurance plan is on interest rates.
• Perform a policy review within your 10 Day Free Look period.
• Advise you what you should be asking your agent to demonstrate in his/her illustration.

I don’t try to talk anyone into or out of buying life insurance. Rather, I offer consultations that allow you to buy life insurance with as much knowledge and disclosure as possible. If you have a headache and your doctor says, “take two aspirin and call me in the morning”, you do. If you have a rare brain tumor and your doctor says, “I can fix it with exploratory surgery”, you get a second opinion. Don’t buy complex life insurance plans without getting a second opinion.

Please email me for rates and to arrange a teleconference. CONTACT US

Life insurance trustees. Surprisingly, the people who often end-up in life insurance lawsuits are life insurance trustees. Trustees of life insurance trusts are, effectively, the buyers of policies even though they may not be the persons initiating the transaction. Because the insured is often the person paying the premiums, albeit indirectly, the trustee may not be included in all the disclosures of the plan. This is dangerous. The trustee is saddled with fiduciary responsibility which means if the life insurance plan fails, or the policy lapses before the insured dies, the trustee will probably be held responsible. For people in this capacity especially, an evaluation of policies and plans makes a lot of sense.