Product Description”For anyone who needs to understand different types of life insurance, as well as considerations for purchasing and managing policies, this book should be on your nearby reference shelf. If you’ve frequently found yourself fumbling around with terminology, such as the differences between variable, universal, and variable universal life (VUL) policies, you’ll finally see some light through the haze. ” – MorningstarAdvisor. com Life insurance doesn’t have to be complex or intimidating. Ben Baldwin’s completely revised and updated guidebook makes it clear and logical, discussing how to analyze insurance products based on their investment merits and best overall financial returns. This clear, authoritative resource for consumer insurance information covers the pros and cons of Internet purchases, techniques to use capital within a policy, the fixed premium feature, insurance for different stages of life, and the new emergence of “immediate annuities. ”
Most people feel guilty about lack of savings, too little life insurance protection, and too much debt. Here comes a book that promises to help people understand cash value life insurance once and for all. However this book is more complicated than the life insurance policies themselves. The cash value life insurance policies, written by attorneys, are confusing to most people to the point that people have no real idea as to what exactly they agreed to. This book makes the situation even worse.
Everyone needs a plan to get out of debt, a term life insurance policy if other people/kids are depending on their income, and a wealth building strategy that includes a diversified stock mutual fund portfoilio if you want to avoid working the rest of your life or retiring broke. After you fund your emergency fund, you should fully fund your Roth IRA if qualified in your portfolio. Your Roth IRA will provide Tax-Free income to you in retirement. Cash value life insurance is the most expensive investment vehicle ever and will never be able to provide tax free money for retirement. Then fund your 401k especially if your company matches. Any investment advisor that advises against any of the previous strategies probably wants to make a fortune selling you incomprehensible, expensive and inappropriate cash value life insurance. A good financial advisor is out there just call around.
Rating: 1 / 5
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Run _don’t walk_ away from people who want to sell you a VUL. There is a reason the WSJ and every one else in the insurance industry slammed this investment product: it is detrimental to anyone’s ability to create wealth. In this case the old rule still applies- buy a level term policy and invest the rest of the money you would be saving in a mutual fund with better performance and flexibility than a VUL! I also recommend that you read The New Rules of Money.
Rating: 1 / 5
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I think it is a very detailed, organized, and thought out sales pitch for variable universal life insurance (VUL). I came to the conclusion that the product could be useful some a few people with long term need for life insurance, a higher tax bracket, probable estate tax liabilities, and success at finding a policy with low fees. There are a lot of fees associated with the VUL policies which this book primarily pushes. Good investment performance would also be needed. I came to the conclusion that VUL would only make since for me if estate taxes would be an issue 30 to 40 years from now. Otherwise the buy term and invest the rest strategy would probably win out. He made a strong pitch for buying through an insurance professional (his profession), but it is my opinion that this would result in excess fees which would off-set much of the tax advantages. In my case I would already need to pay a for the preparation of the life insurance trust to give me the estate benefit I wanted. He also proposed that VUL was a much better choice than a non-deductible IRA (book was written pre-Roth IRA) because of all the trouble or cost for the paperwork required by non-deductible IRAs. Seemed to me there was as much paperwork involved with VUL, although much of it may be prepared by the insurance company. They should do something for those fees. It was a well written book and read well. Easier to put down though than it is to get an insurance salesman out of you living room.
Rating: 2 / 5
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Although Mr. Baldwin did a nice job explaining the various insurance products, he came across as too much of a salesman. I also found a portion of what he said to be misleading. He talks about how if a person is happy paying their premiums (and expenses) with after-tax dollars, then term insurance is good for them. He then states that by using a VUL product, a person can pay their fees with before-tax dollars. This is misleading in that the premium you pay to the insurance company IS AFTER TAX!The best thing to keep in mind while reading this book is that Ben Baldwin is an insurance salesman!
Rating: 2 / 5
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If you’re looking for an objective presentation of life insurance choices, this is NOT the book. This is biased towards Variable Univeral Life. I’m returning this book.
Rating: 2 / 5
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