If it Ain’t Broke… You Haven’t Checked Yet!!!

At least 32 million U.S. Households own insurance policies that are not appropriate for them, according to a recent survey.[1] This doesn’t necessarily mean that people buy the wrong insurance. It is more likely that they buy good coverage but fail to review and update their policies to reflect the changes in their lives and in the insurance industry. For this reason, policy review services are proliferating.

Permanent life insurance is a long-term strategy, a regular policy review using THEInsuranceAdvisor.COM’s patented Confidential Policy Evaluator (CPE), can help determine if your policy is still suitable and effective. The strategy of buy and holding life insurance policies, has turned into a buy and ignore habit that ignores the $3 Trillion in life insurance policy cash values. Few know what they/their clients are actually being charged and/or what they/their clients are getting in the way of investment performance, there is a clear and desperate need for more information about the suitability and proper management of life insurance policy holdings and it all starts with a policy review. 

Policy Comparison, Policy Audit and/or Policy Evaluation systems/services offered by insurers, distributors, agents and/or brokers, and these services are categorically referred to as “Policy Reviews”. These “Policy Reviews” generally involve comparison of illustrations of hypothetical policy values for some limited number of products. Because such “illustrations” are a comingling of undisclosed policy charges and unsubstantiated performance assumptions, and do not separately measure policy expenses (as required under Section 7 of the Prudent Investor Act) separate from the reasonableness of performance expectations (as required under Section 2 of the Prudent Investor Act). As such, they are clearly not comprised of all required or customary characteristics, and are thus not complete. 

Also, because product manufacturers, distributors and/or agents/brokers generally include only those products that they are licensed to sell, their policy review services are clearly biased by their personal feelings for, and limitations among certain insurers, and thus not objective.  While referencing 3^rd-party data/research for average pricing and performance of peer-group product alternatives could add independence and objectivity to such Policy Comparison, Policy Audit and/or Policy Evaluation systems/services, most such systems/services have thus far not incorporated such 3^rd-party data/research. 

Similarly, the policy review services offered by TPAs often include so-called apples-to-apples comparisons of illustrations of hypothetical policy values for unspecified other available products of some limited number of insurers.  As such, these TPA systems/services also lack completeness that results from the comingling of data that generally-accepted prudent practices require be measured separately, lack reference to independent 3^rd-party measures for average price and performance, and lack objectivity due to the artificial limitations on the number of insurers included in their sample population. 

On the other hand, THEInsuranceAdvisor.COM research is derived from various independent sources to include thousands of actual insurance company pricing representations for hundreds of different products and actual performance data for invested assets underlying policy cash value, and reveals the overall suitability of a given life insurance product relative to its peer-group and based on the 5 major factors of suitability as to 1) financial strength and claims-paying ability, 2) actual cost-competitiveness (i.e., measured separately from performance assumptions), 3) pricing stability, 4) cash value liquidity, and 5) actual historical performance of invested assets underlying policy cash values. 

Relying on policy review services that may be “advertised” as complete, and independent and objective, but which are not and can result in flawed decisions, faulty recommendations, opinions that could be considered fraud (See Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. AIG Life Ins., Hartford Life Ins.), and breach of fiduciary duty (see Cochran v. KeyBank).

THEInsuranceAdvisor.COM provides the empirical pricing and performance research essential to any complete investigation of life insurance policy suitability (as defined by FINRA or the Prudent Investor Act) and which can then lead to independent and objective suitability determinations.  While due care is an emerging field, and while there is room for a difference of opinion in some areas, THEInsuranceAdvisor.COM goes well beyond overly-simplified comparisons of comingled and hypothetical policy values to better protect and/or compete against those misleading policy review services. 

Use the Confidential Policy Evaluator (CPE) Research Reports to determine the appropriateness of pricing, the reasonableness of performance expectations for invested assets underlying policy cash values, and overall suitability for you(r) clients' policies based on the 5 factors of suitability.  Click here and get up to 3 Confidential Policy Evaluator (CPE) research reports under our NO-RISK trial subscription.