Life Insurers Can Already See Your Lab Work and Prescriptions

Yoel Bodek

Ep 6Aug 8, 2021

The Importance of Life Insurance & Why GoFundMe Can't Be the Solution

To me, life insurance is about dignity. It's about dignity for the people you love.
Yoel Bodek

“What they don't realize is to the other person, you are the other person.”

Yoel Bodek (citing Rabbi Paysach Krohn on why people think it won't happen to them)

“Now they're exposing their family to be at the mercy of strangers.”

Yoel Bodek (on a father who dies without coverage)

“You've got five kids, you've got seven kids. This is the one thing you couldn't get around to take care of.”

Yoel Bodek

“Basic term life insurance is extremely affordable. I think it's cheaper than what people uh would think it would cost.”

Yoel Bodek

“Clients should die cash poor and life insurance rich.”

Yoel Bodek (quoting Tom Hegna)

“Instead of buying a whole life policy, you'd probably be better off by buying term life insurance and a disability insurance policy.”

Yoel Bodek (for families with limited budgets)

“Life insurance is not a luxury. It's not an accessory, it's not a nice thing to have.”

Yoel Bodek

1 Life insurance was once sold as 'death insurance.' Sales took off when it was renamed.
2 Term is like renting: the price is fixed for 10-30 years, then premiums jump. Whole life is like owning: a higher, steady premium with a cash value that grows modestly.
3 Whole life belongs in a portfolio the way bonds do, but it shouldn't be sold mainly as an investment. It can also help a widow avoid depending on her children and can cover long-term care.
4 COVID-era fundraisers raised about $24 million across roughly 60 families, around $400,000 each. That's not enough to keep a family going, and plastering children's photos is painful for them.
5 Many people in their upper 30s to 50s carry little or no coverage.
6 Example: a man in his early 30s with two kids got $1.5 million of coverage ($1 million 20-year + $500K 30-year term) for about $900 a year. Payouts are generally not taxed.
7 Many healthy people can now get coverage with no exam, because insurers check lab and prescription databases.
8 Far less disability insurance is sold in the community than life insurance, partly because some agents aren't trained on it.
9 Selling term is barely profitable for agents (about $700 a year in premium), so they push bigger whole life policies. He suggests agents commit to protection-only talk for the first 12-18 months.
10 'Self-insuring' can fail: a wealthy couple who died in 2009 owed estate tax on 2008 values and had to sell property at fire-sale prices.