Life Insurance – Proper Prior Planning Prevents…

Life Insurance is something that nearly every adult should have, and almost every adult who buys goes about purchasing it the wrong way, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, and buys the wrong policy. Is that an indictment of the system or what? Let’s start with what life insurance is. Life insurance is …

Lenders and Insurance Proceeds

The question that inspired this was can a mortgage company use the flood insurance claim money towards homeowners mortgage loans? This is equally applicable to every other form of insurance on your home – earthquake, regular homeowner’s insurance, and any others that you may have or require. The short answer is yes. The reason that …

Relying Upon Reputation: There Are No Silver Bullets

On a regular basis, I get emails that ask me what I think of a particular company. When I check out public forums, I see questions about particular companies every time. “What do you think of X Realty, or Y Mortgage?” Reputation has a certain value of course, but in my experience, these people are …

Disasters and the Mortgage

after Katrina I am upside down with my mortgage.my house is uninhabitable. My flood insurance checkdoesn’t payoff the mortgage. How can i get a short payoffdue to financial hardship – i.e. relocation loss of jobs andsteady income? This is one of the hard truths about mortgages. They are a contract between you and the lender …

Mortgage Life and Disability Insurance

Every few days, I get junk mail wanting me to buy Mortgage Life and/or Disability Insurance. Buy regular policies instead. These are not, in general, good policies of insurance, because the benefits go straight to someone else. Mortgage Life Insurance is straightforward enough. It’s decreasing term insurance – the insurance company’s favorite kind of policy. …

Shopping for Long Term Care Insurance – Who Should and Shouldn’t Buy, and Policy Characteristics

I’ve run two prior articles this week on the theme of Long Term Care, one on Long Term Care Issues, and one on Non-Tax-Qualified versus Tax-Qualified, and Partnership Insurance Policies. Now, I’m getting down to nuts and bolts of what you need to know while shopping for a policy. The two most important characteristics are …

Long Term Care Insurance: Non-Tax-Qualified versus Tax-Qualified, and Partnership

(Part 2 of a three part Series on Long Term Care) I wrote in the previous column a lot about long term care issues. This column deals with the insurance policies available for long term care. There are two major types, with one subtype available for people who are lucky enough to live in one …

Variable Annuities: Debunking the Ignorant Press

Found an annuity article in the local paper with an error so glaring that I had to debunk it. Here’s the article:Income for Life And here’s the critical error, conveniently in the first two paragraphs: Interested in annuities? The type known as an immediate annuity may pique the interest of some investors. But the first …

Life Insurance – Proper Prior Planning Prevents…

Life Insurance is something that nearly every adult should have, and almost every adult who buys goes about purchasing it the wrong way, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, and buys the wrong policy. Is that an indictment of the system or what? Let’s start with what life insurance is. Life insurance is …