Attorneys, accountants, life insurance agents, and other financial services professionals constantly are required to provide an opinion as to the efficacy of a policy for the particular client and to assist in selecting between competing policies.
When it comes to evaluating life insurance products, above all, the goal always should be to match the product to the problem.
Four factors in particular can help pinpoint what type of life insurance coverage is most appropriate for a given client:
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- The client's personal preferences, prejudices, and priorities;
- The amount of insurance needed;
- The client's ability and willingness to pay a given level of premiums (cash flow considerations); and
- Tolding period probabilities (duration of need considerations).
Here's a closer look at each of these subjects, from the 6th Edition of "The Tools & Techniques of Life Insurance Planning" (2015, The National Underwriter Company).
Preferences, prejudices and priorities
The selection of a particular type of life insurance policy or policy mix is to a great extent a very personal decision. Just as some individuals prefer, by psychological nature, to lease an automobile or rent an apartment, others prefer to make their purchases with a minimum down payment and stretch out the length of payments as long as possible, while others prefer to make a relatively large down payment and to pay off the loan or mortgage as quickly as possible. Too many clients there is emotional comfort in "owning," while others feel that owning ties them down and restricts their freedom of choice and flexibility.
Similar comparisons can be made to life insurance policies. Some clients do not want to "pay, pay, pay…and have nothing to show for it at the end of the term," while others have been told all their lives to "buy term and invest the difference." In reality, both positions are correct, and not correct. Even the advice of knowledgeable planners has been tainted by their own prejudices. For most clients, the right course of action usually lies where they are most comfortable—because peace of mind is really the impetus for the purchase of life insurance in the first place.
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(Photo: iStock)
Another useful analogy is the purchase of technology tools by professionals. Some tend to purchase the highest quality, most expensive tools that they can afford so that the tools will serve them well over a lifetime (or at least the reasonably expected lifetime of the tools). They do not tend to purchase lower priced, lower quality tools that will have to be replaced by other tools because they wear out, were inadequate to begin with, or break. But others cannot afford to (or will choose not to) purchase top quality tools. They may have other priorities. They may prefer to have the money to invest or to spend on current consumption. They may end up spending more over the length of their careers on tools and may be inconvenienced in the process of continually replacing the original tools.