To renegotiate or to cancel my whole life insurance ?

Question

Hello,

When I was 25 y.o (non-smoking, healthy female without family), I was convinced to buy whole life insurance. I had to pay 2000$/yr for 20 years for 100K base coverage. I was told that it's a great investment tool, because by the time I was going to be 65, the policy would accumulate almost 1M$ and then I could borrow against it and have a nice retirement.

I'm not so convinced anymore. I paid for 3 years and then I lost my job and reduced the payments to 1000$/yr, which brought my coverage to 60K (at 28 y.o) !

So up to today, I have paid 2000*3+2*1000=8000$. My coverage is 64.8K only. If I understand well my statement, the cash value now is 4609$.

I have another 15 years to go with this insurance.

Is it better to cancel it or to continue with it ?

Or is it possible to renegotiate the insurance, because it really seems like a bad deal now ?

Thanks so much !

Answer 1

If you don't have dependants.you don't need insurance....If you do have dependants, insurance possiblities are descending term insurance which is quite inexpensive compared to whole life.

You are better at any time to take any potential amount of insuance premium and invest it in a balanced mutual fund every month, the fund will grow in value as you add to it, over the long term it  will give you increase in value, and it is always available for you to cash in at it's todays value, if you really need money for an emergency

You should be able to get No-load funds through your bank

Answer 2

Whole life is HORRIBLE.  Cancel it now.  If you get anything out of it, consider yourself lucky.

Buy level term insurance for your insuraqnce, and buy investment vehicles for your investments.  Insurance is not an investment.

Answer 3

Rick B is correct, dump that policy. Term life if best. It builds no cash value but life insurance is to pay for burial and to help your dependents or whoever you choose as a beneficiary. For around $50/mo you can get a $500,000 policy. For about $25/mo, $250,000. And if you don't die good deal, and you have saved a lot of money, especially if you choose the $250K coverage.

Answer 4

ok, first of all do not cancel anything untill you have new policy delivered to you from a new insurance co. I woll recommend Primerica, the best of a. m. best. now then when u get new policy get your cash value back out but do not cashed in rather, tell whole life company u want to borrow YOUR MONEY. AFTER U GET IT (THE CHECK) CANCEL THE POLICY BUT REMEMBER GET YOUR OTHER POLICY IN PLACE FIRST. Buy TERM invest the rest. that is all the cash value nerds do,u can see already that your current policy is not doing what they said it would do.

Answer 5

It's impossible to know without seeing more detail.  I would order an "inforce illustration as is" from the customer service department and show it a few different agents to get multiple perspectives on how you could proceed.  

If I were guessing, I'd say that you probably need more coverage than $100k and borrowing from your policy wouldn't be a good retirement plan for you.

If commissions meant you were getting screwed, then no-load life insurance (like Amerus or TIAA-CREF) would always be more competitive.  That is not true.  I hate this mindless argument.  It is akin to saying 'don't buy jeans from Gap because they make a lot of money selling jeans.'

Answer 6

I am sorry that you were "taken" by this agent. Apparently they only looked out for their commission than for the best for you.

All totalled- You have spent 8K. What you have in savings 4,609. You have in savings just over HALF of what you put into it in only eight years. Your interest rate may not even be 4%.

If you think mutual funds may help you, I would suggest going with term insurance and investing the difference between the whole life and term into a well managed mutual fund.