Life and Health insurance vs. GoFundMe.... ABC rant

[ANGRYBUTTCRACK]

I carry whole life  thru northwestern mutual and term thru state farm.  It helps to have an agent in the family.  He would automaticly get the kids policies and we just took them over after a few years. I carry enough to pay off all debts including the house and have a nest egg or college fund for the kids. It cost about $300 a month to cover the whole family and myself.

I have 2 policies that are over 15 years old. $150k (death benefit) Whole Life (my Step-Dad started that for me, horrible 'investments').. but I've had it so long, I'm finally at the point that each time we pay the premium, the cash value goes up by more than the premium so I keep it. I think the cash value is like $25k. 

My wife and I also have had a $3.6M policy on each other that we got also about 15 years ago, so the estate would get over $7M. The premiums were frozen for 10 years, now they go up about $200 each per year. I think we're like $9k/year (total) on those policies,.. but if we both croak, with other assets, my Kids/family will have an 8 figure estate to split up. I'd probably get a lower policy now as my kids are getting older, but I'm always paranoid about the 2 year contingency window when the insurance company has lots of options to deny the pay out.

Getting those big ones was a trip, full health run up with blood, EKG as well as background checks. Mind you we were in our low/mid 30's at the time. NO WAY they'd insure my almost 50 year old for that much.. or the premium would be HUGE.

3 of my 4 kids are still on ABC 'assistance' so probably will keep those until they're all fully $ on their own.

abc

PS. It's funny, we can keep the big policies up into our 80s, but then the premiums are like $100k/year.

 

[jamifids]

Make sure all your accounts have beneficiaries on them.  My Father just passed in July, the accounts that had beneficiaries listed were easy to deal with, the others made for more hassles.  Even get beneficiaries on your checking accounts.  He had two life insurance products, one had all the kids and the other had just me.................no idea why but family members are not happy about it.  Because it list Beneficiaries, it doesn't need to go thru the trust or Probate (if there wasn't a trust).  I have certainly learned a lot with this process over the last two months.

Your father was a very clever man. He knew that all the documents had to be in order. My relatives are different. And we have to get all the inheritance and insurance through the courts.