A Word to the Wise!

11 years ago

This is about Life Insurance.....Your heirs might have a problem!

We got a policy w-a-a-y back in 1955. The kids were small and if anything happened to the DH, I would need everything I could get. We decided that we would rather have the small cash value now. So, it's Cash In Time!

That Company was bought out by another company and neither has offices here. Luck was with us! Thanks to the Internet and an old letter that I happened to keep, we were able to locate the new Home Office.

After phone calls and more phone calls, we finally located someone at the home office of the new company. They don't handle Life Insurance anymore, but he could cash out the policy for us.

What would it be like if we had waited until he had died???

So, if you have an old Life Insurance policy that's paid up, etc. it might be a good idea to find out what's up with your company now.

Ditto for all of you with elderly parents...make sure that the policies are still easily located and agents available for help.

It's not worth much now...but it's the idea of all those premiums that we struggled to pay going down the drain. That's what would have happened if we had waited even longer.

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Comments (4)

rob333 (zone 7b)
11 years ago
Glad you figured it all out! Hope you get to do something "fun" with it, like go on a trip? Spoil yourselves?

You're reminding me. I've asked mom to get it all in one place with all the phone numbers. Need to go ask her again... Mommy is cashing one of them in so she can pay off her car. She's looking to retire and wants to get it all in order. I don't think she'll ever be ready. She likes to socialize at work too much to quit.
lindac
11 years ago
Way back in 55, people bought life insurance both as an investment and for the death benefit. But in the past 25 or 30 years, the economy has changes so much that there are many better investments than those wrapped around a death benefit.

Some policies have a declining death benefit but a stable premium....to provide maximum benefit when the family is young...some are simply "paid up" and the cash value grows at a slow rate, others provide just a death benefit.

Before you cash in a policy weigh the difference between the cash value and the death benefit....and consider borrowing cash to do what you want and letting your insurance pay for it after you are gone...if you don't want to leave a nest egg for your heirs.
Linda C
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agnespuffin
Original Author
11 years ago
Linda is right. A lot will depend on what the policy is worth. For example....this policy was for 15,000. which would have been a lot at that time. The value decreased after about ten years and at present time,, it's only worth about 5,000. Hardly worth the effort to keep track of it. Besides, it looks as if I'm going to go before he does and that would mean that the 3 kids would split it.

Nope! let's cash the little dab in now, maybe get a dinner out at a nice restaurant instead of McDonalds.

Now, if it had been for a couple of million.....that might be another thing entirely.
rob333 (zone 7b)
11 years ago
Yep. I have a couple of life policies, which is down from three. The third I cashed in last year. I'll keep the second one until all debts are paid AND the LF is on his own. Or drop it down. The remaining one is enough to get buried. Make sure all the bases are covered!