Posted by The Policy Settlement Alliance on Fri, Aug 13, 2010 @ 10:13 AM
By: Richard S. Bernstein
Why are life insurance company ratings important? Life insurance company ratings are extremely important because life settlement providers only buy policies from life insurance companies with high ratings. Basically, the higher the rating your company has the better chance you have to get your policy bought from a life settlement provider.
Naturally in life you want the best. When you initially buy life insurance for your family, you want the best for your family therefore you look for a life insurance company with the highest rating which ends up with you buying the policy from a top rated company.
If I were a life settlement provider I would obviously prefer to purchase a policy with the highest life insurance company ratings possible. This makes the policy holder feel safer in knowing that the policy proceeds will be paid out at death.
To learn more about how insurance company ratings affect the life settlement process, please click the LIVEpdq.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 09:47 PM
by
Stephen P Turtur
Life insurance company ratings
are very important. As with any investment, the criteria to participate involves the strength or soundness of the institution or asset. There are many insurance companies that are strong from a balance sheet perspective that do not enjoy the highest ratings.
Is this important? It is a variable that is weighed as many investment funds will not participate to purchase a policy unless the ratings are at a particular level. These institutions may not have the internal structure to have further research done as to an insurance company's strength other than the ratings it receives.
Life insurance company ratings are important as the concept goes "just because it is cheap" does not mean it will stay that way". There are variables tied to insurance policies that can hurt the death benefit duration and these variables are also weighed against the life insurance company ratings. Therefor, I have seen offers that are not as high with regards to a policy where the ratings of the carrier are in question.
Does it mean the policy is worthless? No, in some cases there will be offers and there are actually funders that do give more weight to illustrated costs. Life insurance company ratings are something you should understand not only to the settlement issue but also for you investment knowledge. This area of financial planning is crucial to the proper decision.
For more information please click on
livepdq
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 08:32 PM
By Stephen A. Bailey
Are Life Insurance company ratings
important and relative to life settlements? Does it really matter? To some extent if a client wants to sell a policy, yes the ratings of the company do come into the mix and consideration, when determining how solid the current cash values may be to the buyer / investor.
Do the cash values erode fast as mortality expense goes up with an older client? On most policies, when an insured gets to his mid-eighties, the values in certain policies with certain companies, will rise AND fall rapidly, once they reach a certain age. Smaller less stable companies may understate mortality in the beginning and have to raise expense in later ages.
In 1992 I was asked to be the Life Insurance expert on a talk radio show put out by the now defunct Del Mar Securities. Brad King was the host and he would broadcast in different States each week. Somewhere in the course of the broadcast, he would ask listeners to call in and speak with me about the safety and stability of their insurance company. We would use mostly Weiss Ratings and kept watch on about 600 of the nations 1800 companies at that time. It was quite a learning experience. And yes, ratings do make a difference in valuating contracts. Click our LivePDQ
link to see if a life settlement is right for you or if we can help you move from a life insurance company with a lower rating to one that is A rate.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 07:07 PM
By Stephen R. Bathon, CLU, ChFC, AEP
With over a thousand insurance companies doing business in the United States, life insurance company ratings
can help a buyer make an educated decision. That is not to say that a product or a company should be chosen only on the strength of its ratings.
The most popular rating service for life companies is A.M. Best. Standard and Poor and Weiss also rate life companies and buyers frequently check life insurance company ratings on all three services before making a decision.
People who have been in the insurance business for a while and familiar with life insurance company ratings, will remember the collapse of Executive life Insurance Company, a highly rated insurance company. Executive Life was the largest insurance company in California and one of the largest in the United States. Their life insurance products were very competitively priced and their annuity portfolio was second to none.
Consumers flocked to Executive life for both their product and their life insurance company ratings and yet the company went bankrupted. Executive Life had invested heavily in what was termed junk (high yield corporate) bonds, which in turn enabled them to pay a greater than normal rate of return to their policy holders. When junk bonds failed in the mid-eighties, the company went under. Policy holders, however, only suffered a lost of return and not principal, as their contracts were picked up by other insurance companies. Stock holders, on the other hand, lost everything.
For more information on insurance settlements, please click the live pdq
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 07:06 PM
By Stephen A. Bailey
Life Insurance Company Ratings
are significant but only to a point. AmBest, Weiss, Standard & Poors, Moodys, and a couple of other rating services, differ in their symbols and their intent, but most all of them want to give the best fitting rate, even though Insurance companies with some ratings companies, actually pay for ratings.
Personally I think that Weiss ratings, probably the strictest in the sense of what it takes for superior life insurance ratings, are among the best. Then again, a B- rating from Weiss, can actually mean this is a solid company. I have seen AMBest ratings of A to some carriers that Weiss might give a D- rating. So what do Life Insurance Company ratings really mean? Sometime you have to look deeper into the companies.
With life insurance company ratings overall, the highest rating does not always mean the best. But if you look at the company's Management, Investment practices, Mortality experience, pricing and so on, you can get a great idea of how the company operates, how the public views them, how the agent views them and so on. I believe that Service and Friendliness to the client, insofar as access to a live person for either servicing or death claims, or review of a policy's values are equally important. As far as I'm concerned, if a company has been in business for 50 or more years, with a good reputation, as well as checking the ratings, you can get a solid idea about whether you would like to represent them or be a client. Click here: livepdq if you would like to seeif we can help you check on your company.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 03:25 PM
By Michael P Perog
Life insurance company ratings
are very important to you if you are a senior age 70+ who wants to sell your life insurance policy in order to earn cash now vs. holding the policy until maturity.
Look at it from the Funding/ buyer company’s perspective, who is going to buy your policy, make all the premiums and then they get paid back their funds and their profit upon maturity from the life insurance company. If life insurance company ratings are at an A level and they get down graded to a B level by Moody’s because of certain financial reasons this life insurance company is now considered to be more “risky” to the buyer. Meaning the carrier may not be able to pay the death benefit and thus the funder could loose money on this purchase.
When you choose a broker to represent you in a life settlement, make sure they have knowledge of your carrier and it’s financial status so that you the Policy Owner get the highest price possible for your policy when you sell it.
If you want to find out more about life insurance company ratings, then click on the LivePDQ link.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 @ 12:52 PM
By Marlin E Leisher
Knowing your life insurance company ratings
is a very important part of the buying process. However, it is probably the most ignored factor in choosing a life insurance company. You want to know your life insurance company will be around for 10-20-30 years until the time of your passing. The best way to evaluate this information is to know your life insurance company ratings.
Generally speaking you do want a life insurance company rating to be an A+ or A. There are several different life insurance company ratings analysts. Each of them use a different system for rating insurers. Because of this one companies “A” rating might not be the same as another companies “A”. The American Counsel of Life Insurers recommends that you ask your state insurance department or agent about the financial strength of the company from which you plan to buy life insurance.
For more information about life insurance company ratings, new life insurance, and life settlements click the Live PDQ link above today!
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.