3 ms·

Your advice sounds very good. I'm looking at the situation from the other end of the tunnel. One point I would add is that you have to be very careful in findin

Your advice sounds very good. I'm looking at the situation from the other end of the tunnel. One point I would add is that you have to be very careful in finding a financial adviser. A large portion of people that work under that title are actually just commission based "whole life" insurance salesman. It took me and my wife quite a while to find a person we felt comfortable with and that was 100% fee based.

Wilduck 15y ago
I would like to second the need for avoiding insurance salesmen as investment advisers. Beware anyone trying to sell you "Cash Value Life Insurance" (Also known under other names, such as "whole life". These are all broadly in the Permanent Life Insurance camp[1][2]). They are only masquerading as a financial adviser in that role. There's no good reason to combine insurance and investment. Stick with "Term" [2] life insurance (good coverage, cheap, but only for a fixed number of years), invest the difference, and plan to self insure after the term is up. Good financial planning makes this approach much more cost effective. I've recently had the experience of a friend going into the life insurance business, and it's been painful to observe how sleazy the life insurance "products" that they try to sell you are. We sat down to discuss my savings/insurance plans, and when it became clear that I was not interested in starting his "Cash Value Life Insurance" plan, he resorted to pitching the product to me with the desperation of a Quickstar/Amway[4] representative. It was a very off-putting experience, but it makes sense now that I know his only compensation comes from commission. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_life_insurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_life_insurance [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_insurance#Permanent_life_insurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_insurance#Permanent_life_i... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_life_insurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_life_insurance [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing

Wilduck 15y ago

I would like to second the need for avoiding insurance salesmen as investment advisers. Beware anyone trying to sell you "Cash Value Life Insurance" (Also known under other names, such as "whole life". These are all broadly in the Permanent Life Insurance camp[1][2]). They are only masquerading as a financial adviser in that role. There's no good reason to combine insurance and investment. Stick with "Term" [2] life insurance (good coverage, cheap, but only for a fixed number of years), invest the difference, and plan to self insure after the term is up. Good financial planning makes this approach much more cost effective. I've recently had the experience of a friend going into the life insurance business, and it's been painful to observe how sleazy the life insurance "products" that they try to sell you are. We sat down to discuss my savings/insurance plans, and when it became clear that I was not interested in starting his "Cash Value Life Insurance" plan, he resorted to pitching the product to me with the desperation of a Quickstar/Amway[4] representative. It was a very off-putting experience, but it makes sense now that I know his only compensation comes from commission. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_life_insurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_life_insurance [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_insurance#Permanent_life_insurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_insurance#Permanent_life_i... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_life_insurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_life_insurance [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing