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

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