SeeDub

Jetjok and Flyinhigh,
Thank you for sharing.

FedElta

JJ,

Re: our previous conversation, I pay $405/quarter for $300k Term life from UNUM....I retired in 2007, and 300k was the max amout you could export at that time.....per FDX retirement options.

IIRC, UNUM was the only provider at that time and I'm currently 64, so my premium will increase a bit when I hit 65.

Regards,
BG

Jetjok

FedElta,

Thanks for the information, but as I said in my original post, when someone has the medical history that I do, their options are extremely limited. There wasn't an insurance company out there that would touch me with a 10 foot pole, so the conversion was a good deal, cost not withstanding.

The one really nice feature of the converted policy is that the premium, although quite high, will never change, and that's because the policy is a Universal Life policy, which is a variation of Whole Life. As well, and although I didn't take that option, the UL policy can accrue a significant cash value. I assume from your comment, that the policy you have with UNUM is a Term policy. If that's the case, the premium stays level for a number of years (like 10,15, or 20 years), but then as your age increases, and you hit those Level Term gates, the premium goes up, usually significantly.

Long story short, I'd have much preferred to buy a Term policy and pay the increase in premium along the way, but I was ineligible.

JJ

AerisArmis

JJ and FedElta, I print out all your retirement gouge and put it in my retirement planning folder. There's no better intel than from the guys who have done. Thanks for sharing.

FDXLAG

You are not supposed to get information here get it from the union.

Flyinhigh

I got a $500K 20 year policy for $444/month and $500K 25 year policy for $651/month. One is from Banner Life the other from Trans America. Level Term, no increase in premiums for the life of the policy. All I had to do was take a physical and have some blood work done. I put these policies in place when I was 64 1/2 so my "Insurance Age" was actually 64. Waiting until age 65 makes a huge difference in the premiums.

RAC396

To add to what Flyinhigh just said, my insurance guy recommended I take out term insurance prior to my 63rd birthday, there was a large break in premiums. Also if you are healthy 62 you may not be at 64. The premium delta between a healthy 62 year old, and a 64 year old with a quadruple bypass is tremendous

Jetjok

There's another trick or technique that you can use when buying life insurance. As Flyinhigh mentioned in his above post, and something that's not readily apparent, is that when it comes to life insurance, the company you purchase the insurance from will look at your birthday and add 6 months. If you're past your half-birthday (for example, my birthday is March 21, 1946, which makes me 66 and a half on September 21, 2012), the insurance company will look at you as if your a year older. That was one of the reasons I elected to retire on September 15th, thereby giving me about a week to get the insurance quote. However, Lincoln didn't get around to quoting me until September 23rd, which then put me at 67 years old, in their eyes. So here's the trick: you can ask them to pre-date the policy, so that you can take advantage of your younger age, ie in my case 66. They will usually do that, although it might cost you a little extra for your first years premium, but over the course of the policy you can save a significant amount of money.

JJ

RedeyeAV8r

JetJok

Have a long Healthy and Happy Retirement my Friend!

Flyinhigh

Here's something else to throw in your retirement notes. During the open enrollment period the year before you retire take at look at signing up for the Health Care Savings deduction if you need anything done in the next year. I stumbled across this by accident. My wife needed some dental work we had scheduled for January so I had them take money out. They divide the repayments into 24 equal payroll deductions. My last paycheck will be 30 September so I get 6 payments for "free". Thought this might be a mistake but the folks at Wage Works confirmed it.