Life Insurance
 

Looking at changing life insurance companies during Open Enrollment and want to see if anyone else has done it before. Currently covered by MetLife through previous pax carrier employer. Would save $20/mo by switching to Securian through Fedex Open Enrollment. Is it worth it, is there a risk?

As an aside, looked at term insurance through USAA, would have been half the cost, until my med records showed a couple of moles removed (Basel cell) and then there was no savings..

Look at the ALPA benefits presentation slides on the FedEx ALPA website under the R&I section. The rates for the APLA life insurance are cheaper than the company insurance that is available.

when I compared the costs, $600K at FDX=$54/month ALPA=$52/month

there are 4 life insurance selections, I am not entirely sure of the difference. Group Term, FDX MEC term, 2017 10 year term, and 2017 20 year term. If you select the 2017 20 year term option there is a link to a list of the rates based on age and sex. The cheapest of those 4 iterations was $45 per month.

My experience - most expensive to least expensive

ALPA National plans
FedEx plans
Private plans like USAA, if you are willing & able to pass a simple physical with some blood work

Not sure where you are getting the numbers but look at slide 58 of the 2017 Benefits Seminar presentation. The only time the FedEx insurance is cheaper is for years 50-54 it is 7% cheaper and years 55-59 it is 1% cheaper. At all other ages the ALPA insurance is less.

I'm considering switching as well. The problem with Fedex and ALPA life policies is they both get extremely expensive after you retire and they cut the policy payout in half after age 70 but the premium remains the same. I've found Navy FCU is the cheapest and I can get a 25 year level term policy for $325 per month for a million dollars of coverage. I'm 54 and this will be in lieu of the spousal offset of the pension plan.

I found the ALPA optional life to be a little less expensive. I recently cancelled since we're empty nesters now and house nearly paid off. My wife gets 50% pension (23 years) even as an active pilot so I dumped all the optional Life.

I thought the higher coverage available for AD&D for both of us was cheap so I maxed it out.

I was about to go down the path for life insurance in lieu of joint survivor but after talking to Schwab (ALPA) I changed my mind. My wife didn't feel comfortable with it since she'd be 78 when the term ended (and no joint survivor (JS)). I'm planning on deferring the start of pension benefits 1 year; this gives you the same no-JS monthly pension payment but you have 50% JS plus the new pop-up option (both protected from a death).

Aside from a "must have" like a revocable living trust, those of you carrying several million in life insurance may want to consider adding a non-revocable life insurance trust to your estate planning mix.

Upon your death, if the proceeds of your policies are paid directly to your beneficiary, that money becomes part of their taxable estate when they die. Lots of scenarios (depending on how much insurance you have) where a huge portion of that money is lost to taxes at some point down the road. A life insurance trust will keep those assets out of your beneficiaries estate and shield them from follow on estate/death taxes.

Obviously all this is dependent on the current tax code shake-up.

What?:confused:

Are you 60?

I didn't know until about a year ago that once you're vested (5 years I believe and 55+), your spouse still gets a 50% lifetime pension benefit based on FAE and YOS when you die (not retired yet). Because of that, I thought I was over-insured and dumped my optional life. There's a blurb about it in the PBB. I confirmed this with ALPA R&I and the FDX Retirement center. They said she could defer the start of benefits to increase the monthly payment.