Well, it’s the end of the year, nearly, and I thought that we’d impart a little wisdom on something that happened recently.
Actually reading your life insurance policy probably ranks right up there with reading the phone book, and I suspect that the life compamies like it that way.
My life insurance company (New York Life) sent me a bill recently for a ‘feature’ that they added to my life insurance policy which, in my case, doubles as key man insurance for Solutions Forum and the American School of Entrepreneruship.
NYLAC had added this feature some years ago, and it’s called a no lapse guarantee rider, which means that they’ll pay your premiums if for some reason you miss a payment or two. It’s actually a good thing, and I’m now good until age 85, which is a ways away.
The only problem is that NYLAC didn’t tell me anywhere in the policy when I took it out eight years ago that down the road they might charge for this coverage, nor did they give an estimate of how much they might charge. My agent didn’t even know they were going to do it until after they’d done it.
To me, this whole process could have been handled much more ethically, and I’ve let the Insurance Commissioner in Arizona know my thoughts. We’ll probably have a hearing on it sometime after the new year starts.
But, here’s a chance for NYLIAC to come clean, admit that they could have done things differently (such as applying my cash value to the premium that they didn’t disclose) and issuing a written apology from the famous Dallas Service Center.
But, I’m not holding my breath.