Insurance Chat

Yesterday wasn't payday, so I didn't have any money to throw at bills.  I'm just hanging on and waiting for next Wednesday.

Today after work, Hubby and I went to meet with someone at our Life Insurance company.  They called him and asked for the meeting and it's good to go occasionally because he also has RRSP stuff with them.  So the big reason for the meeting was that this guy wanted to sell us on switching from term to permanent.

Yeah.  My premiums only change every 20 years.  I'm very happy with the $32 I'm paying per month, thanks.  Not so interested in changing to a $141 premium, especially since I'd have to live to be 76 just to get my premiums back.  Here's a tip: buy term, invest the difference!

It's even better (ha, ha) for My Husband the Smoker!  His premiums go up every 10 years, but even at the point where his term premium would go up to around $200 switching to permanent would double that!  That's insane.  We don't have that kind of money to spend and, if we did, I'd far rather put it into an RRSP so we could enjoy our retirement a little more.

It was nice to get a printout of the RRSPs though, with their interest rates and when they mature.  The rates are actually very competitive, so that's good.

And the other item he talked about was critical illness insurance.  Now, that's something that might possibly make sense for Hubby, depending on how much it costs.  At least there it doesn't count against you if you smoke.  Strange, but true.  He gave us some material on it.  I'll look it over and see if it's worthwhile or not.  This isn't medical insurance, we pay our $108 MSP premium every month and that covers all medical expenses.  This is a lump sum payment if you're diagnosed (and survive for the specified time period!) with one of the illnesses on their list (things like coma, dementia, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc.).  Presumably it's because then you or a family member taking care of you can't work and this gives you money to live on.  Apparently cancer is the big one they pay out on the most and Hubby has a 1 in 2 chance of dying of cancer.  I could hope all this might push him towards quitting (again) but I didn't see any sign of that so far.

Anyway, as far as I can see, the whole reason for this meeting is that the guys at the insurance company aren't making enough money and wanted to see if they could open up a whole new commission for themselves.  I've read that the commissions on permanent insurance are great for the agent who sells you the policy.  No thanks.  I have other uses for my money right now.  They include paying bills and buying food.