Anyone have any experience with WAEPA life insurance?

[maryanddan]

Heard the name WAEPA used in a podcast from Federal News Radio recently. Might have been on their "For Your Benefit" show. They said many higher paid federal employees are have coverage thru WAEPA as opposed to FEGLI. Checked out their website and don't know why it hasn't been promoted to federal employees more. Has anyone had any experience good or bad with them? Thanks for any info.
Mary

 

[Breyers]

Well, my experience has been all bad because it's been unneeded--thus far!

The good is that at the end of the year they'll send all their members rebate checks--I think it's been 25% of my premium--if they have excess $ at the end of the year due to a low number of insurance claims.

Also, in my case it's a lot cheaper than FEGLI.

 

[James48843]

I began being insured by WAEPA about 10 years ago-

Life insurance rates are much more favorable compared to FEGLI, and they do send a rebate check for part of your premiums each year as mentioned above.

The good- it appears to be a very good value compared to some other places to get life insurance- I carry FEGLI and also WAEPA - with the understanding that should I die my family will have enough to be covered-

My policy also includes coverage for my spouse, so if she dies I have money to cover- something that FEGLI doesn't offer.

Finally, on the flip side, I would say that my contacting them and getting information from them has always been less then stellar. I do not get monthly or quarterly mailings of anykind- and really the only thing I see today is the once a year letter from them saying that their costs are low, so here is a check for a refund of part of your premiums...

Once I didn't get ANY communication from them- missed the check- and when I called them, they said my rate had changed, so they withheld my check to make up the difference in the premium that year. Never sent me a notice of the new rates, etc. Very BAD when it comes to keeping the customer informed.

That said, I think it's a good deal for me, and I have coverage from them.

As always- your milegage may vary....

Here is their link:

http://www.waepa.org/

 

[maryanddan]

Thanks for your help. My husband plans on retiring in 5 years at 55, and I know the rates for FEGLI get pretty high for multiples. We'll still have kids in school, so I'm interested in get affordable additional insurance for him. I noticed there is a health questionaire and possible physical. Have you had any experience with this? Thanks again.

Mary

 

[Birchtree]

I decided many, many years ago to not bother with any kind of life insurance - instead I committed myself to building a stock portfolio. And when I'm gone the portfolio will live in perpetuity always providing income.

 

[budnipper1]

I decided many, many years ago to not bother with any kind of life insurance - instead I committed myself to building a stock portfolio. And when I'm gone the portfolio will live in perpetuity always providing income.

Exactly. I've always hesitated to become worth more dead, than alive.:suspicious:

 

[pyriel]

Insurance is a necessary evil. We can go around and around with this topic but I would have to say that it depends on circumstances and willingness of people to have insurance or not. Since we all don't know when are we going to hit the dirt, (for me) it is better to have insurance than not to have one. I'm not very fond of giving my hard earned investments to the piper (IRS) after i'm gone;-).

Pls be careful...

Pyriel

 

[The HalfBreed]

I'd agree with Pyriel........

Small monthly payments can get Half a million insurance. how long would it take to get a stock portfolio worth that much ?

Aren't Life insurance proceeds "NOT TAXABLE" ?
Are Stock Portfolios Taxable when inherited ?

I Dunno. However, I feel it's good to get both if and when possible.
I, personally stay away from "Whole Life Insurance", and just stick with basic
term life. Much cheaper, and I can put the extra $$$ into other things like 403b's, etc.

Whole Life = Put your money into a Hole, and not see it for the rest of your life.:laugh:

 

[GarySpicuzza]

This could turn into a lively discussion!

I'll play.....

Birchtree wrote:

I decided many, many years ago to not bother with any kind of life insurance - instead I committed myself to building a stock portfolio. And when I'm gone the portfolio will live in perpetuity always providing income.

What guaranteed to you have that you will live long enough to build your portfolio?

After all, the purpose of life insurance is to replace the income/money that's lost because of the premature death of the breadwinner prior to attaining the financial security to live in perpetuity and always provide an income.


The Half Breed wrote:

Aren't Life insurance proceeds "NOT TAXABLE" ?

Are Stock Portfolios Taxable when inherited ?

Life insurance proceeds are INCOME TAX FREE to the named beneficiary.
However, those same life insurance proceeds are included in a person Estate for the determination of Federal Estate Taxes or what is affectionately known in the business as "Taxation WITHOUT Respiration."

Stock Portfolios are granted a step-up in basis and no income tax is due when inherited. But once again those assets are included in your Estate for Federal Estate Tax purposes. I'm NOT talking about pension plans here, I'm talking about the day traders who play stocks like a flea market swap meet.

Qualified and non-qualified pension plans grow tax-deferred and have different distribution rules depending on whose's the beneficiary,... spouse, children or best friend.

 

[ChemEng]

And what if you get to the end before your portfolio does?

I agree with the concept of self insuring as an investment end state, but I hope this post was joking. The cost of 20 year term life insurance for someone in their 20s is less than a pizza a month. Very minimal impact to the portfolio while its built and you can drop it afterwards.

I decided many, many years ago to not bother with any kind of life insurance - instead I committed myself to building a stock portfolio. And when I'm gone the portfolio will live in perpetuity always providing income.

 

[GarySpicuzza]

budnipper1 wrote:

I've always hesitated to become worth more dead, than alive.

Actually, if you sat down and did the math you're worth more alive earning a paycheck than dead.

Do this, multiply your annual income by 10.
Example....$75,000 X 10 = $750,000.

Now, do you own that much life insurance?
Is your portfolio worth that much?

Because $750,000 will only replace about $37,500 of your former $75,000 annual income without destroying the principal or risking the money with the day traders playing stocks like a flea market swap meet.

YOU'RE WORTH MORE ALIVE THAN DEAD!

Since you must not have any experience in actually paying life insurance death claims you don't have any idea just how financially and emotionally devastating the death of a parent is on their children and spouse.

Money is quite a useless commodity to 10 year old little boy who can never play catch with his Dad in the back yard anymore.

 

[pyriel]

I have many different kinds of insurance. Whole life and Term insurance. Now we can all discuss this any which way but it boils down to the individual. I know what people are going to say that whole life is a waste of money and it would be better to invest that with something else. We can also say the same with term insurance since the premium goes up as you get older. The premise that you will be have a good portfolio by the time you get old doesn't work from the majority of the population.
However, what if you can make your life insurance deductible? Would it matter whether you have whole life or term insurance? I'm smiling because I am willing to bet that 98% of us here can't deduct insurance during tax time.... Instead of looking at which insurance is good or bad why don't we find ways to be able to deduct them. This way we may help alot of our readers to get the insurance that they need without having to worry about cost. I sure don't worry about insurance cost;-)
Pyriel

 

[luv2read]

I have many different kinds of insurance. Whole life and Term insurance. Now we can all discuss this any which way but it boils down to the individual. I know what people are going to say that whole life is a waste of money and it would be better to invest that with something else. We can also say the same with term insurance since the premium goes up as you get older. The premise that you will be have a good portfolio by the time you get old doesn't work from the majority of the population.
However, what if you can make your life insurance deductible? Would it matter whether you have whole life or term insurance? I'm smiling because I am willing to bet that 98% of us here can't deduct insurance during tax time.... Instead of looking at which insurance is good or bad why don't we find ways to be able to deduct them. This way we may help alot of our readers to get the insurance that they need without having to worry about cost. I sure don't worry about insurance cost;-)
Pyriel

My whole life policy pays for itself and has been for the past 25 years. - and I get an annual dividend check too. Can't say the same for term.

 

[James48843]

I noticed there is a health questionaire and possible physical. Have you had any experience with this? Thanks again.

Mary

Yes.

I've been a WAEPA holder for over 15 years. And I've upped my coverage twice over that time. They do a health questionaire, and also send a local health technician to your home, who takes urine and blood samples, and an HIV swab, prior to the issuing a policy. They do the basic medical tests to ensure that you are healthy prior to issuing a large dollar policy. Same for increasing policy limits.

To me- it's good to see they do the screening, to keep premiums low.

The down side of my expereince is the same as has previously written- absolutely MINIMAL contact with you once you start paying them. Only a letter once per year.


Lord help me if I die, and my spouse dies at the same time, because I don't have the impression that they would try to contact your heirs to find out why the preimum payments have stopped if croak. My wife knows I have WAEPA, and it's listed in my will, but other than that, I don't know if I can count on WAEPA's customer service to follow through. I don't have any evidence of that, I just think they should send MORE information on a regular basis to their customers.

 

[GarySpicuzza]

Bullishreturn wrote:

absolutely MINIMAL contact with you once you start paying them. Only a letter once per year.

That true Bull' but that's typical of any life insurance company.

They only send annual statements.
That's not a bad thing.
It's just not necessary to send monthly or quarterly statements for life insurance.

It would be redundant useless information especially for term insurance.

So don't be upset with the insurance company because they only send a statement once per year.

Would you perfer they send the redundant information monthly and charge all policyowners more in expenses?

42 cents in first class postage for just 100,000 clients would cost the insurance company $42,000 dollars every time they send the statement.

How about a company like Aviva with $35 million customers worldwide?

It costs them $14,700,000 dollars to send each and every client a statement.

Does it make sense now why they only send an annual statement for life insurance?