Financial JUSTICE asked:


I used to own whole life insurance until I learned the hard way about the truth behind it. A life agent said cash value was a great way to build savings for retirement and that I can use it anytime. That sounded pretty great and so me and my husband bought it. About 28 years later, he died in an accident. The life insurance paid the death claim about 30 days after I filed a claim. But all the cash value was gone! With the cash value, I could of used it for my retirement.

So now I got rid of my whole life and paid a surrender charge on the cash value. The mortgage is paid off and no one is dependant on my income anymore. So I don’t need life insurance. I moved about $45,000 of cash value into various investments.

All I have to say to people buying life insurance is do your own research about life insurance before listening to life insurance agents.

Tammy

LISA asked:


My husband and I are 28 years old, have three children and plan to have one more child in the near future. We live in Virginia (DC area). His annual earnings are about $70k; I also work part time earning annually about $35k. We currently have life insurance through our employers, but we want to get policies on our own. Can anyone recommend a good company to go with and a type of policy that we should get?
Also, should we get life insurance on our children? if so, what kind?
The goal that I want to accomplish with the life insurance is this. If my husband or I was to die, I would want my children to continue the same financial life that they would have had with both parents living. For this I am calculating that we need about a $2 million policy. After our children are grown, I would like for us to have a lower policy; just enough to cover the cost of bills and a little something to help the kids, I am thinking something around 200k.

Nathaniel