| Suggested
Links of Life Insurance Advisors, Inc.
The
Insurance Forum is a monthly periodical published by Joseph
Belth, Professor of Insurance Emeritus from Indiana University.
Most of its contents would likely be considered too technical
or esoteric for a consumer audience, but Professor Belth is
a clearly a neutral and expert commentator with no ax to grind.
One must subscribe to see most article contents.
The life insurance section of the website
of the Consumer
Federation of America is also a good neutral source of
information. While we do not agree with all of their general
advice, such as some of their suggestions about shopping for
term insurance, the CFA material on life insurance is both
quite extensive and unbiased. Also, you may click here to
see Life Insurance Advisors, Inc.’s suggestions on “How
to Shop for Term Insurance.”
The National
Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the association
of state insurance departments. The insurance industry is
largely regulated by the states rather than the Federal government.
The NAIC site contains links to the various state insurance
departments.
The NAIC and various state insurance departments
offer some short consumer guides on life insurance.
They tend to be brief and general. A couple of examples are
“Tips
for Buying Life Insurance” and “Understanding
Life Insurance: Should You Change or Cancel a Policy?”.
Information is available on each of the
financial rating agencies that grade the financial strength
of insurance companies. While it is not possible to determine
all of the ratings for a particular carrier from the sites
of the rating agencies, one may wish to view them. They are:
A.M.
Best
Fitch
(previously Duff & Phelps)
Moody’s
Standard
& Poor’s
Weiss
Ratings
Some insightful commentary on the weaknesses
of on-line term insurance quoting and brokerage services
is available at www.examfirst.com.
It is interesting to note that the conclusions on this subject
are quite different from those of the Consumer
Federation of America. Click here to see Life Insurance
Advisors, Inc.’s suggestions on “How
to Shop for Term Insurance.”
Some of the best journalism about life
insurance appears occasionally in Bloomberg
Wealth Manager, a monthly periodical circulated at
no charge to financial advisors. Note that the magazine’s
content addresses personal financial planning and investments
generally, and relatively little of it touches on life insurance.
When it does, however, it is generally very good.
For general information relating to estate
planning, we recommend the public resources and suggested
links of the Probate and Trust Division of the Real Property
Probate and Trust Section of the American
Bar Association and the American
College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a national,
invitation-only group of top estate planning lawyers.
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