Do you have Life Insurance?
If you do I congratulate you, if not you may want may want to read this article about a company I’ve been using for several years now called Western Reserve Life. In this article I’m going to give you give you the good as well as the bad. I believe Western Reserve Life Insurance is a great company not just because I have my policies with them but also because I use to sell their products as well. I understood what it was like to sit on the other side of the table and help someone with their financial situations. I found this very rewarding and in this article I am going to be sharing my experience with you. 
What Products and Services WRL Offers
WRL offers an array of financial products, everything from annuities, term life, indexed universal life, 2nd to die policies, to their flagship product the variable universal life insurance policy. Of all the products they have none is more popular. Variable universal life or more commonly known as VUL and is a unique kind of life insurance. It gets its name because one it is variable, which means it is invested into the market like a mutual fund, and second it’s universal, which means it is flexible with its payments. For example, if one month you forgot to make a payment into the policy it would simply deduct it from the cash value to cover the premiums as long as there were sufficant funds inside the account.
What I Like About WRL
Western Reserve Life is a great company for many reasons but I would like to include a few reasons I like them particularly.
- The first thing I like about Western Reserve Life is how they have recently added active money management into their life insurance portfolios. Unlike most VUL policies you will only get a list of sub accounts. With active money management they have people watching over your money 24/7.
- Second, one particular feature I like with WRL’s variable universal life policy is that as the cash value builds within the policy the cost of your insurance will go down. In fact if the cash value increases to the death benefit amount your policy will actually bump up the death benefit amount. This is done because the cash value can never exceed the death benefit.
- Third, I like the loan provisions inside the VUL policies. What makes them so great is that they charge very little and make a great option if you would happen to come into an extreme emergency.
- Finally, one of the biggest reasons I like their life insurance policies is because they have a terminal illness provision that says if you are within six months of death due to a terminal illness you will be allowed to start using the death benefit to start paying medical bills. On a personal not I had a brother who died from a terminal illness and this would have been great to have something like this at the time.
What I Don’t Like About WRL
With all the things I do like about WRL there are some things I don’t like about this company. Here are a few things I don’t like.
- The first thing I don’t like is the ten year surrender penalty their policies carry. Even though the penalty decreases every year you won’t be able to take any policy loans until after the ten years are up. The fee in a surrender penalty usually start out high but as each passing year goes by the penalty gets less and less until year 11 were it will go to zero.
- Second, the cost can be a bit more than if you were buying a term life policy. This is mostly due to the fact that you are not only paying for the cost of insurance but also to have the variable cash value inside the policy as well.
Who Is WRL Right For
Not every product the Western Reserve Life Assurance Company carries is right for everyone. So here are a few things you should consider before you buy.
If you are looking for a permanent policy like the VUL or equity indexed life insurance you should know that the cost will be higher. In fact if you can’t handle at least $50 a month then these types of polices may not be for you.
However if you are looking for a policy that will be there for you in the term the VUL may be the type of life insurance policy right for you.
If you also don’t like to invest your money in more volatile places like the stock market this may not be an option you may want to consider.
However if you are looking for cheaper alternative for life insurance you may want to consider WRL’s term policies. As a previous life insurance agent I can tell you that I was able to set polices up for people for less than $20 a month. That’s pretty darn cheap.
Call To Action
So are you ready to take the next step towards setting up your life insurance policy? If so you can check out Western Reserve Life’s website to learn more. There you will find articles, calculators, product information and all the information you need to get started.
There are a lot of risk in life but living without Life Insurance can be even a bigger risk so get started today.
A year ago I invested with WRL on a Life Insurance Policy. As my agent discussed this policy with me he state that if I pay the whole premium once per year I would only be charged one expense charge to process the premium. Unfortunately, I did not do my homework and found out a year later that on page 3B they charge a rate ($0.44) per unit that I purchased per month. That’s $120.00 per month! Needless to say I am loosing money and if I cash out now I will loose the bulk of my investment. I will get out of this policy as soon as it makes sense for me to do so. My advice is to stick with a financial planner you know and DO Your Homework! I was planning on opening an other account for my self and my son, but under these circumstances I am staying away from WRL in every aspect!
Just for anyone who happens to see this article and the following post in the future. Lori Smith might have did her homework but it was still incomplete. Her life insurance producer didn’t lie to her what is unfortunate is she didn’t understand what he was saying versus what was written in her policy. The processing fee is just that, the fee for processing the payments similar to a debit charge. The Fee per unit has to do with the amount of coverage she purchased, not the processing fee. So if you want $5,000 in coverage your charged $.44 per $1,000 units. The insurance company has to make money somehow this is one of the ways. Furthermore, she is unlikely to lose money because of the Cash Value(CV) aspect of the policy. Premiums paid go towards the cash value. For example, if she pays a premium of $2400 annually with a equity index policy the rate of return averages 8%, $192. (2400+192). This means that, along with her death benefit (say its $100,000), in 10 years the CV+ interest earned are liquid assets she can use for whatever. The average is 8 but Caps at 13.25%. It wouldn’t be prudent to withdrawal from the policy early, remember this is a wealth building vehicle.