A𝖓𝖙i𝖔𝖈𝖍 C𝖔𝖓v𝖊𝖗𝖙 ✟ (@AntiochConvert)

I'm seeing something that I think my boomer frens should be concerned about. I work in life insurance sales. Back in the 80s, a lot of Universal Life policies were sold because they looked attractive. Back then, interest rates for consumers were, what, 17% or higher? Wow, it almost sounds like a utopia, doesn't it? Here's how it works. You could buy a Universal Life policy with a face amount of $50k or $100k. You could buy it with a Paid Up Additions Rider where the dividends from the company could be used to fund the Cash Value of the policy. And if you had enough in your Cash Value, you could use that to fund your premiums. With interest rates that high, you could get a policy that never expires and pretty much pays for itself until you die. Or even before you die, you could access your Cash Value, which is getting paid via dividends. All you had to do was call up your agent and ask for a loan. Here's the problem. These ULs were illustrated by the agents using the interest rates of that day. They didn't anticipate interest rates dropping to 3% or 2%, which is nothing. It's crumbs. The highest interest rate I've seen in a UL is 8% and that's rare, at least from the old policies I'm looking at. Of course, with these kinds of policies, there's a COI (Cost Of Insurance). The older you get, the more expensive your life insurance is. Well that COI rises every year, which must be paid to keep the policy active. If your monthly premiums don't satisfy the COI, the policy is designed to take it from your Cash Value. Well, slowly, little by little every year, that Cash Value drops. So after 40 years of paying into this policy, your Cash Value is a whopping $150. Gas money, right? So now my job as a green rep involves looking through my book of business of existing clients and giving them the bad news. Some of these policies were taken out in the early 80s, and people probably don't even remember the conversation they had with the salesman almost half a century earlier. Some of them are surprisingly cool about it. Some of them get pissed. It's my job to at least try to salvage the policy somehow, or help them with surrendering it. I refuse to be the guy who screws over any clients, no matter how much money I lose, so whatever is best for them, I'll do it. If you happen to have one of these policies, I would advise you to call up your agent and talk about it. Just thought I should let you know.