Top Sign your being Scammed by a Military Life Insurance Sales Person

If you've been in the military and stationed stateside for more than a year, you've no doubt run into a military life insurance sales person. For years, they've been going around to barracks, or trying to find you in places like Pizza Hut or local restaurants over the lunch or dinner hour.

I know, I started working for one of those military life insurance companies that wants to get you sign on with them. Of course, it didn't take long to see that I didn't like what they were doing to naive young soldiers and find another place to work. Having been a soldier, with my wife a soldier at the time, there was no way I could do the things I was seeing to soldiers that spend their time protecting this country and our way of life.

Having worked in the life insurance industry, I've seen and heard of some big ways that sales people try to get people to buy insurance. Some of these sales people are legitimate and provide a valuable service and some are just trying to get as much in commissions as they can before they go on to the next "sucker."

There are many ways that the person selling military life insurance will try to scam the naive young soldier. But there is one way that stands out above all others, and is probably still present if trying other ways to scam you.

Life Insurance is not an Investment

If the person trying to sell you life insurance mentions the word investment while speaking of life insurance, you can bet that they either don't know what they are talking about, or they are trying to get your money.

I can't say that it is law in all states, because I haven't checked every states law, but I can tell you that in most states, it is against the law to refer to life insurance as an Investment. The Texas Department of Insurance has provided the following:

"While some types of life insurance include a savings component that can provide some retirement income, Texas law prohibits marketing life insurance as an investment or retirement income source. If an agent or company tries to sell you a life insurance policy as a good investment, be careful." - Read the entire Article

There is a time and a place for life insurance in your life, just make sure that when you are dealing with military life insurance sales people, there are some that see you as an easy target. Be prepared to counter those that are just trying to get your money.

Ted

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NAIC Report on Military Life Insurance Sales

The Insurance Policy blog is reporting on a report issued by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) in regards to issues about military life insurance sales practices.

It's about time that regulators start paying attention to the atrocities that happen on our military installations and with military personnel. I left an insurance company that I worked for because I was seeing how agents preyed on young people in the military. In fact, when I was in the military myself as a young soldier, I recall the same thing happening, and that was back in 1989.

Why is it that it has taken so long for the regulations to start? I don't know, but at least it is being looked at now.

Keep an eye on this space for future news in regards to military life insurance, what to look out for in agents and what to look for in policies if you are looking for more insurance.

Ted

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Military Life Insurance - Kansas Changes the Law

Military life insurance sales are a huge market for a small handful of insurance companies. And though military commanders have provided their regulations for the sale of insurance on installations, misuse by insurance agents has grown.

But times are changing, at least in Kansas. The State department of Insurance in Kansas has modified it's laws to "spell out what the state Insurance Department considers deceptive or unfair practices." This is according to a story with The Witchita Eagle newspaper. The new rules now make it so that the Kansas State Insurance Department can revoke licenses for agents that break the rules on military installations, something that they couldn't do before.

Having worked for one of the insurance companies (not anymore) that has seen problems with federal investigators, I can tell you that many of their representatives can easily bypass the rules put into place by military commanders to require registration for on post soliciting. They do this, because many of the agents are retired military and thus still have military IDs that allow them to still get on post.

So I say that it is great that the new rules have been put into place.

Ted

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