Tax Guru-Ker$tetter Letter

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Cost of Life Insurance to Drop As Life-Span Estimates Expand - The old joke goes that actuaries, who study mortality rates for insurance companies, are just like CPAs, but without the personality. I guess another difference is that actuaries don't have to be as on top of new developments as we CPAs do with the constantly changing tax and accounting rules. It seems that the official life expectancy tables in this country haven't been updated since 1980. Those tables are just now being revised to reflect the longer average lifespan.

The good news about this, besides actually living longer, is that the insurance companies will be dropping their premium rates. Even if you already have life insurance, it would be a good idea to shop around for the new rates. I doubt if rates will be dropped for existing policies because insurance companies are like the phone companies, where the best rates are only given to new customers and existing clientele have to explicitly threaten to leave before receiving any of the benefits of lower market prices. That's always bugged me about the phone companies and will most likely be the M.O. for insurance companies.
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 6/24/2003 08:00:00 PM Send this post: