Sunday, December 3, 2006

Burial Insurance in the New York Times

Burial insurance is a bit of a nonsense product. Basically, if you die, your family receives about $5,000 to cover funeral expenses. If you think about it, you'd be much better off buying a "regular ole" term life insurance policy that can be be used for any expense you have. The life insurance product not only offers more flexibilty, but most likely lower fees and expenses.

While this is a rotten product, insurance companies target consumers by preying on fear and misinformation. The New York Times tells about a company selling in the Mississippi Delta:

"Mr. Catchings, 67, said his agency sold up to 15,000 such policies a year — they are simply small life insurance policies worth an average of $5,000 — by sending 15 agents to school systems, public agencies and companies to meet the janitors, bus drivers and secretaries. When he started, he said, all the customers were black, but he now sells to a rising share of white clients. "

Racial profiling much, eh? The Times appears to completely gloss over this fact.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had this same conversation with a friend the other day, after reading the New York Times article.

He had bought Burial Insurance years ago, when he was about 22 years old. (example highlighted)

When I asked why he bought burial insurance instead of life insurance, he told me that the rates, were the most important part of the decision, even though times have changed, he didn't regret what he picked.

Keep up the great blog!

beartoes said...

Yes, I would have to say a little racial. But that is not uncommon for the times. They look at the story. As far as the insurance goes, like you say it is a bunch of garbage. Your regular life insurance will have no problems taking care of the burial cost. If you are looking for a competitive life insurance rate quote, I have several companies that have fantastic rate.

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