The new, rapid-issue Primerica Life Insurance product, TermNow, was introduced in front of 40,000 excited attendees at Primerica’s huge June 2011 convention in downtown Atlanta. TermNow is now on the market in all US states and in Canada.
“TermNow is going to revolutionize how life insurance is provided to Main Street families,” said Duane Morrow, Executive Vice President, Life Marketing.
The TermNow product is unique in the life insurance industry in that it is underwritten electronically to qualifying clients within an average of less than 60 seconds after completion of a short questionnaire – often only consisting of seven basic health questions. There are no saliva or blood tests for TermNow coverage. The questionnaire can be completed online by computer or smartphone. An email confirming coverage is sent to the client within minutes of applying.
“One of the biggest barriers to getting families the coverage they need, as any life insurance representative will tell you, is procrastination,” said Morrow. “TermNow is the answer to procrastination because the majority of clients can be almost instantly covered with a TermNow policy.”
As with all life coverage issued through Primerica, TermNow offers coverage on one policy for the entire family through spouse and child riders, saving on annual policy fees that are almost universal throughout the industry. Another unusual feature is a term duration of up to 35 years available in most states.
Most people probably know they need life insurance. What about you? If you’re like a lot of consumers, you may wonder what type will work best for you. At Primerica, we believe term life is the superior type of insurance for the vast majority of people. In fact, we revolutionized the industry many years ago by illustrating how term insurance allows families to get the coverage they need at a price they can afford.
Many personal finance and consumer advocates recommend term insurance for several reasons.
“For most people, the right type of life insurance can be summed up in a single word, term.”
SmartMoney.com, “Term or Whole Life?” September 10, 2008
“Term insurance is a better investment than whole life, as it offers more coverage for your premium.”
CNN Money.com, “Get A Financial Life In 7 Weeks,” June 10, 2008
“For the vast majority of people, term insurance is the far better deal. It is cheaper because you are buying only insurance … the fact is that you can typically do a lot better investing on your own, rather than doing it through a life insurance policy.”
NYTimes.com, “Suze Orman Answers Your Money Questions,” September 19, 2008
Term Costs Less
Financial counselors usually point to a general rule of owning coverage equal to five to 10 times your annual income.1 Few people can afford the premiums for $500,000 to $1 million in any other type of life insurance except term.
Term Separates Your Insurance from Savings
At Primerica, we then suggest you take the money you save by protecting your family with our term coverage and invest it at regular intervals – such as monthly. We call this our “Buy Term and Invest the Difference” (BTID) philosophy.
If you are investing for the long term, such as for retirement, this approach has been shown over time to be a good way of investing. Consider the following:
• Stock market returns have averaged 11.22% over the past 30 years.*,2
Think about how much money you could have after investing just $100 a month at the first of each month for 30 years.2
*The average annual rate of return of the Standard and Poor’s 500 from December 31, 1979 until December 31, 2009 was 11.22%.
Term and The Theory of Decreasing Responsibility
BTID fits in perfectly with the Theory of Decreasing Responsibility. According to the theory, your need for life insurance peaks along with your family responsibilities.
When you are young, you may have young children to support, a new mortgage payment, and many other obligations. Yet you haven’t had the time to accumulate much money. This is the time when the death of a family breadwinner would be devastating and when you need coverage the most.
When you are older, you usually have fewer dependents and fewer financial responsibilities. Children have grown, the mortgage is paid or reduced, and many routine payments have disappeared. Plus, you’ve had years to accumulate wealth through savings and investments.
Primerica – Term Life Insurance for Main Street People
It is for all these reasons that Primerica believes that term life insurance is the best type of insurance for the vast majority of people. With term, you get affordable coverage your family needs and the ability to control your investments for the future.
CNNMoney.com, “Get a financial life in 7 weeks,” June 10, 2008
The source for the Standard & Poor’s return is Morningstar. The S&P 500, which is an unmanaged group of securities, is considered to be representative of the stock market in general. Investors cannot invest directly in any index. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The example is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent an actual investment. The returns do not reflect the past or future performance of any specific investment. All investments involve risk including loss of principal. The figures assume reinvestment of dividends. They do not reflect any fees, expenses or tax consequences, which would lower results. The example assumes reinvestment of all income and does not account for taxes or transaction costs.
According to the Theory of Decreasing Responsibility, your need for life insurance peaks along with your family responsibilities.
When you’re young, you may have children to support, a new mortgage payment and many other obligations. Yet, you probably haven’t had the time to accumulate much money. This is the time when the death of a breadwinner or caretaker could be devastating and when you need coverage the most.
When you’re older, you usually have fewer dependents and fewer financial responsibilities. Plus, you’ve had years to accumulate wealth through savings and investments. At this point, your need for insurance has reduced dramatically, and you have your own funds to see you through your retirement years.
Primerica takes pride in doing what’s right. By helping families get the term life insurance they need to protect their loved ones, Primerica makes a difference every single day. Here’s what some Primerica representatives have had to say about the difference we make in helping ease families’ financial pain during such difficult circumstances:
“In 2004, I was just getting started building my Primerica business. My parents were one of my first clients and they purchased a term life insurance policy. Within six years, my mom passed away. While nothing can bring my mom back, it means everything that my dad does not have to worry about how to pay her medical bills. Primerica saved my family’s financial future!”
“We sold a term life insurance policy to a police officer who was later fatally shot in the line of duty. This coverage was contestable, by a strict reading of the life policy, since the officer was killed before one year had passed. But Primerica paid the claim anyway and it will be the only real money this family is going to get. From what I know of many life insurance companies – if they don’t have to pay, they don’t. That’s just another Primerica difference. We’re not just another life insurance company.”
“I met with new clients who had a baby but no life insurance. I asked them, ‘What if something happened and you don’t have coverage?’ That got through to them and they bought a life insurance policy. A few months later, the father died in a car accident. I was so happy I’d done the right thing and made sure this family had the coverage they needed. His wife and baby were able to stay in their home and she now has options for her and her child.”
“It was a poignant moment when I presented a death claim check to the widow of a man who’d given his life in the Afghanistan war. I am thankful that, because of Primerica, this hero’s family will not be left destitute. Because of Primerica, this soldier’s family will have more options for their future.”
A Primerica term life policy gave the Vaiasusos the financial wherewithal to move on with life when tragedy took a loved one from them.
Primerica pays death claims to families every day. We’re proud to be a company that makes a difference in families’ lives.
Mary Ann Small, of Buford, GA, was a single mother of two young children, Shari and Josh. She worked hard to keep up her family’s American dream. “I was working 139 hours a week at two jobs – as a corporate trainer and a cocktail waitress,” remembers Mary Ann. “It was exhausting but I was determined that my children weren’t going to miss out on anything. I did everything I could for them from life insurance to even a live-in nanny.”
One day Mary Ann was introduced to long-time Primerica leader Willorene Morrow. She was shocked when Willorene showed her that the cash value policies she had been paying faithfully into for years had cash values of less than $1,000 each. “Those polices were supposed to be educational funds and – at the rate we were going — I wasn’t even going to be able to pay for a year of books. I was frustrated because I had been paying hard-earned money into these policies for so long with almost nothing to show for it.” Mary Ann replaced her cash value policies with a Primerica term policy that included child riders on Shari and Josh. “I was buying the coverage that I felt better suited my family’s needs,” says Mary Ann. “But making that switch had real repercussions that I didn’t dream of at the time.”
A few years later, Josh and Shari were both in high school and Mary Ann decided to increase their riders to the maximum of $25,000. “That was really an amazing move,” says Mary Ann. “Shortly after we changed the riders, Shari was diagnosed with cancer. She was treated and has been in remission for years now. Then Josh began to experience seizures.”
“The wonderful thing about Primerica’s coverage,” notes Mary Ann, “is that we were able to convert their child riders into their own Primerica policies for the guaranteed conversion amount without underwriting. At the time of conversion Josh requested additional coverage and was underwritten and approved for additional coverage plus a requested Increasing Benefit Rider. This was a huge help since by that time both had started families of their own — Josh with a daughter, Caylee, and Shari with a son, Trinten.
Then one day in May of 2010, Josh came home from work. He wasn’t feeling well and went to take a bath. It was while he lay in the hot bath that he died of sudden heart attack. Mary Ann remembers. “Josh used to say, ‘Hey, I’m a momma’s boy and proud of it!’ because Shari, Josh and I have always been close – they knew I sacrificed for them. We valued our time together – it was only a week before he died that Josh and I had been skiing. How could I know that my first death claim would be my own child?”
Today, Mary Ann will tell you personal philosophy is important. “I know that at Primerica we always say, ‘We do what’s right.’ But those words really meant something to my family. Primerica didn’t have to do what they did for us – there was a paperwork problem that could have been used to change the coverage — but they did what was right. Today, when I tell my story to parents who don’t think they should get the child riders for their children I ask them ‘Why not?’ None of us has a crystal ball and we just can’t know the future – so for the cost of a child rider – why wouldn’t you?
NOTE: Cash value life insurance can be universal life, whole life, etc. and may contain benefits in addition to death protection, such as dividends, interest or cash value available for a loan or upon surrender of the policy. Whole life insurance usually has a level premium for the life of the policy. Term insurance provides a death benefit only and its premiums can increase at certain ages.
Term Separates Your Insurance from Savings
