Life Insurance

Not everyone needs life insurance, despite what some salespeople may tell you. But too many people who do need those policies, namely parents of minor children, often go without. The number of consumers going without any life insurance at all is on the rise. Thirty percent of U.S. households don't have coverage, compared with 22 percent six years ago, according to recent survey by LIMRA, an industry-supported research group. Among those going without: 11 million families with children under age 18. The number of American households with an individual policy purchased outside any workplace coverage — about four out of 10 — is at the lowest level in 50 years.

William L. Hawkins, Jr., a retired insurance executive active in Catonsville softball, died of complications from Parkinson's disease Sept. 10 at Suburban Hospital in Norristown, Pa. He was 88. Born in Baltimore and raised in Brooklyn, he was the son of William L. Hawkins Sr., a grocer, and Elvera Nilson Hawkins, who worked alongside her husband. He was a 1943 City College graduate and senior class president. He remained active in the school's alumni association and planned reunions.

Government-sponsored life insurance for military personnel provides coverage far below the American standard, and Congress may decide to remedy the situation because of the Persian Gulf War.There now is an effort on Capitol Hill to increase the $50,000 death benefit. The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee recently approved legislation increasing the coverage to $100,000.In pushing for the change, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., has pointed out that the average American carries $116,000 in life insurance.

Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Co., a presence in Baltimore since its founding 54 years ago, will move its headquarters to Des Moines, Iowa — another disappointing loss of corporate clout for the city. The life insurance and annuity company, which employs about 150 at its Fleet Street offices in Harbor East, said it will maintain a presence in Baltimore, but its future growth will occur in Iowa. "We certainly like Baltimore and have a big operation here," said Paul Tyler, a Fidelity senior vice president.

NEW YORK -- If you need a retirement investment, should it be a life insurance policy -- even if you don't need the insurance?Cash-value life insurance is being widely sold today as the best way of building up money for the future. It's often called a "private pension plan." The insurer pays interest or dividends on the cash that accumulates in your policy. Those payments build up tax-sheltered.There are, as you might suspect, some risks to this plan that the agent may or may not explain.

A memorial service for John G. Rupprecht, a retired life insurance manager, will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 250 Greenhill Drive, Hagerstown.Mr. Rupprecht, who was 90, died Monday at a nursing home in Boonsboro.A native of Baltimore, he joined the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Baltimore in 1917. He worked as an instructor, teaching new insurance agents, before becoming a manager, first at the Martinsburg, W.Va., office and then at the Hagerstown office.

New York -- When shopping for a life insurance policy, ask about "living benefits." You may never use them. In fact, it's often imprudent to do so. But having this option may serve a need that you cannot now predict. About 150 insurance companies now provide living benefits to more than 2 million policyholders, according to the American Council of LifeInsurance.With a living (or "accelerated") benefit, you can collect on your life insurance before you die. This isn't a loan against your policy's cash value.

NEW YORK -- Life insurance scandals continue to ripple through American pocketbooks. The landscape feels like the Wild West. Too many outlaws, not enough sheriffs.The latest headline-grabber originated at giant Metropolitan Life. MetLife agents based in Tampa, Fla., gulled customers out of some $11 million, by selling them so-called "retirement plans" that were cash-value life-insurance policies in disguise. Buyers thought that their monthly payments were pure investments; in fact, they were life-insurance premiums.

NEW YORK -- Life insurance is a free-wheeling business. No other financial institution has so little restraint on its sales practices.The result has been persistent abuse. For example, watchdogs have found deceptive pricing on cash-value policies, which combine death protection with an investment account. Customers are being widely misled as to what their cash values really earn.There are also misleading sales presentations; what you thought was a retirement plan may turn out to be an insurance policy.

New York -- How much life insurance do you need? This question has as many answers as the number of people trying to sell you a policy.Many life insurance agents and financial planners use computerized formulas that supposedly take your individual circumstances into account. The results look beautifully exact. But these formulas actually produce widely different proposals for the same family, depending on the assumptions each company makes.I once ran a test of four of these programs, using a hypothetical family.

Federal employees who are in same-sex marriages will be allowed to sign up spouses and children for health insurance and other benefits immediately, the Office of Personnel Management announced Friday — the first significant federal policy change to follow this week's landmark Supreme Court case. In a memo distributed to the heads of federal departments and agencies two days after the Supreme Court decision, OPM Acting Director Elaine Kaplan said that the agency "will now be able to extend benefits to federal employees and annuitants who have legally married a spouse of the same sex. " Federal employees will have until Aug. 26 to make changes to their health care, life insurance, and dental and vision plans.

Regulators nationwide are pushing life insurers to do a better job of tracking when policyholders die and locating the beneficiaries — an effort that could reap billions of dollars for consumers. Insurers regularly monitor Social Security's Death Master File to verify the death of a customer receiving annuity payments so they can cut off checks. But an ongoing, multistate investigation has found that life insurers haven't been using this information to identify policyholders who died and to pay beneficiaries.

Many parents braved the malls to find their children this year's must-have toy or the hottest gadget. But gifts come in many forms. My suggestion to parents is that they take steps in the months ahead to improve their finances in a way that will indirectly be a gift to their children. These steps won't elicit the oohs and aahs that an iPad does, but your children will be grateful someday that you took them. Here are a few: Make a will This is essential for parents of young children.

A former Baltimore pastor who was convicted of killing a mentally disabled man for life insurance payouts worth $1.4-million was sentenced to life in prison plus 45 years, according to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office. Kevin Pushia, 35, pleaded guilty last year to seven counts of insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the 2009 shooting death of Lemuel Wallace, a 37-year-old group home resident who was legally blind. He also claimed to have hired two men to carry out the hit for $50,000, leading to their arrest.

Jurors are expected to resume deliberation Wednesday in the case of two brothers accused of carrying out the contract killing of a mentally disabled man on behalf of a Baltimore pastor who planned to cash in $1.4 million in fraudulent insurance policies. James Omar Clea III, 33, and Kareem Jamal Clea, 28, are charged with conspiracy in the murder of a 37-year-old group home resident who was shot in the head and left for dead in a Leakin Park bathroom more than 21/2 years ago. Kareem is also charged with pulling the trigger.

A Baltimore pastor who paid a hit man $50,000 in church funds to kill someone for life insurance payouts bought similar indemnity policies on his boyfriend when the pair were fighting, along with contracts on the man's mother and daughter, he testified Friday in city Circuit Court. He canceled them after time, however, "because we were getting along," he said. The admission was one of many confessions Kevin Pushia offered from the witness stand during the trial of his alleged accomplices, brothers James "Omar" Clea and Kareem Clea.

New York -- Urgent memo, to everyone with cash-value life insurance: Your policy, which you expect to last for life, may not -- at least, not if you keep on paying your current premiums. Unless you put up extra money, certain types of contracts will expire before you do, leaving your family without funds.Some cash-value policies were built to last. But many others are tottering, especially those bought in the 1980s when insurers projected double-digit rates of return on your policy's cash values.

Only about 8 percent of Americans leave gifts to charity when they die.As a result, the Prudential Insurance Co. has developed a life insurance policy that it says will make such giving a breeze. But some estate-planning experts say it's just a gimmick.The policy is called Charity Plus, and some agents have started selling it.Under Charity Plus, when a person buys a Prudential life insurance policy, he may be offered a second, smaller policy to benefit a favorite charity. The death benefit can range from $2,500 to $10,000.

Charles Albert Wunder, a lifelong Baltimorean and avid supporter of the city's arts institutions, died Dec. 20 of complications from metastatic melanoma at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The retired life insurance salesman was 77. Mr. Wunder was born in Baltimore and grew up in a West Baltimore rowhouse on Grantley Street with his family, which included two sisters. As a teen, he hitchhiked across town to attend Loyola Blakefield High School in Towson, and was among the members of the first ROTC class to graduate from Loyola College in 1955.