Thursday, September 18, 2008

Life Insurance from my Alma Mater

Yet another mailing from the university I attended years ago arrived. It’s life insurance this time. In a burst of optimism, I think, maybe this will be a good deal because my alma mater will have trimmed the rates down as low as possible. I’ll get the benefits of a low cost group plan, and maybe university grads have slightly lower mortality rates.

I decide to take a look. The first thing I see is a big picture of a smiling young woman. This is not a good sign. Advertisers know that men get looser with their money when they see smiling attractive women. I skip all the other mumbo jumbo and get right to the numbers. I’m a male non-smoker. I look up my age and desired coverage amount and find that the cost with the discount available to me is $67.50 per month.

Is this good? I’m not sure. I could hunt through some paper files, but Google is right here at my fingertips. It took less than a minute online to get 12 quotes from the major insurers in Canada ranging from $46.40 to $60.73 per month.

Hmm. That’s 10% to over 30% better than the quote from my former university. Maybe the fine print is different. No, they’re all 10-year renewable and convertible. What gives?

Obviously, I knew that the university was getting a slice of the insurance premiums. But, I’d hoped that they had negotiated a great deal and had split the difference with me. Instead, they’re trying to gouge me and split the proceeds with the insurance company.

I guess my alma mater doesn’t love me as much as I’d hoped. Oh well, at least my wife, kids, and my neighbour’s dog still care about me.

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