News & Insights
Life insurance, written plainly.
Short pieces on coverage, underwriting and the business of writing life insurance. There is also a glossary of the terms that turn up on an application, and a coverage calculator.
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Apex Estate Partners named Top Insurance Firm of 2026
The Global Recognition Awards has named Apex Estate Partners its Top Insurance Firm for 2026. The firm holds direct appointments with more than 20 carriers and writes no captive contracts.
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For agents: the math of paying for your own leads
Only about 15% of new agents are still in the business after four years. Run the arithmetic on self-funded leads and the reason stops being a mystery.
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Independent versus captive, in plain terms
Independent distribution passed affiliated agents in 1999 and held 53% of new individual life premium by 2023. The reason is what happens when a case does not fit one carrier’s guidelines.
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What a fact-finder actually asks, and why it matters
Minnesota law lists fifteen things a producer must know before recommending an annuity. A fact-finder is where those answers get written down, and the gaps only become visible once they are.
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Your beneficiary form outranks your will
The Supreme Court has twice held that a named ex-spouse keeps the money. “Congress has spoken with force and clarity in directing that the proceeds belong to the named beneficiary and no other.”
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Buy-sell agreements after Connelly v. United States
A unanimous Supreme Court held in June 2024 that a corporation’s obligation to redeem a dead shareholder’s stock does not offset the life insurance bought to fund it. The estate tax bill was $889,914.
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Life insurance for a stay-at-home parent
Insure.com priced the work a stay-at-home parent does at $145,235 a year against Bureau of Labor Statistics wages. Four line items alone came to $63,449.
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How long does a life insurance claim take to pay out?
Most straightforward claims settle in weeks, not months. What slows a claim down is almost always paperwork, and most of it can be prepared before it is needed.
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How much does life insurance cost, and what actually moves the price
LIMRA found adults under 30 overestimate the price of a $250,000 term policy by ten to twelve times. The real figures, and the four variables that do most of the work.
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What does life insurance not cover?
New York requires that a policy “shall be incontestable after being in force during the life of the insured for a period of two years from its date of issue.” Almost everything a family worries about sits inside that clause.
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What an annuity actually pays, and the four kinds people buy
Americans put $464.1 billion into retail annuities in 2025, a fourth straight record. Here is what the contracts do, what the charges cost, and where each one fits.
Talk it through with an agent.
If something here raised a question about your own coverage, an agent will answer it without turning it into an appointment.