Woman, nearing 98, is outliving her insurance
MILWAUKEE – Lorraine Guenther and Thrivent Financial insurance company had a deal, or so she thought.
She would pay them a premium of $500 a year for the rest of her life. And they would someday provide a death benefit of $25,000 to cover her funeral and burial.
The universal life policy took effect in 1988 when Guenther was 67, and it came with a maturity date of February 2021 when she is 100.
But now, three years earlier than that, the company is telling this grandmother the cash value of her policy will dwindle away to nothing later this year, and the death benefit will be gone, too.
At age 97, she apparently has outlived her life insurance.
“In my words, they’re penalizing me for living,” she said.
Part of the issue is that the cost of insuring someone so old is chewing up all the cash value of the policy at a rate exceeding $300 a month, double what it was three years ago. About 10 years ago, the policy had a value that hovered around $10,000, but it’s down to $2,800 now and dropping fast.
Guenther contacted Thrivent recently and was put in touch with an agent who suggested that low- ering the death benefit to $10,000 would buy her some time with the policy, but not beyond next year. Guenther turns 98 in April.
“He said, ‘The Lord has been good to you and has allowed you to live all these years.’ ”
“I’m very grateful. Thank you, mister,” she replied. “But I still expected to get my money when I passed away so I could be buried.”
Thrivent Financial used to be known as Aid Association for Lutherans. Guenther bought the policy through her church.
“The men would come to church and talk to us and we knew them as friends. The man who prepared it for us was a friend of my husband’s,” she said.
She lost touch with that agent. Guenther’s husband, Harold, with whom she raised three sons in Wauwatosa, Wis., died in 2002.
Guenther’s sons got involved, and soon letters were going between the family and Thrivent. Son Jim said he doesn’t think anything illegal is going on, but rather a “built-in stick it to you.”
The family filed a complaint with the Wisconsin commissioner of insurance, asking for a refund approaching $20,000. They’re awaiting a reply.
In a statement, Thrivent said a policy like Guenther’s offers no guarantee of coverage until age 100.