stanwyck@ihuxr.UUCP (Don Stanwyck) (03/21/84)
I also have a church friend who became an A.L.Williams salesman, and I spent a fair amount of time wiht him discussing it. I didn't buy. Here is what they have to offer. A.L.Williams (ALW) is a company that manages investments. What it sells, or trys to sell, is itself as a management service for your money. Since most of the people they talk to have no money to invest, they sell you a way to have that money. ALW points out that if you drop your whole life insurance for term insurence (which they will sell you) you will have some extra available funds. So you give these extra funds to ALW for investment. Since the term insurance is decreasing term, and you are building up your investment with ALW, you will eventually be self-insured. Makes sense, right? However. What they don't tell you is that you can get better investments, that you can get cheaper insurance, etc. The other problem with ALW is that the salesman makes all his/her commission the first year. So typical payments to them run ~$80.00/month the first year, and ~$35.00/month thereafter. Should you ever change your mind, there are some potential problems involved in getting out of your contract. They do make you sign a contract which guarentees the salesman the commission, or at least when I was talking to them they did. Finally, if you ever drop out of the program for even a short time (i.e. you fail to make two consecutive payments) and later want back in, you have to pay another commission. Also your funds invested with them are tied up for a period of time, and penaltys can occur for trying to get access to your own money. (This is not just ALW, this is typical of IRA's, term-certificates, etc.) I am not saying that what they are offering is bad - just be very sure that it is what you want for your investment future. <<NOTE>> The concept of getting rid of your whole-life and replacing it with term+investment is in line with a Consumer Reports suggestion of about 1-2 years ago. They noted that whole life is probably the worst investment most people ever make. -- ________ ( ) Don Stanwyck @( o o )@ 312-979-3062 ( || ) Cornet-367-3062 ( \__/ ) ihnp4!ihuxr!stanwyck (______) Bell Labs @ Naperville, IL