You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

kevin_p comments on Open thread, 14-20 July 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: David_Gerard 14 July 2014 11:16AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (144)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: kevin_p 16 July 2014 01:21:19PM *  2 points [-]

The main flaw I can think of is that insurance is a money-loser on average - otherwise the people selling it wouldn't make any money, so they wouldn't offer it at that price. I can't immediately find average ratios for life insurance, but typical payouts for medical insurance are 80% of premiums while the figure for property insurance is more like 50%.

In other words, the expected net cost of taking out the insurance policy, if you never decide to redirect it to cryonics or loved ones, is going to be somewhere between 20% and 50% of the premiums. Is that worth it for the extra flexibility it gives you? That's something only you can decide.

Comment author: Alsadius 20 July 2014 03:02:47PM 0 points [-]

Remember that life insurance, in most jurisdictions, is tax-exempt. As such, the amount of cash your heirs get to put into their pocket may well be higher than with traditional low-risk investments, even if the top-line return is lower.