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Peter Katt

author Image Peter Katt CFP, LIC, is sole proprietor of Katt & Co., a fee-only life insurance advising firm located in Kalamazoo, Michigan (269/372-3497); www.peterkatt.com.

Articles by this Author

Area of Expertise: life insurance

Website: www.peterkatt.com

Biography:
Peter Katt, CFP, LIC, is sole proprietor of Katt & Co., a national fee-only life insurance advising firm located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Besides writing for the AAII Journal, Katt is an insurance columnist for the Journal of Financial Planning and Forbes.com. He was a regular guest on CNBC's Smart Money and appeared on Oprah as a life insurance expert. Mr. Katt has been interviewed and quoted in the national financial press over 150 times.

Articles by this Author

Pages: ←123→

  1. Insurance Products »

    Variable Life Insurance: Be Wary of Policy 'Delusions'

    Variable life illustrations create an illusion of predictability that simply doesn't exist. In addition, variable life's expenses are higher than participation whole life.

    November 2003 | Journal

  2. Insurance Products »

    The Potential Problems With No-Lapse Premium Guarantees

    Agents selling no-lapse premium-guarantee policies rarely utter a discouraging word about them in their sales rhetoric. But there is only one planning area where they are a good option.

    July 2003 | Journal

  3. Insurance Products »

    A Life Settlement Update; and Life Insurance in Pension Plans

    Life settlements involve the selling of unneeded or no longer affordable life insurance policies. If selling is the decision, you need to be aware of how to deal with the various types of life settlement firms.

    May 2003 | Journal

  4. Insurance Products »

    Hard-to-Spot Differences in Tax Loopholes vs. Tax Scams

    Permanent life insurance is often associated with tax avoidance schemes. It appears that promoters of these schemes feel it sells better if tagged with the "tax loophole" label, because this gives them more apparent legitimacy.

    November 2002 | Journal

  5. Insurance Products »

    Life Insurance Issues to Be Wary of: Surrender Charges & Leaps of Faith

    There are many permanent life insurance policies that have zero surrender value for as long as five years, and very depressed surrender values for as long as 15 or 20 years. Why insurance buyers don't notice this.

    July 2002 | Journal

  6. Insurance Products »

    Does It Make Sense to Sell Your Life Insurance Policy?

    Policy sellers beware: Life-settlement firms are pursuing their own financial interests, and have extensive pricing expertise to do so--an advantage that individual policyholders can't match when evaluating a possible sale.

    May 2002 | Journal

  7. Features »

    Variable Life Insurance Policies and Stock Market Volatility

    Insurance Products: The life insurance industry has treated variable life as just a better-performing version of whole life and universal life without realizing that inherent investment volatility makes variable life a very different kind of life insurance.

    November 2001 | Journal

  8. Features »

    Misleading Promises: Beware of Agents Bearing Guarantees

    Insurance Products: The new sales gimmick in life insurance is the exaggerated secondary guarantee. These guarantees are not benign if they are the reason a particular insurance policy is purchased, while more important criteria are ignored.

    July 2001 | Journal

  9. Features »

    Points to Ponder in Selling and Investing in Insurance Policies

    Insurance Products: Most people who wish to sell their insurance policy want to relieve themselves of having to pay the premiums for coverage that is no longer necessary. But eliminating future premiums can be done in many ways without selling a policy.

    April 2001 | Journal

  10. Features »

    Disguised Tax-Avoidance and Other Insurance-Related Issues

    Insurance Products: The false promise of the sellers of certain retirement/insurance plans is a pairing of tax-deductible contributions and tax-free benefits--a combination that simply isn't possible in the real world.

    November 2000 | Journal

  11. Features »

    Using Variable Life Insurance as an Investment Alternative

    Insurance Products: Variable life's advantage for the dual purposes of family protection life insurance and investing depends on several factors. However, the wealth-transfer advantages of variable life appear to exist under many different scenarios.

    July 2000 | Journal

  12. »

    Managing the Cash Values of Permanent Life Insurance

    Insurance Products: To get the maximum policy value of insurance that is purchased to remain in force until the insured dies, the cash value should be periodically monitored, with careful adjustments made as the need arises.

    November 1999 | Journal

  13. Features »

    The Do's and Don'ts of Buying Variable Life Insurance Policies

    Insurance Products: Volatile equity performance can have an adverse affect on variable life insurance, but there are steps you can take to manage and minimize potential problems.

    July 1999 | Journal

  14. Features »

    The High Price of Tax-Deferral: A Look at Deferred Annuities

    Insurance Column: Deferred annuities are popular because returns are tax-deferred, but if the full cycle of accumulations and distributions are considered, most purchasers would make a different choice.

    February 1999 | Journal

  15. Features »

    How and When to Purchase Low-Cost Term Life Insurance

    Insurance Products Column: Buying low-cost level term insurance directly from companies that advertise directly to consumers is an easy and economical way to purchase term life insurance.

    November 1998 | Journal

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