AboveBoard does things differently. Why? Our founder started the company because she was so appalled when shopping for life insurance for herself. She took matters into her own hands and now we’re here. This is how we stand out from the rest.
When you choose AboveBoard, you can be sure that your best interests come first. Your needs inform everything we do: from creating a comfortable application process to discussing your individual needs to shopping the market for your best option, we’re here every step of the way to get the right coverage for you.
No “Bait and Switches”
We Tell You the Truth About Pricing & Match You to the Best Carrier
Some agents and online sites show the Best-tier pricing to everyone, regardless of whether or not they actually qualify. All too often, clients come to us after initially receiving very low quotes from competitors, but after continuing through their process, they’re later shocked to see rates two to five times what they were initially told. Makes zero sense, right?
We stay on top of carriers’ underwriting requirements and tell you the pricing you’re likely to actually qualify for. If you got a lower quote elsewhere, show it to us and we’ll help you understand what the differences are. Check out how we helped George avoid a lot of headache with his process:
George,* 41, is a generally healthy person with a larger frame and several factors in his profile: asthma, a history of mild depression, prescriptions for high cholesterol and a family history of diabetes and cancer. He went to a large, well-known insurance company, wanting $3 million in coverage with a 20-year term. His agent showed him a quote for $2,320/year for $3 million in coverage for a 20-year term.
After going through George’s application with us and researching all of the options with his needs in mind, our work indicated that his best option was with a carrier open to Standard Plus (third best) or Standard (fourth best) pricing for him at $3,320.58 or $3,874.20. It was deeply misleading for the other agent to lead him to believe he could get $2,320/year.
We’re not going to ignore your health factors and family history. We’re not going to tell you what you want to hear, only to pull the rug from underneath later. If we had done the same thing (simply quoting the Best-tier pricing for the least expensive carrier that we work with), we’d have told George $1,818/year, over $500 less than what the other agent quoted. But that’s wrong and dishonest. We take the time and do the homework and level with clients about what they can realistically expect. We believe that transparency is the best way to set you up for success.
See a less expensive quote elsewhere? Send it to us and we’ll explain what’s really going on.
No Overselling
We’ll Figure Out What You Need, Explain Choices & Empower You
We often see totally inappropriate policies being pushed by the competition. Sometimes, it’s a dad working to pay off credit card debt, who’s being told to consider whole life insurance. This is just plain bad advice: the return on investment of a whole life policy is much lower than the interest you’d pay on a credit card unless you die soon after purchasing the policy (and even in that rare scenario, you’d have gotten an even higher return with term coverage!). Other times, it’s a client with more money to spend, being advised to put $100K/year into a life insurance policy, when really it should be closer to $35-50K/year. These situations are different, but the theme is the same: “the other guys” are pushing products that maximize their revenue but don’t serve the client.
No Cutting Corners & Overlooking Details
We Do the Homework and Shop the Market
Clients often come to us after they’ve been rejected for coverage with some of “the other guys,” and we’ve found that many of these rejections are due to factors that are 100% knowable, and pretty obvious, in advance.
Linda* came to our site, got a quote, and booked a call after she had been rejected by a carrier because her BMI was too high. She was well-qualified for coverage at a carrier that is more receptive to healthy people with larger frames (carriers have some pretty different ideas about what a “healthy weight” is), and we helped her secure coverage from one of them. What’s worse is that Linda was put through a paramedical exam and application process during a global pandemic when it was clear that this particular carrier was not going to cover her. We worked to get her covered, without making her jump through unnecessary hoops.
Indira* was rejected by a carrier when she applied through a well-known online brokerage because she had gestational diabetes during a prior pregnancy. We knew which carrier would be receptive, and achieved an offer at Standard Plus. With our expertise, Indira went from being told she was “uninsurable” to getting a discount to Standard pricing.
We work hard to find the best policy, tailoring it to your health and medical history, and we make applying for life insurance as pleasant as possible.
No Excuses
We Go to Bat For You to Get the Best Policy at the Best Price
At AboveBoard, we approach each case as if it were our own and advocate for clients when the opportunity arises.
Adam,* a successful attorney in his late 30s, had applied for $3.5 million in coverage for a 30-year term. He was particularly focused on the ability to convert to whole life coverage in a few years, and the carrier he chose would consider him for Preferred-tier pricing, $435.98/month for $3.5 million for a 30-year term. The offer came back at Standard: $822.73 / month!
We asked the client to provide their lab exam results to us, and we got to work understanding just how far off from qualifying for Preferred-tier our client had been. We discovered that the gating factor was a 4.95 Cholesterol/HDL (good cholesterol) ratio, when the cut-off for Preferred was 4.9; 0.05 did not exactly seem like it should be worth nearly $400/month! Additionally, blood pressure was 1 point away from earning “extra credit.”
We shared this analysis with the carrier, who granted an exception, revising the offer to the original $435.98/month! This would save the client $139,230 over the life of the 30-year term policy. And the savings will be even greater when the client chooses to convert some of his coverage to whole life.
You should know that sometimes, we won’t be able to get a carrier to revise their initial offer. But unlike other brokerages, we’ll always go back into the market to see if there is a better carrier. That is exactly how we saved one mom 50%.
*Names changed to protect clients’ privacy.
