Clarifinancial Articles
Insights, news, and opinions about life quotes and the life insurance industry - fresh from us to you. Check out the conversation.
By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Mar 09 2010
Something I see people say about life insurance commonly is that “whole life lasts your whole life.” This makes a memorable phrase that is easy to remember and sounds commonsensical, bu...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Mar 08 2010
Each Monday, I post a new interview with someone who is or does something unique (sometimes both). This week, I was able to steal a few minutes of Joel Ohman’s time to talk about his company....
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Mar 05 2010
There are lots of places to get free life insurance quotes these days, but how do you find the one that is right for you?
The tricky part of finding the right life insurance quote for you for f...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Mar 02 2010
Why is it so hard to get custom life insurance quotes without a bunch of hassle? I’ve written before about the problems with instant life insurance quotes. But I never addressed the problems ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Mar 01 2010
I start every Monday with a fresh perspective. It helps kick start my week to awesomeness and I hope it helps you too. This week, I interviewed Elle, the creator of Couple Money, about why she&rsqu...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Feb 26 2010
February was a great month for Clarifinancial. Most notably, our natural searches have started shooting through the roof, accounting for almost half of our total traffic. I consider this to be some...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Feb 25 2010
Some things should never be instant. The idea of instant watermelon sounds good, right? Just add water. But sometimes you loose quality when you make something instant. Some things that should neve...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Feb 24 2010
Life insurance agents don’t have to put your interests above their own because they are held to a lower ethical standard.
While it may not come as a surprise to some of you that agents do...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Feb 23 2010
A few years ago, it happened to me. When people talk about a moment of inspiration, it sometimes sounds like Prometheus coming down from the mountain and throwing his spark onto an able body. Next ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Feb 22 2010
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather start my week off with a positive viewpoint that maybe I didn’t have before. That’s why I find and interview interesting folks and publish our conversation he...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Feb 19 2010
I recently saw someone ask the question if they could own more than one life insurance policy. I guess it makes sense there might be some regulation or competitive stance against that.
Not only...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Thu, Feb 18 2010
How do you know when you have enough life insurance? Odds are decent you don’t. Not nearly enough families go through the necessary steps to secure their futures against the worst case scenar...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Feb 17 2010
Over on Five Cent Nickel, there has been a discussion about life insurance – where to get it, what type, how much – that type of thing. It’s all in the comments section, you might...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Feb 16 2010
Some of you may know that even though Clarifinancial is a new-fangled website thinga-majig, I have a bit of a history with the insurance market. While I work to introduce the next generation of ins...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Feb 15 2010
Greg Summers, better known to some as the Lean Life Coach, has over 25 years experience in sales, management, and consulting. After discovering how the principles of Lean Management helped business...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Feb 12 2010
I use to know a lot about life insurance. I still do. I didn’t memorize numbers because that’s not the type of guy I am – and because I had computers do that for me.
But my jo...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Feb 11 2010
This a real question from a reader who asks, “Can you get life insurance while pregnant?” If you are already pregnant, can you get life insurance, are there special underwriting factors...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Feb 10 2010
You have kids that you’re responsible for and you did the right thing by getting life insurance to protect them (or maybe that’s why you’re here). Who should be the beneficiary of...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Feb 09 2010
I mentioned earlier that I updated my will and beneficiaries. One of the reasons behind doing so was to make sure my oldest brother was taken care of in his old age.
You see, I’m supposed...
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By , Mon, Feb 08 2010
I drove my wife to the school where she teaches this morning. We’ve been doing this for the last couple of days while we were down to one car.
What was different about the trip this morni...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Feb 05 2010
Have you ever thought about how most companies and agents go about selling life insurance? Do they really do it in a way that helps you make better, wiser choices?
I’m going to guess that...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Feb 04 2010
This fall, I took my wife to a conference on a college campus. I don’t often get a chance to walk along and think. Memories flood back as the season changes and I am met with my eventual real...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Feb 03 2010
Why should you wait to get your life insurance quotes back from Clarifinancial? Speed rarely improves the quality of our decisions. There are other sites that offer instant gratification. In the ca...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Feb 02 2010
Clarifinancial does not show instant life insurance quotes on spreadsheets. Here are a few reasons for this:
Instant life quotes always exclude companies.
Instant quotes do not reflect underwr...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Feb 01 2010
January is turning into a unique different month for Clarifinancial. This is the month when we crushed our first benchmarked competitor. “But you don’t have any competitors because nobo...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Jan 29 2010
Have you ever done this? I went to the grocery store last week and spent 10 minutes in the cereal aisle.
There were so many choices! I saw more boxes of cereal when I looked up and even more go...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Jan 28 2010
Like many people who are searching on the internet, you may be wondering what the best way to get anonymous life quotes. It’s safe to say if you want the best life insurance quotes without re...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Jan 27 2010
According to the US Department of Labor in 2007, you spend 10.8% of your income on “insurance and pensions.” It is time to start getting the most out of your 10.8%.
Many people I ha...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Jan 26 2010
Ever wish you were worth a million dollars or more? You may already be. The reason you may want to leave money behind like a millionaire is because protecting your legacy might cost a million dolla...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Jan 26 2010
The internet made the life insurance market more competitive. In the 1990’s, with the boom of early insurance aggregators, researchers at the University of Illinois and University of Chicago ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Jan 25 2010
I’ll skip the lengthy Fresh Perspectives introduction because Adam Baker from Man vs. Debt and I talked for a long time. Also, I’m trying an experiment by uploading the raw audio from o...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Jan 22 2010
Finding the right life insurance quote for you is still a problem because a lot of information is hidden. There are many companies to choose from, and each life insurance company has many policies ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Jan 21 2010
Term or whole life insurance seems like an ancient debate that will go on for centuries. At least it is true people have been debating which is the wisest choice since before I ever started in life...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Jan 20 2010
I often hear two related questions: Can I get a life insurance policy with a pre-existing condition? Will life insurance companies cover death by a pre existing condition?
The answer is yes and...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Jan 19 2010
So I just updated my will, letter of intent, and life insurance beneficiaries this weekend. Why did I do this?
Well, the recent earthquake in Haiti was so devastating and there are so many fami...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Jan 18 2010
This week, I had the opportunity to interview one of the survivors of the “Miracle on the Hudson” crash landing, one year after it happened. Mark Hood, a businessman and former Marine O...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Jan 15 2010
Shopping for life insurance quotes can be extra stressful if you are gay and don’t know how agents will react to you. You’re not even sure if being gay affects the life quotes you see o...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Jan 14 2010
I’m a curious guy. In fact, people who know me well probably know that one of the ways I learn is by coming up with crazy questions or problems and becoming obsessed with the answers.
Cla...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Jan 13 2010
Some things should never be instant. The idea of instant coffee sounds good, right? Just add water. But sometimes you loose quality when you make something instant. Some things that should never be...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Jan 13 2010
I am on a lot of email lists from life insurance news sources and life insurance companies. Every once in a while, I get one company or news source that gets a bee in their bonnet about “crea...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Jan 13 2010
In case you’re new to the Fresh Perspective series, it’s where I interview someone new and interesting every week. I ask questions to get your brain cranking and headed off to a wonderf...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Jan 13 2010
You’ve heard it said, “Clarifinancial is the only way to get custom life insurance quotes from multiple agents without any hassle.” A lot of companies make claims they can’t...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Jan 06 2010
Generally speaking, we have found there are two people who react to the sheer number of questions you could be asked before getting your life insurance quote. Mind you, I am not saying we ask a lot...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Jan 05 2010
Some of your mouths may still be open after reading that headline, but it is true that we all hate sales people. I am not going to defend the tactics that salespeople use to make a living – I...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Jan 04 2010
Brad is success with a passion all wrapped up into one. He eliminated over $26,000 worth of debt in just 18 months. On his website EnemyofDebt.com, he shows you how you can reach your goals too. I ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Dec 31 2009
December seems to have come and gone quicker than other months in the past. Perhaps that means we’re cooking up some fun things in the future.
The two most popular articles on the site w...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Dec 30 2009
Once you apply, what is the quickest time you could get life insurance? Right away – if you meet certain requirements. Read on to learn more about how to get life insurance in an instant.
...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Dec 29 2009
I happen to be a fan of Scott Adams. Through his creation, Dilbert, he is able to encapsulate observations into short panels. Having created a cartoon of my own, I know the work that goes into shor...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Dec 28 2009
Every Monday, I interview an interesting person to start the week off with a fresh perspective. I hope you enjoy this series as much as I do.
This week, I asked Kyle C, the personality behind Ma...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Dec 23 2009
Since you are looking into life insurance, one of the more common questions people have is about the exam that happens afterwards. Are you going to need an exam and what will they do? What sorts of...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Dec 22 2009
A while ago, I started giving out the advice that you should get more than one life insurance quote. This was even while I still sold insurance. Was I crazy? Was I cutting my own throat by encourag...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Dec 21 2009
Fresh Perspectives is an interview series on Mondays to help get your week off to a fresh start. This week, I had the honor of asking Matthew E. May questions about simplicity, marketing, financial...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Dec 18 2009
With the holidays around the corner, toys and games are on the front of many people’s minds. When I was younger, I was a pretty big fan of G.I. Joe. I guess being an adult who thinks about it...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Dec 17 2009
Thinking about buying life insurance for your parents? There are a few things to consider. You might even want to consider if you need insurance on them at all.
As we move from being a child to...
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By Cynthia Pinkston, Wed, Dec 16 2009
When was the last time you reviewed your life insurance policy? Most likely, you take your car into the local mechanic to change the oil every few thousand miles to make sure you don’t blow o...
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By , Tue, Dec 15 2009
I’ve heard a lot of so-called financial experts say it, and they are wrong. Term life insurance is not “pure insurance”. Don’t be confused into a choice by the talking heads...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Dec 15 2009
Fresh Perspectives is a new interview series on Mondays to help get your week off to a fresh start. This week, I had the opportunity to ask J. Money questions about marketing, art, personal finance...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Dec 11 2009
Everyday, we wake up and watch the weather and drink coffee (or Mountain Dew if you’re my wife). When we meet a stranger, it seems we can always strike up a conversation about the weather.
...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Dec 10 2009
Some of you have heard Clarifinancial is for individual life insurance shoppers. How could fee-only advisors find the same tool useful?
Clarifinancial matches people who are looking for insuranc...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Dec 09 2009
Here’s the deal: things that provide real value deserve to be spread to as many people as they can help. That’s the simple idea behind Clarifinancial’s Charitable Affiliate progr...
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By , Tue, Dec 08 2009
People like you can help make this world better by getting life insurance quotes. No, really.
Clarifinancial partners with nonprofits to spread the message and raise money for good causes. Some...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Tue, Dec 08 2009
As you continue to age, in a constant climb toward the long awaited golden years, it is important to reevaluate your life insurance policy and make certain you are still receiving the proper covera...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Dec 07 2009
With a baby on the way, you need to be thinking about getting your financial house in order, including life insurance. Start your search today to make sure you find the right life policy at an ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Dec 04 2009
Yesterday I went to the dentist. Normally, a trip to the dentist isn’t a post-worthy occasion, but she started to ask what I do for a living. She could have been making small talk, or maybe i...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Dec 03 2009
At Clarifinancial, people ask us what it is we do. Do we sell insurance? Do we create a massive database of insurance knowledge? Are we like a wiki, collecting other people’s inputs and publi...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Dec 02 2009
It may sound like there are agents out there who think they have the best life insurance quote for you, but they would be lying if they told you they knew for certain. There are two problems with t...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Dec 01 2009
This is a real question that comes from Jennifer, a long time friend of mine from college. We were emailing back and forth about life and she asked me about Clarifinancial. She had a few questions ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Nov 30 2009
November has been a great month. Only the second month Clarifinancial was available to the public. Already we are making a positive impact in the way people shop for life insurance. And it’s ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Nov 25 2009
A lot of people search for life insurance on the web because they want the quick and easy solution. That may be the case, especially as the holidays approach. One of the great things about the inte...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Tue, Nov 24 2009
The best gift you could ever give to your family has nothing to do with ribbons or wrapping, or boxes and bows. The best gift you could ever give to your family is an endowment endeared with your l...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Nov 23 2009
The internet is an interesting thing. Blogger Kelly Whalen at The Centsible Life was looking for some advice for divorced women she’d met yesterday. At the same time, I was looking for new id...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Nov 23 2009
You may have noticed that Clarifinancial asks how long you want your life insurance policy to last. It seems a weird question at first. But it is only weird because other places are not asking the ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Sat, Nov 21 2009
My wife is a huge fan of the Twilight series. We went on vacation two years ago and she read all the books in a week. Now she can barely contain her excitement about seeing the movies. You may have...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Sat, Nov 21 2009
If you think it is too late in the year to write about vampires, you would be wrong. Tonight around midnight, people will line up outside your local cinema to be among the first to witness the next...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Nov 20 2009
The first thing to remember is that all companies in the US and Canada are required to keep adequate reserves to pay their claims separate from their operating account. Each department of insurance...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Nov 17 2009
An uncommon life insurance secret (even some agents don’t know) is that not all agents have the same life insurance plans to offer for the same price. I actually decided to write this after I...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Nov 16 2009
I hear this life insurance question from time to time: “What’s the worst that could happen if I lie on a life insurance application – can I get away with it?” You might be a...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Thu, Nov 12 2009
It is never easy to think about our own mortality. It is even more difficult to ponder the aftermath of a premature demise. Shockingly (and despite the essential need for responsible coverage), nea...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Nov 11 2009
My wife met a former student of hers who has become a friend for coffee recently. It was getting late and she decided to invite her over to watch some reruns of Glee and order pizza. Exciting I kno...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Nov 10 2009
Most people know that insurance agents make money from commissions. But how does that work? Where does the money come from? And what does that mean to you?
Working on commission means that insur...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Nov 09 2009
Your family history might have a significant impact on your life insurance rates, despite your good health. Learn the best way to get accurate life quotes, even if you can’t choose your famil...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Fri, Nov 06 2009
If you have ever searched for insurance on the web, whole life insurance quotes or term, then you already know it can be a bit of a puzzling mess. Hopefully, this article will help you sort out som...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Nov 05 2009
If you’re like some people, you already have some relationship with an insurance agents. It might be the person who does your home and auto, or it could be somebody your attorney recommended,...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Nov 04 2009
A commonly held life insurance myth (even by some agents) is that all agents have the same life insurance plans to offer. I actually decided to write this in response to a post I saw by an online l...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Nov 03 2009
Let’s say you and your wife just found out she is pregnant. To celebrate, you call up a bunch of your buddies from years past and go out. While you’re having a big time on the town, you...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Mon, Nov 02 2009
There are a multiplicity of factors you must consider when purchasing a life insurance policy for yourself or your family. The purchase of the policy itself should never be a question. Caring for t...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Oct 30 2009
You may have noticed that even though our articles section of the website acts like a blog, we are missing a few important ingredients.
We don’t have a “best of” section that ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Oct 29 2009
After yesterday’s successful post about the dangers of getting life quotes from only one insurance agent, I might have half my audience mad at me. I figured I would make it up to the life ins...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Oct 28 2009
This is a true story. What you don’t know might hurt you. If you ever wondered why getting quotes from multiple agents is necessary, read on.
Competition is good for you because it is the...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Oct 27 2009
Buying life insurance used to stink… until Clarifinancial came along. There used to be only two ways to shop for life insurance. Both of them led to frustration.
Method one involved getting the...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Oct 27 2009
In this day and age where everything seems to be getting faster, people often forget about quality instead of instant life insurance quotes. I can appreciate fast results as much as the next guy, b...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Oct 26 2009
If you are like the many people who have had a heart attack, coronary heart disease, stroke, or congenital heart disease, you may be wondering about the best place to get life insurance. The bad ne...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Oct 23 2009
Paperclips are beautiful. Nothing more than a bent piece of wire, the paperclip was first patented in 1899 by Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian inventor. They are simple and elegant, perform their job wit...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Oct 23 2009
If you recently lost someone who you suspect may have had a life insurance policy or you have lost your own life policy, here are some tips to help you retrieve the information you need.
Simpl...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Wed, Oct 21 2009
A tremendous way to reduce your monthly expenses, while also getting the most you can from the dollars that are fleeing your wallet, is to make sure you are able to find the best life insurance quo...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Tue, Oct 20 2009
Sifting through page after page of California term life insurance rates can be an overwhelming experience. It is easy to get lost amid a sea of words you thought you knew, yet seem all of a sudden ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Oct 20 2009
How much life insurance do you need? This has been rehashed by so many people. I have a book on my bookshelf from 1927 with chapters devoted to the different ways to calculate your life insurance n...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Oct 19 2009
Even twins are not the same. Identical twins have the same genetic material, but that doesn’t make them the same person. Have you ever noticed that identical twins have different moles, their...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Oct 16 2009
Because Clarifinancial focuses so much on quality results, a lot of the insurance shoppers want to make sure they choose a quality company. So how does Clarifinancial share information about compa...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Oct 15 2009
There are two factors that will cause life insurance rates to go up in the future for you. One being the overall economic situation that began in 2008. The other factor has more to do with you as a...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Wed, Oct 14 2009
Which one should you choose: term insurance or whole life? The short answer is, “We do not know.” But thanks to us, now you do not need to worry about the question anymore.
How the i...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Tue, Oct 13 2009
Why do so many people go online to look for life insurance? Because, like you, they want fair and accurate quotes from enough agents to compare without worrying about sales pressure.
Unfortunat...
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By Life Insurance Dad, Tue, Oct 13 2009
Unfortunately, many applicants often discover it is exceedingly difficult to find life insurance for pre-existing conditions. This lack of applicant approval makes perfect sense from the insurance ...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Oct 12 2009
In the past, there has been no way to get quality anonymous life insurance quotes. Only two ways existed to get quotes. One was to answer a few generic questions like height, weight, and smoking st...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Sat, Oct 10 2009
Many people wonder what the best way to buy life insurance is. There are many options online. But there are also ways of buying life insurance over the telephone and in person. What’s the bes...
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By , Thu, Oct 01 2009
How is Clarifinancial different?
Some other insurance web sites sell your information to a few professionals first, and then let them fight it out with you in the middle. The salespeople who boug...
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By Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Oct 01 2009
Do you ever get frustrated when you compare life insurance quotes? I know I do. Clarifinancial makes choosing life insurance quotes easier. By answering a few questions one time, you get custom quo...
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