David Craig, on July 6th, 2017I imagine none of my readers ever watch daytime TV. Hopefully you have better things to do with your time.
My excuse is that I watch while exercising on my rowing machine or elliptical trainer.
If, like me, you do watch even a tiny bit of daytime TV, you’ll have been bombarded by ads from Sun Life Insurance for their “Guaranteed over 50 Plan”.
Sometimes these feature Michael Parkinson in person. Sometimes they feature supposedly ‘ordinary people’ eagerly discussing Sun Life’s “Guaranteed over 50 Plan” and just mentioning they’ve seen the “Parky” ads on TV.
Whichever ad you see, Sun Life’s main way of flogging what is possibly the worst financial product you could ever buy is that Michael “Parky” Parkinson seems to be recommending it.
We all love and trust Michael Parkinson, that great British icon. With his self-deprecating, laid-back interviewing style, Parkinson has been a key feature of our TV for decades.
Financial crap
The Sun Life “Guaranteed over 50 Plan” promises to pay you a fixed sum of money on you death to cover funeral costs or “leave a little something for the grandkids”.
This payment doesn’t go up each year as you pay in more. So the majority of people will get less out than they pay in. Moreover, if you fall ill towards the end of your life (very likely!) and miss just one single monthly payment (quite likely) then you lose everything, the policy is cancelled, Sun Life keep everything and you get zilch even though you may have paid in every month for 20 years or more.
Here’s what Martin Lewis writes about this piece of financial crap
He’s a lovely man, that Parky – just don’t listen to him when it comes to insurance. Michael Parkinson’s caring voice-over makes Axa Sun Life’s Over-50s Plan seem simple, yet for many it’s a seriously bad bet. You wouldn’t buy a lottery ticket if it cost more than the jackpot, but the two million people with these types of policies risk doing just that.
That may come as a surprise, as it’s not what you hear in the sales pitch, which keeps to some deliciously simple concepts. It promises a fixed lump sum when you die – so there’s no investment risk, you always know what your family will get. Nor do you need a medical; anyone can get a plan, no problem (though costs do vary with age when you sign up).
They say this means it’s perfect for funeral planning, to obviate the nagging worry of being a burden to loved ones. And of course, you get a free Parker pen. ‘Nuff said.
Blimey, sign me up…
It’s all sounding pretty marvellous, isn’t it – no surprise these plans are so popular. But before you sprint to get one, read this cut-and-paste from the small print: “Premiums are payable for life, and you could pay more in than is paid out on death.”
The only people who could possibly benefit from the Sun Life “Over 50 Plan” and similar products are those who have a low life expectancy – heavy smokers, the morbidly obese, those who are so stupid they’re likely to remove themselves from the human gene pool or those with a life-threatening illness. But for anyone hoping to live beyond their mid 70s, this financial product is rubbish. They’d be much better off putting the money into buying shares in a big company like Unilever or Shell or suchlike and automatically reinvesting the dividends into buying more shares.
Parkinson must be a multi-millionaire. So why does he (in my humble opinion) debase himself fronting up an advertising campaign for a (in my humble opinion) crappy insurance company trying to rip off (in my opinion) the over 50s? Hasn’t ‘Parky’ got enough money? What does he need a few hundred thousand or a couple of million more for?
Yet all the suckers (in my opinion) who trust ‘Parky’ and his crappy (in my opinion) insurance company, will probably end up a lot poorer from buying ‘Parky’s’ third rate (in my opinion) insurance policies.
Has Parkinson no sense of shame? Will he do anything for money? Is he just a whore? I don’t know. But I do know what I think.
Here are a few people who don’t really like Sun Life https://insureye.com/Reviews/Life-Insurance-Reviews/45-Sunlife
But, in case you don’t trust me and would rather trust “Parky”, here he is encouraging you to sign up for this wonderful scheme:
Category: 
Do any figures exist for those who sign up than somewhere along the line miss a single payment and than loose everything? Sun Life would of course such figures but does anyone else?
off topic but the now deceased head of Sun Life Lord Addington was involved in shipping ten of thousands of so called white Russians back to be exterminated by Stalin.
I believe that about one in three drop out (miss a payment or stop altogether) within the first 5 years. But I’ll try to find some more accurate figures.
Never mind Parky, whats Jamie Dimon(boss of JP Morgan and main Silver and commodity price manipulator) doing, Janet Yellen says:
“Would I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis?” Yellen said at a question-and-answer event in London.
“You know probably that would be going too far but I do think we’re much safer and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be,” she said.
So if thats true why is Jamie Dimon selling Stock hand over fist?
“JP Morgan Insider Rats Dumping Shares As Bank Ups Buyback”
After it was announced that the Fed gave the big banks a pass on their “stress” test, the TBTFs announced huge dividend and share buyback plans:
“If the banks had properly marked to market their Level 3 assets and some of their riskiest non-Level 3 assets, would they have still passed the Fed stress test, which essentially places a stress-test “bar” on the ground and lets the banks step over it? Probably not. This would explain why JPM insiders have been dumping shares en masse over the last three months:”
“With JP Morgan’s announced 90% increase in its share buyback program, the shares will have an even bigger bid in the market from shareholders into which insiders can dump.
The question is – rhetorical, of course – why would these insiders be dumping shares if the outlook for the Company’s earnings, stock price and financial condition was positive?”
…
Buybacks are for the next 12 months,after that it will be open season for Stock Markets to the down side,Banksters like to win all the time…
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/jp-morgan-insider-rats-dumping-shares-as-bank-ups-buyback/
Watch out suckers…
I think you should run a poll for the most aggravating adverts on Tv.
Sun life and parky are deffo in there with a shot at the title, ask my telly.