Fat Free “Half and Half”

Strolling through the dairy section of the grocery store this past week during our weekly grocery shopping excursion, I was shocked!  There on the shelf was something called “Fat Free Half and Half.  I burst out laughing at such an absurdity.

Now you might be saying, “Wow, how does Fat Free Half and Half, wealth and money management in anyway connect?”  Well, hang on if you want to find out, because sometimes my mind works differently than others.

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Obviously, Half and Half, is half cream and half milk. And everybody knows, cream is the butter fat of milk. The cream is between 18% and 40% fat content.  So how in the world can Half and Half be fat free?  And the truth of the matter is, it can’t be!  Fat Free Half and Half, really isn’t Half and Half.  Instead, the half that is supposed to be cream (AKA butter fat) is replaced with high fructose corn syrup, thickeners and chemicals like carrageenan, sodium citrate, dipotassium phosphate, mono and diglycerides as well as food coloring.

Which brings us to the question, “Why?”    Why replace cream with high-fructose corn syrup, thickeners and other chemicals, when there is absolutely NO valid research that proves fat from cream is harmful when included in our diet,[i]  while there is plenty of research which proves that butter fat provides unique health benefits when included in your diet? [ii]

The only truthful answer is GREED.

Highly subsidized corn syrup, is far cheaper to produce than cream.[iii]  Therefore, this substitution allows food processors to generate huge profits.  But furthermore, by playing into the fear based propaganda that fat is bad for you… which by the way, is based on the highly biased data of Ancel Keys, who selectively collected data to lead the charge against fat in the American diet… marketing for Fat Free Half and Half is not as costly. Even the Dietary Goals of the United States set by the United States Senate have been heavily influenced by Keys’ unscrupulous research and promotion of Fat Free food products.  That is why everyone thinks Fat Free is better.  But those who know better, live better.  And because the truth really does set you free, you should be aware about the truth concerning life insurance, for it is as sure as the truth concerning Fat Free Half and Half.

Today Index Universal Products are becoming more and more common as companies and agents contrive to convince everyone that it is a better than what was available before Index Universal Life came along about 25 years ago.  But how can artificially “thickening” a life insurance contract by adding Monthly Fees, Premium Fees, Administration Fees, Rider Fees and Variable Adjustable Premiums make a life insurance contract better for you than a policy loaded with “cream” (also known as, fixed premium life insurance)?  The truth is, it can’t be.  The purpose of life insurance is to provide you with liability protection, and by removing the fixed premium and attempting to “sweeten” it up with variable adjustable premiums and assorted fees can’t provide you with a better product.

Like Fat Free Half and Half, Index Universal Life Insurance is a synthetic hybrid of term life insurance and a host of other “ingredients.”  These other “ingredients,” can and do, affect the performance and value of the contract over time.  But the costliest factor regarding these other “ingredients” is that they all have an extra cost above and beyond the premium.  Therefore, the liability you are attempting to reduce by purchasing life insurance is too often increased because of owning Index Universal Life.[iv]

Everyone knows the damage that comes from consuming high fructose corn syrup in your diet.  Yet few people realize the damage that comes from owning Indexed Universal Life.  That is because all the marketing surrounding Index Universal Life makes everyone think it is better.  In fact, companies and agents that market Index Universal Life will tell you that it’s better because you get guarantees, plus the death benefit.  But what they won’t and don’t tell you is that those guarantees can be overcome and destroyed by the other “ingredients” found in an Index Universal Life contract.  By removing the fixed level premium cost (the cream of a solid participating whole life insurance contract) and replacing it with Premium Fees, Monthly Fees, Administrative Fees, Rider Fees and Variable Adjustable Premiums, a permanent benefit can be altered so much that it becomes a permanent liability. Of course, skimming off the “cream” i.e., the fixed premiums, and supplementing the policy with other cheap “ingredients” is what allows the Insurance Company to make huge profits while permitting them to commission agents at a higher rate for selling these products.  Nothing new here.  That’s exactly what the Food Processors have accomplished by designing and selling Fat Free Half and Half.  I am sorry, I warned you that my mind works contrarily at times.

So here is the truth.  You can’t replace the “cream” and still get the benefits that only the cream provides. That is purely the facts.  So know this, nothing, absolutely nothing, can provide the benefits of Participating Whole Life Insurance in your life except Participating Whole Life Insurance, nothing.  Participating Whole Life Insurance is the only insurance product that originated as the result of consumer demand instead of company profit margin.

Participating Whole Life Insurance has stood the test of time.  It continues to provide the safety, security and sustainability that you need, not only for liability coverage but for accumulating tax free retirement dollars while still providing you guaranteed growth AND the liquidity to self-finance and recover the money you will otherwise lose to financing over your lifetime.  That, of course, is the real “cream”, leveraging your life insurance coverage to recover the cost of finance in your life because doing so enhances and magnifies your guarantees while lowering the actual cost of your insurance.

Half and Half is heavy on the cream, exactly the way I like it.  In fact, I don’t know of anybody who really longs for more high fructose corn syrup or artificial ingredients in their diet.  Such replacements tend to cheapen the quality and weaken the value while transferring more money from you to those who sell and distribute this kind of stuff.  The same is true about Index Universal Life, it only cheapens and weakens the value while transferring more money from you to those who sell and distribute the stuff.

Dr. Tomas P. McFie

Most Americans depend on Social Security for retirement income. Even when people think they’re saving money, taxes, fees, investment losses and market volatility take most of their money away. Tom McFie is the founder of McFie Insurance which helps people keep more of the money they make, so they can have financial peace of mind. His latest book, A Biblical Guide to Personal Finance, can be purchased here. 

[i] Walter Willet, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Chair of the Department of Nutrition Harvard School of Public Health

[ii] December, 21, 2010 Issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, (Dairy fat, substantially reduces the risk of Type 2 Diabetes)

[iii] Yes, dairy is subsidized too but not as heavily as corn is in this country.

[iv] See the Youtube Video “Universal Life Insurance and Whole Life Insurance” by Tom McFie