BOOKS ABOUT LIFE INSURANCE

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A TRILLION DOLLAR CORPORATE CON GAME

For almost seventy years the life insurance industry has been a smug sacred cow
feeding the public a steady line of sacred bull. — Ralph Nader
(In testimony before the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly)

NOTE: The Appendix to the book FINANCIAL RECOVERY, that was advertised in 1980 and sold through a FULL-PAGE ADVERTISEMENT in Life Insurance Selling Magazine listed fifteen references exposing corporate behavior, the responsibility of which ought to be to provide a necessary product to the public. In this 2024 online edition, we have expanded the list to nearly one-hundred books and publications, including several published after 1980, that attempt to alert the public to the industry's financial abuse. The reason that FINANCIAL RECOVERY was effective in 1980 is that it was marketed to responsible licensed agents for their enlightenment. The companies responded in 1981 by promoting a new variety of "investment insurance" that it calls Universal Life Insurance, containing confusingly inseparable insurance costs, other charges, and the industry's usual funny banking rules. See #92, #93, #94, #95, #96, and #97, below. The following books primarily explore and expose THE FALLACY OF USING LIFE-INSURANCE AS AN INVESTMENT. Note that this is far from new. The author of the first book on this list, Traps Baited With Orphan, Elizur Wright, was the first insurance commissioner of the State of Massachusetts. 1877 "Traps Baited With Orphan" Elizur Wright 1901 "The Economic Theory of Risk and Insurance" AIlan H. Willett 1905 "Business of Life Insurance" O.P. 1906 "How To Buy Life Insurance" O.P. 1907 "The Story of Life Insurance" Burton J. Hendrick 1916 "Life Insurance for Professors" Univ. of Calif. Publications in Economics, Vol.4, No.2 1917 "A License To Steal" Philander Banister Armstrong 1925 "Life Insurance Digest" Robert NI. Messick 1929 "Life Insurance Simplified" Lewis R. Tebbetts 1930 "The Money Value of a Man" L.I. Dublin and A.J. Lotka 1933 "How Safe Is Life Insurance?" L. Seth Schnitman 1934 "Your Insurance" S.B. Cyzio 1936 "Life Insurance, A Critical Examination" Edward Berman "Your Life Insurance and What to Do About It" David Gilbert and Jim Sullivan "Life Insurance, A Legalized Racket" Mort Gilbert & E. Albert Gilbert 1938 "Life Insurance, Americas Greatest Confidence Game" J.D. Kidder "Life Insurance — Investing in Disaster" Mort & E.A. Gilbert "Life Insurance Exposed" Daniel D. White "Gouge" John Franklin Gaskill 1944 "You Pay and You Pay" 1946 "A Century of American Life Insurance" S.D. Clough 1947 "How to Buy Life Insurance" Phillip Gordis 1948 "Insurance and Your Security" E. Albert Gilbert 1948 "Personal Estate Planning in A Changing World" Rene Wormser "Personal Finance and Investment" Wilford J. Eitman 1955 "Insurance without Exploitation" Edwin C. Guillet "Your Insurance and How to Profit By It" Michael H. Levy "Life Insurance from the Buyers Point of View" 1955-68 Bureau of Economic Research 1958 "The Grim Truth About Life Insurance" Ralph Hendershot "Your Pocketbook Is Leaking" K.P. Chartier 1960 "Common Cents in Investments and Insurance" Gerald Fitzgerald "Vice President in Charge of Revolution" Murray Lincoln "Behind the Fine Print" Gayle E. Richardson "Money You Can Keep" David Gilbert 1962 "Life Insurance, A Study in Delusion" Dermis L. Anderson "Use and Abuse of Statistics" W.J. Reichmann 1963 "A View of Life Insurance" Wayne C. Knigge "Whats Wrong with Your Life Insurance" Norman F. Dacey 1964 "Life Insurance — Benefit or Fraud?" J.J. Brown 1965 "Life Insurance" Graduate School of Business, Indiana University 1966 "The Great Misconceptions" Analytical Service, Inc. "The Retail Price Structure in American Life Insurance" Joseph M. Beth "This Is Where Your Money Goes" Robert F. Kahroff "Pay Now, Die Later" James Gollen 1967 "Why Waste Your Money on Life Insurance" J.E. Stowers "The Consumer Union Report on Life Insurance" "A Study of Mutual Life Insurance Dividends" Frank Mcintosh 1968 "How to Avoid Being Overcharged by Your Life Insurance Salesman" Pawlick "The Mortality Merchants" G. Scott Reynolds 1969 Houston Law Review Vol. 6 Pg. 878 — "A Legal Analysis of the Sale of Life Insurance", Randal A. Hendricks "The Life Book of Family Finance" Time-Life Books "Stop Wasting Your Insurance Dollars" Dave Goodwin 1970 "Consumers Guide to Insurance Buying" Vladamir P. Chernik — Changing Times 1971 "Getting All the Life Insurance You are Paying For?" Thomas McSwain, M.D. "How to Pay Lots Less for Life lnsurance" Max Fogiel — Moneysworth 1973 Senate Subcommittee on AntiTrust and Monopoly — 93rd Congress — 1st Session, Feb. 20th 1973 1974 "Consumer Report" Jan., Feb., March "Term or Straight — Which Is Best for You?" Everybodys Money, Spring "Lets Understand Life Insurance" Consumers Digest July/Aug. "The Bottom Line — A Little Straight Talk About Life Insurance" Dirks/Grass — Playboy, May 1974 1975 Congressional Record — July 8, 1975, Senator Philip Hart 1975 "Money Dynamics", Venita VanCaspel — Containing the famous Chapter #13, Life Insurance — The Great National Consumer Fraud (obliged to change last word to "Dilemma" in subsequent editions of "Money Dynamics") "The Consumers Guide to Life Insurance" J. Tracy Oehlbeck "How to Save Money on Your Life Insurance" — Assn. for Truth In Life Insurance 1976 "The Search For the Hidden Treasure" Mitchell Educational Services, Inc. 1976 "The Life Insurance Conspiracy", Peter Spielmann & Aaron Zelman 1977 "Where Women Should Invest Money" Venita Van Caspel "What is Happening to Life Insurance Dividends?" Consumer Report. March 1977 "The Consumers Union Report on Life Insurance" "Dreams of Immortality" Max Apple — Mother Jones Magazine 1978 "Life Insurance: Myths and Facts" Consumer Digest Nov/Dec. "False Advertising" Howard J. Ruff, The Ruff Times, Oct. 15 "Must Replacement Be A Dirty Dirty Word?" The National Underwriter, Oct. 7 "Dollars & Sense" C. & Associates "The New Money Dynamics" Venita Van Caspel "The 250 Billion Dollar Consumer Problem?" (Cash Value Life Ins.) J.V. Pruitt "If You Need Help in Planning Your Finances" U.S. News and World Report 1979 "Insurance Industry Feels the Federal Lash". U.S. News & World Report 1979 Federal Trade Commission — July 10th "Consumers are Losing Billions Yearly by Ill-informed & Inappropriate Life Insurance Choices", FTC Staff Says 1980 "Financial Recovery" Stewart Ogilby — The Replacement of Cash-Value Insurance Policies 1986 "Consumer Reports" Aug. 1986 "Universal Life, The Chameleon Can Bite" 1987 "Thats Life, The 3rd Annual Dumber Than Dirt Award" Springville Herald, April 22nd 1987 1988 "Buyers Guide to Life Insurance" State of New Jersey — Governor Thomas H. Kean "The Games & Scams of Cash Value Life Insurance" John J. Pepin PHD 1990 "How Your LIfe Insurance Policies Rob You" Arthur Milton 1991 Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Aug. 12th, 1991 — "Many People Waste Money Buying Wrong Insurance" 1992 United States Senate, June 23rd, 1992 — "Life Insurance — A Shell Game of Premium Padding and Savings Schemes", Senator Howard Metzenbaum — Chairman Newsweek, July 13th, 1992 "Buyers Beware" 1994 "Worth", April 1994, "Don"t be Sold the Wrong Life Insurance" Business Week, January 17th, 1994, "Policies of Deception" 1995 "Money", August 1995, "The 8 Biggest Rip Offs in America" "Never Buy a Whole Life Policy" 2016 Financial Services Consumer Alliance Universal Life Class Action 2018 The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19th, Universal Life Insurance, A 1980's Sensation, has backfired 2019 The New York State Department of Financial Services — Universal Life Insurance 2022 Forbes, Sounding the Alarm on Indexed Universal Life Insurance 2022 Forbes, Universal Life Insurance Has A Trap For Unwary Retirees FOR YOUR OWN SOLUTION, CLICK HERE SEEKING 2024 QUALIFIED WORKING PARTNER(S) and financiers interested in turning a few thousands of $$$ into MANY millions by doing the right thing again (as done in the 1980's). You must be willing to butt heads with the world's wealthiest industry.