How we help | Life insurance & protection
Understand the product before anyone quotes you a price.
Term, permanent, beneficiaries, income replacement, and business continuity, explained properly. We don't sell insurance. We explain it, then hand you to someone licensed, which is an odd thing for a page about insurance to say and the reason this one is worth reading.
Income replacement drawn out: the obligation, its size, and how long it lasts. Not a stock photo of a family.
1200 x 750We don't sell insurance, and this page still exists
Jerrica holds an active California producer license and is licensed in eight further states. She decided that selling insurance wasn't the work she wanted to do, and we didn't replace her with someone who would. So Ninja Credit Consultants does not sell, solicit, place, or get paid for insurance.
What we kept is the part we're useful for: explaining the product well enough that you can tell a good recommendation from a sales script. Then, if you want coverage, we point you at a licensed agency and step out of the way.
Nothing about an NCC credit, formation, or funding engagement requires, involves, or is improved by buying insurance, and nobody gets routed from one into the other. If you came here for credit help, you will never hear about this from us unless you ask.
The licensing, published anyway
Why publish a license we don't sell on
Because it's why the explanations on this page are worth anything. Someone who sat the exams, carries the license, and chose not to sell has no quota to meet and nothing to talk you into. Check it yourself:
- Licensed producer
- Jerrica Coyle, Managing Partner, Ninja Credit Consultants LLC
- California license number
- 4514899 - Life, and Accident & Health or Sickness. Active, with a 31 December 2027 expiry.
- National Producer Number
- 22061981
- Resident state
- California
- Also licensed in
- Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas
- Verify it
- California Department of Insurance license lookup - search the number above
You get referred to a licensed agency. In practice that's usually The Phoenix Dynasty Group, and sometimes Pinnacle Life Group. We're friends with the people who run both, which is the honest description - not partners, not affiliated, no shared ownership, and no referral fee to us in either direction.
If that changes, this paragraph changes first. Any company naming an insurance "partner" without telling you what it earns is answering a question you didn't get to ask.
The vocabulary
What life insurance actually is
A contract with a carrier. You pay premiums; if the insured person dies while the policy is in force, the carrier pays a death benefit to the named beneficiaries. Everything else is variation on structure, duration, and cost. The industry has spent decades making that sound more complicated than it is.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Term life | Covers a defined period, commonly 10 to 30 years. Lower cost for a given death benefit. Pays nothing if the term ends while the insured is living. Suited to obligations that have an end date. |
| Permanent life | Designed to remain in force for life, provided it is funded as required. Higher cost, and depending on type may accumulate cash value. Structures vary considerably, and so do their guarantees and risks. |
| Death benefit | The amount payable to beneficiaries. |
| Beneficiary | Who receives the proceeds. Primary and contingent designations should be reviewed after marriage, divorce, births, and deaths. Outdated designations are one of the most common and most painful errors in this subject. |
| Owner | Who controls the policy. Often but not always the insured, and in business contexts frequently the company. |
| Underwriting | The carrier's assessment of health, history, and financial justification. Determines whether a policy is issued and at what price. |
| Contestability period | An initial window during which the carrier can investigate and deny a claim for material misstatements on the application. A reason to answer application questions accurately. |
Purpose
Start from the obligation, not the product
The useful way into this is working out what money would have to do if you weren't here, in dollars and in years. That makes the product conversation short. Starting from the product makes it long and expensive.
- Income replacement. Keeping a household running if the person earning is gone. For how long, and at what level.
- Mortgage and debt obligations. So a surviving family isn't forced to sell a home on someone else's timetable.
- Final expenses. Funeral and settlement costs, which arrive immediately and are routinely underestimated.
- Dependants with long-term needs. Care that continues regardless of who is there to fund it.
- Business continuity. Funding a buy-sell agreement so a surviving owner can buy out a deceased owner's share without a forced sale. See estate planning.
- Key-person coverage. A policy the business owns on someone whose loss would materially damage it, with the business as beneficiary.
Each of those is a specific obligation with a size and a duration. That's the opposite of how most of this gets sold.
Honest limits
What nobody can promise you about this
- That you'll be approved. Underwriting is the carrier's decision, based on health, history, and financial justification.
- A premium, before underwriting is complete. Illustrations are illustrations. The number can change.
- A particular carrier's appetite for your circumstances.
- That coverage can be bound, changed, canceled, or reinstated through this website. It cannot. Nothing on this site has any effect on any policy.
- That a policy will pay in circumstances its contract excludes. Read the contract, including the contestability period and the exclusions.
- Guarantees beyond the carrier's ability to pay them. Policy guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing carrier.
Do it yourself
Useful preparation, including if you buy elsewhere
All of this is free and worth doing before you talk to any agent, us included.
- Review your existing beneficiary designations today. On policies and retirement accounts. These pass outside a will and outside a trust, they're frequently years out of date, and fixing them costs nothing.
- Check what you already have. Employer group coverage is common, frequently insufficient, and usually ends when the job does.
- Work out the obligation in dollars and years. Income for how long, which debts, whose education, what business interest.
- Have your health history to hand. Underwriting will find it regardless, and inaccuracies on an application can void a claim later.
- Ask any agent how they're compensated. A reasonable question, and the answer tells you something either way.
Where we come in
Education first, then a licensed conversation
What we do
- Explain the structures and terminology so you can evaluate what you're shown.
- Work through the obligation you're actually insuring, in dollars and years.
- Tell you what questions to put to whichever agent you end up with.
- Refer you to a licensed agency, for free, and then step back.
- Coordinate with the business side where a buy-sell or key-person arrangement is involved.
What we won't do
- Sell, solicit, place, or take a commission on any insurance product.
- Recommend a specific product, carrier, or policy to you.
- Suggest you replace existing coverage without a careful look at what you'd be giving up.
- Bundle this with a credit or business engagement.
- Promise underwriting, pricing, issuance, or benefits.
The strategy nobody explains straight
Infinite banking, and why we teach it
Most people have never heard of it. The ones who have usually heard it from somebody earning a commission on the answer, which is a shame, because the underlying mechanics are old, legitimate and genuinely worth understanding.
In one sentence: you overfund a participating whole life policy so it builds usable cash value early, then borrow against that cash value instead of borrowing from a bank. The policy keeps doing what the contract says while the loan is outstanding, and anything still owed at death comes off the death benefit.
It is a strategy, not a product, and it suits some people and ruins others. We use it ourselves, we will walk you through the whole thing including the arguments against it, and we earn nothing whichever way you go.
Three things the sales version gets wrong, in case you only read this far: the strategy is not a hundred years old, dividends are not guaranteed, and you are not paying yourself back - the loan comes from the insurer and the interest goes to the insurer.
Related
What this connects to
Questions
What people actually ask
Do you sell life insurance?
No. Ninja Credit Consultants does not sell, solicit, or place insurance, and receives no commission or referral fee on it. Jerrica Coyle holds an active California producer license, number 4514899, covering Life and Accident & Health or Sickness, and National Producer Number 22061981. She is also licensed in Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. She decided selling insurance was not the work she wanted to do.
What we do is explain the product so you can evaluate what an agent shows you. If you want coverage, we refer you to a licensed agency, usually The Phoenix Dynasty Group and sometimes Pinnacle Life Group. We are friends with the owners of both rather than partners, and we are not compensated for the referral.
How much coverage does someone typically need?
The common approaches are a multiple of income, or a needs analysis that adds up what the money would have to do: replace income for a period, clear a mortgage and other debts, cover final expenses, fund education, and keep a business operating through a transition.
The needs analysis is more work and produces a defensible number rather than a rule of thumb. Either way the answer is specific to a household, which is why no website should be giving you a figure.
Is term or permanent coverage better?
Neither, as a general statement. Term covers a defined period at lower cost for the same death benefit, which suits a defined obligation like the years until a mortgage is paid or children are independent. Permanent coverage is designed to last for life and generally costs more, with features that may or may not be relevant to a given situation.
Matching the structure to the obligation it's meant to cover is the actual question, and it requires knowing the obligation first.
Can you guarantee I'll be approved, or quote me a rate?
No. Life insurance is medically and financially underwritten by the carrier. Eligibility, pricing, and issuance are the carrier's decisions, based on their criteria and your application and evidence of insurability.
Any figure quoted before underwriting is an illustration rather than an offer, and it can change.
What does key-person coverage do?
It's a policy a business owns on someone whose loss would materially damage it, with the business as beneficiary. The proceeds are intended to absorb the disruption: recruitment, lost revenue during a transition, reassuring lenders and partners.
Related, and often more urgent for co-owned businesses, is funding a buy-sell agreement so a surviving owner can buy out a deceased owner's share without a forced sale. The agreement itself is legal work for an attorney; the funding mechanism is the insurance question.
Who should own the policy, and who should be the beneficiary?
Two separate decisions, and both have consequences, including tax and estate consequences that depend on individual circumstances. Naming a minor directly, or defaulting to your estate, creates problems people don't anticipate.
Ownership and beneficiary structuring on anything beyond a straightforward personal policy warrants a conversation with an attorney or tax professional alongside the insurance discussion. NCC does not provide legal advice.
Disclosures
The required fine print, in normal-sized type
Educational content. This page does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation to purchase, retain, surrender, or replace any insurance product.
Life insurance is subject to medical and financial underwriting. Eligibility, pricing, issuance, and payment of benefits are determined solely by the issuing carrier under the terms of the policy contract. Policy guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing carrier. Product availability and provisions vary by state.
No coverage can be bound, altered, canceled, reinstated, or replaced through this website or through any form or message submitted via it.
Ninja Credit Consultants LLC does not sell, solicit, or place insurance and receives no commission, referral fee, or other compensation in connection with any insurance product. Jerrica Coyle holds California producer license 4514899 and National Producer Number 22061981; that license is published for verification and is not an offer of services. Referrals are made to The Phoenix Dynasty Group and Pinnacle Life Group, which are independent agencies, not partners, affiliates, or subsidiaries of NCC. NCC does not provide legal or tax advice. Beneficiary, ownership, tax, and estate questions should be reviewed with a licensed attorney or tax professional.
See the full disclosures page.
Want the concepts explained before anyone shows you a product?
That's a conversation we're happy to have on its own terms, with no obligation and no connection to any other service. If the right next step is a licensed professional who isn't us, that's what you'll hear.