Some doing well, some catching hell — Skelton
Opposition Leader Ronnie Skelton has lambasted insurance companies and banks in the territory for what he suggested were Ponzi schemes and predatory practices being meted out to their customers.
“I am 65 and my life insurance doubled. I hit sixty-two, it doubled again, and when you look at the numbers, where am I going to get that disposable income to pay for life insurance premiums?” Skelton asked.
Skelton said insurance companies are carrying out Ponzi schemes, taking premiums under false pretence and hoping that persons die. He urged that lawmakers take a closer look at what is going on and address what he described as very real situations.
“I asked the Premier for the total deposits in banks and how much money they have. We got so much money, we don’t know what to do with it. But one of the questions the government should go and ask these banks is, ‘Where are they loaning this money to?” Skelton asked.
Skelton suggested there was no real decision-making going on at the majority of banking institutions in the territory.
“Our country is unbanked, [if] there’s such a thing. We need to have discussions. We need to find out what is happening. Some of us are doing well. Some of us are catching hell,” Skelton said.
Skelton urged Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley and other lawmakers to pay closer attention to the issue before it is too late.
He said business owners in the tourism industry such as restaurant and hotel owners are not doing well and have loans at the bank, which is calling for their monies.
According to Skelton, these businesses are willing to restructure and are willing to do all sorts of stuff, but banks are not interested and are sending the matters to their attorneys instead.
“The only people who are making money in bad times and good times are their attorneys,” Skelton said.
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This guy is deluded.
“I am 65 and my life insurance doubled. I hit sixty-two, it doubled again, and when you look at the numbers, where am I going to get that disposable income to pay for life insurance premiums?” Skelton asked.”
What does he expect? The closer you get to death, the more likely there is a pay out so the cost of the insurance increases. For people above retirement age, life insurance ceases to make as much sense.
“Skelton said insurance companies are carrying out Ponzi schemes, taking premiums under false pretence and hoping that persons die. He urged that lawmakers take a closer look at what is going on and address what he described as very real situations.”
I’m sure they aren’t hoping that people die who have taken out life insurance. The goal is to take steady premiums from folk who are healthy and of working age (therefore unlikely to die but need some protection to cover family in the unfortunate event that they do) and never to pay out as the policy lapses before they get to death.
A man with the know how.Natalio listen up
Mr: Skelton does not have a clue how life insurance works, it appears that he has a term life policy which have a set rate for an age bracket for a certain number of years. The rate will increase once you move outside the AGE BRACKET, they are not ripping people off, you need to fully understand your policy. My advice to young BVIslanders, do not purchase a TERM LIFE INDSURANCE POLICY, purchase a WHOLE LIFE POLICY where the rates are set and will not increase.
Ronnie is useless give Myron opposition leader
They just worried about the wrong things thy need to try to figure out ways to help the small business in BVI. They are so many new trade license being approved and nowhere for the business to set up. RENT is expensive. import is expensive. focus on small business try to find solution to help us!
Y’all think a multi millionaire doesn’t understand insurance? Lmao! You mean you didn’t understand what he was saying from the little sound bites reported in this story? That’s more like it. Go actually watch HOA and understand what he was saying.
He is right that no Bank in the BVI makes decisions in house except National Bank. So our date is left to Puerto Rico or Canada or Barbados or elsewhere. De ions made by people who don’t know the BVI community or care.
He is right that while he can afford the premiums there are others who cannot and are catching hell.
He is right that government needs to intervene and have conversations with banks and insurance companies and then move legislation to make a real change that could positively impact the average person in the BVI.
You see how some of us feel now, when you lobbied to have us retire at 65 and not 60, Were you all hoping we would die and not collect our pension because we have to work until we can’t. Yes! at the same time insurance killing us, the banks demands we insure our houses and the fees keep going up. How can anyone survive where they live and invested their blood sweat and tears. The banks and insurance companies are greedy like the greedy bill.
You misunderstood what he is saying. Of course he understands that it will increase, but he is speaking of how much harder it’s getting for the regular man to afford these things and the fact that insurance companies, or should I say insurance reseller agents, are getting away with murder!
The banks here are NOT doing banking, they are just doing the bare minimum that makes them money and take no risk in the Territory. That’s not how banking works but it’s all fun and games until you feel it yourself.
This may not belong here in thread, but one thing I would suggest for our high school heat problem is to start school earlier say 6:30 or 7:am and finish earlier.
Skelton’s statement was poorly worded but has a message. To me, Insurance is not in the interest of the Insured but in the interest of securities on properties. In the case of Home Insurance, technically speaking, the Insurance company undertakes to give out a loan for repairs in the event of damages. I’d explain. Imagine that you secure your home and suffered Hurricane loss after paying Premium for 20 years. The Insurance would give you money to repair or rebuild. Your Premium thereafter would hit the roofs. Assuming the mortgage is to run for 30 years. Your Premium for 30 years will far exceed what insurance would give you to rebuild of recover from the Hurricane. You are not under any mortgage obligation to insure the property after the 30 years mortgage term. If you chose to save what you were paying as monthly premium for another 20 years. You would have more money to repair your building should another hurricane occur in 20 years. If a hurricane occurs earlier, get a short-term loan to fix the house. Your monthly loan repayment most likely would be less than the Insurance premium. After the Irma and Maria hurricanes, Insurance premiums became more than double. Was the increase not an attempt to recoup the loss that had been covered by premiums paid before the Hurricane?. What I was taught in school is that Insurance is the business of pooling risks and insuring same at a premium, profit thereon being the difference between compensation cost and premiums collected. Perhaps mine was old and village school. In the Invent of an accident damage on a car, the Insurance premium goes up. Why? Has the risk increased?
Skelton is spot on. Also add to put the entire assistance grant under Social Development was one of the 48 recommendations from the COI and it was an ill advised move. Not all assistance are socilal needs. Some are education. Some are health, etc. I keep saying those 48 preauthored COI recommendations needs to be discussed with the public because they sound & look good on paper but most of them are not good for the people of the BVI nor the economy as they do not fit our culture nor way of life. I am 100% for transparency but no law or policy should be put in place that does not take into account the realities on the ground. All 13 of our elected officials are failing us because none of them are respectfully challenging the lack of foresight of most of these 48 recommendations. They are implementing them wholesale and selling out the people of the BVI wholesale. These are contributing to the free fall of the economy and rise in crime but that just may be what the hidden intent of the UK to try to aid the justification of their plans. They send our leaders to destroy their people while their hands are clean and they can come in & look like saviors when in fact they will try to come in and enslave us but most will not realize what happened until it happens & it is too late. SMDH
Financial institutions( banks, insurers, underwriters, etc) make money by prophetic risk assessment of a persons life, property, chattels, etc. The institutions set up this game to profit at the expense of the individual consumer who can join the game or not.
Complaining about the game achieves nothing other than broadcasting which party is winning. All a state government can do is provide a safety net for the losers.
I don’t like Ronnie but he is right
I don’t like Ronnie but he is right . N w needs to get out of office now.
Now he understands when he took our health insurance policies and gave us NHI. When I went back to the insurance companies they were offering add on health policies for twice and as much as three times what I was paying before NHI.
Most of the elected officials agreed with the moving of funds to Social Development because they are f**king lazy and do not really care about the people. The only thing they didn’t do was throw a party because now instead of actually looking out for people, they can say “Boy I can’t help you, UK take the money, check SD!” When election rolls around they magically can find $100 and $200 to give out to ‘assist’. These set of wastes we have here! What is even more sad is that we thought electing younger people would change things but look at them. They all drank the koolaid, dressed up in suits, smiling, laughing, traveling while the Territory goes under. I wonder how many people realize that every elected official from past, up to present gets a wash of cash after they leave office, even if it’s for one term? I don’t think people realize how bad this thing is and why elected officials are mum. They are mum because THEY ARE GOOD!
Without NHI many of you would’ve been dead and buried years ago at the hands of Private Insurance.
I won’t get mad BUT I hate when I hear Comments like yours. However, I respect yours and I would like for you to respect mine even if you don’t agree. Some people of the BVI really don’t understand or don’t want to understand what was really going on with the monies that each Representative got before the COI. A very few of them may have had good intentions and were distributing the funds fair, BUT the majority of Politicians were abusing those funds giving it only to their friends who didn’t need it and keeping a good portion for themselves. There was NO transparency. Now I can vouch for people like Hon. Dr. Dawson, Hon Mather, Hon. Hodge-Smith, Hon. Ronnie Skelton and a few others who would be honest BUT I cannot say for some others. The Social Development Grants need to be audited Monthly and the Report needs to be transparent BUT it is in the right place. Some Politicians have gone forward to speak on some of their Constituents behalf but again NOT fair in doing for others. I have yet to hear any Member of this Hon’ House speak on a review of the Social Security benefits which the Minister for the Subject will NEVER do. Some people just run for Politics for self-gain but have no interest in the well-being of others and those Politicians will continue to run each Election cycle until they die refusing to let another person who is quite the opposite to get a chance at it. Sad to say but these last few years are the worse the BVI have ever experienced. You don’t have to agree with my Post BUT when a Government regards the livelihood of its Citizens, then the Country would flourish. The BVI territory has lost favour with God.
All of them are a waste of damn time
Except Whole Life Insurance is a joke because you need to start paying for it when you’re in your 20s if you want any meaningful sum of money (like who takes out $30k whole life insurance?!) and you can only access it upon your death. you might as well save up for your death yourself and have the money at your finger tips for emergency. That is why people buy term insurance.
we know you ain’t no NDP SUPPORTER , it’s just another of your fake blogging names that you uses to hide behind your racist lyrics , go play with your WIG
Well it depends on the purpose. It may be that has a term life as a life insurance to cover mortgage costs. It’s customary to use term life in such instances as it’s less expensive
AS LONG AS THE VIP KEEP BRINGING IN THAT MAN FROM SENEGAL, THE BVI WILL BE IN TURMOIL. CRAZY PEOPLE WILL SOON START RUNNING UP AND DOWN THE STREETS.
Both the banks and insurance companies are Ponzi Schemes, only thing is they are legal.
@Kingfish..my advice to my young brothers and sisters in the BVI is to NOT purchase whole life. Buy a term policy and invest the money you saved in a good mutual fund or a few good funds. By the time these young people reach Mr. Skelton’s age they really don’t need the insurance because of the earnings/value of their investments, they can self insure. If they want a small less expenses policy for burial so it doesn’t eat in the assets being transferred to the heirs at death, it becomes a personal choice and matter of convenience.
Mr. Skeleton obviously bought a policy from someone who clearly did not explain to him that the policy is more expense as you age because your risk of death is more likely than in earlier years. There is also a period of conversion to a whole life if he wanted to do, but sounds like that too was not explained to him. BvI, EU, US, Canada doesn’t matter this is just that way insurance products work. We have a running joke among finance professionals, the best buildings in downtowns were insurance companies because they didn’t payout much. Dont talk about their lavish conferences to best golfing resorts and lavish executive bonuses.
Folks just need to Work with a qualified CFP or CPA, start young and learn as much as you can about personal finance..stay out the clubs, aboid high maintenance partners (male or females) live a modest life, don’t charge what you can’t pay in full at month end, never mind the joneses, and you will do just fine. Rather than going in on Mr. SKeleton use his story as a life lesson and use it to do better so you don’t end up in his situation later on.
This was meant to be a like
These blogs demonstrate a need for education.
Rudimentary necessities of life and living such as insurance and folks dont know and least of all comprehend.
What kind of teaching is going on in High School and do you guys read..a screen infront your eyes and ears with kaboodle info at your fingertips…
Those insurances were not yours! They belong to your employer who you must leave at some time or another. NHI belongs to you wherever you go. No question or red tape when or if you become unemployed all you have to do is continue paying something.
Just like the house insurance, medical insurance will price us out of the market. Some of us will not understand until we no longer have the employer’s insurance and we have to source our own and find out that it cost $800 + a month. Let’s trying paying that after we retire with no NHI and see how long we will be able to pay it.
What kind of help you are advocating for? Do you want them to pay your rent or build another rent free building like craft alive?
I am thinking on where to move to so I can live comfortable on my retirement. I came up with Indonesia, Vietnam, peru, Belize Santo Domingo or Jamaica
The closer you get to death???? Really… Death is always at your dam doors step. Stop writing piddle.