Kraig Strom

10/01/2026

09/29/2026

I almost jumped off the ship.

That's how angry the biggest financial guru in the world made me, jogging the deck of a cruise ship somewhere south of Florida, listening to his radio show.

A husband and wife called in. They'd owned a cash value whole life insurance policy for more than 30 years. They called because they'd heard this man say, more than once, that whole life insurance is terrible and anyone who sells it is terrible too.

In under 2 minutes on the air, he told them to surrender it. Cash it out. "It's junk."

I yelled out loud on that deck.

Here is what he never asked. A policy owned for 30 years or more, written before major tax law changes, is often in an equity position, worth more than the family ever paid into it. He did not ask one question about their health, their age, their taxes, or their kids. He had 90 seconds and an audience.

If that had been my parents, I would have wanted to sue him. I can't. He has no license to lose and no duty to the people listening to him.

That's the difference between entertainment and advice. One of them can be wrong for 2 minutes and walk away. The other has to live with getting it right.

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. Before you cancel a policy because someone on the radio told you to, have an expert look at what you own.

Has anyone ever told you to get rid of a policy you already owned? I'd like to hear what happened.

09/26/2026

About 5 years ago, someone in my mom's neighborhood must have thought her dog got out and they put this little poodle in her backyard. Riley wasn't her puppy but after taking him to the vet and finding out he did not have a chip and he had no collar, she adopted him and he became the luckiest dog on the block. I wish my mom was still with us to see how much fun he's having. 😀

09/26/2026

The policy they almost refused became the one that mattered most. Full story on my website, link in the comments.

09/24/2026

We placed $3,500,000 of life insurance on a mom with no paycheck. Her own husband asked me why.

I will call them Ralph and Peggy. Their names are changed for privacy. Nothing else is.

Ralph was a personal injury attorney and the family's only income. Peggy left her career as a court stenographer to raise their two daughters full time. Insuring Ralph was the easy part. When I encouraged them to insure Peggy too, they pushed back. She had no salary, so why would they insure her?

I asked Ralph the same question a presenter once asked me about my own wife: if her funeral was on Friday, do you want to go back to work on Monday? Ralph said, "No. Of course not." We placed the coverage on Peggy.

Years later, Peggy was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the doctors could not save her. When she passed, Ralph received $3,500,000, income-tax free. He had the freedom to stay home with his daughters, and that is exactly what he did.

The policy they almost refused let a father be a full-time parent through the hardest season of his family's life.

If everyone in your house is insured except the stay-at-home parent, have that reviewed.

The full story is in the first comment.

09/22/2026

A 41-year-old firefighter never got to see his life insurance do its job. His family did.

Ryan Pleasants died on January 7, 2024, after responding to multiple calls. He was an engineer and a paramedic with the Walla Walla Fire Department in Washington.

I did not know him. I'm telling you his story because his family chose to share it publicly, and because it won a national award this year.

Ryan had planned ahead. He had life insurance.

So when the worst thing happened, his wife Raquel didn't get handed a financial emergency on top of the worst day of her life. She has said the coverage gave her the ability to focus on her children and keep building the future she and Ryan had planned for their family.

That's what this is. It isn't a product. It's a decision a 41-year-old man made on an ordinary day, long before anyone needed it.

If you're 41 and healthy and busy, that's exactly the point.

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. If you want my free Life Insurance Buyer's Checklist, comment the word LIFE and I'll send it to you.

09/19/2026

She forgot she owned long-term care insurance. It was still there when she needed it. Full story on my website, link in the comments.

09/17/2026

She forgot she owned long-term care insurance. It was still there when she needed it most.

Stephanie was in a wheelchair from nerve damage when I met her, referred to me by her CPA. I had not sold her anything. When I asked whether she had long-term care coverage, her face changed completely. "Oh my god, I forgot we bought something years ago." She sent her husband Bruce to the filing cabinet.

5 minutes later, he came back with a folder. Inside was an old policy with comprehensive coverage: in-home care, skilled nursing, assisted living, even inflation protection that had been quietly growing the benefit for years. The premium had never been large enough to notice, so the policy sat forgotten in a drawer.

We activated it. Within weeks, Stephanie had home health care for bathing, cooking, and transportation, and Bruce no longer had to risk his own health trying to do it all himself.

If you own a long-term care policy, old or new, have it reviewed. And never cancel one without an expert looking at your whole picture first.

The full story is in the first comment.

09/16/2026

Nobody had to pass a hat at church to bury him.

Early in my career I sold life insurance in senior communities where a lot of the people I sat with had never carried a policy in their life. Some of those policies cost as little as $19 a month. The coverage was small. It was built to do one job: pay for a funeral, with a little left over so the kids weren't stuck with the final bills.

I sold one of those policies to a husband and wife. Years later he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He never smoked a day in his life.

I drove to the house and sat with his wife and walked her through exactly what would happen. When he passed a short time later, it happened the way we planned it. The funeral home got paid. Nobody set up a fundraiser. Nobody stood on a corner with a sign.

His family got to grieve him instead of scrambling for money.

That's the whole point, and it hasn't changed in nearly 30 years. A policy some people would call too small to matter did the exact job it was bought to do, on the worst week of that family's life.

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. If you've been putting this off, this is the month.

If you want my free Life Insurance Buyer's Checklist, comment the word LIFE and I'll send it to you.

09/12/2026

Part 3: what actually happened to Barbara and Frank. Full story on my website, link in the comments.