I was a single mom and I wanted to be sure that if something were to happen to me in my son's formative years, there would be some start for him so I bought the Gerber Grow-Up Plan. However, one thing I wasn't made aware of was that shortly before the child's 21st birthday, he will then be the owner of the policy, but not necessarily the payor. He then gets complete control over who the beneficiary is. It was not clearly explained to me in the beginning, nor did I bother to ask. But when the child turns 21, parents like myself, who have had the program for so long, forget easily what’s really going on.
I found out the hard way, through making several phone calls, that I’m no longer the policy owner even though I am paying for it. It would have been nice to have advance notice on that and if I wanted to change it, they could have advised on the necessary steps to take, which I did have to do. As it turned out, my son had turned it all back over to me. I sent in a form with my son’s and my driver’s licenses and signatures saying that he was releasing his interest and was giving it back to me. I made myself beneficiary because, obviously, I still am his mother.
Plus I was able to borrow a little bit against the whole life policy. I didn’t even know it was a whole life, I thought it was a term life so that’s how long it’s been. So now I’m back in the driver’s seat of being the owner, payor, and beneficiary but once my son gets married, I’ll change on that. I would say good things about Gerber Life to others but I would also tell them to be aware of what’s going on as far as what kind of program they're being involved in.