📋 TL;DR: The Suze Orman Reality Check
Suze Orman’s evolution from selling whole life insurance to condemning it raises questions about what drives financial celebrity advice. Her mathematical assumptions don’t match market reality, her business model creates potential conflicts, and her one-size-fits-all approach may limit sophisticated wealth-building strategies.
📊 Quick Facts: Suze Orman by the Numbers (2025)
| Weekly Podcast Listeners: | 4.8/5 stars, 4.1K reviews |
| Current Business Focus: | SecureSave (emergency savings platform) |
| Promised Stock Returns: | 12% annually (unchanged) |
| Actual S&P 500 Returns (2000-2024): | 6.91% annually |
Table of Contents
- Suze Orman’s Financial Philosophy Evolution
- 2025 Position: Unchanged Despite Market Reality
- Business Model Evolution and Potential Conflicts
- Investment Promises vs Mathematical Reality
- Suze Orman’s Past Embrace of Whole Life Insurance
- The Case for Whole Life and Cash Value Insurance
- Beyond Orman: How Insurance & Estates Approaches Life Insurance
- Critical Analysis and Recommendations
Suze Orman’s Financial Philosophy Evolution
When financial personality Suze Orman declares “Buy term and invest the difference,” she’s offering the same one-size-fits-all advice she gives to millions of viewers. But what if there’s more to the story? At Insurance & Estates, we’ve helped thousands of successful professionals, business owners, and savvy investors discover the wealth-building potential of strategic life insurance that Orman and other financial entertainers consistently overlook.
Suze Orman’s views on life insurance have evolved dramatically over the course of her career in the financial industry. From selling whole life insurance policies as a financial advisor, she has changed her tune and instead advises individuals to buy term and invest the difference rather than purchase permanent life insurance products such as whole life.
This transformation raises an important question: Is her current advice based on what truly serves your financial interests, or what serves her mass-market audience and media partnerships?
🎯 Why This Analysis Matters
As your financial sophistication increases, you need to understand the difference between mass-market financial entertainment and sophisticated wealth-building strategies. This analysis examines:
- Mathematical Reality: Do Orman’s return assumptions match market performance?
- Business Model Questions: How do media partnerships influence financial advice?
- Licensing Gap: What’s the difference between media personalities and regulated advisors?
- Alternative Strategies: What advanced approaches do wealthy families actually use?
💭 Our Analytical Framework
We examine Orman’s advice through multiple lenses: what genuinely helps people, what may be mathematically or strategically flawed, and what raises questions about conflicts of interest. Our goal is factual analysis that helps you make informed decisions about your financial future—not blind adherence to any single philosophy.
2025 Position: Unchanged Despite Market Reality
🆕 2024-2025 Updates
Suze Orman maintains her steadfast opposition to whole life insurance despite changing market conditions. In a March 2024 YouTube video, Orman explicitly stated that “for most people variable and whole life insurance are the worst investments you could ever buy.” Her core philosophy of “buy term and invest the difference” remains unchanged, though mathematical reality continues to challenge her assumptions.
Recent Coverage Recommendations: In May 2025, Orman reinforced her position by advocating for coverage of 20-25 times annual income, stating: “You need to figure out that if you have $50,000 a year of income, and that income supports a family, and something happens to you, $100,000 of life insurance will only get them by for two years.”
Suze believes that permanent life insurance such as whole life or indexed universal life (IUL) are bad investments, much like other financial entertainers such as Dave Ramsey. In her opinion, she feels you would be better off investing the money you save by buying cheaper term life, than by investing in life insurance.
Even if you don’t invest the entire difference, her claim is that you would do better to spend it elsewhere to avoid what she sees as the high fees of whole life. While there is no doubt that there are situations where an individual is better served by purchasing term life vs whole life or other types of cash value insurance, there are a number of benefits to be gained from buying these products that Suze doesn’t address.
While Orman and other financial personalities dismiss permanent life insurance as an overpriced product, our clients continue to leverage properly designed whole life and indexed universal life policies to build tax-advantaged wealth, create financial flexibility, and achieve goals that would be impossible with term insurance alone.
As a result, her position in this regard has been criticized by some insurance experts as too simplistic. Her advice to investors to fire their advisors if they recommend whole life insurance, or other types of permanent coverage, also seems extreme.
Investment Promises vs Mathematical Reality
🚨 The 12% Return Reality Check (2000-2024)
| Promised Returns | Actual Performance | |
| Suze’s Promise: | 12% annual returns | $100K becomes $1,700,006 |
| Actual S&P 500: | 6.91% annual returns | $100K becomes $531,808 |
| Shortfall: | 5.09% difference | $1,168,198 less than promised |
Mathematical Explanation: Like Dave Ramsey, Suze uses arithmetic averages instead of geometric returns, ignoring the impact of volatility on actual investor outcomes. Volatility effectively “steals” returns through the mathematical difference between average gains and compound growth.
⚖️ The Licensing and Accountability Gap
Critical Question: If a licensed financial advisor made the same 12% return claims that Suze Orman makes regularly, they could face regulatory sanctions, fines, or license revocation from FINRA or state securities regulators.
The Difference: Suze Orman operates without securities licenses as a media personality, not a regulated financial advisor. This allows her to make optimistic projections without the professional accountability that licensed advisors face for their recommendations.
And while we agree with Suze Orman that life insurance isn’t meant to be an investment, this overlooks the fact that permanent life insurance in the form of cash value life insurance has a number of features which makes them an excellent foundational asset and alternative savings vehicle.
Business Model Evolution and Potential Conflicts
Why Do Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey Recommend Term Life Insurance?
There are a handful of reasons these financial pundits focus on term life vs whole life insurance.
- Term Life is Cheaper than Whole Life
- It is More Profitable for Ramsey and Orman due to vested interests
- Obvious Bias to the Benefits of Whole Life vs Term Life
Term Life is Cheaper than Whole Life
Granted, the initial cost of setting up term vs whole life would favor term life insurance, but over a lifetime, whole life insurance costs much less than term life. The historic internal rate of return of a properly designed whole life policy can typically be between 4-6%. That is your money growing over your lifetime, that can be accessed tax free via policy loans.
Business Partnership Evolution: From SelectQuote to SecureSave
📈 2024-2025 Business Model Shift
SelectQuote Relationship Ended: A significant development is the apparent end of Suze Orman’s formal partnership with SelectQuote, the term life insurance comparison service she previously endorsed.
Current Focus – SecureSave: Orman’s primary business focus has shifted to SecureSave, an employer-matched emergency savings platform she co-founded in 2020. The company raised $11 million in funding in 2022 and represents her current entrepreneurial focus.
For Suze, her previous relationship with SelectQuote, an online term life insurance agency, made it advantageous for her to continue pushing term life. While this partnership appears to have ended as she focuses on SecureSave, the pattern of business relationships potentially influencing financial advice remains a concern.
Obvious Bias to the Benefits of Whole Life
Agree with them or not, all you have to do is listen to them speak out against whole life insurance to hear the obvious bias both Orman and Dave Ramsey have towards whole life. They unequivocally state that they hate whole life and anyone who recommends it is not looking out for your best interest. And they never once mention any of the many benefits of whole life insurance.
And what do they recommend you do instead? Why give all your money to Wall Street of course, so stockbrokers and mutual fund managers can use your money to enrich themselves, while you defer using your money to some magical day over the rainbow in a land called retirement.
📻 Current Media Presence (2025)
Primary Platform: Orman’s main platform is now her “Women & Money” podcast, which releases episodes twice weekly and maintains strong ratings (4.8/5 stars with 4.1K reviews).
Selective Appearances: Throughout 2024-2025, Orman has maintained more selective media appearances, often turning down television interviews to focus on her podcast audience. Her approach has become more targeted rather than seeking broad media coverage.
Suze Orman Life Insurance In the Past
Orman has explained how when she was working as a financial advisor she did well for her clients by selling them single premium whole life (SPWL) insurance. She recommended this product at retirement seminars she gave and found it to be very helpful in building up her practice. In an interview with Success.com she said, in regard to SPWL: “I loved it! It was one of the greatest investments around.” She touted the product’s low risk and high return and favorable tax treatment.
What explains the dramatic turnabout in Suze’s views on life insurance? It could have to do with the audience she now targets. Given that many of her listeners are likely unsophisticated when it comes to financial matters, Orman may feel that she won’t be able to fully explain the complexities of cash value life insurance to them.
Thus, even if there are certain circumstances where purchasing permanent life insurance is advantageous, delivering this type of nuanced message is not Orman’s style.
Given her past embrace of whole life, however, it makes sense to be skeptical about her blanketed pronouncement against whole life insurance. While in her role as a financial guru for the masses she decries whole life, the fact that she was a proponent of the insurance product when she worked with investors on a face-to-face basis bolsters the case for taking her current advice to stay away from cash value life insurance with a grain of salt.
🏛️ Industry Response and Professional Criticism (2024-2025)
Insurance Industry Professionals’ Perspectives: The insurance industry continues to challenge Orman’s blanket rejection of whole life insurance. Professional advisors argue that her approach lacks nuance for sophisticated wealth-building strategies. Critics point out that high cash value whole life policies designed for “infinite banking” differ significantly from traditional whole life products.
Mathematical Challenges: Recent analysis reveals that Orman’s historical 12% stock market return claims have delivered only 6.91% actual returns from 2000-2024, creating a significant shortfall for investors following her “buy term and invest the difference” strategy. This mathematical reality has prompted increased scrutiny of her investment assumptions.
The Case for Whole Life and Other Types of Cash Value Life Insurance
While buying term life and investing the difference may work for some investors, for others the benefits associated with purchasing whole life and other permanent life policies make buying such policies well worth considering.
Foremost among these benefits is the ability to use a cash value policy such as participating whole life to act as your own banker by taking a policy loan from your account while still earning interest on your remaining balance.
🏦 Institutional Usage Reality Check
Banks and Corporations Using “Scam” Insurance:
- U.S. Banks: Hold over $180 billion in Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI)
- Walmart: Carries $4+ billion in corporate-owned life insurance
- Wells Fargo: Holds $18+ billion in life insurance assets
Question for consideration: If whole life insurance is such a poor financial tool, why do the most sophisticated financial institutions in America hold hundreds of billions in these policies for their own balance sheets?
Other benefits of cash value insurance include:
Tax-favored growth:
Interest paid on your principle held in the cash value account of a permanent life insurance policy grow free of taxes, allowing you to achieve true compound interest growth. All else equal, this enables such funds to grow more rapidly than if they were in a taxable account.
Flexible premiums:
Universal life insurance, a form of cash value insurance, enables you to adjust the amount of premium you pay if conditions change.
The ability to access the cash account via partial withdrawals or policy loans: Whether you choose to take a partial withdrawal from the cash account or a life insurance policy loan, you can access your funds tax-free up to the amount you contributed to the account.
Tax-free distributions to beneficiaries:
If you purchase term life and let it expire after a certain period of time, any assets you leave to your beneficiaries will typically be subject to potential taxation, whereas life insurance proceeds are tax-free to recipients.
Stock-market linked growth potential:
Both IUL insurance (indexed universal life) and VUL insurance (variable universal life) offer the chance to earn interest based on the performance of various stock market indexes. In the case of IUL, the amount your account is credited is typically limited by cap and participation rates, while VUL subaccounts invest directly in equity securities, so there is no such limitation.
However, IUL usually offers a floor rate which serves as the minimum an account can earn in any one year (typically no lower than 0%). Because floor rates generally don’t apply to VUL subaccounts they can lose money over any period in which the stock market declines, making these subaccounts a riskier option than IUL.
📋 2024-2025 Tax Law Context
Current Tax Environment:
- Estate tax exemption: $13.99 million per individual for 2025
- Group term life insurance: Maintains the $50,000 tax-free threshold for employer-provided coverage
- Life insurance death benefits: Remain generally tax-free, though interest earned on installment payments is taxable
Upcoming Changes: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions expire December 31, 2025, potentially reducing estate tax exemptions to approximately $6.4 million in 2026. This change could significantly impact estate planning strategies involving life insurance.
Avoid the MEC
When using cash value life insurance as a savings or investment vehicle every effort should be taken to avoid having the policy classified as a MEC (modified endowment contract), which would make any withdrawals taken from the policy taxable. Most such policies are designed to avoid this, nevertheless it is still a good idea to check and ensure that this is the case with any cash value policy you are considering.
While Suze Orman has a point when she says that an individual who only wants to carry life insurance for a set amount of time, for instance while paying off a mortgage, or while raising kids, may be better off just buying term life instead of whole life, what she doesn’t mention is that for individuals with more complex financial situations, such as real estate professionals and entrepreneurs, the benefits mentioned above make cash value life insurance an attractive option.
For example, if you have reached the limits of what you can contribute to a tax-deferred retirement plan such as a 401k or SEP-IRA, cash value life insurance can serve as a means of setting aside further funds for retirement.
Predictability
Another situation in cash value life insurance offers advantages over buying term life is the added degree of predictability it offers. If you buy term and invest the difference your investment performance certainly may be better than you would have achieved in a whole life or IUL policy, but it could also be worse. Dividend paying whole life has historically offered highly competitive interest crediting rates when compared with other higher risk cash-equivalent investments.
Investors who want to the chance to participate to at least some extent in the upside potential of the stock market can purchase IUL. While IUL offers less certainty in regards to the likely growth of a policy’s cash account, the greater upside of equity market-linked subaccounts can be attractive to policyholders looking for the opportunity to achieve stock market-linked gains without downside risk if the market loses money.
Overly Simplistic Advice
While Suze Orman’s advice to buy term life and invest the difference rather than buying cash value life insurance may be correct in some cases and for some individuals, generally speaking her blanket dismissal of whole life and other permanent life insurance policies is overly simplistic.
Individuals with complex financial situations, or those looking to take advantage of equity-linked upside within an insurance format offer just two examples where cash value life insurance can offer benefits that term life can’t.
Additionally, the greater predictability of cash value buildup in a dividend paying whole life insurance policy offers another case where purchasing cash value insurance may be preferred over buying term life. Given the long track record of building cash value such policies have, in some cases more than a hundred years, not to mention Suze Orman’s past praise of a variant of whole life (SPWL) insurance as an excellent investment, it may be prudent to pay greater attention to what she has done – sell whole life insurance – than what she says when it comes to considering the merits of purchasing cash value insurance.
Beyond Orman: How Insurance & Estates Approaches Life Insurance Differently
At Insurance & Estates, we understand that life insurance decisions aren’t one-size-fits-all. Unlike financial entertainers who deliver simplified advice to millions, our Pro Client Guides work directly with you to develop customized solutions based on your unique financial situation.
Our Approach:
- Education Before Recommendation: We begin by explaining how different life insurance policies work and their potential role in your overall financial strategy—we believe informed clients make better decisions.
- Custom Policy Design: Rather than simply recommending “term” or “whole life,” we custom-design policies that maximize cash value growth, minimize unnecessary costs, and align with your specific wealth-building goals.
- Integration with Your Financial Picture: We consider your existing assets, tax situation, business interests, and future plans to ensure your life insurance strategy complements your overall financial approach.
- Long-Term Partnership: Our relationship doesn’t end after policy issue. Our Pro Client Guides provide ongoing support to help you effectively utilize your policy’s living benefits through various life and business stages.
- Strategy-First Approach: We focus on how life insurance fits into comprehensive strategies like Infinite Banking, business succession planning, and tax-efficient wealth transfer—not just death benefit protection.
Unlike mass-market advice that prioritizes simplicity over optimization, our approach acknowledges the complexity of your financial life and leverages sophisticated insurance strategies to help you build and protect wealth on your terms.
So what are you waiting for? Give us a call today or check out our Pro Client Guides and see who aligns best with your life insurance needs.
Critical Analysis and Recommendations
📊 2025 Market Context and Industry Trends
Life Insurance Market Performance:
- Total individual life insurance premiums: Reached $16.2 billion in 2024, setting a fourth consecutive record
- Whole life insurance: Maintains 36% market share despite celebrity opposition
- Term life insurance: Accounts for 19% of market share but shows steady growth
- Digital transformation: AI-driven underwriting and simplified applications continue advancing
Professional Response: Many licensed financial professionals challenge Orman’s one-size-fits-all approach, particularly regarding whole life insurance for sophisticated wealth-building strategies when properly designed and implemented.
Suze Orman has undoubtedly helped millions of Americans with basic financial discipline and emergency fund strategies. Her accessible communication style and emphasis on financial security provide valuable guidance for people establishing fundamental money management habits.
Where Orman Provides Value
- Emergency Fund Advocacy: Her emphasis on substantial emergency savings (6-12 months expenses) protects families from debt cycles
- Basic Financial Discipline: Simple, actionable advice for people overwhelmed by financial complexity
- Consumer Protection: Warning against clearly predatory financial products and high-fee investments
- Accessibility: Making financial concepts understandable for mass audiences
Where Critical Analysis Is Warranted
🔍 Key Concerns for Sophisticated Investors
Mathematical Inconsistencies: Orman’s 12% return assumptions don’t match 25-year market reality (6.91% actual S&P 500 performance). This gap could significantly impact retirement planning for followers.
Licensing and Accountability Gap: Unlike licensed financial advisors who face regulatory oversight, Orman operates as a media personality without fiduciary responsibility or professional accountability for her recommendations.
One-Size-Fits-All Limitations: Blanket prohibitions against whole life insurance ignore legitimate uses for estate planning, tax optimization, and sophisticated wealth-building strategies.
Evolution Questions: Her dramatic shift from praising whole life insurance (“one of the greatest investments around”) to condemning it raises questions about what drives financial celebrity advice.
Alternative Expert Perspectives
Leading financial researchers and insurance professionals offer different viewpoints:
- Estate Planning Attorneys: Regularly use life insurance for tax-efficient wealth transfer and liquidity planning
- Fee-Only Financial Planners: Many incorporate permanent life insurance for specific client situations despite having no commission incentives
- Academic Researchers: Studies show properly structured whole life can provide competitive returns when including tax advantages and guarantees
- Institutional Investors: Banks and corporations hold $180+ billion in life insurance assets for their own balance sheets
👥 Understanding Target Audiences
Orman’s Audience (2025): Primarily women-focused financial guidance through podcast branding, middle-income Americans ($50,000-$149,999 household income), and digital-native consumers seeking accessible advice.
Generational Differences: Research shows Generation Z is 65% less likely to seek financial professional advice compared to baby boomers, potentially benefiting Orman’s direct-to-consumer approach.
Our Recommendations
For Basic Financial Stability: Orman’s emergency fund and debt elimination advice provides solid foundations that remain valuable throughout your wealth-building journey.
For Investment Planning: Consult with licensed, fiduciary financial advisors who can provide mathematically sound projections with regulatory accountability, rather than relying on media personality promises.
For Advanced Wealth Building: Consider sophisticated strategies like properly structured life insurance, strategic estate planning, and tax optimization that wealthy families actually use—strategies that require nuanced analysis beyond blanket prohibitions.
Most Importantly: Think critically about any financial advice, especially from unlicensed media personalities. Consider multiple viewpoints from credentialed professionals, and make decisions based on your specific situation rather than universal rules designed for mass audiences.
💡 The Bottom Line
Suze Orman serves an important role in American financial education, particularly for people establishing basic money management habits. However, as your financial sophistication increases, you may benefit from more nuanced strategies that account for mathematical reality, tax optimization, and advanced wealth-building techniques.
The key is recognizing which advice applies to your current situation and when you might need to graduate to more sophisticated approaches. Financial education should be a lifelong journey of continuous learning and adaptation, not blind adherence to any single philosophy—especially from personalities who operate without the licensing and accountability standards that govern financial professionals.
Critical Thinking Questions
As you evaluate any financial advice, consider these important questions:
- Does the advisor have financial licenses and regulatory oversight?
- Are there business relationships that could influence their recommendations?
- Do their mathematical claims match academic research and market reality?
- Has their advice evolved over time, and what might explain those changes?
- Are there alternative viewpoints from credentialed professionals?
- Does the advice account for your specific situation, or is it one-size-fits-all?
Remember: The goal isn’t to attack anyone personally, but to make informed decisions about your financial future based on comprehensive analysis that serves your interests, not media personalities’ business models.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Has Suze Orman’s life insurance advice changed in 2025?
A: No, Suze Orman maintains her steadfast opposition to whole life insurance in 2024-2025. She continues advocating “buy term and invest the difference” while promising 12% stock market returns that don’t match mathematical reality (actual S&P 500: 6.91% from 2000-2024).
Q: What happened to Suze Orman’s SelectQuote partnership?
A: The formal partnership with SelectQuote appears to have ended by 2024-2025. Orman’s current business focus is SecureSave, an emergency savings platform she co-founded. However, her anti-whole life stance continues despite the end of this business relationship.
Q: Why do experts criticize Orman’s investment assumptions?
A: Financial researchers note that Orman’s 12% return projections use arithmetic averages rather than geometric returns, ignore volatility impact, and don’t account for taxes and fees. Her promises haven’t matched 25-year market reality, creating significant shortfalls for followers.
Q: Is whole life insurance really a scam as Orman claims?
A: Whole life insurance is a regulated financial product used by major banks ($180+ billion in assets), corporations, and wealthy families. While traditional whole life has high costs, modern high-cash-value policies designed for wealth building offer different structures focused on tax advantages and guaranteed growth.
Q: What’s the licensing difference between Orman and financial advisors?
A: Licensed financial advisors face regulatory oversight from FINRA, SEC, and state agencies, with legal liability for misleading projections. Orman operates as a media personality without these regulatory constraints, allowing her to make optimistic projections that would be prohibited for licensed professionals.
Q: When should I consider strategies beyond Orman’s basic advice?
A: Once you’ve established emergency funds and basic financial stability, you may benefit from sophisticated strategies like properly structured life insurance, estate planning, and tax optimization. The key indicators are financial stability and desire for advanced wealth-building beyond simple accumulation.
Discover Advanced Wealth Strategies Beyond Financial Celebrity Advice
If you’ve mastered basic financial discipline and are ready for sophisticated wealth-building strategies that wealthy families actually use, explore how properly designed life insurance and advanced planning can accelerate your financial goals.
In Your Complimentary Strategy Session, You’ll Discover:
- How overfunded life insurance provides tax-free growth and access
- Advanced strategies beyond “buy term and invest the difference”
- Mathematical comparison of celebrity advice vs. sophisticated alternatives
- Customized analysis for your specific financial situation and goals
- Clear explanation of all features, benefits, and implementation requirements
No obligation. No sales pressure. Just expert guidance from licensed professionals with fiduciary responsibility.
