Life Insurance
Life insurance should be a part of every family's financial plan.
The best plan for your family depends on your situation.
TERM LIFE INSURANCE:
Young growing families need death benefit protection to replace income and ensure families lifestyle should a wage earner die. Often a low-cost Term Life insurance plan in best. Term Life provides a larger death benefit at a lower cost. Term life is temporary insurance that can stay in effect from 1-30 years. Most of us will outlive our Term Life plan, I believe all hope to. At the end of the policy term, you can try to qualify for a new plan to replace it with needed coverage. The better plans have favorable conversion options built in that will allow you to switch to a permanent plan without additional underwriting. It’s always great to have options.
PERMANENT LIFE INSURANCE:
If there is a more available in family budget or as families mature and/or have greater income, permanent, cash valued life plans may be an excellent choice. You cannot outlive them, so your beneficiaries are certain to receive the death benefit you planned. They build a cash value that you can use for anything you want to use it for. The cash is considered a safe money investment. It does not lose value when markets drop, and you earn a competitive return that is tax advantaged.
It is becoming more common to design life insurance to build a cash balance you can use to supplement retirement income tax free. Talk of higher income tax rates might have something to do with that.
If asset security, predictable growth of a tax advantage asset is something that has you curious, let’s talk.
LIVING BENEFITS:
Living Benefits are a relatively new feature that is available in some term life insurance plans. It is sometimes referred to as the “new life insurance”. That may be marketing speak but it makes the point. I consider term life plans with Living Benefits superior to traditional term life plans. That is because they have provisions or in insurance terms, riders that allow the insured to accelerate a portion of the death benefit if they experience a major health condition. The conditions that qualify and how the plan pays will be different for each policy. Common conditions or “triggers” include being declared terminally ill, having a heart attack, stroke, or internal cancer. Others may include cognitive issues or severe chronic conditions like inability to perform 2 of the 6 activities of daily living. If you were in any one of these situations, it would clearly be challenging from a health perspective and financially challenging as well. When we are sick, it’s hard to earn a living. Having a life insurance plan that protects in case of death AND also provides a cash benefit in any of these situations is a real asset.
Some term life plans include these extra benefits, but most do not. Living Benefits are more commonly found in permanent life insurance.
LIFE UNDERWRITING:
All life insurance plans have some degree of underwriting before a life plan is approved. The criteria for approval will vary from one policy type to another and from one insurance company to another.
If you have perfect health i.e., you are an ideal weight, do not take any prescription drugs, have no chronic conditions, no history of cancer or heart conditions, you should not have any challenges qualifying for a policy. Most of us will not meet that high standard.
Understanding the underwriting rules for a particular insurance company can have a profound impact on a policy’s premium and even effect if the policy will or will not be issued. If you are somewhere in the middle ground, maybe having negative health history or managing current conditions we ask several insurance carriers to preview your health situation to determine how they would health rate you. This eliminates the guess work and provides a more objective shopping experience.
A recent client on mine that chews tobacco wanted a life insurance policy. Almost universally, life insurance companies consider this to be tobacco usage. Tobacco is a leading cause of death, so insurers charge a higher premium to tobacco users. My first thought was to determine which lower cost carrier would allow reclassification as non-tobacco soon after quitting. He was sure he would quit but couldn’t be sure about when. This seemed like the next best solution. However, in my research I learned that a quality insurer I work with does not consider using chewing tobacco to be tobacco use and was able to secure him the type of insurance he wanted at a much lower premium than what other insurers offered.
This is just one more practical reason you should be talking with an experienced life agent, one that is knowledgeable and puts YOUR best interest first, a fiduciary.
PLANS WE OFFER:
Term Life
Term Life with living Benefits
Universal Life
Guaranteed Universal Life
Whole Life
Hybrid Life
Final Expense
I hope you will allow me the opportunity to work with you. I am glad to put a proposal together with several plan options. I am sure one will fit your family just right.
Please don’t put your life insurance decision off, call today.