Did you know that approximately 30% of Americans do not have Life insurance!
Did you also know that 50% of Americans know that they need to buy more life insurance!
Everyone should think about the following questions. I would love to see some replies or comments on line here on the blog or offline! Help for most of you is available!
1) What is your personal situation?
2) Do you have life insurance?
3) Do you have Life Insurance that isn't tied to your Employment?
4) Why does that matter?
5) Do you have enough insurance?
6) If you do not have life insurance what is your excuse?
If you have a spouse or dependents almost everyone needs to have life insurance!
People with a non working spouse or families with young children need the most death benefit. Even people nearing retirement often need insurance and Often buy it even though it is much more expensive at older ages! As we age sometimes we need different types of coverage or even different amounts.
Why does it matter if your insurance is tied to work? See the comments in the Blog post from October 23, 2013 for a discussion of employee life insurance!
Do you have enough life insurance? See the blog post from October 23, 2013 for a discussion about how to determine if you have enough insurance. Use the worksheet or call to discuss.
If you are uninsured because you waited to long to buy protection there is still hope. Call to discuss your specific situation.
Remember Life insurance serves two primary functions it offers protection against the "What If ..." scenario, and it helps anticipate and cover the "When I..." scenario. Can you figure out the What if and When I scenario.
Showing posts with label Life Insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Insurance. Show all posts
Monday, November 4, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
How Much Insurance do I need? Other great questions.
A client just asked me a number of questions about insurance.
Question 1) How much insurance do I need?
This is a great question. There are a number of ways to address this question. Some people use a ballpark approach , some use a multiple of 10-20 times incomes but there is a nice one page worksheet that can help you answer this question. Its called The D.I.M.E worksheet If you want to answer this critical question this worksheet will help you out. I can help with that!
D.I.M.E.
D. represents Death Benefit and Final Expenses
I. represents Income Replacement
M. represents Mortgage Payoff Amount
E. represents Education Expenses
The Sum of D.I.M.E. equals a reasonable estimate of your insurance need
Question 2) Since I have insurance at work why do I need more?
Almost 90% of work based insurance is Term Coverage. Workplace Term coverage has limitations.
If you retire, are disabled, quit or are terminated Worksite term is usually not portable. You leave you lose!! Your need for insurance doesn't stop just because you leave! I can provide Worksite Portable Life Insurance that you can keep. Ask me about how that works! So when you leave your ability to buy a replacement policy depends on you health and your age at that future date and time. If you can tell me when that happens or what your health will be then you might be able to say you do not need other insurance. If you cannot answer those questions than worksite insurance is not enough!! The typical 1.5 - 3 times salary is simply not enough! To get more you have to buy it and you should buy it from a professional who understands your real needs. You can't get that from a website! You only get that from a professional who works with you face to face.
Question 3) What is the right type of insurance for me?
Another great question. There are many types of insurance that fill specific needs. Only by sitting down with a professional who works with you to analyze all of your specific, assets, needs, debts, financial commitments is it possible to truly insure that your selected policy or policies truly meet your needs. I will tell you this. Most people have a complicated set of needs and in most cases one policy my not completely cover all of those needs. that's why insurance companies have created 6 or 7 different types of policies. How many do you need?
If you have a question that you would like to see answered please send me a question or get in touch for a one on one discussion!
Question 1) How much insurance do I need?
This is a great question. There are a number of ways to address this question. Some people use a ballpark approach , some use a multiple of 10-20 times incomes but there is a nice one page worksheet that can help you answer this question. Its called The D.I.M.E worksheet If you want to answer this critical question this worksheet will help you out. I can help with that!
D.I.M.E.
D. represents Death Benefit and Final Expenses
I. represents Income Replacement
M. represents Mortgage Payoff Amount
E. represents Education Expenses
The Sum of D.I.M.E. equals a reasonable estimate of your insurance need
Question 2) Since I have insurance at work why do I need more?
Almost 90% of work based insurance is Term Coverage. Workplace Term coverage has limitations.
If you retire, are disabled, quit or are terminated Worksite term is usually not portable. You leave you lose!! Your need for insurance doesn't stop just because you leave! I can provide Worksite Portable Life Insurance that you can keep. Ask me about how that works! So when you leave your ability to buy a replacement policy depends on you health and your age at that future date and time. If you can tell me when that happens or what your health will be then you might be able to say you do not need other insurance. If you cannot answer those questions than worksite insurance is not enough!! The typical 1.5 - 3 times salary is simply not enough! To get more you have to buy it and you should buy it from a professional who understands your real needs. You can't get that from a website! You only get that from a professional who works with you face to face.
Question 3) What is the right type of insurance for me?
Another great question. There are many types of insurance that fill specific needs. Only by sitting down with a professional who works with you to analyze all of your specific, assets, needs, debts, financial commitments is it possible to truly insure that your selected policy or policies truly meet your needs. I will tell you this. Most people have a complicated set of needs and in most cases one policy my not completely cover all of those needs. that's why insurance companies have created 6 or 7 different types of policies. How many do you need?
If you have a question that you would like to see answered please send me a question or get in touch for a one on one discussion!
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Another Suze Orman blunder?
On Sat. Sept 21 Suze Orman once again complained about Whole Life Insurance. She tends to mistakenly refer to all cash value life insurance as whole life. In Fact there are several types of cash value insurance. They meet different client needs and perform quite differently. We will discuss them later.
She was complaining about the fact that a caller had an insurance policy that had two different projections of the cash value performance. One was the current performance and the second was the lower but Guaranteed minimum performance. The Guaranteed performance table showed the absolute minimum performance for the cash value within a life insurance policy. Depending on the policy and the company the guarantee may range from about 1-5%. these numbers vary from low to reasonably competitive. Compare that to the guaranteed performance of a market linked product including but not limited to Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. Do they guarantee your principal? NO. Do they guarantee the dividends in future periods? NO. Do they guarantee the interest rate earned under all circumstance? NO. Even Bonds with a guaranteed rate are dependent on the bond issuer not going into default! So this guarantee is based on a conditional assumption. I am not suggesting that you should not own these products. Far from it. I own some myself. What I am saying is that you need to understand that these are all risk assets! Risk assets by their design go up and can go down in value. What I am saying is that you need some assets that are NOT RISK Assets. Insurance and Annuity products are often logical choices for Safe Money.
The Current rate table in an insurance policy shows the rate currently being earned on the policy cash value. The company also does some historical look back and determines a reasonable rate based on that review. It may be a 3, 5, 7 or even 10 year look back. That is the rate of return that shows up in the Current table. Some policies even include a third table called a midpoint table somewhere in between the two. The Guaranteed table is just that, the current table is a projected but reasonable number looking forward. You might do better you might not do quite as well. Three more things that your market money cant or does not do. If you die before you expect to die the Death Benefit is a multiple of the cash paid in premium. Second if the policy is properly selected, designed and funded the cash is available to you while you are still alive, or your beneficiaries Income Tax Free. Third, if you wish to borrow cash value you can even make money on the money you have loaned to yourself! Last year clients earned as much as 8% on their loan value and as much as 12% on their cash value. Try to find that with a mutual fund!
Google bond default, read the newspaper about municipality and even state default. Read the paper about our federal government and the possibility of a federal default if the incompetent elected officials can't pass a spending bill!!!! Suze often talks about making 8% in the market. I ask where are the quarantees to back that up? How many investors can honestly say that they have made an 8% compounded rate of return over the past 9 years or the past 15 years. If you had then $100,000 would now be worth over $200,000 (9 yr) or $300,000 (15 yr) and we would all be rich! Unfortunately that is not Quaranteed. Even though the markets are at all time highs many investors are not even even with what they had! I mention this only so you can look realistically at her comments. Nationally the average investor has been lucky to make 3-3.5%. Even with that, the gains and even a substantial percentage of principal are at risk during the next market downturn.
She was complaining about the fact that a caller had an insurance policy that had two different projections of the cash value performance. One was the current performance and the second was the lower but Guaranteed minimum performance. The Guaranteed performance table showed the absolute minimum performance for the cash value within a life insurance policy. Depending on the policy and the company the guarantee may range from about 1-5%. these numbers vary from low to reasonably competitive. Compare that to the guaranteed performance of a market linked product including but not limited to Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. Do they guarantee your principal? NO. Do they guarantee the dividends in future periods? NO. Do they guarantee the interest rate earned under all circumstance? NO. Even Bonds with a guaranteed rate are dependent on the bond issuer not going into default! So this guarantee is based on a conditional assumption. I am not suggesting that you should not own these products. Far from it. I own some myself. What I am saying is that you need to understand that these are all risk assets! Risk assets by their design go up and can go down in value. What I am saying is that you need some assets that are NOT RISK Assets. Insurance and Annuity products are often logical choices for Safe Money.
The Current rate table in an insurance policy shows the rate currently being earned on the policy cash value. The company also does some historical look back and determines a reasonable rate based on that review. It may be a 3, 5, 7 or even 10 year look back. That is the rate of return that shows up in the Current table. Some policies even include a third table called a midpoint table somewhere in between the two. The Guaranteed table is just that, the current table is a projected but reasonable number looking forward. You might do better you might not do quite as well. Three more things that your market money cant or does not do. If you die before you expect to die the Death Benefit is a multiple of the cash paid in premium. Second if the policy is properly selected, designed and funded the cash is available to you while you are still alive, or your beneficiaries Income Tax Free. Third, if you wish to borrow cash value you can even make money on the money you have loaned to yourself! Last year clients earned as much as 8% on their loan value and as much as 12% on their cash value. Try to find that with a mutual fund!
Google bond default, read the newspaper about municipality and even state default. Read the paper about our federal government and the possibility of a federal default if the incompetent elected officials can't pass a spending bill!!!! Suze often talks about making 8% in the market. I ask where are the quarantees to back that up? How many investors can honestly say that they have made an 8% compounded rate of return over the past 9 years or the past 15 years. If you had then $100,000 would now be worth over $200,000 (9 yr) or $300,000 (15 yr) and we would all be rich! Unfortunately that is not Quaranteed. Even though the markets are at all time highs many investors are not even even with what they had! I mention this only so you can look realistically at her comments. Nationally the average investor has been lucky to make 3-3.5%. Even with that, the gains and even a substantial percentage of principal are at risk during the next market downturn.
Monday, September 16, 2013
More Info On Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM)
Did you know that almost one quarter of American savings are in the form of Insurance Company products?
They are split between Cash Value Life Insurance and Annuity products.
What is it that they know that you don't?
Want to come up to speed on what the new products can do for you?
The amount of Death benefits life insurance claims payments in 2011 exceeded $60 Billion. This amount would be even higher if you add the payments made to Living policy owners !
The cash payments from annuity contracts equaled over $75 Billion in 2011. Much of those assets and payments are paid out from contracts that protect the policyholder from Market Risk! That's why much of the savings are managed by insurers in the first place. How much better could you sleep at night if you know at least a significant portion of your assets and income were protected from Market Risk. That is why these products are called Safe Money Products
How much of your assets and income are protected from Market risk?
Should we talk about implementing a Safe Money Strategy for some of your assets??
They are split between Cash Value Life Insurance and Annuity products.
What is it that they know that you don't?
Want to come up to speed on what the new products can do for you?
The amount of Death benefits life insurance claims payments in 2011 exceeded $60 Billion. This amount would be even higher if you add the payments made to Living policy owners !
The cash payments from annuity contracts equaled over $75 Billion in 2011. Much of those assets and payments are paid out from contracts that protect the policyholder from Market Risk! That's why much of the savings are managed by insurers in the first place. How much better could you sleep at night if you know at least a significant portion of your assets and income were protected from Market Risk. That is why these products are called Safe Money Products
How much of your assets and income are protected from Market risk?
Should we talk about implementing a Safe Money Strategy for some of your assets??
Thursday, September 12, 2013
More news from Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM)
More neat Facts for LIAM
Over 75,000,000 families in the US rely on Life insurance for family protection
Are you inside that Circle of Protection or outside? If not inside Why not???
US Life Insurance Companies pay out $1.5 Billion every day in benefits!!
That's a close second to Social Security which pays out $1.9 Billion per day.
At least with Life insurance we know there are the assets to back up the full value of their future obligations.
Life Insurers have to have over $100 in assets for each $100 in obligations
The banks FDIC Reserve have less than $5-10 in reserves for every $100 in insured Deposits!
The Federal Government has well over $17 Trillion in Deficit to guarantee or let me say back up their obligations.
In the past 13 years almost 500 banks have gone bankrupt in the USA
In that same time only a handful of Insurance companies have needed to be taken over.
Over 75,000,000 families in the US rely on Life insurance for family protection
Are you inside that Circle of Protection or outside? If not inside Why not???
US Life Insurance Companies pay out $1.5 Billion every day in benefits!!
That's a close second to Social Security which pays out $1.9 Billion per day.
At least with Life insurance we know there are the assets to back up the full value of their future obligations.
Life Insurers have to have over $100 in assets for each $100 in obligations
The banks FDIC Reserve have less than $5-10 in reserves for every $100 in insured Deposits!
The Federal Government has well over $17 Trillion in Deficit to guarantee or let me say back up their obligations.
In the past 13 years almost 500 banks have gone bankrupt in the USA
In that same time only a handful of Insurance companies have needed to be taken over.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Life Insurance Awareness Month Contest
Last week I said I would answer the questions
Who invented Life insurance?
When was it invented?
We do not have a winner but I promised you the answer so here goes.
Life insurance was invented about 1500 years ago!
It was invented by the Romans!
The purpose then was the same that it serves today!
It helps a family pay for the burial of a loved one and it also provides some financial help for the family of the deceased!
The past is our best teacher!
Do you have enough Life insurance?
Is the policy going to last as long as you do?
I started working with a client in late July. He wanted $250,000 in coverage. At the time he was insurable although he was rated sub standard. The client dragged his feet until late August where he ended up in the hospital for about one week. Today and for at least the next year he is basically uninsurable and could not get even $50,000. If he wants to buy now he will pay several times more for $50K than he would have had to pay to get $250K if he had signed the contract in July.
Is there a moral here? Of course there is! Are you adequately insured?
Who invented Life insurance?
When was it invented?
We do not have a winner but I promised you the answer so here goes.
Life insurance was invented about 1500 years ago!
It was invented by the Romans!
The purpose then was the same that it serves today!
It helps a family pay for the burial of a loved one and it also provides some financial help for the family of the deceased!
The past is our best teacher!
Do you have enough Life insurance?
Is the policy going to last as long as you do?
I started working with a client in late July. He wanted $250,000 in coverage. At the time he was insurable although he was rated sub standard. The client dragged his feet until late August where he ended up in the hospital for about one week. Today and for at least the next year he is basically uninsurable and could not get even $50,000. If he wants to buy now he will pay several times more for $50K than he would have had to pay to get $250K if he had signed the contract in July.
Is there a moral here? Of course there is! Are you adequately insured?
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
LIFE INSURANCE AWARENESS MONTH / Contest
September Is Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM)
Just for fun I have a contest.
Insurance agents are excluded from this competition.
Who Invented Life Insurance?
Approximately when was it created?
Answer will follow in a couple of days. Maybe we will come up with another contest later in the month!
Just for fun I have a contest.
Insurance agents are excluded from this competition.
Who Invented Life Insurance?
Approximately when was it created?
Answer will follow in a couple of days. Maybe we will come up with another contest later in the month!
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