Policy Reviews
Change is the only constant in life … and it is not an option. How you keep up with it is. When businesses don’t keep up with technology, they find themselves lost in the shuffle. When individuals don’t keep up with life changes, they could end up suffering financial distress. As your clients mature, these life changes may also affect their insurance needs without them realizing it.
Like all components of a comprehensive financial plan, life insurance, annuities, long term care insurance, and disability insurance should be reviewed regularly. Our free policy review service uncovers strengths and weaknesses in existing policies and helps your clients determine if their current coverage meets their current needs. There might be gaps in coverage or they might be able to save money.
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance provides low-cost peace of mind for a finite amount of time – usually 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 years – with premiums guaranteed to stay level within the period specified.
Universal Life Insurance
Universal life insurance (UL) adds a layer of security to policies with the ability to combine death protection with savings, and a layer of convenience with adjustable premiums and payment schedules. Premiums are paid to the insurance company. The insurance company subtracts the cost of insurance and other expenses each month. It then credits interest in a cash accumulation account. And UL policies are transparent.
By reviewing the annual statement, policyholders can monitor the cash value growth in the policy and see the expenses and the interest crediting rate. As long as the cash surrender value is sufficient to pay the annual costs of insurance, policyholders can actually skip a premium, or reduce or increase the premium.
Disability Insurance
As its name suggests, disability insurance is a type of insurance product that provides income in the event that a policyholder is prevented from working and earning an income due to a disability.
Long-Term Care Insurance
Long-term care (LTC) insurance is coverage that provides nursing-home care, home-health care, and personal or adult daycare for individuals age 65 or older or with a chronic or disabling condition that needs constant supervision. LTC insurance offers more flexibility and options than many public assistance programs, such as Medicaid.
Hybrid Life / Long-Term Care Insurance: Hybrid life/long term care insurance (LTCi) combines permanent life and an LTCi rider with guaranteed premiums
Hybrid Annuity / Long-Term Care Insurance: Hybrid annuity/long term care insurance (LTCi) combines a fixed deferred annuity (that grows tax deferred) and an LTCi rider.
Annuities
Annuities help people to save for retirement and provide income during retirement. There’s no anxiety about the stock market, no annual fees, and no ambiguity. Earnings are stated up front and the value of the annuity at the end of the guarantee period is provided at time of purchase.
Some annuities are immediate. Immediate annuities are ideal for people concerned about outliving their savings. A lump sum payment to the insurance company repurposes part of their current assets into guaranteed income for life or a chosen period of time.
Life Settlements
A life settlement is the sale of a life insurance policy that is no longer needed or wanted by the owner. For more than the current cash value. The policy owner gets a lump sum more than the current cash value for any immediate need. The buyer pays the remaining premiums and receives the death benefit upon the insured’s death. It’s a surprise source of cash that’s two-fold.
Business Insurance Solutions
Key Person: This type of insurance reimburses businesses for loss of a valuable employee. Many business owners already place a premium on key employees or principals – the individuals who are critical to the long-term objectives of the business: a partner, the operations manager, the client relationship manager, the creative financier. And many business owners have in place incentives to satisfy and retain those key employees.
But how long would it take most business owners to replace a key person? How much business would be lost during that transition? While nothing can replace a long-time valued partner or employee, in the event of an unexpected death, the business can use income tax-free life insurance proceeds to sustain the business until a replacement can be found, hired, relocated, and trained.
Cash values of key person policies grow tax-deferred and can be used by the business as a balance sheet asset.
Buy-Sell Planning: Having a buy-sell agreement in place at the death of a business owner is critical to the continuation of the business. That’s a commonly accepted principle.
But did you know it’s also important to have a buy-sell agreement in place when other major life events change the relationship of one of the owners to the business? Think disability. Think retirement. Think conflict between owners. Think one owner’s desire to pursue another business opportunity.
A buy-sell agreement acts as a road map, allowing business owners to mitigate conflict and speed the transition.
Executive Bonus: This protection provides life insurance and tax favored cash accumulation benefits to retain key employees.
Deferred Compensation: This risk management technique helps retain select executives by providing salary continuation at retirement or deferring taxable income until retirement.
Split Dollar: This type of insurance helps retain select employee by sharing premium expense of life insurance to provide needed protection on a cost-effective basis
