Life Insurance
Protect What Matters Most!
Life insurance may be one of the most important purchases you'll ever make. In the event of a tragedy, life insurance proceeds can help pay the bills, continue a family business, finance future needs like your children's education, protect your spouse's retirement plans, and much more. If you're considering securing you and your family’s financial future, we would be happy to review your current situation and offer a few ideas on how you can protect it!
Types of Life Insurance:
All life insurance products offer distinct advantages. They are very different in nature and overall purpose. It is important to understand these differences and appropriate uses to use your money wisely.
Term Insurance, the most affordable type of insurance when initially purchased, is designed to meet temporary needs. It provides protection for a specific period of time (the "term") and generally pays a benefit only if you die during the term. This type of insurance often makes sense when you have a need for coverage that will disappear at a specific point in time. For instance, you may decide that you only need coverage until your children graduate from college or a particular debt is paid off, such as your mortgage.
Permanent or Whole Life Insurance, by contrast provides lifelong protection. As long as you pay the premiums, and no loans, withdrawals or surrenders are taken, the full face amount will be paid. Because it is designed to last a lifetime, permanent life insurance accumulates cash value and is priced for you to keep over a long period of time. A Final Expense policy is a form of a Whole Life product, but it is generally for a smaller dollar amount and intended for those end-of-life expenses.
Annuities help protect your savings and allow them to serve the purpose of providing maximum income when you can no longer work and they can also be passed along to a beneficiary, without being delayed by probate. To put it simply, an annuity is a contract between an individual and an insurance company for a guaranteed interest-bearing policy with guaranteed annuity income options. All annuity dollars are able to accumulate interest completely tax deferred. This means an individual can delay taxation of growth until the money is needed and therefore earn triple interest — interest on the principal, interest on the interest and interest on the money that normally would be paid in taxes. With annuities, your principal is 100% safe and you are guaranteed to earn at least a minimum interest rate. This guaranteed safety is possible because each insurance company issuing annuities is supervised and regulated by each state’s insurance department; plus, they are backed by a Legal Reserve System and a Guaranty Fund. As long as the owner designates a “named” beneficiary other than his or her estate, the beneficiary will receive the annuity dollars without the delay, expense and hassles of probate proceedings. If the owner names a beneficiary, the proceeds can be passed along in the event of the owner’s death, without having to go through probate.
