1. Did you know that an estimated 75% of all life insurance policies no longer meet their owner’s original needs.
2. As many as 50% of policy holders are “orphans”, which means there is no agent taking care of their policy.
3. Approximately 25% of life insurance policies will potentially lapse earlier than the insured’s life expectancy because many people are now living longer.

Your life insurance Tax-Free Retirement Specialist has no idea what has happened in your life over the last 12 months.  They don’t know if you’ve changed jobs, got remarried, divorced, had another child, had a child begin college, considered a different investment strategy, inherited money or assets or many other things that might impact your life insurance. These and many others are life-altering events that require a life insurance policy review.

 Your Tax-Free Retirement Specialist may want to review with you the simple things like:

• Can they offer you a different policy with the same coverage at a lower price?
• Are you in need of a death benefit rider?
• Do you need to convert a term policy to a universal policy?
• Have you purchased a new home?
• What changes need to be made in your beneficiary listing?
• How is your health?
• Review Long-term care coverage.

 It is always in your best interest to meet with your Tax-Free Retirement Specialist at least once a year, even if there are no changes to be made.  Having a one-on-one relationship with them is vital for both of you.  They will get to know you as a person rather than the guy who sold you an insurance policy and you never heard from again.  You will benefit from the wisdom that they will bring to the table on new products available for your specific situation… that you will never know about until you speak with them.  This is their expertise and they are here to help guide you along your road to protecting your wealth and health for the rest of your life.

If you haven’t heard from the person who sold you your life insurance policy or annuities in several years, then maybe it’s time to find someone else who will focus and care about your goals for the rest of your life.  Life Insurance Think Tank can help you find a local Tax-Free Retirement Specialist by clicking HERE.

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So you’ve come to the realization that you need to buy life insurance.  You’ve read and educated yourself at www.lifeinsurancethinktank.com and have some basic ideas of what types to review with your Retirement Life Solutions Specialist.  Before you make that call, there is one more thing you might want to get together before you meet with them.  You’re going to want to have a basic understanding of how much life insurance you need to buy. 

There are many calculators on the web and they all require that you enter a lot of information.  Life Insurance Think Tank has put together a simple and effective Life Worksheet for you to gather that information onto so you can use the best life insurance calculator on the web to come up with a starting point.  More complicated situations such as businesses, land owners, high net-worth clients, estate planning etc… will always need the assistance of Retirement Life Solutions Specialist to help you create and use tax advantaged life insurance products. 

Click here to find a Retirement Life Solutions Specialist who is an expert at working with tax-free retirement products.

Download our Life Insurance Worksheet to begin your planning. 

Remember, your family is depending on you.

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Remember… “You do it For Love”

Here are a few short videos that will bring a smile, laughter, and maybe a tear to your eye about some things you may not have thought about this year as you decide what to buy your loved ones for Valentine’s Day.

What would you do for love?

Bad Cupid

A Meaningful Gift

Crazy 4 Love

We’re glad we’re able to share these heartfelt images from The LIFE Foundation’s web site with you about this year’s Valentine’s Day gift.

Thinking of you always,

Your friends at www.lifeinsurancethinktank.com

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Because of the alignment of these and other factors, this could be the best time for many years to buy life insurance.  Take advantage and protect your family at the lowest costs.  Now is the time to talk to your Retirement Life Solutions Specialist.  If you don’t have one, fill in the information on the front page of www.lifeinsurancethinktank.com and an expert specialist will answer all of your questions for you. 

Check out current rates using the best insurance rate calculator.

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Whole life insurance (WL) is permanent insurance and covers you as long as you live.  You pay the same premium for a specific period (usually the rest of your life) to receive the death benefit.  This type of insurance provides life insurance coverage and a savings feature.  

With whole life your insurance company puts part of your insurance money in a declared interest bearing account. With every premium payment your cash value increases. The savings element of your policy builds up cash value on a tax-deferred basis.  This cash value can be utilized in a few common ways.  You can borrow the cash TAX FREE or surrender it for cash.  If you surrender the policy you will pay tax on the interest gains that the cash value earned over the years.

Whole life can be participating or not.  If it is participating, you get to participate in the surplus of your insurance company’s excess earnings and receive dividends annually.   You have the choice to either receive your dividends in cash or let them accumulate interest.  You may also use your dividends to reduce your policy’s premiums or buy additional insurance coverage.  Talk with a Retirement Life Solutions Specialist before buying a whole life policy from an insurance company because dividends are not always guaranteed.

Universal Life Insurance

Universal life insurance (UL) is also called “flexible premium adjustable life insurance,” because it offers more flexibility compared to whole life insurance. You have the option to reduce or increase your death benefit and also pay your premiums at any time and in any amount (subject to certain limits) after your first premium payment has been made.

With many companies you can purchase an increased death benefit periodically without having to undergo medical underwriting.  This can be advantageous as someone becomes older and begins experiencing medical problems.  

Some companies will allow two options to the death benefit – a fixed amount of death benefit or an increasing death benefit equal to the face value of your policy, plus your cash value amount. Most times however, the death benefit does not increase and the cash value is there and grow to be used by the policy owner (hopefully they know they can use this money since it is their money).

You also have the opportunity to change the amount and frequency of premium payments. So, you can increase your premiums to increase your cash value or may also even add a lump sum according to the specified limit in the policy. As you know, part of your premium is put into an investment account and the interest therein is credited to your account. In this way, the interest grows on a tax-deferred basis, which increases your cash value.

In case of a financial challenge, if there is enough cash value accrued, you can reduce or stop your premiums and use your cash value to pay premiums.  Make sure to discuss the status of your cash value fund with your Retirement Life Solutions Specialist before stopping the premiums. Your policy may lapse if you cease to pay premiums and have insufficient cash value to cover the cost of insurance.

The downside of a universal life insurance can be the interest rate.  If the policy performs well, there are chances of potential growth in the savings fund.  On the other hand, if interest rates are low over a period of years, then the estimated annual returns are not earned.  

A recent addition to universal life market is called Indexed universal life.  In this type of policy instead of a fixed interest rate from year to year; your cash values earned interest is tied to a stock index such as the S&P 500.  The performance works exactly like that of a fixed indexed annuity.  If the index goes up during the period, you will get all of the gains up to a maximum CAP in place that year.  If the stock index falls negative or is flat, you will receive no interest performance that year.  While this may seem risky, your cash is not invested in the stock market.  It is just using the stock market index as a means to credit interest to your cash value.  Reviewing the historical performance of the S&P 500, you could have made more interest performance in 10, 20, or 30 year periods than if you had been in the fixed interest account of a universal life policy. 

Universal life insurance offers all-round protection to your loved ones, thanks to its security, flexibility and variety of index crediting choices options.  In times of low financial liquidity, you can alter your premium payments or may even withdraw from your cash value fund. In addition, you can increase or decrease the face value of your insurance to an extent if needed.

Universal or Whole Life?

When buying any life insurance policy, you need to focus on the needs of your family in the future. Permanent life insurance is designed to give you and your family lifelong security.  Whole life insurance protects your beneficiaries in your absence and acts as an asset-accumulating tool.  Universal life insurance gives you the chance to regulate your insurance premiums to keep current with your financial situations. Universal Life also gives you more control of your earnings because of the crediting strategies that can be changed at any time during the year.  Your Retirement Life Solutions Specialist can provide you the education and knowledge about all life insurance products available today. Take the time to learn from their expertise before you decide what your family needs.

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But what if that didn’t happen tomorrow?  What if you died tonight and were no longer around to provide all those things that you’ve been doing for your loved ones? What if you were a single parent, now who would be providing for that loved ones left behind?  Without your income and all the other things you provide, would they be able to maintain the comfortable and special family lifestyle and togetherness that you were able to provide for them?

That’s where life insurance helps you help your family.  It can’t put your loved one’s life back the way it was, but it can make sure they have the world they’ve always known.  So if you think you need life insurance (or need more than you have), do something about it today.  Your family is counting on you.

With Valentine’s Day next week, besides bringing home that romantic gift to surprise your loved one.  Do something permanent for them.  Buy them a life insurance policy to protect them in case you aren’t around to.  Talk to your Retirement Life Solutions Specialist today to determine the best insurance for your family.

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An ROP Term Life insurance policy costs a bit more than a standard term policy.  Depending on your specific situation, it has its place among the varieties of life insurance.  There are many reasons why you might choose a ROP Term Life policy.

For example, many people going through a divorce and consulting with an attorney may have to carry life insurance on one or the other spouse for a period of time.  A divorced spouse may be required to purchase a term life policy on the risk that they might die during the time they are required to pay for alimony and/or child support. In these siutations, the beneficiary is the other spouse or children.  This insures that if they were to die, the insurance policy would cover the remaining alimony or child support. 

However, if the paying spouse is still alive at the end of the term, than the money paid for the life insurance policy could be considered wasted since “risk” they paid for did not occur.  By using a Return of Premium Term Life Insurance policy, the divorced spouse who paid for it would receive all the money back used to pay for the insurance policy. This money is TAX-FREE!

• In-depth review of using a ROP Term Life Insurance in a divorce decree.

Check with your Retirement Insurance Solutions Specialist to determine when and why you might want to use a ROP Term Life Insurance policy for your specific situation.

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Recently, LIMRA (Life Insurance and Market Research Association) provided a life insurance IQ test to 4,000 Americans to gauge their knowledge and understanding of life insurance. Less than a third (1,200) passed the 10-question exam and the majority (55 percent) answered fewer than five questions correctly.

As an industry, life insurance companies and their agents are failing on educating consumers on life insurance knowledge.  While this is a poor reflection on the industry it validates our Mission Statement at Life Insurance Think Tank to provide valuable education to consumers.  You can help your family and friends increase their understanding about life insurance by sharing www.LifeInsuranceThinkTank.com  with them.

To read the full article Click Here

To check out your own life insurance knowledge, take the survey.

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This is one situation in which a little information might go a long way. Because people are living longer today than they used to, the cost of basic term life insurance has dropped by almost 50%.  This may be a good time to consider purchasing additional protection for your family.⁴

Preparing for a Certainty

As you know the only thing that is certain is death and taxes.  Every four years as we select a new president, and more recently the last six months of focus on the Fiscal Cliff, we spend more time focusing on the taxes we pay.  This has made it even easier to ignore the inevitable fact of death, especially when you may be young and healthy.  But wait… young and healthy is usually when life insurance is most affordable.  Even those people who may be older or have medical issues may be surprised at how cost-effective a life insurance policy might be for them.

Have you considered what would happen if you were no longer able to provide for your family due to your death?

• Would they be able to continue to have the same level of lifestyle you’ve been able to provide for them?
• Would your children still be able to pursue college?
• How would this challenge the retirement lifestyle of your spouse?

Have you done anything to prevent these concerns?  Have you had your plan reviewed recently to take advantage of the reductions in life insurance costs?  A life insurance policy with the appropriate level of coverage would help your family live the way you would like them to even if you were not around to provide for them.

Types of Life insurance

The two basic types of life insurance are Term and Permanent.  Term life insurance offers a death benefit if the insured dies within a specified time period.  Term is usually the least expensive and may offer low-cost coverage appropriate for your specific needs.

Permanent life insurance offers a death benefit on the insured person’s life as long as they continue to pay the premiums.  Permanent life insurance comes in two types, Universal or Whole life and each type can have different features.  One of the secondary benefits of these policies is the ability of the policy to build up cash value that you can use if needed as tax-free supplemental income when you retire, or other needs your family may have.

It’s common for people to have term life insurance through their work.  These plans are usually limited to a multiple of their salary.  However, when you leave your employer the coverage ends or it becomes extremely expensive to continue to keep in force.  Having your own individual policy could provide protection for your family regardless of any career changes.

What Should I do Next?

If financial concerns have held you back from obtaining the life insurance coverage your family needs, now is a good time to investigate all the available options. The best resource to learn about these options is a life insurance agent specializing in life insurance solutions.  Many times, these specialists may refer to themselves as Retirement Income Specialists or Retirement Advisors that solely specialize and assist clients in life insurance, annuity and retirement planning.

A great resource to find these specialists is Annuity123, which has a free matching service for consumers of all ages to find retirement income specialists in their area.  Once you find that professional who is knowledgeable, make sure to ask lots of questions and find out the potential pros and cons of the policies they may recommend for your specific situation.  Finally, make sure you do plenty of research and get educated on life insurance.  It could be the best thing you ever did for your family!

1, 3, 4) LIFE Foundation, 2012

2) LIMRA, 2011

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