Category: Blog

Buying life insurance for your whole family

October 6, 2022 | Blog, Life Insurance |

Life insurance is an important part of financial planning for everyone in your family. It’s designed to help protect our loved ones when we pass away, both financially and emotionally. Although most of us tend to imagine individuals when we think about life insurance buyers, coverage can also be extended to your children and other family members to help make everyone’s lives a little easier when a death occurs.

How to purchase policies for extended family

You can take out a life insurance policy on an extended family member or someone important in your life, such as a romantic partner or business partner. To do this you’ll need to get the person’s consent on the policy. In other words, you need him or her to know what you’re doing and you need to get their permission via signature to collect vital data, such as vehicle records, prescription records, and relevant health and life insurance information for the application. The person will typically have to undergo a life insurance medical exam as well.

Another important part of the process is demonstrating insurable interest, which means you need to be able to show proof that you will suffer emotionally and financially if the person dies. Typically, your spouse or parents do not have to prove insurable interest when purchasing policies. Other connections, such as a business partnership or a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship will need that documentation. Your insurance company will want to verify that there’s a true relationship between you and the person you want to cover.

It’s important to note that you cannot buy a life insurance policy for anyone you want. An acquaintance or stranger will be rejected by your insurance company.

Why you might want to buy coverage for others

There are many reasons why you might want to cover people with life insurance, depending on who they are, their relationship to you, and their situation. Here’s a breakdown of potential insurees:

Spouse or partner

Life insurance is an important part of securing a future with your spouse. It’s a good idea for you to have a policy that can cover:

  • Outstanding mortgage payments
  • Payments for any debts from your assets
  • Investments or future income
  • Day-to-day living expenses
  • Child care expenses
  • Final expenses when you pass away

For more on buying life insurance for your spouse check out our blog, how to buy life insurance as a couple.

Parents

Aging parents often come to depend on their children in their golden years and caring for them comes with financial responsibility. Buying life insurance for your parents can provide you with financial protection if they leave behind unpaid bills when they die. Some of the financial considerations that life insurance can help cover include:

  • Medical bills – As your parents age, they may accumulate significant medical costs. Prescriptions, medical treatments, doctor or hospital visits, and other care costs may be outstanding when they pass away. If a parent dies in a hospital, the medical bills can be costly for the final days of treatment.
  • Financial debt – If your parents have a mortgage, credit card balances, or other outstanding loans, those debts are often passed down to other family members, leaving them with bills they didn’t expect.
  • Funeral expenses – When a parent dies, you may need to make funeral arrangements if they weren’t already planned. Funerals can cost thousands of dollars. Costs for a casket, urn, flowers, obituaries, transportation, use of funeral home and more can be a financial burden on you and your family.
  • Moving a surviving parent – If one of your parents dies, you may want to move your living parent closer to home to care for her or him. Those moving expenses, as well as the process of selling the old home, can cost thousands of dollars, especially if your surviving parent lives out of state.
  • Caring for your living parent – To care for a surviving parent, you may need to take time away from work, which can impact your income and savings. If a surviving parent requires long-term care in a facility, the cost can be significant.

Children

Life insurance is financial protection that helps dependents cover the bills when a family breadwinner dies. Very young kids don’t provide financial support to your family, so in most cases, it isn’t necessary to take out life insurance for them. The main reason you’d consider taking out a policy on a child would be to cover the cost of his or her funeral expenses in the event of an unexpected death.

A policy for a child would lock in premiums at a young age, protect your child’s insurability, and could be used for investment or savings for your child’s future expenses. However, while life insurance rates will go up as your kid ages, chances are they won’t ever be priced out of or denied a policy when they need it.

If you have an older child, and you cosigned student loans, mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc., you may want to take out a life insurance policy to pay off those loans if your child dies prematurely. Conversely, as a son or daughter with a co-signed loan, you could take out a life insurance policy on your parents to make sure you can cover the costs on the money borrowed, should they pass away.

You can insure your child by purchasing a children’s life insurance policy or adding a child rider to your own life insurance policy.

Siblings and other relatives

There are some scenarios in which covering your brother, your sister, your aunt or uncle, or even your cousin makes sense. If your sister, who is taking care of your elderly parents, suddenly dies, for example, your parents may not be able to cover the care they need. To ensure their continued support, you would purchase a life insurance policy for your sister and name yourself the beneficiary. That way you would get the money to help care for your parents.

If you are considering a life insurance policy for your children or an extended family member, it’s a good idea to make an appointment with a financial professional to understand your options and develop a strategy.

North American, A Sammons Financial Company

Is a life insurance policy through your job enough?

September 1, 2022 | Blog |

Most people get life insurance through their employer because it’s easy and convenient. All you have to do is sign up. You don’t have to take a medical exam, and you only have to fill out one form and name a beneficiary. The problem, however, is that the coverage you get through your work probably won’t be enough. To secure the appropriate amount of coverage for you and your family, it’s vital to consider buying a supplemental or individual life insurance policy. Here’s why.

Why relying on your employer-provided plan might not be enough

Life insurance offered by your employer is often included as part of your overall benefits package. While some life insurance coverage is preferable to none at all, you may want to ask yourself whether or not relying just on the life insurance offered through your job is enough. There are some ways employer-provided life insurance may fall short, such as:

Limitations to coverage

While the coverage provided by your job may be low-cost, it might not offer enough coverage. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for instance, found that the average life insurance benefit amount for flat-dollar plans in 2020 ranged from $10,000 to $25,000.2 If you are single with no dependents, this amount may be enough for you. On the other hand, if you’re married, have children, or own a home, or you’re planning for any of those things, that amount of coverage likely won’t go very far. There’s no one-size-fits-all amount, but various professionals in the life insurance space may recommend purchasing coverage that is several times your annual income.

Policy options may be restricted

Work life insurance policies are part of group life insurance plans, which are completely determined by your employer. This means you’ll likely have zero say in the details of the policy and you can’t customize it to fit your needs. You’ll also have limited coverage for a spouse.

Lack of control

Your employer can decide to drop its life insurance plan at any time. If they do, you may lose your coverage immediately, without any say in the matter. Your employer is the policyholder, not you, so you’ll likely find it difficult or impossible to talk to the insurance carrier.

Changes in employment

Your life insurance through your employer is tied to your employment status, so if you decide to leave your job, retire, or get laid off, you will likely lose your coverage. If you can take your employer-sponsored policy with you, you probably won’t receive the pricing benefits provided by the employer. This means you’d be paying more money for coverage that likely isn’t sufficient.

Should I consider an individual life insurance policy?

Forty percent of Americans are either without life insurance or are underinsured, according to Life Happens and LIMRA’s 2021 Life Insurance Barometer Study.1 Most people don’t even realize that the coverage provided by their job may be insufficient. While employer life insurance is a great starting point, you must consider getting your own policy if you want to acquire the right amount of protection. Individual life insurance plans offer:

Get the coverage amount your need

Coverage through your employer can vary and often may not fully address your needs. Additionally, there are many different types of life insurance policies available to you and the policy options offered through your job could be very limited.

Affordable options

Many people feel that they simply can’t afford to buy additional life insurance. But the fact is, individual policies can often be affordable based on your budget. Certain term life insurance policies, for instance, can cost as little as $160 a year.1

What are the different types of individual life insurance?

Purchasing individual life insurance can go a long way toward providing the kind of financial stability for your loved ones that an employer-based plan may not. There are a variety of choices worth exploring, but the two main options are term and permanent life insurance.

Term life insurance

Term life insurance has level premiums that last for a set number of years (the term). This life insurance generally includes a death benefit in the form of a lump sum of cash that’s paid out to a beneficiary by the life insurance company if you die while this coverage is active. This lump sum can be used for a variety of things, such as burial expenses, mortgage, and debt payments, living expenses for your family, or donations, generally tax-free. Additionally, you may have the option to convert your policy to permanent coverage before the term ends. After the term expires the policy may either terminate or automatically renew annually. If your policy is slated to terminate at the end of the term period, then in order to continue the coverage you may need to shop for a new policy.

Permanent life insurance

Permanent life insurance premiums are used to maintain the policy’s death benefit and may allow the policy to build cash value that can be borrowed by the policy owner, which is another great benefit of permanent life insurance. There is often a waiting period after the purchase of permanent life insurance before borrowing is permitted. This allows potential cash value to accumulate in the policy. But, after that waiting period expires you’ll have the option to withdraw potential cash value to help you when you need it most. If you have an emergency medical issue, for example, the potential cash value can be used to pay for health costs. Many policyholders also tap into potential cash value for other reasons such as building a fund for college costs or to help supplement retirement income, to name a few.

Watch this short video to learn more about these two types of policies.

https://youtu.be/iLKg8skN0gE

1Source: 2021 Insurance Barometer Study, Life Happens and Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA). Methodology for 2020 Insurance Barometer Study: The Insurance Barometer is an annual study that tracks the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of adult consumers in the United States. In January 2020, LIMRA and Life Happens engaged an online panel to survey adult consumers who are financial decision-makers in their households. This survey generated over 2,000 responses. LIMRA conducts research on distribution systems for the financial services industry. Life Happens, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping consumers make smart insurance decisions to safeguard their families financial futures. Life Happens does not endorse any insurance product or agent.

2 Source: 2020 National Compensation Survey, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The term financial professional is not intended to imply engagement in an advisory business in which compensation is not related to sales. Financial professionals that are insurance licensed will be paid a commission on the sale of an insurance product.

North American, a Sammons Company

Life insurance for stay-at-home moms

August 11, 2022 | Blog, Life Insurance |

As a stay-at-home mom, you may not be the family breadwinner, but the things you do for your loved ones daily are incredibly valuable. In fact, according to the 2020/2021 salary.com survey of 19,000 mothers, a stay-at-home mom’s salary value is equal to $184,000. Needless to say, all that you do every day would not be easy to replace. That’s why it’s so important to consider having a plan in place to help ensure your family could stay afloat. One option is life insurance. Here are some of the ways a life insurance policy can benefit your family:

Cost of living

The main benefit of a life insurance policy is to provide a death benefit to beneficiaries should you pass on. A life insurance policy can help to keep your family financially stable after you pass away. The death benefit proceeds from a life insurance policy can help to cover everyday expenses like mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, groceries, and more. Getting a payout from a life insurance policy could be a big help for your family to maintain their standard of living.

Debt

Should you pass away, death benefit proceeds from life insurance can be used to help pay off those debts or make them more manageable for your family. It can also be used to help pay for any of your outstanding debts.

Childcare expenses

One of the biggest expenses your family will have to shoulder without you is the long-term costs of child care. According to a 2021 Care.com survey, 72% of families say child care is more expensive and 46% of families say child care is more difficult to find, due to the pandemic. If you pass away, your kids will need someone to watch them while your partner is working. Your children may also need to be taken to school, the doctor, sports practice, and other places, so someone will need to drop them off and pick them up. Hiring a caretaker is a line item your family likely did not have in the budget. Death benefit proceeds from a life insurance policy can help to make sure your kids are looked after if you aren’t there.

Home costs

If you pass away, maintaining a home by cleaning, shopping, and cooking is a big job. Some of these chores can be covered by your partner but chances are good that help will be needed. This can also be a big expense where death benefit proceeds from life insurance can help.

Mental support

Should you pass away, your family may face a difficult adjustment period, emotionally and financially. Life insurance can help make that process a little easier by helping pay for such things as grief counseling. It can allow your partner to take time off.

Cost of final expenses

The price of a funeral can be very expensive. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the median cost is $7,848. A life insurance policy can help your family pay for funeral arrangements and other related expenses required to lay you to rest. Not having to worry about money for your final expenses can help make things easier for your grieving family.

Inheritance

With a life insurance policy, you can not only set aside money for your children to help them carry on when you pass but also aid them in the future. Leaving your beneficiaries money can go a long way toward helping your loved ones pay for something like higher education down the road.

What types of life insurance are available?

The type and amount of life insurance needed as a stay-at-home parent depends on your personal situation. Some factors to consider may include:

  • Home services for your partner. These might include outsourced services for housekeeping, grocery shopping, cooking, transportation, etc.
  • Cost of full or part-time child care in your area if needed.
  • Types of life insurance available, how much they cost, and your budget constraints. Some options include:
  • Term life insurance –Term life insurance is typically the least expensive. It provides death benefit protection for a specific period, typically 10, 20, or 30 years as long as the premiums are paid.
  • Permanent life insurance – Permanent life insurance offers lifetime coverage and some offer the potential to build cash value, as long as premiums are paid.

What can life insurance do for you?

July 28, 2022 | Blog, Life Insurance |

If you want to protect the people you love, life insurance should be an important part of your financial planning. It can provide a meaningful amount of money to your family, give you a way to leave a legacy, and much more.

What are some uses for life insurance?

The main benefit of a life insurance policy is to provide a death benefit to beneficiaries should you pass on. There may be a variety of advantages to the life insurance policy you choose, such as coverage for final expenses and growing your retirement savings. Here are some features you may be overlooking.

Living benefits

Some products include accelerated death benefits, which allow you to accelerate a portion of the death benefit while living, if you should be diagnosed with a qualifying illness. These benefits are subject to eligibility requirements. The funds can be used toward medical bills or any use of your choosing.

Coverage for final expenses

The national median cost for a funeral could end up costing thousands of dollars. One of the biggest costs for your family when you die is your funeral. You may leave behind end-of-life expenses such as medical bills, which will fall on the shoulders of your loved ones. Life insurance can help prevent that kind of financial and emotional strain on your family by covering the cost of your burial and other expenses.

Retirement savings

Whether you started retirement planning too late, or you worry you simply won’t have enough retirement income to meet your needs in your later years, life insurance can help supplement your retirement income with policies that feature cash value growth potential. You can access cash value through policy loans or withdrawals and the money could be used for a generally tax-free income stream.

Funds for your child’s college

Did you know that life insurance can be a great college funding solution? With permanent life insurance, you can protect your family and build college savings at the same time. With permanent life insurance, you have the opportunity to grow cash value by taking advantage of indices that are linked to the stock market when the market is high subject to a cap, while protecting yourself from loss when the market is low with a 0% floor. You can then use the cash value that you may accumulate over time to help pay college tuition costs, whether it’s an in-state or out-of-state college.

Business planning

Are you aware of the role life insurance can play in business planning? Whether you’re an entrepreneur thinking about how to protect your share of the business or are looking for ways to reward your top performers, life insurance could be a solution.

Talk to an agent to help

If you want to get up to speed on all the options available in your life insurance, consider making an appointment with an agent to discuss your policy today.

from North American, a Sammons Financial Company

When to review a life insurance policy

July 14, 2022 | Blog, Life Insurance |

North American Company gives these tips on reviewing your life insurance policy.

Your life insurance policy can offer assurance and stability for your family should you pass away. But that policy needs to be revised and updated from time to time, especially when a life-changing experience occurs. Review your policy if one of the following events occurs.

Having a child

A new baby is likely a signal that it’s time to review your life insurance policy. Likely, this bundle of joy means a new dependent and your life insurance policy may need updating to account for this.

Getting married or divorced

If you’ve recently tied the knot or gone through a divorce, it’s probably a safe bet that you need to review your policy. Marriage means you could be sharing finances. If you pool your money together and start sharing accounts, it’s good to make sure your policy adequately covers your husband or wife, should you pass away. Similarly, a divorce probably means you’ll be going through a number of financial changes.

Here are some important insurance actions to consider:

Update your beneficiaries

A beneficiary is the person, business, or trust that receives the death benefit proceeds from your life insurance coverage when you’re gone. It’s likely that the person you’ll want to be listed as your beneficiary, depending on your life insurance policy, is your spouse. If you have life insurance coverage through work, remember to update your beneficiary on that policy as well.

Update your retirement accounts

Retirement accounts like IRAs and Roth IRAs, workplace retirement plans such as your Pension, 401(k) or 403(b), and FSA and HSA Flexible spending accounts allow you to designate a beneficiary who will inherit the account should you die.

Purchasing a home

If you’re planning to purchase a home and take out a mortgage you may want to take a look at your life insurance policy. Buying a home may be one of your biggest financial obligations. A life insurance policy can be smart financial protection for homeowners. A mortgage can be a substantial debt, and many mortgage lenders will want to ensure it gets paid even if you pass. If you die before paying off the mortgage, the debt will pass on to your family, and your spouse may not be able to afford to pay for the house on one income. With all of these factors to consider, it may be time to make an update or change to your life insurance policy. Options include:

Term life insurance

Term life insurance pays a death benefit if you die while the policy is in effect. You choose the coverage amount and how many years the policy should last. Most life insurance companies sell term life. New homeowners can buy a term life insurance policy timed to match the duration of their mortgage.

Permanent life insurance

A permanent life insurance policy can last until you die if premium requirements are met. It can also build cash value over time and is generally is more expensive than term life insurance.

Talk to a financial professional about how buying a home could affect your life insurance needs.

Planning for retirement

If you are approaching retirement age but think you don’t have enough saved, you may be exploring your options. One consideration is how life insurance can play a role in your retirement plan. This, as you’ve probably guessed, means you should consider contacting your life insurance agent to talk about a current policy you may have.

A life insurance policy’s primary objective is to pay a death benefit to your beneficiaries upon your death. You may be able to use the cash value in the life insurance plan to supplement income in retirement.

Often, life insurance can fall into the category of out of sight, out of mind; you purchase a policy and call it good. Resist the urge – review your life insurance policy should you experience any of these life events.

Change in employment

Having a change in employment, whether a new job or promotion, is also an opportunity to revisit your policy and possibly update your life insurance plan. Whether an increase or decrease in household income, the change can affect living standards.

Providing care for loved ones

If you function as a primary caregiver to a loved one, review your life insurance to make changes for their benefit. If you leave a young child behind, your spouse may need to work full-time to pay the bills. This often means paying for child care. Other costs might include cleaning the house regularly or shopping for groceries. Additionally, if you are a caregiver for an elder relative you should consider the financial value of the support you are providing.

Caregivers often have a significant amount of out-of-pocket expenses. According to the AARP, a majority of family caregivers report that they spend an average of over $7,000 annually in out-of-pocket costs related to caregiving needs.1 Should something happen to you, those expenses may still need to be covered. Life insurance can help provide for those costs.

To provide for others, it’s vital that you care for yourself emotionally and physically. But in case something does happen to you, a life insurance death benefit can help the beneficiary financially.

A change in your health

If you’ve become healthier through exercise or changed your habits in a way that significantly impacts your health, you could qualify for new life insurance rates. Lowering your blood pressure, giving up tobacco, or having surgery to reduce weight or rectify medical issues are examples of changes that might alter your health. Should you experience any of these changes, you may want to explore your policy options.

Talk to your agent

If you’ve experienced a change like this, or aren’t sure if it’s time to review your policy, contact your agent. He or she can help you better understand how your changes in life might mean a change in your policy.

We can assist you in your life insurance needs. Contact us at [email protected] or 817.545.3900.

Do you L-O-V-E life insurance?

June 30, 2022 | Blog, Life Insurance |

American consumers’ top three financial concerns are health coverage, savings goals, and living expenses.1 What if we told you their fourth financial concern, life insurance, had the potential to solve for the first three?

Let’s take a look at some reasons to LOVE life insurance and what it could do for you.

L – Low cost

Many don’t realize that life insurance doesn’t have to break the bank—there’s a policy out there that can fit your financial situation. Did you know, that for the price of three cups of coffee per month, you could buy a term life insurance policy?2 While affordability is important when considering life insurance, it’s also important to look beyond the price. What benefits does this policy include? How can it help me financially in the long term?

O – Options

That’s why a policy with flexibility can be important. We know our clients have individual needs and financial goals. And, as your life changes, your needs may change as well. Many life insurance policies have different features such as living benefits, cash value growth potential, and benefits you can use while you’re alive that may fit your unique life needs.

V – Various life stages

As you go through the different stages of life, your financial needs and goals can change. Whether you’re graduating college, getting married, buying a house, starting a family, or planning for retirement, all of these momentous occasions require more financial responsibility. Life insurance can walk alongside life with you and help you during these special milestones.

E – Extra protection

Studies of cancer survivors have suggested that between 33% and 80% of the survivors have used savings to finance medical expenses and between 2% and 34% have borrowed money to pay for their care or have medical debt.3 While the main benefit of life insurance is the invaluable death benefit protection it provides, many policies also come with living benefits, which may be used for a variety of expenses—including covering the costs of a major medical illness.

1Source: 2019 Insurance Barometer Report, LIMRA. Accessed January 2020.

2Source: LifeHappens, lifehappens.org/insurance-overview/life-insurance/. Accessed January 2020.

3Source: “Financial Toxicity and Cancer Treatment–Health Professional Version” National Cancer Institute, June 22, 2021

B2-NA-2-22

How Insurance Can Empower Women’s Financial Lives

June 16, 2022 | Blog, Uncategorized |

Erica Oh Nataren shared this very helpful informaton on Life Happens:

Today, women are more concerned than ever about their financial vulnerabilities. Financial advisor Meredith Moore, CLTC, LUTCF, explains how life insurance and related products can help women offset financial risk, maximize opportunity, and plan for the future.

First the good news: Women are making more money than ever. But we still face stubborn challenges in managing it effectively. Factors can include fewer working years, a narrowing but still-present pay gap, and social conditioning.

As a result, women across all ages and financial brackets — even high income earners — are worried about their financial future, says Meredith Moore, founder of Artisan Financial Strategies in Atlanta, Georgia, and a nationally recognized speaker on women’s financial planning issues. A recent study even revealed underlying retirement risks to married women in their 50s over their single counterparts.

New pandemic pressures“The pandemic has only magnified this situation,” says Moore. “Women are opting out of the workplace due to household pressures, and they’re losing their place in the pecking order,” sacrificing both current income and lifetime earning potential.

On the flip side, “Several high-income women I know have spouses who stay at home now and they’re having a hard time wrapping their minds around it. There’s no right or wrong,” says Moore, “but these old gender paradigms are a hard thing to navigate.”

Shore up your defense

Life insurance and related products aren’t a cure-all to these complex issues, but they can serve as effective tools in stabilizing finances, offsetting risk, and planning for the future in uncertain times.

“Like any sport, you have to play offense and you have to play defense. It’s sexier to talk about offense, but it does not matter if you get hit by the proverbial bus,” says Moore. “We shouldn’t be glossing over it.”

Life insurance serves as the ultimate defense, protecting your family against the financial fallout if you were to pass away. The right amount of coverage can allow your family to stay in the home, alleviate financial stress at a difficult time, and continue with plans such as college education.

What am I overlooking?

Your risks change depending on your current life circumstances. At every stage, honest communication and a willingness to find out where the gaps are can help you create a financial future that’s more certain.

All the single ladies

While you’re young and single, Moore advises focusing on your emergency fund and buying a small disability insurance policy that you can increase later without additional underwriting. Underwriting is the process an insurance company goes through to determine your eligibility and your rate, which is based on age, health, lifestyle and other factors.

If anyone is financially dependent on you — this could include parents — life insurance can provide for them if you were to die unexpectedly.

Happy grandmother and little granddaughter embracing, having fun and playing together in park

Women with families

Moore says it’s important for couples to set up regular household financial meetings and become comfortable engaging with money together – even if a partner handles most financial matters. Power dynamics can change with the arrival of children. Couples who can communicate openly about money are better able to navigate these twists and turns.

When it comes to financial protection, the stakes are typically higher at this point in life: a mortgage, young kids, and fewer assets. Moore recommends additional disability insurance for any breadwinner, and life insurance is a must.

Some families should consider permanent life insurance, which, unlike term insurance, accumulates cash value that can stabilize a portfolio and be tapped for unexpected expenses* should your death benefits needs decrease. The primary purpose of any life insurance policy remains to protect family members from financial loss in the event of the policyholder’s unexpected death.

Women over 50 and high-net-worth women

As women reach the half-century mark, they face any number of realities: empty nest freedom, caregiving obligations, a new career chapter or perhaps peak earnings. At this stage, Moore says, “I first have a conversation about managing costs for extended periods of care, if it hasn’t already been addressed. Overall, we’re taking a strong look at financial security.”

“In particular, many high-income women have an outsourcing mentality,” says Moore. “But when it comes to money, you need to know where those blind spots are.”

Two of the most common ones she sees:

  • Elder care. Moore recommends having a family conversation about managing the costs of extended periods of care.
    “Let’s just be honest, it’s weird to talk to our parents about money,” says Moore. “But the next generation needs to be looking at this with their parents.” High-net-worth women are especially likely to take on the cost of providing for their care.
  • Longevity. Income goes down in retirement, even among high earning women who often stay active professionally.“Women live longer, and we often don’t know how to address the risk of outliving assets,” says Moore. “Stress test your retirement plan.” Permanent life insurance and annuity products can help assets last longer, and enable wealth transfer to loved ones.

Upside Opportunity without Downside Risk !

March 20, 2020 | Blog, guest blogger |

Recent headlines are creating a lot of uncertainty in the financial markets. At times like this we all consider alternatives to the Stock Market and Mutual Funds.

Are you familiar with the favorable attributes of Indexed Annuities and Indexed Life Insurance products?

Markets go through many different cycles and present periods of significant volatility.  With the recent volatility that we have seen you can certainly make a strong case for having a portion of your portfolio more secured through indexed products!

You may know Indexed Annuities and Indexed UL are designed to provide protection in times of market volatility while also presenting greater upside potential than traditional fixed interest products.

If you are already involved in Indexed products rest assured you have built in protections against down markets.

Click on this link to learn more  http://bit.ly/2PKV6rj

If we can help please call me.

Reynold Jones

817-545-3900 ext. 102

[email protected]  

IRS ALERT CONCERNING YOUR HSA!

December 6, 2018 | Blog, Uncategorized |

Now that I have your attention, are you aware of your HSA limits ? Review your paycheck and your deductions. You may not be taking advantage of the maximum HSA contribution for 2018 . The maximum contribution limit if you are single is $3,450 and the maximum contribution limit for family is $6,900. Also, remember that if you are 55+ you are allowed an additional “catch up” contribution of $1,000. See this chart.

A Health Savings Account, or HSA, is a unique, tax-advantaged account that can be used to pay for current or future healthcare expenses.When combined with a high-deductible health plan, it offers savings and tax advantages that a traditional health plan can’t duplicate with an HSA. You are paying for medical expenses with before tax dollars instead of after tax dollars. Who doesn’t want to save tax dollars ?!Important Note : If funds are not used, they roll over and will be accessible year after year. There’s no “use it or lose it” penalty.

You can pay for a wide range of IRS-qualified medical expenses with your HSA, including many that aren’t typically covered by health insurance plans.This includes deductibles, co-insurance, prescriptions, dental and vision care, and more. For a complete list of IRS-qualified medical expenses visit irs.gov or view a list of qualifying expenses. 

We work with Qualified Health Insurance Agents and Qualified Life Insurance Agents that can help you with all of your Insurance needs.

 

Need Cash for Christmas?

November 29, 2018 | Blog |

Need Cash for Christmas ?

Are you in need of cash? Well, that’s kind of a loaded question. Everyone always would like to have some extra cash, right?

So if you find yourself in need of cash, do you go to your Life Insurance policy to withdraw cash? Do you take out a loan in your policy?

Be careful! If you take cash out of your Life Insurance policy, it can have a tremendous impact depending on your policy. Below are some of the things to consider when contemplating taking cash out of a Permanent Life Insurance policy. 

Removing Cash Value can adversely effect the guarantees in many Permanent Life Insurance policies.


Permanent Life Policies
If you withdraw cash from a permanent life insurance policy, by request the life insurance company will run an in-force illustration that will project the longevity of your policy. This important tool would reflect any negative impact on your policy as a result of the withdrawl.

Policies and stipulations vary from one life insurance company to another so it is important to review the specifics of your policy. If you own a Guaranteed Universal Life policy, you should NOT take out any cash value without first talking with your life insurance agent.

In fact, you would be well advised to have a discussion with the home office, but most importantly–communicate with your life insurance agent! One must understand the ramifications of removing any cash value from any permanent life insurance policy.

If you need assistance, Reynold Jones Insurance Group works with the very best life insurance agents and financial advisors in Hurst, Euless and Bedford–as well as across the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.