Written By:
Zach Hall, Client Advisor, Life & Health
410-213-5556
Insurance is designed to protect you from disasters and the related financial consequences. There are many kinds of insurance and one of the most important of these is considered to be life insurance. Life insurance is not financial planning for things you own (like most insurance), but rather for the people we care for. Historically, life insurance has helped make financial provision for families following the death of a loved one. However, now life insurance plans have grown to be more flexible and adaptable to our individual needs.
Life insurance can come in all shapes and sizes. At Deeley Group, we love to highlight all of the LIVING benefits permanent life insurance plans can offer our clients.
- Return of Premium – By adding a Return of Premium (ROP) rider onto a life insurance policy, policyholders get the opportunity to surrender their death benefit at certain points during the life of the policy (usually at years 20 and 25) and get all of the money they paid into it back! Tax free! This can be an excellent way to save or invest money, all while having the peace of mind of protection for your loved ones.
- Long Term Care – A Long Term Care (LTC) rider is a fantastic way to add protection for a very likely scenario: a long term care need as we get older. In today's world, less people are dying at age 80 like their parents and grandparents. A much more realistic scenario for our aging population is the need for long term care. An LTC rider draws money (usually a monthly percentage) from a life insurance policy's death benefit to provide funding in the event formal care in a nursing home is needed, or an elderly person needs to move in with a younger relative or even something as simple as having a ramp installed over some stairs in a home. We have seen that the financial burden placed on families for long term care while an elderly member is LIVING is much greater than if they died at an advanced age. With this policy you also get the peace of mind that unused LTC dollars will still be paid out at death.
- Cash Growth Accumulations and Tax Free Retirement Income – Certain life insurance policies need to be thought of as an investment, not an expense. Life insurance policies can be structured to actually MAKE money for their policyholders. This is done by putting additional dollars over and above the premiums required to support life insurance, and those additional dollars go into sub-accounts or into the index accounts and get invested. Think of it as an IRA or a 401K. As with the others, money that remains untouched in the policy is still available at death.
At the end of the day, life insurance will make sure you and your loved ones are covered financially if a death were to occur. But keep in mind all of the great things life insurance can do, and remember it's not just another expense – it's an investment!
