Insurance

Protection That Fits Your Life

Insurance isn’t the most exciting topic in financial planning — however it is one of the foundations of a strong financial plan. The right coverage protects everything you’ve worked for, provides for the people you love, and makes sure a single unexpected event doesn’t unravel your financial plan.

The problem is that most people either have too little coverage, the wrong type of coverage, or policies they’ve never revisited since they first signed up. We help you fix that. There are several different types of insurance and what we have come to see over the last 20 years of working in this space is that a lot of people know they have coverage, but do not know the specifics of the policy they have since they fail to review it until it is too late. We want to ensure that we protect your insurability because you have to have the coverage in place when you don’t need it so that it is there when you do need it.

What We Help With

Life Insurance
Life insurance is about making sure the people who depend on you are taken care of if you’re no longer there. We help individuals and families find coverage that matches their actual needs — taking into account income replacement, outstanding debts, mortgage balances, children’s education, long-term financial goals and so many other considerations. Whether you’re considering term coverage (which typically only pays out 5% of the time) or exploring permanent life insurance options (which builds cash value that grows tax free), we’ll help you understand the tradeoffs and find a policy that makes sense.

The three main types of Life Insurance policies we work with are:

• Whole Life – this is the most expensive type of insurance because of the guarantees you get inside the contract. This is a policy that you can buy, pay the premium, put it away, and know that it is guaranteed to pay off when you pass. We have come to find that Whole Life with a mutual company such as New York Life, Mass Mutual, Guardian, or many others are considered Participating Whole Life policies, these types of policies are valuable to consumers as you are a stock holder in the company and share through their profits through dividends. This can be very powerful because at a future date the dividend value will meet or exceed the annual premium that you pay and the policy is considered a premium offset where you no longer have to pay and becomes an asset on your balance sheet.
• Index Universal Life – this type of policy is a permanent policy that builds cash value. There is typically a floor and a cap based on an index such as the S&P or other indexes. The problem with IUL’s is that they are not guaranteed and they are based off of assumptions and hypotheticals (such as a 25 year look back of what such index’s have done). These types of policies need to be reviewed every few years as interest rates change and you can look at a forward projection on how the policy will preform in the future. An IUL can be used in multiple different ways such as premium financing which can provide you a source of supplemental income in your retirement years. You need to have a sound financial advisor to assist with periodic reviews to confirm how the policy is preforming.
• Term – this is the least expensive type of insurance you can get. These policies generally cover you for a set period of time (10, 20, 30 years). If you buy term (which typically pays out 5% of the time) you want to ensure that if you have a life event happen (cancer, heart attack, stroke) you want to make sure the term policy you have is convertible to something permanent. Term insurance a lot of times is purchased for income replacement such as 4-5x your annual income. Because these policies are so cheap, you can get the income replacement to ensure your family can stay in the house and celebrate birthdays and holidays for a low annual premium.
• Life Insurance through your Employer – many employers will offer an option for life insurance during open enrollment periods. This insurance is only effective and enforced while you are working for that employer. So weather you are fired, retire, or take another job that insurance will go away. Insurance is based on two primary factors your age and your rating, so if you work for a company for 25 years thinking that your life insurance is taken care of and then leave now your premiums are a lot higher as you are 25 years older.

As you see there are several different types of insurance, the main goal is that you have some type of insurance or combination of insurance policies. There are so many advantages of having a solid financial advisor or agent that can help you put together the most suitable plan for your income, goals and overall objectives.

Long Term Disability / Income Protection
Your ability to earn an income is one of your most valuable financial assets and a this is often overlooked from a balance sheet. 1 in 4 individuals will suffer a life event that will not allow them to work. The average length of a disability claim is 2.7 years. What would you do for income if you could not work for 2.7 years???

You have to buy disability protection when you don’t need it so that you are covered and it is there when you do need it. It is recommended that you buy long term disability that covers your true own occupation and is very often suitable for white coat professionals such as Doctors, Dentists, Attorneys, and people that have a unique skillset.

Long Term Disability is often offered through your provider, however if the employer pays some or all of the premium the monthly benefit often becomes taxable and it may or may not cover your true own occupation.

If an illness or injury prevented you from working, how long could you maintain your current lifestyle? We help clients build protection around their income so that a health setback doesn’t become a financial one.

Business Owner Coverage
If you own a business, your personal and business finances are often deeply connected. Our primary market and who we specialize with is small business owners to make sure that they have the right coverage in place.

Every successful business has key employees which should in fact be rewarded. You can do so by rewarding them with a key person insurance, an executive bonus plan, or a golden handcuff policy.

Business owners should also be open to the fact of offering employee benefits to retain and reward their workforce. Items such as a 401k, group health, group life, dental, vision can be put in place at a very small overall cost to the business owner.

If your business is structured as a partnership, you should with out a doubt have a buy – sell agreement in place. Many times when multiple individuals start a business together they are so focused on making it profitable that they often forget to fund the buy – sell agreement, leaving them grossly exposed. This can be rectified very easily by meeting with one of our advisors.

Many business owners don’t have a succession plan or exit plan for the business. Their ability to wake up, turn the key, and open the business on a day to day is their biggest asset. Many times their second biggest asset is the value of their business. Having an exit strategy or succession plan in place sooner rather than later can make the details much more clear and the exit smoother. We can help you work with a CPA / Accountant to get a valuation on your business and put a plan in place for who you want to see your business get passed down to.

Our Philosophy on Insurance

We don’t believe in selling more coverage than you need. Our job is to help you understand what risks you’re actually exposed to, what it would cost to cover them, and how to make smart decisions about where to spend your insurance dollars. Every recommendation starts with your situation, not a product catalog. We believe that everyone needs some type of individual insurance plan weather it’s a $10,000 final expense policy or a $10M estate policy. We specialize in finding and advising the correct policy for each and every individual we work with.

Not Sure What Coverage You Have — or Need?

We have seen over the last 20 years in this business that 70-80% of people do not know what kind or type of policy they have. As life events occur and your situation changes such as a birth of a child, a promotion at work, purchase of a new house, a death in the family, a divorce these are all reasons to sit down with an expert to review your coverage and update the details of your policy to make sure that you understand what you have and that the proceeds go to the correct place.

Every single individual has an estate. When you die your estate goes to one of three places: the IRS, a charitable foundation, or your intended heirs and loved ones. Do not hesitate to reach out to schedule a complimentary consultation today so that we can ensure that you are in the best policy possible and that your family will be taken care of.