The Good, the Bad, and the Solution

Speaking to a group of retirees recently, an audience member blurted out, “nothing good – financially – happens when you’re retired.”  I thought about that – and with a couple of exceptions, she was right.

The financially bad things that can happen in retirement include:

 ==>  Death of a spouse with a pension or higher social security benefits

 ==>  Market losses that ravage an investment portfolio

 ==>  Tax Increases that require a reduction in standard of living just to keep up

 ==>  Illness or confinement that consumes large chunks of scarce cash

 ==>  Outliving one’s assets in old age

While those are all terrible things it’s quite possible to arrange one’s affairs in a way that can minimize –even eliminate the possibility of falling victim to them?

That’s because they’re all controllable – and therefore completely avoidable.  The better news is that for those who qualify, they can all be avoided with one single product – Indexed Universal Life Insurance.

• We know a life insurance death benefit can – uniquely – do wonders to minimize the financial impact of the death of a spouse.

• But Indexed Universal Life (IUL) can also be a great place to build wealth. The cash in an IUL policy grows with the market – but doesn’t participate in any of the market’s downside.  Therefore, it can be among the smartest places to build wealth while eliminating all downside market risk.

• Income can be drawn from an IUL policy tax-free. That means future tax rates will have absolutely no impact.  As an added bonus, tax-free income from an IUL won’t trigger the taxation of Social Security benefits, or drive Medicare premiums up (like all forms of taxable income can/will).

• Most modern IUL policies allow the owner to access a portion of the death benefit for long term care needs. The death benefit can be a living benefit.  It’s awfully comforting to have a bucket of money for this kind of expensive contingency that’s separate from one’s other assets.

• Many IUL policies can be ‘annuitized’- meaning they can be converted in part or in whole – into a guaranteed lifetime income that can’t be outlived.

If you didn’t know something as seemingly old and boring as life insurance could do all those things, perhaps it’s time to visit with your agent.  Especially those of you in your 20s, 30s, and 40s should take a look into Indexed Universal Life – unless of course, you want to be sitting in an audience someday lamenting the fact that nothing good financially – happens to older people.