While everything around us gets more expensive, one thing is getting cheaper – life insurance. That’s because we’re living longer – which means insurance companies push their payment obligation farther into the future and collect premiums for a longer period of time. They pass much of that benefit onto you and I in the form of lower insurance premiums.
In fact, savings are probably waiting for you if your policy was issued prior to 2009. Ask your agent to review your options. Yes – you may be a few years older now – which could negate some of the savings, but you won’t know until you check. Besides, there are other good reasons to review your life insurance:
· You may need more coverage (new mortgage, marriage, a new child, etc).
· You may want to “convert” term insurance into permanent insurance that builds cash and ensures the death benefit will be there for you
· You may need to update beneficiary information
· Maybe you’ve lost weight, stopped smoking, or had an improvement in your health that will entitle you to a better (lower) rate classification
Additionally, policies offer new features. One intriguing new feature with many policies is the addition of “living benefits.” This allows you to “claim” a portion of the insurance benefit while you’re still living if you become critically or chronically ill, require nursing home or other kinds of long-term-care, or are diagnosed with a terminal illness. These features can protect your other financial assets from the ravages of an expensive or prolonged illness.
But what if you don’t need your policy at all anymore? Many older folks are offering their adult children the option of taking over the policy. They pay the premiums, and get the benefit.
That may strike you as a bit odd at first, but it’s a true financial win-win. You save the premium expense – they get an investment grade asset that will probably out-perform anything else they put money into – and you don’t just let the policy lapse and go away, flushing all those years of premiums down the drain.
If you’d like more information, ping me back – or the person who posted this article for you.
