Estate Tax Revisited
Federal Estate Tax is not going away. With the 2013 tax cliff legislation, rates have been set at 40% (up from 35%) for amounts in excess of an exclusion amount of $5,120,000 per person ($10,240,000...
View ArticleIs It Too Good To Be True?
(At the end of my last entry I said I was going to discuss some more medical conditions and how they affect life insurance premiums. I’m setting that topic back since I have had several inquiries...
View ArticleWhat is Re-Insurance? (Continued)
A primary insurance company that is actually issuing the policy to the consumer often cedes a portion of the risk to a re-insurance company—it could even be the entire risk. They will likely have...
View ArticleCAN YOU BET YOUR LIFE ON IT?
When you buy a life insurance policy you pay a premium to a life insurance company in exchange for their promise to pay your beneficiary a sum of money that is vastly greater than that premium. You...
View ArticleDid You Pay Too Much?
After making a substantial purchase, the question often goes through your mind, “Did I pay too much?” Don’t you hate it when someone right next door buys exactly the same car that you just bought and...
View ArticleComparing Permanent Life Insurance
As I covered in the last couple of entries, comparing term premiums isn’t too hard. When it comes to permanent life insurance, since there are so many more moving parts it’s more complicated. There...
View ArticleComparing Permanent Life Insurance
As I covered in the last couple of entries, comparing term premiums isn’t too hard. When it comes to permanent life insurance, since there are so many more moving parts it’s more complicated. There...
View ArticleIRR – The Finite Comparison Test
IRR is short for Internal Rate of Return. It can be used as a measure of either the death benefit or cash value of a life insurance policy. Since the principal purpose of a life insurance policy is...
View ArticleLiving to Age 120
You may have noticed that I have often referenced policies whose premium and death benefit are guaranteed to age 121. Why bother with such a long term guarantee? Who lives that long? There are two...
View ArticleToday’s Hot Product – IUL
Indexed Universal Life (IUL) is the hottest product being sold today. The policy has been around for a few years, but it is just now beginning to take off. Why the sudden surge? It’s because of the...
View ArticleUnderstanding Indexed Universal Life (IUL)
This is my fourth consecutive entry on IUL. That’s a lot of information on one policy type, but since IUL is receiving so much push from insurance companies and agents—and—since it has so much...
View ArticleThe Real Power Of Life Insurance
When I started selling life insurance 50+ years ago I knew little about the product. I had never planned to sell life insurance, but I was out of a job, having a tough time finding another position in...
View ArticleWe All Gotta Go Sometime, But Tony Soprano??
It’s not Tony Soprano who died. It was James Gandolfini, the bigger than life, tougher than nails, sweeter than syrup actor who portrayed the godfather of the Soprano clan who died. At only 51 years...
View ArticleTwo Lives – One Death Benefit
Second-to-Die life insurance was introduced several years ago as a way for a married couple to provide cash to pay federal estate tax when the second of them dies. Tax need not be paid until the...
View ArticleLong Term Care Insurance (LTCI)
The odds of having a house fire cause financial loss are much less than the odds of needing Long Term Care after the age of 65. And yet, so few people purchase LTCI and just about everyone has fire...
View ArticleThe Doctor Will See You Now
Once you have decided to proceed with an application for life insurance your agent will set up a time for you to have a medical examination. Unless you are applying for a very large amount of...
View ArticleTax Advantages Of Life Insurance
Life insurance enjoys some unique tax advantages. The death benefit is free of income tax and access to cash values during one’s lifetime can also be constructed to be tax free. In this blog I’ll...
View ArticleManaging Life Insurance Proceeds After You Are Gone
Some individuals are convinced that their spouse would have no ability to manage a large life insurance payout at their death, so they want to control how the benefits are paid to her. Oops, I didn’t...
View ArticleWhen Do You Need Insurance?
When do you need insurance? To many, that depends on what type of insurance we’re talking about. You need car insurance when you register your car because the state most likely requires proof of...
View ArticleBinding A Business Agreement
In my last entry I discussed the importance of business owners entering into an agreement to sell their business interests in the event of death. It is so important to enter into a buy-and-sell, or...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....