Latest Posts

The growing demand for more predictability and security planning for retirement income has led an increasing number of retirees and pre-retirees to look to annuities as way to provide more stability in their investment portfolios. They are also looking to annuities as a way to replace the third leg of the retirement income stool as a guaranteed lifetime income. Retirement planning occurs in different phases and at different stages of peoples’ lives. Depending on what stage of life a person is in, there are different kinds of annuities that can be best suited for various situations.

Generally speaking, conversations about life insurance revolve around whether you should buy term or permanent insurance. However, every decision to buy life insurance begins with deciding what is the right amount of life insurance. And, integral to determining the right amount of life insurance is understanding the role of your Social Security Survivorship Benefit (SSSB).

Health insurance used to be a fairly simple process. But today, whether obtaining health insurance privately or through an employer, we’re being offered a variety of insurance plans with varying benefit levels, making the choice more difficult.

Before you enroll in another health insurance plan, here are some common terms you need to know – and understand:

There were 43 million renters in the U.S. in 2017, the highest number of renters in the last 50 years.  Yet according to the Insurance Information Institute, only 37 percent of those currently renting have renters insurance, leaving 27.1 million renters without protection should catastrophe strike.

It’s important for renters to understand that while their landlord’s homeowner’s policy would cover structural damages to an apartment or home, it will not protect the renter’s personal belongings.

Pat and Kelly, new parents, made a couple monthly budget adjustments upon the arrival of their first child. First, due to the added cost of day care and dependent health insurance, they decreased the amount they were saving for a house. And second, they agreed to review their life insurance needs. Pat’s sister suggested they buy $500,000 life insurance policies like she and her husband did when their child was born.

Given the disparity in their incomes, Pat and Kelly were not convinced they each needed another $500,000 of life insurance.

It’s never too early or too late to start planning for retirement. However, in the U.S., when it comes to retirement savings, later seems to be the standard. According to RothIRA.com, only 56% of today’s workers in the U.S. are currently saving money for their retirement, and 38% of those currently saving have less than $10,000 saved. With one-third of Americans admitting that they have no retirement savings at all, it’s clear that many U.S. workers will reach retirement age with little to no resources to count on.

If you are at the point where you are asking how to buy a life insurance policy, then you have already made the most important financial decision, which is to take the steps to  insure your family’s or loved one’s financial security.  For many people, that is most likely a critical decision that has long been procrastinated.

Life insurance has existed for nearly two centuries as essential planning tool that protects dependents from the risk of a breadwinner’s untimely death. However, given the unique investment properties of life insurance, financial planners are finding a number of ways it can be used in other ways to enhance portfolio returns while reducing risk.

All of the various forms of life insurance – whole life, term life, variable life, universal life and the dozens of variations of each – can be distilled down to just two types: Term and Permanent.

When most people think about life insurance, it is something to be purchased when we’re young with financial responsibilities and dependents to protect. Any discussion about purchasing life insurance after we retire is often met with strong opinions as to whether or not it makes any financial sense. After all, the cost of life insurance increases significantly over the age of 65.