Insurance Pro Blog Podcast | Life Insurance and Annuity Insights

Inflation is all around us and everyone is failing the pinch of higher prices at the gas pump, grocery store, and soon-to-be winter heating bills. None of this is helped by the broad market declines over the past 12 months. 

If you own stocks and bonds, you're probably wondering about that supposed inverse relationship you learned about. And if you are living on the income you derive from your investment portfolio, things probably seem a little scary.

What if you could use whole life insurance to provide an inflation-protected income during retirement? Yes, you read that correctly...whole life insurance and retirement income in the same sentence. And no, no one has to die to accomplish this.

It turns out that whole life insurance is great at generating income if you plan early to have it do that. In today's episode, we take a look at two scenarios:

1. The first assumes a static retirement income from a whole life policy from age 65 to 100. We calculated the maximum income this person could take and have it last for the full 35 years.
2. In the second scenario, we took a look at the same policy but what happens when the person starts taking a bit less in income for the first 10 years and then takes the maximum (recalculated at age 75). 

We think you'll be fascinated by the results.  ___________________________________

If you'd like to look at how a policy could for you in a similar fashion, please click right here to get in touch with us. We personally answer all the messages that we receive and do our best to get back to you within 24 hours.

With the recent economic turmoil and subsequent rate hikes from the Federal Reserve to curb the highest inflation we've seen in 40 years, many are looking for refuge from the volatility of stock and bond markets.  It's understandable and whole life insurance certainly offers a safe haven from the ups and downs of financial markets. However, we believe many are too focused on capital appreciation when they would be better off focusing on a retirement income plan.  Having several sources of reliable income in retirement is what truly makes us all feel wealthy. Whole life insurance is a vital component of this formula. In today's episode, we talk about that and how it can fit into your retirement income plan.

__________________________ If you are interested in how whole life insurance might fit into your retirement income plan, please click here to get in touch with us. 

Claims that expenses on IUL increase and bankrupt policies are nothing new.  There's a shred of truth in the rising expenses argument, but it's overblown.

It's the claim that always scared us about UL when we both worked for big mutual companies that hated universal life (of all kinds).  And it wasn't until we sat down and did the math on an actual policy that we both realized the accurate data didn't support the claim.

But IUL is not totally loss-free.  There can be a zero crediting year and expenses must be deducted from the policy.  This means that an IUL policyholder could lose money in this scenario.  The question: how much and is it significant? Listen to the full episode to hear the details from a real policy and determine for yourself if the danger is real or like us, you think it's grossly exaggerated. __________________________ And of course, if you'd like to explore policy options for yourself, click right here to reach out to us directly. We do our best to respond within 24 hours of anyone reaching out. 

Recently, an article was published by Forbes Advisor that sounded the alarm on all of the supposed potential pitfalls of indexed universal life insurance. It was brought to our attention by a client and we were asked to comment on it. 

The contents of the article were of no great surprise to us. It is an all too familiar refrain of fearmongering and half-truths related to dire hypotheticals surrounding indexed universal life insurance. 

In today's episode, we take many of the points to task. If you are seriously considering IUL as an option or already own an IUL policy, today's podcast is worth a listen.  ___________________________________

And as always, if you would like to discuss purchasing a policy of your own or having us look at one you are considering, please click right here to get in touch. 

What happens when you plan ahead a little bit and choose to shift a portion of your portfolio to whole life insurance? More importantly, how does it influence your behavior with the rest of your money...the piece that's NOT allocated to whole life insurance? We've been beating the "income" drum for a long time now and we're doing it more. The point of retirement investing or asset accumulation for most people we talk with is to plan for the day they no longer have an earned income. When they decide to live on the income produced from the assets they've so diligently grown over their lifetime. 

As such, we thought it would make sense to look at two different retirement income scenarios using whole life insurance and discuss them both.  In today's episode, we discuss how you can use whole life insurance to remove risk from your life--in more than one way. __________________________________ If you'd like to see how whole life insurance might work for you as part of an overall strategy to remove risk from your financial life, please click right here to send us a message. 

Every now and again, someone pops up with questions about "private placement life insurance". There's something about it that sounds really special.

After all, it allows you to invest your life insurance cash value into hedge funds. That means you're a part of a super exclusive club.  It may very well be something unique and different. But does that make it better than what you can buy from us? We think not and today we're discussing it. ________________________________

If you'd like some help navigating a life insurance policy for yourself and you think that we might be able to help, please click right here to get in touch with us. 

In a world where nearly unlimited resources exist (including this podcast) around the subject of whole life insurance and how what to expect from a policy with a good design, why are people still willingly buying bad whole life insurance policies? Not all whole life insurance is created equal. There are great distinctions between companies and products. And...there are key differences in how a policy can be designed depending upon what you are hoping to accomplish. If that discussion interests you, please take a half hour and listen to the entire episode. ________________________________

And of course, if you'd like to explore how a whole life insurance policy can help you achieve your financial goals, please click right here to get in touch with us. 

Many of our potential clients have wrestled with universal life insurance illustrations and understanding some of the wording in parts. But more specifically, understanding why the guarantees are so low? In this week's episode we explain why it's actually a pro rather than a con, listen to the full episode. ______________________________

If you'd like to find out how we can help you get the right policy, whether it's whole life or indexed universal life, click right here to send us a message. 

Using whole life insurance to generate retirement income is a slightly advanced subject within the world of financial planning.

Stock jockeys hate it, and life insurance agents love it.

No surprise there.

So, is there something that life insurance brings to the table that is truly special, or are you better off betting your chips on the market for a prosperous retirement?

The market and other traditional investments are usually considered weapons of choice for generating retirement income, but maybe, just maybe, there is something your financial planner is missing that isn’t included in the “approved” brochure about retirement income planning.

If you wanna read more and see the numbers we used to put together this episode, click right here. ______________________________________________ And if you'd like to find out more about how a whole life policy might work for you, please click here to reach out to us directly.

Having been in the financial services industry since 2000, I’ve noticed that almost all investment product companies (mutual funds, ETFs, stock market indices, variable annuities, closed-end funds, REITs) love to cite their “average annual rate of return” figures which always inflate what the particular investment actually returned to its investors. And it really bothers me.

This problem isn't complicated nor is it really nuanced in any particular way,(as the investment industry would have you believe) it really comes down to basic math.

Average annual return, as is always stated in investment literature, (marketing pieces, prospectuses, etc.) is simply a deliberate shell game meant to confuse your perception of the returns by stating simple arithmetic mean calculations when the only return that matters is the compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Now, I know it sounds like I'm splitting hairs here but hang with me through an example and you'll understand my beef.

Example :  Let’s say that Bill invests $100,000  into his investment account at J.T. Marlin (some of you may get the Boiler Room reference) and for the 1st year  his account grew by 25%  but the account  returned a negative 25% the second year.

The stock market muppets would say your average return is 0%...and they’d be telling the truth…in the same vain that President Clinton swore he did not have sex with that woman.

But they are clouding the truth with nonsense--because who cares what your average rate of return was?

Year 1—   100,000 x     25% =    125,000

Year 2—  125,000 x (-25%) =    93,750

If Bill started with 100k and now at the end of year two his account is worth $93,750 his actual compound annual growth rate (cagr) was -6.25%.

But didn't I prove in the example that his average annual rate of return was 0%?

Then, how can Bill have less money than what he started with?

I actually found this little tidbit online when looking around to see what others were talking about in regard to CAGR.

Investopedia.com says:

“CAGR isn't the actual return in reality. It's an imaginary number that describes the rate at which an investment would have grown if it grew at a steady rate. You can think of CAGR as a way to smooth out the returns.”

Honestly, I’m speechless.

The Enron accountants have obviously taken up residence on Wall Street and are firmly rooted in content publishing for the financial media.

I beg to differ with Investopedia… ___________________________________

We are in the business of helping our clients find the right cash value life insurance to fit their financial goals, if you'd like to discuss that with us, please click here and send us a message.