Purpose with Mark Bertrang

Here's the complaint: "Life Insurance only works when I die" or "How will Life Insurance benefit me?" or "When I've built up my wealth, why would I want or need Life Insurance?" If maximized to it fullest, a Whole Life Insurance Policy can provide multiple uses while you're living. It can become the Swiss Army Knife of your financial castle with great flexibility, liquidity and safety. It allows you to play defense and offense in the financial game of life. Buy Mark's book here: https://www.investmentsdonthug.com/

Permanent Life Insurance Policies come with an assortment of levers, which are controlled by the insurance companies. New and improved policies or "levers" sold to the public may actually give insurance companies even more control over you. These levers may control future internal costs, charges and fees based upon need for company shareholder profitability. By comparison, a whole life policy, issued by a mutual life insurance company has just one lever; a lever to declare an annual dividend to increase the profitability of your contract, in excess of its already built-in guarantees - one 'profit' lever verses many 'expense' levers. Which do you own?

What is the rate of return of a whole life insurance policy? There are actually three different rates of return to consider – Internal, External and Eternal rate of return. People often fixate upon the internal rate of return and do so incorrectly. To properly make a side-by-side comparison, you need to strip away the multiple benefits a whole life insurance policy, issued by a mutual life insurance company may provide. This is similar to comparing a single-blade knife to a Swiss Army knife. One has a single function. The other provides many combinations of useful benefits.

Experience has taught me, that the more money people have, the more they are motivated in the 'return of that money' and less on the 'rate of return' of that money. This is why a portfolio of mutual insurance issued whole life policies fit so well into the foundation of one's financial life. The guarantees of regulated reserve requirements and not the potential future values are what provides certainty in our very uncertain world.

No one wants to think about their own funeral. If you don't plan ahead, someone will need to make the decisions for you quickly during a difficult and emotional time. They will wonder if they were following your actual wishes, because there wasn't a plan in place to help with the guidance, they so desperately wish they had. Jake Kramar of Schumacher-Kish Funeral and Cremation Services provides insight to a conversation that's very difficult to discuss with parents, spouses and ourselves.

Many "opportunities" require financing, whether it's a new business, a commercial property, investment real estate or perhaps for a quality-of-life change like a second home. Opportunities often require money or the access to money. The terms of that money are usually arranged and determined by a large lending institution such as a bank, a savings and loan or a credit union. Wouldn't you love to be your own banker and bank on yourself, instead of a faceless bank?

You deserve to feel good about your finances after your divorce. Beth Kraszewski, CFP®, CDFA®, CLU® assists those going through a divorce to protect themselves. Beth is a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst who has studied in the field of pre-divorce financial planning and is an expert in personal vs. marital property, valuing and dividing property, retirement assets and pensions, spousal and child support, splitting your house, along with the tax problems and solutions facing those in the process of a divorce.

A recent visit to a Farm & Fleet Store reminds us all of how easily life can end. This should be a story of newborn baby chicks and ducklings. At a time around Easter, when life is new and precious a story told like this by an employee of the store recently visited reminded me of the simply fragility of life and how all the planning, we do can be undermined by something as simple as a lost package in the mail.

Planning for the lifetime needs of a special needs child is a great undertaking. Grady Jennings of the Dignity Group shares the work he does to assist families navigating the planning for their special needs children. Dignity Group empowers families through seminars, workshops, support groups, community gatherings, and free online learning materials. This second part of Grady's story helps to explain how to journey through the system.

Planning for the lifetime needs of a special needs child is a great undertaking. Grady Jennings of the Dignity Group shares his personal story of the unexpected birth of his son James, who was a downs syndrome child. James changed Grady's life and his career practice. Dignity Group empowers families through seminars, workshops, support groups, community gatherings, and free online learning materials. The first part of this episode sets the story of how this journey began to assist those families with special needs children.