Each September, insurers around the country focus on life insurance because it’s one of the most essential things you can do to protect the future of your family or business.
Paying off Debt: When breadwinners pass away, families can suddenly face a massive amount of debt. Life insurance policies can be used as a means for paying off these debts. This may include funeral costs, and any unpaid bills (paying off the mortgage on the family home for your survivors.) Life insurance protects breadwinners as well as the important contributions of a stay-at-home spouse.
Tax/Probate Advantages: Life Insurance also offers some unique financial advantages in terms of financial planning. For example, monies left to beneficiaries of a life insurance policy are tax exempt and can also bypass the probate process. It’s a way to protect resources from taxes and direct money to your beneficiaries that they can receive almost immediately.
Access to Cash: Some types of permanent life insurance, like whole life insurance and universal life insurance, offer you the added benefit of a cash value component. As you pay your life insurance policy premiums, they build cash value over time. In the future, this can be available to you through policy loans and withdrawals to take care of temporary financial needs or unexpected expenses, like a major car repair.
Potential Health Benefits: Life insurance riders (add-on, often specialized coverage), can offer essential health benefits, allowing you to customize your life insurance companies’ coverage. Various riders (accelerated death benefit, critical illness, to name two examples) can provide you with financial support in case of serious illness or disability or the need for long-term care. These additional protections, however, will increase your premium in many cases.
Business Owners, too: When you’re a business owner, there are more people counting on you. From your business partners to your employees, a life insurance policy can play a pivotal role in the continuity of your business. Life policies can be designed with buy-sell or key person coverage in mind.
Talk to Someone You Trust: These are just some of the reasons a life insurance policy could be a valuable tool to secure the future of your family or business. When considering your options, talk to an agent or financial expert you trust.
Shannon Childs is a Farm Bureau Insurance agent serving the Kawkawlin area.
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