Life Insurance

Your beneficiaries receive a tax-free, lump-sum benefit after your death with term insurance. It is a particularly good choice if you are young and in good general health because you can benefit from affordable rates and guarantee your future insurability.

As well, if your insurance needs are temporary, for example, to cover the time you have a mortgage, term insurance can provide you with the coverage you need when you need it.

Available for terms of 10, 20, 25 or 30 years.

Sample Quote 

FROM $22.95

Wholelife insurance provides a cash payout to any named beneficiary in the unlikely event the child dies. It also features a savings component called cash value that grows tax-deferred.

The policy owner can borrow against the cash value or surrender the policy for the money, minus a possible surrender fee. The cash could be used for anything, including college expenses or the down payment on a home.

A whole life insurance policy guarantees a certain percentage return on the cash value and compares well with other conservative savings vehicles like. It isn’t designed to be a primary savings and investment tool. It’s one of the tools for parents and grandparents to consider.

Sample Quote 

FROM $97.74

Do You Still Earn Outside Income?
Given the basic function of life insurance, you may have a pretty good idea of your need for ongoing coverage. In the most basic sense, if you retire and no longer work to make ends meet, you probably don’t need it. If you’re living off Social Security along with your retirement savings, there’s no income to replace.

When you die, your family will continue to receive payouts from your retirement accounts, and Social Security pays a survivor benefit. However, that survivor benefit varies based on your unique situation and it won’t be as much as Social Security paid while you were alive. Make sure you know your benefit before making a decision on life insurance.

Are You in Debt?
Ideally, you will arrive at retirement age debt-free, but that’s not always the case. In fact, in 2013, 30% of homeowners age 65 and older still carried a mortgage; 21% of retirees age 75 and over were still making house payments in 2011.

Student loan debt is forecast to be a problem for an increasing number of retirees in the future. As of 2013, more than 700,000 retirees held student loan debt—either the remnants of their own loans or because of co-signing loans for children or grandchildren.

Experts say that continuing life insurance coverage might be well-advised if you’re still paying off debt. Take a “better safe than sorry” approach unless those debt payments are such a small part of your net worth that there would be no risk of financial difficulty.

Are Your Children and Spouse Self-Sufficient?
If you reach retirement and your children are out of your home, providing for their own families, and your spouse is self-sufficient, you probably don’t need life insurance. On the other hand, if you have children with special needs or kids who are still living in your home, you might want to keep it. Also, if your spouse would lose a substantial amount of your pension income or other monthly payment, life insurance can fill that gap.

Would It Help Your Estate?
Some people with considerable assets can use life insurance strategically—for instance, as a way to take care of estate taxes. It could pay off business debt, fund any buy-sell agreements related to your business or estate, or even fund retirement plans.

As you can imagine, how you use life insurance as a tax-efficient part of your estate plan is very complicated. You’ll need the help of an attorney who specializes in estate planning. Keep in mind that unless you have an estate that reaches into the millions of dollars in net worth, estate tax considerations probably don’t apply. You, therefore, may not need life insurance for this purpose, but to be sure, it’s a good idea to ask a qualified expert.

Sample Quote

from $160.00