More for Less?

[spacer height=”02px”]

By David Edge

[spacer height=”03px”]

While recently meeting with a client who was a young grandmother with three beautiful grandchildren, she was lamenting the fact that she wished she had more to leave the grandkids when she passed. I pressed her for more information on exactly what was she concerned with? She replied that while she was OK with her retirement income she only had a small amount of money in a bank savings account and that each child would only get about $10,000 when she passed.

[spacer height=”02px”]

I was glad she brought it up so that we could have the opportunity to help her with this dilemma.

[spacer height=”02px”]

“How would you like to leave them $20,000 or maybe even $30,000 each?” I asked.

[spacer height=”02px”]

“Impossible!” was her immediate reply. “Au contraire”, I said. “There are ways to make the money worth two or even three times the face amount”. I could tell I had her undivided attention.

[spacer height=”02px”]

There are insurance products on the market that you can purchase with the cash in your savings account that are guaranteed to pay out upon your passing to any beneficiaries you direct. The cash in your saving account is paying you pennies on the dollar in a low -yield bank account while it just sits in your bank. Let’s look at some ways to make that cash more valuable.

[spacer height=”02px”]

We then had a discussion on a Single-Premium life insurance policy. This is a product that will take your one-time payment, and guarantee you a payout larger than your one-time payment. There are factors that affect exactly how much of a multiple the payout will be upon your passing. These factors generally have to do with qualifying for the policy and usually only have a simple blood test by a nurse who usually comes to your office or home.

[spacer height=”02px”]

But for a simple example, you take the $30,000 that’s in your savings account; purchase a single-premium life policy that would have a guaranteed death benefit of $60,000. This is what legacy planning is all about. You are making decisions now that will affect your family later. Your three grandchildren will get $20,000 each instead of $10,000. It would take your bank savings account around 30-35 years at 2% interest to grow to that amount of money. Instead, you’ve doubled the money by just purchasing a policy, instantly.

[spacer height=”02px”]

What’s great about this policy is that the money is fully funded, it’s safe and secure, as an efficient way to transfer wealth. It’s flexible, as many of these policies have value added living benefits and liquidity features with access to the death benefit or cash values should the policy holders’ financial needs change.

[spacer height=”02px”]

She was stunned that these products existed and her family financial planner had never discussed this with her before. I merely reminded her that at American Retirement Advisors we look as all aspects of your retirement and not just sell you products. Grace was more than just a little happy as we reviewed her new options.

[spacer height=”02px”]

Concerned that the small amount of money in a savings account isn’t going to be very much to pass along to your family in the event something happens to you? Call us we can help!