Business Center
Life Insurance
Living Benefits
When you hear people talking about the "living benefits" of life insurance, they are often referring to one's ability to access the cash value. Frequently the "living benefits" of the death benefit go unnoticed. Let's take a look at some:
- Spend down your assets - A common concern for many people during their retirement years is conserving their assets and passing them along to their spouse or children. Owning permanent life insurance, however, allows you to have more flexibility and freedom with your spending habits. You can increase your retirement income and reduce the fear of dying without leaving behind sufficient assets simply by having a death benefit that will replace the assets that you spent.
- Give assets to charity - Charitable giving has many tangible and intangible benefits, from income tax savings to feelings of philanthropy. An often-overlooked benefit is the potential to increase your income through a charitable giving program. If you have assets like stocks or real estate that have appreciated substantially, you risk paying taxes on those capital gains if you need to sell them to begin drawing an income. A charitable remainder trust, along with permanent life insurance, can provide the opportunity to increase your income, avoid capital gains taxes, provide a significant benefit for the charity of your choice, and pass along substantial assets to your heirs.
- Maximize your pension benefits - Those of us who will receive a monthly pension from our employers will have to make a very important, and often irrevocable, decision before retiring - which option you will choose for a monthly income amount. Those options determine how much your spouse would receive if you were to die. Often people choose to accept a lower monthly amount in order to continue providing a benefit to a surviving spouse. By owning a permanent life insurance policy, you may have the flexibility to choose a higher monthly retirement income because the insurance will provide needed benefits to your survivors.
