Life Insurance Strategies For Retirement

Getting ready to enjoy your "golden years" and saving and planning to do the same isn't a simple, easy proposition in today's economy. And while you might not want to think about it, the fact is, an untimely passing of yourself or your spouse could completely disrupt those plans for the survivor.

​One way to guard against this possibility and to enhance your retirement strategy is via the right kind of life insurance policy. Here are 4 workable ideas on how to make that happen!

1. Use Term Life Until Your Nest Is Feathered
Life insurance is really all about relationships. Buying a simple, relatively inexpensive term life policy can protect your loved ones whom you leave behind from financial hardship or even financial ruin in your absence.

It can be difficult to save for retirement, and many people struggle to play "catch up" on retirement savings in the last 10 to 15 years. It might become impossible to save if the bread winner of the family passes away early. Timing term life to end right when you both retire is a common and sensible strategy.

Similarly, you might want to time your policy to last until your mortgage is fully paid off, until social security kicks in, or until your pension or 401K begins to pay dividends.

2. Keep Life Insurance As A Backup Plan
On the other hand, you may want a term or a whole life insurance policy that stays with you longer, well into retirement or even permanently. Remember you can always buy a convertible plan that begins as term but can be switched over to whole life if your health or situation changes.

Sooner or later, all of us have to leave this world. A longer term or permanent policy will better provide for the inevitable so that medical bills, final expenses, and loss of income don't force your loved ones to struggle to meet basic needs.

Also, once one spouse is gone, there will likely be only one social security check instead of two. And almost always, expenses don't drop as much as income when this happens.

3. Shelter Funds From Taxes & Earn Interest
Whole life is a key part of virtually any estate planning program. What you pay into this type of policy results in cash value accumulations, and often, interest earnings. This money is fully tax deferred, and the death benefit on all life insurance policies is tax exempt.

The "death tax" and other state, federal, and local tax laws can be very harsh indeed, especially if you have a sizable estate, which you want to pass on to your family and not to Uncle Sam!

You can often earn dividends of 3% to 5% on some forms of life insurance policies, much like stocks or bonds, and yet enjoy greater stability and protection from the ups and downs of the market - and no or long-deferred taxation.

4. Create A Low Interest Financing Source
Another approach is to not only use a whole life policy for the eventual death benefit, but also to use it as a quick and ready financing source. Once enough cash value has accumulated, many insurers let you borrow against the policy at very low rates (and without the need for bank approval) without lowering your benefit.

These are just four key ways that life insurance can be an important part of your retirement plans. To discover more, contact Summerlin Benefits Consulting today!