Individual Life Insurance

In today’s ever-changing world, you can’t afford to be without protection. Whether it’s safeguarding your home, your business, or you loved ones, you want to be sure you’ve done all you can to financially shelter what’s meaningful in the event something unexpectedly happens to you.

You can protect what you cherish most through the purchase of a life insurance policy. Life insurance offers a death benefit feature that makes this protection possible. For relatively low cost, you may gain invaluable peace of mind. An economical death benefit affords you the protection to offer your family a financially secure and happy future, instead of one filled with worry. It can mean the difference between your business prospering or giving in to financial strain. It also provides a way to fulfill your legacy the way you intended, rather than losing the assets you’ve worked hard to build throughout your life.

Term Life Insurance or Temporary Insurance
The purchase of a business, or such personal changes as a hefty mortgage on a new home or birth of a child, all create an immediate need for more protection at a time of limited cash-flow capabilities. Term insurance is ideal, affordable supplement to permanent coverage until sufficient permanent amounts can be carried.

If you have a decreasing loan or mortgage obligation, decreasing term insurance will provide coverage that tracks shrinking need. Another form of term insurance is yearly renewable term, used for the truly temporary, short-term need. However, 5-year, 10-year, 15-year, and 20-year renewable and convertible term, or term to a specific age are also available. Each product has its own advantages.

Term protection is provided at an economical cost today, and can be renewed annually. Be aware, however, that no cash value accrues, and the premium generally increases each year. This may make the plan prohibitive to maintain in later years, at the ages when most deaths occur. For these reasons, term insurance is most valuable as temporary protection.

Whole Life Insurance
In a volatile economy, the purchase of whole life insurance remains one of the few guaranteed ways to preserve wealth while building equity. The security of life insurance far outranks the safety of unguaranteed investments. Plus, you have the advantage of tax deferral and the liquidity of available cash value.

Tax advantages

• Cash value accumulates on a tax-deferred basis.
• At death, income taxes are never paid on the growth within the policy.
• Policy loans may be received free of federal income tax.
• The entire death benefit – including accumulations – can pass federal income tax free to your beneficiary.

Please note: Tax free access to policy account value is possible through withdrawals up to the cost basis and loans thereafter, based on current laws and assuming the individual policy remains in force and is not a ‘modified endowment contract’ under IRC Section 7702A. Keep in mind that some of these tax advantages do not apply to Modified Endowment Contracts (MECS). A MEC is created when premium payments have violated IRS premium limitation. Any distributions from a MEC that exceed the investment in the contract are taxable as ordinary income and may be subject to the 10% penalty for withdrawals before age 591/2. Policy loans and withdrawals will reduce a policy’s death benefit and net cash surrender value. If the insurance policy is lapsed or surrendered prior to the death of the insured, the policy loans in excess of the cost basis will result in taxable income.

Variable Life Insurance
The unique death benefit feature offered by life insurance makes it an essential component of any complete financial plan. Many people have questions when it comes to determining how much life insurance coverage to purchase. Many factors, such as those below, should be considered when determining the amount of coverage to seek.

• Ongoing income needs of your dependents
• Uncovered final medical expenses
• Funeral expenses
• Estate settlement expenses
• Total current debts, such as car loans, personal loans and credit card loans
• Mortgage balance
• Projected costs of sending children to college
• Current income-producing assets
• Business cash flow needs
• Financial impact of premature death on business

Variable Life, in combination with selected riders, offers many benefits:
Guarantees:

• Permanent life coverage
• Death benefit guarantee rider
• Guaranteed cost of insurance
• Guaranteed maximum charges

Tax Advantages:

• Income-tax-free death benefits
• Tax-free access to cash surrender value
• Tax-deferred growth

Liquidity:

• Partial withdrawals
• Policy loans
• Policy surrender

Variable Universal Life (VUL)
Variable universal life insurance differs from other long-term financial alternatives in that it combines the security and tax advantages of life insurance with the growth potential of equity investing. This unique mix of insurance protection and investment portfolios offers an innovative way to help accumulate assets, preserve those assets from current taxes, and eventually transfer then intact to your heirs. It allows you to save and invest at the same time.

The features of a VUL policy include:

• Professionally managed investment portfolios
• Premium payment flexibility
• Income tax-free death benefit
• Tax-deferred accumulation
• Tax-favored access to values

As your personal situations change (i.e., marriage, birth of a child or job promotion), so will your life insurance needs. Care should be taken to ensure these strategies and products are suitable for your long-term life insurance needs. You should weigh your objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance as well as any associated costs before investing. Also, be aware that market volatility can lead to the possibility of the need for additional premium in your policy. Variable life insurance has fees and charges associated with it that include costs of insurance that vary with such characteristics of the insured as gender, health and age, underlying fund charges and expenses, and additional charges for riders that customize a policy to fit your individual needs.

Guarantees are based on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company