You need peace of mind!

There should be a large premium on peace of mind. Personally, achieving peace of mind and happiness are large personal and financial goals, of mine too. What can help you obtain peace of mind, in your everyday life?

Proper estate planning, budgeting, retirement planning can help produce financial wellness and build a legacy for your family. Peace of mind generates from the accumulation of those factors and those factors consist of numerous variables that are the sum of daily and lifestyle financial habits and goals.

Clients should work with an experienced and professional team, that begin with the end in mind and will work towards the ultimate goal, peace of mind. Professionals should do what is best for the client, above all else.

We have established proper insurance planning, investments, tax preparation, all are necessary components in the decisions of the team of experienced professionals, you choose to partner with, in the future. Of course, these components based on decisions, must be good, wise, and fiscal decisions for those clients.

Do I have adequate insurance levels? Do I need a revocable or irrevocable trust? When do I take and what do I do with Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), from my retirement account? What items do I need in an estate plan? Do I need an estate plan? If not, do I need proper planning?

These all are legitimate questions, all must be answered. The need for a team, to help create peace of mind, is extraordinary! Everyday you delay, you are gambling with your financial future and the future of those you love and depend on you. That is not a scare tactic, that is reality! Please do not delay, another day.

Beneficiary Designation & One Thing That Could Happen...

Let's use, for example, a real life situation. A single mother, successful executive, and good wage earner, passed. Unfortunately, her estate planning was not in great shape. The client was intelligent and loved her child tremendously. She did have adequate life insurance in place, that covered her debt, final expenses, and provided for the child generously. 

The ex-spouse was still living, and they did have a good relationship. Normally, the child would be under the surviving parent, provided something was to happen to the custodial parent. Often times during reviews, and following evaluations, advice was stressed and expressed to the client. A major item, left unaddressed, was the beneficiary designation (Read more about beneficiary designation from Life Happens: https://lifehappens.org/blog/who-can-i-name-as-a-beneficiary-on-my-life-insurance-policy/ ).

The client left the generous life insurance death benefit to the child, as most parents would want the proceeds to go to the child. Although a trust was not established, probably due to the client's age, thinking "I have time." A great strategy would have been to establish a trust, placing the insurance policy inside the trust, and being able to designate how, when, and where the proceeds of the life insurance would be distributed.

As a result, given the manner in which things were left, the child's full care shifted to the surviving father. Although the father was a good father, the issue was, since the child was well under 18 years of age, the death benefit of the insurance policy was left to legal guardian/parent of the child and free to decide how those funds could be spent.

Fortunately, the surviving parent was a good father and the situation was a good one. But, what if the surviving parent was not a good parent? Can you imagine $1,000,000 in the hands of someone who could not be trusted and with a child, who just lost his or her mother? 

Definitely not what the mother would have wanted, but at the same time, could have been avoided with choosing to adhere to evaluations, recommendations, and experience being involved with a team in estate planning. Without a doubt, the mother was an awesome mother, and the father, fortunately, was a good father. 

This story had a happy as it could be ending to the story, but how many times does the situation go the other way? Single parents, please do not leave your situation to chance or gamble with loved ones. Find an insurance agent, experienced in estate planning, that happens to have a team that consists of professionals to get the proper planning put into place.

You need #lifeinsurance and another reason why and The 3 E's!!

Legacy means a great deal, to a great deal of people. Unfortunately, too many times this is not the case with life insurance and estate planning. From our original post: https://advocateinsurers.blogspot.com/2019/08/you-need-lifeinsurance-and-heres-one.html

we talked about life insurance is not purchased for you and while you are living, it is purchased for final expenses and people who count on you, while you are alive!

Having an ego, being stubborn, and a close-minded approach to proper planning for your death, is unacceptable. Possessing a minimal amount of life insurance to cover final expenses, debt, and providing loved ones with money to adjust to your passing is beyond unacceptable, it is almost inhumane!

To see an adult possess such a disregard for planning, peace of mind, and legacy is mind-boggling. Your loved ones should be allowed to grieve when the 'if' happens, and it will happen, just depends on the when!

Personally, have sat in a meeting with a husband, who said, "I don't care what happens, when I die." The really unfortunate thing is, his wife of 21 years was sitting next to him. Recalling of another situation, which the husband decided to wait on purchasing a policy, and was later diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer. The couple needed a death benefit that, after performing the needs-based analysis, it showed a $250,000 and the husband only had $22,000.

Many times, the naked eye can evaluate the situation and see debt and poor financial habits are a major reason of a lack of proper planning and necessary insurance. As an agent, and planner, all you can do is Evaluate, Educate, and Endorse (The 3 E's). At the end of the day, people are going to do what they want to do, regardless of who they hurt.

Begin with the end in mind. Get professional consultation, and properly plan. Building a legacy, leaves no room for other options. Thanks for reading!

You need #lifeinsurance and here's one example of why!

A fun loving sales representative, who made $100,000 a year, who lived modestly and nearly debt-free. Much of the disposable income went to bad habits, unfortunately, bad in nature. However, despite bad financial habits, this was a good person, a son, father, and brother.

After meeting with the sales rep, and a performed a thorough review and a needs-based analysis. The lack of life insurance was obvious, even to the untrained eye...there was none in place. It was a sad situation, but there was not a spouse to be concerned with and only one child, who was out of the dependency stage.

The analysis highlighted the only debt was a newly purchased mortgage, totaling over $100,000 and with 25+ years remaining. Although the mortgage was light in nature, compared to many, the fact was there was no insurance in place to cover the debt, in case the "if" happened sooner than later.

401K value was modest as well, but would help with the debt and the sole beneficiary, the lack of an insurance policy was significant! The two other items that were quite evident, the lack of final expense funds and funds to pass onto the beneficiary, the older teenager.

As a result of the consultation, the sales representative did purchase a $50,000 10-year term policy. Although, $50k did not cover the mortgage, expenses, and pass on money to the older teenager, the amount of the term policy death benefit and 401k would help. Some life insurance is better than no life insurance!

Around a year later, a call received from the sales representative, generated a request to terminate the policy. Before instructing the client to contact the insurance company directly, a plea to reconsider the policy termination was given, as it was doing what was best for the client. The client insisted and the decision was final, terminate the policy with the company.

About six months after that, a family contacted the office, asking if the client had life insurance. The family member quickly told me that it was discovered there was Cancer (stage 4) diagnosis and was -terminal. Because there was a certified Power of Attorney, we could discuss the situation.

The conversation was highly uncomfortable, difficult, emotional, and purely sad. Another piece that was unpleasant, the 401K had been surrendered. If the policy was still in-force, at least the family could possibly utilize the accelerated death benefit and have access to nearly 75% of the death benefit, helping the family afford treatments, bills, and buy some time to sell the home and avoid the discussed pending foreclosure.

It is definitely a sad situation, but one that is highly avoidable. Yes, some better financial habits would have helped. Yes, a cancer policy would have also helped greatly. The life insurance policy would have helped those responsible for the care and affairs. Please apply for life insurance today! You are never more insurable, than you are today.

10 Things You Should Know About #lifeinsurance from Life Happens

10 Things You Should Know About Life Insurance (click here):

All about the kids & families, even as a #professional #relationships #studentathletes

Holding a Masters of Science in Sport Administration, I am fan of sports, deeply rooted in the advocacy of the #studentathlete and their identity after competing.

While compliance was my focus during coursework, the student-athlete remains the source of my passion and provides tremendous insight, as to why I do what I do.

As a servant leader, follower of Christ, and educated, I put my money where my mouth is. In that, I decided to obtain my masters from Liberty University.

The journey in launching the Louisville Prospects Foundation, Inc. was to advocate for student-athletes and their families. The ultimate goal was and is to help generate scholarship dollars to pay for school, using basketball.

In 2010, my mentor in estate planning listened to my idea. He told me, after listening to me talk about it daily, “if you do not start this, I will.”

Nine years later, we have helped generate over $17M in scholarships/student aid, helping families and student-athletes avoid costly tuition and student loan debt.

Although we are proud of our efforts, there is much more to do. There remains other avenues in which to help student-athletes.

Helping student-athletes by other means than teaching basketball and obtaining scholarships, means more work and planning, must be done.

This publication marks that next era of my work, and for many, if it is truly your passion, it is not work. Following this publication, I will continue laying the foundation to help student-athletes but now, beyond the hardwood!

First, using reverse-engineering, I will look at life during & following basketball for student-athletes, after signing that scholarship, walking on or whatever avenue they have followed.

Many have followed a path in order to live out their dreams and reach their goals of playing collegiate basketball, from NCAA Division I to Community College, and all those in between.

The journey begins with research, practical analysis, and plenty of interviews and guests invited to provide insight of their personal journey.

That is what fascinates me, the individual journey, their passion, and their ‘why!’ I will attempt to do my best to articulate this in such a manner that excites and interests the readers.

There will be a Godly aspect, as I am a servant leader. I hope not to alienate, rather inspire you to tag along for the journey and possibly motivate readers to view differently, the student-athlete.

Thank you for reading. I would truly love and appreciate if you shared this and offered feedback.

God’s speed!

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Seven #EstatePlanning Tasks That You Should Not Put Off!

My mentor used to tell me, all the time..."it is not what is in the will, it is what is not!" So, to me, meeting with professionals is imperative and should be treated with a great sense of urgency! Over the years, I have accumulated what I think are the most important steps that should be addressed this week!

1. Meet with Professionals
2. Will and Trust Origination
3. Durable Power of Attorney (POA)
4. Beneficiary Designations
5. Letter of Intent
6. Healthcare Power of Attorney
7. Guardianship Designations

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*As a follow-up, we will be discussing what each of these items are and how they are important to your life and situation.

LASTLY, ESTABLISH A WILL AND IF YOU HAVE ONE, HAVE IT REVIEWED.