"I hope my family's story helps other to take action sooner!"

A current client wrote the above statement to me as she helped me edit her story below.

Introduction

A family's financial strategy should revisited regularly.  The following are always changing: goals, health, jobs, tax laws and estate laws.

The financial tools employed to implement the strategy also change.  

No matter which component is being reviewed, it should be done in the context of the overall strategy.   

Let's look at life insurance for example.  Most obvious is not having enough.   

A recent example is particularly troubling to me personally.  

I can't force people to plan, but this experience has taught me to be "ever more persistent" in encouraging people to plan.

Here is her story

A young couple in their 30's/40's came to me seeking investment assistance as their little boy was about to be born.   I encouraged them to work with us on a complete financial strategy including estate planning; they opted to delay indefinitely and focus on investing.  

The planning process would have uncovered that the husband not only needed to protect his wife and son through life insurance - but that his mother (no other family other than her son) is just as dependent on him as his wife and son.   

Unfortunately this loving son, father and husband died of leukemia in February, 2013, with his child only 20 months old.  

As I write this, his wife is in the process of purchasing a life insurance policy on her life to protect her son from her own premature death, as well as estate planning so those critical components are also in place.  

She realizes too late, how different her life would be if they had followed through with their complete financial strategy. The tragedy is the premature departure of this vibrant loving young man.  Imagine if he could have left a legacy of a brighter financial future for his mother, wife and son.   Our pain of missing him would be eased somewhat. 

Life Insurance Check-up Offered

Many people avoid the "no life insurance scenario" and obtain life insurance, thinking that it is a one-time event.  (Some buy it on their own on-line which they mistakenly believe saves them money.)  They put it in a drawer not realizing that there can be many issues causing it to no longer accomplish its mission.  

Working with non-biased industry analysts, we will conduct a complete life insurance policy review for you at no cost.  

Just call or e-mail us to get started.  It's easy and so critical to make sure it is right.  

Whole life or permanent policies are particularly important to review.  Policies that have investment-like components, or that have had withdrawals or loans against them, due to under-funding could "lapse" - meaning they are no longer in force!  Also, how the policy fits into the overall estate planning strategy should be reviewed which should include a check of beneficiaries.

Though term policies are far simpler they still need to be checked especially for the premium cost, amount of coverage, dates of coverage, estate planning and beneficiaries.