Why Is Life Insurance Important In Financial Planning? As part of your financial planning, a life insurance plan is a great investment option.
Life is a long journey filled with a variety of financial objectives and unforeseen events. Having a sound financial plan in place can go a long way toward making your goal of a better and safer future for your loved ones a reality.
A structured approach to determining whether your assets or resources are sufficient to meet your financial goals or cover any unforeseen costs in the future is known as financial planning.
A life insurance policy is a necessary part of any financial plan. Life insurance becomes increasingly important as you get older, decide to get married, buy a house, start a family, and retire.
Why Is Life Insurance Important In Financial Planning
- Life Insurance can aid in portfolio diversification: You can, for instance, use a cash value life insurance policy to generate tax-deferred growth if you are in a higher tax bracket and have already exhausted all of your contributions to a retirement plan. You don’t have to pay taxes when you use your basis because you’re just getting your own money back. You can then switch to policy loans which are not considered income that must be reported.
- Insurance has the added benefit of giving your legacy and estate plan some predictability: Over time, the value of investments, real estate, business interests, and other investment assets can fluctuate. Predictability is provided by a life insurance policy. Because the death benefits of life insurance don’t change a lot over time, that part of your estate plan will stay the same.
- Including insurance in your financial plan can help reduce risk: Risk reduction is probably the most common reason to have life insurance. Life insurance can assist in securing financial support for your loved ones in the event of the death of their primary source of income.
Be that as it may, extra security can relieve risk in alternate ways. Let’s look at the risk of investing $10,000 per year in a traditional investment for ten years versus using that amount to “overfund” a $200,000 cash value insurance policy as an example. Your heirs will receive the $20,000 you invested in the traditional investment if you die unexpectedly after only two years. However, your heirs would receive the entire $200,000 death benefit if you chose insurance.
READ: What Is Whole Life Cash Value Life Insurance
Additional risk mitigation benefits are included in some life insurance policies. Some, for instance, can be set up to provide financial support for long-term care. While the policyholder is still alive, others might be able to provide cash for living expenses.
- Financial backup for your loved ones: A life insurance policy provides protection for your loved ones. In exchange for paying the insurer a predetermined amount of premium, you receive a death benefit and life insurance. As a result, if you pass away unexpectedly, your family will receive financial compensation in the form of the assured sum and any additional benefits, if any, covered by your life insurance policy.
It can help you keep track of long-term goals. Long-term goals like buying a house or car, sending your kids to college, getting married, and saving for retirement should be carefully considered and started early. With the help of a life insurance policy with sufficient coverage and maturity benefits, you can accomplish a number of long-term financial objectives. You can achieve all of your financial objectives by selecting the ideal combination of long-term life insurance policies, such as ULIPs and endowment plans.
It can help you save money and invest it. Some life insurance policies, like universal life insurance policies can also be useful for investing and saving for retirement. Various cumulative benefits, such as simple or compound incentives, set bonuses, reward benefits, etc., increase the insured amount.
Business Needs. Using buy-sell agreements and life insurance early can help ensure the business’s continuity. Whether you have two accomplices or different accomplices, you need to ensure that the business is passed to the people who have an interest in it.
Planning for an Estate. Everybody has an estate. When you use life insurance in your estate planning, the goal is to ensure that your assets are distributed in the way you want. There are continuously going to be costs that show up with a domain. Life insurance provides liquidity to cover some of these costs and costs associated with the estate.
An irrevocable life insurance trust is one more way to reduce estate taxes. In addition, it is essential to remain informed about potential changes to estate taxes.
READ: Is Cash Value Life Insurance Taxable?
It is essential to investigate ways to achieve your objectives by incorporating life insurance into your comprehensive financial strategy. Contact a professional who can assist you if you are unsure how to do that.
Why Financial Advisors Sell Life Insurance
Some clients have a skepticism about financial advisors who sell life insurance. After all, a financial advisor is supposed to be a fiduciary who cannot be changed and only works for the client’s benefit. Having a financial advisor who also sells life insurance may appear contradictory to some. However, the reality is that the majority of financial advisors wear multiple hats, and a life insurance policy is an essential component of virtually every serious financial plan.
There are numerous reasons financial advisors might want to include the sale of life insurance as one of their client services. These include the opportunity to earn commissions and the capacity to better satisfy the requirements of their customers through the provision of wealth planning services that are more extensive. The need to become an expert in a new field and the difficulties that some advisors face when discussing life insurance with their clients are two of the downsides.
Many financial advisors see life insurance as an essential component of their clients’ financial planning and wealth insurance services. In the event that the insured policyholder passes away, beneficiaries receive financial protection.
A financial advisor who sells life insurance can make a substantial initial commission based on the first year’s premium as well as annual commissions of 3 to 5 percent for as long as the policy is in effect.
A financial advisor can also refer their clients to reputable insurance agents rather than selling life insurance on their own.
Why it’s a good idea for Financial Advisors to sell Life Insurance
Many people have a genuine requirement for a life coverage strategy. As part of the client’s wealth insurance and estate planning process, financial advisors who have already established a trusting relationship with their clients are in a unique position to respond to these inquiries.
When one partner has more money than the other and wants to keep the other partner’s standard of living the same, this is one common reason to buy life insurance. This could entail having sufficient insurance to cover the outstanding mortgage and the children’s future college costs. It could also entail providing the partner with a savings account that generates income to supplement the partner’s lower salary until retirement and beyond. Another scenario in which a life insurance policy can come to the rescue is securing the future of disabled grown children.
Basically, individuals ought to think about life coverage in the event that their unexpected death toll would mean difficulty for their wards.
READ: Cash Surrender Value Life Insurance Policy
A Drawback of Selling Life Insurance
Some financial advisors are hesitant to enter this market because of the difficulty of discussing life insurance. Clients might react with skepticism or even resent the morbidity of talking about their possible deaths
A financial advisor might find it simpler to concentrate on stocks, mutual funds, and developing investment strategies rather than insurance. Nonetheless, numerous financial advisors face what is happening and remember extra security for their general system. Duty, profit, or a combination of the two can drive this.
Selling Insurance Products for a Living
A financial advisor who relies on commissions has a strong financial incentive to include life insurance because some insurance companies pay quite a lot for selling their products. A sizable portion of the first year’s premium may be subject to commission which is followed by annual commissions of 3 to 5% for as long as the policy is in effect.
A current financial advisor should have no trouble adding “insurance agent” to the list of qualifications because the entry barrier to this field is low. However, acquiring formal qualifications like Fellow at Life Management Institute, Certified Insurance Counselor, or Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) may be worth the extra time and effort. It guarantees that advisors are good with each part of the item they are selling which can forestall humiliating moments when clients have startling inquiries. Having valid credentials also demonstrates seriousness to clients with higher levels of sophistication.
Working with Insurance Professionals
Another option is for the financial advisor to delegate wealth planning to an insurance professional. This has numerous benefits.
First and foremost, it protects against the negative emotions and potential repercussions of a rejected insurance application.
Second, it frees up the advisor’s time so that they can concentrate on their area of investment expertise and leaves insurance planning to another dedicated expert.
Last but not least, collaborating with an insurance professional can result in significant synergies. For instance, a fee-only financial advisor who chooses not to go through the insurance sales qualification process can provide valuable leads, which can make an insurance representative very happy. It’s a safe bet that the insurance agent has a lot of customers of their own who need financial advice. As a result, reciprocal leads can assist both parties in generating business opportunities.