Love what you do!

Love what you do! My dad tells me this every week. You know, he’s right, and reinforcing that lesson each week that we talk, shows his real wisdom. Most of us work 40 or more hours each week to make a living that only leaves 128 hours a week to sleep. If you get only 5 hours a night that leaves just 6 hours a day and the weekends to enjoy our family and eat. So, we had better love what we do.
I have always loved my occupation, for 10 years I was in the Army, and OMG what a cool way to make a living. I would still be doing that if it were not for my disability. After leaving the Army I started a career in sales (selling natural products wholesale to health food stores across the Midwest) that was great, the travel and the information gave me a great since of satisfaction.

Now my job is to insure that my clients have the appropriate amount of insurance at the time of loss. Not easy, because most people think I am just out to make some money. But I want to show my clients the best way to use the funds they have available for their insurance needs … and honestly, most insurance agents want the same thing.

We want to be there for you when your world has turned upside down and we want to help you get through it. That’s not how we make money … we make more if you pay the highest premium for the longest time with no claims. But we live in your communities and struggle like you do, so we often do what’s best for you and not what’s best for our bottom line.

This Father’s Day I went to the local stripper pits to fish with my dad and I know you folks did the same because that’s what we do in the Midwest, we spend our time with family and friends, and we protect those same people as best we can.

Insurance is like that, car insurance protects our family from law suits, home owner’s insurance protects our family from fire, and life insurance protects our loved ones from fate or someone else’s actions.

Yep, I love what I do because it makes a difference in the lives of each and every client I have. I spend more of my time than most folks promoting and working in my business because I LOVE what I do. Dad is right, you have to love what you do!

Call your insurance agent today and tell them that you appreciate what they do … if you don’t appreciate them then do both of you a favor and switch!

Giving More ... Charity Planning

We all reach a point in life where we see the need to give back. Whether it is our local church, the Humane Society, or some cancer research center, we see the need to help out in some way and to financially support the cause.

So we give a little each week or each month knowing that a little at a time over a long period adds up. But have you ever considered how much you will be giving over the next 20 or 30 years. It really adds up, for example if a 30 year old woman gave $10 a week to her church for 35 years (until she retires) she would have given the church $18,200 over that time. But what happens if she dies in an accident before age 65? The church will lose that income and have to make it up elsewhere. Not a huge monthly amount but if that happens a few times the church will be without thousands of dollars in income that it needs to maintain the building and continue the programs that cost more and more each year.

There is a way to insure that the charity (in this case her local church) will receive all that she planed to give over her lifetime regardless of how long (or short) that life is. If the same 30 year old woman (in good health and a non tobacco user) bought a traditional life insurance policy for the whole amount that she plans on giving to the church ($18,200) and she made the church the beneficiary, it would cost her about $4.20* each week (premiums would need to be paid for about 20 years until the cash value was high enough to allow for off set) ... if she then gave the church the remaining $6 a week her total gift to the church during the 35 years would be $14,040 but the church would get the death benefit of $18,200 even if something happened to her after her first payment on the life policy. If she lives to age 65 the church would have gotten her tithe of $14,040 from the previous 35 years and a death benefit of over $20,000* when she passes.

Life insurance can make sure that the amount of money you want to leave to a charity is a sure thing, and if you make the charity the owner of your policy and you just pay the premiums then your premiums can be tax deductable. This is the most common use for life insurance, that is to protect someone or some group from the financial loss associated with the premature death of a supporter. But there are other ways to use life insurance to increase your charitable gift after you pass away.

Let's say that a 65 year old woman loses her husband after they both had worked for a lifetime. His retirement was $1900 a month but she was living comfortably on her own retirement and decided to give that amount to the Humane Society to help fund the programs her husband supported for nearly 70 years. If she were to pass away in the first year the Humane Society would only get $22,800 ($1900 times 12 months) but if she were to use the $1900 a month to purchase a life insurance policy the Humane society would get nearly 3/4 of a million dollars* to continue the work her husband supported all his life.

Another example of using life insurance to expand your gifting to the charities you love is the Single Premium life policy. If you have a lump sum of money that you do not need for your income and you want to pass along to fund future building needs for your church a great option is to use it to buy a single premium life insurance policy. Let's say that a widower age 72 wants make sure his $50,000 CD is used for the church's future building projects he could greatly expand the benefit by purchasing a single premium life policy worth about $75,000* when he passes away.

The one thing to remember is that anyone that wants to use life insurance as a way to support their favorite charity must be insurable and if they have conditions that are ongoing such as diabetes you may get less for your money or you may not qualify for a policy at all. Your best bet is to talk to an Agent that you trust and let them know what you want to do ... they will be able to design a program that meets your needs and gets the money to your charity regardless of how much longer you live.

This is a really cool idea that deserves an extra look ... it is a great way to guarantee your gift or greatly expand it.

J

* all figures are general examples and are based on a person in good health that does not use tobacco and are only accurate for certain companies at the time of publication.