Category: Insurance
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The Secure Act 2.0 May Have Passed While You Weren’t Looking
The Secure Act 2.0 was finally passed as just one part of a massive funding package by the outgoing congress just before Christmas on December 23, 2022, and signed into law by the president as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill authorizing roughly $1.7 trillion in new Federal spending (yikes!). You’re…
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The ‘Stewardship of Life’ (Part Five)—Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance
Quite a while back, I published a series of four articles about care in later life. In articles three and four, I touched on various insurance products you can purchase to cover long-term care (LTC) expenses: traditional LTC insurance (LTCI), cash value life insurance (whole or universal life), and annuities. I didn’t explore another category…
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Choosing a Medicare Plan
In my last article, I discussed using a “regret minimization” strategy to help with making critical retirement planning decisions. I illustrated how you might apply it to your Social Security claiming and retirement account investing choices. Deciding when to claim your Social Security benefits may be the most important decision you’ll make when you choose to…
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The ‘Stewardship of Life’ (Part Three)—Paying for Long-Term Care
The potential need for an extended time in long-term care (LTC) is a crucial retirement stewardship concern because of its significant financial implications. We have looked at the types of care, how Medicare and Medicaid, and some other programs fit, and in this third article in a 4-part series, we will look at LTC costs…
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The ‘Stewardship of Life’ (Part One)—Long-Term Care
We now know that older people are most susceptible to COVID-19 disease. We are also hearing about large numbers of deaths from COVID-19 in “nursing homes.” That is because the infection and mortality rate in such facilities is disproportionally high. My wife and I were discussing this, how tragic and sad that so many have died…
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Should Whole Life Insurance Be Part Of Your Retirement Plan (Part 2)?
In this article, we are going to consider what role, if any, whole life insurance might play in your retirement income plan. Although the death benefit is still in view, the focus here is on leveraging the cash-value (investment) component to help fund your retirement income stream. More and more retirement planning professionals are emphasizing…
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Should Whole Life Insurance Be Part Of Your Retirement Plan (Part 1)?
A reader recently asked me to take a look at a retirement planning (funding) method using permanent life insurance espoused by Nelson Nash in his book Becoming Your Own Banker. In addition to the life insurance benefit, the author discusses a “be your own bank” approach to funding major life purchases. He also recommends using permanent…
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Should I Include Annuities in my Retirement Plan (Part 3)?
In this, the third and final article in this series on annuities, I am going to look at variable annuities. Although sales of fixed index annuities have recently outpaced variable annuities, they remain very popular among new annuity purchasers. Also, since you may be pitched one by your friendly insurance rep or financial advisor, I…