Life Insurance and Living Benefits

LTD, (Long Term Disability) is a feature found in most group insurance plans. The design of the plan can vary greatly, not only from company to company, but also in what your employer actually chooses for you.  You might have a decent plan, but you may also have a scaled down plan. The time to review what you have is not at the time of your claim. Here is a list of questions to ask your employer or administrator: 1.  Is the LTD benefit taxable as income or tax free at claim time? This will make a world of difference when you are sick or hurt. If your employer is paying even $1.00 toward the cost of the LTD for you, the entire benefit becomes taxable at claim time. 2.  Is there an upper limit on the monthly benefit? Often we find group plans will cover 66.67% of your salary, however we also see an overall limit can restrict this benefit. For example, if the plan limit is $3,500 per month and you make over $63,000 per year, then as a percentage your benefit is ...

Lady Gaga in her hit song “Million Reasons” sings: “You’ve given me a million reasons to let you go…Baby; I just need one good one to stay”. As a financial planner, I work with clients helping them determine their goals and objectives. We work together to make dreams a reality, and to mitigate the risk of financial hardship or even failure.  In doing so, our process is designed to allow the client to create their own future, and to protect it to the extent of their own commitment. I don’t need to tell a person they need life insurance, I simply ask: “Are these objectives, dreams and goals worth protecting”? You see, the world can tell you a million reasons to let go of your dreams, but you just need one to save them.   If you are in Nova Scotia and would like some insurance advice, please contact Corry Collins: corry@maritimewealth.com 902-444-7000 Please like, share and comment on my newest post! Lady Gaga and a Million Reasons

The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) holds its annual meeting this June in Orlando. Members from around the world will be in attendance. The annual meeting is the flagship event for the MDRT. Top advisors from over 70 countries meet and share world class ideas on how to grow your business and how to develop a thriving practice. The main platform is always full of motivation, business ideas and stories that may change your life. Ten thousand people are expected this year. The focus sessions are detailed sessions drilling down on the specifics of specialized subjects. Members and non-members are invited to speak on their area of speciality. Networking with leading industry people (who become friends) is one of the highlights. The mentoring program at MDRT provides a chance for non-members to attend as a guest.  The rules can be found at https://www.mdrt.org/membership/mentoring/ , but here are some of the particulars: The MDRT Annual Meeting scheduled for June 4-7, 20...

I spoke with a physician client recently who’s family income was over half a million dollars per year. They have a good amount of cash built up in the RRSP (over $1,000,000) lots of cash in their corporation, and over $2,000,000 in real estate. They plan on working for at least 10 more years. A rough estimate of their worth would be between $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 by age 65. We were dealing with some insurance issues that needed to be solved and in the process I asked the question about retirement and asked what planning had been done. The plan was to keep going until retirement age, and then to assess the situation, she said. This was not an uncommon response as my experience shows many people spend more time planning a Christmas party then they do planning their financial future. My comment was this; if you were running a multi-million dollar corporation with very good cash flow, one where assets were growing compounded every year, would you want to have a business pl...

Life insurance is generally purchased to provide tax free cash exactly when needed; for example: income replacement, debt elimination, mortgage cancellation, education costs, or simply maintaining life style for survivors. While people purchase a life insurance policy for one reason, the reason they continue to hold onto the policy may be for something completely different. For example, you might buy a policy to pay off the mortgage if you die prematurely, but after the mortgage has been paid, one might keep the policy to leave the grandchildren something for education. But then comes retirement. We will often see clients come into the office and say “we are retiring and don’t need the policy any longer.” In fact, we also find that others have suggested cancelling the policy because “the kids are self-sufficient and don’t need it”. On the contrary, there are many different reasons people either hold on to their insurance or even buy additional insurance as they retire. H...