Does Your Life Insurance Still “Fit”?

If you selected your life insurance policy years ago, you most likely followed the typical protocol for choosing a policy: You estimated your family’s financial needs in the event of your death, you compared costs and benefits of different policies, and then you selected a life insurance plan that offered the coverage you needed at the right price.

That’s a pretty typical way of doing things, and you certainly chose the best policy available at the time. After all, protecting your family is a top priority!
But over time, it is possible that your family’s needs have changed. You might even have heard about new benefits or riders that you wish had been available to you all those years ago. Are you stuck with your old life insurance policy?
Luckily, no. You aren’t locked into that old policy if it no longer suits you. People exchange their life insurance plans for a better deal all the time, often for the following reasons:

• the family has grown, or needs have changed, and a larger death benefit is needed
• the current insurance provider does not supply adequate customer service, or there are concerns about the company’s solvency
• need for lower premiums
• desire for riders or benefits not available under the old policy
• the discovery that a different type of life insurance policy would be a better fit

Sometimes people aren’t even aware that their needs have changed, or that a better deal is available. That’s why everyone with a life insurance policy should perform a new needs analysis every two to three years, and learn about new benefits that have become available. The results of this research might surprise you; your family’s needs have changed gradually that perhaps you didn’t notice.

If for any reason you need to exchange your old life insurance policy for a new one, you can do that via a 1035 exchange. A 1035 exchange is a tricky operation, and if you don’t perform it exactly right you could trigger large income tax implications. We will be happy to walk you through the process to ensure that your exchange is successful. Give us a call, and we can help you decide upon a plan of action to offer the best protection to your family.