Do you want to give the most memorable gift to your child or grandchildren this year?

We all love our young children and grandchildren and want to give them gifts that they want. As minor children or grandchildren, their wants are most likely for the latest toy or gadget that will most likely be forgotten not too long after its given. These minors, as expected, do not know yet what you know. You know that the toy or gadget will provide only temporary happiness and you want them to have a gift that will benefit them financially in the future.

What gift could you give them as minor children or grandchildren that would help them financially in the future, will cost less due to their young age, and may not be available to them once they turn 18? You may have guessed already, but that gift to your minor child or grandchild is a juvenile whole life insurance policy with a death benefit from $5,000 up to about $25,000.

4.  As a whole life policy, it will build cash value that they can borrow from in the future – a better option than a bank loan or a credit card advance.

5.  Additional coverage can be purchased without evidence of insurability at certain points in time – that guaranteed insurability can be incredibly valuable later in their life.

Sometimes, we don’t think of purchasing life insurance on anyone else’s life other than ourselves or our spouse, but it is a definite possibility (plus an incredible gift) for your minor children or grandchildren.  Once your child or grandchild learns the real financial value of that gift, they will be grateful and will never forget your insight and love in doing that for them.

If this is a new idea that you want to pursue or a reminder of an idea that you are now ready to pursue, we can help.  Feel free to give us a call, text or email, and we’ll be available to you.

This is a very important question if you want to have a secure and happy retirement. We all have one source of guaranteed income for life through our Social Security Benefits, but we all know the monthly dollar amount probably does not cover all our monthly expenses during retirement and especially does not cover enough extra to really enjoy our retirement. But gladly we do have this one source of guaranteed income for life.

Your grandparents and maybe your parents had/have a second source of guaranteed income for life through their employer’s pension benefits, but it’s most likely that you, like me, do not have that pension benefit.  This is because employers now offer 401k plans instead of pension plans.  Do you know the difference? A pension plan pays you a set amount every month for as long as you live.  A 401k plan is your money that you have invested in the market and you have no guarantee how long that money will last or how much you’ll receive each month. This difference is huge and it was the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974 that created this change that most employers chose over the pension plan.

Luckily for you though, you have the option of purchasing a lifetime income annuity that will provide for you that second source of guaranteed income for life that you are lacking.  To have a happy and stress-free retirement, you will 

explaining mortality credits: because some people will pass away earlier and will not collect income for that long, the insurance company can pay the entire pool of lifetime income annuity holders a little more than a traditional investment.

I must give credit to Tom Hegna and his book Pay Checks and Play Checks: Retirement Solutions for Life for his great explanation and enthusiasm for the lifetime income annuity.  I highly recommend his book.

So, does being sure your retirement plan has enough guaranteed income for life seem a little more possible now?  This article does not cover all the specifics and options of a lifetime income annuity, and all the details applicable to your situation must be reviewed, evaluated and explained if you have that interest, but this article at least gets you thinking.  When that thinking generates questions, as we’re sure it will, please feel free to contact us and we’ll sit down with you to go over everything.

Safeguard Assurance LLC    (941) 932-1388 or 1389

Are you struggling to pay your group health insurance premiums?

As a small business owner (less than 7 employees), are you struggling to pay the monthly premium for your group health insurance? Sadly many small business owners have to answer “yes” to this question and it is very stressful since they do want to continue to offer health insurance benefits to their employees, but it has to be affordable for the business. Luckily there are some other options that could be more affordable as many small businesses have discovered. If you only have 3 – 7 employees, you may want to consider an alternative to fully funded group plans.

Why are group health insurance premiums high?

Fully insured group health insurance rates through insurance carriers are usually based on all employees as a group, with no ability to consider the cost savings that are there for the healthy employees, the group health premiums are quite high. Said a little differently, with some group health coverage, insurers cannot base their premium prices on the medical history of any one individual in the group, but instead must account for a wide variety of statistical illnesses for the entire population of the group. Group premiums

individual health insurance plans for each employee would produce a lower total premium over your current group health insurance premium. Individual plans may also offer more flexibility in choice for each employee which employees appreciate. As a small employer (less than 7 employees), by law, you can provide individual health insurance plans to your employees over the group plan.

What your next step should be if you want to know if your business could benefit?

Contact a local insurance agency with experience in this cost savings employee health insurance approach, like Safeguard Assurance LLC.  They will need an employee census and your current group plan premium and benefit summary for analysis and comparison. They will then be able to evaluate the options and crunch the numbers for you to determine if significant savings is available and if it makes sense to make a change.  We at Safeguard Assurance keep our client’s best interests as our top priority and we’ll tell you if making no change is the best option for you.

Life is full of so many little things to do every day and the most important tasks for our well-being and our family may be forgotten unintentionally. Again, it’s unintentionally forgotten, and it happens to lots of people so don’t feel bad. In this post we’ll list some of the critical reasons for having life insurance before it is too late.

Here are a few reminders why life insurance could be very important to you and your family.

Protect your family with the policy’s death benefit:

1. Does your spouse and children depend on you for the financial support?

2. Is there a mortgage on your family home that your family would struggle to pay without your income? Do you want your family to be able to stay in the family home?

3. Do you have children you want to be able to send to college who would be unable to do so without your income?

The peace of mind that you will experience at that point in time will make you feel so good for a very long time since you do know that you cannot predict when you will sadly leave this earth.  That same incredible peace of mind will also be felt by the family members you love knowing that you protected them even if you are gone. And, guess what? You will be able to take the credit for this phenomenal gift you have provided.  The love for your family will be very evident for years to come!

Note: If you have term life insurance through your employer, it is often not offered at the needed death benefit amount or the policy will most likely terminate if you change or lose your job. Therefore, you may want to evaluate other alternatives to make sure you have the proper type of Life Insurance that will fully protect your family.

Safeguard Assurance is here and ready to answer all your questions. We are very passionate about offering life insurance to our clients and how it is a true necessity when it comes to protecting our loved ones.

Legacy of Love – A MUST WATCH VIDEO!   

This video captures the real story of why we have Life Insurance! 

Have you been wondering exactly what Final Expense Life Insurance is and if you may want it? These are two common questions that we hear from our clients, and we want to provide those answers here for you.

Final Expense Life Insurance is one of the many types of life insurance available and it is meant for a specific purpose. Our Final Expenses can be significant, and we want to be sure our loved ones don’t have to pay them from their pockets, especially at an unexpected time. Our final expenses are things like our funeral expenses (therefore Final Expense Insurance is also called Burial Insurance), final medical bills and other final bills like a credit card balance. Unfortunately, even a simple funeral can be quite expensive these days, but you likely already know this.

Another need that a Final Expense Insurance can meet is to leave behind an amount of money to benefit your loved ones after the final expenses have been covered.

Simplified-Issue Final Expense differs from guaranteed-issue in the fact that you will be required to be able to answer “no” to some simple questions on your health and lifestyle. There is also no medical exam with the Simplified-Issue Final Expense policies.

The benefits of being able to answer “no” to those questions will give you two benefits over a Guaranteed-Issue policy-                        

1) lower premium (but if you are a smoker, your premium will be higher than a non-smoker) and 2) immediate full death benefit from day one.

Some carriers may offer a higher death benefit with a Simplified-Issue policies when compared to a Guaranteed-Issue policy.

We can help you determine which of these two types fits your specific needs the best.

Like we mentioned above, if you are healthier and you are willing to take a

If you are nearing age 65 and are getting ready to enroll in Medicare, you may feel buried and confused by all the mail and phone calls you are receiving. We can help unbury you by improving your understanding and reducing the confusion by separating Medicare into four main points and giving you a brief overview of each.

1.  Understand Medicare Parts A, B, and D — Medicare has 3 parts, Parts A, B and D, and here’s the main points of each.  Parts A and B, called Original Medicare, are provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). When you apply for Medicare through Social Security, Parts A and B come together. Part A is for inpatient hospital and skilled nursing care. Part B is for doctor visits, outpatient procedures, tests, lab work, etc. Part D is an insurance plan to decrease the costs of prescription medicines. Eligibility for Part A, B and D start the first day of the month you turn 65, or at a sooner date in the event that you have been receiving Social Security Disability Benefits for 24 months.

4.  Understand your Medicare Options — There are two options to pick from:

Option 1:   Add a Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plan to help you pay your cost share within Part A and B. There is a premium for a Medigap plan, but the plan can completely pay your Medicare Part A & B cost share mentioned above or most of it, your choice.  A Medigap plan, offered by private insurance companies, lets you see any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare so there is good flexibility and peace of mind with this option and this is great for snowbirds. You will keep your stand-alone Part D plan with this option.

Option 2:   Replace Original Medicare with a Medicare Advantage plan while still paying your Part B premium. Medicare Advantage plans are called Part C plans.  The main advantages of a Part C plan over just Original Medicare is the annual limit in the amount of cost share you must pay and there can be no additional premium over the Part B premium you are already paying.