by Richard Schlueter, Vice President – Insurance Services, Wealth Enhancement Group

Last month this column focused on the reasons why it is an excellent time to review your life insurance portfolio. This month we will focus on how you should go about initiating a review. The following steps relate primarily to the non-term portion of your life insurance portfolio.
 
The first step is to gain an understanding of the projected future values of your policy.  You can do this by contacting the life insurance carrier and asking for “a projection of future values”. The result will be an illustration that can help you recognize issues that may be lurking but not currently evident. The most common example of this is finding that your current premium may not sustain the policy as expected. The future values projection can also provide you with helpful information to compare your expectations for the policy against what is projected to occur. Requesting future value projections is a good habit to follow. It should be done every two to three years.
 
The second step is to understand what, if any tax penalties or surrender charges you might encounter should you choose to evaluate alternatives. This information too can be obtained by contacting the life insurance carrier. Any taxable gain upon surrender would be taxed at ordinary income tax rates. Any surrender charge would reduce the amount of cash proceeds.
 
With these two pieces of information you will be well armed to initiate a review of your policy as it relates to your ongoing objectives. Going back to last months column we are reminded of the reason why now is a good time to review you coverage; product pricing/evolution, and the economy.
 
If you collect the items discussed above Wealth Enhancement Group would be happy to evaluate your current portfolio. You can reach Wealth Enhancement Group’s Insurance Services area by calling (763) 417-1672.