kyle Winkfield - Media InsuranceQuotes 10.21.15

1. 3 DUMB REASONS TO BUY LIFE INSURANCE not a huge expense if you have som e cash in the bank or other assets, he says. In fact, the average funeral costs nearly $7,200, although that doesn’t include the cem e- tery plot, headstone, fl owers or obituary, according to the National Funeral Directors As- sociation. According to Farm ers Insurance, the cem etery plot can add m ore than $1,000 to the cost, while the headstone can add an additional $1,000 and fl owers start at $200. If you do want to use life insurance to cover the cost of your funeral, you have several options, according to Trusted Choice, an association of independent insurance agents. One option is to sim ply factor in the cost of a funeral when you choose a life insurance coverage am ount. Or, you could buy funeral insurance, according to Trusted Choice. There are two m ain ways to get funeral insurance: prepaying for a funeral from a specifi c provider on an installm ent plan or buying fi nal expense insurance, a type of insurance with a low death benefi t of $5,000 to $10,000, according to Trusted Choice. If m oney is tight and it’s im portant to you to m ake sure your funeral expenses are paid, life insurance could be a good choice, Zajac says. 3. To leave a legacy. Do you dream of being rem em bered as the grandm a who set up the grandkids to go to Yale University or travel the world? In fact, som e people do buy life insurance solely because they want to leave an inheritance to an adult child or grandchildren, Zajac says. But using life insurance to leave an inheritance isn’t always easy or cheap. “’Can you really afford this?’ is the fi rst question,” Zajac says. “It m ay be too expensive.” Usually, Zajac recom m ends term life insurance rather than perm anent life insurance. Term life insurance covers you for a specifi c tim e period, usually 10, 20 or 30 years. If you don’t die within that period, your benefi ciary doesn’t receive a paym ent from the insurer. Perm anent life insurance rem ains in force for your whole life if you keep paying the prem ium s. But a person at the stage in life where they’re thinking about leaving an inheritance will be looking at m uch higher m onthly prem ium s than som eone just starting a fam ily. For exam ple, according to Term 4Sale.com , a 65-year-old in good health could pay m ore than $600 a m onth for a $500,000, 20-year term policy. And if the prem ium paym ents are a fi nancial stretch, you could pay them for years, hit a fi nancial rough spot, be unable to keep up paym ents and have the policy lapse, Zajac says. Another issue is that, with a term policy, there’s no guarantee you’ll die before the term ends, he says. “That m oney m ight not even fl ow through to the benefi ciaries,” he says. So, you could look at a perm anent life insurance policy and com pare that to other in- vestm ent options, Zajac says. However, he adds: “I’m not a fan of life insurance as an investm ent.” By: Allie Johnson - October 21, 2015 There’s one very good reason to buy life insurance -- to replace your incom e and provide for your fam ily if you die. But there are plenty of other reasons to buy, and som e are questionable. While every situation is different, and it’s always a good idea to talk to a qualifi ed adviser about yours, here are three reasons it m ight not m ake sense to purchase life insurance. 1. To pay off your debt after you die. Depending on the type of debt, the am ount of debt and the specifi c situation, buying life insurance to pay off debt m ight -- or m ight not -- m ake sense. If you have up to $10,000 in credit card debt, for exam ple, you m ight not need life insur- ance to pay your debts. Usually, unless you have a joint credit card or a cosigner, your survivors won’t be responsible for paying your debt, though a creditor can go after your estate to get m oney owed. And federal student loans get discharged when the borrower dies, according to the U.S. Departm ent of Education. “For som e debts, no one is stuck with them ,” says Kyle Winkfi eld, a fi nancial adviser and m anaging partner of O’Dell, Winkfi eld, Rosem an & Shipp, a wealth m anagem ent fi rm . He argues that borrowers still should m ake sure their loans will be paid off at death. However, if you have a m ortgage, a private student loan, any loan on which a friend or relative cosigned, or a business loan, life insurance can be a great way to m ake sure you don’t leave your survivors in the lurch. For exam ple, one of Winkfi eld’s clients, who is in his 20s, bought $2 m illion worth of term life insurance for $890 a year because he had taken out a large business loan and was worried his wife would be left in a jam if he died. The policy bought the couple instant peace of m ind. “It was a really good deal,” Winkfi eld says. Kyle Winkfi eld, managing partner at O’Dell, Winkfi eld, Roseman & Shipp, has more than 15 years of experi- ence growing clients’ wealth through cutting edge fi nancial strategies. Kyle specifi cally focuses on reducing or eliminating future income tax liabili- ties and preservation of wealth while increasing lifestyle security. If you’re considering buying life insurance to pay off your debt, look at: how m uch you owe, the type of loan, whether your loved ones would be on the hook to pay it off, and other im plications, such as whether a business partner could afford to buy out your share of the business, says Daniel Zajac, a Certifi ed Financial Planner professional and life insurance agent. “Life insurance is big when you get into business planning,” he says. 2. To cover the cost of your funeral. Watch TV, and you m ight think one of the m ain purposes for life insurance is to pay for your funeral. “You see it on the com m ercials all the tim e,” Zajac says. To contact Kyle, please call 877-821-OWRS (6977) or visit www.owrsfi rm.com. However, unless you have absolutely no m oney in the bank, paying for a funeral m ight not be the wisest reason to buy life insurance, he says. That’s partly because a funeral is