Indexing
Safety
Opportunity
Despite our current economy and gloomy predictions, periods of tremendous opportunity in the market are still likely. What if it were possible to preserve your assets from market downturns without having to make an emotional decision to buy, sell, or hold any one stock? What if you could take advantage of a strategy that automatically takes you out of harm’s way during bad years and positions you for opportunity during good ones? The secret is in linking safely to the market without putting your principal there. By “indexing” to the market instead of “owning” the market, you can link to indices safely on autopilot and lock in your gains without creating a taxable event. According to a recent study by the Wharton School of Finance, some indexed products—because of their ability to lock in credited interest in up years and not experience losses in the down years—outperformed the broad market over the last 15 years!(1)
Products
Some will find this news sounds too good to be true. It is hard to believe that there are strategies available that could have preserved your assets from the devastating downturns of the past. Certainly, most of us know how to keep our money safe: insurance companies have been preserving our money for over a century in vehicles like Annuities and Life Insurance. Innovative enhancements to these safe vehicles allow you to experience growth in Fixed Indexed Annuities* and Indexed Universal Life Insurance**.
The catch? Most indexed products are designed for long-term or nest egg money. Dollars that need to be spent in the near term are best placed elsewhere. For those who have the luxury of time, indexed vehicles like Indexed Annuities* and Indexed Universal Life Insurance** have the possibility to outperform the market over time without subjecting principal to market risk and market volatility. Indexed Annuities* and Indexed Universal Life Insurance** are regulated by governmental agencies. These well-designed vehicles have many positives and two potential negatives. The first negative is that they don’t capture all the up of the market and the second is that they are initially not 100% liquid. These plans have surrender penalties that eventually expire, resulting in the policy becoming 100% liquid. Paying a surrender penalty is a conscious decision. Market loss is not. We offer a variety of plans ranging from 5 to 16 years in length offered by many different insurance companies.
Tax-Free Retirement
What if you could change your money from forever taxed to never taxed?
With ballooning annual deficits, unfunded liabilities, and entitlement programs, our country is probably headed toward stifling taxes in the future. Do you have a plan to deal with the possibility of tax increases that will be needed to pay for these programs?
Most individuals are focused during their working years on funding tax-deferred savings plans like IRAs and 401(k)s and fail to adequately prepare for the possibility that future taxes will rise. Generally, planners and advisors advocate that money should be placed in tax-deferred vehicles during the working years because they assume you will live on less in retirement. While this may be the case for the highest income earners, many will find that due to inflation in energy costs, healthcare premiums, and taxes, they may actually need more income during retirement to maintain their standard of living.
In addition, most Americans will rely to some degree upon Social Security to supplement their standard of living during retirement. If a retiree’s other income sources are taxable, then the portion of Social Security income that is taxable could rise to as high as 80%.
As part of your income strategy, we suggest that if you have the opportunity, you should make part of your income tax free. In other words, if part of your income in retirement comes from tax-free sources and never has to appear on your tax return, you will actually reduce your taxes on the rest of your income, including Social Security. Of course, the challenge is to find a financial vehicle that will allow you to accomplish this without sacrificing other important goals; we have discovered an innovative approach that combines a number of the following powerful features:
- Principal protection
- Market-linked growth
- Tax-free accumulation
- Tax-free access for major expenditures
- Tax-free access for long term care
- Tax-free access for retirement income
- Tax-free cash to your family or business partners
How Can I Receive Income Tax-Free?
Do you need extra cash to supplement your retirement income? How about to help pay for college expenses? Wouldn’t it be nice if these extra income sources were available to you on a tax-free basis? Life insurance, in addition to traditional coverage, offers a means to do this by allowing you to deposit significant amounts of money in addition to the minimum required premium to pay for the life insurance.
Imagine your premium being invested into 2 different accounts. The first is a small account, where the actual cost of the insurance goes to pay the premium. Once the money is deposited into this account, it is spent by the company to pay the actual cost of the insurance. The rest of the money goes into a type of “holding tank.” This holding tank is then invested into the life insurance carrier’s portfolio. By merging your money with millions of dollars from other investors, the insurance companies are able to achieve better, safer gains than any individual could achieve. In return, the carrier gives the consumer a piece of that interest, which is then credited back to the owner’s account as a growth in the cash value of the account.
There are two main ways that the policy holder can take money out of their account. They can make a withdrawal from the cash value at any time, which is subject to ordinary income taxes. However, most insurance policies offer the ability to take a loan from the policy because, according to the IRS, loans are not taxed and so these loans from the policy come out tax-free so long as all the funds are not withdrawn from the policy. The death benefit acts as a sort of collateral until the loan is repaid and, in case the loan is never repaid, the difference is simply subtracted from the death benefit and the difference goes to your beneficiaries tax-free!
1 Geoffrey VanderPal, D.B.A, CFP, CLU, CFS, RFC; Jack Marrion; and David F. Babbel, Ph.D.; “Real-World Index Annuity Returns”; http://www.fpanet.org/journal/currentissue/tableofcontents/realworldindexannuityreturns/; accessed 01/01/2013
*Equity Indexed Annuities (EIA, also known as Fixed Index Annuities – FIA) are tax deferred products; they are not tax free. When withdrawals are made from an EIA, the portion of the withdrawal that is not principal will be taxed at applicable income tax rates. Premature distributions (before age 59 1/2) may be subject to an IRS penalty of 10%, in addition to applicable income taxes. If receiving a bonus with an EIA purchase, you may incur higher surrender charges and be subject to a longer surrender period. Tax-qualified assets (e.g. IRA or Roth IRA assets) in EIA’s may not be eligible for additional tax benefits. Investors should have adequate resources to cover liquidity needs. EIA’s are not: a deposit of any bank; FDIC insured; insured by any federal government agency; or guaranteed by any bank or savings association. Riders and guarantees may be available at additional cost and may not be available in all States. Guarantees are based on the claims paying ability of the issuing company.
**Variable life insurance is sold by prospectus. Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and your need for death-benefit coverage carefully before investing. The prospectus, which contains this and other information about the variable life policy and the underlying investment options, can be obtained from your financial professional. Be sure to read the prospectus carefully before deciding whether to invest. The investment return and principal value of the variable life policy are not guaranteed. Variable life sub-accounts fluctuate with changes in market conditions. The principal may be worth more or less than the original amount invested when the policy is surrendered.
