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The Benefits of Insurance

Social Security Benefits Aren’t Enough for Retirement

Most senior citizens cannot survive on Social Security benefits alone during retirement and the future of Social Security looks increasingly dismal. CNN recently reported that Social Security benefits “will rise only 1.5% next year [2014], one of the smallest increases ever in the program’s annual cost-of-living adjustment.” In the future, retirement may not include social security benefits at all. Many people put off saving for retirement because they believe that they’ll get these benefits, but the truth is that the current benefits are not enough to live on and the benefits may not exist at all in the future.

So you need to save for your retirement, but which plan should you choose? Most people immediately think of pensions or 401(k)s, but these come with many restrictions and taxes. With these plans you have to wait until you reach retirement age to access the money, or pay expensive penalties to access it early. There are usually limits on how much you can contribute to the plan, so your savings may not be as grand as you’d like. One thing that many people don’t realize is that a lot of these plans have market risk which could cause them to lose money when the market decreases. You’ll also have to pay taxes on the money that you receive from these plans.

Most people don’t think of life insurance as a vehicle for retirement savings, but index universal life insurance has benefits that most other retirement savings plan can’t offer. This retirement plan doesn’t require you to wait until retirement age to access your savings and there are no limits on how much you can contribute. Index universal life insurance has absolutely no market risk, so you can benefit when the market is up, but never lose when it decreases. Another great feature of this retirement plan is that the income you receive from your policy is tax-free. If you should pass away before you receive the entire cash value of your policies, your beneficiaries are guaranteed to receive the remaining amount tax-free, without having to go through the expensive and lengthy probate process.

Because of the way Social Security benefits look today, it’s unwise to trust your entire retirement income on these benefits. You can start saving today to ensure a financially secure retirement for yourself.

If you want to learn more about index universal life as a retirement savings plan, visit our tax-free retirement page. You can also fill out the form to the right or give us a call today. We’ll be happy to help you find a tax-free retirement plan that suits all of your needs.


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