Congratulations, newlyweds!

“To have and to hold, from this day forward…”

At a time like this, there are 3 more “I dos” for you to consider:

1. Do you have life insurance? Any discussion about life insurance is going to start with this question, so let’s get it out of the way! As invigorated as people feel after finding the love of their life…let’s face it – they’re not invincible. The benefits of life insurance include protecting against loss of income and covering funeral expenses. Many of these benefits can depend on what kind of life insurance you have. Bottom line: having life insurance is a great way to show your love for years to come – for better OR worse.

2. Do you have the right type and amount of life insurance? Life insurance policies are not “one size fits all.” There are different types of policies with different kinds of coverage, benefits, and uses. Having the right policy with adequate coverage is the key to protecting your new spouse in the event of a traumatic event – not just loss of life. Adequate life insurance coverage and optional riders may help keep your spouse afloat in the case of an unexpected disabling injury or if long term care is needed. Your life with your spouse isn’t going to be one size fits all, and your life insurance policy won’t be either – for richer or poorer.

3. Do you have the right beneficiaries listed on your policy? This question is particularly important if you had an existing policy before marriage. Most newlyweds opt for listing each other as their primary beneficiary, and with good reason: listing the correct beneficiary will help ensure that any insurance payout will get delivered to them – in sickness and in health.

Just saying “thanks” without giving a little thanks back tends to lose its charm when we start to lose our first teeth.

When we’re young, it seems like our parents and older siblings are just relieved that we’re learning some manners to offset our little legs swinging wildly off the chair under the dinner table, narrowly missing people’s shins. (Hey, it’s hard to sit still at big family meals when you’re that little!) All the grown up talk about far away jobs or how much you’ve grown wasn’t as stimulating as the tooth that had started to wiggle ever so slightly when you bit into some turkey… But at least you remembered to say thank you when someone passed the cranberry sauce!

As we got older, though, those conversations became easier to participate in as we shared our own stories, watched our extended family grow and mature, and then tried to wrangle our own kids into saying “thank you” when they were given a gift by a relative they hadn’t seen in a year.

The biggest lesson we learn about being thankful as we get older? It’s important to show the people we love how thankful we are for them – not just say it. We learn more about the responsibility we have to take care of the people we are thankful for. And at this time of year, we can give our thanks to them by making sure they are financially prepared if we suddenly aren’t around anymore.

Here are 3 ways you can give thanks for your loved ones:

1. Consider getting life insurance. Replacing lost income, covering funeral expenses, gaining potential tax advantages, having early access to money – these benefits of life insurance will give your loved ones a bit of financial stability and let them know how thankful you were for them. However, many of these benefits can depend on what type of life insurance you have, so taking the time to find the right type and amount of insurance for your particular needs and goals is important. Which leads us to the second way to give thanks…

2. Get the right type and amount of life insurance. Life insurance policies are not “one size fits all,” so investing your energy into this step is a key way to give thanks for your loved ones. Different types of policies have different kinds of coverage, benefits, and uses. Having the right policy with adequate coverage is the key to protecting your loved ones in the event of a traumatic event – not just the loss of life. Adequate life insurance coverage can help keep you and your loved ones afloat in the case of an unexpected disabling injury, or if you’re in need of long term care. Your life with your loved ones isn’t going to be one size fits all, and your life insurance policy won’t be either.

3. List the right beneficiaries on your policy. This question is particularly important if you haven’t looked at or updated your beneficiaries in a while. Why? Because listing the correct beneficiary will help ensure that any insurance payout will get delivered to the them. You may need to review your policy’s beneficiaries if you have recently married or divorced, had kids, or maybe even met with a cousin over the holidays who you’d like to leave a little something to!

Now that you know a little bit more about how tailored life insurance can help, how fast did it jump to the top of your “Holiday Gift Ideas” list?

Dasher. Dancer. Prancer. Vixen.

Comet. Cupid. Donner. Blitzen. (And Rudolph too, of course.)

This is a holiday roll-call that’s instantly recognizable: the reindeer that pull Santa’s magical sleigh. But what if things got so hectic at the North Pole (not a stretch when you’re in charge of delivering presents to every child on Earth), that when it was time to hitch up the reindeer on Christmas Eve, they were all out of order?

Prancer. Cupid. Dasher. Comet. Dancer. Vixen. Blitzen. Donner.

Hmmm, someone’s missing… what happened to Rudolph? (Looks like he got left behind at the North Pole. In all the hubbub one of Santa’s elves forgot to review the pre-flight checklist.)

Since so much can change during the year from one crazy “Happy Holidays!” to the next, your ducks – or reindeer, that is – may not even be in a row at this point. They could be frolicking unattended in a field somewhere! And who knows where your Rudolph even is.

You know what can help with that? An annual review of your financial strategy. This review is key to keeping you on track for your unique goals. Lots of things can change over the course of a year, and your strategy could need some reorganizing. I mean, did you hear about everything that changed for Prancer? (What do you call a baby reindeer, anyway?)

Here are some important questions to consider at least once each year (or even more often):

1. Are you on track to meet your savings goals? A well-prepared retirement is a worthy goal. An annual review with a financial professional helps you make sure that nothing drove you too far off track this year, and if it did, you two can explore what can be done to get you back on the right path.

2. Do you have the potential for new savings? Did your health improve this year? Did that black mark on your driving record expire? Changes like these have the potential to positively impact your life insurance rate, but digging into your policy is important for discovering what kinds of savings might be in store for you.

3. Have your coverage needs increased? Marriage, having a child, or buying a home are all instances in which your life insurance coverage probably should be increased. Have any of these occurred for you over the last year? Have you added the new family member as a beneficiary?

If you haven’t had a chance to review your strategy this year, you can fit one in before Santa shimmies down the chimney. Which of your reindeer do you need to wrangle back into the ranks before the New Year gets going?

Do you have a recipient in mind for the proceeds of your life insurance policy?

Many people have someone in mind before they purchase their policy. This person or entity can be named as your beneficiary. Naming your life insurance beneficiary helps to ensure that the party you choose gets the proceeds of your life insurance policy, even if your will leaves your estate to someone else. If you’ve decided that you want to provide for a special person or organization through your life insurance policy, it’s important that the beneficiary section will do what you expect.

Here are some simple tips that can help point you in the right direction:

Choosing Your Life Insurance Beneficiary
Who you name as your beneficiary is a deeply personal decision, and there’s no right or wrong answer. Here are some areas to consider:

• Family: Spouses, children, siblings, and parents: These are all very common choices as life insurance beneficiaries. However, children under the age of 18 are a special case. Life insurance companies won’t pay a death benefit to a minor, so you may want to set up a trust for the child’s benefit or choose a responsible adult whom you trust with the welfare of your child. This adult would be named as their guardian.
• Legal guardian: If your life insurance policy does name a minor as your beneficiary, it may be a good idea to name a legal guardian for the child.
• Trusts: You can name a trust as your life insurance beneficiary, and trusts are helpful, for instance, when naming a minor, pet, or someone who may not be great with handling their finances as a beneficiary.
• Friends, etc: You can also name a friend as a beneficiary – assuming your friend isn’t a minor, in which case you can name a legal guardian or trust for the minor.

Note: Contrary to popular belief, you can’t name a pet as your beneficiary — but you can name a trust on behalf of your pet. (Sorry, Fluffy.)

Multiple Beneficiaries and Contingent Beneficiaries
You can name multiple beneficiaries for your life insurance policy, but when doing this, it may be beneficial to use percentages rather than fixed dollar amounts. For permanent life insurance policies, like whole life insurance and universal life insurance, the death benefit payout amount can change over time, making percentages a better strategy for multiple beneficiaries.

You can also name contingent beneficiaries. Think of a contingent beneficiary as a back-up beneficiary. In the event that your primary beneficiary passes before you do (or at the same time), the proceeds of your policy would then go to the contingent beneficiary.

Final Thoughts
Avoid using general designations, such as “spouse” or “children” as your beneficiary. Spouses can change, as divorce statistics remind us, and you never know which long-lost “children” might appear if there’s a chance of a payday from your life insurance policy. In the very best case, general designations will cause delays in payment to your intended beneficiaries.

Insurance is intended to protect your assets and to help cover certain risks.

Policies may have standardized language, but each insurance policy should be tailored to your needs at the time the policy is purchased.

A lot can change in a short amount of time – so an annual insurance review is a good habit to develop to help ensure your coverage still addresses your needs.

Life changes, and then changes again, and again
There are some obvious reasons to review your life insurance coverage, like if you’re getting married or having a baby – but there are also some less obvious reasons that may change your coverage requirements, like changing jobs or experiencing a significant change in income.

Here are some of the reasons you might consider adjusting your coverage:

• You got married
• You got divorced
• You started a family
• Your income changed
• Your health improved
• You lost weight or quit smoking
• You bought a house
• You paid off your house
• You started a business
• You borrowed money
• You retired

Depending on what has changed, it may be time to increase or decrease your coverage, change to a different type of life insurance, reallocate assets, or update your retirement strategy.

Have you updated your beneficiaries?
Did you get married or divorced? Did you start a family? It’s time to update your beneficiaries. Life can change quickly. One thing that can happen is that policyholders may forget to update the beneficiaries for their policies. A beneficiary is the person or persons who will receive the death benefit from your life insurance policy. If there is a life insurance claim, the insurance company must follow the instructions you give when you assign beneficiaries – even if your intent may have been that someone else should be the beneficiary now. Fortunately, this can be remedied.

How long has it been since you purchased your life insurance policy? How long has it been since your last insurance review? What has changed in your life since the last time you reviewed your policies?

Your insurance needs may have changed, so now is the time to make sure you have the coverage you need.

Postcard-worthy sunsets. Fascinating cultures and customs.

Exotic people and maybe a new language to learn – at least enough to order food, pay for souvenirs, and find the nearest bathroom.

Travel can leave us with amazing memories and cause us to grow simply by being exposed to different ways of seeing the world. However, going far from home can be fraught with peril – much of which we may not consider when daydreaming about our trip. Travel insurance has the potential to provide protection if the daydream turns into a nightmare in a number of ways.[i]

An auto or life insurance policy is designed to provide a limited set of coverages, making the policies fairly easy to understand. Travel insurance, by comparison, can cover a wide range of unrelated risks, making the coverage and its exclusions a bit more difficult to follow. Depending on your travel insurance provider, your travel insurance may cover just a few risks or a wide gamut of potential mishaps.

So how do you know what kind of travel insurance you should purchase? Read on…

Trip Cancellation Insurance
One of the most basic and most commonly available coverage options, trip cancellation insurance can provide coverage to reimburse you if you are unable to take your trip due to a number of possible reasons, including sickness or a death in the family. Cancellations for reasons such as a cruise line going bust or your tour operator going out of business may also be covered. Additionally, if you or a member of your party becomes ill during the trip, trip cancellation insurance may reimburse you for the unused portion of the trip. Some trips you book will allow cancellation with full reimbursement (within a certain timeframe) for any reason, whereas some trips only allow reimbursement for medical or other specific reasons – make sure you check the travel policy for any limitations before you purchase it.

Baggage Insurance
Your travel daydreams probably don’t include lost baggage or theft of personal items while abroad – but it happens to travelers every day. Baggage insurance is another common coverage found bundled with travel insurance that provides protection for your belongings while traveling. If you already have a homeowners insurance or renters insurance policy, it’s likely that you already have this coverage in place. As a caveat, homeowners insurance and renters insurance policies typically limit the coverage for certain types of items, like jewelry, and may only pay a reduced amount for other items. Home insurance policies also have a deductible – typically $1,000 or more – that should be considered when deciding if you should purchase baggage insurance with your travel insurance.

Emergency Medical Coverage
Many people aren’t sure if their health insurance will cover them internationally – you may want to check if your policy protects you outside of the country. Accidents, illness, and other conditions that require medical assistance are border-blind and can happen anywhere, which may leave you scrambling to arrange and pay for medical attention that could be needed by you or your family. Travel health insurance can cover you in these instances and is often available as a stand-alone policy or bundled as part of a travel insurance package.

Accidental Death Coverage
Often bundled as a tag-along coverage with travel health insurance, accidental death coverage provides a limited benefit for accidental death while traveling. If you already have a life insurance policy, accidental death coverage may not be needed. Check your current policy to see if you have fewer limitations and if it provide a higher death benefit for your named beneficiaries or loved ones before you buy additional coverage.

Other Travel Coverages
A number of other options are often offered as part of travel insurance packages, including missed connection coverage, travel delay coverage, and traveler assistance. Another coverage option to consider is collision and comprehensive coverage for rented cars. Car accidents are among the leading types of mishaps when traveling. A personal car insurance policy may not cover you for vehicle damage, liability, or medical expenses when traveling abroad.

When you’re ready to cross the Seven Wonders of the Modern World off your bucket list, consider travel insurance. It may provide some relief so you can concentrate on the important things, like making sure you bring the right foreign plug adapter for your hair dryer.

Life insurance is great for protecting your spouse… as long as it’s for your current one.

This Forbes article tells the story of Warren Hillman, a man with a life insurance policy, a wife, and an ex-wife.

Now, I don’t know if the former Mrs. Hillman “got the house” in her divorce from Warren – I’m being cheeky – but she definitely got the life insurance policy payout! When Warren died from a rare form of leukemia, the entire amount of $124,558.03 was given to Judy, the former Mrs. Hillman. Warren’s widow Maretta got nothing.

Why? When Warren remarried, he never changed the beneficiary designation on his life insurance policy.

Maretta and Judy fought over that money in court for years. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. And the justices ruled in Judy’s favor. She, the ex-wife, was entitled to the entire payout.

All that time and money wasted on legal battles could have been avoided by changing a name on a form! Speaking of which… When’s the last time you reviewed your own life insurance policy? After reading this, you may already be scrambling through your files to find it!

Let’s check up on your policy together. Contact me today, and we can get the ball rolling.

Many people get life insurance after one of life’s big milestones:

• Getting married
• Buying a house
• Loss of a loved one
• The birth of a baby

And while you can get life insurance after your baby is born or even while the baby is in utero (depending on the provider), the best practice is to go ahead and get life insurance before you begin having children, before they’re even a twinkle in their mother’s eye.

A reason to go ahead and get life insurance before a new addition to the family?

Pregnancies can cause complications for the mother – for both her own health and the initial medical exam for a policy. Red flags for insurance providers include:

• Preeclampsia (occurs in 5-10% of all pregnancies)
• Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (affects 9.2% of women)
• High cholesterol (rises during pregnancy and breastfeeding)
• A C-section (accounts for 32% of all deliveries)

Also, the advantage of youth is a great reason to go ahead and get life insurance – for both the mother and father.

The younger and healthier you are, the easier it is for you to get life insurance with lower premiums. It’s a great way to prepare for a baby: establishing a policy that will keep them shielded from the financial burden of an unexpected and traumatic life event.

Whether you’re a new parent or beginning to consider an addition to your family, contact me today, and we can discuss your options for opening a policy with enough coverage for a soon-to-be-growing family or updating your current one to include your new family member as a beneficiary.