Using Life Insurance to Help with College Funding
With graduation season in full swing, the prospects of paying for a future college student’s education is likely on many of your clients’ minds. And with how quickly the cost of college is rising, it may be keeping some of those clients up at night.
Of all the financial pressures facing parents, paying for college is one of the greatest. From 2000-2010, the cost of tuition at public universities increased 84%. For additional context, consider that since 1984, the consumer price index has risen 115%, while college costs have gone up 500%.
With figures like that, your clients would likely welcome ideas and strategies for how to prepare to pay for a college education, which is something I can help you with. To that end, below you’ll find links to various case studies, resources and guides on how Life Insurance can be a helpful tool in funding and supplementing college costs.
Clients are generally aware of the rising cost of college tuition, but many likely don’t appreciate just how fast costs are growing. Share these eye-opening statistics with them and start a conversation about how life insurance can help. With a death benefit that can protect against a breadwinner’s premature death, and with cash value that can accumulate tax deferred, and often times be taken as tax-free income, life insurance can help supplement college funding needs.
Facts About Paying for College:
- The expected cost for a four-year private education is expected to be greater than $400k by 2033, or 18 years from now.
- Nearly two-thirds of students graduate from college with debt.
- From 2000 to 2010, state funding of public universities fell by 21%
- Since 2008, total public funding for higher education has fallen by over 14%
- College tuition and fees have increased 1,120% since 1978, or more than 4 times faster than the consumer price index
- Total student loan debt, $1.2 trillion, is greater than the total amount of credit card debt Americans hold
- 30% of student loans are in deferment, forbearance or default
The stock market can be an uncomfortable place for some clients. Consider these three recent bull markets*:
- 1997-2000: Up 100% before declining 86%
- 2003-2008: Up 90% before declining 53%
- 2009-2014: Up 142%… where do you think the market will go from here? Now could be a great time to exercise a “correction protection” strategy for your clients by investing in the Protective Indexed Annuity II.
If you have clients nearing retirement who are concerned about another decline, ,help them exercise “correction protection” by taking their gains out of the market and investing it in the Protective Indexed Annuity II. This solution provides protected growth, opportunities for higher returns, and even offers secure retirement income with SecurePay SE, an optional withdrawal benefit.
Contact me now for more information:
Cyndi Stern – Marketing Director
Eschels Financial Group
(248) 644-1144, ext. 110
cyndi@eschelsfinancial.net
Is your client’s non-qualified annuity or qualified annuity where it needs to be?
According to Gallup’s 2009 survey of non-qualified annuity owners:
- 81 percent surveyed intend to use their annuity as a financial resource to avoid being a financial burden on children.
- 73 percent surveyed intent to use their annuity as an emergency fund in the case of a catastrophic illness or for nursing home care.
Make sure your clients’ annuities are aligned with their intentions.The Pension Protection Act (PPA)allows for income tax-free withdrawals from specially designed non-qualified annuities to fund long-term care expenses, regardless of cost basis. By exchanging a current annuity for an annuity that qualifies for the PPA advantages, your clients can be matched with a vehicle that can meet their needs while providing a tax advantage. Of course, before any annuity exchange is made, all factors should be weighed to verify the client’s best interest.
Can we protect a client from loss in a Long Term Care situation without a traditional Long Term Care policy? Yes! Let’s talk about One America. These are a few of our favorite sound-bites:
· “These solutions will not make you rich, they are meant to keep you from being poor” I say this several times every day because it is quite natural for a client and advisor to focus on the cash value growth. It is a good thing that we use interest-sensitive whole life contracts that guarantee a cash value growth, that is not the sole purpose. The sole purpose is to leverage the dollar and continue the benefit if they have a long-term care need.
·“Not only is this portfolio protection for the client, it is portfolio protection for the advisor” This is an important point to make. For many advisors, their business has been built on building client wealth, but many have failed to protect it. Also, with Baby Boomers entering into the years where they will begin to need care, many will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars out of accounts advisors manage.
·“Why pay retail dollar when you can buy it on clearance” This applies to the clients that would self pay. Usually, they feel they have plenty of money, so why buy insurance? This shows them the power of leveraging. Don’t pay retail – dollar for dollar….get a discounted dollar! If they wouldn’t self pay for cancer, or a heart condition, why would they self pay for Alzheimer’s?
· “It’s sort of like having a joint IRA, which of course you can’t do” This is to show the benefit of using Asset Care III. Covering both spouses with one’s retirement dollars is a huge advantage!
·“Your competition isn’t another advisor, your competition are nursing homes. They will easily take hundreds of thousands of dollars away from you and they won’t have to try.” I usually end meetings explaining this because the investment world is changing because Boomers have gone through the “accumulation phase” and they are entering the “distribution phase”. It is up to the advisor to help protect the “distribution phase”. Clients don’t know – what they don’t know….until their advisor tells them.
