FAQ

You are never too young to plan for your future and an annuity may be a good choice for your long-term savings school such as for retirement. The question you need to ask yourself is will I need to access my money before 59 1/2? Although you can take a distribution from an annuity prior to 59 1/2 the distribution will have a 10% premature distribution penalty. If you think you may need the money on a short-term basis and annuity may not be the right vehicle for you.

Although you may never want to consider the idea of having to purchase life insurance for a child because it forces you to think about the unthinkable, it is an important thing to have in place. Life insurance policies for a child isn’t just about having financial protection if the unthinkable happens it’s also about ensuring the child’s financial future. Purchasing a policy also locks in the child’s insurability usually children don’t have to go through a medical underwriting process and the parents simply answer a few medical questions. As long as the policy remains in force the child will always have life insurance most insurance policies today offer optional riders that will allow your child to increase insurance coverage when they reach certain milestones in life. Also remember it’s always cheaper to buy insurance when you’re younger than when you’re older.

Yes you can. In fact it is a great way to use your cash value you may have access to policy cash value through either a withdrawal or as a loan from the insurance company is in the policy as collateral. If you take a withdraw your policy value will immediately be reduced by the withdrawal amount. If you take a loan depending on the type of insurance you have your policy that you may continue to grow. You are not required to repay the loan or the loan interest during your lifetime. However if you choose not to any outstanding loan balance will reduce the amount of death benefit payable to your beneficiaries.

The other benefit of life insurance and annuities for college planning is the ability to accumulate cash values that can be used to help pay for college costs.

You can name any legally competent person as a beneficiary including your spouse children other relative or friend. You can also name of the entity as a beneficiary such as a trust or charity. The process of your policy will be paid directly to your beneficiary, privately and without the delays of probate. If your needs are more complex perhaps to take care of an aging parent or a special needs child, you may wanna consider utilizing a trust as your beneficiary. The trust will outline the provisions of how the proceeds will be distributed in the trustee if you’re choosing can be named to manage the process on behalf of the beneficiary.

It is best if you do not name them at your direct beneficiary because most states require that a guardian be appointed to administer the proceeds payable to the minor child and will result in a time delay in creating the guardianship and therefore delay in payment of the benefits and potentially additional costs. The best thing thing to do is to name a guardian, perhaps your spouse. When you establish a beneficiary designation. Another option might be to establish trust to receive the insurance proceeds for the benefit of the minor. Your insurance agent and return he can assist you with the proper beneficiary designation if you have minor children.

Yes if you were annuity was purchased through a qualified account such as a 401(k) and Ira or 403B all payments will be subject to ordinary income tax. If your annuity was purchased with after-tax dollars you will receive the earnings first which are taxable as ordinary income. Once you have received all of your earnings payments will be made from the premiums you made to policy which I received a tax free. If you purchase an income rider on your annuity once your account value has been exhausted you will continue to receive guarantee payments for life, however those payments will be received income taxable.