This post is part of our series for advisors to pass to their clients. Knowing more about your clients' needs will help you to better serve them. Aging doesn't have to be scary, and we here at Ashar want to help you provide the resources that policy sellers need to flourish in this chapter of their lives.
Imagine: a group of family members are summoned to a lawyer's office for the reading of a will. Suspense hangs in the air. Finally, the will is read. Some of the family are appalled, others are thankful, but everyone is surprised.
Now, you've probably seen this scene in a hundred movies and TV shows. In these setups, the will is shrouded in secrecy, with no one knowing what or who is included until they actually hear (or don't hear) their names read.
With so much entertainment available to us today, there’s no reason to get stuck in a routine of listening to ridiculous radio morning shows or the yawning through the news during your morning commute.
Instead, why not try a podcast? There are literally thousands of great podcasts out there, covering almost any topic you can imagine.
And that includes, of course, money and finance. From highly educational to (almost) pure entertainment, podcasts on all aspects of finance abound. Here’s our pick of the top five podcasts for financial advisors.
When a loved one needs more care than they can safely get at home, families find themselves faced with a difficult decision: how to choose a long term care facility?
Placing a loved one in one of these facilities is never an easy thing to do, but sometimes, it’s the only way to ensure that they get the care and attention they need. If you’re not able to serve as a family caregiver yourself, which is the case for many people who have their own family and work obligations, then a good long term care facility with compassionate staff can be an excellent option.
As a financial advisor, you’ve probably set a few goals that you’d like to achieve in 2016. Maybe you want to attract more Millennial clients. Maybe you want to become more tech-savvy. Or maybe you want to invest more in your own professional education, by reading great books or varying the way you fulfill your continuing education requirements.
At Ashar Group, we are guided by a strong ethical principle: “Do what is right and you will be blessed.” In fact, that’s what the term “ashar” means.
This principle, in addition to our five core values of integrity, service, authenticity, work ethic, and excellence, provide the basis for our work. We strive to offer truthful, excellent service to financial advisors and their clients, and to offer the most transparent and thorough policy valuation and life settlement processes in our industry.
That’s why we’ve made compliance such an important part of our firm. We believe that compliance and licensing are vital to our work if we are to protect the objectives of all parties involved in a life settlement process.
Clients who decide to sell their life insurance on the Secondary Market invest the lump sum they receive in a variety of ways. Perhaps they pay for a grandchild’s college tuition, or maybe they take their children and grandchildren on a trip to Europe.
Another frequent use of the payment? Philanthropy. Especially among high net worth individuals, it’s quite common to use the money received from a life settlement to enhance their giving.
This can be a wonderful way to invest this kind of lump sum payment, especially if your client already has money set aside to cover potential healthcare costs like long term care. In fact, the lump sum a client receives from a life settlement can easily become part of their planned giving, allowing them to make sure the organizations they give to receive the best long-term value from their gift.
It’s an uncomfortable truth that most of us will need long term care (LTC) of some kind at one point or another in our lives. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 70 percent of people turning 65 will need LTC; in general, the older you are, the higher the likelihood that you will need LTC.
Despite this fact, many older Americans have no plan in place for funding their own LTC needs, either now or in the future. This is a dangerous financial situation to be in--according to the Genworth annual Cost of Care Study, the median cost of a private room in a nursing home is a staggering $91,500 per year, with a semi-private room coming in just slightly lower at $80,300.
And less intensive forms of LTC are still incredibly expensive. The median cost for assisted living facilities is $43,200 per year; for home health care, around $45,000 per year; and for adult health day care, around $18,000 per year.
If seniors are suddenly left in the position of needing LTC, the results on their finances can be devastating. And it’s not only hard on the senior: often, family must step in to help, with adult children either leaving the workforce to become full-time caregivers or putting significant amounts of their own money toward paying for their parent’s LTC.
This can put a lot of emotional strain on familial relationships. It can make the senior feel like they’re losing their independence, or becoming a burden. No parent wants their child to give up aspects of his or her own life to become a caregiver.
Whether or not you have remained true to the New Year’s resolutions you set at the beginning of the year, there’s something to be said for taking the time to reflect, regroup, and make some plans to move yourself forward in the new year. As a boomer, now is a good time to take a more in-depth look at things you’ve probably been putting off until some magical date in the future that you never seem to get to. I know because I’m a 66-year-old boomer myself and I still tend to act as though I have plenty of time to prepare for retirement. The fact is that even though I feel 25 years old in my head, my body and energy level is telling me something quite different.
As a boomer, you are all too well aware of the fact that “retirement” has been redefined. Whether you are already retired or working toward retirement, you are facing challenges related to longevity, finances, and the best use of your time. Here are three areas to focus on this year to help improve your retirement years:
When you’re retired, the start of a new year can mean all sorts of things. Perhaps this is the year you’re taking that big trip you’ve been looking forward to. Maybe you’ve got a new grandchild on the way, and you’re planning on helping out for a month or two. Or maybe you’re starting a class or picking up a new hobby.
These are just some of the exciting developments another year of retirement can bring. The key to enjoying them, however, is financial stability, and that requires planning.
So as you enter 2016, it’s important to talk to your financial planner about any tactics or strategies you may want to explore this year to ensure that you continue to maintain a strong financial position.
Your advisor will, of course, be your best source of helpful information, as he or she already knows your financial situation. However, there are a few ideas you might want to begin considering right off the bat.
In this day of instant information and overwhelming choice, it’s tempting to go straight to the source for things. Instead of shopping retail, people go online to buy wholesale, for example.
That method can have its benefits, when you’re dealing with something as simple as price. But as financial advisors know well, when you’re working with complex financial transactions, skipping the intermediary can mean missing out on vital, valuable information. Your clients know this, or they wouldn’t be your clients.
So why would you go through something as potentially complex and important to your client as a life settlement without a broker?
At Ashar, we work with financial advisors all the time to get the best possible offer for their clients’ life insurance policies. It’s what we do - we’re pros at it. Over the years, we’ve seen many illustrations of the reasons why financial advisors should always go through a life settlement broker when managing this transaction.
