Death is not the only way to benefit from life insurance
“Nobody ever told me that life insurance could do things for me when I was alive,” says Kirby Thomas, owner of Life Insurance Today US, a nationwide provider of life insurance for consumers. But you don’t have to die to benefit from life insurance. There are certain life insurance policies with “accelerated benefits” which you can receive when you are still alive and kicking.
“Possible ‘living benefits’ include terminal illness, critical illness, chronic illness, and critical injury,” adds Thomas. “I recently recommended this option for a woman buying insurance for her 75-year-old mother. By buying a policy with the proper riders, instead of the daughter incurring debt to pay for Mom’s future treatment, the life insurance could be used instead. The death benefit would be reduced by the amount accelerated, and the balance paid to the daughter when she lost her Mom.”
“Life insurance can be used for replacing a stream of income for a surviving spouse, providing heirs on an estate with liquidity, replacing the value of an asset, paying estate taxes, maximizing your pension or Social Security benefits, college funding for the kids and grandkids, buying out a business partner, protecting a business for the replacement value of a key employee, satisfying debt, funding charitable gifts, providing for a special needs child or adult, equalizing an inheritance, longevity planning, and balancing investment risk,” Zaino adds.
