rockymountain

About rockymountain

http://rockymountain.wpengine.com

Posts by :

Owners of growing businesses represent a lucrative market with significant risk-protection needs. Nearly half of all U.S. households with more than $3 million in investable assets own a business.

Informal Business Valuation and Buy-Sell Review services offer important information to business owners about the impact the value of their business and/or the state of their buy-sell agreements can have on many aspects of their financial future. And that, in turn, can lead to additional life and disability insurance sales for you.

We’ve got some great resources from Principal to help you market to business owners. Please call our office for further assistance.

The current Guaranteed UL market is tumultuous to say the least right now. Everyone in our industry speaks to the “continued historic low interest rate environment”, and of course, they’re right. However, the fact remains that there are still options out there for low cost guarantees on permanent insurance to solve current (and likely even greater, future) estate planning problems. Indexed UL doesn’t have the same requirements as their GUL counterparts, and thus our carrier friends can offer lower premiums for equal death benefits.

Immediately though you think “but my client needs the guarantee in death benefit afforded by a GUL!” I’m amazed at the number of conversations I have with advisors that are unaware that IUL’s, specifically protection style IUL’s, offer guarantees to age 90, 95, 100 or beyond! Not only can we offer a death benefit guarantee to age 95, but we also have the advantage of indexing that can provide substantial cash value when designed correctly, often requiring less premium than its GUL cousin. The best of both worlds! The GUL, which still has its place in the planning world, continues to struggle. And yes… this is due to the longevity of the low interest rate environment that we currently experience.

There will always be a place and a need for guaranteed death benefit policies. As carriers providing traditional GUL policies continue to increase rates due to the hardship of the unforeseen, prolonged suffering of their general accounts because of the historic low interest rate environment, there do remain a few that stand out amongst the rest. There are still products to be found that are positioned to take advantage of this need and continue to rise to the top, even in an uncertain world.

Whether your client is looking for a single pay, short pay or 1035 scenarios, one carrier comes to mind immediately. Protective’s Lifetime Assurance UL and Advantage Choice UL are uniquely positioned in the GUL/GIUL space still to help these clients! And remember, IUL with no-lapse guarantees, offer both the protection of a GUL as well as the potential cash accumulation of an IUL with higher target premiums! Have your cake and eat it too!!!

Let’s take a look at some Protective examples.

Level Pay Design
Male Age 55 Standard Non-Tobacco, $500k DB, Guaranteed thru Age 100

1035 Exchange Design
Female Age 65 Standard Non-Tobacco, $1M DB, $200k 1035 Exchange, Guaranteed thru A105

Short Pay Design
Female Age 45 Select Preferred Non-Tobacco, $1M DB, Pay to Age 65, Guarantee thru Age 90

May is National Disability Insurance Awareness Month, DIAM. It, coincidentally, is also ALS Awareness Month, Correct Your Posture Month, National Stroke Awareness Month, National Motorcycle Awareness Month, National Brain Cancer and Brain Tumor Awareness Month, National Moving Month and Older Americans Month.

If you ask me, we get a little carried away with all the National Awareness’s, but having no control over it, I suppose we ought to embrace it. The mentioning of all the latter awareness’s above is they all may cause one to become disabled. So, while risking continued awareness fatigue, perhaps it is prudent to celebrate May as National Recommitment Month, and take another look at Disability Insurance.

We’ve all heard the old sales tactic of “if you had a machine that printed money, wouldn’t you want to insure it?” The idea being that our incomes are our biggest assets needing protection and if we were suddenly to become disabled, breaking the machine, it would have behooved us to have protected it with insurance. We also know that we are far more likely to become disabled then we are to die. The reality is, it’s very difficult to get people to listen. If a dentist or surgeon develops carpel tunnel syndrome and they are no longer able to perform their duties, how’s that practice going to survive?

Let’s talk about something a little different today though, still related to DI. Let’s talk about a disability buyout in coordination with a “deathtime” buy-sell agreement. Many business owners have been approached on the importance of funding their buy-sell agreement with life insurance, but far fewer have been approached about funding a disability buyout. What if we could take care of both with one policy? By utilizing a cash value life insurance policy, like an Index Universal Life, with a guaranteed death benefit out to age 95 or 100, we can accomplish this.

A properly designed IUL will accumulate cash value over time and provide a death benefit that can be used to fund the death time buy-sell agreement. Many IUL’s now have the ability to dial in a guarantee on the death benefit anywhere up to age 100! In the event that that business owner becomes disabled (far more likely than dying prematurely remember), the cash value in the policy can be used to either partially, or fully fund a disability buy-out of that business partner. Add a waiver of premium rider to the policy will allow the business to free up some additional cash that can be used to complete the buyout. As long as the policy doesn’t lapse, the death benefit after the partner dies, can also be used to complete the buyout if it hasn’t done so already.

Choosing the right carrier and the right policy is the key to a successful buy-sell or buyout funding plan. At Rocky Mountain Insurance Network, we are here to help with just that type of case design.

It has never been more important to help our clients protect what they have from the volatility in the market. According to a new study from Allianz Life, more than half of Americans say the pandemic has had a negative effect on their retirement savings and nearly the same number say they don’t think the markets have seen their lows yet. 72% say that they are reevaluating their savings plan and thinking about how to protect what they have from market volatility.

This is a great opportunity to have a conversation with your clients about hedging their retirement savings with an Index Universal Life policy. Insurance companies have figured out a better mouse trap and we owe it to our clients to discuss it with them. If 72% of our clients are looking to hedge their market risk, we already have the solution and we can help them with that. The IUL story has always been upside market potential with downside protection.

The introduction to multipliers a few years ago threatened to destroy that story with asset based fees and other hidden “Black Box” charges associated with their bonus multipliers in an effort to win an illustration war. AG-49a has put an end to those games and we now have a level playing field once again, that is in the best interest of the client. We can once again confidently discuss the benefits of Index UL with our clients.

Finally, there is no better asset class then a cash value life insurance policy when it comes to the tax advantages. A common objection we always hear is the underlying cost of insurance inherent in all of these contracts. A little known change in the IRS definition of life insurance, IRC sec. 7702, will make the cost of that insurance lower than ever. At Rocky Mountain Insurance Network, our motto has always been “The cost of insurance is significantly less than the cost of taxation.” Call us today so we can show you how we are helping our agents and advisors use IUL to hedge against market volatility and provide tax advantaged savings for their clients.

Life insurance is often thought of as the most effective way to replace a breadwinner’s income in the event of tragedy. Often overlooked however, is the need to cover the non-working spouse. Picturing life without your spouse is hard and most don’t like to do so, and for the advisor, it makes for a very difficult conversation about your client’s mortality. The fact is that a non-working spouse is as important to the family, if not more so, then the breadwinner. If, heaven forbid, the unthinkable does happen and a non-working spouse dies too early, the effect on the family will go far beyond the emotional grieving that ensues.

The financial ramifications of losing either spouse to premature death can be devastating. If that spouse is a stay at home parent, the ability to now pay for child care alone can crush a family’s budget. The working spouse, in order to continue the income stream they produced, will have to go back to work, but will likely want to do so only after they’ve had adequate time to grieve and console the kids. If that non-working spouse had coverage in the form of life insurance, they would be able to take the necessary time off before having to return to work allowing the family time to heal and plan for the future. Thus when the surviving spouse does eventually have to return to work, the affairs associated with the estate have been settled and planning for help with child care can be lined up.

There is no doubt that the cost of child care has skyrocketed in recent years. Ensuring there is enough life insurance coverage in place to pay for that necessary cost, will result in the family being financially secure and allow the other spouse to return to work. But the benefits don’t end with just child care. There are many things to consider if a non-working spouse dies. They were likely responsible for transportation, meal preparation, and other household activities that we take for granted in a one-earner household that would now need to be attended to, and if the breadwinner is to return to work, then those activities will need to done by someone else.

Furthermore, we haven’t yet discussed the real possibility that there may still be outstanding debt as well as medical bills that were accrued prior to the spouses passing. These medical bills can be huge! Life insurance doesn’t need to be expensive to provide the coverage a family like this needs, but the conversation must happen if we are to provide a holistic approach to the overall financial plan.

A good rule of thumb is to have a policy with 75% of the face amount then that of the breadwinner and this can be accomplished with an inexpensive 20 or 30 year term policy. Many of these policies today also include living benefit riders that may provide a portion of the benefit early if a major medical event occurs. This may very well allow a quality of life during the final months of an illness that would be unimaginable before. Stories of a terminal cancer diagnosis on a young father qualifies him to accelerate some of his death benefit so he is able to take his family on a memorable vacation to Disney Land are common with these types of policies. Imagine, as a financial advisor or insurance professional being able to bring the heroic news that that family will now get the money they need when they need it most!

There are real benefits for estate planning purposes as well. Whether a separate policy is used and placed in a trust for a family with a sizable estate, or a second-to–die policy is used, exceptions on the typical maximum of insurance allowed for a non-working spouse can be made. There is financial underwriting that occurs in each applied for policy. Insurance companies will make income exceptions for non-working spouses for a number of reasons. Knowing some of the guidelines, or having them at your fingertips when meeting with clients, will help you better present and explain the need for this insurance. We’re here to help. Let us know who needs this in your book of business, and we’ll leverage our resources to get these families the coverage they need.

Whether you agree with it or not, it’s our new reality and it’s not likely to change anytime soon. 11% of US adults say they have used marijuana in the last month and 48% of them have admitted to using it at least once in their lives. These aren’t just millennials either. These adults are fathers, mothers, grandparents and business owners and have no less need for the protection that life insurance provides then the non-user.

Historically it’s been difficult to find coverage for anyone who admits to drug use including marijuana. While it’s still a challenge finding coverage for the employee or owner of someone in the marijuana industry, insurance carriers have become more relaxed about the users of marijuana.

Depending on age, usage and whether or not THC is found in the lab results, we may be able to help clients get a preferred best, non-tobacco offer today. Download the file below to a list of some of the carrier’s requirements. For better or worse, Colorado led the pack in legalizing marijuana and at Rocky Mountain Insurance Network, we are here to help our advisors find the best possible coverage available for all of your clients.

Underwriting for Marijuana Clients

Download

There are two things that all clients are thinking about during these times. The first is their own mortality in an uncertain, pandemic world. The second are their taxes and how a changing administration and unprecedented federal stimulus will most certainly change them in the future. There was a relatively unheard of gift that happened at the beginning of 2021 that has been the “shot in the arm” that we may all have needed, and it wasn’t a Covid vaccine.

At the end of December, 2020, The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, was signed by then President Trump. This was the second largest stimulus bill aimed at relieving Americans impacted by the pandemic. Near the end of the more than 2100 page bill, was a change in IRC Sec. 7702, the definition of life insurance. 7702 dictates how much premium is allowed into a life insurance contract while still being defined as life insurance, and not an investment, thus preserving its tax advantages. If more premium is paid in, using one of two tests (GPT or CVAT), then is allowed by the definition, the contract becomes a Modified Endowment Contract or MEC. MEC status strips a policy of its tax advantages while the insured is alive.

The changes made by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, allow for a changing interest rate model for defining the minimum interest rates as opposed to the fixed interest rate model used before. These rates can now change based on the changes in market interest rates. In a prolonged, historically low interest rate environment, like we’ve been in for some time, it has been difficult for insurance companies to maintain profitability which has come at the expense of a policy’s performance.

The new rules allow for more premium to be paid into the same policy without it becoming a MEC, thus increasing its overall performance. This is obviously good news for accumulation products such as accumulation IUL, but also just as good for protection products. For older clients (think those in their 70s), we can take the same 12 pay premium for a given face amount and apply it now in only 8 years. This allows the indexing to take hold quicker and reduces the drag effect from the mortality charges resulting in far more efficient policies for older clients.

It’s not just older clients either. Impaired risk cases also will now have the ability to shine. As mentioned before, there is a reduction in the drag on a policy from the reduction of mortality charges associated with it due to a reduction in the net amount at risk to the insurance company increases the overall efficiency. We have the ability to now better attend to the financial needs of our clients using Index Universal Life, whether for protection or accumulation, even if they are aging or not in the best of health. We started this by saying that American’s mortality was more top of mind than ever, and this subgroup of the population has been at far greater risk for a year now, then ever before. Let’s go help secure their financial legacies and fulfil their protection goals.

Circling back to the second concern on every clients mind now – taxes. There is some irony in the fact that the bill passed in December that gave us in the life insurance and financial planning business this gift, came in the form a stimulus bill that most all will agree will eventually increase our taxes. We’re not here to argue over the benefits vs. detriments of stimulus spending, but the reality is, we will need to eventually pay for our increased spending. Our political climate is changing and with a new administration and a new congress seated, people are feeling uncertain as to what to expect from a tax standpoint in the future. Life insurance has always had a unique standing in tax planning landscape, and now more than ever, we need to look at it as an alternative asset class. If you’re a financial planner or wealth manager, you likely have a formula you prefer. X amount goes into managed money, x amount into an annuity etc. But life insurance was always too expensive, right?

With the changes that have been implemented to 7702, financial planners, RIA’s, wealth management firms, etc. will all need to take a second look at Index Universal Life. The changes that allow for a more efficient policy, will see a pickup in IRR by perhaps 50 basis points while still experiencing the tax advantaged growth. And, with 72% of Americans saying that they are reevaluating their savings plan and thinking about how to protect what they have from market volatility, what better way to help them do so then with a product designed to never have a negative return. We’ve all heard it called a Roth Alternative, or a Super Roth Alternative, now maybe it’s a Super Super Roth Alternative. Add in the living benefit riders to help cover expenses associated with long term care, and your fiduciary responsibility is covered.

Whether it’s a Roth alternative, a 529 plan alternative, special needs advanced planning, or older and/or less healthy clients we’re trying to help, the changes to 7702 will allow us to better serve our clients. Couple this change with the elimination of being able to illustrate ridiculous bonuses and multipliers, which were never going to prove feasible, that AG 49a afforded us, and we are re-legitimizing our place in the planning process. Call us today so we can help prepare your next proposal.

Whether you are a new advisor or have been providing outstanding client service for decades, statistics show that the industry is missing out on an enormous opportunity in our marketplace since its inception: Women. Insurance marketing up until this point in time has been entirely focused on securing the financial future for the families of the main breadwinner. Note the singular nature of that word. Breadwinner. Not only do many families today force that noun into the plural, in fact, many women are indeed the main breadwinner (nearly 41% of families and growing as of 2017, to be exact), and over 64% of families involve two working parents according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet, in the vast majority of life insurance marketing that you’ve seen for the past many years, the media depicts a family while only addressing one of the breadwinners. The assumption proves itself in the disparity between men who own life insurance versus women. It is well past time to stop ignoring, not only from a sales and revenue standpoint but also from a client service standpoint, this incredible opportunity to serve the ‘better half’ of our nation, and the numbers invariably support this hypothesis.

Exhibit A: Women Outnumber Men and Always Have

Let’s start with the basics. There are more women than men in the United States. Given that life insurance is designed to protect any human being’s loved ones in the event of their death, this fact alone tells us that selling life insurance for women makes economic sense to any advisor.

Diving into the details, there are roughly 7.4 million more women than men in our country. This represents an approximately 1.1% market advantage gap between the genders in favor of women. While that might seem slight when taken with other statistics that we will share in this article, that 1.1% difference is actually underrepresented in terms of life insurance needs. But let it stand that there are (and always have been) more women in the market than men.

Rudimentary logic applied to the economics of scale tells us that in any market where there is a dominance of one type of client over another, our approach should naturally gravitate towards the dominant client. In the case of our industry, we should have been marketing our important services to women as breadwinners and essential lives in the household since the beginning. Seeing as the first life insurance policy sold in the United States was way back in 1844, perhaps the culture of the times is to blame for this mistake.

Exhibit B: Women Live Longer Than Men

The fact is that women, on average, live a full 6 to 8 years longer than men. This fact could be misconstrued to support the greater importance to supply life insurance to men, since, in many cases, it is their families who inherit the death benefits after their husband passes away. However, to apply that logic we must neglect the facts that the mother will live on while also considering the issue of her Long Term Care, her salary, or the real possibility that she is a single mother or woman without children who has beneficiaries nonetheless.

The fact that women outlive men by nearly a decade cannot be understated. Not only does this allow them to reap greater returns in a cash accumulation life insurance vehicle, but it also means that the inherent longevity of women makes them clients for 6 to 8 years longer than their male counterparts.

All of this applies to women who do not have husbands. Longer lifespans require greater needs for end-of-life care which the proper policy can provide. Educating ourselves and our female clients on these stark realities is not just a play for more business but a true service that we can provide for our clients.

Exhibit C: Women Are Underrepresented In the Life Insurance Marketplace

This is where actual progress can be made and this is your mission as a life insurance advisor, male or female. The truth of the matter is that women, despite their equal value in their family’s financial well-being, are less likely to own a life insurance policy. The gender gap when it comes to life insurance in the United States is astounding.

According to a study published by Haven Life, there is a 12% gap (67% for women, 79% for men) between men who own life insurance policies compared to women who own them. Add that to the 1.1% population gap where there are more women than men and the picture becomes clearer. We, as an industry, are not involving women nearly enough in our efforts to insure as many Americans as possible.

The gap increases when we look a bit deeper into the women that have purchased a life insurance policy. Of this 67% of women who own policies, the average coverage amount for women was $231,342. The average amount of coverage for men? $423,102. Not only are fewer women insured despite their earning status in the family and their greater numbers in the overall population but they are also underinsured in terms of their male counterparts.

Women Are the Next Great Opportunity In Life Insurance: Closing Arguments

I’d like to point out one more important statistic:

70% of widows fire their advisors after their spouse dies.

To me, that is very telling. By focusing so much on your client that purchased the policy, it is easy to neglect the person they love the most. This social disconnect is devastating for business and unfair to the client you valued so highly.

Rocky Mountain makes every effort to not only treat men and women as the equals they are but to also understand the needs of our clients’ spouses as we administer the primary policy. This statistic is only frightening to advisors that are unprepared to engage with the family as well as the client. Rocky Mountain prepares the advisors who work with us to understand this opportunity and not only better serve their client, but retain the trust of their loved ones as well

Herein lies the opportunity that exists from a revenue and client-service perspective for any advisor looking to increase their book of business. Let’s run the numbers one last time to prove the case.

Population: There are 1.1% more women than men in the U.S. (7.4 million)
Longevity: Women live 6-8 years longer than men, making them excellent clients for LTC and other vehicles
Gender Gap: Women are 12% less insured than men
Underinsured: Women, despite being the main breadwinners in 41% of households, are insured $192,000 dollars less than men

Our advice is to reach out to more female clients. If the statistics are any indication, you likely have many clients that have women in their lives that could benefit from the insurance you have provided for the men in their life. The equality of the sexes is indisputable. Our industry is poised to make that equality a reality when it comes to providing outstanding client service to all of the women that are underrepresented in the marketplace today. The jury is no longer out. The numbers speak for themselves. In the case of including women to a greater degree in our life insurance marketplace, the verdict is yes. Case closed.

101(j) Compliance

Have you ever heard of “janitor policies” or “dead peasant insurance”? In the early 1990’s, large corporations, who we will not name, were buying business owned life insurance policies on their rank and file employees without their knowledge nor consent. Not just some employees, but in some cases, all of them! The death benefits were payable to the corporation with a small set amount going to the employees’s beneficiary. As one can imagine, the families of these employees were not thrilled about the arrangement and in 2006 the Pension Protection Act was passed including sections 101(j) and 60391 of the Internal Revenue Code, placing new rules on business owned life insurance contracts.

101(j) now requires both notice and consent of the insured prior to the issuance of a policy. Even to this day, there is very little understanding, or even awareness, of this rule. In fact, very few insurance companies will even ask for a notice and consent form, not wanting to shoulder any liability later when the claim is paid. In addition to requiring written notice and consent, annual filing of form 8925 with the IRS is also required. Failure to do either may result in the death benefit being taxed as ordinary income.

There are thousands of non-101(j)-compliant business owned policies that must be replaced to avoid liability and tax consequences. We can help.

Most policies that were written prior to the 2006 Pension Protection Act are likely to be grandfathered and nothing needs to be done. However, there are thousands of business owned policies (think buy/sell agreements and key-person policies) that have never filed notice and consent, let alone filing form 8925 annually. From everything we have learned, the only way to fix this problem is to replace those business owned life insurance with new policies and following the guidelines moving forward.

If you’re working with any business owners now, or you have any policies you’ve written in the past, call us today and we can help you get these compliant. Replacing these policies may come at a greater cost to your client now, but not in comparison with the tax consequence later.

There is a stark reality for nearly 70% of your clients. As they grow older, they will require some form of Long Term Care. While the length of care needed will vary based on their circumstances, the one constant they can count on is the prohibitive cost associated with nursing homes, hospital stays, treatments, and support. Clients who have saved their entire lives, invested in life insurance, and planned to leave a financial legacy for their loved ones risk losing everything they have worked for in order to cover LTC expenses. This is not a fate that we would ever desire for our clients. Planning for the possibility of LTC events has become a necessity. LTC insurance, however, has been associated with high and fluctuating premiums and potentially wasted investment. While hybrid life insurance vehicles offer a way through the LTC planning quagmire, there is another approach that may better fit the bill for your clients: the ability to turn traditional IRA’s, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s into a tax-deferred LTC expense backstop.

The Backstory: Common LTC Expenses and Solutions

As we have covered in previous articles, the expenses associated with LTC are staggering. The monthly cost for a nursing home or aged living facility in the United States can reach $8,000. Assisted living and at-home care are similarly exorbitant. For the consumer, the problem with LTC costs is essentially one of planning. Without knowing for certain that they will need LTC, setting aside such large sums can seem frivolous. At the same time, thinking about a bleak future involving LTC is anathema to their dream of retirement and the fulfillment of their life of work. This is why your advice and guidance is key to helping them protect their financial future without taking away from their living capital.

There are 3 ways to deal with the possibility of LTC expenses:

Pay out-of-pocket
Obtain LTC insurance (either traditional or hybrid)
Prepare your IRA, 401(k), or 401(b) to cover your expenses

Let’s take a quick look at each of these.

Out of Pocket Long Term Care

Pay Out-of-Pocket

Planning to pay for possible LTC expenses out of pocket is perhaps the worst of these options. It is difficult to save for the unknown and the very nature of LTC is flux. Some people require care for a year or two while others require care for a decade. To tie up living capital in this way means that you are not able to enjoy the fruits of your labors out of caution. The money that you are saving for LTC has already been taxed, so there’s no benefit on that front, either.

Obtain LTC Insurance or Hybrid Life/LTC insurance

These are both valid ways to hedge against the money pit of LTC expenses. They both guarantee that you will be financially capable of covering most or all of your expenses should the need arise.

With traditional LTC insurance, you are not accruing cash value and should you never require LTC, you will have spent the money invested towards it.

With a hybrid plan, you will not risk wasting your investment and you will also gain the death benefit to pass on to your loved ones. Here is some more information on the differences between these two.

401(k) for Long Term Care

Prepare your IRA, 401(k), or 401(b) to cover your expenses

This option answers some of the problems associated with traditional LTC insurance as far as costs are concerned and may be a better fit for some clients than a hybrid policy. It definitely solves all of the issues associated with paying out of pocket.

In a nutshell, your client can use a qualified IRA, 401(k), or 401(b) to pay for LTC expenses. This can all be done thanks to IRS Publication 502. Publication 502 includes LTC options as part of its “medical care” exemptions. This allows the consumer to deduct anything above 10% of their adjusted gross income. By using an IRA to pay for the LTC policy, the consumer is allowed to take pre-tax dollars associated with the IRA and utilize them tax-free for LTC expenses.

Here’s an example:

Your client, Edward, is retired. They receive a social security check for $2,000 a month or $24,000 per year. Edward is going to require LTC expenses of $5,000 per month or $60,000 per year. If Edward converts the money in his IRA to pay for his LTC expenses that will mean that his adjusted gross income (social security plus the $60,000 he pulls from the IRA) will be $84,000. Since the money is going towards his LTC expenses he will be able to deduct anything above 10% of his adjusted gross income. The result? Of the $84,000, Edward will be taxed on only $8,400 of that money leaving $75,600 as a tax-free expense towards LTC. Not bad at all!

What Does This Mean and Why Is It Better?

Using money from an IRA to fund LTC expenses allows your client to prepare for the worst while leaving their taxable investments untouched for their loved ones. This means that they were able to save on taxes in order to fund their LTC needs while leaving investments that have already been taxed behind to their children and spouse. The legacy benefit of this should not be understated.

Additionally, they are leveraging the tax code to better spend their pre-tax dollars on something truly invaluable should the need arise. The hard truth is that everyone who plans on getting older (which should be all of us) needs to prepare for the possibility of assisted living, illnesses, cognitive decline, and all the other unknowns that lie in wait as we age. Flexibility is the key to a healthy financial and insurance portfolio. Leveraging an IRA to cover what could be the greatest expense of our lives is another arrow in the quiver of preparedness and one you should definitely research on behalf of your clients.