For me, being married has been the single greatest blessing in my life. My three children are also a blessing in my life. There is nothing I love more than my family. Which is why I make sure I have life insurance in place. These last few years have taught me just how fragile life is.
We had a church friend pass suddenly at work, leaving 5 kids behind. I had a friend leave on vacation to Italy and come back with a stage 3 brain tumor he didn't know he had. He passed 9 months later leaving his wife and 4 kids behind. We've lost family and friend and neighbors.
In a previous article, I shared how the first person I ever helped get into an insurance plan passed away a few months later. He was healthy and athletic. He was a family man. His wife wrote me how grateful she was that I had helped him get into his life insurance plan even though they didn't plan to need it for another 40 years.
I want to share a story I heard recently that once again opened my eyes to the need for insuring our lives but also for insuring our retirement. This woman is not my client but I heard the story from her own mouth.
Over 10 years ago, this woman and her husband purchased one of the insurance contracts I write about so passionately. They had done very well in real estate and the stock market up until 2008 when it all came crashing down. They went from millionaire status to figuring out how to pay the bills and dress their daughter for school. In fact, they started her in home school just until they could get back on their feet.
Although their money was taken away from them, all they had learned was not. As they got back to work and rebuilding their lives, they decided they wanted a strategy they could control and get predictable growth with but also freedom to use the money as they saw opportunities. After several months of interviewing advisors and researching ways to grow money, they decided on a dividend paying cash value whole life contract built in a very specific manner.
This plan would ensure they had plenty of money during their retirement years and flexibility to use their money along the way. Plus, it had a good size death benefit in case something happened. They even bought a second plan on their daughter so they could educate and mentor her about money.
Well something did happen. Three years later, the husband died unexpectedly in an accident that wasn't his fault. The wife's life was changed forever with one knock on the door.
In her own words, she said she "had never felt so much pain and grief. Over night I was suddenly in charge of all living expenses. As a homemaker, I was not prepared. I had to make all the mortgage payments. I was in charge of car payments, insurance and repairs. The groceries. All bills suddenly fell on me with no income or experience."
She then told me how the money she received from her husbands insurance contract was their saving grace. The money allowed her time to heal and grieve and support her daughter emotionally and physically. The money provided her several years before she would need to go back to work so she could learn new skills and chose a career that afforded her the opportunity to still be a mother.
As she and her daughter found peace again and got back on their feet, she used the money she had left from the insurance pay out to flip real estate and do hard money loans backed by real estate. She now makes enough doing this to save for her own retirement and travel with her daughter that is in college. Over 10 years later, she is still educating and mentoring her daughter with her money and her insurance plan.
And though she still misses her husband everyday, she still sees his influence in their lives because of the insurance contract he purchased all those years ago.
I passionately impress upon people how incredible these plans can be for legally avoiding taxes, never losing money, seeing your account values increase every year and I mentor people on how to be their own source of financing, but these plans also cover for the emergency needs of losing a loved one prematurely or after a long life well lived.
When built correctly, these plans cover so many bases and provide such peace as you move towards retirement and through this life. Let me show you how this plan can cover your bases and remove the hurdles that stand between you and the retirement of your dreams. Let me show you this incredible opportunity.