3 Ways Life Insurance Can Help Maximize Your Retirement

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who owns a permanent life insurance policy (or are thinking about getting one!) you’ve probably done it primarily to protect your loved ones. But over time, many of your financial obligations may have ended. That’s when your policy can take on a new life—as a powerful tool to make your retirement more secure and enjoyable.

Permanent life insurance can open up options for you in retirement in three unique ways:

1. It can help protect you against the risk of outliving your assets. Structured correctly, your policy can provide supplemental retirement income via policy loans and withdrawals. Having a policy to draw from can take the pressure off investment accounts if the market is sluggish, giving them time to rebound. Some policies may also provide options for long-term care benefits. At any time, you may also decide to annuitize the policy, converting it into a guaranteed lifelong income stream.

2. It can maximize a pension. While a traditional pension is fading fast in America, those who can still count on this benefit are often faced with a choice between taking a higher single life distribution, or a lower amount that covers a surviving spouse as well. Life insurance can supplement a surviving spouse’s income, enabling couples to enjoy the higher, single-life pension—together.

3. It can make leaving a legacy easy. According to The Wall Street Journal, permanent life insurance is “a fantastically useful and flexible estate-planning tool,” commonly used to pass on assets to loved ones. Policy proceeds are generally income-tax free and paid directly to your beneficiaries in a cash lump sum—avoiding probate and Uncle Sam in one pass. Your policy can also be used to pay estate taxes, ensure the continuity of a family business, or perhaps leave a legacy for a favorite charity or institution.

“Having a policy to draw from can take the pressure off investment accounts if the market is sluggish, giving them time to rebound.”

If you do expect your estate to be taxed, you can even establish a life insurance trust, which allows wealth to pass to your[…]

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