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Advice on Life Insurance is Lacking
Litigators, regulators, the media and technology are all paving the way for life insurance advice. Clients need advice about these assets already on their balance sheets. But to date, wealth managers, fiduciaries and even life insurance brokers have struggled to offer life insurance advice for a variety of reasons:
- Agents and/or brokers have struggled because prevailing industry marketing practices are not consistent and in some cases actually violate the prudent investor principals near and dear to wealth managers and fiduciaries.
- Wealth managers and investment advisors struggle because they have not been able to look up the pricing and performance of life insurance products the way they can for most other types of assets they manage.
- CPA’s, tax attorneys and, particularly, trustees have struggled because they lack standards for the prudent selection and proper management of life insurance as an asset they have and follow just as with most every other type of asset in their care.
In the recent past, industry leaders gathered at West Point to establish a best practice standard for life insurance advice. The six steps are summarized as follows:
- Define the objective
- Analyze, intellectually
- Strategize, be innovative
- Formalize and be decisive
- Implement
- Monitor, keep the insurance company honest
At Virtus Wealth Management we welcome the opportunity to offer advice on life insurance. Chuck Elhoff, one of our partners is a licensed Life Insurance Counselor with over 40 years of experience in the industry. Life insurance is a very valuable asset with many advantages in the areas of tax, asset protection, and risk management. Don’t ignore this asset, use it to your advantage, not the insurance company’s advantage.
The information provided here is for general information and educational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. Each person’s situation will be different, please speak to a financial advisor and tax advisor about your individual situation before taking any actions.
