Life Insurance Coverage

Current Coverage
Employer-Sponsored Group Insurance

You may have existing life insurance with your previous employer's benefit plan. You need to find out whether this coverage terminates automatically at age 65 or whether you have an option to extend the coverage. If you don't know what is happening to your coverage, contact your employer.

Individual Life Insurance, If you carry an individual life insurance policy from a source independent of your employer, you need to know if your policy is considered a term, whole life, or universal life policy. Depending on what type of policy you purchased, you could be facing a number of choices: You may have accumulated cash values, you may have insurance that could terminate sooner than you would like, or your policy could be just fine. Find out.

Knowing which policy you own will help you keep your financial house in order.

• Term insurance is purchased for a specified period and provides a death benefit only during this period.
• Universal life insurance allows flexible premiums. This is typically a cash-accumulating policy that may have funds available to boost your retirement income. However, if the policy was not properly funded, you may need to increase your contributions to keep your coverage from ending unexpectedly.
• Whole life insurance typically builds strong cash values and may actually allow you to quit making premium payments. The cash available in the policy may also be available to enhance your retirement income.

If you purchased cash-building life insurance and plan to use this as retirement income, you need to check your account balances and the tax implications of withdrawing these funds.

Be prepared. Find out what type of insurance you own. If you have questions about your policy, contact your agent.

Beneficiary Designations
Whom do you want to receive the proceeds from your life insurance policy upon your death? You should review the beneficiary designations, on all your insurance policies as well as retirement and stock accounts.