May 15, 2019
There a couple of things most everyone needs when they are starting out and growing a family and buying a house—a Will and Life insurance. It is surprising how many people don’t have either one. So this month lets talk a bit about both.
A Will is probably the thing I find missing the most. First of all, Wills are fairly specific to the State you live in. A Maryland will doesn’t always work if you move to Delaware or Florida. So update your will when you change States.
In Maryland, more than likely all you ever really need is a will. Each County has an elected Register of Wills, The staff of the Register of Wills is very good at helping your executor fulfill your wishes outlined in your will. As in all things legal, certain procedures must take place and the staff will guide you through the process.
From time to time, you will be solicited by someone convinced that you need a Trust. Before you sign up to have an expensive and confusing trust document completed please read the attached pamphlet from the Registers of Wills in Maryland. Generally, there is very little need for trusts in Maryland. https://registers.maryland.gov/main/publications/living%20trust%20pamphlet.pdf
Now let’s move on to the ever exciting topic of Life Insurance! If you have children and debt then Life Insurance is a must. If you earn income and your spouse is dependent on that income—you need Life Insurance (LI). Chances are the people who need it, know they need it. They just procrastinate.
Well, let’s stop procrastinating and get it done. The process is not hard; you simply call me or send me an email, we talk a little and then I’ll fill out a request for a quote for the amount we think we need, and several LI companies send back estimates on how much they think it will cost. The company we choose then sends a medical person to your home (fear not embarrassing medical questions from Marty) to take your weight, height, and some blood. They look at all the documents, medical stuff, and test results. The underwriters of the LI company then make an offer to you on price. We look at their offer and say yes or no. Simple!
Many of you already know I believe in Term Insurance. We want a certain dollar amount of death benefit for a certain amount of time. Pure and simple. We’re not saving for retirement, we’re not paying college tuition, and we’re not trying to beat the IRS using LI. We are insuring against death before financial security. Period! All those other complicated financial strategies are extremely costly per the amount of death benefit. Coincidentally, they also generate very nice commissions for the agents who dream them up.
Again, we are insuring against early death. Death before we’ve had time to get your financial situation straight. We all look forward to a long life. We all want an easy & painless death—just not anytime soon! In fact, if it happens long in the future that’s really good. Maybe after the kids or grandkids are educated, the house is paid for, and the family has enough money that they won’t miss your income. Perfect!
But we all know that perfect doesn’t always happen. And until we get to perfect we need to protect our survivors.
One of our highest lifelong financial goals is to be able to leave our families/spouses/partners with the ability to live their lives in dignity when we are not around to provide for that. This is not only a goal, but it is an act of love. Here’s a good article on the touchy-feely side of LI. https://www.charlotteinsurance.com/blog/life-insurance-romantic/
Thank you for reading. Marty
Oh, before I go, Jenna recently attended Geneos’ Conference in Texas and the subject of cybersecurity was one of the main topics. (Frankly, much of what we do here that causes frustration is due to security issues.) So she has requested that I include a spot in this month’s newsletter for her to cover some the anti-fraud stuff they covered. Here’s Jenna:
One of the most lucrative ways for a scammer to trick you into giving away your money is on the phone. Scammers are making billions in phone scams every year. Billions! I’m sure you’ve noticed that recently you have been receiving more unwanted phone calls. Sometimes they are just robo-calls, trying to get you to buy something, or, my favorite, the sound of a ship’s horn and someone telling you that you’ve just won a cruise. The scammers are hoping that you are so excited or curious, that you’ll stay on the line to talk to an actual person. Once they talk to you for a while, they’ll eventually ask for your credit card information. And this is where you should definitely hang up if you haven’t already.
The best way to protect yourself from these types of calls is to not even answer the phone if you do not recognize the number. Most people these days have caller ID. If you don’t know the number, don’t answer the phone. Most likely, if it is someone who really needed to get in touch with you, they’ll leave a message. And don’t always trust everything caller ID tells you. These scammers have figured out a way to make a call look like it’s coming from a local number when in reality, the caller is nowhere near where you are.
One of the biggest phone scams that have been going around for a few years are the IRS calls. It’s pretty frightening to get a call from the IRS saying that you owe thousands of dollars in taxes and if you don’t pay right now, the IRS is going to bust down your door and cart you off to prison. But the IRS will never ever do that. That’s not how they operate. Also, the IRS will always notify you in writing if there are any problems. So if you haven’t received anything in the mail, hang up!
There are so many different types of phone scams out there and I definitely recommend brushing up on some of them. If you are diligent about which phone calls you to answer, you’ll be able to avoid most of them. But just in case you think you might be talking to someone who is trying to scam you, below is a handy flow chart to keep available.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, I would be happy to chat with you about it. You can give me a call at the office or email me at jputman@chesadvisors.com
And check out these websites for more information on phone scams:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/topics/limiting-unwanted-calls-emails
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/phone.html
