Permanent life insurance tends to get some bad press, mainly because it is misunderstood by “experts” who don’t how these policies work. I will be the first to admit that there are some bad performing whole life and universal life policies out there, but the opposite is true as well. That’s the way it is with most products. There are positives and negatives associated with most everything. Since permanent life insurance gets so much negative press, here are three positive features that often get over-looked.

Permanent Life Insurance

Tax Free Death Benefit

As it stands now, death benefit proceeds payable to beneficiaries are income tax-free. Well, so is term insurance, but only permanent life insurance is guaranteed to be there when you die as long as required premium payments are made. The vast majority of term policies never pay out a death benefit because most people outlive the term. Actuaries know this and so do the insurance companies.

Tax-deferred Growth

The cash value build-up inside a life insurance policy grows on a tax-deferred basis. That means you do not pay taxes each year on the growth of the guaranteed and non-guaranteed cash values.

Living Benefits

A permanent life insurance policy allows you to take out loans or withdrawals from your cash value. Often called Living Benefits, you have easy access to cash which can be used for anything from supplementing retirement income, helping with a down payment for a house or just creating an emergency fund. There are different strategies for accessing the cash value with different implications, but if done correctly, it can be withdrawn tax-free.

The Future

Obviously, everything is subject to change in the tax law, but this is why you should be working with an experienced, licensed agent. If you would like to learn more about the ways permanent life insurance may benefit your financial situation, please give me a call at 360-452-9200.

Have you ever been stranded on the side of the road or locked out with no one to call? Now there’s an answer, with all the benefits of AAA without an annual premium or any membership fees.

Good Hands Roadside Assistance

Introducing Good Hands Roadside from Allstate. It’s free and available to all people, not just Allstate customers. You can be a lifetime member, only paying if you ever use it. We only dispatch reputable service providers, and you pay Allstate the fee via a secure credit card transaction. No more giving your credit card to the shady stranger on the side of the road.

Services and Costs

If you need a tow, it is $75.00 for the first 10 miles of towing; $3.00 per additional mile. It is $50.00 for lockouts, jump-starts, tire changes, and fuel delivery up to 3 gallons.

Register Now

Register now at Matt Elwood’s Allstate site. Registering allows us to get you the help you need more quickly because we’ll have your key information on file. It takes less than two minutes to register and you’ll receive a free welcome package by mail.

Port Angeles Ambassadors

I would like to highlight a group I recently joined, The Port Angeles Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are a committee of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce. Our mission is to celebrate and promote businesses in Port Angeles.

Ambassadors

Founded in 1997, the group has now grown to 22 active members. While membership in the Port Angeles Region C.O.C. is required to be an ambassador, businesses who want a ribbon cutting do not have the same requirement. The Ambassadors are active several times a month performing ribbon cuttings, ground-breaking ceremonies, grand or re-openings and other business milestones. Pictured here is a recent ribbon cutting for ACTI Composites done in January 2012.

ACTI Composite Building Jan 2012

Other Ambassador activities include greeting members at the weekly chamber meeting, held every Monday at Noon at the Crab House, assisting at the monthly Business Spotlight Night and even doing Cruise Ship greetings in conjunction with the Chamber and the Port Angeles Downtown Association.
The Ambassadors are a positive group of people who are enthusiastic about business in Port Angeles. I am proud to be a part of the group and look forward to future events promoting P.A. businesses.

Donna Pacheco

I would like to thank current Ambassador Chair, Donna Pacheco, for all her efforts with the group. Donna maintains the Ambassador’s Facebook page, organizes our events and runs our monthly lunch. In addition to her Ambassador efforts, Donna is Advertising and Promotions Coordinator for Lumber Traders Inc, a local employee-owned company which operates two well-known stores Angeles Mill Work and Hartnagels .
If you would like more information on joining the Ambassadors or having them attend one of your events, please call the Chamber at 360-452-2363.

Your diet and behavior before your life insurance exam may affect the results and ultimately how much you end up paying. The better underwriting class you qualify for, the cheaper your policy will be.

Here are eight tips to remember before your life insurance exam.

1. Schedule your exam for the morning time after a good night’s rest.
2. Avoid drinking coffee or anything with caffeine the day of your exam.
3. Avoid strenuous exercise 12-24 hours before your exam. This will allow your body to fully recover and get your vitals back to normal.
4. When it comes to alcohol, we all know that moderation is best. Just make sure you moderate at least a day before your exam so your liver enzymes don’t go off the chart.
5. Drink lots of water. Not only is it good for you and helps flush your body, but your exam will most likely include a urine test so you will need to be able ‘to go’ when asked.
6. The insurance company is going to want to review your medical records as part of the application. Prepare a list of your health history and doctors including name, address and phone numbers. The more information you can provide, the quicker your application will be processed.
7. Nicotine is stimulant so if you do smoke, hold off until the exam is completed to light up that first drag of the day.
8. Make sure your exam is confirmed. Your agent and examiner should do this as well, but nothing is more frustrating than confusion as to the date and time of the exam. If you live in a gated community, apartment complex or any other area with special access instructions or hard to find roads, notify your agent and/or examiner when making the appointment.

Life Insurance exam

Fasting

You may also be wondering whether or not you should fast before your exam? I have heard varying opinions, but if it were me, I would fast the night before. If you do feel the need to eat, just make sure it is light and easily digestible.

These tips along, with a healthy lifestyle, will ensure you getting a better outcome with your next life insurance exam. If it has been a while since you reviewed your life insurance or are considering it for the first time, please give me shout.

My biggest responsibility as an Allstate agent is to provide financial security to all of my clients. What does financial security mean? To me, it means protecting everything you own as well as the people you love. Most people think of Allstate for their home and auto insurance, but usually not life insurance. Life insurance tends to be ignored, delayed or purchased at work.

Commonly, people say they have life insurance through work. While that is a great starting point, it can leave some major gaps in your planning. Here are a few reasons why.

Employee discussion on life insurance

Salary Multiple

The amount of life insurance offered in an employer setting tends to be only 1-2x salary. This is vastly inadequate considering the average family needs 8-10x salary.

Do you and your spouse have life insurance outside of your employers, equal to at least 8x your salary?

Portability

Group life insurance from your employer is only good while you work there. It is not portable – meaning if you decide to quit, retire or get laid-off you lose your insurance. In this economy, that can be a real concern. On the other hand, your own individual policy stays with you for as long as you pay the premium.

Cost

Life insurance at work is usually more expensive assuming you are in good health and could qualify for your own policy. Think about it this: if an insurance company has to guarantee insurance to everyone in a group they have to raise rates to account for the less healthy.

If you are in good health, purchasing life insurance on your own can be more affordable and you can take it with you no matter what happens with your current job.

I am not against group life insurance from your employer because it can be a great starting point, especially if your boss is paying for it. However, individual life insurance tends to be better solution. What’s even better is that Allstate just came out with their Auto/Life Discount for customers with both auto and life insurance. Contact me to see how much you can save!

December is the time for holidays and what a better gift to give than a new car? Your loving spouse has been driving that old beat up car for long enough. It is time to visit Wilder Auto in Port Angeles and have Michele Robbins show you what they have in stock.

Michele Robbins

Wilder Auto Group

Michele is a great person to buy a car from because she has a ton of experience and she truly cares about her clients. She has helped several happy customers buy new cars this year. Michele is constantly being recognized on Wilder’s Twitter feed for her recent sales, along with the other members of the Wilder team.

Wilder Auto

Wilder is a well-known auto dealer in Port Angeles, WA and has served the community for decades. Wilder’s lineup includes Honda, Toyota, Scion, Nissan, Jeep, Volkswagen and they even sell RV’s. That old clunker you have been driving around may be worth a little more in trade-in value than you think. Special deals and financing are going on right now. Even Santa can’t compete with a new car so head over the Wilder Auto and see what kind of deal Michele can make!

What About Insurance?

Want an estimate on what this new car will do to your car insurance? Give us a call at the number below and we can help you out.

By now it is no surprise to you that our nation is aging. Baby Boomers are the largest segment of our population. With over 10,000 people currently turning age 65 every day, more and more people need Long-Term Care services. However, given these staggering numbers, Long-Term Care insurance is still a major gap in most people’s financial plans. Here are six reasons why you should consider buying LTC Insurance.

1.      You are in good Health

If you are in good health now in your 50’s or 60’s there is a good chance you will live into your 80’s and 90’s thus increasing the chances of needed Long-Term Care. Take advantage now of the good health discounts available while you still can.

2.       Emotional Toll

If you’ve had a personal experience with someone that needed LTC, you know the emotional toll it can bring. Without insurance, you may have to rely on your children or other family to take care of you. Would you really want to put them through that?

LTC Insurance not included

3.       The Government will not pay for LTC

Medicare only pays for a short period of time, usually not past 100 days. The government knows they can’t afford to pay for this given the other entitlement programs already in place. That is why they are giving tax advantages to buying long term care.

4.       Rising Costs

If you think it is too expensive then wait until you have to pay for it without Insurance. When it comes to cost of care, Washington State is higher than the national average. In a recent study by Genworth Financial titled “2010 Cost of Care Survey” the median cost for LTC Home care in Washington State is $49,695 versus the national median of $43,472. Care in a nursing home is even higher.

5.       It Won’t Happen To Me

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 7 out of 10 people reaching age 65 will need Long-Term Care services at some point in their lives. That is pretty sobering considering the odds of using your auto and home insurance.

6.       Home is where the heart Is

The thought of going to a nursing home is not a pleasant one. In fact, most people would rather remain in their home. And that is exactly what LTC insurance provides. It allows you the freedom and money to chose where you want to receive care and that includes your home.

If you would like to discuss your own personal situation or would like a Long-Term Care insurance quote, please reply or call me at the number below.

By now you understand that having Long-Term Care insurance is a good idea, but when the heck are you suppose to buy it? Boomers get inundated with financial advice everywhere they turn. Depending on what time of the day it is you will get a different answer on the best time to buy LTC insurance.

Couple considering when to buy LTC Insurance

Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey says the best time to buy is after age 60. In Dave’s cost comparison example, he illustrates how it is cheaper to buy LTC at age 50 than it is at age 60. This is of course true. However, his premise that if you wait to buy at age 60 and invest the difference you will come out ahead is not always true. Even if you had the discipline to invest the difference, (which most people don’t) doing so in the stock market gave you a whopping 1.2% average from 2000-2009. I’m not sure where you can get the 5% he talks about these days. Given interest rates and returns of other investment vehicles, you are probably losing money when considering inflation.
I do, however, agree with his second point that it is a personal decision and that you should buy it when you can afford it and have peace of mind.

Matt Elwood

I say the best time to buy Long-Term Care insurance is when you can reasonably afford it. There is no magical age when it comes to buying insurance. If you know you need it and you can reasonably afford it, you should buy it. Insurance is meant to provide financial protection from a risk you can’t afford happening without it.

Is It Time For You?

If you would like to have a personal discussion about your Long-Term Care needs, please reach out to me at the number or email below.

The simple daily tasks of life that you took advantage of while you were younger, now seem to be getting harder. And now that you are living alone, you start to wonder how you will get along if you can’t take care of yourself. That is where Long Term Care insurance comes in. LTC pays for support services if you can’t perform the 6 activities of daily living. So what exactly are these 6 ADLs and how do you activate a LTC policy?

The 6 Activities of Daily Living

Assistance with LTC

The specific definitions vary from company to company, but here are the general 6 ADLs:
Eating
Bathing
Getting dressed
Using the restroom
Transferring – moving in and out of bed/chair
Continence – controlling your bowel or bladder functions
If you can’t do 2 of these 6, you qualify for benefits under at Tax-qualified LTC insurance policy.

Cognitive Impairment

The other way you can be eligible to receive LTC benefits is if you have a cognitive impairment. An example of a cognitive impairment is Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. If you know someone that has been touched by this disease, you know very well emotional and financial challenges associated.
If you would like to learn more about how Long Term Care Insurance works or if you would like to receive a quote, give me a call at the number below. You can also email me at matt@elwoodbenefits.com

You have finally decided to leave the rat race and move to the beautiful Olympic Peninsula. One of the many things on your to-do list may be to get new home and auto insurance, especially if you are coming from out of state. How do you go about doing that?

Matt Elwood, Agency Owner

When changing insurance agents, there are some important things to remember. These apply if you are moving from a different state, a different insurance company, or you just want to go through a different agent in the company you are currently with. If you follow these tips, it will make the process of changing agents much easier.

First of all, contact your new agent before your current policy expires. A lapse of even one day can drastically impact your new rates and might even prevent you from being able to have a new policy. This is especially true for car insurance.

It is also helpful to have your current insurance in front of you so you know what coverages you have. It makes it easier to get an accurate quote if you know what you want.

Keep in mind that if you’re moving from one state to another, your insurance will probably be different. Even if you stay with the same company. Every state is different regarding premiums and discounts. There are also certain coverages that differ from state to state. And required state minimums also vary.

If you are relocating to the Olympic Peninsula area and need a new insurance agent, please contact Matt Elwood of Elwood Benefits at 360-452-9200.