The Importance of Reviewing Life Insurance Policies

A potentially important part of a client’s estate planning is life insurance. Life insurance provides liquidity for any estate taxes or other expenses at death, can provide for income replacement on the death of a primary household earner, and provides protection against liabilities that might come due or be difficult to pay at the death of a client. However, clients should not buy a policy and presume that the policy will meet all their needs forever. Like other aspects of the estate planning process, clients should review their insurance policies regularly to ensure that those policies still help to achieve the client’s goals.

Often clients, especially those in their early earning years will purchase term insurance because it meets their needs and is more affordable than permanent life insurance. Clients and their advisors should remember that term insurance is just that—purchased for a specific and definite time. Clients should review their policies annually or set reminders so coverage will not lapse without securing new coverage. It is also a good idea to periodically review the policies and compare them with new offerings that may be less expensive. It also is a good idea, as long as the client is still healthy and insurable, to consider purchasing a replacement policy before the current term is up in order to extend coverage for additional years. For example, a client has a ten-year term policy and five years have elapsed, if the client purchases a new ten year term policy the client has secured additional coverage at a lower rate than they would likely receive at the end of their original ten year policy.

Clients also need to remain aware of where their insurance comes from. Sometimes a client will rely on group insurance provided by their employer to meet the needs mentioned above. If so, care should be taken to insure that replacement insurance is available before the client changes jobs or retires.

Even permanent insurance requires the client’s regular review. Depending on a clients circumstances and changes in the insurance market it may be possible to purchase policies with improved benefits or decreased premiums. Clients also need to keep in mind their reasons for purchasing insurance. If those circumstances change so that insurance is no longer necessary it is often more cost effective to allow a policy to lapse than to pay premiums for an eventual payout.

Finally, clients should review their beneficiary designations to be sure the beneficiaries named are those that should receive life insurance proceeds. It is not unusual for us to review client policies and discover their parents or siblings are named, despite having a spouse and family of their own. We also will discover clients still have their ex-spouses named, even if they have remarried. Sometimes Michigan law will protect against these flawed designations in the case of divorces, but federal law overrides state law and insurance proceeds can go to those who should not receive anything.

Insurance products are constantly evolving, and the client should have their policies reviewed by a professional expert in the industry. We are happy to help our clients in facilitating policy reviews

Alan Ferrara