PROBLEMS PRESENTED:

A young professional couple in their late 20s, both doctors, had recently graduated and married. Tired of a cramped apartment, they wanted to buy a home, but while their combined incomes were good, they hadn’t yet had enough time to save for the down payment necessary for a home mortgage.

In addition, there was still high-interest outstanding student loan debt to pay off. They thought about starting a family, but knew the tiny apartment would just not suffice. They didn’t know how they could afford both a new home and insurance for themselves and potentially a growing family.

Fortunately, the young wife’s dad had purchased a whole life policy on her she was an infant, under the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act, and the dividends each year were now sufficient to pay the premiums. But, the guaranteed cash value and death benefits did not extend past age 94. And the face amount was not enough to cover the needs of the couple and potentially a new family addition.

Her dad and mom had also purchased 2 Variable Universal Life policies on her when she was eleven years old. But now, these VUL policies were starting to show declines in annual cash values due to the hangover from the last two bear market losses and the dad’s cessation of paying premiums into these losing VUL policies, which could continue to decline in value due to increasing mortality costs and the uncertain market environment.

The daughter’s new husband had no life insurance on himself to cover their mortgage, outstanding student loan debt, or to replace his income if he were to pass away.

PROBLEM 1 SOLVED:

Potential expiration and insufficiency of the old whole life policy.

The old whole life policy was replaced in a tax-free exchange for a New York Life limited pay custom whole life policy. Immediately, the guaranteed death benefit jumped $133,879, from $353,477 to $487,356.

By her age 94, the old policy showed $0 in guaranteed cash surrender value and some $645,000 in projected cash value. In contrast, the New York Life policy provides over $317,000 in guaranteed cash value, and over $1,128,000 in projected cash value based on current interest rates (which have been at historically low levels for several years).

The best thing is that not one dime of new premium was needed to get these expanded benefits—it only cost the new couple a few hours to apply with New York Life and get underwritten for the new coverage.

Yet they walked away with a policy that could pay over $1.1 Million in death benefits by the daughter’s life expectancy with expected cash values of over $969,630. Since a total of $59,182 of premiums were invested into the policy from the exchange, the cash value at her life expectancy could be over 16x the premiums invested. Furthermore, this type of investment represents one of the safest financial assets ever created, issued by one of the strongest insurance carriers in the world.

PROBLEM 2 SOLVED:
No house down-payment.

The 2 poorly-performing VUL policies were cashed in. The cash value from one of them was applied to the down-payment on the couple’s new 3 bedroom home. As a result, they now qualified for a lower interest mortgage loan. They moved into their new home shortly thereafter, excited to be close to town and close to their friends from college.

PROBLEM 3 SOLVED:
Build family protection now and asset values for later.

The cash value from the second VUL policy was applied to a new policy on the daughter’s life, providing immediate death benefits of $356,723, which is expected to grow to over $811,000 by her life expectancy at 89, and over $1,005,000 by her age 100.

No new policy premiums are required to provide guaranteed death benefits. This policy grows cash value from day one, which can be borrowed from if needed for short-term home projects, without having to apply for loans and put up collateral for third party lenders.

Because of their good incomes, the daughter has the OPTION of adding $3801 per year into this policy for the next 4 years. If she elects to do so, her cash value could grow tax-deferred to over $391,000 by her normal retirement age of 67 for travel and entertainment in retirement, or $924,324 by her life expectancy of 89, in case she needs supplemental funds for long term care, or over $1,347,000 if she just wants to leave a legacy for her children and grandchildren.

PROBLEM 4 SOLVED:
No life insurance to cover little ones that might come along.

Because the couple has a good joint income, they wanted to protect each other in case something happened to one of them, especially if they had children dependent on them someday.

To accomplish this, they bought a convertible 20 year level term policy on the wife for $1 million and on the husband for $1 million—enough added coverage, when combined with their other insurance, to protect any little bambinos that might come along. The premiums for this new $2 million of coverage are less than .007 of their combined incomes—a pretty inexpensive way to provide protection, and a lot safer than waiting for the market to turn $1,218 a year (their combined premiums) into $2 million. Plus, they’ve obtained immediate coverage of $1 million apiece today.

Postscript: The couple is now expecting their first son. Was that just a coincidence?