Starting the Conversation
Most of us don’t really want to deal with life insurance. After all, who wants to discuss their own death – how morbid. However, we love our families, and our businesses, and do not want to leave them in a dire financial situation should we die. We also may have legacy objectives for our family charities.
So we listen to the sales pitch and buy a policy. The death benefit sounds high and the premium payments are always painful because there are so many things we would rather do with that money. Often, the agent, though very likable, seems a bit pushy, pressing for a decision. Many of us are not certain agents are totally objective, even though they claim to have our best interests at heart.
We take the policy, stuff it in the bottom drawer and forget about it, glad that the unsavory task is finally completed. The annual statements come from the insurance company and some are filed while some are lost.
What Next?
Over time our situation changes but we really don’t want to think about the insurance policy if we can avoid it. We really don’t understand how the policy works but until the agent calls us again we leave the policy in a drawer, maybe even lose it in a move. At least we can feel good about having done something to help protect those who might be left behind.
What we may fail to see clearly is that we now own a significant asset. We naturally ask for help managing other properties, like our stock and bond portfolios or real estate we may own. We would not even consider letting those assets be ignored or not be maintained. However, we rarely see life insurance as an asset that also requires management to help make certain our objectives are achieved. We may expect our agents to “keep an eye on things” but agents are compensated primarily to generate new sales rather than service existing ones.
We may fall prey to the belief that life insurance is guaranteed and that, once we have purchased it, we don’t have to worry about it anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our situations change. Our objectives change. The policy may not perform as originally planned. For our life insurance to achieve our objectives the policies must be regularly maintained, just like our cars need regular oil changes.
How Petra Services Life Can Help
Now there is an alternative to help you manage your life insurance assets in a professional manner like the other critical assets on your personal or business balance sheet. Petra Life Services offers objective advice based on our years of experience in life insurance product management to help you to understand how this significant asset performs and to help identify any problems that might prevent your plans from being fulfilled.
We would like to become your “life insurance asset manager.” In that role, we regularly monitor the performance of each policy and each company and keep you informed as to how that performance compares to expectations. We periodically review your goals and circumstances to help make certain your life insurance assets are aligned with your objectives over time.
We Work For You, In The Way You Prefer
Perhaps you need help working through the recommendations of your agent or determining the best proposal from several agents. You may have received a notice from your life insurance company that you need to pay more into the policy and are not sure how to proceed. Maybe you are simply uncomfortable that you have the right amount or the right kind of life insurance for your situation but you don’t want to hear a sales pitch. We can help – and we only look at the issues from your perspective because we work for you.
And the cost is a fraction of the cost of management of other assets. The typical investment advisor will charge from .5% to as much as 2.0% or even higher to manage your investment portfolio. Petra Life’s charges depend on the types of policies you own and the amount of work needed. Most often our fees fall in the range of .025% to .25% of the death benefit assets under management.
With Petra Life Services you will have the peace of mind that these assets are monitored and managed professionally, consistent with your wishes. If you would like to know more about how life insurance asset management can help you take the uncertainty out of this vital segment of your financial plans please give us a call at 205.414.9955.
Neither Petra Life Services, Inc. nor its representatives may give you tax or legal advice. We recommend that you consult with, and rely on, your own tax and legal advisors about the concepts presented in these materials.