Why should you see what your policy is worth? The way that a life settlement works is quite simple. Many people are under the assumption that life insurance is just another bill that you continue to pay like your car insurance, however your life insurance policy is actually an asset. Say you have a house, but you want to move across the country, would you just leave the house and forget about it entirely? NO. You would put it on the market to see how much it was worth. The same is true for your life insurance policy. I would recommend getting a free appraisal of your policy as frequently as a bi-annual checkup. Unfortunately, life insurance companies don’t inform their clients that this is possible because it is not in their best interest to be your fiduciary. Life Settlements are a direct hit on their bottom line. What is your policy actually worth? As I stated earlier, life settlements are actually quite simple. However, just as when you bought your policy, you will get a number that is based solely off of you personally, and not a general number. Every policy is different and has different factors involved. Luckily, when you work with a trusted life settlement company such as LifeStone Settlements, we take care of all of the paperwork, underwriting and confusing stuff for you. We make the whole process simple for you because we recognize that these steps can often seem overly complicated. When it comes to pricing of these policies, there is a cash offer that is usually tax-free to you. This offer is based off of the policy’s net death benefit, premium outlay, and your health status. These factors all contribute to what the cash offer is. For example, you could own two identical policies but the annual premium of one is half the cost. This policy with the cheaper premium would get an offer that is higher than your other identical policy. Another way to a life settlement could be beneficial to you is through utilizing a “retained death benefit.” This is when you become an irrevocable beneficiary of a specified amount, but you still sell the policy and are no longer liable for premium payments. For example, let’s say you have a $1 million policy, but you want to hold on to $150,000 to cover end of life expenses but you no longer want to pay for the high premiums that the big $1 million policy has. You could utilize the retained death benefit by becoming an irrevocable beneficiary for $150,000, while not having to make your high premium payments anymore and possibly get a cash offer as well. That is why life settlements are very important for everyone to pay attention to. Author: Dominic Dubs dominic@lifestonesettlements.com