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(Complete Show Notes Below)
In the 27th episode of the Financial Procast:
It's Tax Season Once Again
After Brandon invokes the Time, Place, and Manner clause of the U.S. Constitution, we talk taxes. Yeah, April 15th, the most dreaded day of the year for those that have to write checks to the IRS.
But guess what? There are many wonderful benefits of cash value life insurance, both whole life and universal life insurance. We open up a bit more on the discussion of some of the uses, nuances and benefits of using life insurance as tax efficient place to warehouse cash. In our discussion we tell what it is and what it's not so that you can decide what will best suit your situation.
Using the cash value inside a life insurance policy can create some very tax favorable income scenarios for you in the future and we dive into those. Also, Brandon dives into a discussion of FIFO, LIFO, policy withdrawals and policy loans.
Universal Life vs. Whole Life
We get questions surrounding this debate all the time and we got even more after procast episode 25. It turns out that the debate over the two products is as heated as it's ever been and both sides have continued to really dig their heals in on which is better.
And many times, people ask us “Which is better?” Our answer always seems lame but “It depends” really is the truth. There's just no clear cut way to determine that one product is absolutely, always the right thing. Furthermore, anyone that tells you that is spewing nonsense your way.
In our discussion, we break down the mechanics of Whole Life and Universal Life Insurance to give you the knowledge you need to make an educated decision on which may benefit you. The best advice we can offer on this topic is to have an open mind and really look at the numbers.
Questions from our listeners
We field three questions from our listeners. Jim asks us about having his investment adviser manage the cash value in his whole life insurance policy, Rob asks us about the proper ratio of blending inside a whole life policy, and Rebecca asks us if she should consider deferring her retirement savings while she cleans up her finances.
Contact us if you have any questions regarding this episode or if you have any questions at all. We're always glad to help.
I know I’m probably getting a going to get a reputation as something of a fan-boy after this, but here goes anyway.
I think this is the best episode of your podcast yet. Here’s why:
1) It was timely. I had earlier yesterday been asked a question about life insurance by a friend of mine (as a non-insurance-agent-with-interest-in-this-stuff I was being asked my thoughts) and I learned that my explanation was the same as your explanation (minus some details). Feels good to hear evidence that I am “getting” this.
2) It was funny. I’ve made this comment before, but seriously… you guys make insurance interesting and humorous. I rarely meet financial pros who are so enthusiastic and take such honest shots at the industry. The music made me laugh as well. And the comments when you realized DIDN’T have the appropriate music.
3) You got detailed. The explanation of WL policy loans, the history of UL, the tax implications – all were interesting. Too many people want to just hand their financial future off to someone else to manage, and too few of us have the knowledge or inclination to manage this incredibly important aspect of our lives ourselves, but the happy medium of understanding our situation and the risks we take is even more foreign territory.
4) Q&A. I think I mentioned before that I wanted to hear this in the podcast. I think I can learn a lot from the questions that are asked as well as the answers that are given. Thanks for adding this.
5) There is no fifth thing.
6) Sound quality. I listen to all podcasts at double speed on an ipod touch. And I listen to a lot of podcasts. I liked the new lead-in, and the sound level of the additional overlays was better than last ep.
Bravo.
Thanks for all the kind words! Number 6 especially makes us happy as we’ve toiled a long and arduous road to improve our sound quality. I’ll have to give Brandon all the credit for the fancy finger-work of getting those sound clips in their real-time, not an easy thing to do given the absolute crappy equipment both of us have. We do have plans to significantly upgrade our equipment this year, just haven’t made that leap yet.
Crappy equipment? I’m telling Bob Heil you said that.
Thanks Jeff.
I’ll take a moment to be completely self indulging and speak to #6, as we’re probably most delighted to hear about this one.
Currently it takes 3 computers, two microphones, two mixers (which badly need to be upgraded and FYI for those trying to do such a thing on the cheap, Behringer over Alesis everyday of the week, and don’t even think about connecting audio through USB), two different audio recording/mixing software packages, one digital audio recorder (even though we bought two), and umpteen various audio cables to record the Financial Pro Cast. Oh and if you really want to know, there’s also a few mic stands/rigs, earphones, and pop filters needed as well.
We’ve come a long way since episode 001 when I was recording on the microphone I took from the Band Hero set that was in my basement and Brantley was using one of those Logitec desk microphones, both plugged directly into the computer and using free recording software to record the Financial Pro Cast.
We’ve changed recording methods a few times, but presently we connect the two of us through Skype and I currently have the responsibility of recording the whole thing (simply because I have the software that runs while recording to help reduce ambient noise, I’ve been running the controls when it comes to sound bites, and I was the one who happened to have a 5 volt a/c adapter lying around to use to keep the digital audio recorder running without killing a set of AA batteries with every episode–they don’t come with adapters, we learned). I then have to send the whole thing to Brantley, all 600 some megabytes 😯 and most of the time it arrives just fine.
Huge props to Brantley for spending a ton of time figuring out how we put this all together.
We’re also extremely grateful for the inspiration and helpful resources we’ve picked up from Leo Laporte (and everyone at Twit) and the Podcast Answer Man Cliff Ravenscraft. Just like us (though on a different subject) they’ve made a ton of free information available. And without it, this never would have gotten off the ground.