Brandon Roberts | The Insurance Pro Blog

The Financial Planners are Turning to Alternative Investments and Life Insurance is on their List

We've been hammering the alternative investments point pretty hard lately, and this is because the financial services industry is abuzz about what to do with its tarnished image for cuddling up with the main stream stock market for so long and and now being accountable for it's general lack of reliability to the average investor.

So, what are money managers and general financial planners (the certified kind) doing to restore faith and peace of mind among their clientèle? The answer is quite interesting.

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4-6% Historical Return with very Limited Risk: The Idea Par Excellence in Alternative Investments

by Brandon Roberts

Alternative Investments? You say…hear us out.

I'll admit it, I have a certain penchant for the unusual and I have a huge tendency to buck the trend. According to certain personality tests circulating the internet, I share personality traits with only roughly 5% of the U.S. population. Bad for social gatherings, great for dissecting conventional wisdom and avoiding common pitfalls.

I've been a finance geek for a long time (I like numbers). I was an online investor back when stock quotes were delayed more by my dial-up internet connection then by the speed of the ticker tape. And I've always been amazed at the crazy ideals we dogmatically hold onto in the personal finance world.

So imagine how I attacked the notion of using cash value life insurance as an asset class when the idea was first presented to me.

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Dear Insurance Pro Blog: 7702 Plan

by Brandon Roberts

We recently received the following email from a fellow reader about the 7702 Plan post:

Dear Brandon,

Why so much hate for 7702 Plans? I've been following your blog for a few months now, and for the most part I love what you do. However I think your recent post about 7702 Plans was unfair. For starters, the plan is nothing like a 401k or IRA. Those plans can and HAVE declined in value. The 7702 Plan was created by Federal Tax Code and has served a lot of people very well. I was surprised to see someone like you attack a solid plan like 7702's.

Rich

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Special Announcement: Ohio National Whole Life Dividend Announcement

by Brandon Roberts

Ohio National Life has announced their whole life dividend for the next year. Both rates, the 5.9% rate on the closed block of whole life business and the 6.15% rate on the open block of whole life business (this includes newly issued policies) will remain unchanged.

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What is a Pension?

by Brandon Roberts

Ah the Pension. A long sacrosanct retirement vehicle known for its rigidity and stability. The anchor that led many American's into a comfortable retirement. That was, until the late 70's early 80's when a few pieces of legislation dramatically changed the retirement planning landscape and gave way to a new (and much cheaper for some people) focus to retirement planning.

We'll ignore all of that for a minute, and instead focus on what exactly a pension is, and then come back to why it has sort of gone the way of the dodo.

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What is an Annuity?

by Brandon Roberts

When it comes to financial planning and insurance products the annuity is traditionally regarded as the product that disperses or liquidates a sum of money. Long known for their reputation as the safe product used for creating guaranteed income streams.

Annuities have evolved as much (if not more) than life insurance contracts over the past 100 years and their use in practice has dramatically shifted to more closely complement modern day financial planning.

Does an annuity belong in your portfolio? I don't want to make a blanket statement, but rather equip people with the knowledge to be able to reasonably think either they should or shouldn't entertain this idea further.

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An Introduction to Estate Planning

by Brandon Roberts

Estate planning is a subject that traditionally incites images of stuffy topics that require obtuse attorneys who spend all of their time fascinating over abysmal tax implications. While this assumption about the topic isn't unwarranted, it's a tad incomplete. Estate planning is a subject that will infiltrate everyone's life and how you choose to address it will make a dramatic difference in the lives of those who have to deal with your matters once you have passed away.

Today I'm not all that interested in detailing depth, as much as I'm interested in presenting a few key concepts that will hopefully adjust some thinking and make everyone realize that like it or not, all roads lead to estate planning.

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7702 Plan: Always a Bad Idea or Simply Misunderstood?

by Brandon Roberts

Several years ago (the details as to exactly when are a little hazy), someone somewhere within the insurance industry made a fascinating discovery, which gave way to something referred to as a 7702 plan.

What might this fascinating discovery be? A tax loophole? The introduction to a new financial product that would bring salvation to us all?

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Ohio National Life Term: You Had No Idea a Mutual Could Write Term this Cheap…Did You?

by Brandon Roberts

Ohio National Life, the 100 some odd year old life insurance company from Cincinnati known for having a good…well…almost everything.

Most of the time, we can segment companies by being rockstars with certain products. For example, we know Berkshire Life and the Standard for their industry leading and extremely benefit rich disability insurance contracts.

We regard Banner Life and Genworth for their fiercely cheap term insurance rates, we know of Jackson National Life for their amazing annuity products. Ohio National tends to be a different story.

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Modified Endowment Contract: MEC Should You Be Worried?

by Brandon Roberts

Anyone who has looked into cash value life insurance has probably come across the term Modified Endowment Contract (MEC). Those with flexible premium policies may have noticed a portion of their statements that stipulate whether or not the contract is a Modified Endowment Contract.

You may have even seen numbers indicating the amount of money that can go into a policy before it turns into an MEC. What does it mean, and why do we care? We’ll explain that and more today as we cover MECs in their entirety.