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.
CD or Multi-Year Rate Guarantee Annuity–Is it a fair comparison?
Typically a multi-year guaranteed annuity and the term “CD annuity” are used interchangeably within marketing literature. While the description is accurate in describing conceptually how the product works, I feel it could be a little misleading to consumers.
An annuity is NOT a CD, it’s not related to a CD, and the two really shouldn’t be compared as much as they are. Later on I’ll get into some of what really makes them different. The differences may seem subtle to some but they are vitally important to understand.
What is a Pension?
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.
What is an Annuity?
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.
An Introduction to Estate Planning
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.
What’s The Problem With My Pension?
For the past few decades, a big part of the American Dream was to go to college, get a great job with a big company, work there for forty years and then spend your days cruising around in your golf cart in some place like Boca Raton, Scottsdale or Palm Desert.
Of course this whole “fantasy” (that’s arguable in my opinion) was possible because almost all retirees were covered by a traditional pension plan.
7702 Plan: Always a Bad Idea or Simply Misunderstood?
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?
Ohio National Life Term: You Had No Idea a Mutual Could Write Term this Cheap…Did You?
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.
Modified Endowment Contract: MEC Should You Be Worried?
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.
Life Insurance Company Ratings–Do They Matter?
The last few years have certainly seen an unprecedented amount of chaos in the global financial markets. And life insurance companies have not been immune to the aftershocks. We all know that in large part, the turmoil was caused by the collapse of the derivatives market.
All of the financial unrest has lead to a much greater awareness and concern regarding life insurance company ratings, overall financial stability and how the carriers are being overseen by third party rating agencies.
