Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My employer asked me if I wanted to continue my work-provided life insurance in retirement. I have to pay taxes on the premium they pay. I took it figuring if I croak before my mortgage is paid, my daughter can pay it off. She was still continuing her education when I retired.
This year I turned 65, and I got a notice that the value of that life insurance has dropped by about $15K. (It's around $300K.) I had the option to pay for the difference, but I don't have any need to do that. I believe it now continues to drop in value each year up to a certain point and then it ends. I forget when. It's in the paperwork in my closet.
Daughter will get $35K from my pension system upon my death no matter what. That may be enough to dispose of my carcass and clear up anything outstanding if I live for a while yet, and she is well on the way to establishing her own career and financial stability, so I think we'll be good.
I remember my mother getting a check from a life insurance company when she turned 85 with a letter saying sorry, we don't cover you after this. She lived another six years. She did still have a $16K life insurance policy when she died. We had to put her funeral on a credit card and that more than covered it (took a little while because she still had my dad as beneficiary and he'd been dead for 20 years, so they wanted his death certificate and all our SS numbers.)
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
13,080 posts, read 7,527,706 times
Reputation: 9814
Quote:
Originally Posted by kbrkr
I finally retired and I am loosing my company paid life insurance. I have a whole life policy since 1974, but its a small amount ($20k). What are folks doing to provide life insurance during their retirement years? I only have a small home mortgage for debt and wife and 3 adult children and 5 grand children. Do you all try to cover your debt and final expenses with Life Insurance or do you just let your reserves cover it all.
DW bought us prepaid cremation a few months ago. They are whole life policies with a funeral establishment (trust, I believe) as the beneficiary. Age 74/77.
Immediate-near term prepaid cremation is less costly since there is zero future risk.
The only debt we have is a PLUS (Parents Loan for Undergraduate Students). It's a standard 25yr PLUS, maybe ~4 years remaining, maybe ~$20k. This loan (government guaranteed) gets paid off if the owner (DW) dies or the student (DS) dies.
YIMV
We have death benefits built into our annuities. This not life insurance.
We have LTCi with pretty good features.
Either spouse or my self can live within the retirement income if one dies.
We probably not eligible for a lot of "life" insurance because of cancer diagnosis's. We could buy mail-order WL insurance but the premium is relatively high compared to the benefit amount. We get a lot of mail from such companies.
Last edited by leastprime; 03-08-2024 at 03:14 PM..
Colonial Penn because of the 3 Ps: Price, Price and Price.
At 70 I would tell you to maybe get a policy if your final expenses would financially strain your survivors (remember, Social Security only pays a $255 death benefit).
A note: much of the above was meant to be humorous, except the financial strain part. I hate the term "final expenses".
Whole life insurance is an excellent Vehicle to maintain 'Family Wealth' --- Everyone dies, and if you start in your 20s, your premium will be very reasonable. ALSO, if your employer pays half or all of it, it becomes and even better bargain.
Life insurance can also be excellent collateral for Bank Loans. Lots of Small Biz Lenders require 'Partnership Insurance' to insure the survival of the business (should one of the partners croak).
PARENTS can offer the policies to their kids (if so desired). And by that i mean 'grown Children can make the premium payments', if they are the beneficiaries of the estate. ITs an excellent way to build generational wealth and protect the family name.
Death is a part of life --- leave all you can to those you love !
If you are leaving some sort of heirs behind when you die, one particular advantage of life insurance, even if you don't actually "need" it, is that it pays out tax free money when your heirs might need that. Getting your estate settled may take a few months.
A typical senior with no real dependents, and a strong net worth, does not "need" insurance in the long run for his beneficiaries, but again the quick, tax-free payout of life insurance can be very handy and reduce stress in a normally stressful time.
I finally retired and I am loosing my company paid life insurance. I have a whole life policy since 1974, but its a small amount ($20k). What are folks doing to provide life insurance during their retirement years? I only have a small home mortgage for debt and wife and 3 adult children and 5 grand children. Do you all try to cover your debt and final expenses with Life Insurance or do you just let your reserves cover it all.
Some companies would let you buy a new life insurance policy at the time. Maybe if you start with 2 or 3x your annual salary could keep insurance at that level. When you get to 100 you win the lottery with large windfall payment.
IMHO this is an individual decision. Once the house is paid for all you need to cover is final expense, nursing home assisted living care, not much else. May depend in your state what the final expenses are with inheritance or other taxes. Maybe you have a business to protect.
My Googling says you might want to shop around a bit, because that's double the average cost.
My mother's body was cremated and place in a small wooden box and prayer cards printed for her. The cost of the church service was a minimum donation. She was buried in family plot was a family plot with a family tombstone - no cost, but we had to pay to have the grave dug. The 2018 cost was $7,000 in NJ.
If a person isn't cremated, a full size casket can cost up to $10,000, embalming and a funeral home showing are additional expenses. Then you have to purchase a plot of land, a tombstone and pay the grave diggers.
When our family was young, I carried a 20 Year Term Life policy. The payout would have been enough to cover all college costs, payoff the home mortgage, and provide my DW with a tax-free lump sum. The annual premium was small for the amount of coverage. As with most Term Life policies, it never needed to pay out. When that 20 Year Term expired they tried to sell us another 20 Year Term. The cost at that point was exorbitant. No Thank You.
By that time in life, you should have sufficient assets to 'self-insure' your family. The Home should be paid off, the kids finished with college, and investments in place to pass on to heirs.
My DW will get the Spousal Benefits from my Social Security. She is named Beneficiary on my IRA. Our Home mortgage is paid-off and is held in JTROS. My Pension has a 'kick-up' feature that will pay the surviving spouse an increased amount for life.
My ex-employer also provides their retirees with a Life Insurance Policy. It's not a large sum, but it will be enough money to take care of burial expenses and to throw a heck of a shindig with enough Jameson Whiskey to toast my memory.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
