WELCOME TO LEXREX FINANCIAL
We're a full service Life insurance agency licensed across the US
With life as unpredictable as it’s become in today’s world, it’s vital that you keep as much of your financial life as predictable as possible. One obvious, critical way to protect your income and assets is to strategically use one or more products sold by life insurance agents. These products all center around state-approved legal contracts that guarantee outcomes such as a death benefit to your loved ones if you pass, or a large portion of a policy’s death benefit (called a “face amount”) paid out while the policy owner is still alive if an unexpected chronic, critical, or terminal illness happens during an active policy’s term.
The insurance companies that we are appointed with, including Mutual of Omaha, Americo, AIG, Transamerica, Aetna, Mass Mutual, and John Hancock, are all longtime trusted names in the business. From simplified issue term products requiring no blood or urine tests, to fully underwritten policies for universal or whole life, we have the right solution to affordably match your situation. It’s an ideal situation for YOU, because by having a choice of over 20 possible agents, you are guaranteed to get the BEST deal. A captive agency that works for a single large agent will ONLY sell that agent’s products, which may or may not be the best coverage and price for you.
Life Insurance - Why you NEED
LexRex Financial Services
Why do I need Life Insurance?
According to insurance trade association LIMRA, one in three families can’t meet their daily expenses within a month of a primary breadwinner’s death.
A life insurance policy can help your family maintain the lifestyle they’ve grown accustomed to and provide long-term financial security. Life insurance is a critical part of responsible financial planning, especially when dependent children are involved. The primary reason most people buy life insurance is to replace income that would be lost with the death of a primary income earner. The IMMEDIATE tax-free cash paid to a beneficiary by a life insurance agent helps assure that your dependents are not burdened with significant debt through loss of your income when you die. Access to this death benefit could mean your dependents would NOT have to sell assets to pay outstanding bills or taxes left behind.
As we review your needs for life insurance, we discuss your personal finances and review your family’s needs in the event of your death. There are several factors to consider when determining how much protection you should carry. These include:
Immediate needs at the time of death, including recurring expenses, burial costs and estate taxes; this is where mortgage protection can be vital, since someone’s death doesn’t remove a family’s obligation to keep loan payments current.
Funds are needed for an adjustment period, to finance a move, or to provide time for family members to find a new job.
Ongoing financial needs, such as monthly bills and expenses, day-care costs, college tuition or retirement.
Although there is no substitute for a careful evaluation of the amount of coverage needed to meet your needs, one proven rule of thumb is to buy a face amount (death benefit) of life insurance of at least five to ten times the annual gross income lost by the primary income earner.
Choosing a Plan
Buying life insurance is unlike any other purchase you will make. When you regularly pay your monthly premiums, you’re buying future financial security for your family that only life insurance can provide.
The main types of life insurance available are TERM and PERMANENT:
Term life insurance provides protection for a specified period (usually up to 30 years) and is cheaper to buy than whole or universal life because there is no cash accrued during the term. It’s often a favorite of younger families who prefer a lower premium in exchange for a higher death benefit than if buying a permanent policy. If you die during the contract term using this option for insurance, the death benefit is paid out. If you’re still alive and functioning at expiration, you can lose the benefit unless you buy a continuation option upfront, which we also offer as a smart hedge against the risk of outliving a term policy. There are also “return of premium” options, where 50 or 100% of cumulative paid premiums are refunded if the policy owner remains alive. Quotes are available on all these options.
Permanent, or cash value life insurance provides lifelong protection up to age 120 if premiums remain current. We can structure a policy to have a level death benefit or increasing over time. These policies involve the accumulation of tax-free cash that can compound inside the policy and offer policy owners a great long-term way to build for a safe, tax-free retirement account that can NEVER lose money (unlike a 401(k) or Roth IRA) if correctly structured to use a fixed index like the S&P 500 year over year. Remember, we are NOT investment advisors recommending products that CAN lose much of your principal. We are the smart, conservative way you protect and maintain your wealth with internal rates of return that can far exceed those of bonds and other low interest-bearing vehicles. This is where you need the counsel of an agency like LexRex Financial!
With permanent insurance, you’re providing potential solutions to these important questions. If peace of mind is vital to you, you want to have answers to these scenarios before the worst outcome happens to you. Regardless of situation, you want to guarantee financial security to your family NOW for the time when you might not be around to plan for it.
- In the event of my death, critical illness or disability, how does my family handle mortgage and other recurring payments I’m obligated to pay without liquidating hard-earned assets?
- How do I protect, enhance, and secure the money I already have without risking its downside in a volatile market for equities or other speculative investments?
- How do I plan for guaranteed income during my retirement years when the world might be even crazier than it is now?
- How can I build compounding tax-free wealth inside of a vehicle that is guaranteed to not lose money?
- If critical or chronic illness strikes as I grow older, how do I handle the crazy cost of long-term care I might need?
- Is a fixed index annuity something that’s safe as an alternative to rollover an unpredictable product like an IRA or 401(k)? If there’s no downside risk, what is the potential upside my funds can earn?
Policyholder
The person who owns the life insurance policy and is paying the premiums. Typically, this is the person who applied for and is insured under the policy, but it’s also possible to purchase a policy on behalf of someone else.
Beneficiary
The person(s) or entity that receive the death benefit if the policyholder dies. You can name more than one person, including children, as beneficiaries when you purchase a policy.
Premium
The amount of money paid monthly or annually to keep a policy active. Payment ensures that the insurance company provides your beneficiary with the stated benefit in the event of your passing.
Death Benefit / Face Amount
The money paid out if the insured person passes away. Death benefits are not subject to income tax and beneficiaries generally receive the benefit in one lump-sum payment.
What will happen if I fail to make the required premium payments?
If you miss a premium payment, you typically have a 30- or 31-day grace period during which you can pay the overdue premium. After that time, the policy will lapse, meaning your coverage is in jeopardy. You may be able to reinstate with evidence of insurability depending on your policy’s provisions. If you have a permanent policy and it has sufficient cash value, the company can, with your authorization, draw from that policy’s cash surrender value to keep the policy in force. Remember, this won’t apply to term insurance because there is no cash value from which to draw a premium. In some flexible premium policies like an indexed universal life (IUL) policy, premiums may be reduced or skipped if sufficient cash value remains in the policy. The associated death benefit in the policy is reduced by the cash extracted from the balance in the policy.
What if I become disabled?
Almost all policies we offer contain provisions for riders that can provide additional benefits. One such rider is a waiver of premium for disability. With this rider, if you become totally disabled for a specified period, you do not have to pay premiums for the duration of the disability.
Are other riders available?
(Availability, specifics, and costs of these riders vary by carrier and state, of course we will review your specifics)
- An “Accidental Death Benefit” pays out an additional benefit in case of death resulting from an accident.
- A “Living Benefit” rider allows you, under certain approved and medically confirmed circumstances, to receive a large portion of the death benefit proceeds of your life insurance policy before you die. Such circumstances include chronic, critical, terminal or catastrophic illness, the need for long-term care or confinement to a nursing home.
- A “Child Rider” can provide life insurance for all your children, typically between $1,000 and $10,000 of death benefit in the event of the insured child’s death.
When will I know that I have coverage?
Once you decide to purchase your life insurance policy, the insurance carrier will alert you when the insurance becomes effective. This timing could be different from the date when the company issues the policy. Once the insurance carrier auto-drafts your first premium, that is a good indicator that your policy is active.
How do accelerated death benefits work?
These benefits allow policyholders to receive all or part of the policy’s proceeds prior to death under certain circumstances, including the need for long-term care and confinement to a nursing home. Because payments may affect personal tax status and Medicare eligibility and will be deducted from the overall benefits paid later to beneficiaries, policyholders should thoroughly investigate options in advance. This is where having an ally like LexRex Financial Services is so important for you!
By using medical tests like blood and urine, are insurers trying to eliminate any applicant likely to develop a serious health condition?
Medical tests usually provide accurate and current information about an applicant’s health, thus enabling an insurer to charge premiums that reflect the level of risk that an applicant represents. Remember, insurance is ALWAYS about managing risk for an insurance carrier like Mutual of Omaha or AIG. Because some health conditions are easily managed through proper medication, therapy or lifestyle changes, medical information sometimes makes it possible for insurers to cover applicants who might not otherwise be insurable. More serious or incurable conditions present a much higher risk that an insurer will often avoid.
What should I consider in naming life insurance beneficiaries?
Always name a “contingent,” or secondary, beneficiary, in the event you outlive your primary beneficiary.
Select a specific beneficiary, rather than having the proceeds of your life insurance paid to your estate. One of the great advantages of life insurance is that it can be paid to your family immediately. If it is payable to your estate and you don’t have a legal will, it will often have to go through a probate process with the rest of your assets. Consult an estate planning attorney for more advice here, as they are well versed in details of these life insurance policies. They can also provide needed tax and other legal counsel beyond the details provided here.
Be very clear in wording beneficiary designations. Naming specific children may exclude those born later. If your child dies before you do, do you want the proceeds to go to that child’s children? Changing a beneficiary designation is simple, but you have to remember to handle it, or have your estate attorney manage the process.
As a single person, do I need insurance?
The answer almost always is YES. You may want to consider these options:
- Disability income insurance – especially important for self-supporting singles without sizable assets, this can replace a good part of the income you would lose if you were unable to work because of accident or illness. If you don’t have long-term disability coverage at work, it’s smart to consider an individual policy designed to replace at least 60 percent of your annual income.
- Health insurance – if you don’t have on-the-job coverage, an individual policy is your first line of defense against ever-escalating medical and hospital costs. You can keep premium costs down by electing a large deductible, thereby “self-insuring” as much as you can afford.
- Life insurance – even if you currently have no dependents, you may later if you get married or have some other life event that adds a partner. If you buy life insurance now when you’re younger and healthier, you can lock in the lowest possible cost coverage.
What can I do to secure a lump sum I have sitting in a low interest paying bank account or a 401(k) that has been losing money with wild market fluctuations?
This is where our agency excels! This is a “secure retirement” kind of question, and if you have more than $10,000 that is sitting earning virtually nothing inside an account, you MUST consider an annuity if we together determine it makes more sense than funding a universal life policy. Such an annuity policy issued by an insurance carrier is essentially the reverse process of the life policies described above. By putting your lump sum(s) into a minimal fee fixed index annuity, you lock in the upside movements of an index like the S&P 500 without incurring the downside risk of any specific stock or other fluctuating asset.
One very popular use of a fixed index annuity is to rollover an IRA, 401(k), TSP or other tax deferred vehicle. People who are tired of the wild ride of daily market fluctuations can work with the company managing their current vehicle to arrange for the eligible portion of that balance to a specialized annuity carrier. It will not cause a taxable event when we structure the transfer correctly. AND you’ll protect your principal with the benefits of compounding interest to grow your retirements savings SAFELY!
REMEMBER, these products will NOT allow you to lose your principal. We can even structure the annuity to pay you a GUARANTEED INCOME for life after a designated age, and that means for LIFE, even if you’re way past 100 (you’re actually rewarded for long life with “longevity credits!”). The flexibility you have with a well-structured annuity is unparalleled!