Create Tax Advantaged Retirement Income You Cant Outlive

CREATE TAX ADVANTAGED RETIREMENT INCOME YOU CANT OUTLIVE
create tax advantaged retirement income you cant outlive

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Table Of Contents
Insurance Companies Dont Just Sell Insurance ...........................................4 Life Insurance Investing ..................................................................................5
Guarantees ......................................................................................................................7
Tax Strategy How to Get Tax-Free Gains ...................................................................7
Downsides .......................................................................................................................8
Who Gets the Most Benet from Life Insurance Investing? .......................................9
Annuity Investing ...........................................................................................10

What are the Risks? ......................................................................................................11
Top Benet: Guaranteed Income You Cant Outlive .................................................11
Life Insurance or Annuity? ............................................................................12 Tax-Free and Tax-Deferred Income Strategies ...........................................13
Strategy #1. Using Life Insurance Cash Value for Tax-Free Income .......................13
Strategy #2. Using an Annuity to Guarantee Income for Life .................................15
Strategy #3. 1035 Exchange: Life Insurance Cash Value into an Annuity .............18
Strategy #4. Using an Annuity + Life Insurance ........................................................19
Comparing Tax Advantages of the 4 Strategies ........................................................21
How can you get started? .............................................................................22 Points to Ponder ............................................................................................23
hat do you imagine when you think of your retirement? Perhaps you picture retirement like a long vacation: youll play golf, travel, or enjoy leisurely days by the pool. With good health, such a picture is entirely possible as long as you take action to turn those pleasant dreams into reality! However, a picturesque, happy retirement can be cut short if you run out of money. Taxes, market uctuations, ination, and unexpected living expenses can erode your nest egg faster than you ever thought possible. And what if you live to be 107? Will your retirement funds last that long? In this guide, youll discover ways to protect your assets from the tax man and set up an income plan that ensures youll never run out of money no matter how long you live. Surprisingly, these strategies involve products from insurance companies.
Insurance Companies Dont Just Sell Insurance

Among your options, you can now enjoy the higher yields of a variety of stock market investments along with tax-free or tax-deferred gains. Plus, you can nd these perks all within venues that carry the added security of guaranteed death benets or income for life benets that are lacking in traditional retirement plans.
Whether youre just getting started in the workforce or preparing to retire, there are tactics you can use now to make strategic investments in life insurance, annuities, or both. Lets get started!
There is nothing like a dream to create the future. ~Victor Hugo, Les Misrables
Life Insurance Investing

When you think of life insurance, you might not think about it as an investment because, with many policies, you just get insurance. If you die while the policy is in force, your beneciary gets the death benet. This type of insurance is called term insurance. It provides security for your family if you should die. However, there are also various permanent policies that build up cash value. This is money you can take out and spend while youre alive. You dont have to wait until you die to get money from the insurance company. It can be a good strategy to buy life insurance and save for the future with the same contract. There are several types of permanent life insurance policies for dierent investment goals:
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Whole Life. The oldest one is called whole life insurance. This is what originally started the trend of permanent policies. Part of your premium is used to pay for your life insurance and the rest of it builds cash value.
With whole life insurance you build up cash as you pay your monthly premium, and its kind of like a bank account. Each month the life insurance company will pay a xed interest rate on your money, and it will grow over time.
With whole life, your premium stays the same over the life of the policy.
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Universal life. Similar to whole life, universal life pays a guaranteed interest rate, but it changes based on the market rates.
Its a little bit riskier, because some months youll make more than whole life and some months youll make less, but it still grows over time and you dont have to manage it.
The other thing with universal life is you can change the amount you pay each month, so theres more exibility.
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Variable life. This type of insurance is like combining a brokerage account with your life insurance.
When you put money in variable life, you can use it to buy stocks, bonds, and other investments within the policy. You also have a choice in how to manage your investments.
That means you can make more money, but it also means you can lose money, so its a bit riskier.
Guarantees
All of these policies have a death benet, which is guaranteed to a point. Youll nd these guarantees:
1. Whole life. Besides a set, guaranteed death benet, with the whole life policy, the rate of return is also guaranteed. So you also know what youre going to get when you retire.
That means the insurance company can tell you, If you put X much money in per month, youre going to have $300,000 when youre 65. Since both the death benet and the cash value are guaranteed, youll know from the quote what the contract will provide.
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Universal life. With universal life, the interest rate can change over time. What the insurance company will do is give you a range, telling you what they think youre going to hit when you retire but it could be less or more.
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Variable life. With variable life, there typically arent guarantees. Its like investing in the stock market. They can make an estimate based on past market trends, but it really depends on how well you invest your money.
Tax Strategy How To Get Tax-Free Gains

With life insurance, theres a tax loophole that, if you use it correctly, your gains are tax-free.
The money in your life insurance account grows tax-deferred, which means as long as you leave money in the account you dont owe taxes on it. If at some point you decide to cancel your life insurance policy and cash out all your investment gains, youll owe taxes on those gains, which isnt what you want to do. So dont cancel your policy! Instead, follow this process:
1. Get a policy loan. Say you get to retirement and you have a big pile of money in there. You can get a policy loan, which means youre borrowing money from yourself to take it out. Luckily, the government doesnt tax loans. 2. Keep the policy in force. Because its a permanent policy, at some point youre going to die and the death benet will pay o your loan. The government doesnt tax life insurance death benets.
Basically, you take your money out tax-free, and then the death benet pays o your loan and whats left over to your heirs tax-free as well.
Downsides
What could be an issue in using a life insurance policy as a tax-free investment? Consider these points:
Youll have to be healthy enough to qualify for life insurance to set this up. It might not be an option if you have serious health issues. Theres a required medical exam.
Your investment gains will be lower than if you had just invested in a stock account, because each month a little bit of your money goes towards paying for your life insurance.
If you need life insurance for a time, but then want to switch to other tactics as your needs change, youll see how to accomplish that change as well as we delve further into our strategies.
Who Gets The Most Benet From Life Insurance Investing?

Life insurance investing is especially advantageous if you cant qualify for a regular retirement plan. For example, there are income restrictions for IRAs. If youre making too much money, youre not allowed to use an IRA. Plus, if you dont have a 401(k) at work, that doesnt leave you with many options for taxadvantaged investments. Life insurance doesnt really have any income restrictions, so anyone can set up a plan like this as long as theyre fairly healthy. Plus, if you want life insurance to protect your family, its an added benet to be able to save for tax-free income later on all within the same contract. And if its hard for you to invest regularly, permanent life insurance oers
automatic, forced savings, ensuring that you provide for your future, even when youre not thinking about it.
Dear IRS, I am writing to you to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list. ~Charles M. Schulz (Snoopy)
Annuity Investing
Annuities are more of just a pure investment contract than life insurance. When you buy an annuity, its split into two dierent stages:
The rst stage is called the accumulation phase, which means youre putting money into your contract and the annuity company is investing it for you. Youre saving up money in an investment account.
When youre ready to retire, you convert your annuity into the payout stage. Youll have options to choose from, like, Do I want guaranteed payments for the rest of my life? Do I want guaranteed payments for 20 years? The company will tell you the payment amounts for your various options so you can get a clear picture.
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What Are The Risks?

The risk involved depends on what type of annuity you buy. Like life insurance, there are dierent types. There are two types of annuities, xed and variable:
Fixed annuities pay a xed rate of return thats guaranteed. Like whole life, you know exactly what your account value will be when you retire. Theyre very safe. However, like all investments, lower risks usually provide lower returns.
With variable annuities youre investing in the stock market, so how well you do depends on the market and there are no guarantees as to your account value when youre ready to retire.
In comparison to life insurance, youll likely make more money with an annuity because youre not paying for any life insurance with your premiums.
Top Benet: Guaranteed Income You Cant Outlive

The one thing about the annuity that the life insurance doesnt oer is you can guarantee income with it for the rest of your life. For example, if you have $300,000 in your annuity and youre ready to start the payout phase, you can choose to receive set, guaranteed payments for the rest of your life, and theyll turn it into a lifetime pension for you.
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So, no matter how long you live, youll keep getting those payments. Plus, the amount of the payments will never go down, even if your total payments surpass that $300,000.
Life Insurance Or Annuity?

Which investment would work better for your situation? You might prefer life insurance:
If you have children and need a life insurance policy, thats usually enough to swing you to investing in life insurance, because then youre hitting two goals at the same time.
If you want to retire early, the life insurance might be a better choice because there are no restrictions as to when you can take money out with a loan. With the annuity, youre supposed to keep money in there until youre at least 59 , according to the IRS. If you take out money earlier, it can lead to a tax penalty.
You might prefer an annuity:
If your goal is to get to retirement as soon as possible with the most money, an annuity will generally have a higher account value.
If youre not healthy enough to qualify for life insurance, then an annuity is your option because theres no health exam for an annuity. Its open to everyone.
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If youre single, dont have children, and dont need life insurance, that would push you towards investing in an annuity.
I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money. ~Arthur Godfrey
Tax-Free And Tax-Deferred Income Strategies

Now that you understand the basics of investing in life insurance and annuities, lets delve further into using specic strategies to achieve taxadvantaged income.
Strategy #1. Using Life Insurance Cash Value For Tax-Free Income
The big question is how to get guaranteed income in retirement thats taxfree. Thats the dream for everyone. Its not always easy or possible, but thats obviously the goal you want to approach as closely as possible. What would happen if you only used your life insurance cash value to fund your retirement? All your income in retirement would be tax-free.
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For this strategy to work, remember: you dont want to cancel your life insurance policy, because the minute you do, all your investment gains are taxable. However, as long as you keep your insurance policy in force, you can borrow money from it. When you borrow money, since its a loan, it doesnt count as income, so you dont have to pay any taxes on it. So each year, maybe you borrow $30,000 from your life insurance. When you eventually die, the death benet from your policy will pay o your loans so nobody else has to pay it. Life insurance death benets are tax-free, so your heirs never have to pay tax on your investment gains or on the rest of the money they receive. Important Considerations Keep these facts in mind when considering this strategy:
1. Tax-free, but not guaranteed. The downside with using life insurance for your retirement income is that it only achieves the tax-free goal. It doesnt meet the guaranteed goal.
Its up to you to gure out how much money you can take out each year so it doesnt run out. So theres a chance you can outlive your money.
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How much do you want to leave for your heirs? The one thing you need to balance out is your income requirements versus if you want to leave an inheritance.
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When you borrow money from your policy, you also deduct against your future death benet for your heirs. For example, if you want to leave $300,000 to your grandkids but you spend $200,000 of your $300,000 life insurance policy, theyre only going to receive the $100,000 balance.
Just be aware the more you spend from your policy, the less youll leave to your heirs.
Strategy #2. Using An Annuity To Guarantee Income For Life

When you invest in an annuity, you already know that the main benet is guaranteed income. So if you have $300,000 in your annuity, you can ask the company to turn it into guaranteed payments for the rest of your life. That way, no matter how long you live, youll receive the same amount of money per month. If you live to 120, you know youre still going to be collecting checks. Thats a good tool, especially since were living longer than ever. Tax Treatment of Annuity Payouts Another benet of annuities is that theyre tax-deferred, which means the government doesnt tax your gains while theyre in the account, but when you start collecting payments, your investment gains are taxable.
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When your taxes are deferred, your money grows faster because theres more money to work for you throughout your accumulation phase. When you start receiving payments, part of those payments is considered to be the money you put in and the other part comes from gains. Only the part that comes from your gains is taxable, since you already paid income taxes on the money you used to fund your policy. The payments are divided into taxable and non-taxable portions based on the same proportions they make up in your account. For example, if half of your account is what you put in and half is from your gains, then your payouts reect that same 50/50 split. Half of a payout check is taxable and half isnt. Important Considerations Annuities work really well, as long as you plan properly and know its for your retirement savings. Keep these points in mind when using annuities to fund your retirement:
1. Choose carefully when you decide how long you want payouts. If youre choosing the guaranteed life option, it works great if youre going to live a long, long time, but it can be an issue if you die early.
Say youre 65 and you choose payments for the rest of your life, but you only live one more year. Youve probably only collected $4,000 of your $300,000 annuity, using our same example as before.
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Fortunately, you dont have to choose only the guaranteed life option. Many annuities let you set it up where you say, I want it for the rest of my life, but I want a minimum of 10 years worth of payments. Or you might choose a minimum of 15 or 20 years.
That means if you die in one year, at least your heirs will receive payments for the rest of the term you chose (9, 14, or 19 more years based on your option).
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Wait as long as possible before you start payouts. If you start receiving guaranteed payments when you turn 60, youll receive less money per month than someone that waited until 70.
The longer you can stretch out your accumulation phase, the more money youll get per month in your payout phase, regardless of which option you choose.
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Avoid withdrawals before age 59 . If you get stuck in a money jam and you need to take money out when youre 50, like just a lump sum withdrawal, the IRS charges a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty, which really hurts your investment gains.
So if youre putting money into an annuity, plan to lock it in until youre at least 59 .
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Strategy #3. 1035 Exchange: Life Insurance Cash Value Into An Annuity
Just because you use one product, doesnt mean you cant use the other. Perhaps you no longer have a need for life insurance and now you want those guaranteed payments of an annuity because youre retiring. Its a really easy switch to turn your life insurance into an annuity! You simply perform a transaction called a 1035 exchange. Your insurance company will have the forms to ll out. This will take all the money from your life insurance and deposit it into an annuity. This transfer doesnt count as a withdrawal, so you wont owe any taxes on this move. It will just be like you had saved in an annuity all along. From there, with your new contract, you can set up the guaranteed payments for retirement. Change Your Plan as Your Needs Change with No Tax Consequences Your nancial needs change over time. When youre in your 30s with children, you need the life insurance, but once youre in your 60s and the kids are gone, you might not. So this is an exit strategy. There are no taxes involved.
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Maybe you dont have quite as much money as if you had just used an annuity your whole life, but you may have needed life insurance, so that wasnt an option anyway. Important Considerations 1. This is a one-way street. You can turn life insurance into an annuity tax-free, with a 1035 exchange, but you cant go the other way. You cant turn your annuity into a life insurance policy. 2. Its a permanent decision. Its also important for you to know that once you make this move, youve lost your insurance. You cant change your mind a couple years later and get it back.
As you get older, your health may change and it will be harder to qualify for life insurance. So you may be giving up that opportunity for the rest of your life.
Strategy #4. Using An Annuity + Life Insurance

Use this strategy to maximize your benets by using both life insurance and annuities. If youre married with an annuity and you want guaranteed payments for retirement, you have two options:
You can base the annuity on both your lives, which means as long as one of you is alive youre going to be collecting payments, or
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You can base payments based on one person, for example, just basing it on the husband. However, if the husband dies, the payments stop, so the wife wouldnt have any more income.
When you base an annuity on one person, its obviously a lot riskier, but you get signicantly more money. Depending on the age, you get 20 or 30 percent more per month. If you base it on two people, you get less money, but at least its a safer retirement. The Solution: As an example, a husband could get life insurance on himself and then do the annuity based on his life, because as long as hes alive, theyre collecting that larger income. If he dies rst, the annuity payouts would stop, but his wife would collect the death benet from the life insurance (tax-free), which she could use to fund the rest of her retirement. Hopefully, they both live very long and collect that higher income for the rest of their lives, but then theyre also protected in case the annuity spouse dies. If the wife dies rst, the husband keeps getting the higher annuity payments he has been getting all along. For this strategy, because its a bit more complicated, its important to sit down with a life insurance agent or nancial planner to make a plan that works for your situation.
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You can get always get free annuity and life insurance quotes online, but when youre doing a more complicated strategy like this, it helps to sit down with a professional. You dont want to make a mistake here. Younger vs. Older Investors Its better to plan sooner with this strategy. If youre in your 30s or 40s, thats the time to buy the life insurance policy because youll likely be healthy enough to qualify for an aordable rate. If you wait until youre in your 60s or 70s, you cant really do this anymore, because you wont be able to buy a large enough policy, and you might not be able to qualify at all. You can get the annuity at any time, but if you get it when youre young and add funds to it on a regular basis, you have the advantage of letting your money work for you for many years of tax-deferred growth before you switch it to the payout phase.
Comparing Tax Advantages Of The 4 Strategies

The only strategy that is completely tax-free is just using life insurance (strategy number one). Anytime you use an annuity, youre going to end up paying some taxes on your investment income. Unfortunately, theres not really a way to get
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guaranteed income for life without an annuity, which means paying at least some tax. Strategies two, three and four do delay taxes until retirement, which gives your investment more momentum to grow. Plus, with annuity income, only part of each payout is taxable. Youll pay less tax with strategy number four, where you use life insurance and an annuity, because the life insurance death benet will be tax-free.
The question isn't at what age I want to retire, it's at what income. ~George Foreman
How Can You Get Started?

Typically, both these products are oered by insurance companies. If you would like to invest in an annuity or life insurance, its best to get a few quotes from dierent companies to see which ones look best. For your security, youll want to use an insurance company that will most likely be around many years from now when its time to get payouts, so choose one with A+ ratings from the A.M. Best Company. You usually need to see an agent and sit down for a meeting before theyll prepare a quote for you.
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However, there are companies online that specialize in putting together rate quotes. For example, AnnuityQuotes.com will send you a few quotes from major companies if you enter in some information.
Points To Ponder
Its really something to consider, this match up with life insurance and annuities. Were at a time when most of us dont have pensions, so its hard to nd a way to guarantee income in retirement. This really became clear a few years ago when the market crashed. Stock portfolios were falling apart and interest rates on bonds and bank accounts disappeared. Setting up an annuity with guaranteed income is really the only way now for most people to get income for the rest of their life. The tax advantages are just icing on the cake!
Money isn't everything...but it ranks right up there with oxygen. ~Rita Davenport
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We hope you enjoyed your Special Report!

Curtis Roese is an experienced professional with extensive experience in personal finance and small business matters. Curtis writes and publishes articles, courses, guides and special reports on his personal finance blog. Common Cents Wisdom is a website with hundreds of informative articles, special reports, resources to assist you with all of your financial concerns and a free monthly newsletter. Sign up for his free eBook "Common Cents" and get started today on the road to financial freedom!
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CREATE TAX ADVANTAGED RETIREMENT INCOME YOU CANT OUTLIVE