Is it Possible to Gain Certainty in an Uncertain World?

Today we live in a society where information is instant, where the amount of information and misinformation is so much and so fast that the facts are seldom verified but believed until proven otherwise.

There is an overload of opinion ranging on everything from past performance to future predictions.  Every warning  possible is placed in disclaimers, such as, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results”, or “these results are not typical and any reference to earnings are not to be relied upon.”

Today it may be more important than ever to eliminate the opinions and deal with principles, systems, and facts  that can be verified.  This is especially true when it deals in the world of money and financial decisions.

If you are to make a financial decision, you must realize that it has a rippling effect on all other decisions you make in the future on your assets, liabilities, and potential results.

Before making any financial decisions, investigate the possibilities of utilizing a holistic financial model that will allow you to test these strategies within the confines of a laboratory before executing in your own life.  Work with advisors who have been trained in the coordination and integration of the financial products available to you, not just their ability to sell those products.

Learn which eroding factors will take wealth away from you, beyond the obvious of market volatility, taxes, and inflation.  Test these factors in all scenarios of longevity of life, death prior to retirement, disability, lawsuit, and adverse tax change.  Prepare and manage risks as close to zero as possible.

Today, flexibility and control of your own financial decisions may be more important than following the crowd.  Tax laws of the future will have a great added pressure on illiquid strategies you forfeit control of today.

Be careful following the advice of taking a high risk for a potential high reward.  Most average investors expect their investments to increase.  Not all of them do.

Most of all, learn the rules, look for guarantees wherever possible and work from principles that have been proven over time, not the latest financial entertainment pitch.

Life Insurance: The New Economy’s Fundamental Strength

In today’s economy we are hearing story after story of retirement plans and stock portfolios at amazingly reduced levels.  Families have seen their retirement plans fall by 70%.   The corporations also looking to reduce expenses are eliminating the match on retirement plans, and in some cases completely eliminating employee benefit plans.  Most families do not have a way to recover or absorb this value reduction.

We have seen the home prices, or home equity reduce in some areas by 25-30%, but the mortgage balance remaining at 100% of its previous balance.  If it is possible for the families to refinance at lower rates, then some cash flow is improved.  Woe are those who used home equity loans to invest and watch both values be pummelled.

There is a new found strength in a fundamental product that is as old as dirt.  Whole life insurance is rushing to the rescue of many in our country who are being educated on all the foundational powers that it brings to one’s life.  This product offers many features that are guaranteed, such as guaranteed cash value and increase, guaranteed level premiums, guaranteed face amounts at death, and non-forfieture provisions that allow for the usability of these dollars today and later.

Thanks to the demise of our current economy, the guaranteed 3-5% returns on cash values with tax advantages and opportunities for dividends that don’t create 1099 income is a very powerful position.  The potential guarantee of continuing of premiums in the event of a disability is also available for some.  If banks had that feature on their accounts there would be a line around the block.  There are also a great number of tax advantages with these products.

I have learned that the whole life insurance product is pretty doggone great when it stands alone, but I have learned more about how to integrate this product into a process that makes all the other financial decisions we have to make work even better.  By protecting the assets we have from eroding factors like taxes, disability, lawsuit, death, inflation, and yes, market volatility, we can create an enormous amount of wealth without having to take an enormous amount of risk in any area.

I have learned how to create recovery plans that allow families to position their assets in such away as to be able to absorb a loss of 30-50% of their retirement plan and not miss a beat in their income.  Options in life are something that we are all after, not limiting choices due to factors that we do not control.

I have also learned how families can be in the highest tax bracket but pay the least amount of tax because of the functionality of the tax rules.  The life insurance actually creates some liquidity features of other assets that just were not there before due to the costs, penalties, or taxes.  This is some amazing stuff when properly applied.

When making these kinds of decisions for your life it is extremely important to work with advisors who are very educated in the aforementioned areas.  It is also important to coordinate the information you have from your advisors through a filtering process that can be relied on by facts and simulations, not opinions.  Every person should have their own unique strategy, not one size fits all, so work with someone who will listen and understand your situation.

As a life insurance agent I could not be happier about the strengths of this product or the strategies that can be built around it, but you need a full analysis and explanation of your options before making any purchasing decisions.  It is my intent to help as many families in America make a positive decision that is well informed and is unique to their family.  I have the best job in the world helping my clients reach their dreams financially.  Let me know if you have an interest in starting this path of discovery for you.

If you would like more info on how these strategies might help you, or would like to create your own financial simulators, then leave us a comment and an adviser will follow up with your request.

24 Hours

Imagine with me that tomorrow morning when you awaken, you have exactly 24 hours left on this earth.  You are now Jack Bauer of “24″, only you are not saving the world, you are setting things in motion for the time remaining for those you leave behind.  Is your day going to be as stressful as Jack’s?  Can you handle this load?

I just saw a question from Stedman Graham that asks, “What are you going to do with the next 24 hours?”  Great question.

Let’s examine it:

1) How important is my past at this point?  Do I need to go back and redo anything?  I only have 24 hours remaining and counting down.  It could be a great time to ask for forgiveness from everyone I may have hurt, or to ask God to take care of it for me and ask him to forgive me.  It is what it is.

2) Focus, time is running out! What do I want to take care of in this moment?  Is it me, is it my family, is it my career?  The ones I leave behind are the ones I need to take care of right now.  What am I going to do?

3) How important is my rate of return on my investments in these remaining 20 hours?  Am I going to take risks into the future knowing where we are in this economy today?  Wait…my investments have tanked the last several months.  Sorry can’t stop time….still ticking.  No time to go to Vegas!  What good is this Monte Carlo Asset Allocation Crap now?

4) How much life insurance do I have?  Do I have what I need, or do I have what I qualify for?  What if I qualify for 20 times my current income…that just dropped by 30% in the last few months.  Do I need less now?  Hey wait just a minute, this life insurance is not for me is it?  It is for all of those I leave behind.  Can’t hold up time.  What kind should I have?  Well if I’m guaranteed to know when my day is up…24 hours I need the kind that pays off when I’m gone.  What if I bought the kind that expires in 24 hours, but I lived 26 hours……OUCH!!  I just hurt everyone I left behind.

5) What memories am I creating in these last 15 hours?  Come on we still have to eat, sleep, text, talk on the phone, check those last few emails right?  What is most important to you RIGHT NOW???!!

You know what, I am feeling this pressure right now, but nothing that I thought was important before appears to be right now in this moment.  So hear is the real question..

What are you going to do with the next 24 hours that you may be blessed with, because it does affect the lives of everyone you are spending time on, or not spending time on that you should be, for the rest of their lives.  WHAT CAN YOU DO RIGHT NOW TO RELIEVE THE PRESSURES OF THE NEXT 24 HOURS OF YOUR LIFE THAT WILL BE A MAJOR IMPACT ON THE LIVES YOU LOVE TODAY?  Selfish answers don’t really work here.

You better take an inventory, read those questions again.  Time is running out whether its 24 hours left or not.  Don’t take them for granted, you are not promised tomorrow.

Plane is going to Crash!! Where is my parachute?

Today the news is full of the many reportings of our economy falling and falling faster than ever before.  Every magazine, newspaper, and newscast is focused intently on the stock market, the employment factors, and President Obama’s plan to rescue this plane that is destined to crash. 

Most of these stories seem to be telling us that the government is at fault for this demise and that it is up to government to solve this issue quickly.  Wow!!  I had to check my address on that last one.  I am certain that I still live in America where we believe in the free enterprise system and the invisible hand that controls the markets.  We voted in November, and apparently we voted in a new administration that is definitely going to bring about change.  However, no matter who is in the political administration, I want less government involved in our economy and more citizens taking action to be creative and applying proven time tested principles that will strengthen the individual parts so that the sum of those parts is stronger as well.

Some people are willing to get on a plane that has a 70% or 80% of successfully landing!!  Not me!

We can either stay on the plane and crash with it, or we can find our parachutes and create a new economy that will be stronger for today and tomorrow.  My parachute will consist of returning to financial principles of safety and redundancy where a dollar will do the job of more than one dollar by its flow through my personal economy.  This parachute will provide for the increase of benefits and money supply while being protected from the volatile changing markets, the new taxes that are apparently on the way, the loss of wealth due to disability (or loss of sanity), possible creditor or lawsuit protection, or death.  In the case that I may live a long life as our medical technololy improves, I want to have a parachute that will create multiple resources for incomes when they are needed most, and that these assets last as long as I do.  This parachute will cover my potential today, and enhance my tomorrows by reducing the impact of negative taxation on both moving and stagnant assets.

Your personal economy can be determined by the speed and direction(velocity) that you choose to operate in with precision, intention, and flexibility.  This will not be a product focused decision but a process that is scientifically proven to work and demonstrated to be safe, verifiable and has stood the test of time.

If you can’t find your parachute, but know you want one now, contact me at trent4tnr@aim.com.  You are going to want one soon, just make sure it’s not too late.  I can direct you to some of the best financial pilots in the country.  Don’t become a statistic.  Make a move to your parachute and create an improved personal economy today.