My monkey mind postings relate to Buddha’s description of the human mind as being filled with drunken monkeys, jumping around, screeching, chattering, and carrying on endlessly. These postings come from my monkey mind.
Something which happened about 10 years ago has been in my monkey mind. I guess listening to my friends talk about elderly parents must have triggered it. So here goes….
As part of my financial services business I had a listing in the Yellow Pages under resources for women. It was the best I could do since there wasn’t a separate listing for women and finances. The result was unexpected. I received random calls from women in difficult life situations ranging from physical abuse, unwanted divorce, requests for money to start businesses, and sometimes just a reality check on some financial decisions a spouse or significant other had made without checking with the woman. After these calls continued , I became a connection between these women I never met to non-profits, social services providers, free legal advice, and government agencies who could help. I learned a bunch of things which reached beyond financial advising.
One day I received one of those calls from an elderly woman who asked me what the difference was between term insurance (no cash value) and universal life insurance (which has a cash value). The real reason for the call had to do with the fact that her late husband had established an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) with a cash value policy and she thought he had made a bad decision. I was curious to hear all the details so I went to visit with her.
In my Financial Freedom Party for Women®, A Little Book about Money for Women, Workbook Edition, I cover the differences between term and cash value policies. To put it in a couple of sentences, term insurance is a very cost-effective way of getting life insurance and is appropriate for most people. The premium goes towards the insurance cost and the policy runs for a certain period of time, such as 10, 15, or 20 years. A policy with a cash value, such as universal life or variable universal life is more complicated and more expensive. Some of the premium goes to the cost of insurance and some goes into investments offered through the insurance product. The policy is considered to be “permanent” life since it is not restricted to a certain length of time. My experience is that these policies (UL and VUL) are often considered upon guidance from an estate planning attorney when creating ways to provide for beneficiaries and reduce estate taxes. This is a very generalized overview and to learn more please ask your insurance agent or do your own research on-line.
The control of the ILIT rests with a trustee, not the beneficiary (in this case the lady who called me). This is done because of the estate tax benefits. You can learn more by clicking here. As with most people, she did not like knowing she had “all this money”, yet couldn’t access it when she wished. I came to learn that was part of the plan.
I shared this insight with the lady. Apparently I was the first person she met who sat down and explained to her how this ILIT all worked. I was also the only woman advisor/insurance agent she had ever met. She found me through my Yellow Page listing.
I learned that she was unhappy because the ILIT controlled her spending. She had to ask a young man( who was the trustee) for any money which was needed in addition to the monthly payment which had been established. The goal of the plan was to keep her from running out of money. I learned that her ILIT did contain a universal life policy, the trust was created by an attorney with involvement by the now-deceased husband, and seemed to be in good order and in her best interest. The things the trustee had told her were true, if she did not control her spending, she ran the risk of outliving her money. In this situation, the planning was really in her best interest and when we finished our discussion, she, for the first time, realized it. We talked about other ways for her to finance the expenses she wanted to incur including having a roommate in her spacious home, moving to a smaller one, or cutting expenses elsewhere.
I never heard from her again, but I learned a lot. I saw how the appropriate cash value life insurance policy can be an integral and useful part of estate planning and a way to take care of beneficiaries upon the death of the insured. My passion for working with women to understand their finances was re-kindled. I knew that if someone had taken time to speak to this lady in language she could understand, her life would have been much better. Sometimes financial professionals forget that it is not all about the numbers, it is about how the numbers improve the lives of clients and getting the clients to understand that. It also reinforced my belief that the best time to learn about finances is not when your spouse or family member has died and not there to explain things. Learning the fundamentals as a young person will make things a lot easier throughout her or his lifetime.
This event has stayed with me. My insurance career involved term life insurance and that worked well for my family and clients. The ILIT was a good example how a cash value policy can be beneficial in estate planning and for beneficiaries who may need some additional structure and measured control over assets. Each situation is different and this posting is not intended to provide you with personal advice on your estate planning, financial planning, or insurance needs.
Until next time.
Debra Hadsall
Financial Freedom Party for Women (FFP)-Talk 
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