1. Start or update your budget

Make sure you're staying on track with your spending & saving goals. Use 50% of your income for essential expenses, 30% for nonessential expenses & 20% for savings.

2. Start or Review Your emergency fund

You may have heard on the news that a large percentage of Americans don't have even $2000 in a savings account for emergencies. We recommend that you have enough cash set aside to cover your family’s expenses for 6-12 months. Start by contributing 20% of your pay into savings.

3. Review your retirement savings

By increasing the amount dedicated to a retirement savings plan, you'll help set yourself up for a more financially secure future.

4. Check your credit reports

You can visit AnnualCreditReport.com to get your free annual credit report.  Reviewing your credit report allows you to correct mistakes, see what needs improvement and discover fraudulent activity. Remember we also offer LegalShield Plans with Identity Theft Protection if you need help reporting and removing fraudulent activity from your credit report. 

5. Review Your tax-deductible expenses

Looking over expenses that are considered tax-deductible now can make things easier for you when filing your yearly taxes. Check on medical and dental expenses, student loan interest, home mortgage interest, property taxes and charitable contributions and business expenses if you are self employed or a business owner.

Introduction


Life is full of uncertainties, and while we all hope for the best, it's essential to prepare for the worst. This is where life insurance comes into play. Life insurance is a financial safety net that provides protection and peace of mind for you and your loved ones. In this blog, we will explore why life insurance is important and why it should be a crucial part of your financial planning.

1. Financial Security for Your Loved Ones - Perhaps the most compelling reason to invest in life insurance is to provide financial security for your loved ones in case of your untimely demise. When you pass away, your family may face numerous financial challenges, including funeral expenses, outstanding debts, and ongoing living costs. Life insurance can help ease this burden by providing a tax-free lump sum payment (the death benefit) to your beneficiaries, ensuring they have the financial support they need to maintain their quality of life.
   
2. Covering Outstanding Debts - Life insurance can be used to cover any outstanding debts you may have, such as a mortgage, car loans, or credit card debt. Without life insurance, your family may be left with the responsibility of paying off these debts, potentially leading to financial hardship or even the loss of assets like your home. Life insurance ensures that these debts are paid off, allowing your loved ones to maintain their standard of living without the added financial strain.
3. Replacing Lost Income - The loss of a primary income earner in a family can be devastating from both an emotional and financial perspective. Life insurance helps bridge the gap by providing a source of income replacement. The death benefit can replace the income you would have contributed to your family's finances, allowing them to continue paying bills, tuition, and other necessary expenses.
4. Protecting Your Children's Future - If you have children, life insurance can play a vital role in securing their future. A life insurance policy can fund their education, ensuring that they have access to quality schooling, college, or vocational training even if you're not there to provide for them. It also offers peace of mind in knowing that your children's dreams and aspirations will be supported.
5. Estate Planning and Inheritance - Life insurance can be a valuable tool in estate planning. It can help ensure that your heirs receive a portion of your estate without having to sell assets like real estate, stocks, or businesses to cover estate taxes or other expenses. This can help preserve your family's financial legacy and assets for future generations.
6. Peace of Mind and Mental Well-being - Knowing that you have life insurance in place can provide you with peace of mind. You can rest easy, knowing that your loved ones will be financially protected in the event of your passing. This peace of mind can contribute to your overall mental and emotional well-being, allowing you to focus on enjoying life without the constant worry about what might happen if you're no longer there to provide for your family.

Conclusion
​

In a world filled with uncertainties, life insurance stands as a critical pillar of financial planning. It offers security, protection, and peace of mind to you and your loved ones. By investing in life insurance, you can ensure that your family's financial future is safeguarded, outstanding debts are covered, and your legacy is preserved. Life insurance is not just a financial product; it's a promise of security and support when your loved ones need it most. So, consider consulting with a financial advisor to find the right life insurance policy that fits your needs and budget, and take this important step towards securing your family's future.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball. Disability insurance can help people manage many unexpected life events – and not just disability. Of course, disability insurance helps people replace a portion of their income when they can’t work due to an illness or injury, but coverage can also help people navigate divorce, non-disabling injuries, caregiving responsibilities and other challenges that have a way of disrupting a person’s personal and professional life.


Here are seven times you’ll be happy you have the right disability insurance coverage.

1. You’re Going Through a Divorce
After a divorce, one spouse may owe another spouse alimony and child support. But what happens if that spouse becomes disabled and is no longer able to work? You can’t get blood from a stone, and you can’t get alimony or child support from someone who doesn’t have any money.

Disability insurance provides a solution. The spouse who owes payments can secure disability insurance to ensure that their financial responsibilities will still be covered in the case of disability. Coverage can help ease tense divorce negotiations, and it may be required as part of the divorce settlement.
If both parents work, both should consider having disability insurance even if it isn’t contractually covered by the divorce settlement, as it helps bolster self-sufficiency and resilience.

2. You Need Time to Care for a Loved One
If a worker needs to take time off because of a disability, paycheck protection can replace some of the income – but what if the worker needs to take time off to care for a family member? According to the National Alliance for Caregiving, there are 53 million unpaid caregivers in the U.S., and 45% have been financially impacted by their caregiving responsibilities.
The Standard Family Care Benefit rider addresses this issue. If you need to take time off to care for a family member with a serious health condition, such as a parent, spouse, domestic partner or child, you may be eligible to receive benefits.

3. You’re Hurt but Not Disabled
When an illness or injury prevents a breadwinner from working, the financial consequences can be dire, but in the U.S., even nondisabling injuries can lead to financial hardships.
A survey from Bankrate found that 56% of Americans don’t have enough savings to cover an unexpected bill of $1,000. So what happens if you break your arm while mountain biking and end up with uncovered out-of-pocket costs?
The Nondisabling Injury benefit from Ameritas addresses this concern. If the insured experiences an injury that is not disabling but does require medical or dental treatment, a benefit of up to $3,000 is available.

4. You’re Diagnosed with a Condition like Cancer
When most people think of disabilities, they think about visible disabilities – the kind that are easy to see from the outside. However, invisible disabilities can be just as serious.
Cancer is an example. You might not be able to tell that a person has cancer just by looking at them, but the disease can still prevent them from working and lead to mounting out-of-pocket medical costs.
The CDC says that 1.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year.
Disability insurance benefits don’t just apply to visible disabilities and injuries. Health conditions and chronic illnesses like cancer, stroke and heart disease can also qualify policyholders for benefits.

5. You Experience a Mental Health Crisis
The National Institute of Mental Health says that around one in five adults in the U.S. has a mental illness. If you’re dealing with severe anxiety, depression or another mental illness, you may not be able to keep up with work.
Although some policies restrict or limit benefits for mental health illnesses, it is possible to secure disability insurance coverage for this risk. These benefits help people focus on getting better instead of worrying about money on top of everything else.

6. You Lose a Business Partner to Disability
Disability insurance can help individuals take care of their personal finances and provide for their families, but it also has important business applications.
For example, let’s say you co-own a business. Your business partner experiences an unexpected disability and is no longer able to work. Now the business you’ve built together is in limbo. If you have buy-sell disability insurance, you can use the benefits to buy your partner out and keep the business going.

7. A Key Employee Retires Because of Disability
Another business scenario in which disability insurance can help involves key employees who become disabled and retire as a result. The unexpected departure of a key employee can throw a business into chaos. Finding and training a new worker will take time and resources, and in the meantime, the business may lose out on revenue. Key person disability insurance provides short-term benefits to help the business deal with these financial impacts.
When you’re looking for insurance solutions to help your clients deal with unexpected life events, remember that Disability Insurance Services is your one-stop resource for disability and long-term care insurance. Request a quote.

​Statista recently published an article and chart about the human cost of COVID. Per the article, a Pew Research analysis of CDC data has put the human toll of COVID in the U.S. into stark perspective. Researchers were able to estimate the total number of years lost by taking a person's remaining life expectancy into account. An example of this is outlined by Pew: "if a person with a life expectancy of 80 dies at age 50, they are estimated to have lost 30 years of life".

According to a provisional CDC toll:

• COVID was responsible for some 380,000 U.S. deaths last year - about 5.5 million years of life lost.
• The same dataset reveals that the average number of years lost in the U.S. per COVID death last year was 14.
• Compare that to 12 years lost per stroke death;
• Compared to 17 years lost per cancer death; and
• 31 years lost per accidental death in the year prior.

Life insurance is incredibly important for a number of reasons:

• Protection for loved ones.
• Funds to carry on after an unexpected death.
• Peace of mind.
• Providing a huge benefit for the premiums paid.

Visit https://www.acquirefinancialsolutions.com/life-insurance.html to apply for an Instant Life Insurance Quote and ensure you and your loved ones have the invaluable protection that life insurance can provide!
Data Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/25131/us-deaths-and-years-of-life-lost/

Reason #1
People Delay Getting A Trust
They think it's too expensive
Let your loved ones, clients and prospects know that our Trust Provider includes Free Lifetime Changes and Free Lifetime Support which makes it a great value and very affordable.

Reason #2
People Delay Getting A Trust
They are intimidated in dealing with Attorneys
Let your loved ones, clients and prospects know that our Trust Provider has been preparing Living Trusts for 25 years and the staff speaks plain English.

We'll help you get started and the staff will do the rest.

Reason #3
People Delay Getting A Trust
People do not want to talk and/or face their own mortality
Let your loved ones, clients and prospects know that no one ever passed away as a result of doing the right thing for their loved ones.
Getting a Living Trust is one of the most loving things you can do for your loved ones.

Reason #4
People Delay Getting A Trust
No one asked them if they needed or wanted a Trust

60% of Americans do not have an Estate Plan
According to a survey from Caring.com, only 4 in 10 American adults have a will or living trust. Here's the percentages by age groups that do not have an Estate Plan:

• 78% of millennials (ages 18-36) 
• 64% of Generation Xers (ages 37-52)
• ​42% of boomers (ages 53-71)
• 19% of those age 72 or older​​

Contact Us to schedule a consultation with one of our agents, and we will love to help you discuss your options. 

Probate is the court supervised process by which a decedent’s assets are transferred to his heirs, either by his Will, or if there is no Will by the statute of intestate succession. The word "probate" has its origins in the Latin "probatum" which means a "thing proved" and "probare" which means "to prove".

Assets Subject to Probate

• Personal property such as vehicles, furniture, artwork and jewelry
• Financial accounts owned individually rather than jointly with the right of survivorship or without a payable on death beneficiary
• Real estate that is owned individually rather than jointly with right of survivorship
• An ownership interest in a business whether a sole proprietorship or individually owned shares in a small company.

Assets NOT Subject to Probate

• Annuities
• Life insurance proceeds
• Retirement plan benefits from IRAs, 401(k)s or profit sharing plans
• Property jointly titled with the right of survivorship
• Assets held in a living trust or with a designated beneficiary

The Probate Process:  The probate process involves notifying the decedent’s heirs at law and the beneficiaries of the decedent’s Will of the existence of the Will. The notice provides them the opportunity to contest the Will in the event that the decedent did not have the requisite mental capacity or was unduly influenced by a beneficiary. The probate process also involves compiling a list of the decedent’s assets so that the assets may be distributed according to the decedent’s wishes. Finally, probate involves accounting for all of the assets in the decedent’s estate, including the payment of estate taxes, debts and expenses incurred by decedent during his life or as a result of the administration process.

An executed and fully funded Heritage Living Trust will avoid Probate. Need Help? Have Question? Call or Email Ram Mishra for more information.

​Ram J. Mishra, 877-265-1856
Visit Me @ www.AcquireFinancialSolutions.com

Sometimes people buy life insurance before performing a financial needs analysis. They might choose an amount that seems comfortable, without considering the potential expenses their families might face in the event of their untimely death. To make an objective assessment of the possible economic consequences, perform a financial needs analysis.

In fact, to analyze your own financial needs, consider the following simple steps: First, total the value of all the things that you and/or your spouse own. These are your assets. (Enter amounts in one column for yourself and in another column for your spouse.) When totaling your assets, include what you currently have in savings and retirement funds (such as IRAs, 401(k) plans, annuities, etc.), as well as real estate and life insurance. Next, list and evaluate all expenses that you or your family may face, if one spouse were to die. These are your potential liabilities.

In order to determine how much cash is needed following the death of a spouse, take a look at these potential needs and assign a dollar amount to each:

1. Immediate Money Fund. This includes the estimated cost of medical and hospital expenses, outstanding bills, burial costs, and attorney/executor fees.

2. Debt Liquidation. Your debt, if any, may be in the form of credit card bills, school and auto loans, unpaid notes, outstanding bills, etc.

3. Emergency Fund. Unexpected bills not readily payable from current income could include major home and car repairs, or even medical emergencies.

4. Mortgage/Rent Payment Fund. How much would you need to pay off your mortgage or provide for house payments or apartment rent should one spouse die?

5. Child/Home Care Fund. Expenses may arise following the death of a stay-at-home spouse. Estimate the cost of hiring help to take over your spouse’s duties, such as child care, shopping, food preparation, laundry, and yard care.

6. Education Fund. Be sure to include the cost of funding a four-year undergraduate education or comparable vocational training for your children.

The total of all of the above costs minus your liquid assets and life insurance would give you your new cash needs. The numbers will be different for you and for your spouse, because assets and existing life insurance, as well as child/home care amounts, are likely to be different.

The steps above are one way for a family to figure out how much life insurance is needed according to their circumstances. Analyzing your financial needs in detail is an important step toward determining the right coverage for you and your family.

Contact us today or apply online for a specialized insurance quote.

Ram J. Mishra
Licensed Insurance Agent
NIPR 10737672
616-780-5803 Direct
877-265-1856 Toll Free/Fax

My Dad passed away 8 months to the day after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 14 years ago. I was fortunate to take care of him the last week of his life and be with him when he passed.

After spending time with him and saying our goodbyes, we opened and started following the instructions in his Trust. He had made all the arrangements and taken care of everything.

This allowed us to mourn his loss and not left to try to figure-out or guess what he would have wanted. Plus, there was no Probate. 

My Dad was a caring and responsible man, and in his death his Living Trust allowed his legacy to remain intact.

​Thank you,

Anonymous