Life Insurance 101: Why It's Not Just About Death Benefits

Welcome to a comprehensive exploration of life insurance in this enlightening podcast episode of the Getting Your Edge: How to Right-Size Your Home and Life Podcast. Join co-hosts Dennis Day and Judy Gratton, as they interview Libby Carr and delve deep into the world of financial planning for individuals aged 50 and above. In this extended discussion, we aim to provide you with invaluable insights into securing your family's future and achieving peace of mind through life insurance.

**Part 1: The Foundations of Life Insurance**

Libby opens the discussion by introducing the concept of holistic financial planning, emphasizing the significance of both tangible and intangible assets in one's financial portfolio. The trio discusses the broader perspective of financial planning, where life insurance plays a pivotal role. Libby highlights the importance of life insurance for those aged 50 and above, especially for those considering downsizing their homes.

**Part 2: Unpacking the Types of Life Insurance Policies**

In this segment, we dissect the nuances of various life insurance policies. Dennis, Judy, and Libby delve into the differences between cash value and term insurance policies, shedding light on the advantages and disadvantages of each. You'll discover the intricacies of policy selection, tailored to your unique financial goals and family needs. Additionally, the hosts touch upon the inclusion of additional benefits in some policies, such as long-term care or critical illness coverage, allowing policyholders to access funds for specific healthcare needs.

**Part 3: Navigating the Complexities of Life Insurance**

As the discussion continues, Dennis, Libby, and Judy explore various critical aspects of life insurance policies. They address common questions about age limits for obtaining coverage, the possibility of borrowing against policies, and how to determine the right coverage amount based on your specific circumstances. Moreover, they distinguish between life insurance and annuities, highlighting the suitability of each for different financial objectives.

**Part 4: The Role of Annuities in Financial Security**

Annuities take center stage in this segment as the hosts discuss their role as a flexible savings vehicle. Learn how annuities provide guaranteed income and financial protection for your loved ones. The importance of diversification in your investment portfolio is also emphasized, and you'll gain insights into how independent insurance agents can help you find the best insurance policies, especially when dealing with unique health conditions.

**Part 5: The Value of Independent Insurance Agents**

Discover the value of working with independent insurance agents. Dennis, Libby, and Judy elaborate on why you should inquire whether an agent is independent. They shed light on how agents are compensated through commissions from insurance carriers and share factors that influence insurance premiums, such as age, health status, and underwriting considerations. By the end of this segment, you'll have a clear understanding of how to navigate the complex world of insurance, armed with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions.

**Part 6: Demystifying the Insurance Process**

The hosts conclude their discussion by breaking down the process of obtaining a life insurance policy. They discuss customization options through riders and explain the roles of policy stakeholders, including the owner, insured, and beneficiary. Furthermore, the episode touches upon the inclusion of mortgage insurance within a life insurance policy and mentions Libby's Christmas book, which offers further financial wisdom.

Libby Carr
Carr Financial Advocates
Phone: 425-223-8556
Email: libbycarr007@gmail.com
Christmas Book Website: HowDotheReindeerFly.com

Link to Graphic: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aai

Transcript

Podcast Interview with Libby Carr - September 26

Life Insurance 101: Why It's Not Just About Death Benefits

@0:33 - Dennis Day 

And good day, everyone. This is episode 24 of Getting Your Edge: How to Right Size Your Home and Life Podcast. I’m your co-host Dennis Day, and with me is my co-host Judy Gratton. We are  here to discuss Life Insurance with Libby Carr of Carr Financial Advocates.

@2:00 - Libby Carr

Thank you both so much for having me on today. I really appreciate this chance to talk about my business and get to know more people.

name of my business is Carr Financial Advocates. I'm primarily in the insurance business and that meaning being life insurance, annuities, disability income and long-term care are the types of insurance that I'm licensed to sell and have been involved in for about 25, years.

And I also have a financial education seminar that I'm currently revising a little bit but soon we'll be offering it again to the public.

And with that, Dennis, could we put up the graphic? This sort of gives a frame for where I'm coming.

SCREEN SHARING: Dennis started screen sharing - WATCH

@4:24 - Libby Carr

Eggs, it's actually on the piece of paper.

 https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:d0bf55e6-fae9-42a9-9340-44fdef4b5a10

@4:34 - Libby Carr

 Yeah, so several years ago when I was designing my financial education seminar, I know that often people use the term or the idea of saving for one's nest egg and meaning how much retirement, creating a pool of money that they can then draw on during retirement.

And for some reason, my mind just went To sing a much larger picture, and this is the picture I drew.

So it's really a nest of eggs being plural. I think there's 13 here. And the top ones are what I call the tangible assets, your social security income, financial investments, real estate, your salary if you're still working, what the expenses are and insurance protection.

And there's many other tangible assets. But the intangible assets below the red line are all the assets about our life and our personalities that drive and create tangible assets.

So our prosperity thinking, creativity and imagination, lifelong learning, one spiritual life, your health, having a certain amount of grit.

Which is a can-do attitude and most importantly your community of family and friends. So all of those intangible assets will drive the tangible.

And I just like this slide because it gives people a much larger frame of how to think about financial planning and what you can control and how you can learn.

I just think it's a bigger picture. So in that context the insurance piece is a very important piece like you both were saying earlier.

I specialize probably most primarily in life insurance and would be happy to answer questions. Maybe I think Judy a

How do life insurance?

@7:05 - Judy Gratton

I think most people when they think of life insurance, they think of a policy that will protect their loved ones when they die and that the older they get, maybe they don't need it as much.

Maybe they can't even get it. What types of life insurance policies are available? We're talking primarily right now to people who are considering downsizing.

So let's say 50 years old and up. What kind of, if you don't have one and or maybe you want to make sure you have the right one, what kind of policies are we talking about here?

@7:46 - Libby Carr

Okay. And Dennis, maybe we can take the graphic down now so our faces are closer to each other. Perfect.

Thank you. So in general, there are two. Types, categories, major categories of life insurance, cash value, and term insurance.

And insurance companies also sell another type of contract called annuities. That contract is a very different agreement than a life insurance policy.

So, life insurance policies, both cash value and term, basically have the contract between the individual and the insurance company.

That if the insured dies, then the company will pay off whatever the death benefit is that the client chose to purchase.

So, you buy any kind of life insurance, not just with money, but also with your age and your health status.

The pre, because it's all about actuarial science and that's all about risk. So the insurance company is always looking at the question of what is the likelihood or what are the chances that this person who has applied for a policy with us is going to die and will have to pay off a large death benefit.

So the younger one is and the healthier one is. Then the less risk is involved that that's going to happen anytime soon.

Hence the premiums are lower. So that can be very significant. In general term insurance, which promises to stay level for a certain length of time, the term is less expensive by about two and a half times.

Then cash value insurance. And there's universal life as the most popular type of cash value insurance and it builds cash over time with a part of that higher premium going into the account value of the insurance policy.

So it's like an automatic savings account that you're creating that the bank. policy holder has a legal right to borrow from if you needed to.

And then of course it's wisest to pay that cash value back after your emergency is over. But a life insurance policy either one can be a tremendous tool to create to protect one's assets, to protect your family.

Emily, and to create much more diversification than you would have otherwise. Because if you need money and you just basically have your 401k and an IRA, if you need money, then you're going to be liquidating some of your stocks and that will affect those portfolios.

And you just have much a way to pad and protect those assets if you had some emergencies come up.

Are you talking about just the cash policy? Are you talking about a term policy as well? Well, there's a new type, fairly new type of strategies that apply to both term and cash value policies that a few care.

Not all carriers are insurance companies, I call carriers issue, but one of my favorite companies, for example, is North American.

You can have either a term or a cash value policy. If you have long-term care issues or a critical illness, you can get an advance against the death benefit.

If you had a policy with a death benefit of a 500,000, well, they would do an assessment of what is your issue at the time that you want some money out of it, and it could range anywhere from 5% to 24% of the death benefit that you could just take that money out of the death benefit and use on your expenses.

@13:00 - Judy Gratton

At all or is that just comes with the policy of some kind comes with by large, it comes with the contract.

Okay.

@13:10 - Libby Carr

Right. It comes with any of the term or long-term care or cash value policies that they would issue, providing your health is minimally positive.

If you're really very unhealthy, then you'll be rated and you'll be paying higher premiums and then they do not provide this writer of critical care and chronic illness writers.

But their top three categories of health underwriting are preferred best, preferred and standard, and then whether not you're a smoker or non-smoker.

So if you're in one of those categories, these the These are free riders that come with the contract with North American and a few other companies as well, but it's not across the board.

So that's been a development that I like a lot.

@14:14 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

Question is, so at the time you purchase the policy, they're evaluating your health. Is that what we're saying?

@14:22 - Libby Carr

Yeah, in general, with a life insurance policy, you are going to get a health rating classification and the company will pay for a health exam.

And one of our companies, Pyramid Companies, will come out to your house and take a health history and maybe blood sample and urine sample will do the labs and say,

And that information into the company who will say, okay, Mr. we will give you a rating of X based on your health exam and other information about you.

So that's true of insurance policies in general, depending upon what the person's age is and how much of a death benefit you want.

It may be where you are younger, I mean younger, even under 70 years old, and your health rating, your health history looks good enough to where they'll give you a good rating and those two writers I talked about.

I think maybe your question. Question pertain to the writers. When you want to exercise the writer, you will then talk with the company and they'll ask you questions about your then health condition, but to determine how much of the death benefit you can get advanced between five and 24%.

But the policy would have been issued long before then.

@16:28 - Judy Gratton

I didn't know anything about that and you said it was relatively new. And from the standpoint of being someone who's downsizing and suddenly you're going to be relying on a more fixed income, you're probably not going to be working.

You're retired. I love that idea of this policy that if there was an emergency health issue that you could get some of that money upfront.

I think that's something that a lot of people may not know. I mean, you mentioned 70 years old. Is there an age limit to where you cannot get that?

@17:10 - Libby Carr

Yes, on cash value policies, the general issue age in the top range is 90. On term insurance, you can still get it at 75, 80, years old, but they decrease the length of the time of the term.

Oh, okay. So maybe a total, maybe you apply it 80 and you can only get it for a five-year term.

@17:49 - Judy Gratton

And then if you are in that term, you're done. That policy is gone, right?

@17:55 - Libby Carr

Technically, what happens with a term policy is that at the end of The term, well, for the whole term, the premium is state level.

And then at the end of the term, it becomes, it converts to what's called annual renewable term. each year then the premium significantly goes up.

So one would not want to keep that term policy. you're healthy enough to get another one, because that would be cheaper to get a new one.

And start with a new term. But if you're not healthy, you as the policy holder have the right to say, no, I really want to continue this.

And even though it was only a ten-year term, and I'm going to be 80 years old, but I've got cancer and I don't think I'm going to last much more than a year, you might go to your beneficiaries and say, hey, let's all pony up to pay the premium.

Because it's old. Thank

@19:04 - Judy Gratton

Can you give an example of what it would be and let's say someone 55 years old in good health got one of these term policies and then decided to hold on to it after it expired.

Can you kind of give an example of.

@19:22 - Libby Carr

I'm not. That's scary because I need a computer to figure it out. But I would just to give you ratios I would say first of all you have to ask the question how much is the death benefit.

I'm like $150 a month premium and I'm just really guessing there.

@20:00 - Libby Carr

So if at the end of the term that $150 a month premium will jump to like $900, it'll jump significantly.

And that's because they are trying to get rid of that risk. They want that policy off the books. However, it is up to the policy holder.

And if you now know that you are not healthy and you want to keep it in force, you might call on your family to help pay the premium because the ball's in your court in terms of that decision.

@20:43 - Judy Gratton

Yeah, and it might be worth the money to put it out there.

@20:47 - Libby Carr

Yeah, and you wouldn't keep it if you knew you were seriously ill, you might want to keep it so it would pay off the death benefit, which could be

You know, many more times the amount of premium you ever paid into it.

@21:07 - Dennis Day 

Can I, Libby, wanted to go back to the borrowing against your policy because if you do pull some money out from that death benefit, are you required to pay it back until you die?

Or is your benefit reduced if you did die?

@21:31 - Libby Carr

Yeah, again, you can pull cash out if you have a cash value policy, not a term policy. And if you are not required to pay that money back, but depending upon the numbers, and you can always get what's called an in-force illustration.

So you ask the insurance company, okay, what if I wanted to pay that Paul, $10,000 out of the cash value.

How would that affect the policy? And you'll get an illustration into the future to give you those answers. So yes, it could reduce the death benefit.

And if you didn't pay the cash value back, the cash back. Or if you borrowed too much, it could come So, any policy has to have enough in it to pay for the cost of insurance and the expenses of the insurance company.

So, but that's well within a ratio and the good carriers, in my opinion, give you plenty of information on how to watch those ratios.

@23:00 - Dennis Day 

Thank you.

@23:00 - Judy Gratton

How do people determine how much they need? We are talking about the value of policy.

@23:08 - Libby Carr

Can you help them make that decision? Yeah, we have financial inventories, a financial inventory of how much are your expenses, how much is your mortgage, how old are you, know, a whole list of questions doing an inventory, and then that will come up as a number as to what is your monthly nut, if you will.

And then maybe you'll use a multiple of five or ten to say, okay, I really need a $500,000 or a million dollar death benefit to take care of my survivors.

In the style to which they've become a

@24:06 - Judy Gratton

You mentioned annuities. Can you explain the difference? Is that something you should consider in lieu of a life insurance policy?

@24:20 - Libby Carr

How between the two contracts? First of all, an annuity unlike a life insurance policy does not help related at all.

Nor is so you don't buy it the premium with your health. It's really a very flexible savings vehicle when you want to diversify your savings.

You know, let's say most of your money is in the stock market and you aren't comfortable with the volatility and you know you should be

Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, Financial Planner Advisor, KTVU, Planner & Investment Advisor, and the NSP500, an index is used by the insurance company to determine how much interest will be credited to that contract every year.

And what they do, the beautiful thing about this on both types of contracts is the account Out value will either be going up each year or if there's a crash in the market and the stock market, it will stay even.

It won't go down. Okay. Unlike your 401k or any money in the market goes up and down with the volatility of the market.

But an indexed annuity or an indexed cash value life insurance policy. The account value is actually in a side fund of the insurance company and it's not actually in the stock market.

They have staffs that play options and will be able to credit on an annualized basis the gain in a year's period of time of the S&P 500 or you will get zero.

That's when. Zero is your hero, meaning you didn't have to take a hit. So your cash value stays the same and then the next year, market has a gain and so you're going up from an even position rather than a down position.

@27:15 - Judy Gratton

So an annuity is your money. You're putting the money into it just as you need between a life insurance policy, but it's there no matter what and it grows based on the interest that is accumulated by the investments or what they do within the market and then if the market crashes, you don't lose anything as you said.

if you buy a $100,000 annuity, you're putting $100,000 into this over a period of time, right?

@27:47 - Libby Carr

Or you could do it as a lump sum or you could do it monthly or quarterly. Yeah, there's various types of annuities in terms of how often you pay the premium, maybe it's too

Just a single one time premium, but you can, so it's a contract with what I call Daddy Warbacks, who has a lot of large life insurance company.

And all of a sudden I've got a contractor in agreement where I'm guaranteed at least the amount of money that I put into it, but also probably more based on how the account value gains or how it's credited the annual crediting rate.

The other thing is that you can borrow up to 10% of the account value without taking a surrender hit.

Annuities come with a surrender period that go like for 10 years, oftentimes Dennis Judy Gratton, Estate. I want to switch from the accumulation phase and go into the distribution phase.

And then you're deciding how do you want to receive that money out, including the account value, the crediting amounts that it grew to.

@29:58 - Judy Gratton

So if someone had a A new of an overriding health issue, they might want to consider doing an annuity instead of a life insurance policy because that health piece of it is not a piece of the puzzle, right?

they can still, over a period of time, be able to generate income for when they're gone or even before, more so than a term policy or...

Huh.

@30:28 - Libby Carr

Okay. All right. So it's just another tool that is certainly worthy of being aware of and getting back to the concepts that I showed at the first slide is the name of the game is diversification.

I never say to clients, though you shouldn't be in the market. What I do say to clients is, in my opinion, you should not be 100% in the market.

And there's an old financial... The first formula that is very simple and that is to take your age that you are and subtract it from the number 100.

And the answer is how much money you might want to consider having in the market. So if you're 50 years old of your assets, you might want to keep 50% in the market.

But then as you age, That number is going to go down. And it's all based on the theory that if there is a major market correction, you're going to have fewer and fewer years.

You will have less time to get that money back. But with insurance, it's either protecting your other assets or providing income for your loved ones and

And in some cases, yourself, like the writers I talked about, and an annuity is simply another form of a savings vehicle that has a lot of flexibility to it.

@32:16 - Dennis Day 

Libby, if you take money out of your annuity, are you hit with a capital gains?

@32:23 - Libby Carr

You can be hit with a capital gains tax depending upon how large it is, how much, you know, the before the capital gains tax kicks in, and whether or not the annuity itself is set up as an IRA, which is money that you never paid taxes on.

So yes, you'll have to pay tax on the whole thing when you start drawing it out. If it's set up with after tax dollars,

It's not an IRA, it's just a plain old annuity, then you'll have to pay tax on the amount of the gain only, not the principal.

@33:16 - Dennis Day 

Are there any health restrictions that you know of that automatically bar you from buying a life insurance policy?

@33:29 - Libby Carr

There's really very few. I mean, if you're diagnosed with a current case of cancer, that might knock out of the park for a while.

But generally speaking, you can get a policy. It's a question of what is your health underwriting rating going to be, and that will determine one of the major elements of what determines the premium.

So, many insurance companies go up to a table 10, so that you have your preferred best preferred standard and then standard.

So, three top categories. then under that are tables one through 10, which is determined by the underwriter as to what are your health issues.

And so, I'm sorry, I can do. Well, you have to have pretty serious illnesses before you can't have a contract at all.

And this will vary from company to company also. And so, as your job, are you looking, do you go from company to company if you have, you know, issues trying to find the best policy for people?

Yes. That is the role that the agent, especially the independent agent, Which is what I am. In the world of insurance, it used to be when my father was a life insurance agent.

You were a captive agent and you could only sell for like my father was with Banker's life of Des Moines, Iowa.

He was a captive agent. Or New York Life still has captive agents or mass mutual. But then there, in the meantime, many insurance carriers that I said, oh, this is too expensive and a piece of overhead for us.

Let's just try and capture as many independent agents who want to do business with us. So what happened is a new organization was created called IMO's independent marketing organizations.

And I've got a great IMO. Name. Pacific Insurance in Bellevue with a really great staff. And so what they do is they want to establish relationships with as many independent agents like myself as possible.

And to do that, they will provide ongoing training like a weekly or monthly seminar. They will keep up their staffs keep up on new product knowledge.

They have they watch the underwriting they do my back office work. So when I turn in a policy, they then shepherd that policy through the carrier that they thought was most likely to give the best deal or the best offer to the client.

And they will know like my IMO has I would say an active relationship with about 20 carriers. And they place

They probably have 600 agents across the country under their wing, and so they bring a lot of influence to those carriers to place that business.

And they will know which of the carriers have what type of products and have better tolerance for certain health conditions than others.

And so it's this whole level of knowledge that the IMO brings to me the independent agent because they want my business.

And then they can say, okay, out of, I think there's three or four companies that your client would do well with, so I follow their lead because their staff.

Keeps up involved in those conversations with a carrier as much more closely than I do.

@38:08 - Judy Gratton

So people should make sure that they're asking for an independent agent or asking that question, are you an independent?

It's kind of like when we work with lenders, you can go to the bank and you get what the bank has to offer, but if you go to a mortgage broker, you have to suddenly access the programs and that's exactly that same model.

Same situation. So it's important to ask if you were an independent. You think most people are, but there are still some that are not.

@38:45 - Libby Carr

Yeah, there's still some large houses and oftentimes when I'm competing against another agent or they bought a policy in the past from let's say New York Life.

That premium is going to be higher than what I as an independent agent could get for the very same death benefit and so on and so forth because they've got a cover as sales force with certain income guarantees.

As an independent agent, you don't get anything that way.

@39:24 - Judy Gratton

I know how that feels.

@39:25 - Libby Carr

really like a real estate agent.

@39:28 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

That brings up the question, Libby, how for all this work you do.

@39:33 - Libby Carr

How do you get paid? I'm paid by the carrier. So I get a commission based on the policy and that's all figured into the expense of the policy.

So over time, the client is paying my commission, but it's all done through the carrier and I'm paid when I place the policy and it's going live.

@40:06 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

So, no out of pocket expense for your services?

@40:09 - Libby Carr

No, there's no expense either for me per se or for the health exam. Okay. And they can have of course the results themselves.

@40:25 - Judy Gratton

Are there, you mentioned on different radio stations and whatnot, you know, where you don't need a medical exam or you can even have diabetes or you can get a $2 million policy for $200 a month, even if you are 80 years old and you begin to wonder.

@40:57 - Libby Carr

what's going on there? The premiums of those promises are going to be much higher, quite significantly higher, than carriers that do look at the actuarial risk.

So it's all a matter, it's kind of like, I don't know, an elephant of who's holding an ear, who's holding a tail.

There's many different parts to it, but it's all the same variables when you look at the big picture. So yeah, you can get a policy that doesn't have underwriting, but you're going to be paying two or three times as much premium as that you might get from another company that does do underwriting.

And because your degree of health is still better, and they're changing the health requirements the other day. I learned that one of my carriers no longer has the issues that at once had with anxiety medication or other psychological medications within a certain tolerance.

They used to do underwriting where if you had those in your medical record that would drive the premium up a bit and now that particular carrier is saying no, we're okay with that now.

So things change like that. That's a very good example of why I depend upon my IMO and Bellevue is that Lauren and the other staff members there keep close track and have very active relationships with those underwriting.

@43:00 - Judy Gratton

Thanks.

@43:29 - Libby Carr

every two years and have continuing education hours. That is what the exam is based on every two years. You have to be licensed past an initial exam.

@43:41 - Judy Gratton

But you also have your insurance license. You can't give someone a deal in insurance because the insurance commissioner, if it's anything like what they do with title insurance, there's very strict guidelines as to, you know, everybody is going to get a fair shot.

No matter who you are, what you're doing.

@44:04 - Libby Carr

Right. I as an agent don't have any ability to just arbitrarily say, okay, your premium is going to be such and such because I think you're such a wonderful person.

Right. That whole premium setting is based on your health, your age, and what that underwriter determines it to be.

my IMO can sort of influence their decision making in terms of, you know, let's see what we can do for this person as opposed to another company that may have no flexibility, but that's coming from the IMO's point of view and not that individual.

The only way I as the agent can influence that is how much of a death benefit do you want?

We can move that up and down and that will very much influence the premium. So the first thing that we always want to know is I get an illustration done or I do it on a term, I can do an illustration comparing four different death benefit levels.

I take that specific person with age, such and such and then I have the software spits out a matrix of different levels of underwriting and you can see the annual premium and that will give you an idea as to how much of a policy.

You want and then you can just extrapolate that into the cash value by multiplying the figure by two and half or three times.

@46:12 - Dennis Day 

And so when does the exam occur after that initial process or?

@46:21 - Libby Carr

Yeah, so the first conversation would be with me and the agent and the client. And we would get a ballpark idea as to how much of a death benefit we might look over some illustrations.

And then I would say, okay, let's the first thing we need to do is find out from the carrier of what's going, what their offer back to you is going to be.

So to do that, we have to get the paramedics and done and a health history. So I make the appointment.

The examiner comes out to their house most often, does the exam. That goes back to the company and in a week or so I have what the company's offer is.

And then we can get specific.

@47:18 - Judy Gratton

Okay. Are there any types of customization that can be done to a life insurance policy beyond having that piece that in some instances you could draw from it if you had a health emergency?

Right.

@47:35 - Libby Carr

So, yeah, so these are called writers, R-I-D-E-R-S. You can have a child writer so if the parent gets insured for your child I think under 18 for a very small amount you can have a child insured.

Another one is a writer to waive the premium during the A period of disability. So if you are technically disabled, the premium can be waived and the insurance policy stays in force.

And then when you can start paying premium again, you don't have to catch up. What you didn't pay when you were ill.

So those are two examples of writers and how it can be customized.

@48:36 - Dennis Day 

So each rider, though, will add a little bit to the premium. Is that correct?

@48:41 - Libby Carr

It can. Some writers are free and some are due charge a little bit and add to the premium. So other customization is often

What is the purpose of the policy is often how it's, you know, is this primarily for your protection, your spouse and children?

Or is this because you're in a business partnership? And if the one partner were to die, the other partner doesn't necessarily want to be in business with the former partner's spouse.

So a life insurance policy will be It pay off the community property claim of the surviving spouse.

@49:38 - Judy Gratton

And that's something that's important for people to understand. you mentioned it to me, and I can't remember how you said it the other day, but there can be three different parties to a life insurance policy.

@49:50 - Libby Carr

There are always three different parties. There's the owner, there's the insured, and then there's the beneficiary. Oftentimes, the owner and the insured are one in the

Same person, but they don't have to be. But the beneficiary always has to be somebody else.

@50:08 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

Can you have more than one beneficiary?

@50:11 - Libby Carr

Oh, yes. You can have equal parts of your four children. You can have an organization or your church or a nonprofit.

And then you can change your beneficiaries as often as you wish with a phone call to the insurance company.

@50:33 - Libby Carr

Cool. So it's very flexible that way.

@50:37 - Dennis Day 

And we talked to something. I'm not sure if you sell this product, but when you get your mortgage, when you buy a house, sometimes they offer you mortgage insurance so that the mortgage could be completely paid off if you were to die.

Is that something you deal with?

@51:00 - Libby Carr

No, that's attached to your mortgage.

@51:04 - Dennis Day 

I see.

@51:05 - Libby Carr

How we would deal with that. Let's say you didn't have it, but you wanted that. So in doing the calculation to answer the question that Judy brought up of how much life insurance do I need?

Well, if you want to include how much do I have left on my mortgage? Let's say it's $200,000. Well, you could include that amount in determining how big a death benefit you need.

So you could pay for it from that point of view, yes. So then you wouldn't need to carry mortgage insurance if you haven't figured in your life insurance policy.

@51:53 - Dennis Day 

Judy, do you have anything else for Libby?

@51:56 - Judy Gratton

I think that's it. I think you covered it beautifully, Libby. Your information is the website. I noticed that the bottom of the handout that you gave us, the nest eggs, and we will be posting that correct.

@52:14 - Dennis Day 

Yes, we will.

@52:16 - Libby Carr

Yes.

@52:17 - Judy Gratton

So if people want to reach out to you, they can just reach out to either that phone or bring your email address is also on there, I believe.

@52:25 - Libby Carr

Right. And I'd also like to put in a plug for my Christmas book. How did the reindeer fly? Judy's a fan of this.

That's right. Yeah, Judy's a big fan of this book. And I will send a picture of the cover to Dennis so that will also be on the website.

Or I can show you a cover of it right now. Yeah, let's do it. I do. See.

@52:57 - Dennis Day 

This makes a great gift. I'm going to make change our view so it gets a little bit bigger.

@53:10 - Libby Carr

So, trying to, it's a shining cover so it's got a glare to it, but how did the reindeer fly?

Which came about because I served for about six years as Mrs. Claws and a lot of kids asked us that question.

Hi.

@53:30 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

So, thank you so much Libby for coming.

@53:34 - Libby Carr

You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

@53:37 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

We really appreciate all this information. Well, like you said, we will have a transcript of this with the podcast and we'll have your information.

I'll have images that will have your information on it as well. And that's about it. Judy, do you have anything to add before we sign off on our 24th episode?

@54:00 - Judy Gratton

No, we're almost up to a year, I believe. Well, yeah.

@54:04 - Libby Carr

And I think your podcast is just fantastic.

@54:08 - Judy Gratton

Thank you.

@54:09 - Libby Carr

listened to a number of the sessions and you've done an excellent job providing a wide variety of information on, you know, life changes that I think is excellent information at any stage in one's life here.

@54:26 - Judy Gratton

I'm getting, I agree.

@54:27 - Libby Carr

Yeah.

@54:27 - Judy Gratton

I think we're at a year, Dennis, 24 to two a month.

@54:33 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

Yes. So what do what do we need to go to 26? 26? 12 months. Oh, you're absolutely right. This is.

@54:44 - Judy Gratton

Wow.

@54:45 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

A year goes fast when you're having fun.

@54:48 - Libby Carr

This is the 24th.

@54:51 - Judy Gratton

This is the 24th. Wow.

@54:53 - Libby Carr

And you are one the first three for your one year birthday.

@54:59 - Judy Gratton

Very good. Yay. Yay. Yeah, to us.

@55:01 - Libby Carr

Please anyone who wants to work with me, just give me a call or if you're interested in my financial education seminar and be happy to talk to you about that, and of course my Christmas book.

@55:16 - Libby Carr

I have a website by that name. And thank you.

@55:22 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

Yeah. Thanks Libby. Thanks Judy. Thanks for all our listeners for joining us for or in your edge how to right size your home and live podcast.

And we hope to see you in the future. This will be up on our YouTube channel as soon as possible, as well as the audio that you can find on Spotify, Apple or anywhere else that you get your podcast.

Okay, that's it.

@55:50 - Libby Carr

Bye bye. Thanks so much. Bye bye.

@55:54 - Judy Gratton

Thank you.

@55:56 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

Thanks, Libby.

@55:58 - Libby Carr

You're welcome.