This post is part of our series for advisors to pass to their clients. Knowing more about your clients’ needs will help you to better serve them. Aging doesn’t have to be scary, and we here at Ashar want to help you provide the resources that policy sellers need to flourish in this chapter of their lives.
The day you’ve either longed for or dreaded is finally upon you: the day you retire. This can be an emotional time, as it signals the end of one chapter in life, and the beginning of another.
It’s often hard to know how you’ll feel about retiring until you actually do it. But while emotional uncertainty is perfectly ok—normal, even—financial uncertainty is definitely not something you want to face in the latter part of your life.
That’s why it becomes even more important to make sure your financial house is in order once retirement approaches. Hopefully, you’ve got enough money saved in a retirement account to allow you to meet your necessary expenses, like a mortgage, bills, and healthcare costs, easily.
But what if you want to do more in retirement than you’ve already saved for? What if you want to travel the world, make a gift to a beloved charity, or help pay your grandchildren’s college tuition bills? Or what if you or your spouse suddenly requires expensive healthcare treatments or long term care?
This is when it’s time to take a good, hard look at your assets to see which you actually need, and which assets you could monetize to help support your new life. Here are a few of the most common assets that you should assess once you’re on the brink of retiring.
Your house
If your children are out of the house and it’s just you and a spouse, your current home may be much more than you really need. If your house is paid off, you don’t have a mortgage bill but you still have the maintenance costs to consider. And if your house isn’t paid off, you may be spending more on a monthly mortgage than you need to. If you can manage to part from a too-big house for a smaller cottage or a condo, you can potentially free up a lot of money that you can then use to support your retirement lifestyle.
Your cars
If part of your retirement dream has always been to own a fancy sports car, then skip this section—but if not, it’s worth looking critically at your vehicles and deciding what and how many you need. We’re used to having one car per person in this country, but if you and your spouse are both retired, one car may do just fine. If you’re downsizing to a condo or apartment in a more urban, walkable area, then one car could definitely suffice.
And if cars have never been among your prized possessions, then you could always trade in your vehicle for an older, used model. Depending on one’s job, a good-looking car can be an important part of maintaining one’s overall image. But after you retire, the only thing a car really has to do is reliably get you from point A to point B.
Your life insurance
It’s easy to forget that your life insurance is personal property, just like your house or car. As such, it’s an asset that can be monetized, if you so choose. If you no longer need your life insurance or the premiums have become too expensive, sometimes a life settlement—selling your policy on the Secondary Market—can be the best choice.
If this sounds like a good option to you, then the first step is to take Ashar’s policy quiz. This five-minute, seven-question quiz can tell you whether your policy is likely to qualify for a Secondary Market solution. If your policy is likely to qualify, the next step is to talk to your financial advisor about a life settlement. Ask them to contact Ashar Group—we’d love to work with your advisor to help you meet your financial goals.
Retirement can be an exciting time. Make sure it’s exciting for all the right reasons by planning accordingly, and analyzing your assets if you think you might need additional funds to support the lifestyle you’ve always wanted.