Preface
Even though life insurance is an old, established financial product, and annuities are even older, there is one enormous market that has been overlooked: the market for term life insurance to protect a surviving spouse against the loss of Social Security payments after the death of the first spouse. This book explains how to address this market, and includes instructions for and access to the software that illustrates how term insurance and annuities can increase sustainable spending in retirement.
It is an unfortunate fact that most people have no idea how much they can really spend in retirement. Many are living frugal lives spending their social security while “saving for a rainy day”. If they buy life insurance at all, they do so in small amounts because they think that’s all they can afford. Almost no one would believe that buying a significant amount of term life insurance after age 60 actually can free them to spend more money on a monthly basis. Furthermore, even if they did consider that possibility, no one could show them exactly how that might work in their individual cases.
Until now.
This book and its accompanying software were created to provide a superior sales tool for United States life insurance agents, financial and retirement planners, and others interested in analyzing the retirement income status of customers and suggesting solutions to optimize their sustainable retirement spending. You no longer have to rely on guesswork or rules of thumb; instead you can show your clients specific solutions to their major retirement issues. You can show them exactly what they need to purchase, and the sales process provides an automatic follow-up opportunity each year to update the assumptions and financial picture of the client.
The author, a very experienced programmer and author of several books, set out to create a program to look at financial aspects of retirement and in particular to analyze how much money could be safely spent. Not unexpectedly, he was able to analyze the impact of annuities on retirement. What was something of a surprise was the impact of life insurance on what could safely be spent. Once he discovered that effect, he decided to develop a tool that would allow others, especially life insurance agents and financial planners, to find client-specific answers to questions common to anyone facing retirement. He refined the program to be able to accept a client’s financial data and calculate answers to questions like these:
–How much money can your clients spend in retirement without having to worry about running out of money, given their current financial picture?
–What should they do to optimize their retirement spending?
–How can a surviving spouse be protected from the drop in Social Security benefits after the death of the first spouse?
–Why is it likely that buying insurance or buying a fixed annuity can dramatically increase the level of your client’s sustainable spending—even if your customer is already retired?
–How much can sustainable spending be improved, and what level of term insurance or annuity purchase will achieve that optimal level of spending?
–How do US federal income taxes affect your clients’ spending, and how can these effects be minimized?
–When should your clients start taking social security?
All the above questions and more are answered by the software that accompanies this book. The software, called Rhino Retirement Analyzer, though more complex than most end users would care to learn, offers you the opportunity to load in customer financial data and illustrate options for improving sustainable spending. The amazing and counter-intuitive part is that it is highly likely that most individuals can see their monthly spending capability go up significantly by buying insurance and/or buying a fixed annuity. The software enables you to zero in on the level of each of these products that optimizes their spending.
That explains the software, but why is a book necessary? The book shows you how to use the program and how to explain the results to your clients using a fictional dialog between an insurance agent and his clients. It shows what goes into making these calculations and why they work the way they do. The book also includes detailed instructions on how to use the software, with walk-throughs that you can use. The solutions that the Rhino program illustrates will allow you to offer a market for term insurance that your competitors who aren’t using this program won’t be able to sell into.
About the Software
The author, a published programming author and skilled programmer, has spent years developing the Rhino Retirement Analyzer software. Programmers who have reviewed the software are struck by the enormous amount of work and time evidenced by the capabilities of this program. But you don’t have to pay the high price it would cost to develop such a program for your business. Instead, the program is available for free download at:
rhino-retirement-analyzers.com
or
www.degruyter.com/view/product/486326
The software will be updated periodically to fix any issues found by users and to handle changes in regulations, tax codes and so on. The updated version will be available at the above addresses. In the appendices to this book, you will find user manuals for the program’s various modes of operation.
For modifications to the program, including company-specific terms, rates, or rating classes, contact Steve Heller via [email protected] a quote.