Aren’t All Target Date Retirement Funds the Same? Spoiler Alert: No

Like many in my generation, I prefer to subconsciously minimize the odds that I’ll become ill and ignore the reality that I’ll eventually pass. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that illness and death are inevitable. Enter another subject we tend to ignore: Life Insurance. For many Americans – particularly young and/or single adults, life insurance is nothing more than a plot point in a Hollywood movie or true crime drama: the money collected by remaining relatives after someone has passed. However, life insurance, like health insurance, is just something you need to have. It can provide financial security for your loved ones, cover end of life expenses, and can even provide tax free income.

There are two different types of life insurance: temporary and permanent. The most common form of temporary insurance is Term insurance. Term typically lasts for a specified “term” of years, hence its name. Permanent – on the other hand – stays with you for your entire life, provided you continue to pay the premium, or have developed an account value large enough you no longer have to pay in. There are a wide variety of insurance policies available under the permanent life insurance umbrella, such as: whole life, universal life, variable universal life, and indexed universal life.

To put in another way, Term insurance can be thought of as renting insurance. You pay a monthly premium for the coverage but once the specified term of time is up that coverage goes away. The term can vary from 5 years up to 30 years. With some companies you can continue the policy, but you will have to pay premiums that are a multiple of what you had been paying during the “term” of the contract. It is used to provide protection for liabilities that will disappear after a certain time period ex: raising children, your mortgage, or income replacement. In your 20s-50s you have more people depending on you; therefore, if something were to happen to you (e.g. illness, death) you need an insurance policy that will take care of the people you support. If you pass away, you need enough coverage to pay off any existing debt, provide income replacement, and cover any other miscellaneous expenses associated with supporting your family. This coverage makes a difficult time a little bit easier by reducing the financial burden and allowing loved ones time to grieve without worrying about impending bills. Term insurance is perfect for this type of coverage as it has the lowest premiums and can be structured to disappear once certain liabilities disappear (e.g. mortgage is paid off, kids are out of the house, and your income is no longer critical to the security of your family).

Permanent Insurance, on the other hand, can be framed as owning the insurance coverage. As with term insurance, you pay a monthly premium; however, the coverage stays with you for the rest of your life, not just a specified term of time. Once your family is out of the house and your liabilities are decreased you still want to maintain some level of insurance coverage to cover end of life expenses and provide for loved ones. Permanent insurance is a great choice to cover these remaining liabilities. The premiums for permanent insurance are higher than those for term insurance because, unlike term – where the insurance company may not ever have to pay out the policy- permanent insurance means a guaranteed payout – assuming you’ve paid the premium. At some point the insurance company will have to pay. Additionally, part of these monthly premiums are placed into a cash value account which, depending on the type of policy, earns a fixed or variable rate of return and can provide tax free income. This income can be used to fund an early retirement as it can be accessed prior to age 59 ½ – the age required to legally withdraw from retirement plans without incurring penalties.

But what if you want to access the death benefit in an insurance policy without having to die – sound too good to be true? In fact, some insurance policies allow you to access death benefits before actual death! These policies feature Accelerated Benefit Riders (ABRs) which allow you to accelerate (or, in other words, use) the death benefit while still alive to cover certain terminal, chronic, or critical illnesses. Unlike health insurance, which only reimburses medical expenses, ABRs provide tax free money for you to use as you wish, assuming you have an ABR event. You can use this money for experimental treatments that health insurance will not cover or use it to travel the world. There are no restrictions on how the money is spent.

Now you know about life insurance and the many different options and benefits available to you – consider working with a financial planner to discuss the right life insurance policy for your needs.

If you have questions about insurance or any other aspect of your financial life please do not hesitate to reach out to me at zach.swaffer@trilogyfs.com

This article contains only general descriptions and is not a solicitation to sell any insurance product or security, nor is it intended as any financial or tax advice. For information about specific insurance needs or situations, contact your insurance agent. This article is intended to assist in educating you about insurance generally and not to provide personal service. Guarantees are based on the claims paying ability of the issuing company.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

Whether we attribute it to a decline in marriage rates, poor job prospects, student loan debt, technological improvements, or generational shifts, times have certainly changed for young adults. One major topic which my clients bring up centers around their adult children moving back home. While this was not a common conversation ten years ago, I come across this topic more often nowadays. I’ve heard statistics such as “a third of young people, or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34, lived under their parents’ roof in 2015”, and look at it as my job as an advisor to provide advice on how to best navigate through this new landscape.(1)

Within this topic, a common question that I try to help my clients answer is this: Should I charge my adult children rent if they move back home? What I’ve found is that every situation is different, so what may work for one family, may not work for another. However, in this article, I hope to provide a framework to consider when trying to answer the question.

Setting Expectations

Depending on your own experiences and values as parents, as well as the specific circumstance of your adult child, you may insist that they live at home rent-free. For example, if your adult child is being responsible by saving a good share of his/her paycheck for a house down payment and you want to reward that responsible behavior by letting him/her live at home rent-free, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. For other parents, such an assistance for an adult child does not make sense, and no matter what the circumstances, would believe it only right to charge for rent if living at home.

No matter where you fall on this spectrum, it is important to set expectations with your adult child. For instance, if you decide that it is out of your comfort zone to charge your child rent for living at home, then what other mechanisms can you put into place to make sure he/she does not get too comfortable? In my experience, I’ve seen parents create timelines and goals, as well as make it crystal clear that the adult child must still pitch in, in other ways such as chores or errands. While it may be a tough conversation initially, imagine the alternative. What if your child gets too comfortable living at home and would rather stay at your “hotel” rather than spread their wings in the real world!

Whether rent is being paid or not, the adult child will have a particular reason as to why they want to or need to live back at home. If they are simply being lazy and are not making an effort towards adulthood, it is crucially important to provide clear expectations. As parents, you want to always help and support, but you never want to enable. Therefore, in this example of being lazy, a parent could set expectations of applying for X number of jobs per week, or something similar.

How Much To Charge For Rent

If you do decide that it makes sense to charge your adult child rent, how much should you charge? In my experience, parents usually charge well below market rates. As parents, you want to help your child out, but you also want to build up their personal finance awareness. How much you charge will also be highly correlated to what your daughter or son can afford, and could change over their time living with you. By having an open conversation and being clear about why you will be charging them, it should not be hard to fall on a number that makes sense for your family.

Alternatives

There are also other ways in which your adult child could pitch in that could be alternatives to paying rent. Such alternatives could be household chores or errands, cooking meals, or even helping parents with their own work. In addition, it could make more sense to have your adult child pay for other household expenses (instead of rent), such as internet, tv, or groceries.

Another alternative could be to make their stay at your home contingent on them depositing money into their own retirement account. This way, you are teaching them how to save and plan for the future.

Finally, if you want to help them grow personally, you can make their stay at your home contingent on community service or volunteering. This is a win-win as well!

Budgeting

This experience can also be thought of as a great teaching moment for your child. Specifically, parents in this situation are in a unique position to extol the virtues of budgeting and personal finance when their child needs it most. If the adult child in your household has to pay you rent and decide how to allocate their small-to-no income, they will quickly learn how to budget. As a parent, you may decide to get creative and instead of using the rent money for expenses, stash it (and maybe even match it) into a savings account for your child. They will be happily surprised with a small nest egg to leave home with!

Other Considerations

Other considerations that I make sure clients consider is their own budget and retirement goals. If your adult child is going to come back home and live there, you’ll want to make sure that adding another adult to the household does not negatively affect your own goals. Because you’d anticipate that household expenses will go up, you must make sure you budget for them, based on your expectations and timeline with your adult child. Again, by having an open conversation with your adult child, I am confident that a reasonable game plan can be implemented with success.

Having this conversation is not always an easy one, but I hope that the considerations above help provide better ways to think about it. If you’d like to discuss your situation further, call my office at (949) 221-8105 x 2128, or email me at michael.loo@lpl.com.

• https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2017/08/young-adults.html