Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Retirement Income Planning to Mitigate Financial Risks

Three financial risks all of us face as we get older are poor health and the high medical bills that come with poor health, long term care expenses that may occur when we can no longer care for ourselves and our expenses exceeding our retirement income as a result of inflation.

You should contact a professional retirement financial planner to assist you in developing a strategy to mitigate these risks. There are several insurance and financial investment products on the market you can consider and which an experienced financial advisor can help you evaluate. One option is to contact Puritan Life for a retirement income review.

A Medigap insurance plan helps to protect you against the risk of a catastrophic health condition. There are many Medigap insurance plans all sold by private insurance companies. All have a similar basic benefit plan, but each has additional benefits that vary according to the plan. A financial advisor who is familiar with your unique health and financial situation will be able to recommend which plan best fits your particular situation.

There are also long term care insurance policies which fully cover or assist in covering long term care costs if and when you must seek a long term care alternative. There are many types of long term care insurance. Many find the costs of full coverage prohibitive. However, there are more affordable options that may meet your needs when the plans are considered together with the risk of you needing long term care. A professional financial advisor will help you to evaluate the risks you are willing to take and what types of insurance and investments will best protect you against the risks.

You may want to consider investing in a variable or inflation adjusted annuity that will provide you with a hedge against inflation and income on a regular basis. An inflation adjusted annuity’s monthly payout may be less initially than a fixed rate annuity but the payouts have the advantage of increasing over time with inflation.

Work with your financial advisor to explore all the types of annuities and optional riders. For example, you have an option of choosing an annuity to provide you with payouts for a specific period of years or for your lifetime. There are also annuities that can cover you and your spouse’s lifetime. Each option will have a different payout structure.

Your financial advisor can advise you as to which type of annuity is the best fit for your unique situation based on how much you can afford to invest in the annuity, how much you would like to receive from the annuity after you retire and the risks you are willing to take to possibly earn additional investment income .The most important step you need to take to begin or to review your retirement planning is to find a financial advisor you trust to help you to design a plan that works for you.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

No comments:

Post a Comment