Is My Life Insurance Through Work All I Need?

One of the nice benefits that come with a job is Employer-Sponsored Life Insurance. It’s usually free or incredibly cheap, it requires zero medical exams, and it gives you that immediate sense of financial responsibility. For many people, it is their first real introduction to life insurance. But relying solely on a workplace policy to protect your family’s financial future is like relying on a company car—it is great while you work there, but you can’t take it with you if you leave, and it might not be enough for your family's actual needs.

The most significant risk of relying entirely on group life insurance is its lack of portability. These policies are tied directly to your employment status. If you change careers, get laid off, or decide to retire, your coverage almost always ends the day you walk out the door. While some group policies allow you to convert the coverage into an individual plan when you leave, the cost to do so often skyrockets, or you are hit with strict timelines to make the switch. If you develop a health condition later in life and suddenly lose your job, securing affordable independent coverage down the road can become an uphill battle.

Another hidden trap of workplace coverage is the size of the safety net itself. Most employer-sponsored plans offer a standard benefit equal to one or two times your annual salary. At first glance, a lump sum of $50,000 or $100,000 feels substantial. However, if you factor in a mortgage, car loans, credit card debt, and the day-to-day cost of raising a family, that money can vanish incredibly fast. A standard rule of thumb is to carry ten to twelve times your annual income in coverage—a benchmark that basic workplace plans rarely meet on their own.

Furthermore, group policies are inherently rigid. They are built as one-size-fits-all products designed to cover an entire workforce rather than adapt to your specific family dynamic. If you have a child with special needs, are taking care of aging parents, or own a small business with shared liabilities, a cookie-cutter corporate policy won't account for those unique financial responsibilities. An individual life insurance policy allows you to customize your coverage, choose between term or permanent options, and add specific riders that tailor the protection to your exact life circumstances.

It is also worth noting that the "no medical exam required" feature of group life insurance is a double-edged sword. While it is a massive win for individuals with pre-existing conditions who might otherwise struggle to qualify for coverage, it can actually work against those who are young and in excellent health. Because insurance companies pool everyone’s risk together in a corporate group, healthy individuals often end up paying higher rates for supplemental coverage through work than they would if they bought a private, medically underwritten policy on the open market.

Ultimately, employer-provided life insurance is a fantastic workplace perk that you should absolutely take advantage of—it just shouldn't be your entire financial plan. Think of your job’s policy as a baseline bonus rather than the foundation of your family's security. By securing an independent, individual life insurance policy outside of work, you gain complete control over your coverage limits, lock in rates based on your personal health, and ensure that your family remains fully protected no matter where your career path takes you.

If you want to know how much a policy can cost, use our quick quoting tool.* Or schedule a short call with one of our licensed agents. 

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. Please subscribe to this blog!

Who Should I Name As My Life Insurance Beneficiary?

Naming a life insurance beneficiary is a big decision, but it boils down to one main question: Who would suffer financially if you were no longer here?

There isn't a single "right" answer, but there are a few standard paths depending on your situation, along with a couple of critical legal traps you'll want to avoid.

Common Options to Consider

• A Spouse or Partner: This is the most common choice. The payout is typically used to replace your income, pay off a mortgage, or cover daily living expenses for the surviving partner.

• Adult Children: If your kids are grown, naming them ensures they receive the financial support directly. You can split the benefit equally among them.

• An Aging Parent or Dependent Relative: If you provide financial care for a parent or a sibling with special needs, naming them can ensure their ongoing care is funded.

• A Trust: If you want to control how and when the money is spent (for example, keeping it in a trust until a child turns 25), you can name a legal trust as the beneficiary.

• A Business Partner: Often used in "Buy-Sell agreements," this allows a surviving partner the cash needed to buy out your share of a business from your heirs.

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Critical Traps to Avoid

1. Never Name Minor Children Directly

Insurance companies legally cannot write a check to a minor. If you name a young child, the court will get involved to appoint a guardian to manage the money until they turn 18 or 21. This process is expensive, slow, and stressful. Instead, name a trust or an adult custodian under the UTMA (Uniform Transfers to Minors Act).

2. Forgetting a "Contingent" Beneficiary

Always name a backup (contingent) beneficiary. If your primary beneficiary passes away before or at the same time as you, and you don't have a backup, the money defaults to your estate. This means it has to go through probate court, can be taxed, and can be claimed by creditors.

3. Naming Your "Estate"

It sounds like a safe catch-all, but naming your estate subjects the life insurance payout to the probate process. One of the best features of life insurance is that it usually bypasses probate and goes straight to your loved ones tax-free within weeks. Naming the estate ties that money up in court for months.

Don't Forget to Keep It Updated

Major life changes—like marriage, divorce, having a child, or starting a business—are a signal to review your policy. Keep in mind that a will does not override a life insurance policy. Whoever is named on that insurance document will get the money, regardless of what your will says.

Let us help you protect your family and your business. Click here to schedule a call. 

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. Please subscribe to this blog!

Children Love Life Insurance

When we think of things children want, it's usually a toy or some other "fun" item. And kids will get that item, play with it for a while and soon it becomes part of a pile of toys that sits in the corner, only to be played with occasionally. 

One thing that a child does love is stability. Not having to worry about bills and other "grown up" issues are what makes being a kid joyful. And when tragedy strikes life insurance offers that stability. Being able to stay in the same home, having the same routine and doing all the fun things that go with "growing up" like hanging out with the same friends and summer camp help a child tremendously.

And children know when there is stress, financial and otherwise, in the household. That stress can result in poor school performance, low self-esteem and other issues. Life insurance can alleviate much of that stress and lead to a much happier and adjusted child.

Kids don't love life insurance because of the paperwork and riders. They love it because of the promises kept. And that promise is that their home and future is non-negotiable. Make that promise to your kids with a life insurance policy.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. Please subscribe to this blog!

Is Life Insurance Through Your Work Enough?

Many of us who are self-employed don't always get to enjoy the perks of group benefits, like medical coverage and paid time off. But for those who do have jobs where the company pays for extra perks, those perks may be good, but not awesome.

One of the issues I run into quite often with people who have "bennies" through work is the idea that their group life insurance program is all they need. For some it may be, but for many people that coverage is much less than what they actually need and it more than likely won't be there if these people leave their jobs.

One of my first real jobs was working for a large company that did offer life insurance. They offered me coverage of my annual salary, which was next to nothing, and I could buy additional coverage, like 2 or 3 times my salary for a few dollars each month. There were no exams or health questions, and I got as much as I could for the price of a coffee at Starbucks. I was single and didn't have much debt, so I figured that if something were to happen to me, my family would have enough to pay for a funeral and maybe even have some hor d'oeuvres. In other words, the life insurance plan was appropriate for my needs.

However, there were co-workers of mine who were married and had children. These folks also had mortgages, car payments and other expenses that I didn't have. I seriously doubt that the small amount of life insurance offered was enough to give their families the safety net they needed if they were to die. And when the company was sold and employees started to jump ship like rats, they lost the little coverage they had.

Having life insurance coverage through your work is good, and most agents will take that into account when trying to determine how much you actually need. There are several other items to consider when you calculate your family's needs.

1. Outstanding debt. Mortgage balance, credit cards and car payments should be included.
2. Final expenses. Funeral costs and other costs associated with dying. For instance, many people will spend time in the hospital before passing away, and those deductibles may need to be met.
3. Replacing lost income. Your survivors depend on your income to take care of everyday expenses, as well as those bills that happen to pop up unexpectedly, like repairs for appliances and vehicles. 
4. Education costs. If you have small children, you may want to include the costs of higher education.

Having life insurance through work is good, but making sure you have enough coverage is even better. If you aren't sure how much you need, Our life insurance quoting tool has a built in calculator that will help you out. Give it a try and in the meantime, stay healthy!

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

Does The Non-Breadwinner In The Family Need Life Insurance?

Recently I was reading an article on all of the reasons people fail to buy life, disability and other types of insurance. Apparently there are a lot of misconceptions floating about and I wanted to take the opportunity to hopefully correct these ideas. Taking them one at at time I hope to explain these misconceptions over the next few posts.

Last week I was talking with a couple who were doing okay financially. They realized that they were fortunate enough that one of them could stay home with their small kids while the other was the main breadwinner. In this situation, the wife worked and the husband stayed home and had a small consulting business, which by their estimation was "more of a hobby". I took that as meaning he didn't bring a lot of money into the household.

We discussed life insurance for the wife and ran the numbers to pay off the debt and replace her income for a few years. They both agreed that she needed to be covered. When I asked about the husband, there was a bit of confusion. "He really isn't contributing to the bills, so I don't think he needs a policy," the wife said.

The husband, who I thought would pipe up and say something, sat there nodding in agreement. I asked a couple of simple questions: If he were to die unexpectedly, how much would she need to pay for childcare? Or would she want to take time off from work to stay home with the kids?

This was obviously something neither had considered. Especially when neither of them had family nearby. The kids were young and only one was enrolled in school, so the other child would need to either be enrolled in a daycare or preschool, or they would need to have someone come into the home, like a nanny. 

When I explained what that kind of care costs, they were taken aback a little. I tried to ease their concern and let them know that a term life insurance would be much less expensive and, in the event of the husband's death, could cover the expenses for childcare plus his funeral costs, which they also failed to plan for. 

When a family member is not the breadwinner, it doesn't mean that they don't need life insurance. As a matter of fact, we even offer a disability policy on stay-at-home parents to help replace the costs of daycare. 

What are your thoughts? Leave us a comment below.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

Benefits For Business Owners (and Otherwise Self-Employed) 2023

At Surf Financial Brokers, we really do enjoy helping owners of small businesses, entrepreneurs, sales professionals and otherwise self-employed. This is because we are in the same boat as independent agents. The lack of group benefits can be troubling, but we are doing our best to help these great folks (who are the backbone of our economy) have access to quality dental and vision plans, cancer insurance and, of course, disability insurance. 

Being self-employed can be scary, but it can also be very rewarding. Paying for your own benefits is a small price to pay for the independence and freedom of owning your own business. 

We have put a few of these types of plans on our website for you to look at, run a quote, and even apply if you like what you see. If you need information for something that isn't there, drop us a note or book a short phone appointment to speak with us. We look forward to helping you out. 

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

Time For a Change To This Blog

Not that many people noticed, but I took a week off from the blog last week as I tried to regroup a bit. I wanted to use the time to consider a few options. Partly from general burn out and partly because coming up with a new insurance related topic three times a week is harder than I thought, I mulled some stuff over and have decided to make a few changes. 

Part of the problem is that I continue to write another blog on sales and marketing twice a week. I appreciate that it makes me do research on new products and keeps my brain "flexing it's muscles", but it was becoming a bit much. 

After some consideration I will be changing the format here a bit. There will probably be only one (two at most) blogs each week, with less text and more video. This helps me because I'm a decent writer but I can knock out a short video on a topic in a minute or two, which is about the same time it would take you to read one of my blogs. 

I'm looking forward to sharing more information on life insurance, disability, long term care, accident and cancer insurance, as well as our other plans. 

To start us off on a lighter note, here is a good submission for you. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave us a comment. Thanks and please subscribe.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

I Sell Money

When I first got into the insurance business I didn't have a mentor or anyone to "show me the ropes" per se. I learned quickly that my sales manager had a financial interest in me selling, and one would think that he would want me, as well as the rest of the agents on his team, to succeed. And while it was true to an extent, I also learned that I needed a mentor who did not have any skin in the game when it came to my success. Basically I needed someone who could be objective and give me sound advice who would be looking out for my interests.

Since no one was stepping up to the plate to help me, I started reading books about sales and any information I could find about successful insurance agents. There were many motivational books and most of them gave the same basic information. One day, I came across an article about an agent who was deemed "The Greatest Life Insurance Agent of All Time". His name was Ben Feldman and his story was quite remarkable. 

I don't want to bore you with all of the details as you can look up the details on him with a simple Google search, but the simple fact is that he found a way to sell more life insurance as an agent than some entire companies at the time. When asked how he sold so many insurance policies he said, "I do not sell life insurance. I sell money."

You see, Mr. Feldman was able to clearly communicate what life insurance is. When a client buys a policy, they are actually buying a promise. That promise is that if the insured should die, the insurance company will pay a death claim which will exceed what the client has paid in. 

Mr. Feldman also was noted as saying to his agents, "Don't sell life insurance. Sell what life insurance can do." In today's world of life insurance, a policy can do a lot for a family when the insured passes away, but with all of the living benefits available nowadays, people can use them while they are still living. 

Let's face it, no one really wants to buy life insurance, or any other kind of insurance for that matter. It's not fun or something one can show off to their friends. But it is necessary, especially when others are dependent on us financially. Our children rely on us to provide housing and education, which costs money. Our parents, who always insists that they don't want to be a burden on anyone else, may ultimately rely on us to help with long term care costs if they haven't planned in advance.

And then there are others that may depend on us financially, like charities and churches. When a large donor passes away, that non-profit organization may need to find other donors to fill the missing gaps. And sometimes, those large donors will list the charity of their choice as a beneficiary on a policy.

Ben Feldman knew all of this and made sure he didn't sell just the steak, but the sizzle as well. Instead of saying he was selling life insurance, he would call it something like "a special educational package for your children's children."

So the next time you talk to a life insurance agent, remember, we don't just sell insurance, but we sell money, and a promise. 

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

What Is Life Insurance Laddering?

One of the most confusing issues about buying life insurance is knowing how much you will need at different points of your life. As your personal situation changes over time, so will your life insurance needs. Marriage, having children, buying a home or starting a business can mean incremental differences in your coverage. 

And as you get older, your life insurance needs typically decrease. The kids have gone off to college or are on their own, the mortgage is paid and other debt has hopefully been eliminated. With all of this change going on, it makes sense to know what your foreseeable needs will be and adjust accordingly.

Sure, you could just buy one very large term policy to cover the next 20 to 30 years, but what happens after that? Burial insurance sounds good, but what if you should have some health issues that could prevent you from buying an affordable policy? The non-medical policies are okay, but they can be expensive.

This is when you should consider a strategy known as "laddering". Laddering is the practice of purchasing several term policies for different lengths of time and different face amounts. Since the policies are set to expire at different times, you only pay for the amount of coverage you need throughout your different life stages.

As an example, let's say that "Bob" is 35 years old, in good health and a non-smoker. After a quick review, Bob discovers he needs $1 million over the next 30 years. If he were to purchase a policy for $1 million, if may cost him about $75 each month, or $900 each year. Over the course of 30 years, Bob would pay $27,000. 

However, if Bob decided to purchase three smaller policies that had different terms, it would look something like this:

• First policy - A 10-year term with a death benefit of $500,000 ($14 each month)
• Second policy - A 20-year term with a death benefit of $300,000 ($16 each month)
• Third policy - A 30-year term with a death benefit of $200,000 ($21 each month)

The total amount of coverage is $1 million, but the amount of premium Bob pays on a monthly basis is different throughout the years. And this saves Bob money. 

For the first 10 years, Bob pays $51 each month. At the end of the 10th year, the $500,000 will expire, which means Bob only pays $37 each month from year 11 through 20. At the end of the 20th year, the $300,000 policy will expire, which means Bob will only pay $21 each month from the 21st year until the end of the coverage period.

Bob's total premium over the 30 years is $13,080, which means he'll save $13,920! Not bad. And that difference could have been invested into a retirement plan or something else.

As you can see, Bob saved a ton of money plus he got the coverage he needed. During the first 10 years, Bob had $1 million dollars of coverage to pay off his mortgage and other financial obligates. In the second 10 years, with his mortgage principle decreasing, he still had $500,000 of coverage, which would have been sufficient at that point. Finally, in the last 10 years, his spouse could pay off the remaining bit of mortgage as well as take care of his funeral expenses and any other debts with the remaining $200,000.

Even though buying multiple policies may seem like more work, if they are all purchased at the same time through the same carrier, the bill can be consolidated and the savings will be well worth the time and effort. 

If you have questions about laddering your policies or anything else related to life insurance please drop us a note or book a short phone appointment with us. In the meantime, please stay healthy!

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!