App update, life insurance for stay-at-home parents and a sincere pumpkin patch
SEI Mobile Deposits for IRA and Non-IRA Accounts
SEI has recently made enhancements to their SEI Connect app, which now allows you to make current or prior year contributions to your IRA, SEP IRA, or Roth by uploading a picture of a check. The app also lets you send notes to your advisor regarding your deposit. Mobile deposits to non-IRA accounts are also available. If you have the SEI Connect app on your mobile device, you will see a “Deposit” icon on the toolbar at the bottom. If you need help adding the SEI Connect app to your mobile device, please contact our office or SEI’s 24/7 help desk at 888-737-6953.
Short Term Savings with Interest Still above 5%
A few years ago, it was common to find a money market paying over 5%. Although those rates in money markets are gone for now, investors with time horizons less than 3 years can still find competitive rates above 5%. Oceanview Life & Annuity has a 2-year annuity that yields 5.05% for deposits of $70,000 or greater and a 4.8% 2-year annuity for investments of $20,000 or greater.
Life Insurance for a Stay-At-Home Parent
The amount of life insurance one can receive can be based upon need (covering a specific debt such as a mortgage) or economic life value. When using economic life value, consider a 45-year-old who makes $70,000 per year. If that individual purchased a life insurance policy with a death benefit of $1,540,000, a cynical person might say that the beneficiary would receive windfall in excess of the economic value of the insured. However, that is simply not true. If that 45-year-old making $70,000 per year was able to work a full life to normal retirement age, he or she would have generated that much income without receiving a single raise. Another way to state this would be to say if that 45-year-old died suddenly, his or her family would have lost out on at least $1.5 million in income.
So, the question we often get is how do we determine the economic value of a stay-at-home parent? Both the life insurance industry and the IRS consider a married couple a single economic unit. Therefore, the stay-at-home parent can use the working spouse’s income to justify the purchase of life insurance.
My wife has been a stay-at-home mom since the birth of our first child. She is as crucial to the success of Crosby Advisory Group as any employee or owner. Without her, my hours would have been limited and the cost of childcare would have been high. While she doesn’t receive a paycheck, she unlocks the ability to earn an income, as a result, she has life insurance equal to the economic value of our family.
SEI Standing Instructions and Schwab Money Link for Withdrawals
Crosby Advisory Group recommends that clients set up standing instructions with their SEI accounts and a money link for their Charles Schwab accounts. This can all be done with a form that can be emailed to you or signed in our office. These forms allow us to send you distributions to your bank without the investor having to e-sign for an authorization. Standing instructions and money link allow investors to receive distributions from their investment accounts faster.
Fall Tradition
One of the activities my family loves to do in the fall is pick apples, grapes, gourds, and pumpkins at our local fruit farm. What's funny to me is that every year we throw our pumpkins in the garden, and they grow the next spring, but my kids would much rather hike to find a sincere pumpkin patch and haul the pumpkins back to our car!
Disclaimer: Crosby Advisory Group, LLC is a registered investment advisor. This podcast is for general knowledge and is not intended to be individual investment advice. Investing involves risk including potential for loss. Understand all risk and fees before investing. NMD Insurance is affiliated with Crosby Advisory Group, LLC.
