Your
by Marc A Spiewak, CPA RFN VP Finance
Living on Retirement Income
If you are retired chances are that you are living off of the following: 9 Social Security 9 Pensions 9 IRA or other self directed retirement programs
9 Investments
…and hopefully that is enough to get by. But what if it isn’t? What happens if things don’t go the way they are supposed to? What happens if there is an emergency in the family and you have to dig a bit deeper? Where do you go? What other resources do you have?
Unclaimed Funds
First, check with your state to see if there are any unclaimed funds in your name. In the State of Florida the website is:
www.fltreasurehunt.org. This is mostly made up of dormant accounts in financial institutions, insurance and utility companies, securities and trust holdings. Unclaimed Property also includes tangible property such as jewelry, coins, currency, stamps, historical items and other miscellaneous articles, from safe deposit boxes. If you find a match and believe it is yours, you can print and complete a claim form and mail it to the department, or you can request a claim form be mailed to you. The claim form will list the documentation required to prove your claim.
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Hidden Money
Collectibles
This range of collectibles is very wide and varied. Most people never realize the true value of their deceased spouse’s treasured collections. The list goes from dolls, record albums, stamp collections, coins, etc., etc. Thankfully, there are more and more guides to the true values of these collections on the internet as well as books available on the particular category. For instance, gold and precious metals current prices and up to date information is available on
www.goldpricetimes.com.
Reverse Mortgages
A reverse mortgage is a loan available to seniors aged 62 or older is used to release the home equity in the property as one lump sum or multiple payments. The homeowner’s obligation to repay the loan is deferred until the owner dies, the home is sold, or the owner leaves, they can be out of the home for up to 364 consecutive days (e.g., into aged care).
In a conventional mortgage the homeowner makes a monthly payment to the lender; after each payment the equity increases within his or her property, and typically after the end of the term the mortgage has been paid in full and the property is released from the lender and becomes fully and solely owned by the homeowner. In a reverse mortgage, the home owner makes no payments and all interest is added to the lien
on the property. If the owner receives monthly payments, or a bulk payment of the available equity percentage for their age, then the debt on the property increases each month.
To find out how money is available you will need to have an idea of how much your home is worth. An appraisal on your home will be necessary in order to complete the transaction. I can do a quick calculation for you to get an idea of how much money is available.
Life Settlements
This involves selling your life insurance while you are still alive. There are companies that buy life insurance policies and continue to pay the premiums so that they can collect on your insurance as if they were your beneficiaries order to collect after your demise. Therefore, this includes all types of life insurance cash value life, whole life, universal life and even includes term life insurance that has no built in savings.
How much can you get for your policy? Every policy is different. Ask your financial advisor or send me a copy of the first two pages of your policy for a free analysis. It usually takes less than 72 hours to tell you how much you can reasonably expect to get.
Marc is always open to comments, questions and/or concerns. He can be reached at:
marc@reunionfriendly.com
R E U N I O N F R I E N D L Y N E W S • S umme r , 2 0 1 1
FINANCE
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