The Heart Of A Father

Fathers-heart

I would like to take a few moments to share with you about your Father’s heart toward you. Yes, I am referring to your Heavenly Father.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

That’s a lot of love. God loves us so much. The sins of this world have lead us to places we should not be going, doing things we should not be doing, and encouraging us to say things we should not be saying. But God’s love is so great that no matter what the sin, He sent His son to die for us so that we can be forgiven and made whole. Someone had to pay the price; blood had to be given as a sacrifice. God sent Jesus, the only sinless one, to be the payment for our sins. He did this by giving His life as a ransom for our sins.

We have seen great fathers in this world. The story of Dick Hoyt, the father who pushed, pulled, and carried his son, Rick through a triathlon is a great example. He swam 2.5 miles, cycled 125 miles through hot lava fields, and concluded by running 26.2 miles with his son. You see, he loved his handicapped son so much. His son’s dream was to be in this contest. The father’s heart was to meet that need for and with his son. No, they were not in first place or even second place, but they did finish just under the deadline. The father ran the race with the son.

Our Heavenly Father is running the race with us. We are all in a race. If we have asked Jesus, God’s Son, into our hearts and to forgive us our sins, then we are pressing on to win the prize.

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14

God’s heart is so big for us. His love is so awesome. He wants only what is best for us. Our Father in heaven has a very big heart for us. He cares, wants us to be healed, cleansed from our sins, in right relationship with Him and others around us, and on our way to heaven. He has a wonderful place for us to go.

Family, Life Insurance

Using My Trials as Stepping Stones

Meet Kiara…..

Most of my childhood consisted of hospital waiting rooms, bad cafeteria food and doctors’ names I couldn’t pronounce. I became inevitably involved with my father’s illness at age 9. I gave shots and dosed medicine. Not the definition of a “daddy’s little girl” others would expect, but that was my childhood.

My father’s illness took his life when I was 11, leaving behind his wife and five children. Soon after, we woke up to the bitter realization of our deteriorating financial situation. The burden that was placed on my mother’s shoulders is one that nobody should have to carry alone. If my dad had had life insurance, it would have taken away the constant financial worry.

I’m now the only child in my family to have graduated from high school. And although the financial struggle to go to college continue, and I will use my trials as stepping stones and my education will be the foundation on which I build my life.

I wish I could say it better, but I can’t form a sentence that expresses how much my family would have benefited from life insurance. Although setbacks have struck me when I am down, I’ve found that true failure lies when I stop trying. I refused to give up then, and I refuse to give up now.

CONTACT ME TODAY TO RUN A FREE LIFE INSURANCE QUOTE!

Aflac, Family, Health Insurance, IDShield, LegalShield, Life Insurance, Relationships

CRMS – Who We Are

Debbie and I have spent the last 26 years, of our 31 years of marriage, serving families. We have ministered to families in a variety of ways including spiritual counsel, finances and family budget planning, parental coaching, child development, insurance consultation, and most recently we added to our services identity theft, legal services, and small business benefits As you can see, we really do care about serving families!

Therefore, we decided to bring all of these services under one name called Cannon Risk Management Solutions. Our mission at CRMS is to protect your family, finances, and your future! We offer a variety of solutions to help you minimize your risk and exposure, thus protecting your family, finances, and your future!

We would love to serve you and your family. Contact us today for a free consultation and let us evaluate how we can best serve you. You have worked hard to provide for your family, finances, and your future; now, let us help you protect it all! Click here to contact us today and let’s get started minimizing your risk!

Family, Finances, insurance, Life Insurance

Do I Need Life Insurance?

NOT EVERYONE NEEDS LIFE INSURANCE. FIND OUT WHETHER YOU DO OR NOT.

Life insurance has long been a part of estate planning in the United States. Although life insurance does not need to be a part of every person’s estate plan, it can be useful, especially for parents of young children and those who support a spouse or a disabled adult or child.

In addition to helping to support dependents, life insurance can help provide immediate cash at death. Insurance proceeds are a handy source of cash to pay the deceased’s debts, funeral expenses, and income or estate taxes.

People who have no minor children or financially strapped dependents may not need life insurance. Below you’ll find questions to ask yourself to help evaluate your life insurance needs. If you decide to purchase insurance, you should know exactly why you are buying it and choose the best type of policy for your needs. And, of course, you should buy no more than you need.

Long-Term Needs

To determine whether it makes sense for you to buy insurance to provide financial help for family members over the long term, consider these questions:

How many people depend on your earning capacity? If the answer is “none,” you probably don’t need life insurance.

How much money would your dependents need for living expenses? One way to determine this amount is to look at the earned income that you bring to your dependents on a regular basis. From that amount, subtract the worth of property they would inherit from you and any amounts that will be available from public sources or private insurance plans that already provide coverage. Social Security survivors and dependents benefits will probably be available, and you may also be covered by union or management pensions, or a group life insurance plan. Also subtract any other likely sources of income, such as the help reasonably affluent grandparents would provide for your children in case of disaster.

How long would it take for your dependents to be come self-sufficient? If your children are almost out of college, they may not need much additional income. If they’re younger, remember that dependent spouses caring for young children can usually return to work at some point, and some kids may get at least partial scholarships.

Once you perform this exercise, you may find that your dependents may need little additional income from life insurance. But if you have young children, you may find that it makes sense to buy an affordable amount of life insurance.

Short-Term Needs

Now, assess whether you need life insurance for short-term needs:

What assets will be available to take care of your dependents’ immediate financial needs? You might leave some money in joint or pay-on-death bank accounts.

After you die, how long will it be before your property is turned over to your inheritors? If most of your property will avoid probate, there’s usually little need for insurance for short-term expenses, unless you have no bank accounts, securities, or other cash assets. By contrast, if the bulk of your property is transferred by will and therefore will be tied up in probate for months, your family and other inheritors may need the ready cash insurance can provide. While a probate court will usually promptly authorize a family allowance or otherwise allow a spouse or other inheritor access to estate funds, it can still be nice to have insurance proceeds available.

Will your estate owe substantial debts and taxes after your death? Lawyers and financial advisors call cash and assets that can quickly be converted to cash “liquid.” If your estate has almost all “non-liquid” assets (real estate, collectibles, a share in a small business, jewelry), there may be a significant financial loss if these assets must be sold quickly to raise cash to pay bills, as opposed to what they could be sold for later if there had been enough liquid money from insurance or other sources to meet all pressing bills. Obviously, if your estate has significant funds in bank accounts or marketable securities, you won’t need insurance for this purpose. Fortunately, federal estate taxes aren’t due until nine months after death, so cash to pay them doesn’t have to be raised immediately.

Avoid Probate and Estate Taxes on Life Insurance

Avoiding probate. The proceeds of a life insurance policy are not subject to probate unless you name your estate as the beneficiary of the policy. If anyone else, including a trust, is the beneficiary of the policy, the proceeds are not included in the probate estate and can be quickly transferred to survivors with little red tape, cost, or delay. Except when your estate will have no ready cash to pay anticipated debts and taxes, there is no sound reason for naming your estate, rather than a person, as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy.

Avoiding estate taxes. If you own your insurance policy at the time you die, the proceeds are included in your taxable estate. If your estate is large enough to face estate tax liability (at least over $2 million), your life insurance proceeds will be subject to estate tax. On the other hand, if you don’t legally own your life insurance policy, the proceeds are excluded from your taxable estate. This can significantly reduce your death tax liability.

If you’ve determined that life insurance is right for you, contact me to learn about different types of insurance policies. Or, if you already know the type of policy you need, then let’s talk.

Business Needs

If you are the sole owner of a business, how much cash will it need when you die? Do you want and expect that some of your inheritors will continue the business? If so, do you think there will be enough cash flow for them to successfully maintain the business? You may need insurance proceeds to cover any cash flow shortage of the business. Will there be liquid funds to pay estate taxes?

Example

Alicia owns several valuable pieces of real estate and a profitable antique store, but she has very little cash and no life insurance. When she dies, she owes debts of $90,000 (aside from mortgages) and estate taxes of $120,000.

To raise this money, her beneficiaries (technically, her executor) must sell some of her real estate or her interest in the store. Unfortunately, the country is suffering a recession, and the market value of both antiques and real estate is down. To make matters worse, canny real estate people spread the word that this is a “distress sale” to raise money for estate obligations. As a result, the price the beneficiaries receive when they sell one of the pieces of real estate is far below what they would have received had they been able to choose when to sell. Had Alicia purchased an insurance policy with a payoff at death of $210,000 or more, they wouldn’t have been forced to sell.

If your inheritors won’t continue the business, the questions are different: How much is your death likely to affect the value of the business? Will there be enough cash to keep the business alive until it is sold?

If you are one of several co-owners, life insurance proceeds can be used to buy out co-owners’ interests. For more information on using life insurance to fund buyouts, contact me.