At Sears Insurance, we work with Clients from newborns to the end of life. My market is everybody!

Within that market, everybody has different needs, wants, goals, and of course, different budgets. The product lines that we have carried for over 40 years are health insurance, life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability income, annuities, 401k rollovers, IRAs and many ancillary products.

The health insurance industry has “seasons”. There are open enrollment periods that have been defined by the Affordable Care Act that create peak times for people to get their health insurance placed for the upcoming year. The individual market closed the end of January 2016. Consequently, this provides an opportunity to shift gears and look at where we may need to go with IRAs and life insurance. I would like to start with a conversation about IRAs.

IRA means Individual Retirement Account. There are several types of IRAs pending your situation, but the original purpose of an IRA was a tax shelter and guaranteed income in retirement years. I’m not going to assume that any of you understand all there is about this industry or these types of products, so I’m going to include some basic information and if you have questions going further, they will be undoubtedly questions that I should handle on an individual basis due to the fact that everyone’s age, needs, budget, etc. are individual.

To provide you with some basic information, please visit this link from CNN Money. I go out of my way to use independent and highly respected sources for my information rather than to endorse a particular company. As an independent agent, we pride ourselves in selecting what is right for you. As you prepare your taxes for 2015, please note, you still have time to purchase an IRA and enjoy some tax credits on your 2015 return. Please visit with your accountant/CPA to see if this is appropriate for your personal situation. If that is the case, please give me a call and we will see if that is the best fit for you.

If you have changed jobs, or if you are retiring, and you have a 401k, my recommendation is to do what is called “401k rollover”. These are qualified retirement funds you have accrued through your years of hard work that are in an employer retirement account on your behalf. If you have left employment for any reason, I encourage folks to roll those funds into an IRA.

Call me, we can give you illustrations and projections and the numbers will answer the majority of your questions. Please know I’m here for you if you have any questions.