Don’t Leave Your Family’s Financial Future to Chance, Says Local Financial Professional Stan Swinson, ChFC, CLU

RALEIGH, N.C. (August 22, 2012) — You may be feeling less financially secure than before the Great Recession began. Your retirement accounts may have rebounded, but your savings have dwindled. You may have found a new job, but at a lower salary. Some days you might feel like it’s all you can do to put food on the table and keep a roof over your head.

But what would happen if you died tomorrow?

“No one wants to think in those terms, but given that many of us are still in the financial rebuilding stage, you need to ask yourself, ‘Would my family be OK financially without me in the picture?’” says Stan Swinson, a financial advisor with AXA Advisors in Raleigh, N.C.

Life insurance is one of the few guarantees your family could rely on to maintain their quality of life, Swinson points out. September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, making it the perfect time to take stock of your life insurance needs.

As difficult as it may seem to look beyond the bills due at the end of the month, “you should make it a prior­ity to maintain your current life insurance or get coverage if you don’t have it,” says Swinson. “It will provide an anchor of stability for your family’s finances, ensuring that your loved ones will be financially secure when you die.”

For those without any life insurance, or for those who may need more because of changing circumstances, Swinson has these suggestions for getting coverage.

Step 1: Determine how much life insurance you need. Start by figuring out how much of your income would need to be replaced for your family to maintain its standard of living. Add up your family’s current and future financial obligations and subtract from that number the financial resources that will be there when you’re gone. The remaining number is a good target to shoot for when buying insurance. If you’d like help with the numbers, the nonprofit LIFE Foundation has an easy online Life Insurance Needs Calculator that can help you determine how much coverage you need. Find it at www.lifehappens.org/lifecalculator.

Step 2: Decide what type of insurance you need. There are two main types of life insurance: term and permanent. Both offer advantages, but the kind of coverage that’s right for you—term, permanent or a combination of both—will depend on your personal situation and financial goals. There are policies available to meet virtually every budget and need. To get a better understanding of what might be right for you, use the LIFE Foundation’s interactive product selector at www.lifehappens.org/whatkind.

Step 3: Understand your buying options. You have several options when it comes to making your life insurance purchase. There are insurance professionals in the community who will sit down with you, free of charge, to assess your life insurance needs, and then recommend the type and amount of coverage for your situation and budget. You may also be able to obtain life insurance through your employer. Check with your benefits manager at work to see what your options might be. Additionally, you can purchase life insurance online through one of many insurance websites, which typically offer policies from a multitude of insurance companies.

“The most important thing is to get the coverage,” says Swinson. “You don’t want to leave your family’s financial future to chance.”

About Life Insurance Awareness Month:
Held each September, Life Insurance Awareness Month is an industry-wide effort that is coordinated by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation. The campaign was created in response to growing concern about the large number of Americans who lack adequate life insurance protection: 95 million adult Americans have no life insurance, and most of those who do have far less coverage than most financial experts recommend. For more information on life insurance, visit LIFE’s website at www.lifehappens.org.

Life insurance contains certain exclusions, limitations and terms for keeping it in force. Please contact a financial professional for costs and complete details.

About Stan Swinson, ChFC, CLU:
Stan Swinson, ChFC, CLU is a financial professional who works with individuals and business owners to provide strategies to help them achieve their financial goals. He provides access to an array of financial protection and investment products and services including life insurance, annuities and investments as well as college, retirement, business and estate planning strategies. The AXA Advisors Raleigh office is located at 3201 Beechleaf Court, Suite 450, Raleigh, NC 27604; 919-954-1854. For more information on AXA Advisors, visit www.axa-equitable.com.

Financial services available to individuals and business owners through AXA Advisors, LLC include: strategies and products for financial protection and investments; asset allocation, college, retirement, business and estate planning strategies; life insurance, annuity and investment products, including mutual funds. Financial professionals offer securities products through AXA Advisors, LLC, NY, NY, member FINRA, SIPC, 10104 (212) 314-4600. Life insurance and annuity products of AXA Equitable and its affiliate carriers are available through AXA Network, LLC and its insurance agency subsidiaries.

About AXA Equitable:
In business since 1859, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company (NY, NY) is a leading financial protection company and one of the nation’s premier providers of life insurance, annuity and financial products and services. The company’s products and services are distributed to individuals and business owners through its retail distribution channel, AXA Advisors, LLC (member FINRA, SIPC) and to the financial services market through its wholesale distribution channel, AXA Distributors, LLC. Find AXA Equitable on Facebook and Twitter or visit the company’s multi-media newsroom The Source @ AXA Equitable.

AXA Equitable, a subsidiary of AXA Financial, Inc., is part of the global AXA Group, a worldwide leader in financial protection strategies and wealth management. “AXA Group” refers to AXA, a French holding company for an international group of insurance and financial services companies together with its direct and indirect consolidated subsidiaries. For more information, visit www.axa-equitable.com.

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