To help you understand more about your policy options, let’s take a look at several people who made changes to their Trustmark Universal Life policies to better suit their personal financial needs. The men and women in these stories are fictional, but the types of decisions they make about their policies are common among real policyholders like yourself.
At age 33, Alex and his wife have just welcomed their first child, a beautiful little girl. Alex already has a Trustmark Universal Life policy, but his benefit amount is only enough to protect his wife in case something happens to him. With a baby on board — someone else relying on him — Alex now realizes he needs more protection to safeguard his daughter as well as his wife.
During his employer’s next open enrollment for voluntary benefits, Alex applies for an increased benefit amount on his policy. After answering underwriting questions, he is approved for an increased benefit and is given a new target premium. His daughter and wife now have adequate protection in case Alex should be out of the picture.
Bonnie, a 40-year-old woman, left her employer two months ago while keeping her Trustmark Universal Life policy. However, she has just now realized that, without the automatic payroll deduction she was used to, she’s been forgetting to pay premiums on her policy for the past two months. This means her policy’s value has been depleting, and her policy is now projected to lapse sooner than she’d like, even if she pays all her premiums going forward.
When Bonnie contacts Trustmark Customer Care, she’s offered options. She chooses to make a one-time payment to account for the premiums and the interest she’s missed. Now Bonnie’s policy is back to where it would have been had she paid her premiums, and as long as she remembers to pay her premiums by direct bill going forward, her policy is projected to last as long it was before she missed two months of premiums.
Upon reviewing her annual report, Carla, 52, notices that her policy value is decreasing. This is happening because her current premiums and interest are no longer sufficient to cover the charges to maintain her policy. Carla is currently the sole provider for her family of four, and can’t afford any increases in her premium, but she really wants to keep some protection for her husband and kids — without her, they’d be in trouble.
Carla calls Trustmark Customer Care to reduce the benefit amount on her policy, so she can continue paying the same affordable premiums and keep her policy in-force. While her benefit is now lower, she has preserved her policy, and it’s now projected to last as long as she needs it to.
At age 47, Diego took a partial withdrawal on his policy to help pay off some credit-card debt. He has continued to pay his target premium ever since. Ten years later, now 57, Diego worries that due to the reduction in his policy’s value from the partial withdrawal, his policy may not last as long as he needs it to protect his family.
Trustmark Customer Care analyzes Diego’s account and tells him that, if he keeps paying his target premium, his policy is projected to last until age 75. While Diego has options to increase his premium payments or decrease his benefit, he chooses to continue paying the same premium, knowing that his policy is projected to lapse at age 75. This keeps his policy in-force for as long as he and his family need it.
Five years ago, Ernest, age 66, took a loan on his policy to help pay for an emergency medical expense for his grandson. In the five years since, although he’s been paying his target premiums, he has not yet made any repayments on his loan. Meanwhile, the interest charged to his loan has been accumulating. His loan balance is now greater than his policy’s value, putting his policy — which his family needs — in immediate jeopardy, and he has received a grace-period notice warning him of this.
Trustmark Customer Care helps Ernest decide on a loan repayment plan he can afford, which pays off his loan balance (including accrued interest) over the next year. Once the loan balance is paid, Ernest is no longer being charged interest on the loan, and if he keeps paying the premium recommended by Customer Care, his policy will be projected to last until maturity.
Florence is a 57-year-old mom with a son in high school and a daughter in college. She has had a Trustmark Universal Life policy for more than 20 years, and has always paid her target premiums. However, interest rates have dropped since Florence first purchased her policy, and she also took a partial withdrawal a few years ago. Because of this, Florence’s policy is now projected to lapse in five years, even if she keeps paying her premiums — and she needs her policy to stay in-force to protect her kids’ educations.
Florence contacts Trustmark to figure out how to keep her policy active longer. Trustmark’s Customer Care team offers Florence a choice among several new premiums that are projected to fund her policy up to different ages. Based on these options, Florence chooses to increase her premium to an amount that will project her policy to last to age 70. Her family’s financial protection is back to where she needs it.