At On Purpose Financial, we talk a lot about fitting all of the pieces together so that your finances are well coordinated and serve your life. Insurance is not the glamorous part of that work. But when something hard happens, it is often the part that decides whether money becomes a second crisis or a quiet safety net.

Most families we meet do not spend a lot of time focusing on insurance. They have done a great job saving and investing, but when we ask,

“Does your life, disability, and long‑term care coverage actually match your life today?”

the answer is often:

“Honestly? I have no idea. We bought what someone recommended years ago and have not touched it since.”

An insurance audit is not about buying more products. It is about making sure what you already have still does the job you think it does, at this stage of life.

We find it helps to think about this by life stage.

Early Career & Young Families: Income Protection Often Gets Ignored

Picture a couple in their early 30s. Two kids under five. A new mortgage. Two busy careers. They sit down in our office and proudly say:

“We finally got term life when the kids were born. So we are covered, right?”

When we ask about disability insurance, the answer is usually:

“I think I have something through work, but I’m not sure how it works or what it covers.”

In your 20s, 30s, and early 40s, your biggest financial asset is not your house or your 401(k). It is your ability to earn an income. Yet disability coverage is often the least understood part of the benefits package.

What to review

1. Employer disability benefits

This is the coverage most people never read, but it matters.

Grab your benefits booklet or log into your HR portal and look for:

• What percentage of income does short‑term and long‑term disability replace
• Whether there is a monthly cap on benefits
• How long do benefits last
• Whether benefits are taxable or tax‑free

We often discover surprises together, such as:

“It only covers 60% of my income, and there is a cap that would hit me pretty quickly.”

We can help you read through these details and talk about whether it makes sense to add individual coverage on top of what your employer provides.

And don’t forget the most important detail of all: “Own occupation” vs “any occupation.”

The fine print matters:

• “Any occupation” means you are disabled only if you cannot work in any reasonable job
• “Own occupation” means you are disabled if you cannot do your specific job or profession

For people in specialized or higher‑earning roles, own‑occupation language usually provides stronger, more comprehensive protection. For example, a dentist who can no longer practice clinically but could technically teach might still qualify for benefits under an own‑occupation policy, but not under an any‑occupation policy.

2. Term life for specific goals

In this stage, life insurance is usually about very concrete “what ifs”:

• Making sure a surviving spouse can keep the house
• Paying off or reducing major debt
• Providing for kids and education
• Creating a runway to adjust if the worst happens

We see a lot of policies that were chosen quickly when a baby arrived or a house was purchased. Term life often fits this stage because you can match coverage amounts and term length to those specific needs.

We can help you revisit those numbers and think through how much coverage is appropriate for your family today and how it fits into a broader “life well planned.”

Mid‑Career: Protecting Lifestyle and Retirement

By your 40s and 50s, the conversation shifts.

It is less, “How would we raise the kids alone?” and more:

• “Could my spouse keep living the life we have built?”
• “Would our retirement plan still work if one of us died early?”

We’ve met with surviving spouses in this season and heard some version of:

“I miss them terribly. But because we planned ahead, I am not lying awake at 2 a.m. wondering if I am going to be okay financially.”

That is the quiet work insurance does in the background.

What to review

1. Life insurance purpose

You may still have significant coverage, but the “why” behind it changes. In mid‑career, it is often about:

• Keeping a surviving spouse on track for retirement
• Avoiding forced downsizing or major lifestyle shocks
• Reducing pressure to claim Social Security early or liquidate investments at a bad time

At this stage, life insurance is one of the tools that keeps your life’s work and your life’s wealth aligned if something goes wrong.

2. Liability and umbrella policies

As income and assets grow, so does liability risk. This is the time many families are:

• Driving nicer cars
• Building up home equity
• The cost to replace cars and homes is increasing due to inflation
• Adding teen drivers to their auto policy
• Maybe owning a rental property or a side business

A mid‑career audit should include questions such as:

• Are our auto and homeowners limits still adequate?
• Should we add an umbrella liability policy for an extra layer of protection?

We can help you in conversations with your auto/home insurance representative to make sure any gaps are covered, or in some cases, that you aren’t over-insured.

3. Variable income and equity compensation

If bonuses, commissions, or equity awards are a meaningful part of your income, it is important to ask:

• What if that variable income stopped due to disability or death
• Would current coverage actually replace what we rely on, or just base salary

We can look at your entire compensation picture and model different “what if” scenarios, rather than making decisions in a vacuum.

Pre‑Retirement (50s–Early 60s): Long‑Term Care and Legacy

In your 50s and early 60s, retirement is no longer a concept; it is a date on the calendar. Many people also carry family stories into our office:

“My parent needed years of care. It changed everything. I do not want my kids to go through that.”

At the same time, the long‑term care world has shifted. There are fewer traditional long‑term care only policies available now, and more hybrid life insurance policies with long‑term care riders.

Hybrid life and LTC in brief

With a hybrid policy:

• You have a permanent life insurance contract with a death benefit
• If you meet long‑term care criteria, you can access the death benefit while living to help pay for care
• If you never need long‑term care, your beneficiaries still receive the remaining death benefit

While Long-term Care only policies still provide the most comprehensive coverage, there are fewer carriers in that space, and the costs are higher. A hybrid policy can help address some level of long-term care and protect other assets that clients want their family to have. Additionally, clients often tell us the hybrid structure feels better than “pure” long‑term care, because they know someone will benefit from the premiums they are paying.

Who tends to benefit most from LTC planning

Very broadly:

• Households with very few assets may eventually rely on Medicaid
• Households with very high assets may choose to self‑insure
• Households in the middle to upper‑middle range often have the most to gain from shifting part of this risk to an insurer, especially if they want to protect a spouse or preserve assets for heirs or charity

Permanent insurance can also support specific estate goals, such as:

• Providing cash so heirs can maintain a farm, land, or business without needing to sell immediately
• Replacing assets you intend to leave to charity, so children or other beneficiaries still receive an inheritance

In these conversations, we are not just talking about numbers. We are talking about how you hope to age, who you want to protect, and what you want your legacy to feel like for the next generation.

Retirement and Beyond: Simplifying and Right‑Sizing

Once you are retired, your paycheck is usually replaced by Social Security, pensions, portfolio withdrawals, and possibly annuity income. That changes the job of insurance.

This is often the stage where people bring us a stack of old policies and say:

“We bought all of this over the years. How much of it do we actually still need?”

Disability insurance Disability insurance is there to replace earned income. If you are no longer working:

• There is no income to insure
• Most individual policies naturally end around age 65–67
• If you retired earlier, there is usually no need to keep paying for coverage

This is an easy win in a retirement insurance audit: confirm that disability coverage has ended or cancel it if it is no longer needed.

Life insurance

In retirement, each life insurance policy should have a clear role, such as:

• Providing income or a cushion for a surviving spouse
• Supporting specific legacy or charitable goals
• Providing long‑term care benefits via a hybrid policy

A simple test we use with retirees is to finish this sentence for each policy:

“This exists to…”

If you cannot give a clear answer, it may be time to reduce, reshape, or drop that coverage. We will often model side‑by‑side scenarios so you can see the impact of keeping versus simplifying different policies.

Medicare choices

Your choice between:

• Original Medicare plus Medigap and Part D, or
• Medicare Advantage

affects your out‑of‑pocket costs, provider flexibility, and how certain types of care are covered. Your Medicare decision is part of your broader protection plan. You can read more about how we think through those decisions here:

Medicare Decisions & Your Money: What To Review Before Open Enrollment https://www.onpurposefinancial.com/medicare-decisions-your-money-what-to-review-before-open-e nrollment/

Multi‑Generation Planning: Clarity For The Next Generation

Many people worry about estate taxes. Under current law, most families are far below the federal thresholds. For them, insurance strictly to pay the federal estate tax is usually unnecessary.

The more practical questions we talk through together are:

• Are beneficiary designations accurate and coordinated with your will or trust
• Are you leaving any assets that come with hidden burdens, for example, a property that needs cash to maintain it, without a plan to fund those needs
• Have you explained your intentions to the next generation, so they understand the “why” behind your choices

We want your planning to feel like a gift, not a puzzle, to the people who come after you.

How To Start Your 2026 Insurance Audit

If you are reading this and thinking, “We really should look at this, but I do not know where to start,” you are not alone. Here is a simple way to begin:

1. Gather your policies and benefits summaries: Employer coverage, individual life and disability policies, any long‑term care or hybrid policies, home/auto, and umbrella declarations.

2. Give each policy a one‑line job description: For each one, finish the sentence: “This exists to…” If you cannot do that in a clear sentence, that is a red flag.

3. Check for life‑stage fit

• Early career: Does it protect income, debts, and kids
• Mid‑career: Does it protect lifestyle and retirement
• Pre‑retirement: Does it address long‑term care and legacy questions
• Retirement: Does it still serve a specific purpose

4. Use trusted resources to fill in knowledge gaps

• We are ready to help you sort through the details and options. Call us at 770‑471‑6674.
• Official government sites for Medicare, long‑term care basics, and tax rules can provide neutral background information.

5. Decide what deserves a deeper, personal conversation: Complex health, business, or land, blended families, or larger legacy goals all benefit from a personalized plan, not rules of thumb.

A “life well planned” is not just about growth and returns. It is also about resilience. When something hard happens, the goal is for money to be a tool that helps you and the people you love get through it, not a second crisis on top of the first.

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Material Prepared by Tic Tac Toe Marketing, an independent third party. Any opinions are those of the author, are subject to change without notice and are not necessarily those of Raymond James. This material is being provided for information purposes only and does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material and does not constitute a recommendation. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Investing involves risk and investors may incur a profit or a loss regardless of strategy selected. Neither Raymond James Financial Services nor any Raymond James Financial Advisor renders advice on tax or legal issues, these matters should be discussed with the appropriate professional.