The Best Time to Review a Policy Is When You Don’t Have To
Most life insurance reviews begin with a problem. A death in the family. A tax question. A notice from the carrier that arrives out of nowhere. A conversation with an attorney that turns up something no one has looked at in years.
By then, the review is already happening under pressure.
The best time to review a policy is usually when there is no obvious reason to. June may be one of those times. Tax season is behind you, the year-end rush is still months away, and the picture of what you own, what you owe, and what sits in trust is as fresh as it gets all year.
The policy may sit exactly where it was ten years ago, but the plan around it almost never does. A business may have doubled in value. A child may have joined the company while another built a life elsewhere. An estate that once sat below the tax threshold may have grown past it. A trust may have been amended. A named beneficiary may have died.
None of these developments make the policy wrong. They make it worth reading against the plan you have now, rather than the plan you had when you bought it.
In this month’s blog, we explore the three questions a meaningful review should answer, and why finding something in June is better than finding it in December, and far better than finding it after a triggering event has already narrowed the options.
At C3 Financial Partners, we help families and business owners bring clarity to what their policies are actually doing, confidence that the coverage still fits the plan it was built to serve, and coordination with the other advisors responsible for keeping that plan intact.
A life insurance policy does not stand on its own. The best time to confirm it still fits is before something makes you check.
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From the Founder: Insights That Matter
Welcome back to From the Founder.
Todd Healy, Founder of C3 Financial Partners, brings over four decades of experience in guiding families and business owners through the complexities of wealth preservation and legacy planning. His reflections offer clarity, confidence, and coordination—the core principles that define our approach. Here’s what Todd has been thinking about lately:
Fifteen years ago, I learned that The American College of Financial Services had a designation called Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®). It was built to help financial advisors and nonprofit professionals work together on behalf of clients and donors trying to align their wealth with their values.
The idea fit something I had been thinking about for a long time.
Before entering financial services, I earned a Master of Social Work (UC Berkeley) and spent my early career in the nonprofit sector. The two worlds had more to teach each other than either side typically recognized.
The CAP® was a distance-learning program. Knowing that working collaboratively in a group would be better for me than self-study, I proposed the study group model to the College and asked a respected nonprofit leader in Dallas to help me get it started. We thought we might get ten or twelve people. More than thirty signed up. We had to run two groups the first year.
After the first year, and every year since, we have been fortunate to have CAPs® who completed the program step forward and facilitate the classes.
For many years, the program operated out of our office. Rebecca Bates, Executive Coordinator at C3FP, coordinated the entire process. As the program grew, Communities Foundation of Texas and The Dallas Foundation stepped in with the leadership and administrative support a study group of that scale needed.
As I’ve often said, who follows you is more important than who you follow. With that in mind, I asked Tommy McBride of Merrill Lynch to take over the group. Tommy is respected in both the wealth management and philanthropic worlds. He is the right person to carry it forward.
Looking back, hundreds of professionals have gone through the Dallas study groups. Lasting relationships have formed between nonprofit and financial advisors. Clients, donors, families, and charitable organizations have all benefited from the way those professionals learned to work together.
What started in Dallas spread well beyond our city. CAP® study groups formed around the country and borrowed pieces of the model we built in those early years.
Of everything I have done in this career, this work is among the most meaningful. It combined the parts of my life I cared most about, and it produced something that outlasted my direct involvement.
That is the measure I care about most.
— Todd Healy
Founder, C3 Financial Partners
You can follow Todd’s ongoing reflections and planning insights on LinkedIn here.
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This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation, offer, or solicitation to buy or sell any security or investment strategy. This information is not tax or legal advice. Consult your tax advisor or attorney regarding your specific situation.
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Securities offered through Valmark Securities, Inc., member FINRA, SIPC. Investment Advisory Services offered through Valmark Advisers, Inc. a Registered Investment Advisor, 130 Springside Drive, Suite 300, Akron, Ohio 44333-2431, 1.800.765.5201. C3 Financial Partners, LLC is a separate entity from Valmark Securities, Inc. and Valmark Advisers, Inc.
