It's a question more and more than just a question. It's 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith & Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, our guests Cassie and Rick Lehman with LightPoint portfolios were pioneers in the faith based investing movement.
They recently celebrated 25 years of helping believers invest in God's kingdom. Cassie, Rick, great to have you here. Great to have you with us.
Thanks Rob. We're super excited to be here. Yes.
Thank you for having us. We'll talk about how folks can get involved with faith-based investing today. But first, Cassie and Rick, I'd love to hear the story about how you got involved and the impact that even had on your relationship. Yeah. So Rob, I was first introduced to faith-based investing by Art Alley, whom we all know is the founder of the Timothy Plan.
I'd run into Art in 1998, believe it or not, at a promise keepers convention over in St. Petersburg. Okay. And we got to talking and he very directly asked me, he said, Rick, do you know what you're investing your client's money in? And of course I didn't. I had no response for him and really I didn't know what he was talking about.
And frankly, as a newly recommitted Christian, I had no idea what the Bible had to say about money in those early years, nor did I really understand the implications of stock ownership. And as it would have it, I ran into Art yet again, a few months later at an industry event. And he looked me straight in the eye and asked me that very same question.
And it was then and there that I knew that I better have an answer. So I began on my journey with faith-based investing and after about six months of doing some investigation, I prayerfully committed to making faith-based investing the focus of our practice. And then if you really fast forward a few years later, Rick and I met at an industry conference also. And at that time, I had grown up in the church, but I had been away from the church for about 20 years, and Rick kept talking to me about biblically responsible investing and how God wants us to invest our money. And honestly, I was pretty skeptical, I wasn't that interested, but he was enthusiastic and he was very persistent about, you know, I really needed to learn about this.
And I'm so grateful that he was. Because of this, I started going back to church and reading the Bible and ultimately recommitting my life to Christ. And so in the end, I also married Rick. And so it was a pretty impactful experience.
And a couple of years after that, I wrote about that experience and how we look at faith-based investing in a book where I share my story called I Found Jesus in the Stock Market. Rob, we call that our marriage and acquisition. Yes, exactly.
Who knew? Right. Oh, that's incredible. That's a great story. Well, how have you all seen since the very early days, this movement grow and change over the years? Because I know God has been moving in your company and this whole industry is flourishing. Yes, indeed. So when I first got started, there were literally fewer than a half dozen funds to choose from. And of course, that made building a well-rounded portfolio very challenging. And thankfully today, there are several dozen fund companies out there offering quality faith-based investing options and individual stock and bond portfolios. And so in terms of how God was moving in our company and in my heart in particular, as our conviction grew over the years, we determined, and I believe it was 2000, that this would be the only way that we would serve our clients, and that is by investing in God-honoring investments.
Yeah, that's incredible. Well, we've got a lot more to unpack here after the break. We're going to talk about Lightpoint Portfolio Solutions and how they help believers align their investments with Christian values. We'll also talk about perhaps the future of faith-based investing. Where is it all heading and what opportunities exist for you to align your values with your investments? I'm joined today by Cassie and Rick Lehman with Lightpoint Portfolios, an underwriter of this program, back with more on faith-based investing just around the corner. And it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. Stay with us.
We'll be right back. And to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live, I'm Rob West, your host. Joining me today, Cassie and Rick Lehman with Lightpoint Portfolios, an underwriter of this program. Just before the break, they were talking to us about some of the early days of faith-based investing and their journey in it. I'd love to know, Cassie, a little bit about Lightpoint Portfolio Solutions and specifically how you help believers align their investments with their Christian values.
Sure. Well, as you can imagine, in the beginning, when Rick was putting together these portfolios, we just used them with our own clients. But as you know, in Kingdom Advisors, there used to be a group that was specifically dedicated to biblically responsible investing, and both Rick and I served as leaders of that group for a number of years. And during those times, we realized that there was this great need from advisors to have fully managed faith-based portfolios. So a lot of times it's hard for individual advisors to do this on their own.
They don't have the resources, they don't have the time. And so what they said was, wow, what if there were some portfolios that were already put together and I could just use those portfolios? And so Rick really had the vision that this is a way that we could help other advisors to do faith-based investing. So we hired our chief investment officer, Hilary Sunderland. We now have a whole investment team. And we really thought that bringing these portfolios to other advisors was a way of igniting a movement of faith-based investing. So as a company, we feel like every Christian should be given the opportunity to invest this way.
And I can explain kind of what our perspective is on screening. But in the end, it's aligning your finances with biblical principles. And so this was a way for us to not only do this with our own clients, but also with other advisors who could then use these portfolios with their clients. And it's exciting to see how it is spreading across the financial services industry as more and more advisors bring this into their practices so they can serve their clients based on their clients' convictions and the alignment of investments, the deployment of capital with their deeply held values and priorities as believers.
So Rick, let's pick up there then, what suggestions do you have for investors, perhaps those in our listening audience today who are concerned that they might be investing in things that are misaligned with their Christian values? So the first thing I would say is it's very important to know what you own inside of your portfolio. And so I would suggest that if they share in these concerns, that they ask their advisor, if they have the tools to screen those current portfolio holdings, so they will know exactly what they own. If not, they can contact us and our team would be happy to provide a comprehensive screening audit using the four database providers that we subscribe to. Hmm.
Yeah, that's great. And perhaps just leaning into that a bit more, when we talk about an audit of a portfolio, what does that actually look like to do this type of screening that might interest a Christian investor? Yeah, so as Rick talks about knowing what you own, it's something that a lot of individuals don't think about. I certainly didn't think about it, even as an advisor, was what you invest in. You are saying, oh, I want this to do better.
I want it to grow. I want to make money from this. So sometimes investors are surprised that they may be investing in things like abortion, pornography, adult entertainment, or addictions like alcohol, tobacco, and gambling, things that are harmful to people. And this is surprising. It's because they've never thought about it before. So when we look at this type of a portfolio audit, we are saying, let's look at the kind of business practices you're invested in.
And a lot of times people will say, hey, is there a better way? And that's when we start to talk about things like positive impact, about companies that are curing diseases. They have great services and products. They take good care of their employees. They're making the world safer. We like to think about it in terms of human flourishing. So it's really starting with that first audit that opens someone's eyes to say, this is where my money is now, but I'd like to learn about a better way.
Yeah. And that's really exciting. Obviously, this whole space is continuing to grow and develop. So Cassie, as you look to the future, what gives you hope as you look at the faith-based investing movement and perhaps the opportunities that exist down the road? I think the thing that I am most excited about, Rob, is really the work that Kingdom Advisors is doing around highlighting faith-based investing, about educating advisors, and also the work that you're doing at FaithFi to educate your listeners about what it means to align biblical values with their finances.
So the word is getting out, and people are starting to understand this, and we're really building a movement. And so in terms of opportunities for the future, as more clients are asking for solutions, more fund companies and money managers are creating those new solutions. And I just want to put in a little plug that if you have not had this conversation with your financial advisor, sometimes they don't even know that it's important to you as an investor.
So I really want to encourage you to have those conversations. And one other great opportunity in this space is really in the retirement plan space. So in the last few years, we created the Kingdom K for business owners and the Kingdom B for nonprofits and churches, which are retirement plans, and this gives individuals more of an opportunity to align their investments with biblical values in their employer plans. Yeah, and that's a great new addition to this space. Cassie and Rick, obviously one of the questions that comes up on the part of investors when they hear about this is, wow, I'm excited to align my values with my investments. Does that automatically mean I have to sacrifice returns?
What would you all say to that? I would say absolutely not. Certainly in the long term. In the short term, there could be some variability in returns, but over a time horizon or five years or more, experience of 25 years, and many studies also show that there's no appreciable difference in performance between a faith-based portfolio and a non-screen portfolio.
Yeah, that's really helpful. And then Cassie, for someone who's in a retirement plan at work, what should they look for if they're wanting to incorporate these types of options? Are you seeing these faith-based investing funds being added to traditional retirement plans?
Yes, that has happened. And so one of the things that they can do is go to, if it's human resources or whoever's in charge of their retirement plan, and share this with them and let them know that this is a request that they have. So the individual funds can be added to the plan, or the way that we do it, we put in our entire faith-based portfolios into the plan. And sometimes it's just a matter of asking them, you know, they can have a conversation with us to say, you know, is this a change that would make sense? You know, if you have a Christian nonprofit or a church or a Christian business owner, it makes a lot of sense to offer this to your employees, because it's just aligning your values in all aspects of your life. Yeah, that's really exciting.
Well, Cassie, Rick, how can listeners learn more about faith-based investing? Well, we'd love them to stop by our website at lightpointportfoliosolutions.com, and they can learn more about all the things that we talked about today. Awesome. Well, thank you both for stopping by and sharing your story, but also some of the exciting developments in this space. We appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much, Rob. Certainly been a pleasure. That's Cassie and Rick Layman with Lightpoint Portfolios.
Again, you can learn more at lightpointportfoliosolutions.com. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. We'd love to hear from you with a few lines open. The number to call is 800-525-7000.
Our team is standing by. Let's begin today in Pennsylvania. Hi, Nancy. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.
Thanks for taking my call. I have about six years ago, I took a Bank American credit card, and I've been paying all my monthly bills on that, and I received reward money, and I now have $3,000 in reward money. I heard a rumor that the government is looking to tax that. They're figuring out how to tax the reward money.
Have you heard anything about that? Well, you know, if the reward is an incentive, Nancy, for opening the account or perhaps referring someone else who opens an account, and it didn't require spending any money, the IRS views that as taxable income, and the way you would know that is you would get a 1099-MISC, which stands for miscellaneous income, and then you would need to report it and pay taxes on it, even if it's less than $600. But the kind of reward you're describing is not taxable.
So these are cash-back rewards, and these are basically viewed as the IRS as a rebate, and therefore it's not taxable income. So you should not have to pay any taxes on that money, and the fact that you've been letting it accrue doesn't change anything, so you can either apply it to your statement balance or have that, you know, transfer that to your checking account or something like that. Yeah, I have it transferred to a savings account with them, but it's not drawn on anything. I just had opened up a Capital One online savings after hearing that you guys say it's important to do that.
I do have an account that's on PayMe 4.0, and that savings account I'm considering moving it over there. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. All right, thanks. I'm glad to hear. All right, Nancy, thanks for calling today. We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.
Let's head to Kansas. Hi, Gail. How can I help you?
Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call, and thank you for your program. It's so informative. I've learned so many things that may or may not have applied to me, but it's just expanded my knowledge. So thank you. Well, thank you.
I appreciate it. My question is regarding document retention, specifically income tax returns and all the supporting documents that go along with that. I've done a little research, and basically I'm getting some similar information, some conflicts. My concern is that my husband was self-employed for 30 years, he's retired now, but we have all kinds of documents and receipts and spreadsheets and everything that supports the claims that we've made. We also have done some real estate investing, where we've done some flipping, where we've done rentals. We have this year divested ourselves of our last real estate. We are so excited that we're out of the business, but anyway, we're just wondering if there are any of these situations that would warrant holding on to documents longer.
My husband is concerned if we were ever concerned of submitting fraudulent returns that if we've shredded everything, we wouldn't have any proof. Yeah. Yeah.
Very good. The seven-year rule is really supported pretty widely. It's considered sufficient even based on guidance from the IRS in terms of saving income tax documents. It's not a bad idea to keep real estate documents forever. I mean we're talking about deeds, that type of thing, since a litigation could come after several years. But any supporting documentation with regard to the taxes you paid and justifying deductions and expenses and so forth, seven years really is the timeframe that is recommended beyond that. There really is not a need to keep anything beyond seven years. But again, if it's purchased property, you want to be able to show the amount you originally paid for it. You would keep those documents forever. If you did not file a return each year, obviously you'd need to keep records indefinitely.
But beyond that, establishing the original cost basis and deeds, important filing documents like that, anything that's just establishing the taxes that you owe, really that seven-year limit is sufficient. Okay. Very good. May I ask one other question then?
Of course. I have two teenage granddaughters and I've made some comments about credit score and they'll say, what's a credit score? And I'm beginning to think that we need to try to help them learn some things about money management while they're still at home and in high school. Do you have any resource that you would recommend that I could use to help them?
Yeah, that's a great question. So I would love to see you begin to help them understand not only the financial literacy side, but in addition to that, really God's perspective on handling money and these themes and principles we see in God's Word. I'd love to send you a book that perhaps reading it with them could be a great way to get them going in the right direction. It's a new book out from Focus on the Family. It's called Trusted and it's around preparing your kids for a lifetime of God honoring money management. We'll put that in the mail to you.
It's by my friend Matt Bell and it'll be our gift to you. But I think that could be a great resource to get you going in the right direction. I agree, Gail. This is really important, you know, as we begin to prepare these future adults not only to understand the dangers of debt and the value of hard work and that money is limited and therefore we need a spending plan and a budget to show restraint and that we should give generously because that breaks the grip of money over our lives, but also the bigger idea that God owns it all and therefore we're stewards of God's resources and that really he gives resources to us. Ultimately, our purpose is for generosity based on what we see in Scripture and you beginning to teach and model and train to these ideas I think is really critical to set them up for a lifetime of success in terms of understanding what it means to live free and content and generous lives. So stay on the line, we'll get your information and we'll put this book in the mail to you. Again, it's called Trusted by Matt Bell, preparing your kids for a lifetime of God honoring money management. Thanks for being on the program today and for your kind remarks, Gail, we appreciate it.
800-525-7000, give us a call. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host.
This is where we apply the wisdom from the Bible to your financial decisions and choices. We'd love to hear from you today. Let's head right back to the phones to Lake Worth, Florida.
WRMB. Hi, Sandra. Go right ahead. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Thank you for all of the knowledge that you provided. I really appreciate that and I do apply some of them that I remember, but anyway, let me ask my question.
Sure. I've been filing tax for a while now, but this year I filed my tax and my tax was rejected. It told me because it shows that I have insurance with the government through Obamacare, which I never do. I never apply for any health insurance through the government. I have insurance through my job. I just don't know what to do. I've been calling R.I.S., but I can't find anybody to talk with, so I don't know what else to do.
I called up the insurance place, it's called Market Place. They told me that they're going to put in an investigation, but that's all they told me. I haven't heard anything yet. Interesting. Okay.
Yeah, I would definitely get some professional assistance with that. You know, I'm a little confused by that. I mean, normally when we hear about this, somebody's surprised by a rejection, a lot of times it's because they're saying they've already received a return. Unfortunately, this is on the rise and that would be where somebody steals your Social Security number and files a fraudulent return to receive your refund. And then when you try to file e-file, it would be rejected. But you know, if that's not the case and there's another reason why the return is being rejected, it's probably because there's a missing form on there, you know, failure to report health coverage will result in a rejected return and that might be what's going on here. So did you file this yourself or did you have somebody do that for you?
No, I went to professionals. They always file my tax every year. I've been filing with them for like five years now and that's the first time this happened. And she asked me, do I have health insurance with the government and I told her no. So that's one of the benefits of using somebody to file on your behalf is that you can chase down these problems and let them do the work for you and find out why it was rejected and what the issue is and get this resolved. So I would just wait for her to get the information for you and she should be able to help you rectify the situation. That's why I call you guys because she told me she can't, I'm the one I have to do the research.
So thank God you guys answered me. Well, I appreciate it. Unfortunately, I'm not a CPA and I wouldn't be able to do this digging for you. You really need somebody who can take the rejection information and help you understand exactly why it was rejected and if there's something that's incorrect with regard to why the government is saying they can't, why the IRS is saying they can't accept it, what you need to do to rectify it and unfortunately that's not something we can do over the radio. That really requires a tax professional.
So I would kick this back to them and say, listen, this is why I'm paying you. I need you to help me resolve this. Where do I go from here to be able to prove whether or not this rejection is appropriate and get this rectified. If you need a second opinion, you can reach out to a certified kingdom advisor in your area and you can find one on our website at faithfi.com. I'm sorry though, Sandra.
I know this is frustrating and hopefully with some help of a competent professional, you can get to the bottom of it. We appreciate your call today. Let's head to Chicago. Hi Debbie. Go right ahead. Hi.
I had a question. If you're going to buy a car, is it better to borrow money out of your 401k or when you can take a loan out and that way you're paying back interest to yourself or is it best to let that money keep working for you towards your retirement and just get a car loan? Even though rates are up right now on loans, I still like the idea of you borrowing for the car purchase as little as you possibly can, paying it off as quick as you can, but not taking it from the 401k. I understand why that might sound appealing because as you said, you're taking your own money out. You can put it back in through paying it back and you're paying interest to yourself. The problem is the whole idea of putting it in there is so that it can be growing for the future, so you're missing out on that compounded growth while the money's out. Not only that, but right now you're pulling it out during a time when the market's down and we don't know when it's going to recover, but you want that money in there so that it can recover when the market does, even though it will likely go down more before it goes up. And then thirdly, if for some reason, for any reason you separated from the company, now all of a sudden that's all taxable to you plus a penalty if you're less than fifty nine and a half.
So I think for those reasons, as much as I don't like to pay any interest, I would borrow the money collateralized by the car itself and then just try to pay it back as quick as you can. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Very good. We appreciate your call.
To Zephyr Hills, Florida. Hi Nancy. Go right ahead. Hi Rob. So I'm calling because I have a question regarding retirement and Social Security. I work for the federal government and because of the windfall tax profit, they take my Social Security at a rate of, I think, two thirds. And I've talked to people and they get like twelve hundred dollars a month, Social Security, and I was giving two dollars a month.
So I'm like, something's not right here. And I went to the Social Security office. They reviewed my case. They said, oh, well, you can't have two pensions from the government. And because I'm getting a retirement pension, they say, I can't pursue the Social Security allotment. Yeah.
So I'm hoping for half of you could shine some. Well, no, the only way that you could have this reversed is if you are not eligible for another pension. But if you are eligible for another pension, then unfortunately, that windfall elimination provision is going to apply, usually cutting the benefits in half or perhaps even more. And it comes from working for the federal government or another state or local government where you are eligible for another pension. And they then limit your ability to earn Social Security because of that. So if, in fact, you do have that other pension, then there's not going to be another way around this, unfortunately. Even though I paid into the system, forty quarters working outside of the government as well. Yeah. I don't understand, you know, it's like somebody who didn't work with the federal government, they're doing their full Social Security amount and they have their forty quarters in. But because I worked for the federal government, they take it, they take two-thirds of my Social Security. Right.
Right. And it's because, yeah, this other pension that's available through the work that you did, and I understand the frustration there, but they're only going to give you one or the other, unfortunately. So I think, you know, if you feel like, you know, something's not right, you can obviously go in and see if you could get somebody face to face and try to understand a bit more. But unfortunately, if that other pension is available, they're not going to give you both as much as I wish I had better information for you.
I'm so sorry to hear your situation, Nancy. We do appreciate you being on the program today and may God bless you in the days ahead. Well, folks, a lot more to come here in our final segment just around the corner. We do have some lines open, perhaps room for one or two more questions.
The number to call is 800-525-7000. By the way, if you haven't checked out the Faithfi app, we'd love for you to do that. You can learn more and download it today at faithfi.com. What will you find? We have broadcast archives as well as all of our content, what we believe is the best content articles, videos, podcasts, and biblical finance, all right there in the palm of your hand, plus our Faithfi community, where folks are asking questions, getting answers every day, stewards just helping each other on their journey. You'll find it at faithfi.com.
Just click app. Much more to come. Stay with us. Hey, great to have you with us today. Let's head right back to the phones. We'll get to as many questions as we can here in this final segment.
To New York we go. Hi, Judy. Go right ahead. Yes. Hi, Rob. I listen to your program every day. Please continue the good work that God has called you to. Yes.
I would like for you to guide me. I have one daughter, and I figure I'll make it simple for her, so I did a quitclaim and put her name on the deed, and I put her at the beneficiary for all my bank accounts and my life insurances, just to make it simple for her. Then I listened to you. I heard I should have done a trust fund for her so that she didn't have to pay taxes on the condo. Am I right? Yeah, and so you've already done the quitclaim deed, is that right? That's right.
Yeah. Yeah, the challenge with that is then she is going to inherit your cost basis, which basically just means once she goes to sell the property, either after your life or you all decide to sell it together, but let's say she holds onto it and somewhere down the road after you've gone home to be with the Lord, she sells it. The capital gains is going to be determined based on your original purchase price. If you would have passed it to her through an inheritance, whether that's through a trust or just a basic will or a transfer on death deed, then she gets the stepped up basis. So the cost basis for determining capital gains would be stepped up to the market value as of the date of your death.
So unfortunately, when you do that quitclaim deed, that's going to mean that she inherits your cost basis, so she'll just have some additional taxes to pay when she sells it. That's the reason why we typically don't want to do that. But if that's already done, then that's kind of behind us. And I think from this point forward, as you've been doing, just make sure all your will is current, your beneficiaries are current, and then you're ready whenever the Lord takes you home, you'll efficiently pass the rest of your assets to her. Great. I was avoiding the will, but from talking to you, I'm going to do a will. Yeah.
Okay. Unfortunately, I'm not sure you could talk to a real estate attorney and see if there's any way to unwind that, but I'm afraid that since you've already quitclaim deeded this property over to her, she's now a 50% owner or whatever percent you gave her. And again, that inherits your original cost basis.
But for any of these types of issues as you make your wealth transfer plans, always good to get the counsel of an attorney. So hopefully that helps you. We appreciate your call, Judy. Thanks for your kind remarks and for listening to the program every day.
We appreciate it. To Ohio, Mary Ann, go right ahead. Hi, I have income checks coming to me about $15,000. And I wanted to know what would be the best way to make more money off of it.
I don't know about CDs or mutual funds or bonds or anything like that. Sure. So do you already have, Mary Ann, what I call an emergency fund, a liquid savings account of three to six months expenses?
No, sir, but I've heard you talk about it. Okay. I think that's probably the place to start, which means I wouldn't invest this money, meaning I wouldn't put it in stocks and bonds and try to grow it.
Because with that, you really only want to do that if you have a long time horizon. And if we don't have an emergency fund, that's the place to begin. Now, this is good news that you've got this money coming to you, and it'd be a great way to get that emergency fund started. So what I would do is, when it comes in, I'd go ahead and open a high-yield savings account, probably with an online bank.
You could use Marcus or Capital One 360, or if you wanted a bank that aligned with your Christian values, you could use the Christian Community Credit Union at joinchristiancommunity.com. But you would link that to your checking account and then go ahead and move this over. Let's call this the beginning of your emergency fund with a goal of getting this to three to six months expenses.
And then when the unexpected comes, this is what you use to fall back on so you don't have to borrow anything. And if this isn't equal to three to six months expenses, you could keep building this up. With additional funds, that's where you'd want to invest, where you've got truly a minimum of a 10-year time horizon. I'd probably start with a company-sponsored retirement plan.
If you don't have one, you could use a Roth IRA, but that's how I would approach this $15,000. Does that make sense? Yes. With the Roth IRA, what do they usually yield?
They don't yield anything. So the Roth IRA is just simply the type of account. So you have a joint account with you and a spouse.
You'd have an individual account. And then a Roth IRA is an account category that's a retirement account, and it basically allows for you to put in after-tax dollars, up to $6,500 a year under age 50, and then invest that inside the Roth. So you put in cash, and then once it's in there, you can choose whatever investments you want, CDs, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds. And as those investments grow inside the Roth IRA, then they're not affected by the taxes. And then when you pull the money out, including all the gains, it's tax-free, as long as you do it after age 59-and-a-half, and as long as the account's been open for at least five years. So the Roth doesn't have a yield. Again, that's just the account type. It really has to do with what investments you put inside of it. All right, are there any Certified Kingdom Advisors in this area?
There probably are. I would say, though, if you're just getting started, you're probably not going to be able to work with a Certified Kingdom Advisor, just because their typical minimums are a little higher than for someone who's just getting started. So what I would probably do is check with our friends at soundmindinvesting.org. They can help you with some investment strategies, make some mutual fund selections that would be helpful to you. Again, soundmindinvesting.org. The other thing I would mention to you, Mary Ann, is if all of this money is coming as a tax refund and you're getting $15,000 back, that's an interest-free loan that you made to the government for a year with a lot of money. And I'd much prefer to see you get that into your monthly paycheck and get that refund down as close to zero as possible. And that means you need to update your W-4 form. And there's a formula on the form that'll tell you how to fill it out. But there's no sense in letting the government hold on to that money to you.
I'd rather that be in your check every month so you can use it to fund your long-term investments or your savings, things like that. Hopefully that helps you. We appreciate your call today. Let's head to Lanie in Chicago. Go right ahead.
Yes, I have a question. I live on the north side, I'm 65. And I paid into an insurance, life insurance, first with term and then went to hold. And that insurance company went out of business without letting me know. I never got any policy or my book back or payment. I was just switched back and forth.
And I had that ever since I was 14, I'm 65, but nowhere to be buried. Yeah. And so you're wondering what to do about the policy, is that right? I don't have any, the person took everything, the policy, the books, and they just went out of business. I contacted the attorney general's office, they said that they don't deal with individual cases, it's normally businesses. They recommend that I get a private attorney, which I'm on a fixed income and I have no other income.
So again, I'm a little confused as to what's happened here. So was this a whole life policy that had some cash value that built up in it? It was a term life when I was 14, I paid until I was 26 and then it went whole life. And now I'm 65, they took my money all the way up to, I would say now, and now they went out of business and I was told they went out in 2016 just finding this out. And I have no way of contacting anyone. They went into another, under another name.
The agent told me that there was nothing I could do, it was like bragging. Did you talk, so policies are insured by the state guarantee association fund in the state of Illinois, that's going to be the IHIGA, it's the Illinois Life and Health Insurance Guarantee Association. Is that who you contacted? Hello?
Yes, ma'am, can you hear me? I didn't get the other part, life and guarantee. Yes, so visit this website to learn more and perhaps this could give you some next steps. It's IHIGA.org, that's IHIGA.org, that's the guarantee association there in the state of Illinois that guarantees these policies and it should be insured up to $300,000 in death benefits, although that's not an issue here, but also up to $100,000 in cash surrender or withdrawal values. So again, that's IHIGA.org, Laney, I know this is frustrating, I hope that can help you get some answers, we appreciate your call today.
Let's see, to Jupiter, Florida, hi Diane, go ahead. Hi, I'm researching possible life insurance policies to pay off my mortgage for my children at the time of my death. I re-financed it a couple years ago, I have $153,000 on it, but I just turned 74 a couple of weeks ago. So everyone that's been quoting me prices for a 10 year, of course it's going to be pricey because I'm older, so 240 to 300 a month. Would it be wiser for me to take that money because in a couple of months I'm getting a small inheritance, which I'm going to wipe out all my credit cards, would it be better to use that money instead of using for insurance company, use it and put it down on the principal on the house?
Absolutely, yes. There's not a reason for insurance here. The reason we have life insurance is to offset a risk, a loss of income or a hardship that would be placed on our loved ones at our death, that's not going to be the case here. If your kids inherit the house and there's still a mortgage on it, they'll sell the house and use the proceeds to pay off the mortgage and then they can split the rest.
So you paying an exorbitant amount for life insurance at your age for a death benefit to cover a mortgage that already has some equity in it, there's really not a benefit to do that. I think you take this money and put it towards shoring up your own financial foundation. I completely agree, Diane. Thanks for your call today. God bless you. That's going to do it for us. We're so thankful you're with us today. Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith by We'll See You Tomorrow. God bless you.
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