Independent Insurance Review for Retirees
Independent insurance review for life, LTC, disability, and umbrella coverage. No product sales — fee-only fiduciary advice. Annapolis MD — virtual nationwide.
We sell no insurance. We take no commissions from any insurer, and our fee does not change based on what the review finds. That single fact changes how an insurance review reads, because most insurance reviews are sales presentations with a checklist stapled to the front.
Insurance in a retirement plan has one job: transfer the risks the portfolio should not absorb. Most households arrive carrying the wrong set. Policies bought for a life stage that ended years ago are still drafting premiums, while the risks that could actually unwind the plan, a long care event or a liability judgment, sit uncovered.
The review covers life insurance, long-term care funding, umbrella liability, existing annuity contracts, and disability coverage for a spouse still working. This is not for every household. If your coverage is simple and current, the review is short, and we will say so.
The review-not-sell model
A commissioned reviewer reliably discovers that you need whatever pays a commission. We removed that incentive. Compound Advisory is fee-only: we earn nothing when you buy a policy, nothing when you drop one, and nothing from any insurer, agency, or referral arrangement. The review's conclusions are just analysis.
When the review finds a genuine gap, we write the coverage specification: the type, the amount, the definitions that matter, and the features worth paying for. You take that specification to market, and we review the quotes that come back against it. We stay on your side of the table for the whole transaction.
Life insurance: the accumulation logic usually expires
Life insurance during working years exists to replace a paycheck for the people who depend on it. In retirement, the paycheck is gone by design, replaced by assets and income streams that do not die with you. For many retirees, the honest conclusion is that the original need has ended, and premiums now redirect money from living well toward solving a problem that no longer exists.
Some policies still earn their place. Permanent coverage can provide estate liquidity where the assets are illiquid, a business or a property portfolio. It can backstop a pension election with no survivor benefit. It can fund support for a dependent with special needs. And some older contracts carry guaranteed crediting rates strong enough that the policy is worth keeping as an asset on its own terms.
For policies that no longer fit, surrender is not the only exit and often not the best one. Outstanding loans, cost basis, and taxation of gains all shape the answer, and a 1035 exchange can move value into a better-suited contract without triggering current tax. We run that math before any policy is dropped.
Long-term care: three ways to fund it
Medicare does not pay for ongoing custodial care, and federal estimates suggest roughly 70 percent of people turning 65 will need some long-term care support during their lives. A multi-year care event in a private facility can run well into six figures per year. Every plan needs a written answer for this risk. There are three.
Traditional long-term care insurance buys the most coverage per premium dollar, but premiums are not fixed, and this generation of policyholders has seen meaningful increases. Hybrid policies pair care coverage with a life insurance benefit, so if care is never needed the household is not out the premiums entirely. The cost of that comfort is less coverage per dollar. Neither is automatically better. The right structure depends on how the household weighs premium risk against payout efficiency.
Self-insuring is the third path, and for households in the range we serve it is often viable. Viable is not the same as decided. Self-insurance done properly means naming the bucket: which assets get spent first if care begins, how they are invested for that job, and what the surviving spouse keeps if the bucket drains. We run that math under conservative assumptions, so self-insure does not remain a polite synonym for we never decided.
Sources: Medicare.gov: Long-term care coverage · ACL: How much care will you need?
Umbrella liability, sized to what you actually have
Umbrella liability coverage sits on top of home and auto policies and is designed to help protect accumulated assets from a claim that exceeds those underlying limits. It is inexpensive relative to the exposure it addresses, which is why the common failure is not owning none. It is carrying the same one million dollar umbrella bought fifteen years ago while net worth tripled.
We size the umbrella against current net worth and the household's actual exposure surface: teenage or elderly drivers, rental property, boats, a pool, board service, household employees. We also confirm the underlying auto and homeowner limits meet the umbrella carrier's requirements, because a gap there is a hole in the coverage stack. The review takes about an hour, and the fix is usually a phone call.
Sources: Insurance Information Institute: Umbrella liability policies
Annuity contract review, honestly
We rarely recommend buying annuities, and we have written publicly about why. Reviewing a contract you already own is a different question, and honesty cuts both ways: some existing annuities are worth keeping. Older contracts sometimes carry guaranteed minimum crediting rates well above anything available today. Income riders bought years ago may now be deep in the money. Surrender schedules burn off, which changes the exit math every year.
The review reads the actual contract: current surrender charge, rider fees against rider value, the tax consequence of surrendering, and what the same dollars could do elsewhere. When replacement makes sense, a 1035 exchange preserves tax deferral. When keeping makes sense, we say keep it, and we fold the contract's income into the plan. An honest review has no preferred answer.
Sources: SEC Investor.gov: Annuities
Disability coverage while one spouse still works
In many of the households we serve, one spouse has retired and the other is finishing peak earning years the plan depends on. Group long-term disability typically replaces around 60 percent of base salary, often with a cap, and the benefit is generally taxable when the employer pays the premium. Bonus, commission, and equity compensation are usually excluded entirely. For a high earner, the true replacement rate can sit far below what the plan assumes.
We test the plan against the larger paycheck stopping five years early. If the gap matters, supplemental individual coverage with an own-occupation definition can close it, and individually paid premiums generally make the benefit exempt from income tax when it arrives. If the assets already carry the risk, we document that and move on. Either way, the question gets answered on paper, not by luck.
Related Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you sell insurance or receive referral fees?
No. We sell no policies and receive no compensation from any insurer, agency, or broker. If the review finds a gap, we write the specification, you shop it, and we review the quotes that come back. Our advisory fee is the same whatever the review concludes.
Should I drop my life insurance now that I am retired?
Sometimes, and sometimes emphatically not. Coverage that existed to replace a paycheck often has no remaining job, but policies serving estate liquidity, a pension survivor gap, or a dependent with special needs, or carrying strong guaranteed rates, can be worth keeping. We run the numbers on the actual contract before recommending anything, including the tax consequences of every exit path.
Is long-term care insurance worth it for a household with several million dollars?
Often the honest answer is that self-insurance is viable, but viable only counts if it is documented: which assets fund care, how they are invested, and what the surviving spouse keeps. For some households, a hybrid policy is worth its cost to cap the tail risk. We run both paths under conservative assumptions and let the math decide.
I own an annuity I regret buying. Should I cash it out?
Not before the math. Surrendering can trigger income tax on the gain, with surrender charges on top. Some contracts are worth keeping for guaranteed rates or riders that are now valuable, and where replacement is justified, a 1035 exchange preserves tax deferral. Regret is not a strategy. The contract's actual terms are.
How often should coverage be reviewed?
A full review at the start of the relationship, then a check whenever the balance sheet or the household changes: a retirement date, a home purchase, a new driver, a business sale, an inheritance. Umbrella sizing in particular drifts out of date quietly as net worth grows. We revisit it as part of ongoing planning, not as a one-time event.