But you don’t have to jettison the entirety of the old policy. “Most clients think of this as an all-or-nothing type of scenario. It isn’t,” said Robert Peterson, senior wealth advisor at Crescent Grove Advisors in Lake Forest, Ill.
You could, for instance, replace only a portion of a life policy’s value, or transfer out chunks at a time as your needs change. “This may be appropriate if there are still valid benefits of the original contract, but things have changed for the client and they may not need the same benefits they originally intended,” he said.