Next Wave Options
Independent life insurance and retirement income agency serving Salinas and Monterey County.
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Independent life insurance and retirement income agency serving Salinas and Monterey County.
Get a quote
Marina had 22,359 residents at the 2020 census, up from 19,718 in 2010, and the reason for that growth is unusual. Around 9,000 acres of the city was once Fort Ord, and it has been coming back into civilian use since the base wound down in the early 1990s, as habitat, as university land, and as new housing and light industry.
Two consequences show up in almost every conversation we have here. Households are often in newer homes with newer, larger mortgages. And the local job market was rebuilt from scratch after the base closed, so people's retirement savings are frequently scattered across several past employers.
Before it wound down, Fort Ord employed more than 17,000 active-duty personnel and nearly 5,000 civilians by 1986, and the total workforce exceeded 22,000 by 1991, around 15 percent of all employment in Monterey County. When 13,000 soldiers and family members were relocated in 1993, the local economy had to be rebuilt around education, tourism, retail and light industry instead.
That history is why so many Marina households have three or four old retirement accounts. If that is you, the useful first step is not a product, it is an inventory. Our 401(k) rollover options page sets out all four choices for an old plan, including leaving it exactly where it is, and our rollover rules page covers the deadlines and withholding that cause the tax bills.
A mortgage taken out in the last few years is usually larger than the one it replaced, and the household carrying it often has fewer years of payments behind it. That is the single most common reason a Marina family is underinsured relative to what they think they have.
The calculation itself is not complicated. Add what would have to be paid off, add the years of income a survivor would need, subtract what already exists in savings and existing coverage, and the difference is the gap. Our needs calculator does the arithmetic, and term insurance is usually the honest answer for a mortgage, because the need has an end date and term is priced accordingly.
What we will not do is steer you toward permanent insurance because the commission is larger. If mortgage protection is what you need, that is what we will price.
Marina's economy today is a mix rather than a single industry: tourism and hospitality, retail and food service, and the academic and administrative jobs created by CSU Monterey Bay on the former base land. Most of Marina sits inside Monterey Peninsula Unified, so district staff here are generally CalSTRS or CalPERS members depending on the role.
The split matters. Public-sector households usually have a pension and the question is what, if anything, needs to sit on top of it. Private-sector households in hospitality and retail often have no employer plan at all, and the question is where to start. Those are different conversations and we do not run them from the same script.
People sometimes arrive having been told an annuity is the answer to an old 401(k). Occasionally it is, for the narrow job of covering essential expenses that Social Security and a pension do not. More often it is not. A contract locks money up behind a surrender schedule for years, limits what you can withdraw each year without a charge, and on indexed contracts caps what gets credited. Our annuities page puts the disadvantages first for exactly that reason, and we would rather talk you out of an oversized one than sell it.
Start with an inventory, not a product. Each plan has four options: leave it, move it to a new employer's plan, roll it to an IRA, or cash it out, which is almost always the worst of the four. We will list what you have and what each one costs before anything moves.
Enough to clear the balance, plus the years of income a survivor would need, minus what you already have. For a mortgage specifically, term insurance usually fits, because the need ends when the loan does and term is priced for that.
Almost all of Marina is inside Monterey Peninsula Unified, which also covers Monterey, Del Rey Oaks, Sand City and Seaside. If you work for the district, your pension and your 403(b) options come from that.
No. There is no fee for reviewing your plan documents, running the needs calculation or explaining your options. We are paid by the insurance company if you buy a policy through us, and nothing changes about your premium either way.
Yes, if the plan allows it, and it is often a good answer. Employer plans carry strong federal creditor protection, and a plan with good low-cost funds can be hard to beat. Leaving it is a real option, not a placeholder.
Yes. A mortgage is one reason to buy coverage, not the only one. Replacing income for children or a partner, and covering final expenses, matter just as much for renters.
Ready to talk it through? No cost, no obligation, in English or Spanish.
Schedule a CallReviewed by Roberto Morales, California Insurance License #0G97165. Next Wave Options is licensed for life and annuity products only and does not provide investment, tax or legal advice.
