You probably don't need to be reminded that there are an assortment of investment and savings vehicles available to you. This planning pyramid demonstrates how these choices should be used in conjunction to achieve a balanced financial standing.

If all of your assets were invested at the top of the pyramid, your plans would become unstable. If all of your assets were invested at the bottom of the pyramid, you wouldn't be giving enough attention to your accumulation goals.

Personal Planning Pyramid

• A solid financial plan is based on a strong foundation of protection and savings.

• Portfolio diversification is fundamental to a comprehensive plan and may reduce risk.

• Proper risk management is essential to securing your financial future and accomplishing your accumulation goals.

Proper risk management is essential to securing your financial future. Insurance is an integral part of establishing a safety net, should something unforeseen occur. It provides protection against life events that could significantly impact your financial well being.

Life insurance is unique in that it can be an effective tool for both protection and accumulation. While it does provide a death benefit, some types of life insurance can also be used as a source of retirement income, funding for a child's education, or as a source of cash in an emergency. Policy loans or partial surrenders will decrease the cash value and have a significant impact on your policy's performance and future dividends. Should you die before the loan is paid off, any outstanding balance and interest will be deducted from the death benefit. Tax consequences may also apply.

Looking at the planning pyramid, you can see that life insurance is not the only type of protection to consider when building your foundation. Because of its lifetime benefits, life insurance is arguably one of the most important types of protection to have.

The stage of life you are in and the needs you have affect what kinds of insurance you will want to purchase. The whole point of insurance is looking to the future, admitting it is unpredictable, and acquiring protection against what may come.

There are multiple forms of insurance; life, disability, long-term care, all of which have a place in the foundation of a financial pyramid.

How solid is your financial foundation? Do you need to look into additional types of insurance? An honest assessment of your needs can protect you against any multitude of emergencies and catastrophes.

Discuss which forms of insurance are right for you, and in what proportion, with a Northwestern Mutual Financial Network Representative.