The carrier’s 401(k) is a start. It was never the whole plan.
Company drivers get the paperwork version of a retirement plan: a 401(k) with a match, a group life certificate worth a year’s pay, and a total-rewards PDF nobody reads at 2 a.m. in a sleeper cab. Take the match — always, first, every dollar of it. That part is free money and we will never tell you otherwise.
The gaps are what nobody mentions: group life that vanishes when you change carriers (and drivers change carriers), a 401(k) that taxes every withdrawal as ordinary income and forces them at 73, and zero protection for the scenario that actually ends driving careers — the medical one. That’s the layer CentraLife designs.
Capture the match, then structure the rest
Dollars above the match don’t have to follow the same tax-deferred path. Routed into a cash-value design, they grow with a 0% floor and come back tax-advantaged under IRC §72(e) — retirement income the IRS isn’t waiting on. Run the comparison yourself on our IUL vs 401(k) calculator.
Own your coverage — carriers change
Group life dies at the terminal gate when you switch carriers, and re-upping at 45 costs what it costs. A personally-owned policy is carrier-proof: same coverage, same premium, whoever’s name is on the truck.
Protect the house against the real risk
Mortgage protection designed right guarantees the house is paid off — and its living benefits pay during the injury or illness that takes you off the road, which is far more common than the worst case.