Life Insurance: It’s Not for You. It’s for Them.

As we enter fall, and Life Insurance Awareness Month ends, it’s a good time to think about life insurance and what it means for you and your family.

Life Happens, the annual organizer of Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM) has chosen the theme this year to help you focus on who life insurance is really meant to protect – your loved ones. While life insurance can’t replace a loved one, it can make the financial path easier for those left behind.

Think about the many ways you add value to your family. The obvious measure is income to pay bills and to fund a retirement plan. Think about the many other areas that you add value:

• Child care
• Volunteering at church or school
• Participating in children’s activities and clubs
• Helping with homework
• Driving kids
• Listening and giving a hug
• Organizing doctors’ visits, college visits, etc.
• Household and yard maintenance
• Cleaning
• Laundry
• Grocery shopping and meal preparation
• Paying bills
• And many more…

If you’re not here to help with these everyday activities, life insurance can help provide resources for a surviving loved one to outsource some of these services. Alternatively, they may be able to cut back on work hours or change careers to have more flexibility to be with the family.

According to the 2019 Insurance Barometer Study from Life Happens, more than half of Americans think life insurance costs three times more than it does.

According to my experience, most people don’t know how much insurance they should have. It’s not fun to think about, but it is an important part of your plan for “them”.