People often shop for life insurance the way they shop for car – they look for the best package of options. They look at investment provisions, cash values, loan provisions, and a large enough death benefit to handle any potential outcome.
That’s noble, but it’s also complicated and expensive. And for that reason, many times they don’t purchase any life insurance at all.
But you should have life insurance coverage on everyone in your family, and even some people you have major financial arrangements with. You don’t need a complicated, expensive policy to get coverage. A small, term life policy will get the job done for a lot less money. And that’s much better than having no coverage at all.
“It’s Better to Have it and Not Need it, than to Need it and Not Have it”
I couldn’t locate the origin of that saying but it most definitely applies in the case of life insurance. People often fail to purchase or maintain life insurance because it has no immediate need. In fact, it’s a product that we hope that we’ll never need. But if the day comes that you actually do need it, then the need will be both substantial and immediate.
One of the inherent limitations with life insurance is that you can’t buy it only when you need it. And when you actually need it, it’s too late to buy it. It’s usually too late to buy it even when you discover that a person has a terminal illness; most insurance companies won’t issue a policy in such cases because of the high and immediate prospect of a payout.
Even if you don’t need it now, and even if you don’t think you’ll ever need it, you should have at least a small policy on everyone in your family, and on anyone with whom you have a significant financial relationship.
Not Thinking About the Death of a Loved One Doesn’t Remove the Possibility
It’s sometimes thought that to even think about the death of a loved one is to invite it happening. But life doesn’t work that way. It’s often said that the only guarantees in life are death and taxes, and that wisdom should never be forgotten when it comes to life insurance. We don’t like it but the reality is that each of us will die in our own time, and it doesn’t really matter if you or anyone else ever considered the possibility.
In fact, I usually consider the opposite to be true: what we’re prepared for is less likely to happen. We can even take it a step further and say that the biggest disasters in life are the ones that we’re not prepared for. And that’s what life insurance is all about – preparation. So we can prepare for a potential outcome, and then forget about it – it’s covered!
You’ll Have Enough on Your Plate if it Happens Without Having to Worry about Finances
Let’s imagine for a moment that the worst happens, and a loved one dies prematurely. Now let’s imagine that there was no life insurance on that person…how much worse will the situation be?
The death itself will be a tragedy on all fronts, especially the emotional side. But it also creates a financial hole, and that can become an unbearable burden.
When a loved one dies, you will have enough to worry about without concerning yourself with finances. But if you do have a life insurance policy on the person, even a small one, you will at least remove the money problems that the death will create.
You Might Not Have Other Resources – Or Other People – to Tap in a Time of Need
It might be that you don’t have insurance on a loved one because you have sufficient resources that you consider yourself to be self-insured. That is, you have the financial wherewithal to pay for your loved one’s final expenses.
That might be true, but have you considered the possibility that the loss of a loved one could put you in financial distress? That’s a possibility, not just because of the cost of final expenses, but also because the emotional toll from the death could very well impair your own ability to earn a living, or to make sound financial decisions.
If you are counting on the financial resources of friends and extended family in the unlikely event of the death of a loved one, it will be worse than a rude awakening to find out one of the following:
- They don’t have the financial resources that you thought,
- The help that they provide comes with strings attached, that you won’t be able to comply with,
- They outright refuse to help.
The whole purpose of life insurance is to 1) protect your own financial resources, and 2) to eliminate the need to rely on other people in the face of disaster. Even a small life insurance policy will help accomplish both goals.
Being Prepared Can Bring a Measure of Peace of Mind
The biggest life insurance policy you can afford can’t eliminate the stress of losing a loved one. But it can remove the financial stress that a death can cause to you and your family. It will bring you at least some measure of peace to know that you don’t have to worry about the finances.
We can’t prevent the death of a loved one, but we can use life insurance to at least soften the blow that it causes.
A Small Term Life Insurance Policy May be More Affordable than You Think
You should never take an all-or-nothing approach when it comes to life insurance. If cost is the primary reason why you don’t have a policy on a loved one, buy down to your level of affordability. Yes, a $200,000 policy may be the best of all worlds, but if $50,000 is all you can afford, then it’s far better than having no insurance at all.
You can get an inexpensive term life insurance policy, even one for an extended period of time (up to 30 years), that’s much less expensive than a whole life policy. You can often get that kind of coverage for just a few dollars a month.
Give us a call and let us help you to make sure that everyone in your family is covered with at least some life insurance. We can make it happen – it’s what we do!
