By: Mark D. Milbrod, CLU, CLTC
Vice President, ASG
People are generally averse when it comes to discussing the purchase of life insurance. Let’s face it, it’s not a comfortable conversation to have. Being forced to peer into our mortality can turn anyone away.
People simply don’t want to talk about it. There can be several reasons that make someone not want to purchase or not want to talk about it. After all, we’re all going to live forever.
The fact is that S@@t Happens. Life’s what-ifs have their way of rearing its ugly head. People do get sick, accidents do happen and often we hide secrets.
I can’t tell you how many times we talked to a surviving spouse who had no idea about the finances and just didn’t know where to pick up the pieces after the loss of a major breadwinner and head of a household.
Often times one spouse controls the bills and finances and unbeknownst to the survivor, there are those secrets/messes left behind… The huge loan that was not known about, the business agreement made or worse yet, the lack of savings. The surviving spouse and kids can learn the hard way (and at the worst possible time), that these things existed.
Two situations come to mind…
We were handling a death claim for an insured. He was 55, married, and had two kids in college. His income was $125,000/year and his spouse was only making $35,000/year. He had a $250,000 life insurance policy. As it turns out, the family had minimal savings, heavy debt, and limited retirement assets. The wife had no idea of the amount of debt they carried, nor the lack of retirement savings. This scenario resulted in the selling of their home, the kids not being able to finish college in their current schools, and overall changed this family’s lifestyle for the worse.
Another situation involved a 44-year-old insured. He was married with two small children, ages 8 & 10. In this case, there was no life insurance other than a small $20,000 group benefit through his employer. There was also a large amount of debt in this scenario that the spouse had no idea about. The husband also had a hidden gambling issue and had squandered a great deal of their money away over the last few years before his death. It is unfortunate, but this family went through a huge adjustment, having to move out of their home and into a small apartment to adjust to their new reality.
Too many times we see GoFundMe drives started up for families in need like this. That may help for the short term (if you’re lucky), but overall there is often a tremendous financial hole that needs to be filled.
So what of those messes/secrets left behind? The two scenarios above show how Life Insurance is a great way to clean up those “messes.” I believe that people don’t intentionally want to leave their loved ones behind in shambles. They simply never get around to cleaning them up and/or don’t realize the true impact those secrets will leave in their wake.
Valentine’s Day is around the corner and in the spirit of that, people do have families they love and care about. When talking to that tough customer, share some stories about some of the messes that people have left behind. It may get one to think about their situation and perhaps want to clean up some of those messes or secrets they may have. Because in the end…
Life Insurance cleans up a lot of messes people leave behind.