By: Joel McKinnon
Group Life Insurance through work…….Is it enough?
If you know anything about me, you know that I am very passionate about life insurance. My goal in life is to make sure families do not lose it all when or if the unexpected happens. It is truly painful when I hear of families who lose it all because they were not prepared or aware.
A perfect example is a client I met with a few months ago. The client and his spouse both had life insurance through their employer. Each of them had 3X their annual salary and assumed they were in a great position should something tragic happen to either one of them. The policy their employer offered was accidental life ONLY – meaning if they died in an “accident” they were covered; however, if they died from cancer per say they were not as that is not “accidental.”
Tragically the wife was diagnosed with cancer last year and 3 months later she passed away. The husband assumed he would be collecting $500,000 from her life insurance and financially he and his kids would be OK. Upon her death he learned of the “accident” clause in the policy and NOTHING was paid out. Over the next few months he lost his home, his way of life and everything he and his spouse had worked so hard for.
Group life policies have their place, and in some situations they can be very beneficial, BUT in my opinion they are also many down sides to relying 100% on a employer sponsored plan. In my opinion you should always buy life insurance as an individual first and use the group plan as “bonus coverage.” If you rely on your life insurance 100% through your employer I would encourage you to explore additional options such as your own individual plan. I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with you and your family to discuss and review your options. If you are looking for life insurance in Dover, Ohio or New Philadelphia, Ohio we can help!!!
Below are a few articles that offer up some additional information with regards to this topic.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/09/01/dispelling-the-top-12-myths-about-life-insurance/