September is life insurance awareness month and I would like to spend some time talking about the benefits of life insurance, the importance of having it, and some things to think about if you do not properly protect your family. Life insurance won’t ease the pain, Life insurance won’t bring a father back to walk his daughter down the aisle and Life insurance can’t replace a mother’s love. Life insurance is not for us, it is for those we leave behind.
“Life insurance can do some pretty amazing things for people. It can buy loved ones time to grieve. It can pay off debts and loans, providing surviving family members with the chance to move on with a clean slate. It can keep families in their homes and pre-fund a child’s college education. It can keep a family business in the family. It can provide a stream of income for a family to live on for a period of time. Life insurance can do all of these wonderful things for your family…there’s just one small catch. You need to own life insurance.” (From http://www.lifehappens.org/life-insurance-awareness-month)
Lets face it, no one wants to talk about passing away, nor do we want to think about what could or would happen to our family if we were no longer around. The truth is, most families do not want to talk about reality “We are young, that wont happen to us.” With that being said, lets think about about a few things. 1. Most families have built their life style around 2 incomes – From the mortgage to the car payment to summer vacations we rely on both incomes in the household to make the wheels spin. 2. At times we will stress and worry about losing our jobs, so we make sure we have a rainy day fund set aside – we plan for the “what if.” 3. If you run a small business, and you as the owner dies, what happens to that business? Is there a continuation plan? Is there funding / cash to keep things going till they adjust to you not being there?
The point in all of this being there are a lot of things we do plan for in our life. We save to buy a new house or a new car, we put money aside for vacations and christmas. We spend hundreds in not thousands on cell phones, and tables and wi-fi capabilities so we can always be connected. Please stop for a moment and think what your life might be like if you lost your spouse, if you lost part of the household income that helps to pay for everything that you have. Money can not buy happiness, and no amount of life insurance can replace the person you / we lose but what it can do is ease the burden. It can give you time to grieve, to rebuild, to refocus. It can give you the piece of mind that if something does happen, my family will be ok – they wont have to lose me and their home, and the future. If you really think about it, most of us probably spend more on coffee, soda, beer, and cell phones than we don on protecting our families future. Please take the time, review your protection, and truly think about what could or would happen to your family if you were no longer around, and if you need help give me a call I’d love to help!