September, always a time of reflection for me

 

Is it because it is back to school time, or Labor Day, or my brother Hank’s birthday, or the anniversary date of my business?  Nope.  It is because in my industry, September is National Life Insurance Awareness month.  For those of you who are my friends, family, and/or clients, or both, you probably get sick of me bringing up Life insurance to you.

 

I think you must know by now, it is not because I want to annoy you, sell you something, or bore you, but because I love you and care about your family.  When you have been in the insurance industry as long as I have, and yes, I know it is hard to believe it has been almost 15 years for me, you see some very sad scenarios.  I assure you, there is nothing more heart breaking to an insurance agent than having a client die with no insurance plan in place.  It doesn’t matter if it is a senior citizen leaving behind a spouse with bills they can’t pay, or a person who was too young to die, and therefore didn’t think they needed life insurance.  The heartache is the same.  A lost life is a lost life.  Financial devastation and hardship just add salt to the open wounds. 

 

I know many of you reading this think it doesn’t apply to you, but if you are really being honest with yourself, I bet it does.  I don’t want to bore you with statistics, but I will throw a couple at you:

 

• 1/3 of all adults in the US carry no Life Insurance
• 1 of 3 women have no life insurance

 

These are factoids from the following site:  www.limra.com

 

Guess what this means people?  Some of you must fall into one of those 2 statistics.  Many of you have told me over and over that you have it through work.  Good for you, but bad for your family if you lose your job or change careers and get sick or die in the interim.  Most work life insurance plans are not transferable.  This means, you don’t take it with you.  You may have an option to convert it to some type of a permanent policy, but the cost will be huge.  Plus, most likely, you don’t have enough anyway!!!

 

Think about your monthly expenses.  How long will the survivors be able to keep on top of them with whatever life insurance you have right now, today?  Some of you tell me that they can just sell the house.   Hhhhhmmmm, really?  And what if they can’t sell it right away?  What if they can’t qualify for an equity line to get immediate cash? What if you have an equity line and it is frozen?  And seriously, who are you kidding?  You want to make your family sell the house and move?  And go where?

 

So, this is why I do a lot of reflecting in September.  I want those people who may not have a voice, like your children for example, to be taken care of if something happens to you.  We will all be devastated if something does, but I can tell you with 100% certainty, if you have a strong plan in place, it will soften the blow.  Please, think about it.  Review your plan.  Take care of those who I know you love so much.  Have a happy and safe Labor Day!