Life insurance may not be something you have thought about before, or maybe you have. Either way, life insurance is not as complicated or expensive as you may think. Instead of brushing this important topic to the side, consider what it could mean to your loved ones someday if they lost you. We know that this topic is not a fun one, but life insurance can make a terrible situation much better, knowing that your family will have the funds they need after you die. So yes, you do need life insurance.
Here are five reasons why life insurance is important:
Life insurance is not for you, it’s for your family.
Short-term family needs- If you died tomorrow, would your spouse be able to pay rent and bills? Would they be able to handle unexpected funeral, burial, and cremation costs? These costs can be $5,000-10,000…. That’s a lot.
Long-term family needs- It is likely that your family will feel the economic impact of your loss well into the future. Life insurance proceeds can help pay for things like childcare, extra-curriculars, or can help supplement a household income in many other ways. It will help provide normalcy and stability for your family to help them continue forward without the economic burden that death can bring.
Protection for your business- Life insurance can help business owners pay for rent, keep the lights on and employees paid until further arrangements are made. You work hard for your business and care about your employees and with life insurance, you can help protect them.
Life insurance may not be as expensive as you assume.
This seems to be quite the deterrent for people when they first learn about life insurance. The cost of life insurance coverage depends on many variables such as sex, age, overall health, and policy types, but it is typically less costly than people think.
As you age, buying life insurance becomes more expensive because your health tends to naturally decline, and the odds of dying sooner increase. So, lock your rate in now while you’re young and healthy and save yourself from paying a higher premium later.
When you finally need life insurance, you may not be able to qualify.
Not all deaths are unexpected and in fact, more adults age 25-44 die each year from serious illness than by accidental injury*, many leaving significant medical bills behind.
By the time someone is diagnosed with a serious illness, it is often too late to get life insurance coverage. Help ensure your family is ready for the unexpected (or the expected) so that they don’t have to dip into savings or go into debt to pay medical bills.
It can be an additional source of funds.
Not all life insurance policies are the same! While term insurance is a temporary policy that lasts for a specific time period and then ends, permanent life insurance is meant to cover you for the remainder of your life.
Permanent life insurance also accumulates cash value and although each policy may differ, typically you can use it to withdraw cash, take a policy loan to borrow cash to repay later, or terminate your policy and take its cash value. It is not always recommended to do so, but in the case that you need it, it’s there.
The funds from life insurance can even be used to supplement retirement if needed.
Life insurance can help you leave a legacy.
When you purchase life insurance, you choose at least one beneficiary-- the people or entities that would receive a benefit from your policy.
In some cases, people also choose an organization such as a charity or nonprofit that supports a cause they care about. Life insurance can enable you to give more in death than you might have been able to donate to the cause during your lifetime.
Conclusion
Whatever the reason for life insurance may be, it’s not too early to get started. In fact, the earlier the better. It may seem odd to think about what happens after you die and may even make you uncomfortable, but in considering the ones that you love, it’s a necessity.
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