September is Life Insurance Awareness Month! To celebrate, you will be hearing us stand up on our soapbox and talk (non-stop it may seem) about life insurance. On the surface, life insurance seems to be simple, but there are many things that you can do with life insurance! Our goal this month is to educate our clients on life insurance so they can use it to their full benefit.
First up, is likely the most common reason people start purchasing life insurance-- Marriage! When a couple says their "I dos" they are promising to be there for each other during the good and the bad. Starting a life together means that there is another person who is depending on you, physically, emotionally and FINANCIALLY!
If you've read anything about life insurance, you know that it can be used to help protect the finances of your spouse should you pass first. Life insurance is designed to help pay for final expenses and also for income replacement. The burden that spouses have to go through when their significant other passes is harder than one can put into words and life insurance cannot resolve this pain BUT.. life insurance can remove one worry for the surviving spouse-- the financial worry!
What most people don't realize is that life insurance can also help us through "the good" of our marriages! If a policy is purchased that gains a cash value over time, a couple can borrow against the cash value of the policy during the very busy and fun years of their marriage. For example, a couple purchased a policy during the early years of their marriage. 18 years later, the two daughters of the couple were both enrolled in private education at two prestigious (and expensive!) universities. The couple wanted to assist in paying the tuition for their daughters. Luckily, the life insurance policy had built up a cash value from which the parents could borrow from to help pay for their daughters' college education.
Another example of the policy working during "the good" years of marriage. A young man purchased life insurance right out of high school. Twenty years later, he found himself happily married with kids and purchasing a new home. Cash was tight during this exciting move to a new home. When the life insurance bill came in the mail, he called our agency to discuss his options. After a short explanation, he realized that he could "skip" the premium payment for one year and have the premium paid from his cash value instead of out of pocket. The cash value wasn't enough to stop paying premiums forever, but it was enough to skip this year and pick back up in the near future!
Life insurance is designed to help us with final expense and income replacement-- no doubt that is the primary purpose. But on the crazy journey of life, it can help with other things along the way too!
Want to know more about life insurance? Check back in the month of September for more blogs or make an appointment to discuss with one of our life agents!
