As the Thanksgiving Weekend comes to an end and we move into the holiday season. We should all reflect on what is really important to us. In my many years in the insurance business, I have met with thousands of people. When we discuss the topic of life insurance, people fall into three categories 1) They love their family and they want to use all of their reasonable means to make sure their family is taken care of in the event of a premature death, 2) The next group of people have an unrealistic belief in how much money their family would need to live on in the event of a premature death, 3) The third group I classify as the people that don’t love their family and really don’t care what happens in the event of a premature death.
As an insurance professional you deal with these three groups differently, group 1, you focus on doing a thorough needs analysis and work with them to develop a plan within their budget. Group 2, you need to educate that $50,000 or $100,000 just won’t carry your family much further than final/funeral expense. Time is spent on educating them on what it takes per year to maintain a decent standard of living. The final group their is nothing much you can do to help until they figure out what really matters.
Most people are really nervous when they go to buy life insurance. One they are unsure of how much they need and two what kind of insurance they need. In short, they are afraid of being sold instead of buying insurance. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what kind of insurance you buy, as long as you buy some kind of insurance. Deciding term, whole, universal, variable universal can be really confusing. Some types of insurance are better fits then others for people, but this is a minor issue to the protection you are providing.
People should focus on buying the protection they need within a reasonable allocation of their budget. Most people need 7 to 10 times their annual income as a general rule of thumb. If budget is paramount, buy term.
In the end, love your family, protect what really matters and buy life insurance!
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