My name is Ed Hinerman and my wife and I are grandparents. In the whole scheme of things hardly noteworthy except for the fact that we are part of a growing number of grandparents who are raising our grandchild. The last census showed that just shy of 5 million children are living, not with their parents or even one of their parents, but with grandparents. In an article written 12/20/2010 by Amy Goyer, “this increase has to do with challenges in our economy over the past five years, including the housing and foreclosure crisis, the loss of jobs and general economic woes. Clearly, grandparents are increasingly providing the stability and security of home for their families.”

While I take exception to her analysis, the truth is that many of us who have raised children are, out of necessity for a stable home for grandchildren, getting to do it again. We’ve had our chance to be a little ticked off about this turn of events and the way it has changed our plans for the next 8 years, but we love our children and grandchild and we’re over that and focused on how to raise a child to responsible adulthood in a time when responsible and adulthood don’t necessarily happen together. The truth is, and this is where I take exception to the quote above, responsible really doesn’t seem to be an overriding concern for far too many people in our country. My guess is that Ms Moyer is either too young to understand or too politically correct for her job’s sake to see that this increase really has to do with the decline of moral values in our country and addictions running rampant through an age group that is so completely focused on technology, that they believe responsibility is maintaining their presence on Facebook. My Opinion!

But back to the responsibility of raising children again and the need for us to re-examine our financial planning and specifically our over 50 or over 60 grandparent life insurance and that part that we may have been planning to or already have let go of, the replacement of our income for our children. Fortunately for my wife and I and those I have advised over the years, if we erred, we erred on the side of term insurance that may have been longer than the anticipated need and just because our children are grown and gone, we’ve grown comfortable with the idea of life insurance and keeping what we have in force for our spouse. So for those in this boat it’s a matter of seeing how the life insurance you have in force matches up with the new temporary responsibility of raising another child or children.

For those who have let term insurance go having seen it to the end of it’s appointed duty, it’s time to see how much we need and, importantly, how much we can budget because our cost of living just went up. The good news is that, in most cases our life insurance needs will be smaller and the length of time shorter. Those life insurance factors can help keep the expense reasonable and affordable.

And for those of you, absent adequate assets, who are still skating by without life insurance, suck it up and do the right thing. That grandchild is living with you because you are the stable place for them to be and if you happen to kick the bucket, something more common at our age, you throw away that stability and fail your grandchild. It’s the responsible thing to do and remember, one of the main reasons we are parenting again is because these kids are the victim of irresponsibility.

Bottom line. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy and it may not be the dream we’ve had, but my Mom never promised me those things. How about yours? If you have questions or want to see how much life insurance you can budget, even with health issues we didn’t have earlier in life, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. We have something in common. Let’s talk.