Just Talk About It!

According to a recent survey most people (at least the grown up variety) agree that they need life insurance. The reason they cited for not having made the purchase…..no one ever talked to them about it. As a professional this concerned me. How could there be more life insurance agents than there are “other” people and somehow no one has talked to this huge number of people?

Well, it may be a slight embellishment to say that there are more of us than there are them (you all), but life insurance agents are certainly not on the endangered species list. After talking this whole thing over with my wife it was her take that the problem really didn’t come down to some lack of effort on the industry’s part, but rather a lack of desire for people in general to learn to intelligently deal with financial education.

We don’t teach kids how to balance a check book. We don’t teach them how to budget or save. Husbands and wives are famous for not wanting to discuss the financial details of the very life they are partnering in. Very often business partnerships are run with very little communication between the partners about the day to day finances, let alone long term planning. So, we live in a society that wants to use financial tools, but not be educated about how to use them.

I guess what I am advocating, in a nutshell, is that we start talking with each other about life insurance. It doesn’t have to start with a talk with your local independent agent. In fact it should probably start with a talk between a husband and wife. Why should we have it? Why shouldn’t we have it? How much is enough? While we’re on the subject, do we already have it and have we discussed what we have and why? If we have it and one of us dies, what does the surviving spouse need to do?

Once we’ve talked about life insurance, why not have a chat with kids about it? It really doesn’t have to be some long drawn out twisted chat about premature death. Life insurance is a positive thing. Just throw it out there for conversation and questions. Talk about it!!! It may not mean anything to them for a while, but one day they are going to think back about the fact that mom and dad had life insurance. They may wonder if they are in a position where they need it also. They might ask questions and make an informed decision. I guarantee you though, that if you never say anything to them at all about it, it will not be thought of on their own. They will be among those that believe they need it but never had anyone talk to them about it.

This post is somewhat dated. Life insurance underwriting is changing and evolving continually. For more updated information check out some of the key word links. If you have a specific question or topic you need information for do a search. If you don’t find the answers you need contact me and we’ll make sure you get the information that is important to you.