By Aviva Sapers
Why Do You Need Life Insurance?
September is National Life Insurance Awareness Month, which is a great reminder to review your coverage if you have a life insurance policy, but also a good time to consider why you might consider insurance if you don’t yet have any.
According to MassMutual’s Consumer Sentiment Study, “protection for loved ones remains the #1 reason people purchase life insurance.”1 Whether time or circumstance may lead to loss of income from a family breadwinner, the financial security of a life insurance payout to help fortify the financial outlook of your family will always be a key benefit—but evolving life insurance products can be tailored for many other uses as well.
There are two general kinds of life insurance: term and permanent. Additionally, there are three kinds of permanent life insurance: whole, universal, and variable. By working with a specialist, you can learn the specifics of how they differ and target a policy for your individual uses:
- To protect family against loss of income from breadwinner
- To help provide liquidity to pay estate taxes
- Pay for funeral expenses
- To cover mortgages payments
- To cover business loans so companies won’t default if the insured passes
- As key person coverage to protect business assets
- To fund Buy/Sell agreements between business owners
- As a tax advantaged savings vehicle used to wrap individual investments, mutual funds
- As an Executive benefit or cost recovery mechanism for other benefits
- As a method of providing Long Term Care
- As a Roth look-alike retirement savings supplemental plan
- As an alternative to a 529 college savings plan
The flexibility and customization of these products allows for creative uses that can fill gaps, strengthen protections, and solidify the financial futures of families and business alike.
For many, life insurance has been relegated to one of those “someday” things to address—but no matter your place in life, it’s worth noting that the cheapest time to buy is probably today. The good news is that the affordability of life insurance may surprise you. Despite a reputation for being “too expensive” in the past, the non-profit insurance education group, Life Happens, recently conducted a study that found that people think life insurance costs three times as much as it actually does. The reality: a 20-year term life policy with $500,000 in death benefits can cost you less than $50 a month.2,3
Wherever you are in evaluating your needs for life insurance, September is the right time to review your existing policy or look into how purchasing life insurance might be helpful in reaching your financial goals.
Please contact us, and we will be happy to assist you in evaluating all the factors to help you choose an appropriate policy.
- MassMutual Consumer Sentiment Study, November 2022
- LifeHappens.org, 2021
- ValuePenguin.com, 2021
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