Keeping Yourself Covered for Life

You're in your late thirties. You have three children. One is grown and has moved away. The other two are 16 and 9. Your wife is a stay-at-home mom, and you are the breadwinner. So, you're the only one in the family that needs life insurance, right? Misunderstanding the need for life insurance is a leading cause of financial hardship in the event of a death because most people don't see that the costs heavily outweigh the benefits. Let's take a look at the top 5 reasons why every member of your family should have life insurance.

Young Adults Need Life Insurance to Protect Them and to Protect You — A young, healthy adult can often lock in a fixed-rate life insurance policy that grows in cash value over time at an incredibly low premium. By the time a 20-year-old man hits old age, he'll have built up quite the nest egg. He'll even be able to borrow against that, should the need arise. In the event of death, young single adults still have a mom and dad somewhere that will pick up the tab on the funeral.

Young Children Need Life Insurance to Ease the Burden of Death — Even for children, the average funeral cost is approximately $10,000. This includes the casket, the burial plot, the headstone, and the funeral parlor. It does not include any other arrangements that must be made, flowers, death notices, etc.

Your Stay at Home Spouse Does More Work Than You Think — The stay at home spouse contributes to the home in a variety of ways-- in-house childcare, housekeeping, laundry, bill-paying, meal preparation, transportation for school-aged children, etc. The list of chores for the at-home spouse goes on and on, and the errands they perform, while often overlooked, reduce the cost of running an efficient home by thousands of dollars. In addition to this loss, you will also be responsible for any costs related to the funeral.

You are the Bread Winner, so You Need to Protect Your Family — When you die, your family will be left without your income and will be responsible for the costs incurred by your funeral. If your family cannot afford the fees, they may face a damaged credit rating or a loss of assets. Your family will be left with nothing. That is, unless you provide them with a life insurance policy that will take care of their needs and your debts.

Your Family Needs Life Insurance for Your Peace of Mind — By providing yourself and your spouse with life insurance you guarantee the financial survival of the other. By providing your children and young adults with life insurance, you guarantee them and yourself protection for the length of their natural lives. Once every member of your family is insured, you no longer have to consider the "what ifs" of early death. You can simply go on living.

Remember, while it is sometimes more economically feasible to insure only the bread winner of the home with life insurance, the death of any uninsured family member can present an extreme financial hardship.