Life insurance sad story

[maddiesmom0116]

I'm a single mom so having life insurance is very important to me because if something were to happen to me, my kids would be left without another parent to care for them. I have a large policy through work, but if I were just buying it myself I hate to think of what it would cost.

I have 400,000 for $55 a quarter, it is 30 year term life.

 

[samshane]

We both have policies... DH's is substantially more. He got a large one when he went to Iraq for a year and kept it. Mine is smaller... but still, it is quite a bit. Having that and having a will was very important to both of us.

 

[GetGlowing]

My dear father-in-law passed away suddenly a few months ago. He always told my MiL she would be "fine" due to his life insurance.

He forgot the fine print -- the payout amount started going down as he aged. He had just passed 70 y.o. so her insurance benefit was only $25,000. Or maybe he just thought that was a lot of money regardless. I don't know. But she's just on S.S. and had a car payment, mower payment, house payment. She was able to pay off some of the debts or sell the liened items, but there were also funeral expenses to be paid.

It's good to always stay on top of your insurance as time passes. A $30,000 policy taken out 30 years ago would have paid for a lot more then than it does today.

 

[meriface11]

Also do not hold all your life insurance with your employer, get some or all of your insurance outside your employer.

Two years ago my father in law was laid off from his job, the employer closed their doors and moved over seas. A month after being laid off he goes into the hospital with abdominal pain thinking it might be his appendix… turns out he was diagnosed with terminal leukemia. At that point he was un insurable, thank god for the VA as they took care of his medical needs. At the age of 56 after two years of battling he lost his fight with the disease. My wife and I paid out of pocket for the funeral and legal expenses.

I was going to say this too. My husband and i are very well insured through my employer--i have close to a million in combined life and AD&D for free, and I pay less than $10 a month for $250K of combined for him. however, as we are approaching our 40's we recently purchased smaller backup policies on our own. I figured if I changed jobs or got laid off, I probably wouldn't be able to get as rich of a policy with a new employer, or god forbid, something happened like this PP mentions. we don't have kids and we both do fairly well, so fortunately we didn't need to buy large backups. if something happened to either of us, the other would be fine on our own, but wanted to make sure we had enough for funeral costs and to pay off the mortgage to allow the survivor with some financial cushion in what would obviously be a difficult emotional time.

 

[Swimalie]

Once you have a health issue, you can't get life insurance (or health insurance) without paying through the nose.

Actually, that's not true. I have Graves Disease. It's a health issue, just not a major one. I have life insurance and I don't pay that much for my policy. My husband's policy is much, much higher. He doesn't have any health issues but his dad died of a heart attack at 56. Where as both my parents are very much alive at 70. They take family factors in to consideration as well as your own. Some health issues aren't going to affect your policy. Graves is one of them since it is an easily controllable disease.

 

[eliza61]

My father passed away last year.. we thought he had life insurance.. come to find out it was just various accidental life insurance policies.. It breaks my heart for my mom because there wasnt even any money to bury my dad.. He was a veteran so luckily he was buried in a national cemetary (which is absolutely beautiful by the way) and they also paid for the tomb stone and the burial costs, but me and my brother split the cost of the charges from the funeral home.. and my mom is living on social security only.. there was no other money..

Which brings me to my suggestion.

Ladies, this is not the first story like this that I know. Especially with us wives who may have a few years under our marital belts. Please take the time to make sure that your spouse have life insurance. Every year I nag my dh into checking our policies.

 

[MoniqueU]

This is an ecellent message and one I have to get through my DH's skull. I think he thinks if he passes away it will be because of the policy or that SS will take care of me, boy is he wrong! I will be revisiting this topic shortly.

 

[Katy Belle]

Thanks for this thread! Its sad, but really necessary to be prepared. I have been a SAHM for 16 years. If DH died, we would be in big trouble. We have a lot of insurance on him, some from work and some we bought ourselves. We have a lot of money saved for our 3 kids' college and our retirement, but the insursnce is still necessary. We have a smaller policy on me, to cover the cost of paying someone to do what i do around the house, and to bury me.

 

[swilshire]

I'm a single mom so having life insurance is very important to me because if something were to happen to me, my kids would be left without another parent to care for them.

If it makes you feel better, your children would receive Social Security benefits should you pass away, as long as you work at a job that is covered by Social Security.

Sheila

 

[tweedlemom]

My husband and I have been married 11 years. Before our wedding, we sat down with an insurance rep and set up life insurance policies for ourselves. We just figured it was a step to follow before we got married. We spent so much time planning for the wedding itself, it felt good to plan for something that would last longer than the one day celebration.

 

[lucigo]

My first husband passed away at 36, leaving me with 3 kids, ages 11, 9 and 5. He had started a new job about 14 months earlier, and just 2 months before he died we had found out that his life ins. wasn't filled out correctly so he wasn't insured until that point. So someone was looking out for us and we did receive $115K. It didn't go as far as I had thought it would at the time, but it paid for the service and headstone, paid off all of our bills, and got me into a very modest home that I could afford on my own. There isn't much left. Social security helped immensely, however it ends at 18, and now I have 2 kids in college and sure am missing it!!

My eyes were also opened this past summer to the importance of having insurance on our children. My brother died in July. Though he was in his 30's he was self-employed and had nothing, and he was single. My mother had to pay for everything. Even with cremation, just the logistics of traveling from MO to TX to clear his apartment, the memorial service, etc were at least $5k, probably more.

 

[TheRatPack]

We have policies on both my husband and myself as well as riders for our children to cover burial...etc if heaven forbid something tragic happened. We also have our burial plots paid for, as well as a rider on our children for that as well, through age 21. We plan on getting our headstone in the next few years, and hopefully we can pay for closing at the graveside as well. I want to leave as little as possible for the person left in charge of taking care of my burial/funeral. It's such a sad time and lifting any of that burden has to be a help.

I'm interested in those of you that have said you still have insurance after your children are grown. Do you have a whole life policy? And for those of you with million dollar policies....do you have perfect health? Get the policy when you were in your 20's? In our late 20's we were able to afford a 1/4 of that, my husband is a smoker. At mid 30's I evaluated what we had as we'd moved in to a larger home, added 3 more children...etc and got a bit more on me to equal what my husband had but still at that point I was not able to get that 'premium' rate because of the cholesterol test....so I'm wondering how on earth we'll ever afford more.

 

[RachelsMommie]

We pay $101 a month for a $1 million policy on me and a $750K policy on my husband. Plus, I have a $50K policy through my work that is free to me.

If you have the ability to get life insurance, always a good bet in case the worst does happen.

 

[marlaine]

Could someone please explain the difference between term insurance and whole life? Which is cheaper? Can I get a policy on my husband without him knowing it?

 

[CanBeGrumpy]

What term are these policies for? Some of these costs seem awfully low for million dollar policies, unless the term is very short. Also, do the costs increase as you age? Some policies have the cost locked in for the entire term of the policy, and I would suspect the premium for that type of policy would be greater than one where the premium increases as you age. (Or maybe I have no idea what I am talking about... LOL!)

 

[abolanwoski]

We also pay less than 200 a month for our policies (20yr term, 3 mill total). We didn't start until we were 35 and then renewed at 38 when DD number 2 was born. Non-smokers, normal weight, my health perfect, DH close but not perfect - my rate actually went down between 35 and 38 because I lost 10lbs!

Housewives - don't underestimate how much you should be insured. If you die while your kids are still young, your DH will likely spend a fair amount of money "replacing" you with help to clean the house, watch the kids, cook/shop. The more he works, the more help he's going to need to hire. Just because you don't bring in money, doesn't mean he won't need money to make up for your absence.

 

[Planogirl]

My husband only has life insurance through his company and it worries me. If he retires in some years or somehow loses his job he'll have nothing and it'll be very hard to get. He never would add anything else though.

I did buy a policy for myself some time back. It's not much but it will cover funeral expenses and a few other incidentals if anything were to happen.

 

[jnorman76]

I am fortunate to have 5x life insurance through work, with ADD coverage as well. However, I'm uninsurable (outside of work) due to my weight (320, although I'm down 55 lbs. so far, and keeping on going). I want to get to the place where I can add more insurance (probably 275). It's a great idea.

 

[JodiR]

Actually, that's not true. I have Graves Disease. It's a health issue, just not a major one. I have life insurance and I don't pay that much for my policy. My husband's policy is much, much higher. He doesn't have any health issues but his dad died of a heart attack at 56. Where as both my parents are very much alive at 70. They take family factors in to consideration as well as your own. Some health issues aren't going to affect your policy. Graves is one of them since it is an easily controllable disease.

I had a stroke and seizures at age 18 due to pregnancy. I am uninsurable. Was turned down for life insurance.

I make sure my kids are covered with a policy in their own name. That way they can not be turned down if they should become uninsurable.

 

[Krischaser]

What is a good reputable company to buy it from?