Life insurance sad story

[snowywhite89]

My husband is a financial advisor for Metlife. He meets with clients every day trying to avoid sad stories such as this one. However, most people think that they have alot of time before they die and put off life insurance. People have to come to grips with their mortality and accept death as a part of life. You should get life insurance when you are young and healthy as once you become diagonsed with certain ailments and illnesses, you become uninsurable. My husband has to deal with it every day trying to explain that a the loss of a loved one is very sad, but think how tragic it is when that family becomes financially burdened by their loved one's death. It's terrible but true that the bills will still have to get paid, funeral costs are very high, and without life insurance, there will be no income after death. Noone wants to place a value on someone's life, but it is reassuring to know that after you are gone, you can still take care of your loved ones.

Life insurance is important but even more important is disability insurance. A person is far more likely to be disabled at a young age then die at a young age.

 

[ccgirl]

My DH and myself have both been fortunate enough that our employers offered life insurance. While we are not insured for a huge amount of money it is enough to cover funeral services and 2 years of missed salary. We are both covered for at least 2 times our annual salary. I took out a bit extra insurance on top of that, $60,000 for me and $20,000 for my DH. I never insured my children as they do not contribute financially so just didn't understand paying for that.

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

Life insurance is important but even more important is disability insurance. A person is far more likely to be disabled at a young age then die at a young age.

Yes, disability insurance is also very important and we have it of course. My husband recommends disability insurance to all of his clients. However, this thread is about life insurance.

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

My DH and myself have both been fortunate enough that our employers offered life insurance. While we are not insured for a huge amount of money it is enough to cover funeral services and 2 years of missed salary. We are both covered for at least 2 times our annual salary. I took out a bit extra insurance on top of that, $60,000 for me and $20,000 for my DH. I never insured my children as they do not contribute financially so just didn't understand paying for that.

You should consider insuring your children as depending on their policy, it can be used to pay for their college.

 

[princesses2]

Life insurance is important but even more important is disability insurance. A person is far more likely to be disabled at a young age then die at a young age.

totally agree. a friend's cousin had a stroke at age 50. survived but with damage to the brain that he could no longer work. found out that he had dropped his disability insurance few months before his stroke. the family had to file bankruptcy and with two kids it's been tough.

 

[ccgirl]

You should consider insuring your children as depending on their policy, it can be used to pay for their college.

Already have college savings for them. Thanks though. Just curious, what kind of life insurance can be used for their education? Very intriguing to me. May wished I knew that sooner.

 

[Trish Bessette]

My DH and myself have both been fortunate enough that our employers offered life insurance. While we are not insured for a huge amount of money it is enough to cover funeral services and 2 years of missed salary. We are both covered for at least 2 times our annual salary. I took out a bit extra insurance on top of that, $60,000 for me and $20,000 for my DH. I never insured my children as they do not contribute financially so just didn't understand paying for that.

I have $25,000 on each of my DD's just for the plain fact that if something did happen we would have money to cover the funeral. A tragedy enough to lose a child but then not having a policy to cover the funeral would just add to the situation.

 

[cm8]

I have $25,000 on each of my DD's just for the plain fact that if something did happen we would have money to cover the funeral. A tragedy enough to lose a child but then not having a policy to cover the funeral would just add to the situation.

I so agree

 

[monkey0816]

For those of you who have been told you are uninsurable (and for those of you just looking in general), just wanted to let you know of a success we had w/ this company..
http://customterm.com/
My husband has Crohn's Disease and bad family history so he was "rated" (aka could be approved, but at a very, very expensive rate) w/ every term life ins company we checked out on our own prior. This company knows the ins and outs of each life insurance company's guidelines (who charges higher rates for high cholesterol, etc) and was able to find him a plan as standard coverage, not rated. We dealt w/ Gordon Conwell Jr there...he was very responsive and professional. May be worth checking out...

 

[TheRatPack]

It's interesting to see the differences in prices across the board for different amounts of insurance. I'm amazed at how much insurance some are getting for less than 50.00 a month though...that's really great. I wish we could have gotten more insurance for less monthly....maybe we'll get an extra policy one day when we're closer to these running out. With my husband being a smoker, it's hard to not pay out the nose for insurance.

 

[TheRatPack]

I so agree

Speaking of children's insurance, you can usually ad a rider to your plan...or at least that is what we did. It's not much, I think maybe 25,000 for each child if something happens before they turn 18. I had it added to my plan and I want to say it was around 10.00? Might be something you could ask your current plan holder about....it would be enough to bury them if a tragedy did occur. We also have a rider on our burial plots for each of our children, again....the tragedy of losing a child would be bad enough and then to not be able to bury them the way you want to because of finances would just be so sad.

 

[budbeerlady]

Dh FINALLY went ahead and did life insurance this past summer. We were jarred when someone we knew drowned saving his son, life is short and you never know when your day is coming! I have had mine for 5 years and I am the worry wart in our family. What finally got thru to Dh was when I told him IF anything ever happened to him Dd and I would not be able to afford her school and the house. How much Dds life would change beyond just the lose of him, that got thru to him this year.

Dh is a smoker and I am not, I have a 20yr term for $250,000 and I pay $23 a month. Dh is for $100,000 20 yr term and its $29 a month. I also have $50,000 each thru my employer. My insurance amount is higher because I know Dh would be in need of more "help" if something should happen to me, I wouldn't want to leave them in a bind. With the $100,000 I could pay off the house and have a little cushion.

 

[scrapquitler]

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.

I totally agree with this. We have a BIG life insurance policy on my DH (1.5 million), which costs about $1200 a year. We also have a smaller (250K) policy on me. If I die, my DH can pay for a housekeeper and some sort of childcare for our youngest child, pay off my funeral and have money left to put toward college/mortgage or whatever. We feel very confident that in case of one of us (or worse, both of us) dying, the remaining spouse and/or the children will not be in financial crisis.

 

[ccgirl]

Just reviewed my insurance as this thread got me thinking....

I have STD that my employer pays (60% of my salary).
I have LTD that I pay (60% of my salary). That costs $24 a month/$305 a yr.
I have Life insurance that my employer pays (equal to 1 year salary).
I also have add'l life that I pay ($100,000) That costs just under $200 yr.
I have AD&D (whatever that is) that my employer pays. It is equal to 1 yr salary.
I also took out $25,000 on my DH even though he has it through his work. That cost $50 year. His employer pays his and I believe it is 2x his annual salary. I guess I have to check on that.

Thank you SO MUCH for the "tip" on paying the funeral costs for the children thru life insurance. I guess I just didn't want to think that it could happen to me (I'm sure nobody does). I will add $25,000 for each child the next time open enrollment is up. I certainly don't have enough in savings to cover a funeral. I think the $50 per child per year would certainly be worth it.

 

[kinntj]

Yep, it's very important. We have substantial amounts on each of us if something were to happen and we have a rider for the kids too. That mindset was just for the sake of paying for funeral and any time off we would need. If DH wasn't here to provide his decent salary then we would be in deep trouble. I would need sufficient time to grieve and to find a job, to downsize housing, etc.

If I weren't here, then DH would have to find someone to take care of the house, the kids during the summer and other time off of school, etc.

I'm so sorry to those who have lost a spouse. I just couldn't imagine.

 

[bigmama67]

DH is looking into the setup with his work insurance - he wasn't sure. He is a state employee and in a union so I'm guessing it's good but we should know.

I checked our bank account and we pay a total of $272.31 per month for both of our term policies, which are for $1 million each. I realize we are probably a bit OVER-insured but I would rather be in that position than the other. I'm not sure how much of that is mine and how much is DH's premium but I think he was a bit more expensive due to weight/cholesterol issues. He is much healthier now!

 

[mrsltg]

I have $25,000 on each of my DD's just for the plain fact that if something did happen we would have money to cover the funeral. A tragedy enough to lose a child but then not having a policy to cover the funeral would just add to the situation.

Exactly. And don't forget time off for Mom and Dad afterward. A child's life insurance policy is a very good, and reasonable, expense.