Life Insurance Awareness Month: The Ghostwriter’s Personal Story

September has been designated by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) as Life Insurance Awareness Month. The reason that we set aside an entire month to make Americans more aware of the need for life insurance is that so few of us have enough of it. This is a tragedy when you consider the relatively low cost of a policy these days, and the impact it can have on the family members and friends you leave behind.

Below is a story about an individual that was impacted by unforeseen circumstances. Many of us may plan for the future but being properly prepared with the right life insurance coverage is crucial for a better future for your family and loved ones.

“Having life insurance can have a profound effect on the future of your loved ones. In my case, it made the difference between whether or not I would go to college. Like millions of American children, I lost one of my parents when I was still in grade school. During the 8^th grade, my father died of complications from psoriasis. He had been seriously ill, too ill to work, for 4 years prior to his death. After he became ill, my mother had to go to work but she did not earn anywhere near the income my father had.

Little did I know at the time that during my father’s illness, the premiums on his life insurance policies went up significantly (he had policies for me, my two brothers, and my mother). In fact, I learned later that during his last couple years, he struggled to keep up the payments. What kept him motivated to make these payments was our future.

My father valued education. Like most parents, he strongly believed that higher education was critical for having a better future not just financially, but in many other ways as well. Therefore, his top priority was to make sure we had the opportunity to receive the best education for which we could qualify. During grade school, though the sacrifices became greater as the years went on. He kept us in private school because he believed that it would give us an advantage when we got to college.

When my father died, we received the proceeds from the life insurance policies he left behind. My mother was able to use hers to stabilize our financial situation and raise us with an adequate standard of living. She was also put in charge of our policies until we turned 18. She put the money into certificates of deposit, using the interest to keep us in private school, and saving the principal so it would be there when we were ready for college.

To this day, I am ever grateful to my father for caring enough about us to ensure that we were able to go to college. I often think about how easy it would have been for him to stop paying on the insurance premiums so he could have a few more immediate comforts. I am so glad that he chose to put our needs ahead of his own.

Today, I’m married with one daughter. My wife and I both work and we both have six figure term life insurance policies on ourselves. The payments are minimal; it costs us less than $50 a month combined to carry these policies. It is well worth it to know that our daughter will be taken care of if anything happens to us.”

If you do not have life insurance yet or you think you may not have enough to take care of your loved ones, now is the time to talk to your agent and make sure you are covered. You never know when something might happen and you always want to make sure you are prepared so that your children have access to a brighter future.