With September being Life Insurance Awareness Month, it’s a perfect time for insurance agents to reflect on their important purpose.
Many of them will never forget the life-changing moment when they delivered their first death benefit check. At that moment, every agent clearly understands that their job has a much deeper purpose than just selling insurance. They also, more than likely, remember every person that declined the purchase of life insurance and then had tragedy strike. Protecting people before tragedy strikes is much more desirable than trying to fundraise for devastated families after something has happened. Life insurance saves businesses and families from possible financial ruin, and helps people pick up the pieces as they try to recover after the loss.
This month is also a time when families and businesses are encouraged to examine their financial plan to ensure they have insurance and also that they have the adequate amount to cover their own situation. Whether a family is relying on group benefits from a job or they’ve purchased term insurance to cover a certain period of their life, it is important to know your life insurance status.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes.”
Many people are skeptical of life insurance. There are differing opinions about the various options or its necessity at all, but anyone who has ever received a death benefit check would never say that they wish they wouldn’t have spent the money.
Additionally, there are options today that have made life insurance a vehicle for saving money. Yes, it may not have the same return that money invested in the stock market may have, but it also doesn’t face the long-term volatility of the markets. It’s a consistent and stable form of saving, and also provides financial security when something terrible ever happens.
There are countless stories of families and businesses that have been saved by life insurance, and there are also countless stories of those who have had to try to recover without it. For the latter, life is never the same. Spouses or children have to work their whole lives trying to recover. Businesses have to make dramatic cuts or close the doors completely. Whatever the situation, lives are affected.
Over and over, people say they don’t have the money to afford it, but it’s really about priorities. Yes, sacrifices may have to be made in other areas of spending, but the only question that needs to be asked is how important is your family to you? Or, in the case of a business, can those who rely on you continue your legacy? The answer is clear.
Think about what Benjamin Franklin said. Death will happen. For some, it will be sooner rather than later. It’s not pleasant to think about it, but it is reality, and it can happen in the blink of an eye. Take time this month to examine your financial plan. Lives depend upon it.
Joe Betcher is president and founder of Betcher Financial Group. His blog appear regularly in DBusiness.com
