Can your family afford for you not to have life insurance?

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

For many people the question of life insurance policies are a controversial subject. It reminds them of their own mortality and they do not want to think about that, so they ignore the question of life cover.

It is unfortunately an integral part of life and the financial impact on the lives of those staying behind can be devastating. For the average man on the street life insurance is often the only way to make provision for family in the unfortunate event of his death.

Families

It is often easier to understand the need for life insurance if there is a wife and children to provide for as it can be logically seen what impact the sudden loss of income would mean. It makes sense to pay a monthly contribution for life cover to ensure that the family’s daily expenses such as rent, school fees, medical bills and food is taken care of.

Couples

Often though when a couple is newly married or married for only a few years and there are no children, the need for life cover is not so clearly seen. After all, both the husband and wife is working, so the financial impact should not be great in the event of death. Life insurance policies ensure that the spouse that stays behind will be able to maintain the standard of living that the couple has achieved. Life cover can also act as a mortgage protection plan, thus ensuring that the spouse has a home afterwards.

Parents

Life insurance cover is essential as in many cases the previous generation did not have the means to adequately prepare for their old age. Thus, many of the younger generation contribute to the support of their elderly parents. You are thus making provision for your parents, ensuring a decent standard of living in their twilight years.

Home executives

Often a non-working parent and especially home executives feel that they are not contributing to the income of the family and therefore have no need for life insurance policies. Nothing could be further from the truth through. The insurance needs of a home executive may be quite different than that of the working spouse, but here is a great need. If a stay-at-home mother should die, who is going to take over taking care of the children and the home while the husband is at work? First of all there will be unexpected funeral expenses to pay and afterwards alternative arrangements must be made for the household to run smoothly. All of this costs money and a life insurance plan can take care of the financial side of this.