Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, many folks are scouring the specialty card aisle at their local drug store or supermarket. I have personally seen folks spending quite a bit of time trying to find the absolute perfect card for their loved one. After all, what is Valentine’s Day about except love! While one would not normally make the association of Valentine’s Day and Life Insurance, there is actually a very strong link between the two. In fact, you can only write life insurance on someone you do business with, or someone you love. That would include a child, a parent, a spouse, a grandchild, or various other “love connections.” Life insurance is a product specifically designed to create a pool of tax-free money at the death of an individual. That pool of money is then given to the beneficiary (or beneficiaries) of the policy. That’s it. Life insurance is one of the simplest insurance products to understand since it only involves two things: the life of the person who is being insured and the life of the person they love (the beneficiary). The one thing that most people stuggle with life regarding insurance, is that by its very nature, it requires that people talk about their own mortality: not exactly something we like to contemplate every day! The fact is, however, we are all going to pass on at some time in the future. Some of us sooner, and some of us later. In almost every case, our lives will leave a huge hole in the life of those around us. While life insurance can never replace us physically, it can replace us financially. In my over 20 years in the insurance business, I have personally hand-delivered four life insurance checks to the family members of someone who had a life insurance policy on them. It is hard to describe the satisfaction I feel knowing that I was able to truly, truly help someone in their time of need. The first life insurance checks I delivered were for a husband and wife. In a strange twist of fate, the couple was murdered in their own home. The crime has never been solved, and the authorities have concluded that it was a case of mistaken identity. The married couple had each other as their primary beneficiaries, so the policy reverted to the secondary beneficiaries, their respective parents. What life insurance did for this family is, they were able to fly their children back home to a family burial site. Without that life insurance, such a move was probably out of the question. As it turned out, the family was able to bring their children back home and they were able to grieve with dignity. The next life insurance policy that I will tell you about is very emotional for me. Most people don’t think about life insurance for children. When our children are so vital and full of life, the thought of them passing away is almost impossible to comprehend, but it happens. My niece was pretty much like any other infant at seven months. She was happy, growing and developing, and generally progressing as most babies do. One day, however, the babysitter noticed a large lump on her back, right about the kidney area. She immediately told my sister about the lump, and my sister called the doctor. The doctor wanted to see her immediately. To make a long and difficult story short, my niece had a form of cancer called Wilme’s Tumors. This particular type of cancer is the second most common childhood cancer behind leukemia. My niece fought a brave and difficult two year battle against the disease, but succumbed exactly one month before her third birthday. The silver lining to this story is that my niece Ally was covered by a life insurance policy. The policy had been written prior to her diagnosis, and the policy benefit check was cut and delivered within five days of her death. What did this life insurance check do for my sister and her family? They were able to pick the mortuary that they wanted instead of the one they would have had to use. They were able to bury Ally in clothing that she would have loved. They were able to pay for some lingering medical bills, but most of all, they were able to mourn the loss of their beloved daughter with grace and dignity. They had some people give them offers of money, but they were able to take care of everything themselves. Unfortunately, the story does not end there. Shortly after Ally’s passing, my sister started experiencing chest pains. She went to the doctor for a chest x-ray. My sister saw the x-rays and immediately told the x-ray tech, “that’s cancer.” The technician said that she shouldn’t make that type of diagnosis. My sister said, “I’ve seen enough cancer on x-rays to know what I’m looking at.” Her doctor confirmed the diagnosis of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In my sister’s case, the story is much happier. She responded exceedingly well to all of the therapies and has been cancer free for close to ten years. She sometimes jokes that it’s great when your oncologist isn’t really interested in seeing you that much! She also stated that she is actually grateful that she got cancer because now she understands more fully what Ally went through. After her experience with the loss of her daughter and her own experience of going through cancer, my sister Linda and her husband Scott Webb started the non-profit organization “Ally’s House.” The reason they named it Ally’s House is that whenever Ally would come home from a harrowing treatment the first thing she would say when they rounded the corner was, “Ally’s House!” At “Ally’s House,” she felt safe and secure. Linda and Scott wanted to create an organization that would help families of children with cancer by providing funds to cover many of the daily costs associated with cancer treatment that are not covered by insurance. Things like food, housing vouchers, travel vouchers, etc. If you want to find out about the great work being done by the folks at Ally’s House, check out their website at www.allyshouse.net. You will see a picture of Ally (Allison) and read her story. If there is anything that I would stress, it is that life insurance is about taking care of families in their time of greatest need. Life insurance gives your family and loved ones the dignity to mourn your loss without the burden and stress of how they are going to pay for all of the costs associated with your passing. While this topic may seem a bit heavy for Valentine’s Day, it’s what Valentine’s Day is all about: love.
If you have questions about life insurance, or if life insurance is appropriate for your family’s situation, please feel free to call my office at (661) 946-4224. We will be happy to talk about the different types of life insurance available as well as how to structure it in the best way for your family situation.
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AuthorDave Owens, Owner/Agent. I have proudly served in the Insurance Industry for over 20 years. Archives
October 2019
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