3 Types of People Who Need Life Insurance (But Probably Don’t Have it)
While 6 in 10 Americans are reported to have some form of life insurance, that leaves about 40% of American adults with no life insurance at all This includes vulnerable older adults and parents of families with children. Even among adults with life insurance, eventual death benefits are sufficient to cover funeral costs but little else. Recipient individuals or families who may need to replace income for daily living or send a child to college won’t be able to achieve these goals on the most basic policy.
So who are these 40% of people without coverage, and those with insignificant coverage? Below, we’ll highlight three of the groups that would most benefit from life insurance.
- High Earners. A common mistake among high earners is to forego life insurance because “I make so much money". Chances are that unless you have another high earner in your household, there would be no way to sustain your current lifestyle if you passed on. When an individual is busy and in the prime of his or her life, it’s easy to forget that one day loved ones will have to make do without that person in their lives. If you can’t say that your family, loved ones, and dependents would be provided for in the event of your death, you are an obvious candidate for life insurance.
- Single Parents and Providers. Another obvious need for life insurance arises among single parents and individual caregivers. This calls to mind a mother with young children, but this person could also be the sole caregiver of an aging parent or grandparent. In either situation, the dependents would not be able to provide for themselves, and would thus need the death benefit associated with life insurance. However, due to the nature of caregiving without anyone else’s help, these individuals don’t usually have a high budget. Fortunately, there are term life insurance plans affordable to many people who thought they simply could never pay for one of these policies. Insurance companies understand that life brings about difficult financial situations for parents and caregivers. You may be surprised at what is available from reputable companies with high ratings if you just make a simple call or email.
- Young People. Millennials and even younger American adults are often called, “young invincibles." These are the people who traditionally forewent paying for healthcare because, after all, they felt young and invincible. Unfortunately, youth and health are not limitless resources, even though it might seem that way in your teens and twenties. If health insurance is a hard sell among this demographic, imagine how many have life insurance? The answer is 35%, but should that number perhaps be higher? It all depends on the situation. There are many people between the ages of 18-29 who have children, who incur debts, who have older family members, who begin risky financial ventures which are neither yet mature nor profitable. For the families and dependents of these people, the individual’s unpredicted death could be devastating. Fortunately, rates tend to be lower for this demographic. Term life insurance offers a number of solutions which can cover an individual’s dependents during a certain period of life, or which can be renewed indefinitely to provide continuous coverage.
Many people in these groups are already insured, but many are not. For these people, the chance of their unfortunate demise would have a major negative impact upon the people closest to them. If you are a representative of one of these groups, or if you are an adult of any persuasion who is uninsured for one reason or other, consider life insurance for the people in your life who matter most.
