It’s a service that you’ll see advertised to you from the moment you are considered a financially responsible adult – and before this, it was advertised to your parents as they entered the job market and started to build up their lifetime of financial assets.
If you are over the age of 21, life insurance will have been advertised to you at least a handful of times. But do you know why it matters?
Life insurance is something that everyone realizes they should have, but it’s also something that most people end up taking for granted.
If you don’t have life insurance, you might consider it a wasted expense that you’ll think about someday – and if you have an existing life insurance policy, when last did you check the terms and conditions to see exactly what your individual policy covers?
The truth is that life insurance is as important to your financial well-being as your paycheck or bank account.
It’s true that people tend to think of vehicle and home insurance a long time before they set out to imagine the importance of life insurance – and that’s assuming they think about the subject at all.
Vehicles are a tangible, touchable thing. You can see it, you can touch it, you can get behind the wheel and drive it.
Life is a little different, and this might be why people seldom think of life insurance first.
Vehicle insurance keeps your vehicle safe against the possibility of damages, but don’t forget that life insurance can do the same for your life in the event of an emergency.
Life insurance is one type of insurance that nobody can afford to be without.
Everyone wants to leave a legacy one day. People imagine that their legacy or inheritance will one day be left over in the form of cash, assets or companies – but life insurance is another type of asset that is seldom thought about.
If something were to happen to you – in this case, the holder of the policy – life insurance stipulates that a certain amount (usually with some individual added benefits) is paid out to the beneficiaries.
Without life insurance, you’re not leaving a legacy: You’re leaving a potential nightmare of bills, accounts and loose ends for those you love the most. Sometimes this leads to legal costs and delays that adds thousands of dollars and years worth of time that your loved ones could have done without.
Instead, with an adequate life insurance policy in place, you’re able to give your family and friends the gift of being able to go on after you’re no longer there.
Life insurance isn’t there to lessen the trauma that might be associated with a traumatic event, but it can lessen the overall impact on your family when it comes to finance.
Having a policy in place (or not) has a dramatic and direct impact on how your financial health is viewed by larger institutions – especially ones like banks, credit unions and credit providers.
A credit score takes a look at several different factors in order to determine your financial number. This credit score tells financial institutions facts about your financial health – whether you’ll pay back credit on time, whether you have general financial difficulty and whether you are a financially rounded adult.
Insurance means that you are viewed as more responsible by credit institutions. If you have life insurance in place, this acts as a form of “collateral” to the bank or credit provider in the event of emergencies that could affect repayment.
What this really means is that individuals with life insurance are viewed as more financially responsible overall – and means you could be more likely to qualify for the next credit you try to get.
If you don’t have cover in place, then now might be the perfect time to get it.
It doesn’t matter which stage of your life you might be at, life insurance is always a healthy financial step in the right direction.
Should you already have life cover in place, then now might be the time to contact your insurance company to view your terms and conditions.
The terms and conditions of your insurance tells you which circumstances your insurance policy pays out to, and to whom; the same terms should also be able to tell you if there are any exceptions to the rule.
Always read the terms and conditions and encourage others to do the same.
Life insurance isn’t something that you end up doing just for yourself or your own financial benefit.
One of the most important things to remember about life insurance is that it’s actually meant for those around you.
It can be difficult to find your feet again after the death of a loved one. More than traumatic, it also means that a single person is suddenly left with expenses that they might not even have known the household had up until that point – and sometimes, even a mountain of debt to pay off.
Life insurance can make it easier for your loved ones to find their strength and financial well-being again after you’re gone.
This becomes a large part of the reason why you should recommend life insurance to others around you.
Every to-do list out there has an opposite: What not to do.
In the case of getting life insurance, here are some of the pitfalls to avoid at all costs:
Some life insurance policies include a clause on missed payments that can void your entire coverage amount if enough payments are missed without fixing it. Find out what your insurance policy states on this – and make sure you never skip a life insurance payment when you can help it!
Always read through the terms and conditions before signing your name. It's your right to ask for an explanation to any terms requiring your signature – and if it need be, you're even allowed to take a contract home with you in order to give it a fresh look in the morning.
Insurance policies have exceptions to what they cover; this is usually mentioned in the terms you signed when accepting the policy. Never assume that you're insured for something specific when you haven't seen it stated in your contracted terms. There are thousands of people who assume their policy has them covered only to find out that it doesn't – at least, not in the way they thought. Always check!
When buying groceries, you wouldn't choose the first item on the shelf without any thought whether you were buying tomato sauce or vitamins. Why do many people choose to do this when it's time to pick out their life insurance? It's always your right as a consumer to look around and consider your options – and it's the first thing you should recommend to others, too.
If someone has ever mattered to you, then they could benefit from more information about life insurance – and a nod in the direction of a policy that could be right for them and the needs of their loved ones.
For every person you meet today, a great deal of those people will not have the necessary life insurance in place and might leave their family and loved ones behind as a result – even if they don’t realize it.
IF you care about those around you, passing on life insurance to them could be one of the greatest gifts that you ever give
Life insurance is for everyone who has someone to care about.
This means that individuals like us have a responsibility to point others in the direction of responsible financial choices that might impact them and their families – and which all eventually impact the larger world we live in.
If you would like to make a difference, consider signing up with a reputable insurance agent and help others to seek out the right life insurance policies for their needs. Not only does it help them, but it can also prove to help you by providing a solid side-income in terms of the policies that you sign up.
There’s a persistent myth in the insurance industry that only insurance agents are allowed to sell life insurance – but in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone can find the right life insurance plan for a family member, friend or acquaintance and say, “Hey, I think this might be right for what you need.”
As long as you are able to explain the basics of life insurance and why people should find it important to sign up, you can pass life insurance on.
if you would like to learn how to pass life insurance to others, the first thing to learn is the basics of terms and conditions.
It’s not as hard as it might seem: All you’ll need to do is take a closer look at some basic life insurance policies – and simply, learn what the most vital terms within these conditions mean to the people interested in the plan. Learning how to explain these terms isn’t difficult – but it is important.
If someone happens to ask you exactly why this specific life insurance policy should matter to them, what’s your answer going to be?
Being familiar with terms and conditions is an easier way to give them the right answers.
Connect with the right insurer and it will make your job a whole lot easier. There are many insurance providers that allow for third-parties to pass on their policies to others, but you want to make sure that you’re working with one of the industry leaders – and this, of course, means that you’ll have the best benefits as a result.
When you find the right insurance company, you’ll know it.
Until this point, make phone calls, ask questions, send e-mails: Before passing an insurance policy or company to anyone else, make sure that you’re familiar with it yourself!
If you’ve managed to connect with the right insurance company, it should be a breeze from here.
Life insurance is one of the best things you can pass on.
Help others find life insurance and you’ll do a lot more than just help one person: You’ll help their entire family – and you might be helping an entire generation of people to find their feet just because you helped someone make the right choice at the right time.
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