I just had a very nice lunch with my insurance agent. He wanted to get together to ask me some questions about my experience surrounding Chad's passing. He will use our interview in a new letter to help sell life insurance. I was more than happy to pass along anything I may have learned. I soon realized that I would like all my family and friends to get the same information. So, this is me on my soap box about life insurance and maybe a few other things:).When Chad started working at ARUP ~ 6 year ago, we had the world at our feet. We both had 4 year degrees, careers in excellent companies, and our only care about the future was that we wanted to create it. So, Chad signed up for a life insurance policy of $100,000. That seemed like a large sum of money, so we went with it. Three years after getting this policy, Chad is diagnosed with liver cancer at the age of 33. Wow, we were not prepared for that news. About 18 months after Chad's diagnosis, ARUP changes life insurance companies. The new company offers a no questions asked $50,000 boost to your current policy, so we jump at the opportunity and increase Chad's policy. Then, 6 months later, I give birth to twins. We now have 4 mouths to feed, a new mortgage (oh, yeah, we moved a few times, too!), and pharmaceutical and medical bills coming out the wazoo! Turns out, the only chemo that was even hopeful for us was $4600/mo! Insurance helped to lower it to $750 a month, but we still couldn't afford that, so we applied for assistance through the manufacturer of the chemo and had it taken to $250/mo. Still a lot for us since I cut my hours back to 10-15 hrs/wk. At this point, we are still hanging on, but so much for that extra money in savings, or paying down any bills. During the summer of 2009, Chad's health continues to decline and the chemo is no longer keeping the cancer at bay. Chad passed away on September 21, 2009. It may seem odd, but it came as a surprise to me. I still had hope that Chad would make it a few more years.
Okay, so the point of all this rambling is to get you to realize that we didn't see any of this coming before Chad was sick, when we could have done anything about a life insurance policy. I want all of you to take a moment and think about all of your bills, debt, and hopes for your family: mortgage, student loans, cars, credit cards, heat, electricity, insurance (health, home, car), phone, medical expenses, trips, new car needed down the road, home repairs, music/dance/sports, retirement, etc. Now that you have thought about it, how much life insurance is enough? Don't forget that if you cash out the policy, it will be because of a death, so you will need to pay for a funeral and most likely some medical bills.
All I know is, my work just changed life insurance companies, and they capped the allowable amount at $180,000. Let's just say you purchased this policy and this is how it was spent: $15,000 funeral; $1,500 medical; $10,000 car; $15,000 student loans; $20,000 credit card debt; that leaves ~$118,500 for you to refinance your house or buy a place. Not much in today's market, and there is also nothing left for savings for emergencies or college funds. I was able to sign up for a policy that is more than double what we had for Chad for ~$35/mo. All it took was a call to my agent (who also sells me my car and home insurance), a medical exam (they came to my house, so convenient), and my signature on a few papers.
Please, please, please look at your policies and make sure that they are enough. If you don't have one, then get one!
