It’s the the holiday season: A time when we reevaluate what we have accomplished over the past year and determine what we need to do next year; a time to look at the “what ifs.” Have I spent too much? Have I saved enough? What happens if I become sick or disabled? What happens if I pass away? Will my family be protected? Will my children be able to go to college?
These are just a few of the questions we need to ask ourselves, and if we don’t like the answers, it is time to take affirmative action to correct the problem. Problems and solutions. The problems I listed in the above questions all have a solution with a definitive cost. The cost can be adjusted to your cash flow and financial condition. That’s what agents and financial advisors do—work with you to help you solve these problems. These professionals can help guide you through the decision-making process, but you must take action and implement the recommended solutions.
Think about the problems. Consider the solutions. Pick up the phone and call your agent/advisor today. If you don’t have one, you can
click here to find one in your area.
Everywhere you turn there are advertisements for back-to-school sales, and the parents I know with school-aged kids are lamenting a summer gone too quickly as well as looking forward to getting back into the school routine. And the truth is, even though my own school years are well past me, I do miss the smell of sharpened pencils around this time.
But all this talk and focus on school brings a pang as well. Working with the LIFE Foundation has great rewards, but it also brings some sadness as well. Each year we go through well over a thousand applications to the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Program, and read heart-breaking stories of young men and women whose college dreams have been put on hold because of the death of a parent or caregiver who had inadequate or no life insurance. Many of these students end up quitting school or going part time so they can work to support siblings or pay for their families’ daily necessities. The silver lining, however, is that LIFE Foundation awards 59 scholarships totaling over $100,000, which have been funded in part by generous contributions from the NAILBA Charitable Foundation and the Million Dollar Round Table Foundation.
You also have a chance to help change a life today. There are three more days to vote for who you feel is most deserving of the LIFE Foundation’s top video scholarship. You can learn more about the three finalist here, and while you are there, be sure to cast your vote for who you think should receive an additional $2,500. And I would also like to leave you with one thought. If you have people who depend on you financially, it’s your duty to make sure you have adequate amounts of life insurance in case the worst were to happen. Find out if you have enough here.
With the holidays upon us, everyone is looking for the perfect gift, especially for their children or grandchildren. US News and World Report published an article on its website listing six financial gifts you can give a child that will make future holidays even brighter than this one. Here’s a quick summary of what author Emily Brandon suggested:
A 529 plan: This is a college savings plan—either a prepaid tuition plan for a specific college or an education investment account.
A Roth IRA: If your child is working and earning an income, you can put “matching” money into a Roth IRA, up to $5,000. The money grows tax-free because your contributions were made with after-tax dollars.
A savings bond: This is great for teaching the power of compound interest and investing for the long-term.
Cash: Cash is always great! (But remember, once it is spent, it’s gone – with no lasting memory.)
Financial advice: Use a non-family financial professional. This is especially good for adult children who are trying to get their feet on the ground.
A piggy bank: A bank is an excellent first experience for putting away money instead of spending it.
What the article didn’t mention was the gift of life insurance. A policy that parents or grandparents give can become a lasting gift for the child’s financial future. It can provide cash for college, a new home, a new business or for changing family and financial need, money for emergencies when it is needed most, and protection of the child’s insurability.
Sure, there may be no need for insurance protection today, but there will be in the future. A small policy with a guaranteed policy purchase option for additional insurance in the future may be a gift that can never be duplicated if the child develops health problems.
Think about it. Would you like your grandchild to remember you forever? A gift of life insurance can do this.
Friday, September 18th, 2009 | jedwards | |
On Friday night, I was transported back in time to Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. The History Channel marked the eighth anniversary of 9/11 by airing “102 Minutes That Changed America.” It was a minute-by-minute account taken with the cameras of nine eyewitnesses to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. I turned the program on by accident and didn’t move from that spot on my hotel room bed until the program was over. The anguish and anger I felt then welled up in me all over again.
Two days later, I met someone with a much closer connection to that day, a woman named Peg Ogonowski. Her husband, John, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 that struck the North Tower. He was likely the first victim of the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history.
She and her family experienced unimaginable grief back then. But they found the strength to carry on. Peg said, “You can never get over it but you can get on with it.”
Peg and her oldest daughter, Laura, addressed an audience of 500 insurance industry professionals at the LIFE Foundation’s 14th annual realLIFEstories Client Service Award banquet. The program tells the stories of real people, and how they benefitted from insurance and the service of an insurance advisor at a time of great emotional and financial need.
Peg and her three daughters we able to get on with it with help from John’s life insurance coverage and the counsel of agent Richard Bourgault. The Ogonowskis’ realLIFEstory and three others were also featured in the Sept. 14 Newsweek magazine. You can read more about the program and the Newsweek special section at www.lifehappens.org/content/view/657/479/.
The stories remind us all that life is precious and uncertain, and that a smart insurance plan can ensure the inevitable pain that comes with disability, long-term illness or sudden death isn’t compounded by financial hardship.
Today marks the beginning of Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM), now in its sixth year. If you think about it, six years is a pretty long time to be doing the same thing over and over again. So why do we repeat the exercise? Do we really need to devote a month to raising awareness of the need for life insurance?
In a word, “yes.” (more…)
