Hi there! Welcome back to the Amber Stitt show. I am your host, Amber Stitt.
The month of September is the Life Insurance Awareness Month. And so a lot of our episodes this month are going to be focusing on life insurance.
Being a financial consultant and business strategist, I'm always looking at how to transfer risk. And so why are we looking at life insurance? There's a lot of ways to look at it. Most people are thinking, okay, funeral, expense coverage, where in case I die, I need to leave some money behind. And the truth is, life insurance isn't just for people who pass away, it's actually for people who live too. So we'll talk about how that can work even with the term life insurance policy.
We need to protect those we care about and help them pay bills, the mortgage, rent, and funds for college or retirement. Also, let's think about all the things before college for the family that you might have that's growing. What about all the things before they even hit college?
Life insurance is so much more than a funeral. And so when I say that you might be able to use this while you live, there are a few ways you can do this. And today we'll really focus on a living benefits writer.
Living Benefits can pay out a portion of your insurance if you're alive, but you need to pull money forward because of a chronic illness or a terminal illness. And so I want to keep this really high level. Not every listener lives in states that have all things. So we have to be mindful that different carriers have different writers in different states. But in general, if you inquire and you're looking for living benefits, for example, terminal illness would be an easy one to use. And there's a time frame of twelve months. And I want to pay for some medical expenses, but maybe I want to travel with my family. Maybe I want to then do something for my family to set them up for success. There is a way to advance money forward. If there's a terminal illness or chronic illness where I'm not going to recover, but I'm going to live, there might be a way to trigger some funds forward, all depending upon the levers inside the contract that you've purchased. And so we can always look to shop.
As an independent broker, we work with a handful of companies that offer this type of coverage. So thinking of this as really life insurance can also be for those who live. And so really bringing that to light, I want to share that with you.
Hopefully, this is helpful to think about. If I'm looking to cover myself, whether it's for a term, or for a period of time like my lifetime, there is a way to then grab some additional benefits and we can focus on pulling in some extra benefits that are useful while you are alive. There are options there. So, thinking about living benefits, let's look at the cost of life insurance. And so really, looking at people's views on life insurance, there's a wide range of different topics.
When we're looking at this financial insecurity that's happened post-COVID, there's an extra burden of debt and we're still trying to figure out what might be going out there. And I don't even want to get into that. I'll leave that to other financial resources as that's not the topic for today. But really, as we're looking at what is going on out there in our economy, there could be a lot of things happening. But if we're true to ourselves and how we've built up our risk management within our own homes, then we should be able to have peace of mind if things do happen.
I bring this up because the 2023 Insurance Barometer was saying there's a trend that is more prevalent among the younger generations as well as single moms. And so there's these statistics that about 60% are trending that they feel like they need to fill a gap. They truly know they don't have enough life insurance.
There's another statistic from the US Census Bureau saying 7.9 million single-mother households, there's a dire need for single moms to purchase life insurance. And so we're talking about the true cost of insurance. We have gender, we have the state we live in, and we have age. But if we don't have otherwise normal heightened weight, there could be some other factors that can take us from the best rates.
If we're delaying this just while we're healthy and well, and then there are other things that can happen, like becoming a single parent or having something else happen in life, it might be harder to get your life insurance. And so I really do look at health and having the opportunity to buy coverage at a younger healthier age, that can be helpful to have a nut. So you're not in this statistic of feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm in the 60% bracket. It's very affordable, especially when you're looking at term life insurance, to make some moves, to have that security and really bring yourself out of that 60% bucket.
We really want to look at taking advantage of our good health and starting our contracts younger if possible. A lot of us don't think we need life insurance, and so we have to look at this in a few ways. You have to find value in this product that you're buying to protect your family. We could answer questions like this Could your children rely on family to take care of things?
I come from a larger family myself, and I know that there would be help for my daughter if there was a need for my daughter if something happened to me. But is that fair to all parties involved? Thinking that family is available is, I think, a common misperception and if you passed away, your family's world would shift emotionally and financially. And so if you're relying on others to do the work for you, that's basically crowdfunding your funeral funds. And I just don't think that's okay. I don't think it's okay to rely on the fact that other family members might have their own personal financial goals. If they're taking care of your family because you're not there and you haven't provided those financial resources, this is going to be out of pocket for them. They're probably planning for just the dependence that they have and their family size that would take from their own children. Maybe their house is not big enough, but maybe you're assuming your parents could help. And I don't want to be too firm in this, but really painting the picture that if your parents are aging, how are they going to be able to help if and when they were to be responsible for the people that depend on you? So we really want to be able to provide financial resources and provide affordable solutions for everybody. Term life insurance can be one of those things that could be truly affordable. And so that's a great place to start.
Just to wrap this up, I want to leave on a positive note by taking all of these kinds of negative thought processes out and just thinking about having resilience in life. And as life throws you curveballs that's really where the pathways of peak performance were developed.
Going through five steps sorting out personal development for yourself and then focusing on money and risk management as steps two and three. It feels really good when you get everything in order and there are very cost-effective ways to organize for yourself. Some of that could strictly be talking about organizing through spreadsheets, cloud-based programs where you share information with the people that are important to you.
Getting organized takes your time, but once you do it once, it's not that hard to just add some notes there. But then as you audit life, you can find out that you might need to transfer risk with some insurance policies. Looking at that, setting it up, locking it in, and having it done, feels pretty good that you know that every time you leave the house, your family is protected because you are responsible. So as the oldest child of seven, I do take responsibility very seriously. I might be a little rigid with my responsibility. I know my husband has told me that before.
It is so important to show leadership to your family and really think about life insurance as an option, providing financial stability, and some security, but for your spouse, it's not even children. Spouses and children to help ensure that they have their long-term and immediate needs taken care of, especially if your income is there or your presence to take care of them is not there. And so really, incorporating life insurance into your budget can really provide peace of mind for you and your family. And so it's really just the right thing to do if you don't have those resources already built up. So I hope this motivates you to take an audit of your life and get a little more organized. If you haven't done so in a while, now it's time to start.
If you haven't started at all, take little steps to get there. Let us know if our team can help you. I'd always love to help you review your current policies, and group contracts, and just give you some steps that are done inside our own home as well. So I'll leave it there. I hope this was helpful to all of you. Have a great day, and thank you for listening.
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of The Amber Stit Show. For more information about the podcast, books, articles and more, please visit me@amberstit.com. Until next week, enjoy your journey at home and at work. Thank you for listening!
