Remembering Sebastian: Life Lessons Close to Home
September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. I made light in a previous post about how there is an awareness month for just about everything and, until recently, I truly believed that life insurance awareness month was just another marketing opportunity to sell more policies. However, today I’m going to share a very personal story and why I will now use it as a way to amplify the message that you must have at least some type of life insurance in place. It has been said before, and here I will reiterate, that you don’t buy life insurance for yourself… you buy it for the ones you love. Additionally, I think that we all get hung up on the idea that we need to have a full estate plan in place before we look at these sorts of things. I’m going to discuss a few things that can be done right away that don’t need the expense of hiring an estate attorney to draw up documents.
We can’t predict the future, we can only prepare for it
On July 30th this year, my 38-year-old brother died suddenly due to an undiagnosed medical condition. We are all extremely heartbroken and his wife and son are now left with sorting out how to move on without him. Unfortunately, he was the sole breadwinner in the household and, although we had multiple conversations about his need for life insurance, we were never able to complete the process before he passed.
Although this tragedy would, most likely, have not been avoidable, having the protection that life insurance offers in place would have drastically changed the story now. There is a period of grieving that everyone must go through after an unexpected tragedy of this magnitude and the last thing my sister-in-law should be concerned about is how to make the next mortgage payment. In this business, we always say that we never want to see a GoFundMe account set up for someone. Life insurance is less expensive than most people think and is easier than ever to put in place. There should be no excuse not to have one. With that said, I was forced to do the one thing I said I never would do, and that was set up a GoFundMe account.
Plan for any eventuality
The icing on the cake here is my brother had titled all the assets in his name only and did not have a will. I don’t think many people realize the importance of having their homes and cars titled correctly. The implications here are massive. All the assets that were held in my brother’s name only, now revert to his estate and will be tied up in the probate process which could take a year or more. If the house and car were titled in both their names, it would have avoided probate, and my sister-in-law would have had the ability to do whatever she needed with them.
I share all of this to emphasize the importance of doing some initial estate planning. The fact is that the majority of people don’t need to pay huge sums to an estate attorney to draw up detailed estate plans. Your bank accounts, retirement plans, insurance policies, investment accounts, and health savings accounts all need to have named beneficiaries on them. And when your insurance agent asks you to do a beneficiary review, please take them up on it. Our lives change and our needs change, and it is very much in your interest to make sure you check these on an annual basis.
Protect your family
Make sure you establish your directives and ensure your family’s needs will be met. This is where a will would be helpful. Again, you don’t need to spend a fortune here. If you have a larger and more complex estate, then you absolutely should hire an estate attorney to help. There are good services out there that can help you put a simple will in place with the main aspects being naming an executor, and maybe most important, a guardian for your children and detailing your wishes for their care. And, once again, make sure you have enough life insurance! Here is a life insurance needs calculator to help you. Some insurance companies even offer these online services as part of the life insurance policy.
Finally, don’t forget the importance of having your medical directives known. An advanced medical directive will give you the peace of mind that if something were to happen to you and you were unable to make decisions for yourself, your wishes will still be conveyed. The whole process of putting these planning vehicles in place will take minimal time, but are worth the sacrifice of your weekend afternoon, I promise.
Whatever you do, do something.
We are very private people, and this is very difficult to share. I believe if we can help just a few people avoid the pain that my brother’s family is going through right now, then sharing this story was worth it. Remember, there has never been a widow that wishes there was less life insurance. I don’t care if you buy from us or you go to your State Farm agent, get life insurance, and get a lot of it. We’re here to help. Whether you need life insurance or just want someone to review what you have, please call us. If we can’t help, perhaps we can steer you to someone who can.
