Lessons on Life Insurance

“Life is short” is a saying many refer to when trying to make a big decision.  Should I buy this new fancy car? Why not, life is short! I’m not sure I can afford to take the European vacation I’ve been dreaming about.  Is it worth it? Sure, life is short after all! However, people don’t usually apply this cliché to another, very important decision.  Should I buy life insurance? And the answer is absolutely, because life is truly too short to gamble with the protection of your loved ones.  A recent survey conducted by the Life and Health Foundation for Education (LIFE) and shared in the marketwatch.com story, “What Fruit Flies Can Teach Americans About Life Insurance,” revealed that just 2% of Americans claim they plan to purchase life insurance in the next 30 days.  But, when asked if they knew they only had 30 days to live, that statistic jumped to 62%.  Marvin H. Feldman, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation claims this staggering difference shows that Americans refuse to think about the question of “when they die,” rather focusing on “if they die.”

LIFE annually releases an Insure Your Love campaign due to the extremely low number of insured in our society, and this year they’ve enlisted the help of an odd couple, Frank and Fran, who are a pair of fruit flies with a life expectancy of about 30 days.  And while the spokespeople, or spokesbugs in this case, are cute and humorous, the message is actually very serious.  According to the latest research, 70% of people claim they need more life insurance, however only 36% actually own their own policy.  The campaign focuses on three lessons that are meant to dispute the most common excuses Americans cite for not owning a life insurance plan.  Lesson one focuses on the above mentioned cliché, life is short.  It’s true that humans have a much longer life span than fruit flies, but do any of us really know when we’re going to die? Lesson two is about procrastination.  Although this habit is human nature, it’s never wise to put off big decisions, such as securing the future of your loved ones. The final lesson is about money, which is the number one excuse people use to not purchase a policy.  The statement that life insurance is too expensive is simply not true.  In fact, the cost of a basic term life plan has decreased about 50% over the last decade, making it more affordable than most think.

These lessons and more can be found through the LIFE website, but the bottom line is that the phrase, “life is short,” is very applicable to many situations, including the purchase of a life insurance plan.  Every day spent without a life insurance policy is one more day that you are gambling with the future of your loved ones.  Don’t take my word for it though, as Mr. Feldman points out, “no one understands how quickly time can fly better than actual fruit flies.”