An Ode to Life Insurance
April 5, 2018 by Bethany Mandel
When I was 16 years old, my mother died. When I was 19, my father did. For many reasons, the experiences were very different; but one of the most striking was the fact that my mother had a valid life insurance policy, and my father did not (because he wasn’t totally honest on his health disclosure forms). The payout from my mother’s policy was small, but prevented me from descending into total poverty. After my father died, his financial support obviously ceased. I spent the rest of my college experience working 40+ hours a week in order to stay in school and get my degree on time (which I did, but with a lower GPA than I would have had had I been able to actually focus on school instead juggling of two part-time jobs).
My friend Glen Asbury wrote a Facebook post today that resonated with me, and I wanted to share it here. He is an insurance agent and he wrote:
In August 2016, I met Barney for the first time. He was 73 years old and had no life insurance. He easily passed all the health questions. I wrote him a policy.
That December, I went back and wrote him another one. The following December (2017), I wrote another one. Cumulatively, I wrote him a total of $25,000. Not a ton of coverage. But for a 73-75 year old man on a fixed income, it cost a bit of a bundle.
On January 10 of this year, his wife called me to tell me she had found Barney in bed that morning, gone from a heart attack. I attended Barney’s funeral that Saturday.
We initiated the claim process for the policies the following week. All 3 policies were less than 2 years old, so they were contestable, which meant the company went through all of Barney’s health records with a fine tooth comb to make sure I told the truth when I answered his health questions.
This last Friday, I delivered the 3 death benefit checks pictured below to Barney’s widow. It was an experience I will never forget. She hugged me and told me that because of the life insurance money, she won’t have to refinance her home to pay a funeral bill.
All I could think was:
What if I hadn’t talked to Barney and asked him if he had life insurance that day when he sat in front of me, the picture of health, a year and a half ago?? Barney wasn’t even the one I went to see! It was his wife who was a Bankers Life client! What if I had weaseled out and not said anything?
Life insurance matters. Everyone should have it. We never know what tomorrow will bring.
Barney’s widow’s tale reminded me of my stepmother, and the experience she had after my father died. She did have to refinance her home in order to pay for the funeral and the mortgage; she had to go back to work as a nurse, and the only shifts available were nights, a grueling experience for a woman who physically and emotionally was gearing up for retirement, not several additional overnight shifts a week.
After we got pregnant, one of the first things I did was make sure that my husband Seth and I had life insurance. It’s a coming of age moment; the realization that we are now responsible for another life, and that responsibility extends past the grave. But I’m glad Glen shared Barney’s story; life insurance isn’t just for folks with dependent children.
