Seriously? Life insurance is a great way to pass down wealth?? Depending on your situation, your life insurance will barely pay for the funeral. What, do you think everyone can afford million dollar policies for 'a few measly dollars a month'? Sorry to dissapoint, but teaching people to wait for their family to die is a horrible way to 'pass on wealth'.
Yeah, the rest was fairly coherent, but that one threw me as well. Life insurance tends to fall into the same category as most optional 'insurances' for me - you end up paying out considerably more then you get back.
That said, for those with children, I can understand the purchase. Overall it's very circumstantial.
That is what insurance is for, the unforeseen instances in your life. You may pay out what appears to be a significant sum, but what if something happens to you? Life insurance should be something people think about.
1. Student loans: There was a story floating around of how a family co-signed on loans for a child and then were on the hook for said child when they passed away.
2. Family: If you have a kid, get life insurance. You should have the ability to leave the living with a sum of money to ease the burden of your absence. This means the loss of income and life adjusting to a one-parent family, not meaning that there is a pile of money to blow.
Do not say it is not affordable, grab a term policy that gets you to 65 and then be comfortable knowing that you have one less thing to think about.
For those who claim it is too expensive, a million dollar , 30 year term-policy for non-smokers is as follows:
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| Age | Sex | Monthly Cost |
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| 25 | Male | $55 |
| 35 | Male | $66 |
| 45 | Male | $160 |
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| 25 | Female | $45 |
| 35 | Female | $55 |
| 45 | Female | $120 |
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I am using this as a public service announcement, get life insurance.
I totally agree and I have a life insurance policy through my work, plus an additional one I pay for. Not 1m dollar policy, but decent and cheap (i'm a smoker). However, my qualm with the article is that it talks about this as passing down wealth.
I dont consider life insurance 'wealth'. Its a safety net that nobody should look forward to, but unfortunately a lot of people do. My wife has a wealthy grandmother and every one of her children are all drooling at the moment she passes away. I can't stand all the end of life bickering that goes on and the way I read this article sounds like it would perpetuate that more.
From seeing how rabid her family gets about money, I would rather be poor than deal with all the greed involved with such large policies. I believe that a policy large enough to pay off the deceased's debt and leave some extra money to help support the family is fine, but way overshooting for too large of a policy is asking for trouble. Backstabbing, lawsuits, etc.
Sorry for the rant. I just regularly hear my wife talk about all the selfishness her aunts and uncles display constantly and I cant stand it.
Well, life insurance, by definition, means you pay more than YOU get back :P. Agreed. I'd say it's a better bet invest the same amount in index funds than life insurance.
>>Sorry to dissapoint, but teaching people to wait for their family to die is a horrible way to 'pass on wealth'.
Sorry to dissapoint, but inheritance is how a lot of wealth gets passed around generations. No one 'waits' for their family to die, but they will eventually. That given, on any given I would like to see my kids rich by leaving behind an inheritance.
