Why you should discuss life insurance with your family
[social_share]Life insurance is a hard subject to discuss with members of the family. It is like writing a will; it is an admission of mortality. However it is important to do this.
The first reason is to make sure that it relieves any financial worries should the insured person die. It is hard enough for most people to deal with the emotional distress when a loved one dies; it is also hard to deal with the financial dimension at the same time. Life insurance gives a breathing space to arrange a funeral and not to worry about a mortgage.
Another reason to discuss life insurance is so that relatives will know how to get access to life insurance should there be a sudden death. Like a will it is a good idea to know where everything is so that there will not be any questions later. Life insurance can often go unclaimed due to a change of address or beneficiaries not contacting the life insurance office. If people know where the life insurance policy is kept then they are more likely to know how to get hold of the life insurance, particularly if there is an issue with the way in which the insurance has been set up.
Discussing life insurance will also raise the issue of joint insurance. It may be the case that it is a good idea to either insure two people on the same policy or to have two separate policies. This is particularly the case with two income households, whether it is a married couple of a parent and child.
Another reason for discussing life insurance is that it is then possible to ask whether the right insurance has been taken out. There may be some massive assumptions that have been made about what the other members of the family are intending to do. It may be the case that children want to continue in their education or that a partner would wish to work and these have not been taken into consideration. Another thing that may not be considered is whether the partner would wish to stay in the house rather than sell the house and get a smaller place to live.
An overlooked reason for talking about life insurance is that another member of the family may have advice. It may be the case that they have also been considering this and have done research which will prove useful.
