Life Insurance Awareness Month

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, a campaign dedicated to the education and advocacy of life insurance. In honor of this, I want to share some thoughts on the subject, particularly why term life insurance policies can be all you need and what to keep in mind when buying a policy.

Life insurance is designed to help complete your family's financial goals if a breadwinner dies before he or she can accumulate all the money you need to fund your family's goals. Most of the time, a term life insurance policy is all you need. A term policy means that the insurance company will pay a specified amount if you die during the "term" of the policy (usually 10, 20, or 30 years). For most of us, once the kids are grown, the mortgage is paid off, or retirement is at hand, the need for life insurance goes away. Therefore, if the term of the policy ends when life insurance is no longer needed, you can simply let the policy expire.

Now, what should you look out for when buying a policy? Some people have insurance through their employer. But others will buy a policy or supplement the policy amount that they get through work. When shopping for a life insurance policy, know that an agent works for a particular insurer and will always recommend policies from their company. An insurance broker will look at your circumstances and shop a variety of carriers in hopes of finding you a policy best suited to your needs.

What about other types of life insurance? There is a wide array of expensive and complex policies out there. September is Life Insurance Awareness MonthThat sounds complicated. Can you explain it again? Are you acting as my fiduciary in this transaction? How do you get paid for helping me with this? If you're still struggling to understand your choices or want an independent viewpoint, let's have a conversation.