No one really wants to talk about life insurance. Most people feel as if uttering the very words may make a black cloud suddenly form over your head. Many of our clients feel that exact same way. Over the 16+ years that O’Connor Insurance has been in business, we have paid six life insurance death benefits. While those days were grief-filled for each of those clients’ families and friends that were left behind, and us at OIA who often befriend our clients, there was some financial comfort. There was money for a funeral, burial, medical bills, and in some cases, money left to ease the financial burden of a single parent.
The darkest days at O’Connor Insurance have come when clients passed away, and they unfortunately did not have life insurance. One still haunts me personally. It was early in my agency career. A young mother that worked in the same complex where our office was located had become a new home and auto client of OIA. During our discussion, she agreed to a life insurance review. She met in my office a few additional times and we went over the life insurance proposals at length. For reasons I will never know, she did not buy the life insurance policy. Maybe she felt that it cost too much, or perhaps she didn’t feel like having blood drawn. That December I bumped into her while shopping for Christmas. She told me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer that quickly spread throughout her body and she was now facing brain cancer and had been given the horrific news she had less than 6 months to live. Tears streamed down my face as she told me about her plans to make it a Christmas her two daughters would never forget. A few months later, her husband called me with the terrible news that his wife had passed away. Later that week I learned the office complex was asking for donations towards her burial and for her girls. I had her file on my desk with the life insurance quotes still written. My stomach churned as I dropped off a donation at the office she had worked at, all while I wished I was instead driving to her house with a check for her husband.
A wise insurance trainer once told me,
“You are as young and as healthy as you will ever be today so
buy as much as you think you will want now.”
Thankfully, I have lived by that philosophy. While the thought of leaving my husband and two children gives me cold chills, I can rest easy knowing that financially they will have money for the funeral, burial, medical bills and enough to pay off our mortgage while still putting money in each child’s college fund.
September is life insurance awareness month. And you’re right, it isn’t fun to talk about; but you will rest easier once you know your family is protected. After all, life insurance is for the loved ones you leave behind. Please call our office today to discuss your life insurance 704-510-8884. Click here to learn more about life insurance.
