According to The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), “Life Insurance Awareness Month was created in response to growing concern about the large number of Americans who lack adequate life insurance protection. According to LIMRA, 68 million adult Americans have no life insurance. Those who own life insurance have an average of four times their annual income in coverage, which is considerably less than most experts recommend. Held each September, Life Insurance Awareness Month is an industry-wide effort that is coordinated by the LIFE Foundation.”
According to U.S. Census data, there are nearly 300 million people in the U.S. If 68 million of them lack any form of life insurance, that means that approximately 23% of people in this country are uninsured. And of the approximately 77% of people that do have life insurance, most of them do not have adequate coverage.
This year’s Life Insurance Awareness Month spokesperson is world renowned ice skater Scott Hamilton. Here is part of his moving story from LIFE’s August 28, 2006 Press Release:
Scott was only 19 when he lost his mother to cancer. On a personal level, Scott took the loss very hard but his mother’s death also strained the family’s finances. Without his mother’s income, there wasn’t enough money to continue to pay for Scott’s training. Had it not been for the generosity of an anonymous donor, Scott would have given up the sport he loved right before his skating career was about to take off. As it turned out, the experience strengthened his resolve to achieve skating greatness and he went on to become one of the most successful skaters in the history of the sport, eventually winning gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Thirteen years later, Scott achieved an even more important victory when he successfully completed treatments for testicular cancer.
"Losing my mother and fighting my own battle with cancer taught me that unexpected events can rock your family at any time," said Scott Hamilton. "When my mom died, the emotional challenges that my family and I faced were compounded by financial struggles because she didn't have any life insurance. Because of that experience, I've owned life insurance since I was a young adult. Now that I'm married and have a son who’s almost three, I value the financial security life insurance provides more than ever."
Scott’s story illustrates why it is so important to have life insurance to protect your loved ones. Many people that do not own life insurance may not realize how affordable it can be, especially inexpensive term life insurance, which you can tailor to your personal needs.
Current rates on InsWeb for a 40 year old male of average build with good health are as low as $34.56/month for a 20-year, $500,000 policy (a comparable female’s rates are even lower; as low as $26.69/month). Policy lengths can be as short as ten years, and coverage amounts as low as $100,000, although a good rule of thumb is to take your annual gross income and multiply it by a factor of 10, 15 or even 20 (depending on your age) to make sure your family could continue in their current lifestyle.
Also, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III): “Premium rates for individual life insurance – both term life and “permanent” insurance – are expected to drop by 3% in 2006, driven largely by significant mortality improvements and increased competition.” The time to shop for life insurance couldn’t be better! And since rates vary widely from company to company, you should compare multiple rates before purchasing a policy.
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