Life Insurance a Must in Today's World
There are millions of American households with no life insurance coverage. One reason is because of what people believe about life insurance. A "myth" is an unscientific or otherwise invalid belief. There are many myths surrounding the subject of life insurance. Here are some of the more common myths, as reported in a Roper Starch study three years ago.
- People have enough life insurance: Not necessarily. Most experts recommend purchasing life insurance equal to seven to 10 times your annual gross income. Of those households with insurance, more than half had less than three times their annual gross income in coverage.
- The majority of Americans are knowledgeable about their household life insurance needs: The majority think they are knowledgeable. The truth is many Americans find specific insurance-related questions hard to answer. Four in 10 admit they don’t know how much life insurance their household would need if the primary wage earner dies.
- Stay-at-home parents don’t earn an income, therefore they don’t need life insurance: The typical stay-at-home parent is half as likely as an employed parent to have insurance coverage. More than half of stay-at-home parents have no coverage compared to 26 percent of employed parents.
- If the primary wage earner of a family died, most people think they could make do with personal savings and the help of friends and family: Life insurance is, in fact, the single most common source of income on which people said their household would rely if the primary wage earner died. Sixty percent said they would rely on life insurance to cover living expenses, 49 percent on personal savings and investments, and 23 percent on help from friends and family.
It is my job to dispel these myths and try to make people accept responsibility for their family’s financial security. Life insurance is a fact that needs believing. TPW