Protect Your Future Family

I am a reasonably young guy, 29, in the insurance business. I tend to network with a lot of other professionals that are still in the early stages of their career.  For my generation, Gen Y, major life changing events tend to be happening later.  Marriage, Kids, House Buying all seem to be taking place late 20′s or early 30′s for this generation as compared to my parents who were Married with Children (hilarious show) and a house at 21 (I have no statistical backing for my generational hypothesis, just a personal observation based on my experiences in the 518).

So what?

So, with Gen Y pushing back events such a marriage, kids, etc in exchange for career, education, traveling they are also pushing back the accumulation of financial assets that will provide protection to themselves and their future family when time comes.

At 21 years old, what did my Father do to protect his wife and baby child… He bought Life Insurance.  Yep, he went to his Independent Insurance Agent, who also handled his Home and Auto Insurance, and took out a Life Insurance policy.

My conclusion for better or worse is that Gen Y, more so than earlier generations, in the early stages of adulthood, is more focused on career, on goals, on hobbies, on their own life then starting and growing the traditional American family.  Please don’t get me wrong I’m not knocking this lifestyle.  What I’m saying is that just because you’re pushing family creation till tomorrow doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare to protect that family today.

If this idea has any merit, if I am not completely full of “it”, then how do I convince this generation of late settle-downers that it is necessary to put the financial protection pieces in place (life insurance and long-term disability insurance) before that family is even considered?

Seriously, I’m asking…

Say what you want about obesity in America the fact is we are living longer.  The average life expectancy of an American citizen increases every year (Don’t believe me check out the U.S. Census Bureau). Here is another fun chart from the U.S. Census projecting how many years you have to live based on your current age Years Remaining Before You Die.

How to Protect Your Future Family?

The answer is Universal Life Insurance… I know what your saying, “Oh geez, another Life Insurance Pitch… I don’t need Life Insurance. I don’t have anything to protect…”

Yes, I get it, right now you may not have anything to protect and at this stage in your life getting punched in the head probably sounds better than making monthly life insurance payments.  However, some day you most likely are going to have a family, or someone you care about and you’re going to want to protect them. At that point, you are going to punch YOURSELF in the face when you realize the lost opportunity of not purchasing protection at a young age.

I’m not going to get into the nuts and bolts of Universal Life Insurance (UL), (there are thousands of articles out there just Google).

Basically UL provides:

• Death benefit,
• Guaranteed interest rate investment product,
• Coverage past age 80,
• Flexible payment options.

This is a product that is right up Gen Y’s alley! Gen Y loves options and flexibility and that is exactly what Universal Life provides.  You die, your beneficiary gets the Death Benefit tax free.  You don’t die and need cash for House, Kids College, Unforeseen Event, you have an accumulated cash account growing at a guaranteed yearly rate.  You have a lean income year and can’t make the full payment, no problem UL is ok with that.  You want to provide a benefit for your kids if you live past 80, UL is all over it.

So my question to you is why wouldn’t a universal life policy be part of your personal insurance program?

Disclaimer:

This article is for informational purposely only. There is no legal advice being suggested or proffered and the author assumes no responsibility or liability for the actions take or not taken by the readers based upon such information.

Thank you,

Ryan H.

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