NU Online News Service, Oct. 9, 2003, 3:04 p.m. EST – Only 28% of young widows and young widowers say they received adequate life insurance benefits when their spouses died, according to survey results released by MetLife Inc., New York.
Researchers surveyed 1,000 widows and widowers for MetLife in August. All of the survey participants had lost their spouses six months to five years earlier, and all of the deceased spouses were between age 30 and age 55 when they died.
Only 61% of the spouses received any life insurance proceeds, and only one-fifth of survey participants received proceeds greater than three times the annual income of the deceased, MetLife says.