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June 10, 2010 at 08:00 PM
How is it possible that someone age 80 would still need life insurance? It may surprise you, but seniors of all ages utilize life insurance to meet their planning needs.
The need for family protection knows no age limit. And there are also age-specific needs, such as retirement planning and estate planning. However, when you’re working with older life insurance clients, there are also some guidelines you’ll need to keep in mind.
Family protection
One of the basic needs for life insurance is family protection. Usually, this means that a parent will purchase life insurance in order to provide for dependent children. Once the children are out of the house and on their own, it is anticipated that the life insurance would no longer be needed, and therefore seniors are not generally considered a viable life insurance candidate.
However, grandparents sometimes take on child-rearing responsibilities. This could happen because their adult child is divorced, at which point he or she may need some financial assistance. In this case, life insurance could be used to protect their adult child and grandchildren against the loss of that assistance.
This could also happen if their grandchildren have suffered the loss of both parents. Here, the grandparents could become the legal custodians, which would involve assuming all primary parenting responsibilities. In this case, life insurance could be used to provide the grandchildren with all the typical family protections, such as college funding.
Retirement planning
Another need for life insurance in the golden years involves “pension maximization stabilization.”
