Are financial advisors neglecting life insurance?

Life insurance is an important piece of a retirement blueprint, but only half-49 percent-of U.S. adults who have a financial advisor and a financial plan have spoken to their advisor about adding life insurance to their portfolio. That’s the finding of an online survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Saybrus Partners, Inc., a life insurance partnership and subsidiary of the Phoenix Cos., Inc.

In another important finding, 47 percent of those surveyed who employ an advisor and have life insurance said their advisor never reviewed their existing life insurance policy with them.

Kevin Kimbrough, national sales manager with Hartford, Conn.-based Saybrus Partners, said in a statement detailing the survey that by not discussing life insurance, advisors “are missing an opportunity to fill a critical gap in some existing financial plans while at the same time differentiating themselves and expanding their practices.”

A third, or 34 percent, reported that their advisor had advocated in the past two years that they add some form of life insurance to their financial plan, with 24 percent advised to include life insurance specifically. Only 10 percent said their advisor recommended long-term care insurance.