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January 26, 2016 at 08:00 PM
“No Life Insurance, Help Spouse”
That’s a real headline on a GoFundMe page set up by a woman whose husband died suddenly after ziplining during a vacation in Costa Rica.
“He is still there and I am arranging for his cremation with the U.S. Embassy and need to do a memorial service, etc., and there is no life insurance for my immediate needs. … I would be so grateful to receive funds so that I may cover the bills and our financial matters, which are large as he was the main provider,” the wife says in her message on the page.
As of Jan. 22, 64 people had contributed a total of $7,495. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s certainly well short of the kind of meaningful aid that would have been provided by a life insurance policy.
In fact, according to an article on FOXBusiness, that campaign has raised more than three times the average earned by a GoFundMe funeral, tribute or memorial campaign, which it pegged at $2,200, with an average individual donation of $65, for more than 22,000 campaigns. Another fundraising site, YouCaring.com, says its average funeral-related campaign raises about $2,000. That’s far short of the $7,000-plus cost of the average funeral.
How often do you hear on the local news about a tragic death where the family of the deceased is immediately thrust into financial hardship because there was no life insurance? This type of news story typically ends with the anchor noting that a GoFundMe page or something similar has been set up to help the family.
