Employment, Life Insurance and Your Client's Legacy

What You Need to Know

Family is everything.
Employment comes and go.
Family security should not come and go.

As the saying goes, family isn’t just an important thing, it’s everything.

During a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has wrapped its arms around families worldwide for nearly two years, the insurance industry has seen immediate and extended family units make strides to care for and protect loved ones in unprecedented forms.

There’s been a collective shift in priorities, habits, and the perception of life insurance as an afterthought for many. Life insurance agents, brokers and consultants can ride this changing perception to help their clients.

This is what you need to tell clients who think life insurance isn’t for them…

While masks, hand sanitizer, and vaccination cards are becoming the new normal for our workforces, so too, is life insurance as a means to ensure financial security.

Despite rebounding unemployment rates and the great resignation exacerbating the current workforce development crisis, new entrepreneurs and transitioning employees have families who need protecting, too.

The fact is, life insurance is an investment in your customer’s future no matter who their employer is because:

Employment status is fluid, but life insurance coverage should be constant.
Life insurance is available for all types of workers and the unemployed.
Entrepreneurship and life insurance go hand-in-hand with a legacy mindset.

Choosing the right life insurance plan is about more than covering final expenses. It should also be about creating generational wealth for your customers’ loved ones.

Life Insurance Is for the Living

Those clients who value the importance of life insurance are thinking about the legacy they’ll leave behind. No one likes to talk about their demise, but everyone wants to leave something to improve the quality of life for those they leave, to cherish their memories.

That same thinking is what has led to the rise in entrepreneurship and self-employment in the last year, with more than 4 million applications filed to start new businesses in 2021 through September.

Millions of people likely started these new companies because they wanted to leave their mark; to make a difference. They are in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families, and if that is the case, it seems like life insurance would be a smart part of that strategy.

Starting a business isn’t easy. It takes perseverance and tenacity. With the right life insurance policy, your clients can ensure that their family will see the benefits from their hard work even after they’re gone.

Employment Status Should Not Dictate Insurance Status

Often, people let their employment status determine their life insurance coverage. Most employees have life insurance through their jobs, so when they leave, some don’t know they can get life insurance on their own.

Taking financial risks, such as exiting the workforce altogether, or embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship, can seem unstable, scary, and unknown, resulting in budgets tightening on things deemed “extra.”

What many need to realize is that life insurance is necessary — no matter where people are in their career trajectory.

Life Insurance is a Tool

Life insurance is a wealth tool for everyone. Here’s an example agents can share with clients that proves this point — it’s the story of a hardworking single mother of three making $38,000 a year. Even with the struggle of putting food on the table and making sure her children were provided for daily, she set aside enough money to invest in a $500,000 life insurance policy. When she passed away, her family was able to use that money to better their lives. They paid for college; they bought property; they made investments and dramatically changed their wealth class thanks to their mother’s foresight.

Life insurance is a way for your clients to leave loved ones in a better financial situation. It is a way to leave behind a lasting legacy.

Is it a financial choice? Yes. Is it also an emotional decision? Absolutely.

It is also an opportunity that should be addressed thoughtfully with an insurance professional that will take all client needs, today and in the future, into consideration.