Life Happens, a NAIFA Community, is trying to get the life insurance marketing and education team back together for the annual Life Insurance Awareness Month campaign.
Campaign organizers work together to reach the 102 million U.S. adults who need life insurance, or more life insurance.
One key target is members of Generation Z, or adults ages 18 to 27. About 73% said in 2024, in response to a survey organized by Life Happens and LIMRA, a financial services research organization, that they think they should have life insurance. This year, however, only 42% told Life Happens and LIMRA that they actually did have life insurance.
About 36% of the youngest survey participants said life insurance is too expensive. That could be partly because, when asked about the median cost of life insurance, they came up with figures that were about 10 to 12 times more expensive than the actual median cost.
What it means: Some consumers who could lock in low prices for life insurance today may develop serious health problems and become uninsurable by the time they get serious about buying life insurance.
More will lose a chance to use a cash-value policy to earn compound interest.
The obstacles: Steve Sperka, a vice president at Thrivent, talked about efforts to reach members of Generation Z in a recent email interview.
He sees members of Generation Z facing major obstacles to buying life insurance.
The forces working against Gen Z financial wellness include soaring housing and education costs, student loan debt, investment market volatility and economic uncertainty, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sperka said.
"These factors have led Gen Zers to be cautious about purchasing life insurance, especially as they focus on prioritizing more immediate financial needs," he said.
Members of Gen Z are also starting families later in life, and that's reducing their immediate life insurance needs, he said.
The solution: Sperka said he thinks the industry can still do more to connect with members of Gen Z and help young Gen Z consumers act on their life insurance purchasing intentions.
"By providing education earlier, we can show how life insurance can help them achieve their financial goals at different stages of life," he said.
At Thrivent, he said, agents present life insurance as a key part of a holistic financial strategy.
Another way to make sure young adults will know about life insurance is to persuade parents, grandparents and other relatives to give juvenile life insurance policies to the family of a young child as a gift, Sperka said.
"By the time they reach adulthood, it's grown into a larger policy," Sperka said.
The cash can serve as the foundation for a financial plan, and the experience of seeing the cash value of a life insurance policy can teach a child lessons about saving, the power of compound interest and the idea of using insurance to manage risk, he said.
Life Happens: Life Happens is asking supporters to promote life insurance awareness by talking about that on social media feeds.
Agents with Farmers Insurance, for example, are reposting Life Happens messages such as "Life Insurance Awareness Month may be in September, but financially protecting your family's future is a year-round responsibility."
Advisors with Edward Jones are already using the awareness month, a little early, to persuade LinkedIn users to try a life insurance needs calculator. "It's Life Insurance Awareness Month, but how do you know if you have enough coverage to provide for your family?" the firm's advisors are asking. "Get an estimate with our calculator."
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