Life Insurance: Who Cares?

While it’s daunting enough to plan for your lifetime, it’s worth it to consider what happens after that, too.

Who will provide for your stay-at-home spouse – your children?

Northwestern Mutual’s Life Insurance Awareness poll asked over 2000 adults how and why they purchase plans, shedding light on this difficult financial decision.

The poll found people often purchase life insurance as a result of marriage (32 percent), retirement planning (25 percent), or the birth of a child (22 percent) — those big life events that bring the future to the forefront.

However, many are uncertain when it comes to the use of life insurance to leverage financial security.

One third of the respondents admitted to not knowing which expenses to cover. Few factored in education or childcare expenses. And, while 52 percent purchased with the intent to provide for loved ones, only 6 percent wanted to fund an inheritance.

The good news: women are grasping the importance of life insurance without reminders like weddings and property purchases.

We’re less likely than men to have been prompted by marriage (29 percent compared to 35 percent) or home ownership (16 percent compared to 20 percent). Rather, 44 percent of women, in contrast to 33 percent of men, have life insurance planned to pay off final expenses.

Longevity calculators are useful in ballparking a plan.

And, remember, finding the right life insurance plan means protecting and providing for the future, whatever that means to you.

By Alison Loughman