Women and Life Insurance
– A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN LIKE PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY
When we think about pillars of a foundation in a society, there have been none more important and overlooked than women. Women have traditionally taken care of their families at the cost of their own desires, their health, and their wages but this is a role that we as a society have taken for granted. When it is all said and done, who is there to take care of the women who have taken care of us? The statistics of what happens to the health, wage, and at-risk factors for women who become caretakers are staggering and to be frank, completely unfair. Women, on average, will live 20.6 years after the age of 65! Nearly 2 in 10 women will need more than 5 years of long term care. It also does not help that women have 32% lower retirement savings when compared to men and all these statistics get worse and worse. Women have 39% higher health cost, 70% of nursing home are women and women over the age of 65, double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s than men. On average, women will live past their husbands for 15 years, making 32% women over the age of 65 widows.
Today’s women are equal contributors to the finances of their households and have begun to take a more active role in financial decision-making. While this is true, women make up for a very small amount of life insurance policies being bought for themselves. We have seen an almost 4% drop in personal life insurance ownership in life insurance when comparing the years 2018-2019. I believe that there is a discussion not taking place. Traditionally, we think that the bread earner should be the insured of a life insurance policy but if women are starting to become main bread earners, then women should consider a life policy for themselves.
We think traditionally that men should be the insured and women being the beneficiary but we are seeing households where the opposite is increasingly becoming the reality but there has not been a shift in policy ownership changes. There are life policies out there that will help take care of women’s needs in a form of long-term care or a tax-free benefit in a form of life insurance policies and the husbands being the beneficiaries. Life insurance in this era, has changed drastically. We no longer are looking for policies to be used when we pass on but for policies for us to utilize while we are still alive. Get in touch with your life producer and make sure to get ask how life insurance may help you better form a plan for the difficulties of the future.
Author: Richard Wang
