I just bought a life insurance policy fifteen minutes ago. Seriously that was all it took, fifteen minutes. I freely admit that I have told clients and prospects in the past that the process of buying life insurance is just that, a process. What I have come to realize is that the process is self-inflicted. When I sat down at the computer to make my purchase, I knew what I needed; I had all my pertinent information ready to be inputted (90% of us have this information in our phones), and I knew what date and time I wanted to schedule my medical exam. Fifteen minutes later I was reviewing my electronically signed application and hit submit. Within an hour I had several notifications from the insurance carrier that my application was received and being processed.
Now I realize of course that it isn’t always that simple. Sometimes we have health challenges, or in the case of permanent insurance there may be some additional requirements that extend the application process slightly, but come on, fifteen minutes to submit my $500,000 twenty year term policy, which by the way will cost me $30 per month! There is just no excuse for not spending that time to protect your family.
So I know what you are thinking, it only took me fifteen minutes because I am an agent, and I know what I am doing. Yes that is true on both accounts, which is why you should work with an experienced agent. More importantly it is because I was prepared and ready to buy. Nobody was selling me this policy. I think that sentence is the key element to the entire life insurance purchase, so let me say it again. I was prepared and ready to buy. As an agent I can unfortunately share too many stories of clients who thought they were ready to purchase insurance only to realize that it just wasn’t as important at that exact moment as they thought. Sadly I also have far too many stories to share of people who thought they were ready to purchase insurance, decided they were not and then unexpectantly tragedy struck and their family was left with nothing but heartache and despair.
I am not trying to lecture you about the responsibility of protecting your loved ones, but am asking you to think about a day when you are no longer around, and how hard that could be both emotionally and financially on those you love. Isn’t your family worth fifteen minutes, $30 per month, and a tiny bit of preparedness?
By David Eisenberg – david@teamqis.com