More Insurance aids

What you have to know is that Life insurance policies offer essential financial protection for families, especially those with school-age children, against a rare but potentially devastating event, the premature death of a household’s primary wage-earner. Yet a recent nationwide study found that the number of households covered by individual life insurance has decreased, according to the Insurance Information institute
“You need life insurance coverage if you are the primary wage earner in a household, or if someone relies on you financially,” said Michael Barry, the I.I.I.’s vice president, Media Relations. “And the premium payments are reasonable when you consider the level of protection a policyholder’s beneficiaries receive.”

According to LIMRA, its upcoming 2010 Trends in Life Insurance Ownership study indicates that 11 million U.S. households with children under the age of 18 have no individual life insurance policyholder in the family even though it’s necessary to have one. LIMRA says in the same report that individual life insurance coverage in the U.S. has hit a 50-year low.

LIMRA does note that one in four U.S. households in 2010 had a wage earner who was covered under a group life insurance policy, often secured through their employer. The economic downturn of 2008 and 2009, however, has had an impact in this area, too, because these wage earners often lose their only life insurance coverage if they become unemployed or have their work hours reduced.

In the absence of an individual or group life insurance policy, a deceased wage earner’s spouse and school-age beneficiaries may need to rely largely on Social Security survivor benefits as their main source of income.