Love Insurance
by Lauren Lanni
Lanni Insurance of California
Not very many people ask me, “Why should I buy life insurance?” I find that, in general, they already know the answer. It’s the reason they hurry home every day from the office, or why they get up in the morning when they’re just too tired. The answer to my question might bake them an ever so slightly off-center birthday cake, or wake them with pancakes in bed on Father’s Day.
But for those out there who still don’t know, I’ll tell you.
It’s your family.
Life insurance often protects your family in conjunction with a goal or a dream you have in mind. For some people that dream is owning their own home, for others it’s raising their children and putting them through college, for still others it’s caring for extended family members or beloved pets. For David and I the dream is our agency.
When we first opened Lanni Insurance in 2008, we knew that owning our own business would be the biggest dream of our lives and at the same time the biggest challenge we’d ever faced. And that just one of us couldn’t make a go of it alone, especially if that one was grieving. So we made sure that if something were to happen to one of us, the one who was left alone would be as protected by the other as possible. And we took out a life insurance policy on each of us.
There are other reasons to buy life insurance, reasons that not everyone is aware of. And they too have to do with love.
Americans give almost $300 billion to charities every year. It’s part of our national character. We do it because the rugged outdoorsman in us wants to protect the mountains we’ve climbed. We do it because we want to return the immense love our pets give us by giving other animals the chance to love other people. We do it because someone helped us when we needed it, whether it was a prayer from our church family or a neighborhood donation drive for an ill child.
Because we’ve gotten, we want to give back.
One of the ways to leave a legacy of love is with charitable giving through life insurance placed into a trust.
Yet another reason is to help family members cope with the death of a loved one and keep the remaining family intact.
We have a client whose husband had passed leaving her all his assets. His grown daughter was hurt because she felt she had been effectively disinherited in favor of her stepmother. Because of the strong love my client felt for her late husband and for her stepdaughter, she purchased a separate life insurance policy on her own life to benefit her stepdaughter. She didn’t need to do it, but this act of love cemented their relationship and gave her stepdaughter closure on the passing of her dad.
So this Valentine’s Day when your sweetheart gets a box of her favorite Godiva chocolates, when your husband opens the watch he didn’t notice you saw him try on, when your children get teddy bears hugging big pink hearts, think about another type of gift – a gift they may not need soon, but when they do need it, it will feel a whole lot like love.
2012 Lauren Lanni
All Rights Reserved (Please link but don’t copy.)
