Estate/Life Planning

Every year, a typical family may spend well over $5,000 on insurance premiums (not including health insurance): Life insurance, car insurance, homeowners insurance, umbrella coverage, smart phone insurance, etc.  What's the point of paying these premiums year after year?  These policies protect you and your family from a potentially large financial loss even if the risk of an incident happening is extremely small.  

For example, the annual premium on a 20 year $1M term life insurance policy for a 35 year old male might be $1,000.  In the unlikely event of death during the 20 year period, the insurance company will pay the named beneficiaries a death benefit of $1,000,000.  Will the insured complain he wasted $20,000 if he doesn't die during the 20 year period?  He shouldn't because the premiums paid provided him peace of mind that his family would be financially secure if were to pass away unexpectedly.

submitted by Brian J. Delaney, Esq.

I have represented many first-time home buyers.  These clients are typically very enthusiastic about purchasing their first home.  I have also helped many clients (as young as 18 years old and as old as 99 years old) with estate planning.  As you can imagine, these clients are polar opposites from my first-time home buyer clients.  I have never had a client say to me, “I’m so excited to sit down and talk about what happens to my property or my kids if I unexpectedly die or become incapacitated!”  It takes some clients months, if not years, to gather the courage to sit down and talk about estate planning.