6 Reasons We’re Grateful for Life Insurance

The holiday season is a time to slow down and reflect on what’s meaningful in life. A good place to start is by looking at your life insurance policy. After all, life insurance usually connects with the people and plans that are closest to our hearts. 

If one of your Thanksgiving traditions is going around the table sharing what you’re grateful for this year, feel free to use these ideas as a jumping-off point to consider the good things your policy may help protect, too. And please pass the cranberry sauce!

1. A Home Full of Memories

Home is the backdrop for so many important milestones. Our baby’s first steps, our kids’ growth chart on the wall, family dinners, first days of each new grade. We celebrate, relax, argue, make up and create our own sense of family, whether that’s a van full of kids or a childfree couple (and maybe a dog).

Experts recommend including debts like your mortgage in the equation to decide how much life insurance coverage you need. That way, you can feel confident that your family could stay in a beloved home, even if they lost you. While mortgage insurance exists to cover the mortgage specifically, a term life policy may serve some families better.

2. Our Favorite Dishes

Fill in the blank: Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without…

Stuffing, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, pumpkin pie, maybe plantains or spring rolls? Gathering at the table is a time to celebrate the people who put in the time and effort to prepare our favorite treats.

Maybe the chef du jour is your adult child, whom you still help support financially. Maybe it’s you, and you’re conscious of how much your family depends on you not just for food but for the income you contribute. Or maybe it’s someone in your family who chooses not to work. Stay-at-home partners can get life insurance even if they don’t contribute a paycheck to the family. The point of a life insurance policy isn’t to replace income, but to help stand in for the financial contribution you provide for your family, whether that’s earning wages or providing valuable care at home to build traditions together. 

3. Loved Ones

How you celebrate a holiday is never as important as who you celebrate it with. Gathering together is a meaningful time to catch up on each other’s lives and gain new appreciation for the quirks that make your family special (you mean not everyone plays a kazoo chorus when the turkey comes out of the oven?).

Your family doesn’t need to fit a certain mold to benefit from having life insurance coverage. Anytime you have someone who depends on you financially, you have good reason to plan how to provide for them if you pass away. Married couples should consider policies to look out for each other. Single people may have kids, parents or relatives who depend on them. And parents should consider how life insurance can help back up their plans and dreams for their children.

4. Your Health

If you are fortunate enough to be in excellent health, take a moment and allow yourself to feel your joy and gratitude. For most of us, health fluctuates throughout our life. This holiday season, you might be feeling grateful for your physical or mental health or encouraged by progress or support from healthcare providers. Or, health may be a source of worry, pain and stress, and you may reach appreciate the holiday season as a time to find comfort and community with your loved ones.

One reassuring aspect of a life insurance policy is that, once your coverage starts, your policy doesn’t change because of health issues. If you’re approved and start a policy in a “standard” or “preferred” class, that stays the same even if you develop health conditions down the road, for as long as your policy is active.

People in excellent health may be extra grateful that some life insurance companies offer a no-exam option to apply. Skipping a medical exam and using accelerated underwriting may help you get approved for a policy almost instantly. (Here are some pros and cons of no-exam life insurance.)

If you have some medical conditions, you may be grateful that a preexisting condition doesn’t have to cut you off from life insurance coverage entirely. 

5. A Chance to Give Back

In most cases, people name a loved one as the primary beneficiary of their life insurance policy. People generally look to life insurance as a way to pay for a home, college plans, debts or other needs and plans their family may have. But that’s not the only way to use a life insurance policy. Some people also see life insurance as a way to give back to a cause they care about.

Many life insurance companies allow you to name a charitable organization as a beneficiary (or split a death benefit between a charity and other beneficiaries). It can feel good to know you have a plan to leave a legacy with a charity that’s meaningful to you. This can also be one way to teach through your actions and help encourage your kids to be active givers.

6. Help with Peace of Mind

Peace isn’t always easy to come by. Our own lives are already busy with errands, chores and plans. Reading about tragedies in our wider communities and the world weighs heavily on anyone’s heart.

A holiday season is a time of celebration, but also a time to remember people desperately in need of peace. However busy you are, it’s good to pause, count the good things in your life and think of any small way to help spread light to someone else. If a life insurance policy has helped give you peace of mind over how you protect your family, let that be a source of security for you and maybe inspiration to take action for peace in your community, as well.

Wherever you are and however many chairs surround your table this year, we wish you a Thanksgiving of peace, plenty and joy.

Fabric exists to help young families master their money. Our articles abide by strict editorial standards.

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