​Let's face it, insurance is your hedge against the uncertainties that life throws at us. The following stories, although tragic, become less so because of the care and planning that these individuals put into safeguarding their families in the event of death or disability. They represent some of the truly critical reasons why insurance is such an important part of a comprehensive financial plan.

Life Insurance is designed to provide income and lump sum monies to your family should you pass away prematurely.  My third year in the life insurance business, I sold 3 small policies, these policies were sold one per year for three consecutive years, to a salesman in the Pittsburgh area.  We will call him Rich.  

Rich sold building supplies and traveled the tri-state area by car.  He spent many hours in his car and travelled from business to business selling his products.  Rich had a wife and a young child at home.  He also had an ex-wife and a 8 year old daughter to his prior marriage.  When we last met he wanted to be sure that one of his three life insurance policies had his 8 year old daughter as the beneficiary so that if anything happened to him, her college would be partially covered.  he then wanted the two new policies to have his current wife and young daughter as the beneficiaries so that if anything happened to him, they would have income to replace his lost income.
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Unfortunately this story has an unhappy ending because two days after I sold the third policy to Rich--he was killed on state road Route 51 by a drunk driver.  It was 4pm in the afternoon and Rich was travelling between business appointments.  I received the call from his good friend on a Saturday night to inform me of the tragedy.  The happy ending to the story, if that is possible, is that his eight year old daughter did receive monies to be invested for her future college tuition.  His current wife and child did receive monies which helped them pay for burial costs, allowed them to keep their home and also provide income for the next twenty years.  Proper planning really paid off for those that Rich left behind.