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Women and Life Insurance
Announcer: Your Worth is brought to you by GenWorth Financial. Visit them at genworth.com.
Jacquie Chakirelis: You are listening to Family Matters, I am Jacquie.
Caroline Kruse: And I am Caroline. So Jacquie, here is kind of a personal question for you: do you have life insurance?
Jacquie: I do actually. I have a couple of different policies.
Caroline: Oh, OK. A couple of different policies? Wow.
Jacquie: Yeah well.
Caroline: Well, my husband has always had life insurance, but until recently I didn't and I think that's because many more men are the breadwinners in the family and women think that they will outlive their husbands, so maybe they feel they don't need life insurance?
Jacquie: You are right Caroline, but women today are under so much stress as wives, mothers and career; and more and more of us are care providers for our parents too and these dual roles have serious implication for women's physical and mental health.
Caroline: Joining us with what every woman needs to know about life insurance is Dr. Marjorie Keymer. Marjorie, welcome to Family Matters.
Marjorie Keymer: Thank you, nice to be with you.
Jacquie: Oh, nice of you to join us. Well, your career spans more than three decades with a lot of experience in medical practice, geriatric care, healthcare planning, topped off with leadership roles in health and insurance organizations in both Canada and the U.S. So with all that experience, tell us why should women be concerned about life insurance?
Marjorie: Well, the two of you have mentioned a number of issues that sort of come up with women, the bottom-line is: the unthinkable can happen to anyone and the unthinkable of course is untimely or early death. And it is the fundamental reason that people buy life insurance.
Life insurance can't protect your family from losing you, at least nobody can replace you, but we can actually help your family financially should you die early. And even though women don't work outside the home and are not principal family wage earners often, the impact of untimely death could be absolutely catastrophic.
I am obviously an older woman and with all of that vast experience and I have talked to women for years and they have often said, "I wonder how much my homemaking job actually would pay if it was on the marketplace." or "What about raising my family, what about taking care of my elderly parents? Somebody would have to do that if I wasn't here." And those are the fundamental reasons why people actually consider something as unpalatable as buying life insurance, because nobody wants to think about their own dying.
And even other things like maybe you are working as a mother now and a homemaker now, but in six or seven years and your kids are back in full time school, you may plan to go back to the workplace to augment the family income or pay off the mortgage or put your kids through college, all of those things could be potential disasters should you not be able to help your family grow in every aspect. So those are the fundamental reasons for insurance that I think women really need to consider.
Caroline: And I know you are committed to education and collaboration of underwriters, medical directors all of who address risk in the life insurance industry but purchasing life insurance can be a daunting thing. You know, what is right? So what advice do you have to make it seem less ominous?
Marjorie: Well, I think we don't give ourselves credit as women. We actually often run the household's finances and quite frankly in my house, make most of the buying decisions, even if it is a car. So we actually have well honed skills, shopping and buying skills, that we just need to focus on the purchase of insurance or purchase of other business kinds of issues.
Buying life insurance is just another item on the list of the business of taking care of your life and managing your family. And so starting with defining your circumstances, the point or the need for life insurance is probably a good thing. Like, are you in debt, do you have dependents, what would your family circumstances be like should you die? All of those sorts of things are things that we can put ourselves right into in a heartbeat. And I think that that's really how you start, it is just by looking at need and saying, "I can do this."
Jacquie: Well, if women already have insurance through work or their families, what's left to worry about?
Marjorie: Well, we don't always stay in the same job and one of the things that is really interesting about life insurance is: when you are young and healthy, life insurance is very, very cheap. When you get older, because you are closer to death or when you get sicker because you are closer to death, the cost of the risk coverage increases.
And so one of the things to consider is: should you be buying independent life insurance or individual life insurance at an early age even if you are in a group policy? Some of my colleagues who are young women in the insurance company say that their policies, their individual policies are actually a lot cheaper than their group policies. And you sort of have to say, "well why is that?"
And I think the bottom line is that a group policy covers the risks for all of the employees in the company and if your average age in the company is 50, the average cost of insurance for the group is going to be higher than if you are younger. So an individual, a young healthy individual, might actually be able to get insurance cheaper and if they should leave their job, they don't have to risk losing their insurance. So I think it is something worth considering as part of that sort of protective portfolio we put around your head.
Caroline: Marjorie, when should women start considering purchasing life insurance and what are some of the basics that we should think about when we are purchasing?
Marjorie: Well, I think what is really interesting is that any age, depending upon need, women could benefit from insurance for both personal and for business reasons. So young women in their late 20's, it is important to buy, because you may be young and healthy and you if you have debt, if you have children, dependents, all of those things is a good time to buy.
My basic building block is: start simple, look at need, what is your personal need, are you in debt, do you have dependents? I have mentioned those things before. In the 20's, your need is going to be different than in the 30's and 40's and by the time you are 50, you may well be taking care of older folks. And if you should no longer be here, they might be up the creek, so all of those things point to the time is appropriate when the need is there.
Jacquie: Well Dr. Keymer, thank you so much for joining us with this really important information.
Marjorie: Thank you for having me.
Caroline: And if you want more information on what every woman needs to know about life insurance, you can visit our website at FamilyMattersRadio.com.
Announcer: Your Worth has been brought to you by Genworth Financial. Visit them at Genworth.com.
Announcer: Your Worth is brought to you by GenWorth Financial. Visit them at genworth.com.
Jacquie Chakirelis: You are listening to Family Matters, I am Jacquie.
Caroline Kruse: And I am Caroline. So Jacquie, here is kind of a personal question for you: do you have life insurance?
Jacquie: I do actually. I have a couple of different policies.
Caroline: Oh, OK. A couple of different policies? Wow.
Jacquie: Yeah well.
Caroline: Well, my husband has always had life insurance, but until recently I didn't and I think that's because many more men are the breadwinners in the family and women think that they will outlive their husbands, so maybe they feel they don't need life insurance?
Jacquie: You are right Caroline, but women today are under so much stress as wives, mothers and career; and more and more of us are care providers for our parents too and these dual roles have serious implication for women's physical and mental health.
Caroline: Joining us with what every woman needs to know about life insurance is Dr. Marjorie Keymer. Marjorie, welcome to Family Matters.
Marjorie Keymer: Thank you, nice to be with you.
Jacquie: Oh, nice of you to join us. Well, your career spans more than three decades with a lot of experience in medical practice, geriatric care, healthcare planning, topped off with leadership roles in health and insurance organizations in both Canada and the U.S. So with all that experience, tell us why should women be concerned about life insurance?
Marjorie: Well, the two of you have mentioned a number of issues that sort of come up with women, the bottom-line is: the unthinkable can happen to anyone and the unthinkable of course is untimely or early death. And it is the fundamental reason that people buy life insurance.
Life insurance can't protect your family from losing you, at least nobody can replace you, but we can actually help your family financially should you die early. And even though women don't work outside the home and are not principal family wage earners often, the impact of untimely death could be absolutely catastrophic.
I am obviously an older woman and with all of that vast experience and I have talked to women for years and they have often said, "I wonder how much my homemaking job actually would pay if it was on the marketplace." or "What about raising my family, what about taking care of my elderly parents? Somebody would have to do that if I wasn't here." And those are the fundamental reasons why people actually consider something as unpalatable as buying life insurance, because nobody wants to think about their own dying.
And even other things like maybe you are working as a mother now and a homemaker now, but in six or seven years and your kids are back in full time school, you may plan to go back to the workplace to augment the family income or pay off the mortgage or put your kids through college, all of those things could be potential disasters should you not be able to help your family grow in every aspect. So those are the fundamental reasons for insurance that I think women really need to consider.
Caroline: And I know you are committed to education and collaboration of underwriters, medical directors all of who address risk in the life insurance industry but purchasing life insurance can be a daunting thing. You know, what is right? So what advice do you have to make it seem less ominous?
Marjorie: Well, I think we don't give ourselves credit as women. We actually often run the household's finances and quite frankly in my house, make most of the buying decisions, even if it is a car. So we actually have well honed skills, shopping and buying skills, that we just need to focus on the purchase of insurance or purchase of other business kinds of issues.
Buying life insurance is just another item on the list of the business of taking care of your life and managing your family. And so starting with defining your circumstances, the point or the need for life insurance is probably a good thing. Like, are you in debt, do you have dependents, what would your family circumstances be like should you die? All of those sorts of things are things that we can put ourselves right into in a heartbeat. And I think that that's really how you start, it is just by looking at need and saying, "I can do this."
Jacquie: Well, if women already have insurance through work or their families, what's left to worry about?
Marjorie: Well, we don't always stay in the same job and one of the things that is really interesting about life insurance is: when you are young and healthy, life insurance is very, very cheap. When you get older, because you are closer to death or when you get sicker because you are closer to death, the cost of the risk coverage increases.
And so one of the things to consider is: should you be buying independent life insurance or individual life insurance at an early age even if you are in a group policy? Some of my colleagues who are young women in the insurance company say that their policies, their individual policies are actually a lot cheaper than their group policies. And you sort of have to say, "well why is that?"
And I think the bottom line is that a group policy covers the risks for all of the employees in the company and if your average age in the company is 50, the average cost of insurance for the group is going to be higher than if you are younger. So an individual, a young healthy individual, might actually be able to get insurance cheaper and if they should leave their job, they don't have to risk losing their insurance. So I think it is something worth considering as part of that sort of protective portfolio we put around your head.
Caroline: Marjorie, when should women start considering purchasing life insurance and what are some of the basics that we should think about when we are purchasing?
Marjorie: Well, I think what is really interesting is that any age, depending upon need, women could benefit from insurance for both personal and for business reasons. So young women in their late 20's, it is important to buy, because you may be young and healthy and you if you have debt, if you have children, dependents, all of those things is a good time to buy.
My basic building block is: start simple, look at need, what is your personal need, are you in debt, do you have dependents? I have mentioned those things before. In the 20's, your need is going to be different than in the 30's and 40's and by the time you are 50, you may well be taking care of older folks. And if you should no longer be here, they might be up the creek, so all of those things point to the time is appropriate when the need is there.
Jacquie: Well Dr. Keymer, thank you so much for joining us with this really important information.
Marjorie: Thank you for having me.
Caroline: And if you want more information on what every woman needs to know about life insurance, you can visit our website at FamilyMattersRadio.com.
Announcer: Your Worth has been brought to you by Genworth Financial. Visit them at Genworth.com.