It’s a question that you’ve probably asked yourself. Sadly, a considerable number of people consider life insurance more of a luxury than a necessity. And the payback for that is that if you pass away, your family plus the left-behind estates become fully liable for financing your debts, medical bills, funeral expenses, and other final expenses.
Though not a legal obligation, preparing to pass on is equally important as preparing to live. You may not feel the value for your money, at least not at the moment, but your family will direly need it when you’re gone. That is unless you want them to be homeless due to unpaid mortgages, face debt collection issues, live a sub-standard life, or give you an improper sendoff.
Let’s dig a little deeper into what happens if you pass without a life insurance cover.
Debt Responsibility
Usually, your immediate family isn’t responsible for your unpaid debts if you pass unexpectedly. But if you have an estate or unprotected assets like bank accounts without beneficiaries or investment properties, they’ll be liquidated to cater for your outstanding liabilities.
So if you have huge debts without life coverage, creditors might come knocking, forcing your family to sell your home and other assets to clear your debt. The good news is, with life insurance, your loved ones can use the policy’s proceeds to pay off any debts that you might have incurred in your living days, thus relieving them of any financial distress or the fear of being kicked out of your matrimonial home.
Funeral Expenses
How would you like it if your family takes out a loan or pleads with a funeral home for a discounted payment plan to give you a decent sendoff? That’s precisely what will happen if you leave without life insurance, and your loved ones don’t have enough cash to meet the funeral needs.
Getting your family into a double tragedy of coming to terms with losing you and lacking enough funds to cater for your burial is truly uncalled for. This is why we recommend purchasing life insurance to help meet the funeral, burial, or cremation expenses when you breathe your last.
Additional Final Expenses
Funeral and burial expenses usually are the priority when you pass away. But a few weeks or months after the sendoff, other needs start creeping in. For instance, if you were the sole breadwinner, your loved ones will find it hard to keep up with the same lifestyle or living standard as it were before. Your spouse may no longer afford the same schools for the children, pay off mortgage or rent, pay the utility bills, etc.
What’s more, if you had a strong family bond in your living days, your loved ones may struggle to come to terms with your loss, forcing them into a trauma. This raises the need for professional help, which may be too expensive without external assistance. While it’s not a guarantee that life insurance may cover counseling costs, your family may use the proceeds to pay a therapist for their services.
Medical Bills
Chronic illnesses can be devastating. Most people take their ailing loved ones to hospitals for medical care while holding the hope that they will recover. More often than not, critically ill people barely make it despite the advanced medical care, and to add insult to an injury, the hospital bills keep piling up.
If you pass away without life insurance, your family will be liable to meet all the accrued medical bills. This can be tough, especially if you’re the primary breadwinner in the family. That is why it’s overly essential to take out a life insurance policy to meet such unprecedented costs.
Good news: even if you contract chronic illnesses like cancer that may deny you the regular coverage, you can still purchase non-medically underwritten life insurance where you won’t have to undergo any physical examination tests. The same applies to those in perfect health but would like to acquire life insurance coverage in the fastest and most straightforward manner.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post helps you realize the importance of life insurance. Life’s uncertainty should be enough motivation to protect your loved ones financially should you pass away prematurely. You don’t want your family to be forced to sell your estate or take an emergency loan to cater for unpaid debts, property taxes, final expenses, and other expenses, do you?