“A Classic True Story” why a Family needs life Insurance on Everybody in the family to be prepared for the unexpected turnoff events in your life….!!!!
1998 found me driving 50,000/year all over Northern Nevada and primarily in western Nevada in Washoe, Lyon, and Churchill, Storey, Carson City and Doulas counties… During that time I was doing a lot of face to face “Cold Calling” on small businesses and in Lyon County I came across a family owned and run business that specialized Drilling water wells…. This business was a solely owned by the dad who had two young son’s newly married working in the business with him and they had never had any Health insurance or life insurance on any of them… The father had a medical condition that had prevented him from qualifying for life insurance, but his wife, 2 sons and their wives were all in good health and would readily qualify for Coverage…

The first coverage which they were the most concerned about was Health insurance and so I found a good small group plan that met their medical needs and concerns and most importantly, their Budget…!!! Following the placement and issue of their coverage, I immediately started talking with them about their need for life insurance coverage for themselves and protection for their wives and young families and subquently I was able to place in force, a $100,000 term insurance policy on each son, their wives and a $250,000 policy on the owner’s wife.
Approximately, 6 years later, one of the sons was driving home from a drilling site pulling a trailer full of pipe and had a head on collision with an 18 wheel Mack truck killing him instantly and leaving his wife and four small, young children without a father and breadwinner of the family… Hence the saying I always use since this accident, “what happens if your spouse becomes the Grill on a Mack truck coming home some evening, How are you going to survive financially in the future”????... Fortunately the proceeds from the life insurance policy enabled his wife to survive financially and make a smooth transition for her family…

Two years later the owner’s wife had a lung collapse and she had to utilize specialized drugs to maintain her immune system and prevent any infection o the remaining lung…. This went on for about 4 more years, until one early September day she was working in her garden and was bitten by a mosquito, developed west Nile virus and with 12 days of being bitten she passed away due the west Nile virus overcoming her weakened immune system…. Needless to say her passing was a traumatic event for this family, however the Term Life death benefit, enable her husband to move forward and maintain his lifestyle and keep his business functioning….

The moral to this story is simply, you don’t know when the unexpected id going to happen in your life so you need to”Be Prepared” for what life has in store for you before it happens….

The first year I started selling life Insurance, I was an agent for New York Life in 1989 and 1990 and my first assignment was to develop a list of 100 people I knew, contact them for an appointment to tell them what I was doing now and determine if I could assist them in repositioning any of their assets to help them better maximize their returns…

This strategy also helped them to visually see & determine where there were gaps in their coverages and allowed me to present approiate life insurance products that could fill those gaps… One of my first Life Insurance Sales was to a young man who I been associated with in my previous career for a $100,000 Term Policy to provide a benefit for his mother and two children in the event something happened to him… He had just recently gone thru a “bitter” divorce with his wife and had gained custody of his two children who were being  carried for by himself and his mother, who also worked full time at one of our local hospital’s in the Housekeeping department…

Six months after I had delivered his policy, I received a call from his brother, inquiring if his policy was still in force….!!!! The very first thing I asked politely was why he was inquiring as that type of information is confidential and not given out to anyone except the insured or owner of the policy…  The brother then told me that the insured, His brother had a motorcycle accident and had been killed two months previously and he was trying to help settle his brother’s affairs…

At that point, I immediately checked to make sure the premium had been paid a the policy was still in force and informed the Carrier, New York Life, of the insured death and instructed them where to send the death Claim paperwork that has to be filed along with a “Certified Death Certificate” in order for the Claim to be processed… Because he had been riding a motorcycle The Carrier in turn investigated the claim and fornatuately this Hazardous activity had been indicated on his application the claim was honored two months later and his primary beneficiary, his mother Received a Check for The $100,00 plus interest for the two months delay in delivery of the claim…  

Needless to say this was more money than his mother had ever seen in her entire life, as she was 66 at the time this event occurred and she was overwhelmed with what to do with the money…. Her daughter at time that was assisting her in settling her deceased brother’s affairs and I met with both of them when I delivered her check…. They both looked at me in bewilderment and simply inquired what I thought they should do with the money…

I suggested four options for their consideration:

1. They could leave the Money in the “Tomorrow Account” at interest, which New York Life offered them, Or,
2. They could put the money in their bank account and use it as needed, or,
3. Both the mother and Daughter Could put the money in an Immeadiate Annuity and receive  a fixed income for the rest of the mother’s life, or,
4. They could meet with an attorney and seek that person’s legal counsel and recommendations regarding the use of the money for the benefit of the mother…. I also indicated that if they did not have an attorney I could recommend one that was a consultant to our New York Life Agency in Reno and he offered a free no obligation first appointment to assist them with their decision making process… Approximately three weeks later, I received a call from the Daughter on behalf of her and her mother asking for the name and phone number of the attorney and inquiring if I could set-up an appointment for them and inviting myself to accompany them on their first meeting with the attorney as the mother and daughter were a little intimidated by doing this themselves…Subquently, we all met with the attorney for their first appointment and he very carefully determined what they wanted to accomplish with this sum of money the mother had just received… The Daughter, on her mother’s behalf, indicated they both felt they wanted the mother to receive a monthly income and have the money last for as long as possible… The attorney after listening and evaluating their desires and their situation, suggested they consider placing part their money in an Immeadiate annuity to provide an immeadiate income and the balance of their money in a single premium annuity that would over time rebuild, thru interest earnings, the amount of the first immeadiate annuity so that after the immeadiate annuity was exhausted they could pull another sum out of the single premium and restart the immeadiate annuity pay out again…By using the two annuities to accomplish this they would be able to create an income stream that would outlive the mother and provide the children of the deceased with a balance of proceeds when their Grandmother passed away...This suggestion took a couple of additional visits with the attorney on their own for the mother and daughter to fully feel comfortable and understand the process... Eventually, approximately two months later, I as their agent was asked by them to set up the annuities, which I did and this process created a “Cash Machine” for the mother and enabled her to “Retire from the hospital where she had worked for 20+ years with an additional retirement income… Between the money she received from Social Security, the Hospital retirement and her Immeadiate annuity, this gave her enough to continue to raise her son’s two children  and live her life without having the alter her lifestyle, thus accomplishing several goals ensuring the memory of son made a meaning full lasting impression  on hear whole family…