Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Life Insurance Awareness Month

September is Life Insurance Awarenesss Month, an effort by a number of industry organizations and insurance carriers to get the message out on why life insurance is important. A few weeks back, we reprised Nick's Story, a very personal account of how the lack of insurance impacted a young man and his family.

Another young man, Buddy Valastro, dreamed of joining his father in the family bakery. That dream seemed to have died with his father, at the incredibly young age of 54:

"Buddy lost his best friend and mentor. And his family lost its breadwinner. Buddy had to drop out of high school to run the family business. That meant 12- to 18-hour workdays, six days a week and overseeing 30 employees."

That's because his dad had owned no life insurance. Things eventually worked out for young Buddy - or as you may know him, The Cake Boss.

On the other hand, any number of other successful business might have failed - or never have even gotten off the ground - without life insurance. Pretty much every life agent knows the story of how James Cash Penney kept his fledgeling business afloat during the Great Depression with the cash values of his life insurance. But there are others, as well:

■ Walt Disney used his life isnurance as collateral to help fund Disneyland

■ And Ray Kroc borrowed against his life insurance policies to help with cash-flow when McDonald's was just a start-up

■ Even home economist Doris Christopher tapped her life insurance policy to get the Pampered Chef cooking along.

All of these folks understood the value of life insurance. Do you?

No comments:

Post a Comment