There are many excuses offered as to why to why the suggested insurance strategy will not be acted upon. When analyzed, these excuses usually fall into one of four broad categories: no trust, no need, no money, no hurry. Let’s look at each one.
The first one, no trust, is legitimate. No one should deal with someone he doesn’t trust. Even when there is a genuine need and a sense of urgency to put the protection in place, dealing with an advisor who appears to be untrustworthy is never advisable.
The no need excuse, if real, is again legitimate. The problem of course is determining if there is a real need. Most people will say that they want their survivors to suffer no decrease in lifestyle in the event of their premature demise, but then fail to come to terms with the amount of capital required to accomplish that objective. In their mind, there is no need, but in order to accomplish their stated goal, there is a shortage of capital. So in reality there is a need.
No money is seldom a legitimate excuse. Of course there are occasions where there simply is no money available but in my experience, those situations are uncommon. More often than not, the suggested premium can be found if the coverage is truly desired.
Although maybe not readily apparent, the premium dollars can often be found by re-configuring current expenses or changing payroll withholding. If the protection is important, the money for the premium will be found.
The last one, no hurry, is perhaps the most insidious because we delude ourselves into thinking that time doesn’t matter. While intellectually we all understand that tomorrow is promised to no one, but we sometimes act as though we have all the time in the world. If trust and need have been established and the premium dollars are readily available, there is no justifiable reason for procrastinating.
As I’ve said ad nauseam, having a conversation about your mortality is a difficult and often unpleasant task. But talking about it and contemplating it is the hard part. Once that has been done, parting with some cash to solve the problem seem like the easy part.