Why life insurance is so important for your employees

Life insurance is important to their families.
Almost three-fourths of Americans agree that life insurance is the best way to protect against the premature death of a primary wage earner.

Life insurance beat out all other sources of financial assets or income that Americans expect to use to help pay bills and to maintain their lifestyle if the primary wage earner dies.

Many would be inadequately prepared if the primary wage earner died.
Many do not have adequate coverage for their needs. Forty-four percent of all U.S. households (48 million) either don't own life insurance and believe they should, or own life insurance and believe they need more. Among those that already own some life insurance, 40 percent believe they don't have enough. One fourth of primary wage earners feel they do not have a plan in place to provide a decent standard of living for their family if they died tomorrow. Approximately 12 percent would immediately have trouble meeting everyday living expenses, and another 15 percent would have difficulty keeping up with expenses after several months.

They recognize their need for more life insurance.
There is a large gap between what Americans have and what they say they need. On average, households saying they need more insurance own enough life insurance to replace their income for 3.6 years, but thought they should have enough to cover 5.7 years of income. People at all income levels — even those with incomes over $100,000 (33 percent) — say they need more life insurance. Males and females both need more coverage. One third of U.S. households named an adult male needing more life insurance and almost one third said an adult female needed more.

Source: LIMRA International's Life Insurance Ownership Study.

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